Toughie 3366

Toughie  No 3366 by Django

Hints and Tips by crypticsue

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

I thought Django had upped the toughness today  while retaining the usual enjoyment factor.

My favourite clue was the rather clever 26a

Please let us know what you thought

Across

1a           Change arrangements as green beret essentially opens burst of gunfire (11)
RECONFIGURE A word denoting concern for the environment (green) and the ‘essential’ letter of beRet ‘opens’ or goes inside an anagram (burst) of OF GUNFIRE

10a         Row river to keep fit – quite the reverse (5)
ARGUE Do the reverse of the first part of the clue and keep the abbreviation for River inside a shivering fit

11a         Hot buffet is safe (9)
STRONGBOX Hot in the sense of powerful and a verb meaning to deal heavy blows with the fist

12a         When discounted chipolatas must be cooked with posh oil? (9)
PATCHOULI Remove (discounted) the synonym for when from CHIPOLATas – an anagram (cooked) of the remaining letters with U (posh) will give you a type of oil

13a         Turner having time for hot drink (5)
LATTE Replace the H (hot) with a  T (time) in a machine for turning

14a         Almost steal Jaguar with vacuous police missing degree of precision (6)
NICETY Almost all of a slang word meaning to steal and then follow with a type of Jaguar car missing the outside (vacuous) letters of PolicE

16a         Some find old rum smugglers’ ships becalmed here? (8)
DOLDRUMS Hidden in some of finD OLD RUM Smugglers

18a         Lighthouse, say, after both sides of lamp-room fitted with high-water survival equipment (8)
LANDMARK Both sides of Lamp-rooM could be described as x xxx x which should be followed by an Old Testament example of some high-water survival ‘equipment’

20a         A sort of maths condition (6)
ASTHMA A (from the clue) and an anagram (sort) of MATHS

23a         Adult daughter finally wearing dress (5)
GROWN The final letter of daughteR ‘wearing’ a dress

24a         Helping to build a wall … or knocking one down? (9)
MORTARING Joining with a type or plaster or throwing a heavy shell at a wall to knock it down

26a         Seen to embody merit – making every scheme ultimately a benevolent one (9)
SAMARITAN Once you have inserted (to embody) MERIT into SEEN, do what the clue says and make every instance of the last letter of schemE an A

27a         Spike Milligan’s back on for good (5)
PRONG The ‘back’ of milligaN goes on or after a preposition meaning for, the abbreviation for Good being added at the end

28a         Typically broke one font’s setting with computer equipment (6,5)
CHURCH MOUSE A building (setting) in which you’d find a font with a piece of computer equipment

Down

2d           Crew maybe worried in audition (5)
EIGHT A number of people in a rowing boat (crew maybe) is a homophone (in audition) of a synonym for worried

3d           I ruined only chance (3-4)
ONE-SHOT The number represented by the Roman numeral I and bad or ruined

4d           Admit free schools extremely well-informed (4,2)
FESS UP The ‘extreme’ letters of FreE SchoolS and well-informed combine to give a US informal way of asking someone to admit to a crime

5d           Station wagon in middle – a Ford that doesn’t start (8)
GARRISON The middle of waGon and the forename of an actor called Ford without its first letter (doesn’t start)

6d           Irritated Republicans seeing Democrats on other side of joint (7)
RANKLED The abbreviation for Republicans ‘seeing’ the abbreviation for Democrats after (on other side of) a leg joint

7d           Perhaps Quasimodo‘s sort of almost coping without Esmerelda in the end (13)
CAMPANOLOGIST An anagram (sort) of ALMOST COPING which goes outside (without) the A at the end of EsmeraldA

8d           Unreasonable American boxer possibly holding on to Greek character (1,3,4)
A BIT MUCH A (American), a female dog (boxer possibly) ‘holding’ the Greek letter M

9d           Airlines charge for this rest day after going on vacation, BA included (6,7)
EXCESS BAGGAGE The rest (more than usual) and a period of time (day), the latter going after the outside (on vacation) letters of GoinG, BA (from the clue) then being inserted (included)

15d         Prisoners order case of minestrone soup? (8)
CONSOMME Some slang prisoners, the Order of Merit and the ‘case’ of MinestronE

17d         Concert books initially embarrassed Ronnie Barker (8)
PROMOTER An abbreviated concert, the books of the first part of the Bible and the initial letters of Embarrassed and Ronnie – a barker being someone who uses a loud voice to attract custom

19d         Is this king working to stop protest? (7)
MONARCH The usual two-letter working goes inside (to stop) a protest

21d         On reflection I made a mistake about hotel with a male cleaner (7)
SHAMPOO A reversal (on reflection) of an interjection apologising for a mistake goes ‘about’ the letter represented by Hotel in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet, A (from the clue) and the abbreviation for Male

22d         Steep, and Dawn French is wanting flatter cycling (6)
DRENCH Words three and four of the clue without (wanting) a verb meaning to flatter in a servile way which has been ‘cycled’ so the letter at the beginning appears at the end

25d         Smooths horsehair on some trousers (5)
IRONS Hidden in (trousered by) horsehaIR ON Some