Toughie 3712

Toughie  No 3712 by Elgar

Hints and Tips by crypticsue

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

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

Normally solving and blogging an Elgar Toughie is followed by a rest in a darkened room.  This morning the usual East Kent sea breeze has let us down and so, as it was 29° at 8 o’clock, I actually solved the crossword in a darkened room,  meaning that once I’d scheduled the blog, I was already in the right place for the required lie down

The solutions to 7d and 10d are taken from the final stanza of a 1925 poem by TS Eliot

Please let us know what you thought

Across

1a           Request prepared French fields in kind (6,6)
PRETTY PLEASE The French word for prepared or ready and some meadows, the latter inserted into a kind or example

8a/9a    Ballad Goddess welcomed by public, touring the Cockney Quarter? (4,3,7)
OVER THE RAINBOW Open to view or public goes round a Greek goddess followed by a preposition meaning encloses ‘routing’ and the part of London where Cockneys come from

9a           See 8 Across

11a         Farmhand perhaps left during hostilities (7)
WAGONER Left or departed inserted into (during) a period of hostilities

12a         Sandwich once perhaps for Spooner: mangetout or sugar snap? (7)
SEAPORT Sandwich was once one of the five specially designated towns with harbours on the French-facing coast – the solution is obtained by describing the two varieties of vegetable

13a         Newspaper illegally acquired material (5)
THEFT A way of referring to the Pink newspaper (3,2)

14a         Rolled legume parts in each mixed dish (9)
ENCHILADA A type of pulse (legume) is reversed (rolled) and inserted into an anagram (mixed) of IN EACH

16a         Relief reportedly more manageable on Trump’s watch, with nothing being overlooked (9)
ANALGESIA A homophone (reportedly) of more manageable goes on or after the American spelling of a type of watch with the traditional face and hands, without the O (nothing being overlooked)

19a         Severe mess engulfing Republican (5)
HARSH A mess ‘engulfing’ the abbreviation for Republican

21a         Knight moving into Scottish town with objectivist (3,4)
AYN RAND The first Scottish town starting with an A that came to mind, into which  is inserted the chess abbreviation for knight, followed by a conjunction meaning with gives us an objectivist – I hadn’t heard of either her or objectivism but I know all about it now!

23a         Flow stopper repeatedly left in time for elevenses? (7)
MILLDAM Two lots (repeatedly) of the abbreviation for left inserted into a possible time for elevenses (3,2)

24a/25a    Unable to make progress in receipt of presents? (7,7)
GETTING NOWHERE In receipt of and two synonym for present

25a         See 24 Across

26a         Who’ll get you to Europe first off, then run schedule for return trip? (4,8)
TOUR OPERATOR TO (from the clue) eUROPE without the first letter and then a reversal (for return) of the cricket abbreviation for Run and a schedule

Down

1d           Flat projection to be put in gym, I’m assured (7)
PLEDGEE A shelf-like flat projection inserted into an abbreviation for school games (gym)

2d           Put out by metal during “therapy” (7)
EXTINCT The letter used to indicate by in multiplication sums or measurements inserted into (during) an abbreviated type of therapy.  The BRB defines this as ‘put out’ but I thought I’d add an illustration of something that was put out

3d           “Bad Feeling” – what Iago, Obadiah and Uriah called their band? (3,6)
THE CREEPS Shakespeare’s Iago (Othello), Anthony Trollope’s Obadiah Slope (Barchester Towers) and Dickens’ Uriah Heep (David Copperfield) were all known for their sycophancy and so might have given their band this name; an expression meaning to make someone feel uneasy

4d           City goes without one top bar (5)
PARIS   Hint amended 30 June: A synonym for goes or leaves goes outside (without) the Roman numeral for one, an informal name for a type of top being removed (bar) which is, as our first-time commenter Barry points out, the letter T without the bar across the top

5d           Arab Federation’s variable airtime (7)
EMIRATI An anagram (variable) of AIRTIME

6d           Sibs in Oz set up in private practice (3,4)
SUB ROSA A Latin term for privately or confidentially is obtained by reversing (set up) some abbreviated male siblings into the IVR Code for Australia

7d           Beyond the Fringe failing to deliver report, … (3,4,1,4)
NOT WITH A BANG A phrase meaning beyond and an originally American name for hair cut square across the brow (fringe)

10d         … ladies in group soften the chap up by sobbing? (4,1,7)
WITH A WHIMPER An abbreviated group of ladies, a verb meaning to soften or melt, the male pronoun (chap) and a synonym for by

15d         Nat King, Jr listened to Loretta Lynn’s pop? (9)
COALMINER What Loretta Lynn’s father did for a living, celebrated in her autobiographical hit 1970’s song, could be a homophone (listened to) of a way of describing Nat King Junior

17d         Dyer periodically manning a station (7)
ANNATTO The even (periodically) letters of mAnNiNg A sTaTiOn

18d         Less inclined to work with good tradesman (7)
GLAZIER The abbreviation for good and less inclined to work

19d         Buffoon cycling in Alison Moyet’s company? (7)
HALFWIT Cycle the first three letters of a phrase meaning in Alison Moyet’s company to the end of the word.   It helps here if you know her nickname given to her at school when a teacher misheard her name and used as the title of her first studio album

20d         One possibly browsing The Listener’s scanned first word on the letters page? (3,4)
RED DEER Homophones (the listener’s) of a synonym for scanned and the word used at the start of a letter

22d         Approved, fully exposed (3,2)
DUG UP Old slang meaning approved and in total (fully)