Toughie 217

Toughie No 217 by MynoT
O-Level Examination

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

Having completely failed to notice (until it was pointed out) that only one vowel was used in all the answers in each of MynoT’s last three Toughies, I was on the lookout for this one! However, even when you’ve grasped what’s going on, it’s far from easy, with some pretty obscure words. You get a real sense of satisfaction from finishing a puzzle like this, and I really enjoyed it.

As usual we’d love to get your views via a comment.

Across Clues

7a  Note two players acknowledge applause for musical movement (7)
{DOWNBOW} – start with the first and eighth note in tonic sol-fa, add two Bridge players and take a BOW (acknowledge applause) and you get a movement of the bow over the strings of a musical instrument.

8a  Headless ghost holds terribly hot means of suspension for cooking vessel (7)
{POTHOOK} – the headless ghost is a sPOOK with its first letter dropped.

10a  Fastness of dogs left North exhausted (10)
{STRONGHOLD} – the definition is fastness (fortress) and it’s an anagram (exhausted) of DOGS L(eft) NORTH.

11a  Ferry is run out twice (2-2)
{RO-RO} – this is the type of ferry where vehicles can be driven on and off. RO stands for run out in cricket.

12a  Exceedingly ancient rumour about broken doll (5-3)
{WORLD-OLD} – a term meaning exceedingly ancient (literally as old as the planet) is constructed from WORD (rumour) around an anagram (broken) of DOLL.

14a  Postponed working beside ship’s store (2,4)
{ON HOLD} – ON (working) and HOLD (ship’s store).

15a  Small consolation for a farm (4,7)
{COLD COMFORT} – the farm reference is to a comic novel by Stella Gibbons published in 1932.

19a  Decisive blow has force of ordinary antelope (6)
{KOODOO} – to get the alternative spelling of the name of this African antelope with long spiral horns, put together KO (knock out, decisive blow), OD (Reichenbach’s arbitrary name for a force he supposed to manifest itself in light, magnetism, chemical action, hypnotism, etc. – thanks Chambers), O (shortened form of “of”) and O (ordinary).

20a  Experimental project for factory dance (8 )
{WORKSHOP} – a charade of WORKS (factory) and HOP (dance) gives us a group of people working on a creative or experimental project.

22a  Drug is present (4)
{SNOW} – a slang word for cocaine is constructed from S (is, as in ‘s) and NOW (the present).

23a  Secure place in street to smarten Ron (10)
{STRONGROOM} – the definition is secure place and it’s made from ST (street) and GROOM (to smarten) with RON in(side). I don’t like this clue because the word order has been butchered to improve the surface reading.

25a  This cocktail would warm you up (7)
{MOLOTOV} – this cocktail is really a home-made bomb.

26a  Bill in Rome embraces doctor briskly (3,4)
{CON MOTO} – put CONTO (Italian word for bill or account) around (embraces) MO (doctor) to get a musical instruction meaning with movement or briskly.

Down Clues

1d  Cunning person gets reverse wrong in dance (7)
{FOXTROT} – a cunning person is a FOX – add TORT (a wrong) which has to be reversed.

2d  Aware of leg temperature: zero! (2,2)
{ON TO} – this requires a charade of ON (leg side in cricket), T(emperature) and O (zero).

3d  Chinese sugarcane soldiers fed to wild hogs (6)
{SORGHO} – put OR (other ranks, soldiers) inside an anagram (wild) of HOGS to get a variety of Chinese sugarcane.

4d  Forest covering old plant (8 )
{WOODROOF} – a charade of WOOD (forest) and ROOF (covering) produces an obsolete (old) name for the Woodruff plant.

5d  Neat bugles? (10)
{SHORTHORNS} – an amusing double definition, both cryptic – a variety of cattle (neat) and compact brass instruments.

6d  Operation to register and collect timber (3-4)
{LOG-ROLL} – put together LOG (short for logarithm, a mathematical operation used to simplify multiplication and division prior to the availability of calculators – hands up all those who remember the delights of log tables!) and ROLL (register, as in electoral roll) to get a term meaning the collection of logs after the clearing of a piece of land.

9d  Literally substitute (4,3,4)
{WORD FOR WORD} – double definition – literally or verbatim, and the replacement (substitute) of one term by another.

13d  Regard with contempt diver having feathers (yes!) in front (4,4,2)
{LOOK DOWN ON} – a diving bird (diver) is a LOON – inside this put DOWN (feathers) which is preceded (in front) by OK (yes!), and you end up with a phrase meaning to regard with contempt.

16d  Short return of hot tears at first (4-4)
{DROP-SHOT} – a short return, in tennis, is made from HOT preceded by DROPS (tears).

17d  Quarrel after growth for hairstyle (7)
{CORNROW} – put ROW (quarrel) after CORN (growth on the foot) to get a hairstyle in which the hair is arranged in tightly-braided rows.

18d  Right among salmon, some were gleaming in purple and gold (7)
{COHORTS} – put RT (right) inside COHOS (Pacific salmon) and you get parts of a Roman legion, which consisted of ten of these. The literary reference is to Byron’s poem “The Destruction of Sennacherib” which starts:

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on the Galilee.

21d  Donors could make music (6)
{RONDOS} – an anagram (could make) of DONORS.

24d  Light-hearted frolic essentially unprompted (4)
{ROMP} – what we need is the middle bit (essentially) of unpROMPted.

The clues I enjoyed included 12a and 18d, but my clue of the day is 5d. Agree or disagree? – leave us a comment, and please take the time to rate the puzzle by voting below.