Toughie No 86 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie No 86

Toughie No 86 by Osmosis

Moderately difficult today, but very satisfying

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

BD Rating – Difficulty **** Enjoyment ****

Some good, some devilish.

Across

6a Gemstone belonging to bishops (no record is about) (4)
Episcopal without ep (record) is c(irca)

11a Timeless image preserved by repaint periodically, and refined (9)
pic(t)ure inside ean (the even letters of repaint)

12a Food provides juiciness when pulped, removing outside (7)
anagram of (j)uicines(s)

13a Hard to avoid loaf of bread in ace condition (7)
(H)ovis inside pro

14a OAP teams left shuffling feet around London (6,2,4)
An anagram of “OAP teams left”, giving Cockney Rhyming slang for feet

18a Bill gathers another metre, making dress (12)
Account (bill) around an anagram of metre

21a Chicken soup’s stirred wrong (7)
A young French chicken

24a Telegraph snaps England footballer heading for trendy convertible (9)
Cable  around Rio (Ferdinand) + t(rendy)

25a Will the writer, losing capital, start to indulge new child? (5)
(Will S)elf in(dulge)

26a Windows, for example around Departments, displaying price (4)
Windows is an O(perating) S(ystem)

27a Sit on swings during publicity stunt Director knocked out (10)
An anagram of “sit on”  inside hype + D(irector)

Down

3d Small beer? Excitedly slurp it after university game indoors (7,7)
Trivia (small beer) followed by an anagram of slurp + u(nivesity) + it

4d Yeoman producing crab apple? (9)
Beef (crab) + eater (apple) – not one of today’s better clues

5d Teacher, in officer’s company, served up snack (5)
Sir (teacher) inside PC (officer), and all reversed

7d Parking negligent around back of the building (8 )
P(arking) + remiss (negligent) around e (back of the)

8d Monthly tours included ‘2nd of August – Devon resort’ (8 )
An anagram of monthly + u (second letter of August)

9d Exhausted comic nose for fun exploit that’s broadcast (3,3,4,4)
A rather clever anagram of “nose for fun” followed by a word that sounds like (that’s broadcast) feat (exploit)

15d Laurel encircles American (on annual return), no.1 charity worker (9)
Stan (Laurel) around Am(erican) + ar (annual return) + i (No. 1) – very neat construction

16d Foreign chap, following streetmap, enters to try Spanish course (8 )
AZ (streetmap) + an anagram of chap, all inside (enters) go (try)

17d Lent requires cider to be emptied, abandoned (8 )
Subbed (lent) around c(ide)r

19d Fleet Street promoted by constant fliers (6)
C(onstant) + RAF (fliers) + st(reet) reversed, giving crafts
When used in the context of ships, the plural should be craft, so this is very poor on the part of the setter.

Should you wish to add anything, feel free to do so

2 comments on “Toughie No 86

  1. Hi Dave

    Thanks for sharing your blog with us. You and I have a few things in common; retired IT consultant, early r-‘n’-r, the number 44 and puzzle-solving.

    The Telegraph certainly needs to get its act together over Firefox but the IE tab will help in the meantime. It’ll also help me with several web sites that I maintain. As yet the add-on only shows as an icon on the bottom RHS of my screen but I think it’s a matter of configuration!

    Regards

    Brian

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