Toughie 436

Toughie No 436 by Giovanni

A Game of Two Halves

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

I breezed through the bottom half of this but had more trouble in the top half. It has a nice variety of clues (with only three anagrams, hurrah!) and (for me) two new words. I enjoyed solving it, and, as always, I’d like to hear your views.
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Across Clues

1a  Extravagant male in tone of voice and singular attire (12)
{ACCOUTREMENT} – an item of dress (singular because this word is more often seen in the plural) is formed by putting an adjective, from French, meaning extravagant or over the top and the abbreviation for male inside a tone of voice.

9a  Periods said to bring such confusion (4)
{DAZE} – this is not “maze” (Mays), which was my first attempt, but a verb meaning to confuse which sounds like (said) other periods of time..

10a  Something to remove old vehicle in field? (9)
{EXTRACTOR} – the definition is something that removes (what it removes may range from teeth to unwanted smells). It’s a charade of a prefix meaning old and a vehicle which is often, but not always, to be found in a field.

12a  Flashy mineral turning brown inside (6)
{ORNATE} – an adjective meaning decorated elaborately or flashy is a naturally-occurring mineral aggregate with a light brown colour reversed (turning) inside.

13a  Returning west, one talks about female Hindu ascetic (8)
{SANNYASI} – this is a Hindu ascetic who lives by begging. We want I (one) and a synonym for speaks or talks which are all reversed (returning west, in an across clue). After that we have to insert a girl’s name (female) – think of the ex-MP and current dance candidate.

15a  Amazed to find this person housed in University outbuilding (10)
{ASTONISHED} – the definition is amazed. Put I (this person) between an educational establishment in the Midlands which has had university status since 1966 and an outbuilding.

16a  Money put down making poet penniless once (4)
{ANTE} – this is money put down, in a poker school, say. Remove the letter used for pre-decimalisation pence from the name of the most famous Italian poet. The once indicates that it is not the current abbreviation for pence that we have to drop.

18a  Smudge? First thing to avoid, getting kiss (4)
{PECK} – start with a small bit of dirt (smudge) and drop its initial S (first thing to avoid) to be left with a kiss, possibly on the cheek.

20a  Decides to prevent dangerous devices being laid? (10)
{DETERMINES} – a verb meaning decides could also mean, if split as (5,5), prevent dangerous devices being laid.

23a  Disregard verbal output of scoffing gent (5,3)
{WRITE OFF} – a phrasal verb meaning to disregard sounds like (verbal output) wry toff (scoffing gent).

24a  Some bod I’m with is not the brightest (6)
{DIMWIT} – hidden (some) in the clue is a stupid person.

26a  Raider hurried with little hesitation, having collected loot (9)
{RANSACKER} – this raider or pillager is constructed from a verb meaning hurried and an interjection expressing hesitation with a verb meaning to loot inside (having collected).

27a  Die having lost 10p in the country (4)
{EIRE} – start with a verb meaning to breath one’s last (die) and remove the Roman numeral for ten and P to leave the one-time official name of a European country.

28a  New editor in seat put into a state of perplexity (12)
{DISORIENTATE} – an anagram (new) of EDITOR IN SEAT produces a verb meaning to put into a state of perplexity.

Down Clues

2d  Cold — way of dealing with it amounts to trickery (8)
{CHEATING} – start with the abbreviation for cold and add a method of combating it.

3d  Welshman is old? Quite the opposite on reflection (4)
{OWEN} – the abbreviation for old is followed by the opposite of old reversed (on reflection) to form a Welsh forename.

4d  Move unsteadily around vehicle in a sort of line (10)
{TETRAMETER} – a verb meaning to move unsteadily (on high heels, perhaps) goes round a public service vehicle to make a line of poetry with four feet or measures. Here’s an example from a well-known Robert Frost poem, where each line consists of four measures, with each measure being an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable:

the WOODS are LOVEly, DARK and DEEP.
but I have PROMisES to KEEP,
and MILES to GO beFORE i SLEEP,
and MILES to GO beFORE i SLEEP.

5d  Girl in denial exceptionally upset (6)
{ELAINE} – hidden in the clue and reversed (upset, in a down clue) is a girl’s name.

6d  Maybe get on to express enthusiasm (7)
{ENTRAIN} – double definition – a verb meaning to board (an express, maybe) and a noun, from French, meaning enthusiasm.

7d  Abandon principles as generous person in a street looking dodgy (12)
{TERGIVERSATE} – put someone who is generous by nature inside an anagram (looking dodgy) of A STREET to make a verb meaning to desert or change sides (abandon principles).

8d  Understand about girl of 13 being a greedy sort (6)
{GANNET} – an informal verb to understand goes round the girl from 13a to get a seabird which eats fish whole and which has given its name to a greedy person.

11d  Poor lads were surprisingly energised by day (5-7)
{SOLAR-POWERED} – an anagram (surprisingly) of POOR LADS WERE.

14d  Scottish location? It’s said I adore a particular aspect of the scenery (4,2,4)
{ISLE OF SKYE} – this Scottish location sounds like (it’s said) “I love sky”. Very neat!

17d  I am in part of hospital — injection of morphine’s first thing expected (8)
{IMMINENT} – the definition is expected. String together the contracted form of I am, IN and the usual hospital department, then inject the first letter (first thing) of Morphine.

19d  Coins including pounds one obtained from customers (7)
{CLIENTS} – put the abbreviation for libra (pounds) and I (one) inside foreign coins.

21d  American city offering fresh solution to mankind’s potential destruction? (6)
{NEWARK} – a city in New Jersey, with a rather unfortunate anagram, could, if split as (3,3), be the answer to a future natural disaster.

22d  Straighten out couple again? (6)
{REPAIR} – double definition, the second meaning to bring together as a couple once more.

25d  Good sense shown when king’s brought in decree (4)
{WRIT} – start with a word for good sense or natural intelligence and insert one of the abbreviations for king to make a decree or official order.

The clues I liked included 23a, 27a, 2d, 4d and 21d, but my favourite was 14d. Let us have your opinion in a comment!