Toughie 928

Toughie No 928 by Dada

Hints and Tips by Bufo

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

Another gentle puzzle from Dada. The only hold-up came with 15 down which has an answer that I wasn’t familiar with. I managed to work it out from the wordplay.
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Across

1a           Tree French author felled? (5)
{SUMAC} Reverse the surname of a French Nobel Prize winning author (felled = knocked over = reversed)

4a           Greatly impress an admirer of the East End? (4,4)
{BOWL OVER} Whem split (3,5) it gives you an admirer of a particular district in the East End of London

10a        Poison found in medicines, rarely recalled (7)
{ARSENIC} Hidden in reversed form in mediCINES RArely

11a        At first, really happy to get connected (7)
{RELATED} The first letter of Really + ‘happy’

12a        Party elected to kill (2,2)
{DO IN} Party + elected

13a        Comfortable thing, right to this point (2,3)
{SO FAR} Something comfortable to sit on + R (right)

14a        Ill having missed starter, too sweet (4)
{ICKY} Remove the first letter from an informal word meaning ‘ill’

17a        Author reads novel about legendary leader among poltroons (7,7)
{CHARLES DICKENS} An anagram (novel) of READS round L (first letter of legendary) goes inside ‘poltroons’

19a        Be an axe murderer — or make peace? (4,3,7)
{BURY THE HATCHET} An axe murderer might do this in someone’s body

22a        Mock gemstones in one’s shop, well hidden (4)
{JEER} Remove WELL from a shopkeeper who sells gemstones

23a        US president storing old volume on the next floor up? (5)
{ABOVE} The usual crossword representation of Mr Lincoln goes round O (old) V (volume)

24a        Man, say I do crosswords regularly? (4)
{ISLE} The Man is the one in the Irish Sea. I + alternate letters of a 5-letter word meaning ‘do crosswords)

27a        Tea houses otherwise in place of buns? (7)
{CHELSEA} ‘Tea’ goes round ‘otherwise’ to give part of London associated with buns

28a        Arrangement to switch all seats marked J perhaps with K (7)
{NETWORK} If A is row one then J will be *** ***. Reverse (switch) this and add K

29a        Bridge ace takes journey (8)
{BESTRIDE} ‘To bridge’ = ace + journey

30a        Wander over to collect unknown civic dignitary (5)
{MAYOR} A reversal of ‘wander’ round a letter signifying an unknown

Down

1d           Fruit salad to begin with, then fish (8)
{SHADDOCK} An E Asian citrus fruit = S (first letter of salad) + a fish

2d           Chaos in a Sicilian city (7)
{MESSINA} Chaos + IN + A

3d           Hit on the head — or nose (4)
{CONK} 2 meanings: hit on the head/nose

5d           Translation of Navaho and Rumanian book (3,3,2,6)
{OUR MAN IN HAVANA} An anagram (translation) of NAVAHO RUMANIAN gives the title of a Graham Greene novel

6d           Opera in state capital only showing second half (4)
{LULU} An opera by Berg is the second half of the capital of Hawaii

7d           Papal authority to have vessels laden with incense, primarily (7)
{VATICAN} I (first letter of incense) comes between two 3-letter vessels

8d           Damned  / healthy-looking (5)
{RUDDY} 2 meanings: damned/healthy-looking

9d           Sweeping movement of men like so? (6-3-5)
{ACROSS THE BOARD} How chessmen might move

15d        Trifle to be held over a basin (5)
{PLAYA} ‘To trifle’ + A gives a Spanish word for a basin which becomes a shallow lake after heavy rainfall and dries out again in hot weather

16d        Fish  / skim over the surface (5)
{SKATE} 2 meanings: fish/skim over the surface

18d        All off, one off? (8)
{STREAKER} A cryptic definition for someone off (in motion) after taking everything off

20d        So save more scrap (7)
{USELESS} When split (3,4) it’s an instruction to save more

21d        Anything but her Labour background? (7)
{HISTORY} The male equivalent of ‘her’ + someone who is definitely not a member of the Labour Party

22d        Account penned by one biblical character — for another? (5)
{JACOB} AC (account) goes inside one Old Testament character to give another one

25d        All initially in the soup, appointing rotten old Russian leader (4)
{TSAR} The initial letters of The Soup Appointing Rotten

26d        Staunch /  supporter of a plant (4)
{STEM} 2 meanngs: to staunch/a stalk (supporter of a plant)

Once upon a time I blogged the first ever Dada Toughie and it was a genuine Toughie. I have been disappointed with the toughness level of all the other Dada Toughies that I have blogged.