Toughie 644

Toughie No 644 by Giovanni

Wisdom of The Fool

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

This is only marginally more difficult than one of Giovanni’s Friday back-pagers though it probably has more clues where a smattering of general knowledge is useful. As is often the case I got both long anagrams from the enumeration first and worked out the fodder afterwards (which is why I’m not very keen on long multi-word anagrams). There’s a factual error in 2d but that didn’t impair my enjoyment of the puzzle.
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Across Clues

4a  Break down having received a freebie (8)
{GIVEAWAY} – put A inside a phrasal verb (4,3) meaning to break down (emotionally, under a strain, rather than mechanically) to make a freebie.

8a  Hush around courts? Just a gentle sound (6)
{SWOOSH} – an injunction to hush goes around a verb meaning courts or cosies up to. The result is a gentle noise like a rush of air (or an emblem you may see on your trainers).

9a  Member received by youngster in island town (8)
{YARMOUTH} – insert a bodily member in a young person to make a port on the Isle of Wight (not to be confused with a large place in Norfolk).

10a  Bound to give reason why group consists of old rockers? (8)
{BANDAGED} – a past participle meaning bound (after an accident, perhaps) when split (4,4) could be the reason given why a musical group is populated by wrinklies. I don’t know which group he could be referring to:

ARVE Error: need id and provider

11a  Wisdom: sadly possessed by neither woman __ __? (6)
{NORMAN} – Wisdom has to be the first word here to disguise the need for a capital letter.

12a  Old mother’s filling a hobo’s stomach (8)
{ABOMASUM} – this word (previously unknown to me but now filed away to be dropped into a conversation) means the fourth stomach of a ruminant. Put O(ld) and an affectionate term for mother (plus the ‘S) inside A and a dissolute fellow or hobo.

13a  True account by one who found something ‘good in parts’? (8)
{ACCURATE} – the much quoted description of an egg ‘good in parts’ comes from a Punch cartoon showing a young clergyman breakfasting with his bishop but not daring to tell him that the egg he’d been served was off. Put the abbreviation for account next to (by) the junior clergyman to make an adjective meaning true.

16a/18d  Running amok, the perverts go too far (8,3,4)
{OVERSTEP THE MARK} – this is a phrase meaning to go too far (apparently derived from a transgression in boxing). It’s an anagram (running – presumably in the sense of becoming fluid, like soft butter?) of AMOK THE PERVERTS.

19a  Scare father getting locked in a box (8)
{AFFRIGHT} – an old-fashioned verb meaning to scare comes from putting the abbreviation for a religious father inside (locked in) A and a verb meaning to box.

21a  Top grade with maths — odd to make complaint! (6)
{ASTHMA} – the letter used for the top grade (although these days it sometimes needs to be followed by “star” for the real top grade) precedes an anagram (odd) of MATHS.

23a  Discharge river’s thrown back — scatter now? (4,4)
{SEED TIME} – a verb meaning to discharge or spew out is followed by a common UK river and the ‘S. Then the whole thing is reversed (thrown back) to make the planting season.

24a  Short period without sun and Indian city gets disease (8)
{PELLAGRA} – this is a chronic disease marked by wasting and paralysis. Start with a short period without its leading S(un) and add the Indian city where the Taj Mahal is sited.

25a  City dwellers, not academic folk who keep themselves to themselves (6)
{LONERS} – start with inhabitants of a capital city and take out (not) the senior academic.

26a  Frame one deemed to be a traitor (8)
{CASEMENT} – double definition – the frame of a window and the surname of an Irish patriot/traitor (delete according to your viewpoint) who was executed by the British in 1916.

Down Clues

1d  Put total confidence in new brew, say (5,2)
{SWEAR BY} – an anagram (new) of BREW SAY.

2d  Good old Muslim Prince entertaining Eastern head of state once (5,4)
{GOLDA MEIR} – this is the original “iron lady” who was Prime Minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974 (but never President, and therefore not “head of state”). String together G(ood), OLD and the title of a Muslim prince with E(astern) inside (entertaining).

3d  Bits of legs you’ll see in that high street (6)
{THIGHS} – hidden (you’ll see) in the clue, but not hidden in the high street, especially in Summer, are bits of legs.

4d  Autumn days with pages being turned out by author (3,2,10)
{GUY DE MAUPASSANT} – the name of this nineteenth century French author leapt out at me (helped by my having studied a collection of his excellent and macabre short stories for French A-level) and all I had to do then was sort out the anagram. The indicator is turned out and the fodder is AUTUMN DAYS and PAGES.

5d  Woman in charge in Italian city (8)
{VERONICA} – what we want here is a woman’s name (think of Ms. Guerin, the Irish crime reporter who was murdered in 1996 – she was played by Cate Blanchett in the subsequent film). Put the abbreviation for in charge inside the Italian city which was home to Shakespeare’s pair of gentlemen.

6d  Loved one a beauty but heartless girl goes away (5)
{AMOUR} – the definition is loved one. Remove the outside letters of G(ir)L from the start of a word meaning beauty or charm. Unless I’ve misunderstood the wordplay the “a” in the clue is redundant.

7d  An area around theatre’s front entrance (7)
{ATTRACT} – a verb meaning to entrance or captivate comes from A and a large area of land containing the first (front) letter of T(heatre).

14d  Refusing to be temporarily unemployed, is getting stuck in (9)
{RESISTING} – a present participle used (especially by the theatrical profession) as a euphemism for being temporarily out of work contains IS to make a synonym for refusing.

15d  Stifle learner in alien environment (8)
{STRANGLE} – put L(earner) inside (in … environment) a synonym of alien.

17d  Organs getting vicars excited? Ecstasy may be hidden (7)
{VISCERA} – an anagram (excited) of VICARS with E(cstasy) hidden inside produces internal organs such as intestines.

18d  See 16a

20d  Unconvincing money paid to be bolstered by extra pounds (6)
{FEEBLE} – the definition is unconvincing, as a description of a lie for example. Start with “money paid”, and follow by (to) BE with the letter used for pounds sterling an extra ingredient  inside (bolstered by extra).

22d  Room overlooking southern end of the German city (5)
{HALLE} – the room that you normally enter first when you come in by the front door of a house precedes (overlooking, in a down clue) the last letter (southern end) of (th)E to make the name of a German city in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Confusingly there is a smaller town with the same name in North Rhine-Westphalia which is probably better known to tennis fans as the venue for an annual pre-Wimbledon tennis tournament on grass.

The clues I liked best were 10a and 25a. How about you?