Toughie 3734

Toughie No 3734 by Prime

Hints and Tips by crypticsue

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

An excellent mid-week Toughie

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Across

1a           Particular kind of protection is celebrated by girls (10)
SUNGLASSES Celebrated or proclaimed and some girls

6a           Mark Carney, not backing foreign currency, backs dollar symbolically? (4)
SCAR The second word of the clue without (not) the reversed (backing) Japanese currency goes after (backs) the letter that symbolises the dollar

9a           Bond‘s almost succeeding with Felix Leiter’s homeland (5)
NEXUS Almost all of succeeding or following with the abbreviated homeland of Felix Leiter, the CIA operative in the James Bond books

10a         Briefly, Harper Lee novel includes male fugitive (9)
EPHEMERAL No need to start trying to remember what Harper Lee wrote, an anagram (novel) of almost (briefly) all of HARPER LEe into which is inserted (includes …. Fugitive) the abbreviation for Male

12a         Take over wing (7)
OPINION The cricket abbreviation for Over and a wing – here take is a person’s perspective on something

13a         Call to hold universal mourning (5)
RUING Call (on the telephone) ‘holds’ the abbreviation for Universal

15a         Do launch (4-3)
TAKE-OFF Double definition – the first meaning to mimic or impersonate

17a         Recipient of major prize in absence of nob, saving it for them? (7)
ELITIST The recipient of a major prize without (in absence of) the letters NOB into which is inserted (saving) IT (from the clue)

19a         Art caught on, but not initially (7)
CUNNING The cricket abbreviation for Caught and on or working without the initial letter

21a         Aim to cycle past masked Spaniard (7)
HIDALGO A Spanish nobleman of the lowest class – Cycle the aim of a person’s ambition and put it after (past) a simple way of saying masked

22a         Gather in fruit, except raspberries at first (5)
INFER IN (from the clue) and the first letters of Fruit Except Raspberries

24a         Tract of open land left out (7)
LEAFLET A piece of open land and an anagram (out) of LEFT

27a         Covetousness to acquire northern network, here? (9)
GREENLAND Covetousness ‘acquires’ the abbreviation for Northern and an abbreviated computer network

28a         Prime soldier possibly designed (5)
MEANT It helps if you remember who set this Toughie as here our setter is referring to himself (Prime) and one of crosswordland’s soldiers

29a         What naturally comes with Stone Age? (4)
DATE A stoned fruit or a statement of time (age)

30a         American rising in acclaim for Ben-Hur? (10)
CHARIOTEER Insert the abbreviation for American and a rising into a shout of approval (acclaim)

Down

1d           French author of Dune? (4)
SAND A French novelist or the tiny grains of rock which make up a dune

2d           Family member‘s base within walls of Fort Knox, in complex (4,2,3)
NEXT OF KIN The letter that is the base of the natural system of logarithms inserted into an anagram (complex) of the ‘walls’ of ForT and KNOX IN

3d           Contents of typical Indian drink (5)
LASSI The inside letters (contents) of traditionally accepted or well-established (typical)

4d           Female figure repeatedly played western stereotype (7)
SHERIFF The female named before and a repeatedly played musical phrase or figure

5d           Improve an empty castle after changes regularly rejected (7)
ENHANCE AN (from the clue) and the outside letters (empty) of CastlE go after a reversal (rejected) of the regular letters of cHaNgEs

7d           Pet organisation based in Channel Islands (5)
CORGI The DT’s crossword pet of the day – an abbreviated organisation inserted (based) in the abbreviated Channel Islands

8d           Poor team might face this concerning stage ahead of England, say, dismissing leader (10)
RELEGATION The usual concerning or on the subject of, a stage and what England could be said to be without the first letter (dismissing leader)

11d         Admirer might be agitated to become this? (7)
MARRIED An anagram (agitated) of ADMIRER

14d         Supplying core part of aqueduct with hose (10)
STOCKINGED Supplying and the ‘core’ part of aquEDuct

16d         Greek character alternatively keeping microphone on (7)
OMICRON A conjunction used to link alternatives into which is inserted (keeping) an informal name for a microphone, the result followed by ON (from the clue)

18d         Maybe taxed in April, late as ever (3,2,4)
ILL AT EASE Hidden in aprIL LATE AS Ever

20d         Giant boar eating dog up (7)
GOLIATH A reversal (up) of a boar ‘eating’ a verb meaning to dog or follow

21d         Increasingly difficult to stash nothing – for one? (7)
HOARDER The letter representing nothing inserted into (to stash) increasingly difficult

23d         Quick reconstruction of 24 avoiding parts of LA (5)
FLEET An anagram (reconstruction) of the solution to 24a without LA

25d         Stretch around side of bar, in this activity? (5)
LIMBO An informal name for a lengthened luxury vehicle goes around the ‘side’ of Bar

26d         Name taken by Busta Rhymes (4)
STAR Hidden in the last two words of the clue  I am grateful to Prime for making sure that the clue that went onto a second sheet of paper could be solved without having to write it out on the first page