Toughie No 114 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie No 114

Toughie No 114 by Osmosis

Pleasant Toughie of average difficulty

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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ***

This was a pleasant enjoyable puzzle of average Toughie difficulty.  If you can do the regular Daily Cryptic then you ought to be able to do this one, but it will probably take a liitle longer.

Across

1a Wrong to allow pub by ancient monument (6)
{SPHINX} – a deadly wrong around (to allow) PH (public house) then X (by / times, as in arithmetic) give an ancient Egyptian monument

4a Talk with salesman before meal to redirect carrier (5,3)
{PAPER BAG} – GAB (talk) then REP(resentative / salesman) then AP (ante prandium / before a meal – this came up as recently as T112) all reversed (redirect) to give something that you put things in (carrier)

9a Protection Romeo used during love affair (6)
{ARMOUR} – R(omeo / the phonetic alphabet again) inside a love affair to give protective clothing worn by knights in days of yore

10a Brownies might be among this confectionery carried back to house (8)
{JAMBOREE} – a well concealed charade of JAM (this confectionery) BORE (carried) and E (back to housE) combine to give a gathering of Scouts, Guides, Cubs and Brownies

11a Artist sculpted prima donna unclothed (8)
{MONDRIAN} – a clever anagram (sculpted) of (p)RIMA DONN(a) (prima donna unclothed / without the outside letters) gives an artistanagrams of part of a word or words are often difficult to spot

13a Time to leave musical instrument with Academy that’s near the pupil (6)
{CORNEA} – a musical instrument similar to the trumpet, with the final “T” (time to leave) replaced by A(cademy) gives a pert of the eye (near the pupil)

15a Shakespeare’s contemporary Lear: regal, with suffering (6,7)
{WALTER RALEIGH} – this anagram (suffering) of LEAR REGAL WITH is rather easier to spot than the previous one; Shakespeare’s contemporary is credited with introducing potatoes and cigarettes to England – I couldn’t find the Bob Newhart version of this sketch on YouTube, but this one is nearly as good

18a Party calls to arrange card for exhibition centre (7,6)
{{CRYSTAL PALACE} – an anagram (to arrange) of PARTY CALLS then ACE (card) for this former exhibition centre in South London

22a Potent sextet cause annoyance (6)
{VIRILE} – VI (six in Roman numerals / sextet) and RILE (cause annoyance) combine to give a synonym for potent

24a Arsenal’s chief, extremely tight with money, offloading latest team member (8)
{ATTACKER} – A(rsenal’s chief / first letter) TT (extremely TighT / outside letters) with ACKER(s) (money, offloading latest / without final letter) give a team member often called a striker – I haven’t heard the term ackers used for money in a long time

26a Marine new, showing nervous reaction amongst elements (8)
{NAUTICAL} – N(ew) then TIC (nervous reaction) in between AU and AL (chemical symbols for the elements gold and aluminium – you’ll find them in The Mine) give a synonym for marine

27a US actor, a name missed from screens (6)
{CURTIS} – take A N (a name) away from what the Americans call drapes and you have an actor whose many film credits include the classic Billy Wilder film “Some Like it Hot

28a Fantastic plane – the Jumbo perhaps (8)
{ELEPHANT} – the answer to this one screams out at you, and the anagram (fantastic) of PLANE THE seems almost irrelevant

29a Hue and cry surrounding that woman (6)
{CHERRY} – CRY around HER (that woman) give a colour (hue)

Down

1d Crawling outside in manoeuvres converted troops (6)
{SMARMY} – MS (outside in ManoeuvreS reversed (converted) then ARMY (troops) to give a word meaning unctuous (crawling)

2d Novelist keeping pottery in quarters during literary festival (9)
{HEMINGWAY} – MING (pottery) inside (keeping … in) E(ast) and W(est) (quarters) all inside (during) the HAY(-on-Wye) literary festivalan inspired guess at the Hay festival made this one very easy for me!

3d Grey squirrel finally tracks nut – with ear, unusually (7)
{NEUTRAL} – L (squirreL, finally) comes after (tracks) an anagram (unusually) of NUT with EAR to give a synonym for grey

5d Mythical hero a seaman’s mentioned (4)
{AJAX} – the legendary hero of the Trojan War sounds like (mentioned) a jack’s (a seaman’s)

6d Entangle ball in tree, when climbing (7)
{EMBROIL} – ORB (ball) inside LIME (tree) all reversed (when climbing – another of those down-clue only constructs) give a synonym for entangle

7d Toff, framing lines, going back (5)
{BYRON} – NOB (toff) around RY (railway / lines) then all reversed (going back) to give a titled (toff) poet (framing lines) – a distinct &lit flavour, but I feel I have missed the “going back” allusion – can you help?

8d Wine ingredient explosive, needing check over day (8)
{GRENACHE} – take GRENADE (explosive) and substitute (needing) CH(eck) for D(ay)  to give a type of black grape (wine ingredient)

12d Ancient Donegal’s missing Norse ruins (3-3)
{AGEOLD} – an anagram (ruins) of DO(n)EGAL (missing N / Norse – yes, you’ve got it, it’s in Chambers!) gives a word meaning ancient

14d Runaway leader in relay, Suzanne regularly enters races (6)
{TRUANT} – R(leader in Relay) then sUzAnNe (regularly – even letters) all inside (enters) TT (Tourist Trophy / races) gives a runaway – you are meant to think that Runaway leader gives an “R”, but not so

16d Dean perhaps arranged rite to embrace Church music (3-6)
{ICE-SKATER} – an anagram (arranged) of RITE around (to embrace) CE (Church of England) and SKA (music) to give Jane Torvill’s partner (Dean perhaps)

17d Beware! It’s no good infiltrating London area to look for scraps (8)
{SCAVENGE} – CAVE {beware, Latin) and NG (no good) inside SE (South East / London area) to give a word meaning to look for scraps

19d Quite elevated golf commentator contracted to occupy perimeter of twelfth (7)
{TALLISH} – (Peter) ALLIS (golf commentator, contracted) inside (to occupy) TH (perimeter of TwelftH) gives a word meaning quite elevated

20d Bathroom accessory’s available in gold, mum, if really necessary (2,1,4)
{AT A PUSH} -TAP (Bathroom accessory) inside AU (chemical symbol for gold) then SH (mum / quiet) giving an expression that means if really necessary

21d Animated sources of film revealed by independent broadcaster (6)
{FRISKY} – F(ilm) and R(evealed) (sources of / first letters of) then I(ndependent) and SKY (broadcaster) give a synonym for animated

23d Cosmetic surgeon operated, discarding outer layer (5)
{ROUGE} – an anagram (operated) of (s)URGEO(n) (surgeon, discarding outer layer) gives a cosmetic

25d Rake in bit of cereal over rear of garden (4)
{EARN} – EAR (bit of cereal) then (over – down-clue only!) N (rear of gardeN) to give a word meaning to acquire money (rake in)

I enjoyed this crossword, which was not as hard os this setter’s previous puzzle – Toughie No 104.  What did you think?

To find previous puzzles for a  day of the week for the daily cryptics, or setter for the Toughies, select the appropriate Category from the drop-down box in the sidebar.

3 comments on “Toughie No 114

  1. As he is no longer with us any reference to Byron (7d) would be “going back” in time?????
    Apologies if this has already been answered.

  2. Just returned 5 days in Spain where they charged us 3 euros for a telegraph – Hotlips favourite clue in Toughie 114 was 24 across – use of ACKER for money!! (obviously its the cockney in him!!

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