Toughie 855

Toughie No 855 by Dada

Battle of Words

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

Those who follow his puzzles in the Guardian would probably regard this as Paul Lite – easier to solve but still laced with his wicked humour.

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Across

1a    Tavern west of city serving game with added spice? (5,5)
{LOCAL DERBY} – a tavern or pub to the left (west) of a city gives a game like the Spurs against the Gooners

6a    Teacher, one backing pupil’s neighbour? (4)
{IRIS} – the title often used for a male teacher and I (one) all reversed (backing)

9a    Film about river, island and a country (7)
{CROATIA} – a film or covering around R(iver) and followed by I(sland) and the A from the clue

10a    Dog, this mongrel, biting hard — seizures essentially following (4-3)
{SHIH-TZU} – this spelling of the dog in question is given as (4,3) in Chambers and (4-3) in the ODE – an anagram (mongrel) of THIS around (biting) H(ard) and followed by the inner letters (essentially) of seiZUres

12a    Report of chicken (shock!) getting award (8,5)
{PULITZER PRIZE} – sounds like a chicken (6) followed by a shock (8) – a construct used in a Quick crossword pun eighteen months ago and in Gervase’s recent NTSPP puzzle!

14a    Near death, bone found in heap (8)
{MORIBUND} – a three-letter bone inside a heap

15a    Mysterious vessel entering region, finally invisible (6)
{ARCANE} – a vessel or container inside a region without its final letter (invisible)

17a    Something precious stuffing duck, herb (6)
{LOVAGE} – the chemical symbol for a precious metal inside a word for a score of zero

19a    American’s cast big scene for US state (8)
{COLORADO} – the American spelling of a cast or tinge followed by a 3-letter word for a big scene

21a    Poem: it made man out to be a cross-dresser (9,4)
{PANTOMIME DAME} – an anagram (out) of POEM IT MADE MAN gives a cross-dresser like Widow Twankey

24a    Popular source of personal information about posh young actress (7)
{INGÉNUE} – a two-letter word meaning popular followed by an heriditary source of personal information around the single-letter abbreviation for posh

25a    Thick as a couple of squares? (7)
{ASININE} – AS followed by the squares of one and three

26a    Pudding — one so easy? (4)
{TART} – a cryptic definition of an easy or loose woman

27a    Daring last manoeuvres in battle scene (10)
{STALINGRAD} – an anagram (manoeuvres) of DARING LAST

Down

1d    Hair grip (4)
{LOCK} – a double definition

2d    Axe caught rabbit? (7)
{CHOPPER} – C(aught} followed by a colloquial word for a rabbit

3d    Battle scene with bugle of oxymoronic dimensions? (6,7)
{LITTLE BIGHORN} – split the American battle scene as (6,3,4) and it looks like an oxymoronic description of a bugle – legend has it that the only survivor of the 7^th Cavalry at this battle was a horse named Comanche

4d    Rigid old stage performance (8)
{EXACTING} – a charade of a prefix meaning old and a performance on stage

5d    Essence maintaining temperature, pour over oil (5)
{BASTE} – an essence or core around T(emperature) gives a cookery term meaning to drizzle oil over meat to keep it moist when roasting

7d    Drink container, lid off, inverted (7)
{RETSINA} – drop the initial C from a container and then reverse it (inverted)

8d    Instrument one loved to attack (7-3)
{SQUEEZE-BOX} – one’s current female partner followed by a verb meaning to attack of fight

11d    Promise to tour country, taking others off? (13)
{IMPERSONATION} – an anagram (to tour) of PROMISE followed by a general word for a country

13d    Part of contract to run round shopping centre (5,5)
{SMALL PRINT} – the part of a contract that no-one ever reads is derived by putting a verb meaning to run around a shopping centre

16d    Description of a joint violated when drunk (8)
{DOVETAIL} – an anagram (when drunk) of VIOLATED

18d    Salt’s companion given a kind of conclusion from sailor (7)
{VINEGAR} – the other condiment that you put on your fish and chips comes from an anagram (kind of) of GIVEN A followed by the final letter (conclusion) of sailoR

20d    Studio took down story, director’s last (7)
{ATELIER} – a charade of a verb meaning took down food, a story or untruth and the final letter (last) of directoR

22d    Still ship not launching on time (5)
{INERT} – a passenger ship without its initial L (not launching) followed by T(ime)

23d    Leash dog’s taken from proverb? (4)
{LEAD} – I needed a bit of help with this one! – remove the name of a dog from P(Rover)b and the result is a chemical symbol

An excellent start to the Toughie week.