Toughie 3716

Toughie No 3716 by Luxor
Hints and tips by Gazza

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

Luxor has upped his difficulty level a bit since his last Toughie and has given us an enjoyable challenge – thanks to him. I thought at one stage that we were heading for a pangram but it was not to be.

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

Across Clues

1a Small taxi collecting writer snubbed regular customer (10)
SUBSCRIBER: the abbreviation for small and a modern word for a taxi contain a truncated synonym for writer.
6a Bolt of lightning, perhaps, with low echoing roar? (4)
ZOOM: the letter that possibly resembles a bolt of lightning and the reversal of a verb to low. The BRB says the answer means to make a loud deep, persistent buzzing noise so I suppose that could mean to roar.

9a Slaughter animals circling round tower (7)
MINARET: hidden in reverse.

10a Exposed media circus in Rome in Money magazine, for example (7)
EDITION: start with the inner letters of media and then insert the letter that’s the shape of a Roman circus (the place where games took place) into a dated informal word for money.

12a Whiter than white, but not cricket? (6,3,4)
BEYOND THE PALE: this phrase meaning unacceptable could literally mean whiter than white.

14a Window frame’s removed by men under cover (6)
INDOOR: the inner letters of window and the abbreviation for military men.

15a Anxious gaffers limiting union’s first vote (8)
SUFFRAGE: an anagram (anxious) of GAFFERS containing the first letter of union.
17a Timber firm needing an extra day to wall off court (8)
HARDWOOD: an adjective meaning firm with its final abbreviation for day repeated contains a verb to court.

19a Revealed focus and glare of eyepiece (6)
OCULAR: glue together the inner letters of two words in the clue.

22a Drill level top of beam – a beam cut by sawing finally (6-7)
SQUARE-BASHING: assemble a synonym of level or evens, the top letter of beam, A, a truncated verb to beam and the final letter of sawing.
24a Artist’s wife embraced in topless smooch? On the contrary (7)
MATISSE: a topless smooch is contained in a wife or spouse.

25a Payment system in subway admitting adult and son separately (7)
MAESTRO: a word for a subway or underground transport system contains separate abbreviations for adult and son. If you’re unaware of the payment system (now being phased out apparently) you can read about it here.

26a Foam starts to seep under diver’s suit (4)
SUDS: starting letters of four words.

27a Envoy hurt in gamble rejecting hospital transport (10)
CONVEYANCE: an anagram (hurt) of ENVOY is contained in a verb to gamble or risk without the abbreviation for hospital.

Down Clues

1d A number of looping sacred chants echo (4)
SOME: loop or cycle some sacred Hindu chants and add Nato’s echo.

2d Cobblers plot raised opportunity for lying? (4,3)
BUNK BED: an informal word for cobblers or claptrap and a garden plot.
3d Passes across lines for battle, making moves to next column (5-8)
CARRY-FORWARDS: types of passes showing proof of identity contain the abbreviation for railway lines, FOR and a word for sustained armed battle.

4d Chant is acceptable without leader holding Mass (6)
INTONE: an adjective meaning acceptable or ok without its leading letter contains an informal word for a mass or large quantity.

5d Packed chimney blocked by alternative fuel (8)
EVENTFUL: a word for a chimney or outlet is contained in an anagram (alternative) of FUEL.

7d Ordinary family on holiday avoiding unknown island (7)
OKINAWA: string together the abbreviation for ordinary, a synonym of family and an adverb meaning ‘on holiday’ without its algebraic unknown.

8d Country’s sporting regent breaking old record (10)
MONTENEGRO: an anagram (sporting) of REGENT goes inside an outdated type of record.

11d Pathetically spread germs over English female vigorously scratching head (13)
INEFFECTIVELY: a verb to spread germs (to others) contains abbreviations for English and female. Finish with a synonym of vigorously without its first letter,

13d Gismo wound with these reels in Drumnadrochit (10)
EIGHTSOMES: an anagram (wound) of GISMO THESE.

16d Gloomy ranchero not content getting protective headgear (8)
SOMBRERO: a synonym of gloomy and the outer letters only of ranchero.
18d Path traversing South Downs initially dislodged (7)
ROUSTED: a path or way contains the abbreviation for south. Append the initial letter of downs.

20d Cheer now and then flying white ensign without notice (7)
LIGHTEN: regular letters from ‘flying white’ and what’s left of ‘ensign’ after we’ve removed the notice.

21d Author’s aims dashed – zero heart in novel (6)
ASIMOV: an anagram (dashed) of AIMS followed by the zero-resembling letter and the character at the heart of novel make my favourite science-fiction author who came up with the three laws of robotics.
23d Leave cold north wind when retired (4)
BORE: we want the name of the Greek god of the north wind from which the conjunction meaning when or while is removed.

For my podium I selected 14a, 17a and 2d. Which ones appealed to you?