Sunday Toughie No 241 by Zandio
Full Review by Gazza
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This puzzle was published on 06/08/26
A very enjoyable puzzle from Zandio this week.
Across Clues
1a Dad writing stuff, more unwell apparently – here’s the solution (10)
PAINKILLER: assemble an affectionate word for father, some liquid writing stuff and a comparative which could conceivably mean (apparently) ‘more unwell’.
6a Biblical character as put over in most European countries (4)
ESAU: reverse (put over) AS inside the abbreviation for the body that most European countries belong to.
9a Bridge, popular card game (7)
PONTOON: double definition.
10a This country rejected stand by Italy originating from another country (7)
KUWAITI: string together the reversal (rejected) of the abbreviation for our country, a verb to stand by or hang fire and the IVR code for Italy.
12a Like a Christie sleuth with verbosity and delicacy (7,6)
BELGIAN WAFFLE: the nationality of Monsieur Poirot and a synonym of verbosity or long-windedness.
14a Argues with essentially cryptic clues (6)
PLEADS: the central (essentially) letter of cryptic and a synonym of clues or pointers.
15a Reserved unopened passes for veterans (3,5)
OLD HANDS: cold (reserved) without its opening letter and a verb meaning passes or delivers.
17a One’s often fault-finding with our EV – i.e. we’re packing it in (8)
REVIEWER: hidden (packing it in) in the clue.
19a Oddly applied dirty broom to decay (3,3)
DRY ROT: the odd letters of ‘dirty broom to’.
22a Hotel next to rickety age-old bridge that gets shelled (4-6,3)
HARD-BOILED EGG: the letter that hotel represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet followed by an anagram (rickety) of AGE-OLD BRIDGE.
24a King visits universities – twinning the French one comes with strings attached (7)
UKULELE: the chess abbreviation for king goes into (visits) two occurrences of an abbreviation for university. That’s followed by a double dose (twinning) of a French definite article.
25a Old-fashioned prison said: “Flog more” (7)
OUTSELL: an adjective meaning ‘no longer in fashion’ and what sounds like in speech (said) a prison or lock-up.
26a Bound to study Kew’s borderless garden (4)
EDEN: adjacent to (bound to) a study or lair is the middle (borderless) letter of Kew.
27a Thousand will enter ground and streak thus? (5-5)
STARK-NAKED: a semi-all-in-one. An abbreviation for kilo- (thousand) goes inside an anagram (ground) of AND STREAK.
Down Clues
1d The old man‘s two secretaries (4)
PAPA: two occurrences of the abbreviation for a top secretary.
2d Base in which international poor belong (7)
IGNOBLE: an abbreviation for international followed by an anagram (poor) of BELONG.
3d Learned Ed’s invested in own-label keg brewing (13)
KNOWLEDGEABLE: ED gets inserted (invested) into an anagram (brewing) of OWN-LABEL KEG.
4d Pulse advanced – one that’s over fifty (6)
LENTIL: a verb meaning advanced or loaned and the Roman numeral for one precede (over, in a down clue) the Roman numeral for fifty.
5d Get going, playing opponents on electronic device (8)
ENKINDLE: abbreviations for two opponents playing bridge and the trade name of the most well-known electronic e-reader.
7d Set machine-gun to muffle if loud (7)
STIFFEN: the name of a WWII-vintage British machine-gun contains (to muffle) IF and the musical abbreviation for loud.
8d After-school study centre? (10)
UNIVERSITY: cryptic definition.
11d Distressed in hearing If by Victorian writer offering everyday fare (7-6)
WEATHER-BEATEN: homophones (in hearing) of a) a synonym of ‘if’ and b) the surname of the author of a famous Book of Household Management in Victorian times,
13d Surgical procedure time given by hospital pre-empts oxygen depletion in theatre (5,5)
OPERA HOUSE: glue together an abbreviated surgical procedure, a word for a distinct period of history and the map abbreviation for hospital. That all precedes (pre-empts) the chemical symbol of oxygen and a synonym of depletion or consumption.
16d Sorry it’s misshapen, it entangled in the middle (8)
PENITENT: a hidden word which appears exactly at the centre of ‘misshapen it entangled’.
18d Wild devourer leaves nothing in this? (7)
VERDURE: an anagram (wild) of DEV[o]URER after the removal of the zero-shaped letter.
20d Students produce this endless fury, impotent in articulation (3,4)
RAG WEEK: a synonym of fury without its end letter and what sounds like (in articulation) an adjective meaning impotent or ineffectual.
21d Account of this person stuck on motorway somewhere in South America, backed up (6)
MEMOIR: the objective pronoun that a person would use of themselves is placed (stuck) before the abbreviation for motorway and the reversal (backed up, in a down clue) of the old capital of Brazil.
23d Ran and fell down, scratching tummy briefly (4)
BLED: remove (scratched) the shortened form (briefly) of ‘tummy’ from the start of a verb meaning fell down (like Jill in the nursery rhyme).
Thanks, Gazza, for the solutions.
Amazingly, I got them all right. Therefore, so must many others have done so in what was an agreeable and enjoyable puzzle.
5d – “enkindle” is a word probably only encountered in crosswords.
18d – was very skilful in that the beast ate everything.
Thanks to setter as well.