Toughie No 1809 by Shamus
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***/****
Shamus has given us a fairly gentle Toughie today which should allow us all ample time to enjoy the welcome sunshine (well, the sun’s shining in my neck of the woods at least).
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared with the puzzle and what you thought of it.
Across Clues
8a Thinker to excite a university holding first of seminars (8)
ROUSSEAU – string together a verb to excite or fire up, A and an abbreviation for university then insert the first letter of seminars.
9a Hardened with hurt lacking justice initially (6)
INURED – start with an adjective meaning hurt and remove the initial letter of justice.
10a Pride, say, in dressing (3)
SIN – hidden.
11a Shot in court near leading figure influencing lawmakers (8)
LOBBYIST – assemble a shot in tennis, a preposition meaning near and a way of writing ‘leading’.
12a Spike Milligan’s principal friend in image supp left out (6)
IMPALE – put the first letter of Milligan and a friend inside the word ‘image’ from which the supplement (often a glossy one) has been removed.
13a Standard celebrities turning out in apt dress (5,3,7)
STARS AND STRIPES – another word for celebrities followed by an anagram (turning out) of IN APT DRESS.
15a Global news about pound followed by line on yen (7)
WORLDLY – a word meaning news contains the abbreviation for pound sterling. Follow that with abbreviations for line and yen.
18a Hears what’s before do in European city (7)
TRIESTE – a verb meaning hears in court precedes the musical note that comes before do.
21a Very altruistic novelist facing endless crisis in representation (4-11)
SELF-SACRIFICING – start with the surname of an English novelist and journalist and add an anagram (in re-presentation) of FACING and CRISI[s].
24a Back talk to decline? Not for this person! (6)
GASBAG – put together an informal verb to talk and a verb to decline or subside then reverse it all.
25a Refrain from revealing how telephone receptionist could annoy one? (8)
WITHHOLD – split the answer 4,4 and it’s how a telephone receptionist could (and often does) annoy you.
26a Wise figure depressed, first to last (3)
OWL – move the first letter of an adjective meaning depressed to the end.
27a Familiar feeling of the French crossing East Asian island mostly (4,2)
DÉJÀ VU – I’m sure I’ve seen this clue before. A French word for ‘of the’ contains the abbreviation for East and an Asian island without its final letter.
28a Foreign love of old group infused by energy, Queen? (8)
EXTERIOR – start with a ‘love of old’ or ‘old mate’ and add a musical group containing E(nergy). Finish with a single-letter abbreviation for queen.
Down Clues
1d Evasion of responsibility in policeman on patrol? (3-3)
COP-OUT – with a space rather than a hyphen this could describe a policeman on patrol.
2d Tearful confession by a Republican, sign of pressure (6)
ISOBAR – a tearful confession (1,3) followed by A and the abbreviation for Republican.
3d Relax and allow country almost liberal resort (3,2,3,4,3)
LET IT ALL HANG OUT – string together a verb to allow, a European country without its last letter, the abbreviation for the old Liberal party and a resort or place frequently visited. Should liberal (in the clue) not have a capital letter?
4d Charge for lock-up? (7)
CUSTODY – double definition, the first meaning charge or guardianship.
5d One in government rewriting trite manifestos (8,2,5)
MINISTER OF STATE – an anagram (rewriting) of TRITE MANIFESTOS. Probably what a number of them are doing at this very moment!
6d Spin doctor’s work is admitted in definite shock (8)
SURPRISE – put the abbreviation for what a spin doctor does and IS inside an adjective meaning definite or unmistakable.
7d Shady place with criminal recklessly determined (4-4)
HELL-BENT – ‘shades’ can mean the abode of the dead. Add an informal adjective meaning criminal to such a place.
14d Spread publicity for melody (3)
AIR – triple definition, the second meaning publicity or exposure.
16d Due money covering very extended time — one’s subdued? (8)
OVERAWED – an adjective meaning ‘due money’ contains the abbreviation for very and a long period of time.
17d Month over in end after capsizing sea vessel (8)
LIFEBOAT – insert an abbreviated month and the abbreviation for over into the reversal of a word meaning end or hindmost part.
19d What one might do in Alps in brisk itinerary (3)
SKI – our second easy-to-spot lurker.
20d Figure that’s greasy in heavy slow-moving vehicle (7)
CRAWLER – double definition, the first an unctuous sycophant.
22d Stick with Olympic maestro that’s spoken in this place (6)
COHERE – start with a homophone of the name of the chairman of the Organising Committee of the 2012 Olympics and append an adverb meaning ‘in this place’.
23d National hero once old scorn’s regularly dismissed (6)
NELSON – remove regular letters from three words in the clue.
I did like 11a, 28a and the very timely 5d but my favourite clue today was 24a. Do share with us which ones had you clapping.
Nice start to the toughie week, though i did bung in an -ING ending to 11a thinking the last two words were the definition, soon corrected of course by 4d.
Favourite probably Spike Milligan, I like clues where a person’s name is separated. I also liked ‘very altruistic novelist’
a nina-friendly grid, but if there was anything hiding, i missed it.
many thanks Shamus & Gazza
I have a good Irish friend who always says to me: Quel jour sommes nous?
The toughie week started yesterday.
A really lovely crossword .
I liked all the clues and, other than those dutch mentioned , I would add 11a and 8a and 25a.
Thanks to Shamus and Gazza.
Thanks to Shamus and to Gazza for the review and hints. I thought this was on the easy side as I made good progress. Needed the hints for 10,12,28a and 4d, as for the latter, I can never do double definitions. Favourite was 24a, was 3*/3* for me.
Beam tomorrow.
Fairly straightforward once I’d realised that the 17d month didn’t have to be ‘turned over’ and nailed the first definition in 20d.
Think my favourite was 4d.
Many thanks to Shamus (what – no Ireland today!) and to Gazza – enjoy the sunshine whilst it lasts.
A thoroughly enjoyable puzzle. Apart from initially trying to parse my first attempt at 20d, which started with a T and not a C, I had no other significant problems.
Thanks to Shamus, and to Gazza.
Thanks Shamus, we enjoyed this. Made steady progress and finished apart from understanding the last 2 letters of 18a.
G: I just had a doh! moment, thanks to Gazza for the explanation.
It all went together without too much of a struggle and good fun all the way.
Thanks Shamus and Gazza.
Wasn’t too sure if I had 21a parsed properly as I always thought that Will Self was a comedian.
The other 3 long clues were first in but the rest of the solve was quite chaotic.
Managed it all but every corner brought it’s fair share of head scratching.
Favourite 24a.
Thanks to Shamus and to Gazza for the review.
I enjoyed this very much indeed.
I could agree with any of the favourites already given, so instead will mention my last in, which I thought was another good one: 7d.
Thanks to Shamus and Gazza.
2*/4* – a satisfying puzzle which rounded off my evening nicely. Plenty of contenders for favouritism, but my choice is 28a. Thanks to Shamus, and Gazza.
A lot start due to Mr Sheffieldsy visiting his old mum in Wales. Much appreciated finding such a lovely crossword on return. Just good fun all the way and no use of any reference material or electronic aids. 2.5*/4*
Favourites were 11a and 17d. We liked the Spike Milligan clue a lot but it fails to make our favourites because of the clunky use of “supp”.
Thanks to Gazza and Shamus.
lot = late !
Confess I don’t understand 27a! ‘De’ = ‘of the’. ‘Jav’ is island mostly (Java). Where does the ‘u’ come from?
Welcome to the blog, Anthony.
‘De’ is just ‘of’ – it’s ‘du’ that means ‘of the’ and the Jav goes inside that.
Yes, of course! Stupid of me. The penny dropped after I had posted my comment.