Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Toughie No 1074 by Petitjean

The ins and outs of crossword clues

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

This is one of Petitjean’s easier puzzles, which probably accounts for its appearance in the Tuesday slot. There are rather a lot of insertions and deletions of letters, but mercifully few anagrams.

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Across

1a    Articulate overfamiliar cockney heard to greet Tarantino thus? (8)
{ELOQUENT} – split as (3,5) this sounds like (heard) how an overfamiliar cockney might greet film director Tarantino

5a    Say nothing about half of muck found in drink (4,2)
{CLAM UP} – the single-letter Latin abbreviation for about followed by the first half of MUck inside a verb meaning to drink

10a    Commercial exploitation of Anne Hathaway’s birthplace? (7,8)
{COTTAGE INDUSTRY} – a cryptic definition of a commercial activity in which the work is done wholly or largely by people in their own homes

11a    Bishop and pawn facing resistance before single decisive move (7)
{PRIMATE} – P(awn) followed by R(esistance), I (single) and a decisive move in chess

12a    Find Rousseau near Theology section (7)
{UNEARTH} – hidden (section) inside the clue

13a    Belgium’s Mafia issue turning explosive (4,4)
{TIME BOMB} – the IVR code for Belgium followed by a three-letter word for the Mafia and a verb meaning to issue, all reversed (turning)

15a    Heavyweight magnate second in offloading company (5)
{TYSON} – to get thesurname of this former world heavyweight boxing champion start with a magnate, insert S(econd) and drop CO(mpany)

18a    Crowd in lift (5)
{PRESS} – two definitions – the second referring to weightlifting

20a    Chaotic organiser lacks energy or detachment (8)
{GARRISON} – an anagram (chaotic) of ORGANIS(E)R without (lacks) the E(nergy)

23a    With tons wasted caviar producer is the one making cuts (7)
{SURGEON} – drop the T(ons) from a caviar producer

25a    Thousand attending tedious event left in tube (7)
{SNORKEL} – the metric symbol for a thousand inside a tedious or boring event followed by L(eft)

26a    Hypocrisy in large measure rules (6,9)
{DOUBLE STANDARDS} – a large measure of spirits followed by some rules or principles

27a    Grip new taps after getting scalded regularly (6)
{CLENCH} – N(ew) and the abbreviations found on water taps after the even letters (regularly) of sCaLdEd

28a    Saturday turned out hot for a fourth or fifth day (8)
{THURSDAY} – an anagram (turned out) of S(A)TURDAY with H(ot) replacing one of the As

Down

1d    Key exercises following a flight (6)
{ESCAPE} – a key found on the computer keyboard followed by some Physical Exercises, the latter preceded by the A from the clue

2d    Put off accepting fine in a tricky situation (2,4,3)
{ON THIN ICE} – a phrase meaning that something is put off (2,3) around (accepting) an adjective meaning fine or delicate

3d    Ignorant of Stubbs pottery (7)
{UNAWARE] – the first name of actress Ms Stubbs followed by a word for pottery

4d    Relative odds of naive complete outsiders (5)
{NIECE} – the odd letters of NaÏvE followed by the outer letters (outsiders) of CompletE

6d    Most vulgar uncouth fellow entertains some French (7)
{LOUDEST} – an uncouth fellow around (entertains) the French for some

7d    Saw men in car (5)
{MOTOR} – a saw proverb followed by some men in the army

8d    Constantly talk up pressure to make sharper means of communication (8)
{PAYPHONE} – a verb meaning to constantly talk reversed (up in a down clue) followed by P(ressure) and a verb meaning to make sharper

9d    Traditional measure of cool with Cup all but lost and points paramount can be handicap (8)
{ENCUMBER} – start with an object used in a simile for cool, drop(lost) most of (all but) Cup and add two compass points to the front (paramount)

14d    Morgan is trendy vehicle for player (8)
{ORGANIST} – hidden (vehicle for) inside the clue

16d    Frustrated with knitted top before wearing neck-warmer (9)
{SNOOKERED} – the initial letter (top) of Knitted followed by a poetical word meaning before inside a wide ring of knitted material worn as a scarf

17d    Occasional broadcast is copied (8)
{EPISODIC} – an anagram (broadcast) of IS COPIED

19d    Quiet Mid-westerner will shortly account for material in many early rock’n’roll records (7)
{SHELLAC} – an exhortation to keep quiet followed by the middle (mid) letter of westErner, the short form of will, as used when I will or he will is abbreviated, and AC(count)

21d    Proper fashionable society (2,5)
{IN ORDER} – a two-letter word meaning fashionable followed by a society or brotherhood

22d    Mirror ditching old for article by unknown – that’s brilliant (6)
New online version – Dazzling overweight wing gets substituted — ‘Why?’ one might ask (6)
{GLOSSY} – start with a mirror, swapping the A (article) for O (old) [the opposite of what it says in the clue] and adding a mathematical unknown
Start with an adjective meaning overweight and swap the wing or side of the second letter then add the letter that sounds like (one might ask) why

24d    Unsophisticated? No finish? Hint of earthiness? Could be Burgundy (5)
{ROUGE} – most of (no finish) an adjective meaning unsophisticated followed by the initial letter (hint) of Earthiness

25d    Millions checking band’s big hit (5)
{SMASH} – M(illions) inside (checking) a band worn round the waist or over the shoulder

Not a bad start to the Toughie week.