Toughie 3564

Toughie No 3564 by Sparks
Hints and tips by Gazza

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

This is not too tricky for a Friday Toughie but enjoyable. There are two answers that I’d not heard of but both were very fairly clued. Many thanks to Sparks.

There’s some cleverness in the grid – The left and right columns explain where appropriately placed cardinal points can be found in the grid.

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

Across Clues

1a Producer of e.g. rock concert, one broadcast with limitless Wi-Fi (12)
CONFECTIONER: an anagram (broadcast) of CONCERT ONE [w]IF[i].
9a Spiteful false claims surrounding debt record (9)
MALICIOUS: an anagram (false) of CLAIMS containing the usual record of a debt.

10a Fly aloft around large upper room (5)
SOLAR: a verb to fly high containing the abbreviation for large. A new meaning for me.

11a Navy in call to attention where Allied Forces were routed (6)
ARNHEM: insert the abbreviation for our senior service into an exclamation used to attract attention. The answer is the name of the Dutch city where Allied Forces suffered a rout during a WWII battle.

12a Old lady departs before cold game and fine wine (5,3)
GRAND CRU: assemble the name used for an old lady, the tap abbreviation for cold and the abbreviation for a specific team game.

13a Excel initially resets mouse (6)
SHINER: a verb to excel and the initial letter of resets.
15a Postponed act involving brief appearance of Bryan, say (8)
DEFERRED: a synonym of act contains the truncated surname of singer Bryan.

18a Support part of flower broken by a small boy (8)
PEDESTAL: part of a flower contains a short male name.

19a Sharp police unit infiltrating withdrawn US agents (6)
ACIDIC: a UK police department goes inside the reversal of our usual US agents.

21a Mark concerned with second home Spain pursues (8)
INSCRIBE: string together a preposition meaning ‘concerned with’, the abbreviation for second, an informal word for one’s home and the IVR code for Spain.

23a Dye from ink did mostly vanish (6)
INDIGO: truncate each of ‘ink’ and ‘did’ and append a verb meaning to vanish.

26a Extremely insidious miserable specimen lying about bones (5)
TARSI: stick together the outer letters of insidious and an informal word for a miserable or despicable person then reverse it all.

27a Ill-famed curt remark hateful when Republican ousts Democrat (9)
NOTORIOUS: drop the last letter of a verb to remark and add an adjective meaning hateful or repulsive with its abbreviation for Democrat changed to that of Republican.
28a Vets record shoots angrily (5-7)
HORSE-DOCTORS: an anagram (angrily) of RECORD SHOOTS.

Down Clues

1d Clubs order permit limit (7)
COMPASS: glue together the cards abbreviation for clubs, the abbreviation for a meritorious order and a synonym for permit or authorisation.

2d Fibre shown by prime characters in any bloodline (5)
NYLON: the letters in ‘any bloodline’ corresponding to the lowest five prime numbers.

3d Those who shun focus of obsessed meditators? (9)
ESCHEWERS: the central two letters of obsessed and a word for people meditating (based on a verb, often followed by ‘over’, meaning to ruminate).

4d Extremely new melody for some (4)
TOON: an adverb meaning extremely and the abbreviation for new produce a slang word for a melody.

5d Where vedettes could be seen working blind (2-6)
ON-SCREEN: an adverb meaning working or functioning and a synonym for a blind or covering.

6d German city being abandoned by church (5)
ESSEN: Crosswordland’s favourite German city comes from removing an abbreviation for church from a synonym of a being.

7d Parliamentary usher left in remote bar … (5,3)
BLACK ROD: insert the abbreviation for left into an adjective meaning remote (as in ****woods) and add a synonym of bar or stick. This is the extravagantly-dressed usher who summons the Commons to the Lords to hear the monarch’s speech and to whom Dennis Skinner MP once said “Ey up, here comes Puss in Boots!”.
8d … somewhere near what he might get there? (6)
AROUND: this is what the previous answer (or anyone else) might buy in a bar (1,5).
14d Diligence of religious adherents blanking out hard test (8)
INDUSTRY: religious adherents without the abbreviation for hard at the start and a verb to test.

16d Odd enchantress hauled up for pinching change overseas (9)
ECCENTRIC: reverse the name of the Greek enchantress who had the ability to turn men into swine and insert a word for monetary change in some foreign countries.

17d Surgeon met pretentious sort about taking ecstasy (8)
SAWBONES: start with a verb meaning met or possibly dated and add the reversal of a pretentious person containing our usual abbreviation for ecstasy.

18d Places drinks outside back of gazebo (6)
POINTS: a word for drinks (often of beer) containing the rearmost letter of gazebo.

20d Perhaps “×××” card at first placed on flowers son’s cut (7)
CROSSES: the first letter of card precedes fragrant flowers into which the abbreviation for son is inserted.

22d It may charge money (5)
RHINO: double definition, the second a dated slang term for money.
24d Mostly smooth deck wood (5)
IROKO: a verb to smooth (clothes) without its last letter and an abbreviation meaning to deck or floor. This is a pale timber (new to me) from an African tree.

25d Boss of twice-snubbed film company (4)
STUD: remove the last two letters from a generic term for a film production company.

I liked 26a, 2d and 16d. Which one(s) appealed to you?