Sunday Toughie 22

Sunday Toughie No 22 by Zandio

Review by Sloop John Bee

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This puzzle was published on the 26th of June 2022

 

Across

1a European remix of ‘Lust For Life‘ (4,2,5)
JOIE DE VIVRE:     How a Frenchman may say Lust for Life.

7a Cut in Italy, knight having broken spear died (7)
IGNORED:     I for Italy, N for the chess piece Knight that has broken into GORE being the synonym of spear we seek followed by d for died, gives us I(G[N]ORE){D} or cut out of the conversation

8a Take away about one billion and one carrying over five? (7)
MINIBUS:     A mathematical MINUS symbol around I for one and B for billion gives us a MINIBUS. Definitions of which seem to vary but it is undoubtedly more than five. The question mark covers the stretchiness of this definition.

10a Access transport (8)
ENTRANCE:     A double definition, the access you need to get in a building, or as a transitive verb, to fill with enthusiastic or rapturous delight.

11a Monitor energy needed to replace American gas (6)
PETROL:     To monitor the perimeter of a camp PATROL takes an E for energy to replace the A for American, to become PETROL or what Americans refer to as gas. American doesn’t get into the definition as we have already used it in the wordplay.

13a Possibly count half a century or ten times that (4)
LORD:     Half a century is fifty and the Roman numeral for fifty is L, ten times that is five hundred and the Roman numeral for that is D. Therefore we have L_OR_D. A LORD is a member of the nobility as is a count (possibly)

14a One should enter variation on ‘ludicrous‘ (10)
RIDICULOUS:     Ludicrous here is the definition and part of the fodder, add the letter that looks like 1 and jumble it up to get RIDICULOUS.

16a Snaps of red bananas (6,4)
GINGER NUTS:     Synonyms of red as a hair colour, and bananas as is a little mad become GINGER NUTS a rather snappy biscuit.

18a I would use this before the French loaf (4)
IDLE:     A contraction of I would I’d, goes before one of the French the’s to become IDLE a synonym of loaf.

21a Rogue male following female (6)
COWBOY:     A female bovine or COW is followed by a young male or BOY to be a rogue COWBOY builder perhaps.

22a In joining RAF, fit inductees get marks written up (8)
GRAFFITI:     The marks written up on walls are hidden (in) the other four words in the clue.

24a Prepare swimmer to go over river, say, moving like the wind (3,4)
LEE TIDE:     To prepare an article or crossword for publication would be EDIT, the swimmer is an EEL, these are reversed (go over) to become a LEE TIDE. A fast-moving current when the direction of a river, the wind and the tide all go in the same direction.

25a Old retired doctor injecting number giving birth (7)
OPENING:     O for old adds a General Practitioner into which the number NINE has been injected that are then reversed (retired) I hope giving is just a bit of surface smoothing or this birth or OPENING may be getting a bit too gynaecological.

26a United second — unlikely destiny if that guy’s involved (11)
SYNTHESISED:    If you have united together separate parts to form a complex whole you start with S for second and an anagram (unlikely) of DESTINY into which HE’S has been inserted.

 

Down

1d One takes care rubbish is swept up after New Year (7)
JANITOR:     Some rubbish or ROT is reversed (swept up in a down clue) and follows JAN 1 being the first day of the New Year. Janitor a caretaker.

2d Raid or no raid — that needs sorting out (6)
INROAD:     An anagram (that needs sorting out) of no raid gives us INROAD, the progress made on a raid.

3d Discounts findings (10)
DEDUCTIONS:     Another double definition, The discounts or deductions in a price are also the findings you may make when considering a crossword clue.

4d Parking after five in the morning seeing Lorelei? (4)
VAMP:     Lorelei is a German mythological mermaid who enchanted sailors from her rock, a VAMP is a woman who uses her charm or wiles to seduce and exploit men. Lorelei is therefore a definition by example. The Vamp can be deduced from the clue by taking the Roman numeral for five V, AM for in the morning with P for parking to follow (after).

5d Eve flung out without forgiveness (8)
VENGEFUL:     Another anagram, (indicated by out) of Eve flung, gives us someone who is without forgiveness or VENGEFUL.

6d Stop using space bar function (7)
EMBARGO:     To prevent or stop using you start with the printers space EM, BAR from the clue and to function or GO

7d Video log I call ‘Nakedly Political‘ (11)
IDEOLOGICAL:     Another lurker but there is a bit more to the wordplay here, nakedly, indicates that the whole four-word phrase only loses the outer letters. An IDEOLOGICAL person is someone who has a strong political belief.

9d Gold-digging in sierra, discover sovereign buried by mischief-maker (4-7)
SELF-SEEKING:     S for sierra, SEE for discover, and KING a male sovereign contains (buried by) an ELF or mischief-maker. A gold-digger is a self-seeking person who treats an intimate relationship chiefly as a source of material gain.

12d Champion’s brutal boxing rise (10)
VICTORIOUS:     Brutal or VICIOUS, contains (boxing) a small rise, hill or TOR. The champions are victorious.

15d Passion of revolutionary no one’s welcoming to Germany (8)
DEVOTION:     I made a bit of a meal of this but with the Gazza and Cryptor’s help we they got there in the end. Start with NO from the clue, one’s becomes a contraction of I Have – I’VE, it contains TO from the clue, and finally D the IVR code for Germany. That gives us NO I’ TO VE D. revolutionary allows us to reverse it all to become DEVOTION or passion.

17d Novel character’s name writer used originally in comic sense (7)
NEWNESS:     This character of novelness uses the initial (original) letters of Name and Writer and inserts them in an anagram (comic) of SENSE. (Thanks to CS for help there)

19d Worshipped standing up and bowing down (7)
DEIFIED:     Standing up and bowing down indicates a palindrome. With only worshipped remaining as the definition, and with the checking letters this should be an easy deification.

20d Planks right off the top crumble perhaps (6)
AFTERS:     The planks that hold a roof up lose the R for right to become AFTERS, a colloquial expression for the pudding served after the main course. Crumble perhaps is a definition by example, an apple or rhubarb crumble being a favoured pudding served in the Beehive. Apple or Rhubarb, served with Ice cream or Custard. what would you choose?

23d Net fix for boozer? (4)
MESH:     How someone intoxicated by booze may slur a fix or MESS, Gives us a MESH or net.