Toughie 3621

Toughie No 3621 by Chalicea
Hints and tips by Whybird

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

Hello and welcome to another Toughie week.  I was expecting Chalicea to be on duty today, and I wasn’t disappointed.  I found this a notch or two above her normal difficulty level – definitely not in Floughie territory – and thoroughly enjoyed having to dig around in slightly more obscure areas of vocabulary. I’m also pleased that I can use “synonym” in the hints, unlike last Tuesday.  I have plenty of Smileys over the clues, notably 1a, 2a, 3d and 12a, but my favourite is the very elegant (if not too difficult) 4d.  You’ll need your sticky-backed plastic or other type of adhesive for a few of the clues, but not too many need you to ask a responsible adult for help with scissors!

Thank you, Chalicea, for a fun start to the week!

Please let us know how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle

Across Clues

1 A comment added in adapted clue for small container (7)

CAPSULE Take an anagram (adapted) of “clue” and insert (added in) “a” from the clue and an abbreviation used to describe a comment at the end of a document

5 Officer’s attendant welcomes ordinary sailor (7)

BOATMAN Insert (takes) the letter indicating “ordinary” into the name of an officer’s attendant (or a super hero)

9 Going back over with reference to copy (9)

RETRACING A charade of a two-letter word meaning “with reference to” and a synonym of “copy” as a noun

10 Collection of maps finally lacking last of text (5)

ATLAS Remove the final letter (lacking last) from a (2,4) expression meaning “finally”

11 Cancel yearbook, second of two articles absent (5)

ANNUL Take a name for a “yearbook” and remove (absent) the second article

12 Entanglement – curiously, Englishmen left out (9)

ENMESHING An anagram (curiously) of “Englishmen” from which the abbreviation for “left” is removed (left out).  I spent a while trying to make an anagram out of “entanglement” lacking “e-men” before the penny dropped. 

13 Puss angry about ways of scattering paint (5,4)

SPRAY GUNS An anagram (about) of “Puss angry”

16 One hears little lad is bright (5)

SUNNY How you might refer to a young boy, often used with a slightly superior air sound like (one hears) a synonym of “bright”

17 Redecorated, somewhat splendider on reflection (5)

REDID The answer is found (somewhat) in reverse (on refection) within “splendider”

18 Somehow staunched and not injured (9)

UNSCATHED An anagram (Somehow) of “staunched”

20 Pay for animal enclosure work unit (4-5)

FOOT-POUND A charade of a term meaning “pay for” and a name for a type of “animal enclosure” to give an Imperial unit of energy, often used as a measure of torque. This is the kind of unit that made me glad to be examined using the, admittedly much less evocative, metric system.

23 Own goal by reserve – very bad-tempered people! (5)

OGRES A charade of the abbreviations for “own goal” and “reserve”

25 Court without delay maintaining power (5)

SPOON  Take a word meaning “without delay” and insert (maintaining) the usual abbreviation for “power”

26 However complex tales will get learned (9)

LEASTWISE Take an anagram (complex) of “tales” and append a synonym of “learned” as an adjective

27 Feelings of allegiance to monarchy taking on new direction (7)

LOYALTY Take a synonym of “monarchy” as a noun and swap the first letter that is an abbreviation for a direction to the opposite direction

28 Ambiguously worked around unknown significant group of letters (7)

KEYWORD Take an anagram (Ambiguously) of “worked” and insert (around) a letter used as a common algebraic “unknown”

Down Clues
1 Body container largely carried in vehicles (7)

CARCASS Remove the final letter (largely) from a type of container and insert that (carried) into a class of vehicles

2 Not up – up? A hoax (3-2)

PUT-ON The solution is reached by reversing “not-up” (“up” in a down clue). For its simplicity, this took a lot of staring at before I saw what was there in plain sight

3 In a tumult you all end not intermingled (9)

UNALLOYED An anagram (In a tumult) of “you all end”.  Again, this took a while before I worked out which way round this clue was meant to be read

4 Chosen some travel items (5)

ELITE The solution is lurking (some) within “travel items”.  Not a difficult clue, but lovely

5 Large American remains with first and last of traitorous union fraudsters (9)

BIGAMISTS A charade of a synonym of “Large”, a two-letter abbreviation for “American” (not the most common one), a two letter synonym of “remains” (or exists) and the first and last letters of “traitorous”.  Quite a bit of sticking required, but I do like “union fraudsters”

6 Gather together great number in a religious service (5)

AMASS “A” from the clue plus a type of religious service.  

7 Tiniest bit sick, one in September, for example (9)

MILLIONTH Insert a synonym of “sick” and the letter that resembles the number one into the time period of which “September” is an example

8 Smell brightly coloured bunch of flowers (7)

NOSEGAY A charade of a synonym of “Smell” and a word meaning “brightly coloured” (no longer often used in this sense)

14 Gleam of light involving advisor now and then with record for branch of medicine (9)

RADIOLOGY Take a three-letter name for a “Gleam of light” and insert (involving) the even-numbered letters (every now and then) of “advisor” and a three-letter “record” (the one that might be a chunk of timber)

15 In an uncommon way, peacekeepers and US columns essentially unite (9)

UNUSUALLY A charade of the usual international “peacekeepers”, “US” from the clue, the middle letter (essentially) of “columns” and a synonym of “unite” 

16 Deem, it’s said, person of merit able to endure in the main (9)

SEAWORTHY Take a large body of water that sounds like a synonym of “Deem” and follow that by a name for a person of merit

17 Earfuls about horse’s unwillingness to jump (7)

REFUSAL An anagram (about) of “earfuls”

19 Carrying submachine-gun, did exaggerate (7)

DISTEND Insert (carrying) a type of submachine-gun into “did” from the clue

21 Harshly criticise the Spanish jury (5)

PANEL A word meaning “harshly criticise” is followed by “the” in Spanish

22 Was a tippler unpleasantly clammy? That’s about right (5)

DRANK Take an adjective meaning “unpleasantly clammy” and insert (that’s about) the letter indicating “right”

24 Ready once for massive creature (5)

RHINO A double definition, the first sense being on old expression for money, probably almost exclusively encountered these days in cryptic crosswords