Toughie 1005

Toughie No 1005 by Notabilis

On the starting grid

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

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

A superfluity of excellent clues makes this my puzzle of the week.

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Across

1a    Before you start, this grid is dumb (8)
{WORDLESS} – the state of this grid before any answers are inserted!

5a    Anti-fur campaigners elected French leader during hostilities (6)
{PÉTAIN} – the group set up by Anti-fur campaigners followed by a two-letter word meaning elected

8a    Recoil from circular piece in rotary tool (6)
{LOATHE} – the circular letter inside a rotary tool used for turning wood

9a    Small retreats in lead-up to Easter, which 11 may use to relax 13 (8)
{LINIMENT} – a four-letter word meaning small. As in a famous small car, reversed (retreats) inside the period of forty days leading up to Easter – note that the references to 11 across and 13 across differ from the definitions used in the clues

10a    Picture report gets backing with Number 6 as prisoner (8)
{ENVISION} – a report or sound is reversed (gets backing) around (with … as prisoner) N(umber) and the Roman numerals for 6

11a    What’s useful if amending drawings for some bridge? (6)
{RUBBER} – double definition – the second one being a series of games in bridge

12a    A wake-up call brought round someone of faith wanting lead and accepting Lord’s (8)
{REVEILLE} – start with someone of faith, drop (wanting) the initial B (lead), reverse what is left (brought round) and then insert (accepting) L(ord)

ARVE Error: need id and provider

13a    Clout helping to make ignoramus clever (6)
{MUSCLE} – hidden (helping to make) inside the clue

15a    ‘Tender parts‘ or what you see cradling them? (6)
{QUOTES} – two definitions – the first being an essential part of a tender for a contract and the second being the punctuation that encloses the first definition

18a    Learner’s inside changing his baby in worn-out mode (8)
{SHABBILY} – L(earner) inside an anagram (changing) of HIS BABY

20a    Special Constable taken off landscape to protect good life (6)
{ENERGY} – the abbreviation for Special Constable is removed (taken off) from a landscape and what’s left is placed around (to protect) G(ood)

21a    Dissident died in Montmartre, first person caught on hill (8)
{OBJECTOR} – the two-letter abbreviation of the Latin word for died followed by the French (in Montmartre) first person pronoun, C(aught) and a hill – possibly an allusion to Jean Jaurès, who was assassinated in Montmartre and later buried in the Panthéon

23a    Old tub moved by means of propulsion attached at the back? (8)
{OUTBOARD} – in this &Lit clue O(ld) is followed by an anagram (moved) of TUB, a means of propulsion for a rowing boat and the final letter (at the back) of attacheD

24a    Place of relief, having home swamped by Russian river (6)
{URINAL} – a two-letter word meaning (at) home inside (swamped by) a Russian river

25a    Time ran out, leaving one written to tersely (6)
{TEXTED} – T(ime) followed by a verb meaning ran out from which the I (one) is dropped (leaving)

26a    Small-scale work revised the canon (8)
{NANOTECH} – an anagram (revised) of THE CANON

Down

1d    Writer brought down by marquess‘s trick involving duke (5)
{WILDE} – this writer was “brought down” by the Marquess of Queensbury, who accused him of “posing as somdomite”[sic] – a trick or ruse around (involving) D(uke)

2d    Easing of hostility briefly limits border damage (9)
{DETRIMENT} – an easing of hostility without its final e (briefly) around (limits) a border or edge

3d    ‘Frightful’ word that is on line including last letter in book (7)
{EZEKIEL} – a word allegedly often uttered by a lady who is frightened by a mouse followed by the abbreviation of the Latin for “that is” and L(ine) around (including) the last letter of the alphabet gives a book in the Old Testament

4d    Ill-disposed view of din (e.g. cell’s noise)? (7,2,6)
{SILENCE IS GOLDEN} – this maxim, loosely defined by the whole clue, is an anagram (Ill-disposed view) of DIN E.G. CELL’S NOISE

ARVE Error: need id and provider

5d    In the end, this grid is something painful to beat (7)
{PANGRAM} – a characteristic of this grid when it has been correctly completed! – a charade of something painful and a verb meaning to beat

6d    Embittered Bill Bailey’s opening in Morecambe, say (7)
{ACERBIC} – the two-letter abbreviation for a bill followed by the initial letter (opening) of Bailey inside the first name of Ernie Wise’s partner

7d    Bad reputation of Rio, not yet prepared (9)
{NOTORIETY} – an anagram (prepared) of RIO NOT YET

12d    Cayenne’s what since stopping putrefaction makes a strong dairy product (9)
{ROQUEFORT} – the French for (Cayenne’s / in the capital of French Guiana) “what “and a word meaning since or because inside (stopping) some putrefaction

14d    Low character in screenplay for Das Boot? (9)
{SUBSCRIPT} – if _{these characters printed lower than the normal line} are split as (3,6) this could be the screenplay for Das Boot, a film about a WWII German U-boat

16d    Demand too much of green area to feed farm animal (7)
{OVERTAX} – the heraldic term for green and A(rea) inside (to feed) a farm animal

17d    State of bluegrass filling grassy area up (7)
{SKYWARD} – the abbreviation for the bluegrass state inside (filling) a grassy area

ARVE Error: need id and provider

19d    Messed around, keeping Juliet put off (7)
{ADJOURN} – an anagram (messed) of AROUND outside (keeping) the letter represented in the NATO Phonetic alphabet by Juliet

22d    Perhaps Emerson, Lake & Palmer initially welcomed by a cheer (5)
{RALPH} – to get the first name of, for example (perhaps), Emerson, the American philosopher and poet, put the initial letters of Lake & Palmer inside (welcomed by) a cheer

It’s a good job today is Friday – how do you follow that?!