Toughie 3505

Toughie No 3505 by Chalicea
Hints and tips by Whybird

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

Wimbledon’s started, the clouds have come rolling in… All’s normal!  Chalicea has given us a real Tuesday treat – perfectly pitched to start the Toughie week. There are quite a few gimmes, a friendly grid and a few requiring a bit of thought.  No grit, no pearls…  On top of that, the surfaces and concise clues make this an absolute joy.  I found I was repeating myself with typing “another splendid surface” such is the frequency and quality.  It’s hard to pick favourites out of such a quality bunch, but I’m giving rosettes to 1d, 9a and 26a.  Thank you, Chalicea, for an absolute belter.

Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.

Across Clues
1 Factions prospering surprisingly with kinky lust included (8,6)

SPLINTER GROUPS An anagram of both “prospering” (surprisingly) and “lust” (kinky… …included) gives a type of faction associated with different, more extreme views than others of their cohort.

9 Initially delayed, relative from America shows heart (7)

NUCLEUS Take a male relative (neatly, one associated with the personification of America), move the first letter back one space (initially delayed) and follow that with the common two letter abbreviation for America to get a synonym of “heart”.  My last one in.  It took me a while to mentally move the comma back a word.

10 On seabed essentially solitary gastropod (7)

ABALONE A type of shellfish is formed from the central letters (essentially) of “seabed” followed by what you are if you are solitary .

11 Some codlings for food fish (4)

LING A type of edible fish is (not very obscurely) hidden (some) in “codlings”.

12 Insult about jaunt, it can be illuminating (5,5)

STRIP LIGHT Insert a four-letter synonym for “jaunt” into a six-letter insult (also meaning insubstantial) to get a type of illumination.

14 Struggle with compilers welcomed by tense solver occasionally (6)

TUSSLE How Chalicea may describe herself and her fellow compilers as a two-letter grammatic object inserted into the usual abbreviation for “tense” and the “occasional” (in this case, odd) letters of “solver” gives a synonym for “struggle”.

15 In good shape, journalist’s well-versed (8)

INFORMED A (2,4) term meaning “in good shape” (often used to describe sportspeople performing at the top of their games) followed by the usual journalist to get an adjective meaning knowledgeable.

17 Protest about renegade politician (8)

DEMOCRAT One of the two main US political parties is formed from a charade of a four letter protest (march), the letter meaning “about” and a three-letter (rodent) “renegade”.

18 Professional not running at once (6)

PRONTO The usual abbreviation for “professional” followed by an anagram (running) of “not” gives a synonym of “at once”.

21 Garden planner secures thorny shrub (10)

LANDSCAPER A type of garden designer, typically associated with larger-scale work is formed from a charade of a “secures” (what an aircraft does) and a type of thorny shrub, more associated (in my mind) with tartare sauce.

22 Red coach in street? Look to board it (4)

SLOT Insert the two letter poetic “look” into the usual abbreviation for street to get the surname of the head coach of a well-known football team. And, boy, does this hurt for a Blue….

24 Hyper active, he got on exceptionally (2,3,2)

ON THE GO An anagram (exceptionally) of “he got on” gives a synonym of “(hyper) active”.  I’m not sure the “hyper” is needed for the clue, but it does help the surface.

25 A solitary person getting married inside can become a social worker (7)

ALMONER Insert the abbreviation for “male” into “a” from the clue and what a solitary person may be described as (see 10a) to get a (hospital) social worker.  Not an insect, for once, and I did not know this context, although I knew the word from its charitable sense.

26 Responsibility for business creating proper riot on vessel (14)

PROPRIETORSHIP What you can be said to have if you own a business is made up of an anagram of “proper riot” and a four-letter sailing vessel, “creating” here being a reverse anagram indicator. It’s a lovely word, and a great surface.

Down Clues
1 Vest is and has this, as opposed to mitten? (7)

SINGLET A type of vest, and split (6,1) is also a description of one of its consonants that “mitten” has more of. Very clever, but not easy to write out concisely!

2 Trickily she controls men’s fictitious fantasy (4,4,7)

LOCH NESS MONSTER An anagram (trickily) of “she controls men’s” gives a mythical (or maybe not!) resident of one of Scotland’s bodies of water.

3 Have occasion for knee bend now and then (4)

NEED A synonym for “have occasion for” is found in the alternating letters (in this case even) letters (now and then) of “knee bend”.

4 Artificial spiders at zoology exhibits (6)

ERSATZ A word meaning “artificial” is lurking (exhibits) in “spiders at zoology”. A lovely surface.

5 Inclination to wither in allotment (8)

GRADIENT A (topographic) “inclination” is formed by inserting a three-letter cessation of life (what happens to a plant that withers, more than a direct synonym) into a synonym of “allotment” in the sense of “allowance” – beloved of students of times past. Another lovely surface.

6 Legally analogous with how most animals move (2,3,5)

ON ALL FOURS.  A double definition, and one to rattle the cage of the 20 downs of the world.  The first is a legal term meaning at worst “so near as to make no difference”, the second assumes that most animals are quadrupedal.  Edwina Currie might have saved herself a lot of bother using “many” instead of “most” but let’s hope the extremist entomological and arthropodological 1 acrosses aren’t looking.

7 Punch, gallon stirred with mush served up for tiller’s nosh (10,5)

PLOUGHMAN’S LUNCH An anagram (stirred) of “punch”, “gallon” and “mush” to give a traditional midday meal.

8 Fired up male, a dandyish unruly adolescent (6)

HEATED The male pronoun, “a” from the clue and the name for reputed troublemakers with a penchant for coloured drapes yields a synonym for “fired up” in the  thermal sense.  Yet another lovely surface.

13 Boycotts Dickens’s sycophantic law clerk, family reprobate (5,5)

BLACK SHEEP An ovine “family reprobate” could be, split (6,4), as the action of someone who was to shun an “ever so ‘umble” Dickensian character.

16 President on island captures a penguin species (8)

MACARONI The president of France and the usual abbreviation for “island” into which is inserted “a” from the clue to give a type of penguin.

17 Serving girl’s plaything requires work (6)

DOLLOP A four-letter toy that traditionally is associated with girls followed by a two-letter synonym of “work” gives a type of portion associated with soft food.

19 Disastrously poor cut, rocks visible on the surface (7)

OUTCROP An anagram (disastrously) of “poor cut” gives a name for rocks that you can see. 

 

20 Nitpicker troubled and in bad mood (6)

PEDANT Insert and anagram (troubled) of “and” into a common Crosswordland three-letter strop to get a name for a nitpicker.  Another super surface, all-in-all fitting beautifully as an overreaction to 6d.  And I can’t resist reusing the image Gazza posted recently, it’s so good. 

23 Ruler taken in by upset experiment (4)

EMIR A middle-eastern ruler is lurking (taken in by) in reverse (upset) within “experiment”.