Toughie 3440

Toughie  No 3440 by Elgar

Hints and Tips by crypticsue

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

The Nina round the edge of the grid sums up what a lot of people are bound to say about this Elgar Toughie.

The SW corner was reasonably friendly and completed first. I had a few other solutions dotted about the grid, but some of the rest took ages and I finished my first draft of this post with four clues yet to parse and with half an hour to go until I had to meet a friend.  Thank you to Gazza for helping me out with some of the parsing and apologies to Sheila for cutting short our outing so that I could be sure I’d completed the Hints and Tips before 2pm.

Please let us know what you thought

Across

8a           Did jobs of note ahead of me joining the crossword team (4)
WERE A musical note goes after how Elgar might refer to the members of the crossword team

9a           Output from giant iron pipe twisted from pump’s core (3-2-2-3)
FEE-FI-FO-FUM The chemical symbol for iron, a reversed (twisted) musical pipe, a preposition meaning from and the ‘core of pUMp

10a         Prim gentleman interrupts retiring loggers (8)
DIARISTS A reversal (retiring’ of an adjective meaning prim or sedate interrupted by a gentleman

11a         Find one gradually filtering through vital organ (6)
KIDNEY The even (gradually) letters of fInD oNe inserted (filtering through) into a synonym for vital

12a         Spooner’s glory in bank lunch? (5,4)
ROAST BEEF The dreaded reverend’s take on an obsolete meaning of glory and a bank

13a         “Kept in cask” won’t apply to bottle (2,3)
ON-TAP Hidden (bottled) in wONT APply

15a         Alphameric alphabets sweeping the country (7)
AMERICA Hidden in (sweeping) the first two words of the clue

17a         Items primarily erased by deadline, possibly (7)
DELENDA Remove the first letter (primarily erased) of Items from DEADLiNE and an anagram (possibly) will give you things to be deleted

20a         Who’d mock the first of your greetings? (5)
HOWDY An anagram (mock) of WHOD followed by the first of Your

22a         Immerse delicate clothes twinkling about management skills (9)
DIPLOMACY Synonyms for immerse and delicate, the latter ‘clothes’ a reversal of an informal abbreviation for a short period of time (twinkling)

25a         Inverted power packs zip a Canadian’s home (6)
OTTAWA A reversed (inverted) of an SI unit of power inserted between (packs) the letter representing nothing (zip) and A (from the clue)

26a         Knowledge new driver acquires in employment (8)
LEARNING The usual new driver and what you are if you are in paid employment

27a         Impossible to get to four resorts singly (3,2,5)
OUT OF REACH An anagram (resorts) of TO FOUR and an adjective meaning every one separately considered (singly)

28a         Chief problem’s back to front (4)
EMIR An Islamic ruler is obtained by moving the letter at the back of a problematical situation (problem) to the front of the word

Down

1d           Insubstantial fighting unit in which anger’s rising (8)
AERIFORM A (from the clue) and an abbreviated fighting unit into which is inserted a reversal (rising) of a two-word phrase meaning belonging to anger (anger’s)

2d           Is longing to illustrate 2012 London Olympics (finals only) (6)
YEARNS What 2012 is an example of and the final letters of LondoN and OlympicS

3d           $1 to secure firm, could it be? (1,4,4)
A FAST BUCK An informal way of referring to one Dollar ‘secures’ a synonym for firm

4d           Warner, Yorkshire banker, put in home for workers (3-4)
BEE-SKEP A Yorkshire river inserted into a noise of warning

5d           Does pig in all right and fine about it? (5)
OINKS IN inserted into informal approvals

6d           Perhaps Castellaneta will fill speaking role vacancy (8)
VOIDANCE The forename of Mr Castellaneta fills a speaking role, in his case that belonging to  Homer Simpson

7d           Sadly not in van M&S make sure I’ve got it (6)
EUREKA An anagram (sadly) of mAKEsURE once you have removed the leading (in van) letters of M and S

14d         “Inflamed eyeball” defining child’s complaint (9)
BELLYACHE An anagram (inflamed) of EYEBALL into which is inserted (defining) an abbreviated child

16d         Ethiopian princess, having run over to king, spoke? (8)
RADIATOR An Ethiopian princess and the cricket abbreviation for Run go ‘over’ TO (from the clue) gives us something that radiates (spoke?)

18d         In a burst blows away last of pretty good times (8)
DECENNIA An anagram (burst) of IN A replaces (blows away) the last letter of an adjective meaning pretty good

19d         Removing this for giving female thrills? (3,4)
FIG LEAF A compound anagram (thrills) of FOR GIVING FEMALE gives you the word REMOVING and the solution

21d         Choose not to work with solicitor (3,3)
OPT OUT An abbreviated work and a solicitor

23d         Posh kept record after cancellation of Glastonbury? (6)
MONIED Kept a record without (after cancellation) of the hill in Glastonbury

24d         Pharmacist stitches these drinkers up (5)
CAMRA A group of dedicated drinkers of real ale is found in reverse (up) in phARMACist