Inquisitor 1665 - Seize Them All by eXternal

Published in the i newspaper on 19 September 2020.

This took me much longer than usual to solve.  Usually I manage to finish the Inquisitor in a couple of days but I spent four days on this one - with a midweek break, so I hadn't quite finished by the time the next one was published.   The gridfill took three days on its own but there were so many extra parts to complete that I had to devote an additional morning to them.  It took me quite a while to understand all the instructions!

The theme turned out to be The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy.  The theme for the unscrambled extra words in the sixteen special Across clues was "shades of red"; the theme for the sixteen special Down clues was "flowers"; thus the target could be seen as a member of both sets.  The extra letters in the clues in the top half spelt out MARGUERITE ST JUST (the Pimpernel's wife); those in the bottom half spelt out CITIZEN CHAUVELIN (his chief adversary).  Details are given below the solutions to the clues. 

The letters SCARLET PIMPERNEL were contained, one by one, in the solutions to the sixteen special Across clues - all unchecked in the grid.  By replacing them with the letters in SIR PERCY BLAKENEY (the Pimpernel's true identity), in the same order, one could create a new set of words in the Across lights without changing any of the Down lights.  Details are given at the end.

The four possible search locations were HERE and THERE (both contained within ETHEREAL in the middle row), HEAVEN (in the top row) and HELL (in the bottom row), all appearing in the novel's well-known verse: “They seek him here, they seek him there/Those Frenchies seek him everywhere/Is he in heaven or is he in hell?/That demned elusive Pimpernel.”

Note also that "Frenchies" appears in the clue for 13ac, which could be taken as an additional indication of the theme.

Solutions to clues

Redundant words are in italics; definitions are in quotes.  I could only find 14ac in a single (very obscure) source, and I couldn't work out the parsing for 30ac.  

I'm not sure about the parsing of 34d; either "upset" is the definition, with YA = "indeed" and WING = "member coming out of line" (why?);  or "coming out of line" is the definition, with YAW = rev. ("upset") of WAY ("indeed") and ING = "member" (why?).

Across

1.  SHEA - "African plant"; E in SHA[m]; musters

5.  VENDOR - "slot-machine"; V + END + OR

11.  UNCATE - "hooked"; anag. of (AT + [i]N + CUE); archery

12.  UNLOADS - "discharges"; U[nknow]N + LOADS; lurgy

13.  PEAL - "loud sound"; rev. of (LA + EP)

14.  REELER - "songbird"; R + rev. of (RE + LEE); Germanic

15.  CYCLE - "period"; anag. of (CLEMENCY - MEN)

17.  AREOLAE - "pigmented skin patches"; rev. of (ALOE in ERA); bicker

21.  KADE - "fly"; [dunkir]K + [b]ADE[r]

23.  TREE - "timber"; [s]TREE[t]; roadmen

25.  PATTER - "insincere speech"; PATTER[n]; article

26.  ETHEREAL - "heavenly"; E + (HER in TEAL)

28.  CAIMAN - "reptile"; AIM in CAN; titanic

30.  HAVE - ?

31.  MEAN - "humble"; hidden in [so]ME AN[imal]; dire

33.  PLAYING - "on"; A in PLYING

35.  BASE - "bottom"; anag. of (BARES - R); Amorino

38.  EAGLE - "standard"; BEAGLE - B

40.  DRAWER - "one writing on cheque"; RAW in DER; zeros

41.  WHEN - "once"; WHITEN - IT

42.  MANITOU - "sacred object"; MAN + I + anag. of OUT; buyer

43.  RARELY - "remarkably well"; move A in (BIZARRELY - BIZ); sincere

44.  SHELLS - "cases"; H for P in SPELLS

45.  GOEL - "avenger"; remove middle letters of GO[sp]EL; unceasing

Down

2.  HONEY - "golden brown"; HONE + Y; uptilt

3.  ENLACED - "intermeshed"; anag. of ADOLESCENT - anag. of SOT; tousle

4.  APOLLO - "Olympian"; A + POLL + O; seaport

6.  ENDED - "over"; anag. of [i]NDEED; misreport

7.  DAILY BREAD - "work"; DAILY + homophone of BRED; jovial

8.  OTHER - "remaining"; BOTHER - B; downpours

9.  REBRACED - "again reinforced"; BRA in RECED[e]; measuring

10.  CUPCAKE - "mad American"; (anag. of PACK) in CUE; matinees

18.  RATECAP - "set financial limit on"; RAT + (rev. of ACE) + P

19.  ANTRAL - "cavity's"; A + (CENTRAL - CE)

20.  PERLMAN - "classical musician"; PER + (M in L[e]A[r]N[t])

22.  HAEMAL - "of blood"; rev. of (LAME + A[fres]H)

24.  STAVESACRE - "larkspur"; E in anag. of (SEARC[h] + VAST); hilly 

27.  CHOBDARS - "Indian ushers"; BD in (CH + OARS); searat

29.  INGENUE - "naive girl"; move IN up in GENUINE; succour

32.  EIGHTVO - "book"; [h]EIGHT + V + O; divas

34.  YAWING - "upset"; YA + WING; line-up [see above for alternative parsing]

36.  ARRAH - "emotional expression"; anag. of (FEATHERBRAIN - BENEFIT); complain

37.  BE-ALL - "Shakespeare's future"; [h]E in BALL; sanity

39.  LEONE - "African bread"; L[arg]E + ONE; leanest

 

Unscrambling of additional words in clues

	Top half				Bottom half
			Across (reds)
1.  MUSTERS	-> RUSSET	+ M		28. TITANIC	-> TITIAN	+ C
11. ARCHERY	-> CHERRY	+ A		31. DIRE	-> RED	+ I
12. LURGY	-> GULY	+ R		33. STRUT	-> RUST	+ T
14. GERMANIC	-> CARMINE	+ G		35. AMORINO	-> MAROON	+ I
16. UNITARY	-> TYRIAN	+ U		40. ZEROS	-> ROSE	+ Z
17. BICKER	-> BRICK	+ E		42. BUYER	-> RUBY	+ E
23. ROADMEN	-> MODENA	+ R		43. SINCERE	-> CERISE	+ N
25. ARTICLE	-> CLARET	+ I		45. UNCEASING	-> SANGUINE	+ C
			Down (flowers)
2. UPTILT	-> TULIP	+ T		24. HILLY	-> LILY	+ H
3. TOUSLE	-> LOTUS	+ E		27. SEARAT	-> ASTER	+ A
4. SEAPORT	-> PROTEA	+ S		29. SUCCOUR	-> CROCUS	+ U
6. MISREPORT	-> PRIMROSE	+ T		32. DIVAS	-> SIDA	+ V
7. JOVIAL	-> VIOLA	+ J		34. LINE-UP	-> LUPIN	+ E
8. DOWNPOURS	-> SNOWDROP	+ U		36. COMPLAIN	-> CAMPION	+ L
9. MEASURING	-> GERANIUM	+ S		37. SANITY	-> TANSY	+ I
10. MATINEES	-> NEMESIA	+ T		39. LEANEST	-> TEASEL	+ N

 

Across solutions to be modified in final grid

I wasn't certain about the legitimacy of all the modified words, particularly ALAYING; is it an alternative spelling of ALLAYING, or intended as A-LAYING (as in "six geese a-laying")?  CREE only seems to exist with a capital letter as the name of an American First Nation people.

In 17 and 40 there's a choice of two letters to change, but neither ARROLAE nor DEAWER is a word, and both changes would also involve modifying Down clues, which doesn't happen anywhere else.  In 1, 42 and 43 there's no actual change to the original solution.

1.

S

-> S

SHEA

unchanged

11.

C

-> I

UNCATE

-> UNIATE

12.

A

-> R

UNLOADS

-> UNLORDS

14.

R

-> P

REELER

-> PEELER

16.

L

-> E

LYRA

-> EYRA

17.

E

-> R

(first E remains unchanged)

AREOLAE

-> AREOLAR

23.

T

-> C

TREE

-> CREE

25.

P

-> Y

PATTER

-> YATTER

28.

I

-> B

CAIMAN

-> CABMAN

31.

M

-> L

MEAN

-> LEAN

33.

P

-> A

PLAYING

-> ALAYING

35.

E

-> K

BASE

-> BASK

40.

R

-> E

(first R remains unchanged)

DRAWER

-> DRAWEE

42.

N

-> N

MANITOU

unchanged

43.

E

-> E

RARELY

unchanged

45.

L

-> Y

GOEL

-> GOEY

Inquisitor 1664 - Codenames by Phi

Published in the i newspaper on 12 September 2020.

It was a pleasure to complete this puzzle, after the last one which I thought was unfairly clued in some places.  It was also the first one that I managed to complete without getting any hints at all!

The two names that were the key to the code were ESTRAGON and VLADIMIR - the main characters in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, with which I'm reasonably familiar.  By giving ROSALIND and GANYMEDE as examples, the setter neatly indicated that it was permissible for two different letters to be encoded as the same letter (not normally allowed in substitution ciphers).  So the code was:

E	S	T	R	A	G	O	N
V	L	A	D	I	M	I	R

I admired the way that the setter made each of the encoded entries a word, even though it wasn't strictly necessary.  The encoded versions of 3dn and 29dn were unfamiliar to me but when you're stuck with V representing E, your options are necessarily a bit limited, I suppose.

The three other associated names were LUCKY, POZZO and GODOT (the two other characters in the play plus the "unseen" one).  Encoded as far as possible, these became LUCKY (unchanged, at the bottom of column 12), PIZZI (start of row 5) and MIDIA (running downwards from row 3, column 10).

Queries

32ac - why "set upon" for SIC?  Or have I misunderstood the clue?

21dn - wasn't sure about this.  I initially put RESHT, the name of a port in Iran ("harbour"), but couldn't justify the wordplay.  RESET fits the wordplay better but not the definition.

29dn was a very ingenious clue but haven't I seen it before somewhere?

Definitions are in quotes, and the encoded versions of answers are in italics.

Across 

1.  BOHM - "Austrian conductor"; B[and] + OHM

4.  ECLIPSED - "concealed"; CLIPS in [f]EED

10.  POISHA - "Bangladeshi coin"; I in POSH + A

11.  BEEDI - "cigarette"; BEE + rev. of I'D

13. WARRAY - old word for "fight"; W + ARRAY

15. VEHME - old word for "courts"; HM in VEE

16.  DIAL/RATS - "that's annoying"; ARTS with the first two letters transposed

17.  PIZZICATO - "it takes some pluck"; (rev. of ZIP) + Z + I + CATO

19.  ROODS - "crosses"; O in RODS

20.  KARAITE - "follower of Scripture"; (ARAB - B) in KITE

22.  IGNITES - "lights"; N in (I + GITES)

25.  ENACT - "to perform"; (rev. of CANE) + T

27.  LYSOSOMAL - "describing digestive aids"; SO-SO in anag. of ALL MY

29.  VIAL/EATS - &lit; hidden in [teahous]E AT S[carborough]

32.  ELCHI - "ambassador"; CH in ELI

33.  STATIC - "by no means moving"; TAT in SIC

34.  IGLOO - "Northern dwelling"; I[celand] + GLOO[m]

35.  LEVIES - "taxes"; (V + I.E.) in LES

36.  REYNOLDS - "English painter"; (anag. of ONLY) in REDS

37.  DRAY - "brewery vehicle"; A in DRY

Down

1.  BOWSPRIT - "spar"; BOWS + PRI[ces] + [augus]T

2.  HORIZONTALLY - "on the level"; HO + ((ZON[e] in IT) in RALLY)

3.  MIRV/GONE - "over the hill"; [climbin]G + ONE

5.  CHYACK - "deride" (Australian); CH + YACK

6.  LAVA/STET - "restore"; T[rio] in SET

7.  IBERT - "French composer"; (B + rev. of RE) in IT

8.  SEMIDIAMETER - "some measure of the angle"; (anag. of TIMES MEDIA) + ER

9.  DILL/ROSS - "Antarctic explorer"; CROSS - C

10.  PATIO - "courtyard"; PA + (rev. of IT) + O

12.  DEALT - "divided"; L in (DEATH - H)

14.  AGIST - "regarding grazing"; A + GIST

18.  GET LUCKY - "to have good fortune"; rev. of (CULT in (Y + KEG))

21.  RESET - "harbour"(?); SE[a] in RET (=to soak hemp in water)

23.  GRIEG - "composer"; E.G. below GRI (George Rex I)

24.  SOUSED - "tired and emotional"; SO + USED

26.  CADIS - "Islamic judges" (more often spelt QADIS); DI in CAS[h]

28.  YAHOO - "wild"; (rev. of HAY) + OO ("loves")

29.  VAIR/ETON - "English town"; E to N (i.e. EFGHIJKLMN, "10 letters")

30.  MILL/GOSS - "holiday souvenirs"; GO + S + [offer]S

31.  LAID/STAR - "leading actor"; STAR[t]

 

Inquisitor 1663 - Equivalency by Eclogue

 Published in the i newspaper on 5 September 2020.

I thoroughly disliked this puzzle for several reasons, and I might not even have attempted it if I hadn't spotted SAN BERNARDINO almost straight off.  There were so many obscurities throughout the rest of the puzzle, and the endgame, that it felt more like tackling a particularly hard exam than something done for pleasure.  My feeling at the end was more one of relief than of satisfaction.

Firstly I felt that the instructions were unclear; they talked about "superfluous letters generated in wordplay", but didn't indicate whether this applied to every clue, or how many superfluous letters were included each time.  Since the previous week's puzzle (by a different setter) had explicitly specified one extra letter per clue, I proceeded on this assumption, which turned out to be right; but that was more by luck than judgement.  The preamble needs to be unambiguous every time.

I also felt there was far too much reliance on obscure words purely for the sake of it; if the answer to a clue isn't a common word, then I don't think the wordplay should rely on obscure words or definitions as well.  There are still one or two answers I'm not sure of because there was no clear way of working out the unchecked letters.  

As for the endgame, if I hadn't been given the hint that the top row was a Jewish phrase I might well not have completed the puzzle.  Nor did I recognize the "equivalency", which turned out to be LAW IS A BOTTOMLESS PIT [or] THE HISTORY OF JOHN BULL - the title of a 1712 work by John Arbuthnot, apparently.  The unclued Across entries all had some sort of connection with "law", and the unclued Down entries were all loose synonyms for "pit" minus the last (bottom) letter, although the top two were unknown to me.

Running across in order, I had SHULCHAN ARUCH (the code of Jewish law), RIOT ACT (a law that no longer exists, though people continue to "read" it), INVERSE SQUARE (not the name of an actual law, but a generic description of certain physical laws), and ROZZERS (old name for the police = "the law").  Running down the left-hand side were SCROBICUL[a] (one of the smooth areas surrounding the tubercles of a sea urchin) and ABYS[s]; and down the right, HANG[i] (a Maori method of cooking food in a pit), and DEPRESSIO[n].

As for the nine cells to be highlighted, I assumed that they were CRATERULE in column 5 - CRATE being CRATER (synonym for "pit") without the final letter, and RULE being a synonym for "law".  However, since the solution to 3 down was the word CRATER itself, this didn't seem very satisfactory to me.

Here are my attempts at trying to unpick the clues.  The redundant letters in the wordplay are underlined.

Across

8.  OWARI - OIL surrounding WAR (the "contrary" of WAR ("strife") about OIL).  Owari is a former Japanese province.

9.  SHMO - hidden in [clanni]SH MAO[ri].  "Shmo" or "schmo" is a Yiddish word for a stupid person, but I didn't see where "aged Jonathan" came into it.

12.  TRON - I suppose this is ROW ("rank") in TN for "tradename", but I didn't recognize the abbreviation.  Also I understood that a "tron" was a weighing beam used in a Scottish marketplace, rather than the marketplace itself.

14.  GORING - not sure about this.  "Running through" is the definition, and it seems that "Igor" may be a brand of banking software, giving IGOR - R ("rubles") + RING ("call").

15.  BENNES - are sesame seeds (oil producers), To understand both this clue and 33A I needed to know that a "but and ben" is a Scottish two-roomed house, with the "but" as the outer room and the "ben" as the inner one.  This gives BEN + NESS ("headland").

16.  THEO - presumably a reference to footballer Theo Walcott.  E ("European") in an anagram of OATH.

19.  COYPU - a large rodent.  COB ("swan") + Y ("unknown quantity") + rev. of UP ("in an excited state"). 

21.  STOUP - an old word for a bucket.  Presumably SO + TO + UP ("to rise"), although "so" = "well" seemed a bit doubtful.  Is it a reference to the current habit of starting sentences with "so" where one might once have started with "well"?

23.  UNDULANT FEVER - I got this from UNDU[e] (most of "excessive") + anag. of LEFT TAVERN, but I'm not sure about the definition.  Apparently it's another term for brucellosis, a gastrointestinal disease with many nasty symptoms including nausea and vomiting, but which doesn't affect the joints as far as I can tell.

26.  PEKE - either a little dog or a little word for a dog - I don't think it matters which!  Anagram of KEPT + E, although I don't recognize E for "earl".

27.  TITULE - this was horrible and I only got it after a strong hint.  I presume "Bart" is intended as an abbreviation of "baronet".  "Baronet" is a title, and "titule" is an old word for "title", it seems.  The wordplay was a bit obscure too: rev. of OUT in TILE ("baseball cap" at a stretch?)

30.  ALNAGE - it seems that both this and "ulnage" are old terms for inspection of cloth, but the wordplay sorted it out: L (Luxembourg) in MANAGE ("control", as verb).

33.  BUTS - see 15A for the definition ("Perth's outer rooms").  Initial letters of B[e] U[p] T[o] L[etting] S[outh].

34.  OLPE - obscure word for a Greek jug which I didn't know.  Anagram of PEOPLE without its initial P.

35.  NEEZE or NEESE - really not sure about this one at all.  It seems to be a variant of "sneeze" (="sudden expiration"), and the redundant letter has to be S, but I can't sort out the wordplay.

36.  SAN BERNARDINO - Californian city, anag. of BANNERS IN ROADS.  Nice clue.

Down

1.  HOISE - can't quite get this.  It's an old variant of "hoist" (="lift").  Could it be IS (="remains") in HOPE?  I don't understand "hope" for "enclosure", though.

2.  LATEN - I hadn't realized that this word for "make late" or "delay" was an actual one, although its meaning is obvious once you guess it.  Anagram of AT LINE.

3.  CRATER - it's the name of a constellation ("stars"), which I wasn't aware of.  Assuming C for "canine" (why?) gives C + RATTER ("vermin killer").

4.  HICKS - synonym of "hayseeds" in the American sense of "simple people from the country", although I got this completely wrong first time and put in COMIC, thinking of the comic strip.  C ("hundred") and K ("thousand") in THIS.

5.  ASTI - should probably have guessed that this was the town where they make the eponymous wine.  ASH + TI, "ti-tree" being an old spelling of "tea-tree".

6.  AMBO - a raised platform in an early Christian church, hence "pulpit".  I suppose it must be AME (the French word for "soul") + BO, but I don't see why BO = "man", and I didn't think French nouns were allowed in wordplay (as opposed to "le", "un" etc.).

7.  ULRICA - this comes from the wordplay, being RIC[h] ("splendid") in the initials of U[ltra] L[ight] A[ircraft].  "Ulrica" does seem to be an older spelling of the name but "Germanic female" seems a little misleading to me.  The modern German spelling "Ulrike" didn't fit the crossing letters, so I initially wrote in ULRIKA, which is the usual spelling in Swedish and probably only the one most British people have come across (Ulrika Jonsson).  It doesn't affect the rest of the puzzle, so I wonder why the alternative spelling was clued.

10.  HIGHSET - I initially wrote in HIGHEST but the crossing letters ruled it out, although it also fits the wordplay: HIGH ("drunk") + anag. of SITE.  It's an Australian term meaning "built on high stumps" (of a house), hence "pitched up".  

11.  CONGRUE - didn't like this clue at all.  It's an old word for "agree", made up of CONS ("prisoners") + GRUE ("shudder" - the root of "gruesome").  I presume that "Bard's" is an indication of Shakespearian origins, and that "in Barlinnie" indicates a Scottish word (Barlinnie being a Scottish prison), but clueing one obscure word in terms of another goes against the spirit of cryptic crosswords in my view.

12.  TROUT - not sure how to parse this.  If you take "unpleasant old meddler" as the definition then you can break it down as a reversal of TORT ("wrong" in law) + UT (Latin for "as"), but are Latin words generally allowed in isolation?  There may be another way of doing it.

13.  ENVY - not happy with this.  Shakespeare coined the phrase "green-eyed monster" in Othello to describe jealousy, which is not a synonym of "envy" as far as I'm concerned.  For the wordplay, you need the fairly obscure meaning of ENVOY (more often spelt "envoi"), a short stanza at the end of a poem (so "the final words").

16.  TERNE - a thin steel sheet coated with an alloy of lead and tin (so "a mixture of metals"), hidden in [pat]TERN RE[ader].

17.  NONPLUS - I only know this as a verb, but it can be a noun meaning "a state of bafflement or perplexity" (is that the same as "great difficulty"?).  Anagram of PYLON in a reversal of SUN, which actually confused me because the word "sun" was standing for itself!

18.  SHAKE UP - "mix", a relatively straightforward clue for once.   HAKE ("fish") in SOUP ("broth").

20.  PUPAS - can't quite get this.  Def. is "intermediate stages", and I suppose you've got a reversal of SUP ("drink") containing P, A and the redundant letter F.  Could "paf" be a Shakespearian ("Will's") term for "befuddled"?  Seems a tad unlikely, but it's the best I could do.

22.  OVUM - def. is "egg", and the wordplay seems to be JO ("beloved") + VUM (US word for "swear"), although the other bits don't seem to work right.  "Jo" occurs most famously in Robert Burns (not known to me as "Sandy"), and "vum" seems to come from New England (not Kansas).  Enlightenment required.

24.  DENTIN - an alternative spelling of the better-known "dentine" ("material in tooth").  Anag. of NODE + TIN, although the "on" in a Down clue would suggest to me that TIN should come first.

25.  FIZZER - "something excellent", although it's a bit of a damp squib if you ask me!  It's just FIZZ ("champagne") + HER ("belonging to woman").

27.  TRONA - really don't have a clue about this one.  It's a sodium carbonate compound ("chemical combination"), and the redundant letter must be N, but otherwise I'm stumped.

28.  TOZED - another baffling one.  Obsolete term for "combed" (used of wool etc.).  The best I can do is rev. of BOT + ZED, but neither "bot" = "sundowner" nor "zed" = "bar" makes any sense to me.

29.  LOREN - yet another perplexing one.  Sophia Loren of course, and I assume it's LOUR ("scowl"), but why EN for "nut"?

31.  GULE - I can only assume this is a Northern word for "marigold", but can't confirm.  It's GULLEY without its final Y.

32.  WREN - a fairly simple one to end on!  The Wrens was the nickname for the former Women's Royal Naval Service ("female sailor").  R and L ("both hands") in reversal of NEW ("fresh").

 

Inquisitor 1662 - The Return of Ulysses by Kruger

My solution to this puzzle, published in the i newspaper on 29 August 2020.  I recognized the title as one of the chapter titles from Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows before I even looked at the puzzle!

The extra letters from the wordplay spelled out CHAPTER TITLE IN GRAHAME BOOK for the Across clues, EVICT SQUATTERS FROM RESIDENCE for the Down clues.  The unclued entry was NOTUS (a name for the south wind).  The letters to be highlighted were TOAD and HALL in row 4 (location associated with the book); OSIER and SALLOW in row 12 (alternative names for the willow).  The "squatters" who had to be evicted were WEASELS, running downwards between TOAD and HALL in column 8.

Queries

47A - why "without removing"?  Surely either "without" or "removing" is needed, but not both.

51A - can't find "pink" as a definition of "chaffinch".

4D - what's the significance of "Ed"? 

8D - isn't "pasha" a military rather than a naval officer?

13D - definition appears to come from a single source (see this thread). 

 

Definition parts of clues are in quotes.  Redundant letters in the wordplay are underlined.

Across

1.  ROSEBUD - "flower-to-be"; ROSE + (CU in BD)

7.  WASSAILS - "festive occasions"; WASH + SAILS

13.  PARVENU - "upstart"; PAR[k] + AVENU[e]

15.  ITERANT - "repeating"; IT + anag. of PARENT

18.  BEAST - "animal"; AT in BEST

19.  CUTTO - "large knife"; CUT + TOE

20.  SHALLOWS - "sea not deep there"; anag. of (SHOR[e] + WALLS)

21.  TEREBRAE - "boring organs"; anag. of (ARE BETTER)

22.  RESOLE - "repair shoe"; RE + SOIL + 2nd letter of [l]E[ather]

24.  SMOG - "it makes it hard to see"; rev. of (G + TOMS)

26.  LAPSE - "to pass one degree after another"; (rev. of PAL) in LSE 

28.  HAKAM - "wise man"; HAKE + AM

31.  NESTS - "lodges"; IT in NESS

33.  SATIN - "silky fabric"; SANT[a] + IN

35.  LUG IN - "irrelevantly introduce"; [p]LUGGIN[g]

37.  WADD - "black lead"; WARD + D

39.  MEDFLY - "pest"; ME + DAFTLY - T

41.  ONCEOVER - "comprehensive survey"; anag. of (NEVER CHOOSE - S[tok]E)

42.  INSOLENT - "rude"; IN[dia] + anag. of ALSO + E + [ba]NT[er]

44.  DHOTI - "fabric"; HOT in DIM

47.  AGUED - "cold"; A + SEGUED - [sweater]S

48.  HOOSIER - "inhabitant of Fort Wayne"; HO + BOSSIER - S

49.  SALLOWY - "pale-yellowish coloured"; SAL[t] + rev. of WOOL + [sand]Y

50.  SPOONEYS - "fools"; anag. of SO-SO PEONY

51.  TENPINS - "they're in alley"; rev. of NET + PINKS

Down

2.  OAHU - "Pacific island"; HE in O + A + U

3.  EVET - "amphibian"; E[at] + V[egetation] + E[xplanation] + TV

4.  BEROBS - "steals from"; (rev. of BORE) in BIS

5.  UNBARING - "stripping"; U + N + B + CAR + IN + G[arage]

6.  DUE DATE - "pay-back time"; anag. of ([n]UTTE[r] + DEAD)

8.  AISHA - "girl"; IS in [p]ASHA

9.  SEXLESS - "not taking part in congress"; SEQ + X + LESS

10.  ARAL SEA - "once-huge lake"; A + anag. of [p]ERUSAL + A

11.  IAGO - "villain"; hidden in rev. of RIO AGAIN

12.  STASES - "periods of inactivity"; S in STATES [=former legislature]

13.  PICTS - "Steele's painted women"; TT in PICS (opp. of PICS in TT)

14.  EASEL - "frame"; [criminal]S in (EA + EEL)

16.  NEWLAID - "produced recently"; rev. of (WHEN - H) + (I in LARD) [="garnish" as verb]

17.  STROKED - "gently rubbed"; [cat]S [tha]T [pur]R [s]O [owner]S [thin]K [they'r]E [contente]D

23.  OCTAVOS - "books"; V + O + anag. of (FACTORIES - [bar]RIE)

25.  MARENGO - "Emperor's horse"; (anag. of ROME RAN) incl. G[ladiators]

27.  PSOCIDAE - "family of insects"; anag. of (I COPED + A SO)

29.  ALFONSO - "old King of Spain"; ALSO incl. (F + MON) [=Japanese family crest]

30.  MULLEIN - "shepherd's club" [name for plant]; MULL + REIN

32.  TINIEST - "most small"; anag. of ENTITIES

34.  SMITHS - "forgers"; anag. of (MISS + H[a]T[e]S)

36.  WEDELN - "swivelling movements"; hidden in OVERAWE DELINQUENTS

38.  DRILY - "in a restrained way"; R[overs] in DID + [p]L[a]Y

40.  ANGRY - "annoyed"; [r]ANGER + Y[osemite]

43.  SHOO - "go away"; SHOON [=old word for "shoes"]

45.  HELP - "assist"; CHE + LOP - O

46.  TOWN - "urban community"; TO + WEN