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Hi everyone.

Please can anyone help with parsing these?

53a: Plain craft rivalled UFO (3-8)
It looks like ILL-FAVOURED (an anagram of RIVALLED UFO) - but what in the clue means "ill-favoured"?

7d: Beauty forsaken keeping cool (10)
LOVELINESS? But why?

Ill-favoured means unattractive so one might say plain looking.

The other one is IN (cool) in LOVELESS.

Thanks Jono.

14a Disputes in short stories about Poe's visitor (11)
'Contravenes' fits but I can't parse it.

40d Deceived royal seduced by swan Romeo kept in check (3,6)
Led astray?

Contes are short stories. The Raven is Poe’s visitor.

40 LEDA would be the deceived royal - a princess seduced by Zeus in the form of a swan, then R (Romeo) in STAY (in check)

Thanks both, glad I asked, I would never have understood those, having never heard of Leda or contes.

Deceived is of course the definition, (though she was). See here for the story:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leda_and_the_Swan