Toughie 685

Toughie No 685 by Micawber

Let’s all play Charades!

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

Last Friday Tilsit gifted me a Notabilis and now Bufo has taken a day off and left me a superb Micawber puzzle to review!

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Across

1a    Part of personality being brittle, unfinished, is psychological problem (8,6)
{IDENTITY CRISIS} – a charade of part of one’s personality (2), a being or existence, an adjective meaning brittle without its final letter (unfinished) and IS from the clue gives a psychological problem [Thanks to Pommers for pointing out the full wordplay and to Micawber for confirming it.]

10a    Old Greek having drink before times with queen (9)
{ALEXANDER} – this old Greek warrior comes from a charade of an alcoholic drink, X (times / multiply) another preposition meaning “with” and Elizabeth Regina

11a    Retreats from refusal of consent more than once (5)
{NOOKS} – split these retreats as (2,3) and the result is a refusal and more than one consent

12a    Expensive porcelain on toilet appearing over the top (7)
{LOOMING} – put this expensive Chinese porcelain after a slang word for a toilet to get a verb meaning appearing over the top

13a    EU body coming in to make deal, cutting capital for indebted country (6)
{GREECE} – put the European Community inside a verb meaning to make a deal without its initial letter (cutting capital) to get this heavily indebted country

15a    Facebook initially lacking control of threads (4)
{FLAX} – a charade of the initial letter of Facebook with a word meaning lacking control gives these threads that are made into linen

17a    Enclosure with vermin is crossing the line (10)
{ENCROACHES} – in this charade ENC(losure) is followed by some vermin to get a verb meaning is crossing the line or oversteps

19a    “‘as Polly gone?” Listening, cat flexed with langour (10)
{OCTANGULAR} – this adjective meaning like (as) an eight-sided figure that sounds like (listening) “Polly gone” is an anagram (flexed) of CAT with LANGOUR

20a    Shock upset of Brazil’s? (4)
{STUN} – this verb meaning to shock is a reversal (upset – in an across clue?) of some Brazils (or Hazels!)

22a    Three’s a crowd? Having lost thread, get third party involved (6)
{ESCROW} – take THREAD away from (THRE)E’S (A) CROW(D) to get a word meaning to put a deed into the hands of a third party

23a    “Rescue me,” I shout, but ends of some words get lost or twisted (7)
(Newspaper version) ”Rescue me,” I shout, ends of words getting lost – affected by winds? (7) [Thanks to those who pointed this out]
{HELICAL} – start with a phrase that could be taken as “Rescue me,” I shout (4,1,4) and drop the final letters of the four-letter words (ends of some words get lost) and the result is an adjective meaning twisted or screw-shaped

26a    Bring out good in a woman who’s known only one man (5)
{EVOKE} – this verb meaning to bring out is created by putting a short word meaning good or correct inside a woman who only had one man in the whole of the world

27a    If pushed, they may show extra effort in delivery solutions? (9)
{ENVELOPES} – these may be pushed in a phrase meaning to try to achieve more than seems possible (show extra effort) – and they are used to deliver postal items

28a    Perhaps Santa’s brother gets clue at last, which is a bit like this? (8,6)
{RELATIVE CLAUSE} – take what could be Santa’s brother (or any other member of his family) and add the final letter of cluE to get a grammatical construct in which qualifies a noun

Down

2d    Prompted by couple singing, orchestra opens (3,2)
{DUE TO} – this prepositional phrase meaning prompted by or because of is a charade of a couple who are singing together and the initial letter of (opens) Orchestra

3d    Vitamin A and C dropped into eyes, they said in news (6)
{NIACIN} – this vitamin is actually vitamin B! – put A and C inside two letters that together sound like (they said) “eyes” and then put the whole lot inside N(ew) and N(ew) (news)

4d    Not foreign sounding, i.e. translated (10)
{INDIGENOUS} – an adjective meaning not foreign is an anagram (translated) of SOUNDING I.E.

5d    Tent honestly erected without using line (4)
{YURT} – this light conical tent of skins supported by posts, used by nomads in Siberia and Mongolia, is created by reversing an adverb meaning and dropping the L(ine)

6d    Moving around a grind? Or use this to avoid jams? (4,4)
{RING ROAD} – an anagram (moving around) of A GRIND OR gives a route that might avoid jams in the town centre

7d    Rabbit’s pelt on bird (9)
{STONECHAT} – a bit of Yodaspeak has crept in here! – a word meaning to rabbit is preceded by a verb meaning to pelt to get a small European songbird

8d    Supply empty, stocks shrink — get technical expert (7,7)
{SYSTEMS ANALYST} – a charade of S(uppl)Y without the internal letters (empty), stocks or trunks and a headshrinker gives this technical expert

9d    Head covering I’m afraid hides inferior fighting condition (11,3)
{CAULIFLOWER EAR} – start with a covering for the head, then add a phrase meaning I’m afraid (1,4) around (hides) an adjective meaning inferior to get a medical condition caused by boxing

14d    Crazed hacker with a vow to spread chaos (5,5)
{WREAK HAVOC} – an anagram (crazed) of HACKER with A VOW gives a phrase meaning to spread chaos

16d    Perhaps Chelsea star changing clubs over violent fan halfway through (3,6)
{ART SCHOOL} – the Chelsea College is an example of this – its built up from an anagram (changing) of star, C(lubs) and the first half of a violent fan

18d    Slagging off Portsmouth? (8)
{INSOLENT} – an adjective meaning slagging, when split as (2,6), describes where you are if you are off Portsmouth

21d    Airline stripped of its nationality causing speechlessness (6)
{ALALIA} – start with an Italian airline then drop IT (Italian / its nationality) and the result is a loss of speech

24d    Manages field in a top-down way (5)
{COPES} – a verb meaning manages or gets by is created by moving the initial (top) letter of a word meaning field or range to the end

25d    Mounting overheads regularly include fuel (4)
{DERV} – the even letters of a word in the clue when reversed (mounting in a down clue) give this fuel

Excellent stuff!