Toughie 3537

Toughie No 3537 by Prime
Hints and tips by Whybird

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

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

Right everyone.  That’s enough of the Bank Holiday.  Stand by your beds!  The Telegraph Toughie Team have clearly decided we’ve had it too soft for the past couple of Tuesdays, and have given us a proper working-over today.  Floughie it ain’t!  Quite a shock to the system, with some (to me) fairly obscure clues, some very clever misdirections and a few where the parsing took a lot longer than the solving.  And I hope you have sharpened your scissors, as there is a lot of snipping to be done.

Overall, I felt this was something of a Curate’s egg. I have plenty of clues I really like (1a, 12a, 18a, 21a, 8d, 19d) but some that didn’t float my boat (4d, 22a, 5d), but just looking at the balance, the very good clearly outweighs the not-so.  I’m giving my rosette to 21a, my last one in – a real “thud” moment when it finally clicked.  

Thanks to Prime for a very rigorous workout. 

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

Across Clues

1 Move the needle over flier for movie (7)

WESTERN Invert (over) a three-letter verb for what you might do with a needle and thread and follow that with a type of seabird to get a movie genre

5 What’s inside short story books (7)

CONTENT A five-letter short story (new to me) followed by one of the usual Christian religious book collections gets a synonym of “what’s inside”

9 Fantastic evangelism saving a companion (5)

OUTRE Remove (saving) “a” (from the clue) and the abbreviated companion (as an award) from a synonym of “evangelism” to a word meaning “fantastic”

10 React too strongly, regarding ox (9)

OVERSTEER A charade of slightly unusual synonym for “regarding” (or “on”) and a male cow gets a potentially troublesome motoring feature.   

11 After work, cite genera being part of a family (5-5)

GREAT-NIECE An anagram (After work) of “cite genera” gets a female relative

12 You might see well with this light, it’s said (4)

PAIL Nothing to do with vision!  A phononym of “light” as in not strongly coloured is an implement often associated with wells.  

14 I abhor spinners and abhor phone somehow ringing Alastair Campbell, primarily (12)

ARACHNOPHOBE An anagram (somehow) of “abhor phone” surrounding the initial letters (primarily) of Alastair Campbell gives someone who doesn’t like the creatures renowned for web-making 

18 Those at Greer plays? (7-5)

THEATRE-GOERS An all-in-one (suggested by the “?”).  Those who may attend plays is an anagram (plays doing double-duty) of “Those at Greer”.  Very clever.

21 Hardware‘s very cheap promotion? (4)

IPAD A brand of tablet/computer hardware is formed from a very low value UK coin and a two-letter synonym for “promotion”

22 Start to show sauce, cutting up script where artistic ideas are tried (10)

SKETCHBOOK An article used by artists to record ideas, initial impressions etc is formed from the initial letter (start to) of “show” a type of sauce from which “up” is removed (cutting) and a four-letter synonym of “script” (which I’m not mad keen on, but is within Toughie Tolerances)

25 King and queen perhaps securing a trick for the audience in the interval (9)

MEANWHILE Insert “a” from the clue (securing) into a three-letter term for King and Queen as chesspieces, and follow that with a phononym (for the audience) of a word meaning “trick” to get a synonym of “in the interval”

26 Pope to stop tracking Abraham’s roots (5)

URBAN The ancient city birthplace of Abraham followed by (tracking) a three-letter prohibition to get the name of one of eight popes.

27 Dodgy caterer having other end of apple put up again (2-5)

RE-ERECT An anagram (Dodgy) of “caterer” with the “a” swapped for an “e” (this being the other end of “apple”) to get a word meaning “put up again”. Although “other end of apple” could equally mean replacing an “e” with an “a”, so this gets a mild “hmm”

28 Police bulletin about drug rejected by detective, briefly (7)

SWEENEY Take a four letter “bulletin” surrounding (about) a single-letter recreational drug, reverse this (rejected) and then append (by) a three letter alternative name for detective (think “private”) lacking its last letter (briefly), all of this to get the informal name for a branch of the Metropolitan Police in rhyming slang 

Down Clues
1 Injuries with teeth missing at the front (6)

WRONGS A synonym of “injuries” is formed by the single letter for “with” followed by a synonym for “teeth” (or tines) lacking its initial letter

2 I is iodine – it isn’t one character, ultimately (6)

SETTER The person associated with this puzzle who could use the pronoun “I” is formed from the final letters (ultimately) of “is iodine it isn’t one character”

3 Potential cross-makers largely had to accommodate reader of scripture (10)

ELECTORATE Another term for those who may put “crosses” on ballot papers, formed by inserting a reader of scripture (or a famous cinematic cannibal) into a synonym of “had” (in the sense of consumed) lacking its final letter (largely).  This took me an inordinately long time to parse.

4 Notable mother-in-law happening to capture bird that is no longer heading north (5)

NAOMI A notable Old Testament mother-in-law is formed by inserting a three-letter extinct flightless bird into another word for “happening” (or trendy)

5 Noisy building site almost has belief going around it (9)

CRESCENDO Another word for “site” lacking its final letter (almost) is inserted into (going around it) a synonym of “belief” to get an increase in sound level, often used as a musical instruction

6 Home console from the Eighties finally out (4)

NEST The abbreviated name of an 80s game console (new to me) followed by the final letter of “out” to yield a synonym of “home mainly associated with birds

7 Lift up eggs broken by clumsy valet (8)

ELEVATOR Another name for “Lift” as a noun is found by inserting an anagram (clumsy) of “valet” into a reversal of (fish) eggs (“up” in a down clue

8 Perhaps film director on board to engage personnel (8)

THRILLER Another move genre, this time formed by inserting the two-letter abbreviation for personnel (department) into a device used to change direction of eg a yacht.  A cracking surface and misdirection combo

13 Nothing Europe has changes what Covent Garden has (5,5)

OPERA HOUSE The letter that resembles the numeric “Nothing” followed by an anagram (changes) of “Europe has” to give a musical feature of Covent Garden 

15 It says what to do having heard European composer (9)

CHECKLIST Something which you might follow, or run-through before undertaking an activity is formed from phononyms of a European country and a composer (often paired with Brahms).  The definition here gets another “Hmm” from me.

16 Garden tool succeeded with less round (8)

STRIMMER A garden tool is formed by the single-letter “succeeded” followed by description of what you may be said to be if you were “less round” (or had lost weight)

17 Individual copies up amount to be paid (8)

SEPARATE Invert a four-letter “copies” (“up” in a down clue) followed by another term for “the amount to be paid” to get a synonym for “individual” as an adjective.  Two Crosswordland staples in combination.

19 Commonly ducking reel (6)

BOBBIN A word for “ducking” in the Halloween apples sense lacking the final letter (Commonly, in the sense of “improper” speech) to get a reel used to hold thread

20 Hide American city’s information (6)

SKINNY A synonym for “hide” followed by an abbreviated East Coast US city gives a word meaning “information”. This is a new sense of the word for me, and is an Americanism, which does work well for this clue. 

23 Support leaving apart from lock (5)

TRESS Remove a three-letter conjunction meaning “apart from” form a structural support to get a “lock” in the sense of hair. Clear enough, but lacking something in the surface for me. 

24 Sentimental time to leave former post (4)

TWEE A synonym for “sentimental” is formed by removing the final letter from the former name given for a post on a major social media site which has now rebranded.