Toughie 713

Toughie No 713 by Giovanni

Not Abaddon

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

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

This was trickier than your average Giovanni Toughie (but maybe not as tricky as the back page puzzle). It was an enjoyable puzzle and, as always with a Giovanni puzzle, the clues were perfectly fair. I did waste time trying to justify a couple of incorrect answers but eventually saw the light and inserted the correct answers.

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Across

1a    Message in hotel for female leaving — did Buttons run around? (2,3,7)
{DO NOT DISTURB} A sign that a hotel guests might attach to the outside of the door of their room is given by an anagram (run around) of (F)OR DID BUTTONS, where (F) indicates that F (female) is to be ignored

9a    Sandwich containing egg — and dye! (4)
{WOAD} A sandwich contains O (egg) to give a dye. The Ancient Britons never hit on anything as good as this to fit on

10a    Joy when bee’s invaded that plant (9)
{EUPHORBIA} B (bee) goes inside (invades) joy to give a plant of the spurge genus

12a    New money that’s about to be issued first (6)
{RECENT} ‘New’ = an American coin preceded by ‘about’

13a    Entertainment awards — masses one collected (8)
{GRAMMIES} Music awards (corresponding to the cinema Oscars) are given by metric weights containing I (one)

15a    My holiness attracts males no end (8,2)
{GOODNESS ME} ‘My!’ = holiness + males with the last letter missing

16a    Snooze audibly in break (4)
{KNAP} I spent some time trying to justify the obvious word that fits here before deciding it had to be something less obvious. A homophone (audibly) of snooze gives ‘to break with a snapping noise’ or ‘to break (eg stones) in pieces with repeated blows’

18a    Tube is to be avoided, according to report (4)
{DUCT} Another homophone (according to report). A tube is a word that sounds like ‘avoided’

20a    Forest officer that is surrounded by very large plantations (10)
{ORANGERIES} A forest officer and IE (that is) inside an abbreviation denoting ‘very large’ gives places where fruit trees are grown

23a    Condemn banger being dumped by river (8)
{EXECRATE} ‘To condemn’ = a banger (decrepit car) next to (following) a river in SW England

24a    A short day that’s about to end in several countries (6)
{AFRICA} A + an abbreviation for a day of the week + ‘about’ = a continent

26a    Put under the influence of drug, showing bad reactions (9)
{NARCOTISE} ‘Put under the influence of drug’ is an anagram (bad) of REACTIONS

27a    Given a hint when line’s forgotten? (4)
{CUED} An all-in-one clue. The whole gives a definition for the word as used in the theatre. It can be derived from ‘given a hint (by a crossword setter)’ with L (line) omitted

28a    Wonderful period of play when there’s replacement? (12)
{SUPERSESSION} ‘Wonderful’ + a period of time spent engaged in any one activity = ‘replacement’

Down

2d    One expecting to be collared for a special purpose (8)
[ORDINAND] A cryptic definition of someone who is training to become a minister of the church (and thus expecting to get a dog collar)

3d    ‘Ad aspirations to produce a newspaper article (2-2)
{OP-ED} ‘Ad aspirations = a newspaper article printed opposite the editorial column

4d    Manners of French fellows taking little time to gulp drink (10)
{DEPORTMENT} ‘Manners’ = the French word for ‘of’ + fellows + T (time) going round a fortified wine from Portugal

5d    Rumour going round firm ultimately not fair (6)
{STORMY} A rumour goes round M (last letter of firm) to give ‘not fair (weatherwise)’

6d    In central Italy it’s as in the Lake District, but less cold (7)
{UMBRIAN} ‘Of an area in central Italy’ = ‘of the county that contains the Lake District’ with C (cold) missing

7d    A special lab’s constructed for experimenter investigating pressure (6,6)
{BLAISE PASCAL} An anagram (constructed) of A SPECIAL LAB’S gives the name of the French scientist after whom the SI unit of pressure is named

8d    Boss only half truthful leading company, hard to get nailed (6)
{HONCHO} A US slang term for a boss = the first half of a six-letter word meaning ‘truthful’ + the abbreviation for company round H (hard)

11d    Attempt falls short with old actor ignoring fine actresses (12)
{TRAGEDIENNES} An attempt (3) with the last letter removed + old (4) + the surname of an English actor (7) with F (fine) removed = actresses not noted for their comic roles

14d    Rambling rectories in which one’s found a type of desk (10)
{ESCRITOIRES} An anagram (rambling) of RECTORIES goes round I (one) to give a writing desk. My first answer to this didn’t quite fit the anagram and had to be abandoned

17d    Cigar that shows no ellipticity whatever (8)
{PERFECTO} A large tapering cigar (which I’d never heard of) describes a circle (O) which shows no ellipticity whatsoever

19d    Child gets soup knocked over? Try to smile! (5,2)
{CHEER UP} CH (child) + a reversal of a soup without solid pieces = ‘Try to smile’

21d    Plants one gets out of bed (6)
{IRISES} Plants with large showy flowers + I (one) + ‘gets out of bed’

22d    Mail? Telegraph’s showing superior power! (6)
{ARMOUR} Mail (to protect the body) = a possessive pronoun (belonging to us, i.e. Telegraph’s) preceded by power

25d    Where horses may have been making animal noises (4)
{MEWS} 2 meanings: a street or yard of stabling for horses/noises made by cats

Thursday’s are looking up