Toughie 183

Toughie No 183 by Firefly

Another fine puzzle

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

To be honest, this was light relief after yesterday’s marathon.  You need to get 5 down early on otherwise a large section of the puzzle will be made more difficult than necessary.

Across

1a One laying on endless publicity for a 5dn (6)
{HYPHEN} – put HEN (one laying) after HYP(E) (endless publicity) for the first punctuation mark of the day

5a Train with ‘a couple of swells’? (4-4)
{PUFF-PUFF} – a double definition for a children’s train

9a A long run I managed round island is not the first (10)
{UNORIGINAL} – managed indicates than an anagram of A LONG RUN I should be placed around I(sland) for something that is not the first

10a Hi! ‘Food’, did you say? (4)
{CIAO} – a double definition of a greeting that sounds like chow (food)

11a One getting away in patched-up spacesuit, taking third place in shuttle (8)
{ESCAPIST} – lovely surface reading for this anagram (patched-up) of SPACES(U)IT without the U (taking third place in shUttle

12a Feed’s about right for a 5dn (6)
{STROKE} – to STOKE (feed) is around R(ight) for another punctuation mark

13a Stumped by postscript? Please pay attention! (4)
{PSST} – ST(umped – cricket again!) and PS (PostScript)

15a Spray of roses I’m struggling with at son’s passing-out (8)
{ATOMISER} – a spray from an anagram of ROSES I’M and AT without an S (Son’s passing-out)

18a Give back piece from Magritte: ‘Roman Cupids’ (8)
{AMORETTI} – reversed (give back) and hidden inside (piece from) MagrITTE: ‘ROMAn are some cupids

19a Dead wood for a 5dn (4)
{DASH} – D(ead) and ASH – if you haven’t got the theme by now then you are in trouble!

21a Arranger uses French horn in mid-section of group’s ‘Erasmus’ (6)
{SCORER} – nothing to do with cricket this time! – this arranger is derived by putting COR (French horn) inside SER (mid-section of group’S ‘ERasmus’

23a On 7th of March, for example, lots losing head — there’s nothing like it! (8)
{NONESUCH} – a charade of NONES (the ninth day before the ides of a month, which for March is the 7th) and (M)UCH (lots without the M (losing head)

25a Bullet hit swallow (4)
{SLUG} – a double triple definition, where it is swallow as in gulp

26a Landladies’ meeting-places? (10)
{BOARDROOMS} – a part cryptic double definition, landladies providing board and rooms

27a Predictable tap-dance? (4-4)
{KNEE-JERK} – another part cryptic double definition

28a Seamen fashioning pipe-cleaners? (6)
{ENEMAS} – did this anagram of SEAMEN make you wince?

Down

2d One of New England’s earliest of seagoing tugs (5)
{YANKS} – a double definition of tugs on the one hand and Yankees on the other

3d Rex and Thea free to plan a heavenly time (9)
{HEREAFTER} – an anagram of R(ex) and THEA FREE

4d Spirit lacking around Government for poll? (6)
{NOGGIN}  – just put NO GIN (spirit lacking) around G(overnment) to get another word for the head (poll)

5d Muck up Tarantino’s production, making literary point, e.g.? (11,4)
{PUNCTUATION MARK} – the key to this crossword is an anagram of MUCK UP TARANTINO – I thought at first that “muck up” was an anagram indicator!

6d Packed dishes up for a 5dn (4,4)
{FULL STOP} – FULL (packed) and POTS (dishes) reversed (up)

7d Go over and over early leader (5)
{PACER} – to go over is to RECAP, reverse this and you get an early leader in a race (although they are usually called pacemakers)

8d Fellow’s point about status showing sincerity (9)
{FRANKNESS} – F(ellow) and NESS (point) around RANK (status) giving a word meaning showing sincerity

14d Console I’m performing on for a 5dn (9)
{SEMICOLON} – this one’s an anagram of CONSOLE I’M

16d In the underworld, to posture is to create aversion (9)
{INDISPOSE} – a nice charade of IN DIS (the underworld) and POSE (to posture) gives a synonym for to create aversion

17d Uprising in island corrupts and can be put down (8)
{STORABLE} – ELBA (island) and ROTS (corrupts) all reversed (uprising, for a down clue) gives something, like wine, that can be put down a word meaning can be put down, as in a wine than can be put down

20d Diogenes is going shaky and tense (2,4)
{ON EDGE} – here the anagram indicator is shaky, so you need to apply that to D(I)OGENE(S) without the IS (is going) to get a synonym for tense

22d Wayward arrow gouges unevenly (5)
{ROGUE} – a word meaning wayward comes from the even letters of aRrOw GoUgEs – unless I’m wrong, this is the second error in a clue this week, it is possible you could say that unevenly means remove the odd letters but I just can’t see it that way

24d Maiden’s in stupor with 5dn (5)
{COMMA} – a bit easy this one, as we are running out of punctuation marks! – M(aiden) inside COMA

I fine end to the week from another of my favourite setters.  Comments are, as ever, welcome