Toughie 3046

Toughie No 3046 by Hudson

Hints and Tips by crypticsue

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

Hudson always gives us an entertaining Toughie to solve but this one goes the extra mile with a theme where, after you have solved a few clues, you begin to spot several solutions that might belong in a themed list – there turn out to be more of them than you would first think.

If I was going to have one quibble, I would point out that my parsing scribbles on my solved grid paper contain no fewer than eight ← indicating the need to reverse something in the wordplay

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought

Across

7a    Prison car turned into material for recycling (5,4)
SCRAP IRON An anagram (turned) of PRISON CAR

8a    Concentrate of spun copper sulphate, primarily (5)
FOCUS OF (from the clue) reversed (spun) followed by the chemical symbol for copper and the primary letter of Sulphate

10a    Criminally trap golden eagle? (6)
RAPTOR An anagram (criminally) of TRAP followed by the heraldic term for gold

11a    Odd, receiving odd tattoo? (4,4)
DRUM ROLL An adjective meaning odd or amusing into which is inserted (receiving) a slang word meaning odd

12a    Mum sadly rejected peaceful greeting (6)
SALAAM A reversal (rejected) of an interjection meaning sadly and a mother

14a    Maybe Top Gear host works with VW (2,4)
TV SHOW An anagram (works) of HOST with VW

16a    I must move to the back of fancy cinema, very large (4)
MAXI Move the I from the front of the name of a large-screen cinema to the back

17a    Ms Dorries is on the way back after leaving Ulster’s American-style saloon (5)
SEDAN Reverse (on the way back) a way of writing the forename of Ms Dorries, the MP and author, with an ‘S (is) and then omit (leaving) the abbreviation for Northern Ireland (Ulster)

18a    Skirt the road to Leeds, followed by van from Ilkley (4)
MINI The name of the motorway to Leeds followed by the first letter (van in the sense of front) of Ilkley

19a    Accompany notorious conquistador when cycling (6)
ESCORT Take the name of a notorious conquistador and cycle the last two letters of his name to the front of the word

21a    Persian ruler giving Roman 6 king a going-over (6)
XERXES A reversal (going over) of the Latin (Roman) words for six and king

24a    This man’s composed, noted Boris, when introduced by the Queen? (4,4)
CARL ORFF This composer’s name could sound like the name of a famous (noted) actor called Boris if it was pronounced by someone using the Queen’s English or Received Pronunciation

26a    About a pint knocked back, Tom loves it! (6)
CATNIP The Latin abbreviation for about, A (from the clue) and a reversal (knocked back) of PINT

27a    Street hip-hop beat (5)
STRAP The abbreviation for street and another word for hip-hop music

28a    Father, ordinary male, declared bankruptcy in South Korea after this (4,3,2)
FROM NOW ON An abbreviated religious father, the abbreviations for Ordinary and Male and how someone in South Korea would declare bankruptcy as they wouldn’t have any of their country’s currency

Down

1d    Splendour of chapter in uplifting story (5)
ECLAT The abbreviation for chapter inserted into a reversal (uplifting) of a story

2d    Italian staple Romeo’s consumed, starters of marinated Ischian beef (8)
PASTRAMI The letter represented by Romeo in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet is ‘consumed’ by Italy’s staple food, the result followed by the starters of Marinated and Ischian

3d    Busier railway traversing mountains (6)
SIERRA Hidden in (traversing) buSIER RAilway

4d, 13 Down & 25 Down Working dad from university city a key literary figure (4,5,4)
FORD MADOX FORD An anagram (working) of DAD FROM followed by a university city gives us the name of an English novelist, poet, critic and editor
whose journals The English Review and The Transatlantic Review were important in the development of early 20th-century English and American literature. There are two themed names in the solution

5d    Country dance one of the Bee Gees picked up (6)
MORRIS A homophone (picked up) of the forename of one of the Bee Gees

6d    Recover bullet following shot to leg (4,5)
PULL ROUND A piece of ammunition of one shot (bullet) goes after (following) a cricket shot to the legside

9d    City of Nassau’s tiny (6)
AUSTIN Hidden in nassAUS TINy

13d    See 4 Down

15d    Academic stream swindles auto parts (9)
CAMSHAFT A river that gives a university city its name (academic stream) followed by a slang way of saying swindles

17d    Pasteur occasionally embraced by nurse (heavenly body!) (6)
SATURN The occasional letters of pAsTeUr ’embraced’ by a State Registered Nurse

18d    More than one eminent musician from West perhaps arranges to come over (8)
MAESTROS The forename of, for example (perhaps) Ms West the American actress followed by a reversal (to come over) of a synonym for arranges

20d    Muse knocked over an item in the garage (6)
OILCAN A reversal (knocked over) of the Muse of History followed by AN (from the clue)

22d    See if you can beat setter’s flower arrangement (6)
RACEME If you split this term for an arrangement of flowers on a stem 4,2 you will see why our setter is asking if you can beat him

23d    Junior team in organdie skirts (5)
MINOR Hidden in (skirts) teaM IN Organdie

25d    See 4 Down