Toughie 405

Toughie No 405 by Busman

Mon Goose is Cooked

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

The Toughie provides a range of styles and difficulty levels that cater for many tastes and solving abilities. With a Busman puzzle, you know you will get some very fair clues and usually a gentle introduction to the world of the Telegraph Toughie. Today is no exception. But for 10a and 28a, there is nothing here that would not be out of place in one of the more difficult back page cryptic crosswords.

Across

1a Assets and liabilities of London with 100% employment? (7,7)
{WORKING CAPITAL} – An accounting term for “assets and liabilities” is how London may be described if everyone were in employment. I am not sure that 100% employment would be a precondition to describing London as this, but the sense is clear from the clue.

10a Mongoose chewing coati’s tail with one munch (9)
{ICHNEUMON} – The genus to which the mongoose belongs is made up from an anagram (chewing) of the letter I (coati’s tail) and “one munch”. This is one of those clues where, unless you know the answer, you have to rely on the checking letters and plug the remaining letters of the anagram fodder in and cross-check until you have found the answer.

11a German painter formerly without name (5)
{ERNST} – A prolific German painter (first name Max) is found by putting another word for “formerly” around (without) the letter N (name).

12a He is one (7)
{ELEMENT} – He here is not the pronoun but the chemical symbol for helium, which is one example of the answer.

13a Showy decoration that’s not new (6)
{GARISH} – A word for showy comes from a word meaning decoration (that may be found on food) after taking away the letter N (not new).

15a Country take-away? (4)
{TOGO} – A word meaning take-away (2,2) reads as the name of a West African country. Hands up anyone who, like me, toyed with the answer being Thai?

17a Flowers and antelope in these French surroundings (10)
{CELANDINES} – The answer is “flowers” in the botanical sense rather than a cryptic sense of rivers. Put a French word for “these” around another word for an antelope and the word “in”.

18a Nothing confines walks here (4,6)
{OPEN SPACES} – A mild cryptic definition of the countryside where you may walk. A charade of a letter signifying nothing, a word for confines and a word for walks gives a description of where you may walk. Thanks to BD and Gazza for pointing out my word blindness here.

20a Is he attractive to half the undergraduates? (4)
{STUD} – A word that may mean undergraduates (or indeed anyone in any form of education) is reduced by half to give a word that may describe an attractive young man. Makes mental note to find a suitable picture for Crypticsue.

22a Warming effect of 1-0 disaster (2,4)
{EL NINO} – This is almost an indirect anagram but I like this clue. Spell out the score 1-0 (ignoring the hyphen) and make an anagram of the letters to produce the name of a weather system that is responsible for warming certain parts of the world.

23a Sure! Doc ordered and obtained goods (7)
{SOURCED} – A anagram of “sure doc” (don’t be misled by the punctuation here), gives a word meaning obtained goods.

26a Native American round oracle (5)
{OSAGE} – A new word for me. The answer is one of the indigenous Native American peoples. It is made up from the letter O and another word for an oracle (or wise person).

27a Conservation area by pub that’s above criticism (6,3)
{SACRED COW} – A word to describe something that it above criticism comes from an abbreviation for a Special Area of Conservation plus a popular pub name.

28a Holidaymaker requests river by deer, we’re told (8,6)
{PLEASURE SEEKER} – The answer is a word meaning holidaymaker. It can be found by a charade of words for requests and a river by a homophone for “Sika” (a type of deer). I had to consult Bradford’s to find the correct homophone fodder for this clue. You can now get Bradford’s on the iPhone but until the price is reduced significantly, I think I will rely on my hardcopy version.

Down

2d Pigment with touch of red in ridge (5)
{OCHRE} – A type of pale brownish-yellow pigment is made up from a word meaning the ridge on the floor where darts players stand with the first letter of “red” inside.

3d More competitive mourner (6)
{KEENER} – Double definition. A word that might describe someone who is more competitive is also a term used to describe a professional mourner.

4d Announce with a hymn and date – 4th of June, as arranged (4,3,3)
{NAME THE DAY} – A word meaning to announce (as in the date on which you get married), isfound from an anagram of HYMN, DATE and the fourth letter of the word “June”.

5d Is incapacitated? Humbug! (4)
{CANT} – Double definition. A word that might (hence the question mark) describe someone who is unable to do something (incapacitated) also (without the apostrophe) means humbug.

6d Horse is bipedal unusually (7)
{PIEBALD} – A type of horse colouration is also an anagram (unusually) of “bipedal”.

7d It may cause an interruption to services (6,3)
{TENNIS NET} – Cryptic definition of what might interrupt the service of a ball served by Andy Murray.

8d Disappoint the team, when whistle denoted foul (3,3,4,4)
{LET THE SIDE DOWN} – Another anagram, denoted by foul. A phrase meaning to disappoint the team comes from jumbling the letters of “whistle denoted”.

9d Monsieur Peston serving starter (10,4)
{MINESTRONE SOUP} – This starter on the menu appeared as part of the clue in 27a in yesterday’s Toughie. The answer is an anagram (serving) of “Monsieur Peston”. I felt that the anagram fodder here was a little contrived. What do you think?

14d Packs waffles full of old wine (10)
{HAVERSACKS} – A word meaning packs (that may be worn on the back) comes from a word meaning waffles with an old word for wine inside.

16d Fruit and raw egg — a disaster (9)
{GREENGAGE} – Denizens of COW will remember that the answer to this clue featured in one of the weekly clue setting competitions. The answer is a type of fruit. It comes from a word meaning raw with an anagram (disaster) of “egg a”.

19d Abrasive tools for Indian wood (7)
{SANDERS} – These abrasive tools, used to smooth things, are also the name of an Indian tree.

21d An objection even for hydrocarbon (6)
{BUTENE} – The answer here is a hydrocarbon. It is made up from a charade of a word for an objection and an alternative spelling for the poetic contraction “een” for even.

24d Hoard of notes and coins, reportedly (5)
{CACHE} – A word to describe notes and coins is supposed to sound like a word meaning hoard, but only if you pronounce the word for hoard with a short “a” sound rather than long “a” sound.

25d Drug addict having rifle mother took away (4)
{USER} – A type of German rifle minus the first two letters (a word for mother) gives a description of a drug addict.

My favourite clue today was 12a.

I think that this is the ideal sort of crossword to introduce solvers to the Telegraph Toughie. None of the wordplay elements or clue constructions are ones that would not be found in a regular cryptic crossword – there are a few new words to stretch you and the clues are fair.

Back soon with some pictures!