dm giant crossword. Saturday 18th August.

[cupid04]

16a] Bringing back two animals to attend to. [6] ???K??.

53a] Not being hard on for concealing a source. [7] ???R?N?.

1d] Lecture the pretty girl about right. [6] ?R???H.

3d] Fast taking measures to protect a number. [5] ?L???.

48d] As usual, ants are scurrying round, stoical. [7] ???R?A?.

[Mamyalynne]

48 spartan

[Mamyalynne]

1 Preach

[Mamyalynne]

53 sparing

[cupid04]

Thankou mamyalynne.Now have 53a] sparing.
16a] ?A?K??

[Mamyalynne]

Tackle

elk and cat back

[cupid04]

and 3d] fleet. All finished now. many thanks.xx

[Mamyalynne]

Super

[Dr_Q]

For several I have an answer that works for the quick clue, but not the cryptic one . . .

16a. How did you get K? I have ?A???E. If the E is wrong, then HARKEN ('attend to') might work, but I keep thinking the cryptic clue means PAIR should somehow be in there in reverse.

1d. The A in 16a comes from PREACH: pretty girl = peach, plus an R for right.

3d. The E I have in 16a comes from FLEET. That can mean 'fast', but I can't make it make sense in terms of the cryptic clue. So then that would allow HARKEN to fit on 16a.

48d. No idea. I saw someone else ask about this. They had ?E?R???. Combined with yours, that gives ?E?R?A?. For the R, 'wash', I got RINSE - though I can't confirm the N with 54d ('Wander'/'No good. Are wrong about the extent'). Also I can't see where your A came from. The word I lean toward there is DAWDLED (65a. 'dilly-dallied'/'set in action, having dilly-dallied'), but I can't match it to the cryptic clue.

53a. I wonder if I have confirmed the E the third person had in 48d: I am leaning toward LENIENT at 53a, as in 'go easy'. But, again, I can't see this answer in the cryptic clue.

HTH. But as you can see I could use plenty of help myself on this one.