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Hi, Demeter,

I wasn’t really satisfied with the clue to 1dn, because the word hinted at for “old horse-keeper” doesn’t appear in either of my editions of TCD. Arguably, it’s a standard compound form, though, that turns a place where a horse may be kept into the agent who puts the horse there.

The misprint is the second letter of “mare”. Think of an “old chestnut”.

Thanks Wintonian. All clear

Hi, Demeter.

In fact, I’ve misparsed 1dn. I was thinking of a place where a single horse might be kept, but I should have been thinking of a building where several horses might be kept. There is a noun derivative from this word, described by TCD as “Scot or archaic”, that can lose its fourth letter to give the answer to 1dn.

Cockie

I didn't mention my Maths degree, having been bitten in the derriere by doing so on other occasions.

I am pretty sure that 14d is O-level additional maths.

Given that the complex components of the solutions are surds, reasonable accuracy is satisfied by rounding them to 2 sig fig.

The real component does not require such a compromise.

Counting in whole numbers from the x-axis leaves you on a line.

Counting an odd number of halves from the y=axis leaves you in the centre of the square.

Wintonian, actually that Scot/arch term is what I thought you were referring to in your first post.

So far this puzzle hasn't appealed to me at all. There are some very annoying ambiguities in the misprints (eg 7a) making it difficult to get a coherent message. Some of the corrected definitions are dubious (35a?) or very, very loose, and in at least one case a regional indicator is lacking. The grammatical synonymity in 48a is dubious. I know definition misprints can present a challenge for a setter but some of these seem to border on the unfair.

Then there's the mathematical element. It's 60 years since I solved quadratic equations at school, and so far this one has defeated me.

I assume the last word 9d is the misprinted word but I can't find any word to fit my letters and the assumed definitions.

Don't give up Murky

9d -helps to have had a misspent youth.

Its an anglicisation of Riz La(croix)

Also the answer is not in the setter's own anagram resource.

There is at least one good quadratic-solver online.

Thanks, Woodlouse. I was fairly sure of the wordplay but my anagram solver didn't produce an answer that fitted, and the word isn't in the Chambers I was using (which isn't the most recent).

The only sensible solution to the quadratic that I have found is in the form of a parabola, but I have no idea how it should be represented or modified in the light of 14d.

OK Murky I think we are past the spoiler threshhold.

Loaf > leaf

There are no real solutions because the parabola does not intersect the x axis (y=0)

the solution is x= -3 1/2 +/- 6.089i

The Argand diagram (which is NOT the same grid as that on which the parabola is represented) represents complex numbers in cartesian form with the real numbers on the x (horizontal) axis and the imaginary numbers on the y axis. On our grid those are the apparently unnecessary thick lines dividing it into 4.

each X is already 3 1/2 squares from the y axis

at the moment they are at - 6.5 and + 6.5 on the y axis

A vertical shift of each X already in the grid so that it straddles the boundary of the empty square is 'reasonably' accurate

The penultimate paragraph should indicate that the locations of the Xs are level with those points +/- 6.5 on the y axis, not on it.