Toughie 653

Toughie No 653 by Elkamere

Hints and tips by Bufo

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

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

I was pleased to get an Elkamere today and it turned out to be a proper Toughie which was most enjoyable and most challenging. I filled the left-hand side in without too much difficulty but it took me a long time to get a decent toehold in the right-hand side.

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.

Across

1a    Author finds ladies desirable (10)
{GALSWORTHY} The surname of the author best known for The Forsyte Saga is made up of “ladies” + “desirable”

6a    Strip club (4)
{BAND} 2 meanings: a strip / club (group of people)

10a    Odd wheels on extremely durable object (5)
{DEMUR} A reversal (wheels) of “odd” goes after (on) DE (first and last letters of DurablE) to give “to object”

11a    Rumour about German family purity? (9)
{GODLINESS} An informal short form of a word meaning “rumour” goes round D (German) + family to give a quality (purity?) which cleanliness is next to

12a    Primarily it was one job in many as WWII operation (3,4)
{IWO JIMA} The first letters (primarily) of It Was One Job In Many As give an island in the Pacific which was the scene of a WW!! battle (Feb-Mar 1945)

13a    Gain real credit instead of time (7)
{ACCRUAL} A gain is obtained by taking a 6-letter word meaning “real” and replacing T (time) with CR (credit)

14a    Big farming transport using road tax (12)
{AGROINDUSTRY} “Big farming” is an anagram (transport) of USING ROAD + a word meaning “to tax”

18a    System with, at least, free treatment (7,5)
{WELFARE STATE} W (with) + an anagram (treatment) of AT LEAST FREE to give the provider of free treatment and other social services

21a    Old victory sign for egg producers? (7)
{OVARIES} O (old) + V (victory) + a sign of the zodiac gives “egg producers”

23a    Ego’s my business — I’m a dramatist (7)
{IONESCO} The surname of a Romanian/French dramatist, a leading exponent of the theatre of the absurd, is made up of I (ego) + “my” + the usual abbreviation denoting “business”

24a    Showing repeats? It’s time ITV sacked Head of Entertainment (9)
{ITERATIVE} “Showing repeats?” is derived from IT + a long time + an anagram (sacked) of ITV + E (first letter of entertainment)

25a    Panditji’s revolting female sport (5)
{NEHRU} An Indian statesman popularly referred to as Panditji (scholar) is a reversal (revolting) of a female + a sport which has been in the news for the past month or so

26a    Acquired hard sort of rock (4)
{GOTH} “Acquired” + H (hard) = a type of rock music enjoyed by people in black clothes and white make-up

27a    22 21? (3,3,4)
{ALL THE SAME} This answer is synonymous with the answer to 22 down. If you take the answer to 21 across and split it (1,6) you get a cryptic representation of this answer

Down

1d    Somewhat aged — dithering, see? (6)
{GEDDIT} The answer is hidden in aGED DIThering. Do you see?

2d    Being clumsy, beheaded fox (6)
{LUMMOX} An informal word for a stupid, clumsy person id obtained by removing the first letter from a word meaning “to fox”

3d    Ready for business on A1? (7,7)
{WORKING CAPITAL} “Ready” here means “ready money” and the answer is money needed by a business to finance its day-to-day operations. It is made up of “on” + A1

4d    Doctor’s capacity to hide academic performance (9)
{RIGMAROLE} “To doctor” + “capacity” goes round MA (academic) to give a performance (as in “What a performance!”)

5d    Photography dramatically catches constellation (5)
{HYDRA} A constellation is hidden in photograpHY DRAmatically

7d    Notice balance is OK (8)
{ADEQUATE} A notice (the usual 2-letters) + “to balance” = OK

8d    Presents game console — is fun within? (8)
{DISPLAYS} Presents (as a verb) = 2 letters denoting a hand held gaming device made by Nintendo going round IS + fun

9d    Incandescent with rage? That hides most of our shame (14)
{DISCOUNTENANCE} An anagram (with rage) of INCANDESCENT goes round OU (most of OUr) to give “shame”

15d    Eats noodle to keep slim, even if empty (9)
{NUTRIMENT} Eats (food) = a noodle (fool) round “slim” + EN (first and last letters of even)

16d    Diving from rock around — almost over — pool (8)
{SWOOPING} “Diving” is formed from “to rock” round OOP (a reversal of pool without its last letter)

17d    Most dark bitter’s bottled to make water (8)
{BLEAKEST} “Most dark” = the finest bitter (beer) round “to make water”

19d    Complicated maths article hardly inspiring reason! (6)
{ASTHMA} An anagram (complicated) of MATHS + A (article) gives a condition that makes breathing (inspiring) difficult

20d    Small area of Zambia, one without usual borders (6)
{ZONULE} A small area = Z (IVR for Zambia) + ONE round UL (first and last letters of usual)

22d    Photograph leisure centre’s cash register (5)
{STILL} A photograph = S (middle letter of leisure) + a cash register

I hope that I’ve interpreted all the clues correctly. A fine puzzle that’s verging on 5 stars in both categories.