Toughie No 2270 by Artix

Hints and tips by Dutch

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

A lovely puzzle by Artix, full of innovative clueing

Definitions are underlined as usual. The hints are intended to help you untangle the wordplay. You can reveal the answers by clicking on the click here buttons. Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.

Across

1a    Woman bosses modified hems on tiny armchair (10)
MATRIARCHY: An anagram (modified) of the outer letters (hems) on T(in)Y + ARMCHAIR

6a    Fed 80% of heavy machinery from the wrong side (4)
NARC: Fed here is the agent variety, not the verb! My last one in because of that. A reversal (from the wrong side) of the first 4 letters (80%) of a 5-letter item of heavy machinery used for lifting weights in construction

10a    Love to pursue record bash (5)
DISCO: The letter that resembles the score of love in tennis follows (to pursue) a (vinyl) record

11a    Thus break a prisoner returning in these islands (9)
GALAPAGOS: Another word for thus, a word meaning break, A from the clue and another word for prisoner, all reversed (returning)

12a    #moan&fuss (4,4)
BEEF STEW: A word for a moan or complaint and a word for fuss. In case you can’t see it on your device, the first character in the clue is underlined as the definition

13a    Fool in NY is first to diss small book (5)
DWEEB: The first letter in diss, a Scottish word meaning small, and the abbreviation for book

15a    Cool mate maybe cut up wood, shaving edges (4,3)
ICED-TEA: Mate or maté is a Paraguayan infusion often encountered in crossword land – I’ve yet to have it cold, though I suppose you could. Take a 5-letter past participle meaning cut up plus a 4-letter (expensive) kind of wood, and remove the first and last letter (shaving edges)

17a    Taking day off, dish dreamt up … by Nobu? (7)
TEMPURA: Nobu is a famous Japanese chef. Omitting the abbreviation for day, we have an anagram (dish) of (d)REAMT UP

19a    First lead-free rent-a-car companies side-by-side or face-to-face (3-1-3)
VIS-A-VIS: Repeat (side-by-side) a well-known 4-letter rental car company and remove the first letter from the first one (first lead-free)

21a    With time, this Nirvana-seeker can become ecstatic (7)
ASCETIC: If you add the abbreviation for time to the answer, it can be anagrammed into (can become) ECSTATIC

22a    Maybe Queen Vic’s beer gets knocked back (5)
REGAL: The ‘s translates to IS. A reversal (gets knocked back) of a type of beer

24a    More than one’s in The Cat Sat on The Mat (Cameron’s doggerel) (3-5)
RAT-RHYME: A Scottish (Cameron’s) expression for a bit of doggerel, which taken literally sees more than one example (three, not to give too much away) in the wordplay

27a    Try to animate Avatar egg (9)
AGGRAVATE: An anagram (to animate) of AVATAR EGG

28a    Bury FC playing in Italy (5)
INTER: Two meanings, the first a verb

29a    Fox cub beginning to eat bird (4)
KITE: The word for a fox cub plus the first letter (beginning) of eat

30a    Trouble from interior put pygmy off, by Jove! (5,5)
GYPPY TUMMY: An anagram (off) of PUT PYGMY plus an exclamation meaning by Jove

Down

1d    Coat for the South of France (4)
MIDI: Two meanings

2d    Vulgar adjective used to describe asylum-seeker with head lowered (9)
TASTELESS: A word describing an asylum-seeker or someone without a home-country, with the first letter dropped two spaces (with head lowered)

3d    By-product, not special, gets shot (2-3)
IN-OFF: Think snooker. A (4-3) by-product without (not) the initial 2-letter abbreviation for special

4d    Start and finish of race with gun backfiring at Cowes? (7)
REGATTA: The whole clue alludes to the answer. The first and last letters (start and finish) of race, a gun, and a reversal (backfiring) of AT from the clue

5d    Imbecile cycling with a large female (4-3)
HALF-WIT: Cycle WITH A L F, where A is from the clue and L and F are abbreviations. The answer is not hyphenated in Chambers but it is in Collins

7d    Ye Olde Nook and Hook? (5)
ANGLE: Two meanings – a word meaning hook is also an old word for a nook.

8d    Picture bean counters with a black car taking one out (10)
CASABLANCA: An abbreviation for bean counters or accountants (including an S for the plural), A from the clue, the abbreviation for black, and a make of car omitting “I” (taking one out)

9d    50% taken by Great Plague (8)
EPIDEMIC: A prefix meaning half or 50% goes inside (taken by) an adjective meaning great

14d    Marked elder in African forest? (10)
SILVERBACK: A cryptic definition with a pun on elder

16d    Islander‘s dodgy undervaluation once unhappy De Niro leaves (8)
TUVALUAN: An anagram (dodgy) of UNDERVALUATION from which an anagram (unhappy) of DE NIRO is subtracted (once … leaves)

18d    In the last month, corporation supports setter’s advanced threat (9)
ULTIMATUM: An abbreviation meaning ‘in the last month’, then a 3-letter word for corporation or belly goes underneath (supports) a (1’1) way of saying “setter is” (from the setter’s perspective) plus the abbreviation for advanced

20d    Valuable cargo sure to be lost in weather that’s unreliable (7)
STREAKY: An 8-letter valuable cargo from which the final ‘SURE’ from the clue is missing (to be lost) goes inside (in) a 3-letter word that can mean weather

21d    5 following leaderless Man City (7)
ANTWERP: Another word for the answer of 5 follows (m)AN from the clue without its first letter (leaderless)

23d    Joe bought joint (5)
GIGOT: A Joe or American soldier plus a verb meaning bought or obtained

25d    One getting into the next lift? (5)
HOIST: Insert the Roman numeral for one into another word for the answer of ‘the next’ (clue)

26d    Like member shedloads (4)
ARMY: The answer whimsically could mean like a member or limb

I liked the #, the rent-a-car, the “vulgar adjective”, and the picture which is my destination next Friday (well, a one-hour stop). Which clues were your favourites?