Toughie 3738

Toughie No 3738 by Donnybrook

Hints and Tips by crypticsue

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

I thought this was a properly  tough Toughie, for both a Wednesday and a Donnybrook

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought

Across

1a           Who may upset Rick … (6)
HAYMOW An anagram (upset) of WHO MAY produces a rick with a lower-case R

5a           … proud leader in the Levant? (8)
EMBOSSED A chief or leader inserted into an abbreviated way of referring to the Levant

10a         Black sheep first to feature in company game (6)
CRAMBO A male sheep goes first before the abbreviation for Black and then ‘features’ in an abbreviated company.  A game in which one player gives a word to which another finds a rhyme

11a         Plans as heartless Macbeth may shape? (8)
SCHEMATA An anagram (may shape) of AS and MACbETH (‘heartless’ telling you to omit the B

12a         Festival time: no fruit with sangria strangely (15)
TRANSFIGURATION An anagram (strangely) of T (time) NO FRUIT and SANGRIA. The Christian festival, celebrated on 6 August, of the glorification of Christ’s appearance before three of his disciples

16a         An academic keeping promises is right for the church (8)
ADVOWSON A and an academic ‘keeping’ promises.  The right of appointing a clergyman to a church benefice

18a         Get new working implements back for criminal (6)
LOOTER A reversal (back) of a way of saying get new working implements

20a         Hieronymus I in French Catholic Church (6)
JEROME Hieronymus was another name used by this early Christian priest.   The French word for I and the Catholic Church

21a         Ace with two clubs a roguish child holds in game (8)
BACCARAT The abbreviation for Ace, two of the abbreviation for the suit of Clubs, and A (from the clue) all inserted into a roguish child

22a         Power kept by the Cardinal and his converted sect member (15)
CHRISTADELPHIAN A member of a small religious sect founded in the USA.   An anagram (converted) of P (power) THE CARDINAL AND HIS

27a         Attitude I put on for god (8)
POSEIDON An attitude, I (from the clue) and put on

28a         Scientist reversing excellent success (6)
DARWIN A reversal of a slang (especially and originally American) adjective meaning excellent followed by a success

29a         Seaweed wraps around Rhode Island figure (8)
TRIANGLE Coarse seaweed ‘wraps’ around the abbreviation for the State of Rhode Island

30a         Bird in Central Greece unchanging in poems (6)
ETERNE A seabird inserted into the central letters of grEEce gives us an archaic and poetical word for unchanging

Down

2d           Sky link to publicise game (3-6)
AIR-BRIDGE Publicise or make public knowledge and a card game

3d           Note about metronome set for Danse macabre? (7,4)
MEMENTO MORI The third note of the tonic sol-fa scale goes about an anagram (set) of METRONOME

4d           Writer Pound probing texture (5)
WOOLF The abbreviation for Pound Sterling ‘probing’ a texture or weft

6d           Losing position, historian better entertained here? (5)
MACAU Remove the three-letter position at the end of the surname of a Victorian-era historian to get a territory of China that is the world’s largest gambling hub

7d           Longer and shorter periods written up in last letter (5)
OMEGA Reverse (written up in a Down solution) a long period of time and an informal short period of time

8d           Mystic Laplander importing whiskey (5)
SWAMI Someone from Lapland ‘importing’ the letter represented by Whiskey in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet

9d           Kitchen item in drawer perhaps in restaurant (7)
DRAINER An abbreviated artist (drawer d’oh !!!) inserted into a small, inexpensive restaurant (another ‘esp US’)

13d         Torment involves Bill having turned to Satan? (4,3)
GONE BAD Provoke, incite or torment into which is inserted a reversed (having turned) a dialect word for a beak (bill)

14d         Boozer cancelled in Plato’s work for scrap (5)
RELIC Remove a drinking establishment from Plato’s best-known work

15d         Present ploy finally decisive in long-term investment? (6,5)
TROJAN HORSE The Greeks invested ten long years in the Siege of Troy, their cunning gift finally bringing the siege to an end

17d         Rope fixed with ambassador coming aboard (5)
SHEET As well as indicating that the abbreviated ambassador is inserted into a synonym for set ‘coming aboard’ also hints that this rope is attached to a sail on a ship

19d         Issue beginning to engage mother country (9)
EMANATION The ‘beginning’ to Engage, an informal mother and a country

20d         Sink white ball at first: all to play for? (7)
JACKPOT The small white ball in a game of bowls goes first before a verb meaning to pocket a snooker or billiard ball (sink) The second use of ‘first’ to indicate which part of the wordplay goes before the other

23d         Inspired poet from Dublin bringing down leader? (5)
RISHI The ‘leader’ of someone from Dublin moved to the end of the word gives us a sage or poet

24d         Piece of plant entirely extracted from leek (5)
SCION Extract the synonym for entirely from a leek or other type of allium with a slim bulb

25d         A ring for a bunch of keys? (5)
ATOLL These keys are islands.   A (from the clue) and a verb meaning to ring a bell with small measured strokes

26d         Spooner’s need initially discussed in two Parisian articles (5)
LADLE Nothing whatsoever to do with the dreaded Reverend but something required for spooning (another d’oh moment)  – The initial letter of Discussed inserted into the French (as used in Paris) female and male definite articles