Toughie 600

Toughie No 600 by Warbler

I say, I say, I say

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

I’m still sulking because Micawber has absconded from his rightful place – the Wednesday slot. Instead we have a pretty gentle Toughie where most of the clues would have felt quite at home on the back page, but I did quite enjoy it.
Let us know what you thought and please take the time to click on one of the stars below to record how much you liked it.

Across Clues

1a  Married men’s nemeses who aren’t slim sadly (7-2-3)
{MOTHERS-IN-LAW} – the butts of many an old comedian’s jokes are an anagram (sadly) of WHO AREN’T SLIM.

ARVE Error: need id and provider

9a  Section ready to include Feds (7)
{SEGMENT} – the informal way of referring to FBI agents (1-3) goes inside a synonym of ready.

10a  Discoloration caused by swirling rains in the centre of Eltham (7)
{TARNISH} – insert an anagram (swirling) of RAINS between the middle two letters of ElTHam.

11a  Slightly burn fish (4)
{CHAR} – double definition.

12a  Asian river is excluded from manufacturing test (5)
{TRIAL} – remove the name of a major Asian river (which enters the sea near Karachi) from the start of an adjective meaning manufacturing to leave a synonym of test.

13a  Triumph utterly obscures sound of collapse (4)
{PHUT} – hidden (obscures) in the clue is the sound ascribed to something collapsing or coming to a grinding halt.

16a  Water in old malt changing colour (7)
{OATMEAL} – this is a brownish colour. Put a 2-character word for running water (a word we see fairly regularly in Toughies) inside an anagram (changing) of O(ld) MALT.

17a  Halt work round river in S Africa (7)
{LIMPOPO} – this river of southern Africa is a charade of the verb to halt (meaning to walk unsteadily or unevenly), an abbreviation for work and O (round).

18a  Mythical musician’s playing. Oh super! (7)
{ORPHEUS} – an anagram (playing) of OH SUPER leads to a poet and musician from Greek mythology.

21a  British beer’s strong, almost menacing (7)
{BALEFUL} – the definition is menacing. String together B(ritish), a synonym for beer and an adjective meaning strong (e.g. when applied to a flavour) without its final L (almost).

23a  Plan’s well-nigh perfect (4)
{IDEA} – remove (well-nigh) the final letter from a synonym of perfect.

24a  Public upset after vase is stolen (5)
{OVERT} – remove a vase from the end of a verb meaning to upset to leave an adjective meaning not concealed or public.

25a  Become submerged head to toe in black liquids (4)
{INKS} – a verb meaning to become submerged has its initial letter moved to the end (head to toe).

28a  Elite area runs new workshop (7)
{ATELIER} – an anagram (new) of ELITE A(rea) and R(uns).

29a  It’s a riddle when chief replaces prince at head of procession (7)
{CHARADE} – a type of riddle which forms the basis of a party game appears when the P(rince) is removed from the start of a procession and replaced by CH(ief).

30a  Chelsea exuberant after difficult race (12)
{STEEPLECHASE} – a race over obstacles (the Grand National, for example) is constructed from an anagram (exuberant) of CHELSEA after an adjective meaning difficult or unreasonable.

Down Clues

1d  Traveller in aircraft flew to Thailand (7)
{MIGRANT} – someone travelling from one country to another is a 29a of a Russian fighter aircraft, a synonym for flew or moved quickly and the IVR code for Thailand.

2d  Prior to end of October draw level (4)
{TIER} – before the last letter of (Octobe)R put a draw (a game in which the scores are equal) to make a level (in an arena, say).

3d  Penetrate abdominal extremities within the gut (7)
{ENTERAL} – an adjective meaning relating to the intestine comes from a verb to penetrate followed by the outer letters (extremities) of A(bdomina)L.

4d  Changing date to Sunday reorganise details and begin journey (3,4)
{SET SAIL} – replace (changing) the D(ate) to S(unday) in details and then make an anagram (reorganise) from what you now have.

5d  Batty character’s regularly in your way (4)
{NORA} – she of the wrinkled stockings comes from the even (regularly) letters of “in your way”.

6d  Sounds like a paper hankie’s needed for this (7)
{ATISHOO} – the sound you make when in need of a paper hankie sounds like (1,6) the object itself.

7d  Scary film’s convincing yet it’s all in the mind (13)
{PSYCHOLOGICAL} – a scary Hitchcock film is followed by a synonym of convincing or well-reasoned.

8d  Hi-fi set, both large and initially trendy, goes wrong (6-7)
{GHETTO-BLASTER} – this is a sort of semi-semi-all-in-one. The definition is hi-fi and it’s an anagram (goes wrong) of SET BOTH LARGE and T(rendy).

14d  Either way it’s even (5)
{LEVEL} – a palindrome.

15d  Swimmer had unpleasant odour (5)
{SMELT} – double definition, the swimmer being a fish related to the salmon family.

19d  Stop before opening (7)
{PREVENT} – a charade of a prefix meaning before and an opening.

20d  More than one interpretation of a Latin verse (7)
{SEVERAL} – the definition is more than one and it’s an anagram (interpretation) of A L(atin) VERSE.

21d  Penniless actor, losing heart, retrained in burlesque in Canada first of all (7)
{BORACIC} – we want a slang term for penniless (which comes from rhyming slang – something rhyming with skint). It’s an anagram (retrained) of AC(t)OR (losing heart) inside the initial letters of Burlesque In Canada.

22d  Elaborate display of ‘cool’ food (7)
{FANFARE} – a verb meaning to cool is followed by a synonym for food.

26d  Touch up European holiday cottage (4)
{GITE} – a word meaning a touch (also a childhood game in which the objective is to touch someone else to make them “it”) is reversed (up, in a down clue) and followed by E(uropean).

27d  Joke about lady on stage (4)
{GAGA} – a joke is followed by A(bout) to make the name of the lady American singer who is currently all the rage. Unfortunately Chambers rarely tells us how an abbreviation is used, so if anyone knows in what context A is used to mean about, that would be useful (to me, anyway!).

The clues I liked best were 17a, 24a and 5d. How about you?