Toughie No 797 by Elkamere
Hints and tips by Bufo
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
A fairly gentle Elkamere puzzle today which provided a steady solve with no hold-ups.
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Across
1a Married — be as him changing wife (8)
{MEMSAHIB} M (married) + an anagram (changing) of BE AS HIM = a married European woman in colonial India
6a Two secretaries have clearly vacated Vatican office (6)
{PAPACY} An abbreviation for someone performing secretarial work appears twice. Adding CY (first and last letters of ClearlY) gives the office of the Pope
9a Criminal charge after good father shot in Italy? (6)
{GRAPPA} A criminal charge follows G (good). Adding ‘father’ then gives an Italian spirit made from the residue of a winepress. (A shot is a small quantity of spirits)
10a Demand nothing but in an extravagant way (8)
{WANTONLY} ‘To demand’ + ‘nothing but’ = ‘in an extravagant way’
11a In charge (5,3)
{ENTRY FEE} A cryptic definition for the charge you have to pay to go in somewhere
12a Stand, fall, and prepare to return (6)
{TRIPOD} A stand, e.g. for a camera. = ‘to fall’ + a reversal of ‘to prepare’
13a Without control, fell after rising (12)
{UNRESTRAINED} ‘Without control’ = fell (as precipitation) following rising (discontent verging on insurrection)
16a Uncovered area I couldn’t nosy around (6,6)
{NUDIST COLONY} Somewhere you might be uncovered (naked) is an anagram (around) of I COULDN’T NOSY
19a Withdraw from work market (3,3)
{OPT OUT} ‘To withdraw’ = the usual abbreviation denoting ‘work’ + ‘to market (i.e. solicit for custom)’
21a Trader planned to fit castle with central heating (8)
{MERCHANT} A trader = ‘planned’ round an abbreviation for a castle in chess and CH (central heating)
23a Sea creatures writhing on seamen (8)
{ANEMONES} Sea creatures are an anagram (writhing) of ON SEAMEN
24a Song without so much feeling (6)
{NUMBER} 2 meanings: song/without so much feeling
25a Large work, strangely lacking in heart (6)
{GOODLY} Large = ‘to work (function)’ + ‘strangely’ with the middle letter removed
26a Bad language of sport embodied by chant (8)
{SWEARING} Bad language = ‘to sport’ inside ‘to chant’
Down
2d Go wrong with job (6)
{ERRAND} ‘To go wrong’ + ‘with’ = a job (commission usually involving a short journey)
3d Great meal, only 1p (5)
{SUPER} ‘Great’ = a meal from which one of the two letter Ps has been removed
4d Without thinking, race around dead trees (4,5)
{HEAD FIRST} ‘Without thinking’ = a qualifying race round D (dead) and trees (conifers)
5d Bending pins, say, during game (3,4)
{BOW LEGS} Bending pins (on a person) = EG (say) inside a game
6d Wine that’s very good (I’m joking!) (5)
{PINOT} a wine = ‘very good’ + a word expressing negation
7d Get along or get upset through concern for closeness (9)
{PROXIMITY} ‘To get along’ and OR are reversed and put inside ‘concern’ to give ‘closeness’
8d Battle demands slaughter over retreat (8)
{CULLODEN} A battle of 1746 = slaughter + O (over) + a retreat
13d Immature about one being dressed for duty (9)
{UNIFORMED} ‘Immature’ goes round I (one) to give ‘dressed for duty’
14d River eroding rocks around head of another river (3,6)
{RIO GRANDE} R (river) + an anagram (rocks) of ERODING goes round A (first letter of Another) to give a North American river
15d Meet tramp on horse (4,4)
{BUMP INTO} ‘To happen to meet’ = a tramp (3) + a piebald horse (5)
17d Big man associated with Bible law extracts (7)
{OSMOSES} An abbreviation denoting ‘very big’ + the Old Testament character who gave the Israelites divinely revealed laws = ‘extracts’. I thought originally that osmoses is the plural form of osmosis but then realised that it is derived from the verb ‘to osmose’
18d Young doctor in the wrong, oddly (6)
{INTERN} A young doctor = IN + the odd letters in ThE wRoNg
20d Brown edges for somebody’s golden buttons (5)
{TANSY} ‘Brown’ + the first and last letters of SomebodY = a plant with yellow flowers also known as golden buttons
22d Award collected by the female poet (5)
{HOMER} A strictly limited British award goes inside a female to give an ancient Greek poet
Very pleasant and not too taxing.
Lovely fluffy rather than hobnailed toughie – I did enjoy myself thank you Elkamere. My only real holdup was once again my total inability to get the N and the M in the right order in 23a.
Thans to Bufo too.
Many thanks to Elkamere for a thoroughly enjoyable crossword and to bufo for the review.
Thanks to Elkamere for the puzzle which I enjoyed, and to Bufo for the review. My last one in was 25a, which I stared at blankly for a while.
Very entertaining puzzle today 25a also last to go in for me, favourites were 5d 6d 11a and 15d thanks to Elkamere and to Bufo for the comments.
Same here, 25a has just gone in and when the penny dropped, it was heard for miles. It took a 25a amount of thought. 5d and 11a made me smile. Thanks to Elkamere for a great mental workout and Bufo for your help.
Just stopped raining here in Cumbria and the fells are back in view.
Whoop whoop it wasn’t just me on 25a then, like The Buffer 5d and 11a were my smiles on this. Thanks to Bufo and Elkamere
I must admit that 25a was my last in as well. I got waylaid trying to end it in SY (strangely lacking in heart)
Me too!
Quality crossword from Elkemere today. Thanks to him and to Bufo for the review.
Hope you had a good birthday and look forward to seeing you soon at a S&B event soon, Regards from Thabo Cuthbert and Cynthia