Toughie No 1304 by Micawber
A leg end in his own lifetime
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
An enjoyable puzzle that wasn’t all that difficult. That was fine by me because I was pushed for time this morning.
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Across
1a Product of confused dreaming, but real — a once-in-a-lifetime destination? (7,8)
BERMUDA TRIANGLE: An anagram (confused) of DREAMING BUT REAL gives an area where ships and aeroplanes are alleged to have mysteriously disappeared
9a Plant used to sweeten retro tomato sauces — mash soundly (5,4)
SUGAR BEET: A reversal of Italian sauces containing tomato + a homophone of ‘to mash’
10a Trade Union member picketing hospital for strike (5)
THUMP: Abbreviations for Trade Union and Member (of Parliament) round H (hospital)
11a Superhuman — bowled out in classic style (5)
IONIC: Remove B (bowled) from a word meaning superhuman (especially with parts of the body replaced with electronic devices)
12a See if wandering past backward places makes confused (9)
STUPEFIES: An anagram (wandering) of SEE IF follows a reversal of ‘places’
13a Seeing fit to prosecute charity in case of intoxication (6,2)
TRYING ON: Seeing whether a garment fits = ‘to prosecute’ + an abbreviation for a type of organization that is neither a part of a government nor a conventional for-profit business inside the first and last letters (case) of IntoxicatioN
14a Beginning to freeze stiff? (6)
FRIGID: The first letter of Freeze + ‘stiff’. The whole clue provides the definition
16a England, following on, are in for payback (6)
REBATE: E (England) follows ‘on’ and ‘are in (at cricket)’
18a Cooks skins beforehand? (8)
PREPARES: A prefix denoting ‘beforehand’ + ‘shaves the skin off’
22a Turning dusky gold, Tuesday’s moon not full at time of harvest? (3-6)
MID-AUTUMN: A reversal of ‘dusky’ + the chemical symbol for gold + a 2-letter abbreviation for Tuesday + the first and last letters of MooN
23a Intuitive ability held back by mateRIAL Facts (5)
FLAIR: Hidden in reverse in material facts
24a Could it be a legend happening? (5)
AFOOT: Tut, tut! You know some people (or at least one person) will disapprove. For ‘legend’ read ‘leg end’. A + what’s on the end of a leg
25a One supporting hip kind of school gets second-highest mark in style (5,4)
THIGH BONE: A kind of school and the second-highest mark (after A) inside ‘style’
26a Prepared for battle, using choppers to transport weapons? (5,2,3,5)
ARMED TO THE TEETH: The choppers are the ones in your mouth
Down
1d Born support musician (7)
BASSIST: B (born) + ‘to assist’
2d Early 19th century vehicle’s identified by this concise encyclopedia (7)
REGENCY: The combination of letters and numbers shown on a motor vehicle + an abbreviation for ‘encyclopedia’
3d World body cut corners dreadfully, one from 1950s having failed to move with the times (15)
UNRECONSTRUCTED: A world body + an anagram (dreadfully) of CUT CORNERS + an unruly adolescent from the 1950s
4d A kind of loving? The opposite (8)
AVERSION: A + ‘kind (variant)’
5d Leaders of the group in defeat in low spirits? (6)
ROTGUT: The first letters of The Group inside an utter defeat = a cheap poor-quality alcoholic drink
6d Might bowler be let go so peremptorily? (2,3,4,2,1,3)
AT THE DROP OF A HAT: The bowler is one that is worn on the head
7d Forcing out unionist government outwardly making progress (7)
GOUGING: U (unionist) and G (government) inside ‘making progress’
8d Former lover allowed pictures to be made public (7)
EXPOSED: A former lover + sat for an artist or photographer
15d Show off cereal bowl (8)
BRANDISH: A cereal + a bowl
16d Sweet bachelor breaking into a dance (3,4)
RUM BABA: A sweet (dessert) = a Bachelor of Arts inside a dance
17d Boredom’s chronic in place for retired people (7)
BEDROOM: An anagram (chronic) of BOREDOM
19d Following recipe, added trimmed meat to pan with head of endive and stirred again (7)
REAWOKE: R (recipe) + the middle two letters of mEAt + a pan used in Chinese cookery + the first letter of Endive
20d Harsh noise from church covered by ‘rock’, loosely (7)
SCREECH: An abbreviation denoring ‘church goes after a sloping mass of loose weathered rock on the side of a mountain
21d Only two elements, to be precise (4,2)
JUST SO: ‘Only’ + the atomic symbols of two common elements
Good stuff
Good fun as usual from Micawber and, as you say Bufo, not too taxing – tho, being a cricket ignoramus, I did spend a while on 16a wondering if “following on” was “re-bat”.
Particular favourites were 13a [seeing fit is clever], 5d [low spirits ditto] and 19d [stirred again should have been obvious but the culinary context worked very well].
Many thanks to Micawber and Bufo.
Thanks to the Telegraph for putting that ad next to the toughie. It gave me enough space to scribble the two long anagrams. I first had unconstructured for 3d but the Greek style of 11a and the beetroot of 9a soon proved me wrong. I only had to reveal 3 answers today as 5d and 7d were new to me and could not find anything sensible for 19d. Great entertainment for a dismal day again. Will it ever stop raining? Thanks to Micawber and to Bufo for the review.
Right hand side went in quite quickly. Left hand side was slower. And then there was 24A, which remained unsolved. No comment on that clue. Well, not one that’s fit to print. Someone please enlighten me on what NGO stands for in 13A. 1A (when the penny dropped) and 5D and my favorites today, with 9A close behind. Thanks to Micawber for a very enjoyable puzzle, despite 24A, and to Bufo for the review.
here you go – A non-governmental organization (NGO) is any non-profit, voluntary citizens’ group which is organized on a local, national or international level.
Thanks. that’s new to me.
Our eyes lit up with glee when we saw who the setter was to be, and once again we were not disappointed. The long answers went in without too much of a fight and this gave heaps of checkers for the trickier clues. All good fun.
Thanks Micawber and Bufo.
As always for me with Toughies it took ages but I especially liked 22a with its various nuances, and 17d took far too long to dawn. Alas failed totally on 24a. Leg end indeed!
4*/4* With thanks to Micawber and Bufo.
Despite completing solving this Toughie, I can’t pretend that it was one that I especially enjoyed – it reminded me of the cross-country runs I did as a schoolboy – glad I finished, but didn’t like the run.
Clearly none of you lot remembers Henry Cow, but I bet Petitjean does. They were an avant-garde rock group active in the 70s. One of their better-known albums was “Legend”, the cover of which depicted a sock.
Enjoyed this as always with a Micawber puzzle, thanks to Bufo and setter, and the parsing of 16a has only just twigged.
Finished this very late last night – actually early this morning – so didn’t blog it!
Faves : 13a , 22a, 7d & 21d.
Just finished this morning (Sat). Very enjoyable puzzle with the exception of 1a. This explanation didn’t seem to be up to Micawber’s usual high standard. The rest however was great stuff 9a, 12a, and 22a all being excellent fare, for example. So thank you, Micawber and thank you Bufo. Now to Friday……is it as hard as usual? Sh-Shoney.