Toughie 275

Toughie No 275 by Giovanni

On Yer Bike!

(or If you think you have 26ac, you probably haven’t!)

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

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

A solid start to the last week of Toughies for 2009 with Giovanni giving us his usual elegant style to test us. A nice mixture of the teasingly simple through to one clue whose answer I was almost convinced that Clued Up had got wrong until I used TEA and found an alternative that I had not heard of before. Indeed, Had I not had Clued Up today, I would have gone away thinking that I had the right answer. More of that in a while.

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Across

1a    Authoritative realist upset by stargazers (11)
{MAGISTERIAL} Biblical stargazers who carried gifts around this time of the year should be placed before an anagram (upset) of realists to give an adjective meaning “authoritative”.

7a    Support one making a dash across Sweden (7)
{BOLSTER} One who makes a dash is someone who bolts (not the speedy Mr Bolt, as you would be left with an “er” to sort out) with an S (for Sweden) inside. This leads you to a word meaning back up, support.

8a    Fighter — mostly a chum with endless love (7)
{MATADOR} The bullfighter can be found by taking most of a word meaning “chum” (MAT[E]) and adding it to most of a word meaning “love” (ADOR[E])

10a    Discharges bad emotions dancing in cabarets (8)
{ABREACTS} An anagram (shown by dancing in) of CABARETS produces a medical term meaning to release repressed emotions.

11a    Information provided by one American clever clogs (6)
{GENIUS} A word-sum comprising “Information” GEN + “one” I + “American” U S = a clever clogs!

13a    Child with no yen to become captain (4)
{KIDD} This took me a while longer than it should have done. A word meaning a child: KIDDY (I am used to seeing KIDDIE). Take off the Y (yen) and you are left with the famous fictional pirate.

14a    Artist who has drawn a holy loony (4,6)
{ANDY WARHOL} An anagram (indicated by “LOONY”) of DRAWN A HOLY leads you to an artist who made soup cans famous.

16a    The man taking time in public work? It’s too much (4-3-3)
{OVER-THE-TOP) “The man taking time” = HE + T inside OVERT OP (Public work). This leads to a phrase meaning too much.

18a    Warlike god has some good intentions (4)
{ODIN} A hidden answer. Concealed in the phrase “good intentions” is a Norse God.

21a    Circulated edition faded away (6)
{EDDIED} A word sum ED (edition) + DIED (faded away) = a word meaning circulated, spun.

22a    Rushed into hospital with fever, delivering tirade (8)
{HARANGUE} “Rushed” (RAN) into H (hospital) AGUE (fever} gives a word meaning hurl invective, etc.

24a    The devil ending in pit in rage (7)
{TEMPTER} T (the ending in pit) inside TEMPER (rage) gives a word associated with Old Nick.

25a    At home leave chair — almost time for coffee? (7)
{INSTANT} IN (at home) + STAN(D) [leave chair – almost] + T [time] = a type of coffee.

26a    Thermodynamic sequence in polluting vehicle rather than green one (6,5)
{CARNOT CYCLE} So you put Carbon Cycle as well? I could see the CAR (polluting vehicle) and the CYCLE (green one) but the bit in the [near] middle. Hmmmm…. I had never heard of the correct solution, but once you know it, and look at the clue again, it stands out.

Down

1d    Woman not an extreme left-winger? (7)
{MILDRED} The question mark tells us that we need to think outside the box a little here. If someone was an extreme left winger, they would be VERY RED. If they are not so extreme they may be said to be a…… It’s also my sister’s middle name, but anyone who mentions it gets the look of death from her. Don’t tell her I told you!

2d    See 7d for this answer

3d    Secret ruin unexpectedly found — one must have a good look (10)
{SCRUTINEER} An anagram (unexpectedly found) of SECRET RUIN reveals someone whose job is to be precise and check things.

4d    Trees forming line in German town (4)
{ELMS} In Crosswordland, a German town usually has only one or two meanings EMS is one of them, and it’s the one that’s needed here. Insert an L (for line) and you get a word for some trees.

5d    Unstable hat being made secure (2,3,3)
{IN THE BAG} An anagram (indicated by unstable) of HAT BEING gives a phrase meaning secure, taken for granted, accepted.

6d    Short woman and attractive girl like boys who show off (7)
{LADDISH} Short woman = LAD(Y) + DISH (attractive woman – I didn’t like it a couple of weeks ago and still don’t today) = a word of the 21^st century meaning “showing off like the boys”, with bravado, etc.

7d & 2d     ‘Exceptionally great cake’ — boastful patisserie may offer it (5,6,6)
{BLACK FOREST GATEAU} An anagram (exceptional) of GREAT CAKE BOASTFUL reveals the sumptuous dessert from the south of Germany.

9d    Spectacular spender lent pots (11)
{RESPLENDENT} An anagram (indicated by “pots”) of SPENDER LENT lads fairly obviously to a word meaning spectacular.

12d    One who loves going to a match? (10)
{PYROMANIAC} The nice thing about Giovanni is that you know cryptic definitions are used sparingly, but are worth the admission money. This one does not relate to a football match, but someone for whom a match would help his extreme feelings!

15d    A v-very old coin? One can guarantee authenticity (8)
{ATTESTER} A very old coin indeed. A TESTER or TESTON is a 16^th century silver French coin. As you can see in the clue, Giovanni has indicated stuttering with the “v-very”, so you need to replicate that in the clue. So A TESTER should be A T-TESTER!

17d    Disease and death coming with Eastern rodents mostly (7)
{ENDEMIC} A word-sum. Death = END + E Eastern + MIC[E] (Rodents, mostly)

19d    Plant supposedly poisonous — magistrate has prohibition introduced (7)
{DOGSBANE} one of the most famous magistrates in the word, and found in Venice, is the DOGE and inside you need to add a word meaning “prohibition” inside. This leads you to one of those rural plants that may or may not be POISONOUS, but I don’t think you should try and find out whether.

20d    Analyse carbon a long way out in space (6)
{PARSEC} To analyse a clue (like I’m doing now) is to PARSE and add to this C for Carbon and you’ll get a distance associated with space

23d    Ship from past traversing river (4)
{ARGO) From the past (AGO) with R inside gives you the boat associatd with Jason, the Golden Fleece, and TV films at this time of the year.

Hope you managed to get through today’s Toughie! Thanks to Giovanni for a terrific challenge. See you tomorrow!