Toughie 3360

Toughie  No 3360 by Elgar

Hints and Tips by crypticsue

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

My second warm and sunny blogging morning this week, but unlike Wednesday, this Toughie was (as you would expect from Elgar) as difficult to solve as several clues were to parse and then explain.  My favourite clue was 15a, not least because it is always good to smile halfway down the Across clues!

Please let us know what you thought

Across

1a and 4a  Desperate man might fancy crust that bird’s seized? (6,2,6)
CLUTCH AT STRAWS An anagram (fancy) of CRUST THAT inserted into (seized) parts of a bird that seize prey

4a           See 1 Across

9a           Wee boy put in cracking position (6)
LADDIE Put in inserted into (cracking) a position

10a         Take pity after reindeer materialise (4,4)
COME TRUE Feel compassion for (take pity) goes after one of Santa’s reindeer

12a and 13a Civilly resolves dispute in throes of a first degree? (6,2,6)
AGREES TO DIFFER An anagram (in throes) of OF A FIRST DEGREE

13a         See 12 Across

15a         Alien that D arth appears to have assimilated (5,7)
SPACE INVADER If you know your Star Wars, what has D ARTH assimilated and how could you describe this to make an alien?

18a         Guys saving energy, maintaining current post-festival budget (5,2,5)
CHEAP AS CHIPS Some men (guys) ‘saving’ the symbol for Energy into which is inserted (maintaining) the symbol for electrical current, which goes after (post) the Festival of Passover

21a and 22a Hector’s brother and sister sharing a cell with 1990-1 model, breaking local record (6,8)
PARISH REGISTER The last letter of Hector’s brother in the Greek Legend and the first letter of  SISTER (from the clue) ‘sharing a cell’ meaning that you only have to write the letter once into which is inserted (breaking) an informal way of describing a 1990-1 model car

22a         See 21 Across

24a         Vacate public bar (5,3)
LEAVE OUT – Vacate and in public

25a         Some characters long to bear this President? (6)
MACRON The President of France was obvious but did you know the word could also mean a straight line over a vowel to show that it is long?

26a  and 27a  One question and another from broodmare’s prospective investor? (5,3,6)
WHATS THE DAMAGE A prospective investor in a broodmare might informally ask how much she was going to cost and also, if you split the last word of the solution, how old she is

27a         See 26 Across

Down

1d           Ruin wood, everyone cutting it up (8)
COLLAPSE A thicket of trees (wood) into which is inserted (cutting) a reversal (up) of everyone

2d           The Tube, is it in motion? (5,3)
UNDER WAY The Underground might be described as this sort of track

3d           Wine he’s craftily carrying about his person a diversion for the kids! (7,8)
CHINESE WHISPERS The Latin abbreviation for about and an anagram (craftily) of WINE HES, ‘carrying’ HIS (from the clue) and the abbreviation for person

5d           Extremely large gun (4)
TOOL Extremely or very followed by the abbreviation for Large

6d           Quip about opening next letter from Greek youth, first to address POTUS? (3,3,9)
THE BIG ENCHILADA An informal North American name for a very important person such as the POTUS.  A reversal (about) of a short clever remark (quip) inserted into (opening) an adverb meaning next, the result followed by the twenty-second letter of the Greek alphabet, a youth and the first letter of Address

7d           Contactless disagreement in the commercial world? (6)
ADRIFT Split 2,4 this could be a disagreement about a commercial

8d           Perhaps Master Teuton has come in for a drink (6)
SHERRY Perhaps, or example, where the German (Teuton) word for man (master) replaces (comes in for) the A

11d         Expelling south European schoolboy (7)
ETONIAN A European without (expelling) the abbreviation for South

14d         Exotic act stripped in it? (7)
CABARET  A synonym for naked (stripped) inserted into an anagram (exotic) of ACT

16d         Plum location for boarding train carriage (8)
VICTORIA A type of plum, somewhere to board a train in London or a type of carriage

17d         Remove clothing from Yellowstone’s Officer of the Year? (8)
ESTRANGE Remove the outside letters (clothing) from an award that might be given to Yellowstone’s Officer of the year

19d         Get suddenly windy, University Blue taking lead (6)
UPBLOW The abbreviation for University and a synonym for miserable (blue) ‘taking’ the chemical symbol for lead

20d         Fleet Street leaves A-lister very angry over article (6)
ARMADA Remove the abbreviation for street from someone who might be considered an A-Lister, reverse a synonym for very angry and then add an indefinite article

23d         A career at Twickenham the goal? (4)
RUSH A way of describing the goal for an abbreviated sport played at Twickenham