Toughie 566

Toughie No 566 by Firefly

A Day of Sadness

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

Greetings from the Calder Valley.

The blog is tinged with sadness today as I learned yesterday of the death of Mike Laws. Mike was a former Times Crossword Editor, and was currently Independent Magazine (Inquisitor) Crossword Editor. Mike set puzzles under many pseudonyms including Fawley in the Guardian, Jude, Yorick and Ikela and others. I think he also had a couple of EV puzzles published in the Sunday Telegraph over the years. He also provided one in three of the Mephisto Crosswords in the Sunday Times. Many of you probably won’t have heard of him but his influence on the crossword world is immense. He was a larger-than-life character who was one of the experts both as a setter, editor and aficionado. His unusual appearance belied one of the most amazing minds and I know that many setters have benefited from his warm words of encouragement and advice.

A look at the Message Board on the Crossword Centre (http://www.boards2go.com/boards/board.cgi?&user=dharrison) will tell you the high regard in which Mike was held.

RIP Mike, we are all the better for having met and known you and your influence on the crossword world will live long with all of us.

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Back to today’s Firefly and this was a ferocious challenge, one of the toughest we have had for a while. It’s a pangrammatic puzzle (one with all the letters of the alphabet inside). It is also noticeable that there aren’t too many correct solvers on the Telegraph leader-boards, which is a sure-fire indication of where this sits on the difficulty scale. Some clever clues, although a couple seemed a bit too clever for their own good. I found it quite difficult to get a foot-hold in the puzzle and although my first few answers were in the top right corner, so was the last one I entered!

Thanks to Firefly for a really stern test. I hope to see some of you at the S&B gathering in London on Tuesday. If you can, please try to make it.

Favourite clues are in blue. Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.

Across

7a    Air-conditioning’s piercing sound can’t be repaired? That’s presumptuous (9)
{AUDACIOUS} I thought this was quite a tough clue to start with, but having received a nudge from my fellow-bloggers, it’s sort of obvious. I worked it out by the crossing letters, though I could see that AC = air conditioning. “Piercing” here means that it is to go inside, and although I thought it was to go inside a word that sounded like “can’t be repaired”, it turned out more obvious than that. AC actually goes inside a word meaning “sound” and a slang abbreviation for “can’t be fixed.”

8a    Printing ink empty — on blink? (5)
{BATIK} IK (“INK empty”, i.e. without the N) is added on to BAT (blink as in bat one’s eyelashes) to reveal a form of textile printing that uses wax.

10a    Pronounced Arnold somewhat wooden (6)
{CEDARN} I bet you’ve never heard of this word. Hidden in the phrase “Pronounced Arnold” is a word that means relating to a type of wood associated with Lebanon.

11a    Anagram of 9dn? There’s a catch there! (5,3)
{DRIFT NET} After realising that it couldn’t be an anagram of NINE DOWN, it turned out to be an anagram of the answer at 9 plus DN. That gives you somewhere you fill find a fisherman’s catch.

12a    Distracted traveller returning to earth — almost broken (6)
{EPERDU} Another unusual word. A word derived from the French and meaning distracted is found by taking an abbreviation for a commercial traveller and reversing it, attaching it to E (for Earth). Onto this add two thirds of a word that means “broken” – DUD

14a    Fixed penalty’s about the last straw (6)
{FINITE} The word for a financial penalty goes around IT ( the last straw) to give a word meaning fixed or definite.

16a    Lame duck? (4)
{GAME} A double definition which when put together makes this phrase. A word that means “lame” (and rhymes with it!) is also the type of bird that ducks (and pheasants, partridges and grouse) are.

17a    Cox for Hereford, perhaps? (5)
{STEER} Another double definition. A word meaning to cox (as in The Boat Race) and a word for a type of cattle such as a Hereford (or Jersey or Guernsey or Fresian!)

18a    OUTDOES (4)
{CAPS} This will probably divide the audience. Clever or too clever for its own good? It’s a cryptic definition of sorts. A word that means “outdoes” is shown in Capital Letters or it’s PC (as in computer keyboard) abbreviation. You could argue that it perhaps should have a question mark to indicate you need to think outside the box, but given the way it’s presented you could probably assume there’s something odd. I personally feel that it’s not quite complete, but how to amend it in such a way as to not lose its impact is tough. It would be interesting to see what you all feel, and what some of the “professional” setters think.

The Araucaria puzzle in yesterday’s Guardian had this clue, which works better for me. See what you think. Incidentally, our 90 year old superstar also managed to include Plan B, Kylie Minogue, and Scouting for Girls in his puzzle yesterday!

Could be ARIA 1100 HELP (10)

Answer below.

19a    Wrath with Opposition leader producing genuine conflict (3,3)
{HOT WAR} A phrase I hadn’t heard of, but means a “real conflict” (as opposed to the COLD WAR, which presumably is more psychological than combative). An anagram of WRATH, plus O (for Opposition leader) reveals this phrase.

21a    No time to sort out lines at start of service? Heavens! (6)
{IDYLLS} If you clean up or sort something out you do this. Remove T (no time), the first letter and add LL (lines) and S (start of service). This gives you a poetic word for heavens.

24a    Sounds as if Jacob conceivably will scrap casket (5,3)
{JEWEL BOX) Another one that I can’t decide if it’s clever or one that makes you suck your teeth. It’s a homophone clue that leads you to the likely religion of a person named Jacob and the fact that he might take part in a fight. That produces a phrase meaning a casket. Hmmm……

26a    Nothing wooden about Clay? (6)
{KAOLIN} A word meaning “nothing” is added to a type of hard wood and both then reversed to produce a type of china clay.

27a    Top brass briefly suffer hollow intelligence (2,3)
{LT GEN} Not often that you see an abbreviation used as an answer, but we have one here. A word that means suffer (or an infringement in tennis) is “hollow”, i.e. has its middle removed. This is added to a word meaning intelligence or information.

28a    Game miler painfully addressing technique (9)
{MAILMERGE} An anagram (indicated by “painfully”) of GAME MILER leads you to a computer way of addressing letters.

Down

1d    Got hot — regularly unbuckled top of denims (5)
{NUKED} A slang way of saying you’ve cooked something in a microwave can be found by taking the even letters (regularly) from UNBUCKLED and adding D (top of Denims)

2d Tentatively OK with appeal for growth? (3,5)
{OAK APPLE} An anagram (indicated by tentatively) of OK and APPEAL gives a fruit. I thought the definition was a bit weak here.

3d Part of Harrow’s headgear (6)
{PINNER} A word for a type of hat is also a district of the London Borough of Harrow, and the birthplace of Sir E H John.

4d Sound playground-type bike: one of four (4)
{QUAD} A rather clever four way definition. A word that defines a type of sound system, double stereo, the name for a playground or a walled enclosure in a school, a type of bike that has become popular over the past few years and a word that means a quarter, or one out of a batch of four. Clever, and well done, Firefly!

5d Interminable knocking on nursery door gets the cane (6)
(RATTAN} The sound made by someone knocking loses its last letter (interminable) and N (door, i.e. first letter) of “nursery” gives you a type of cane used in making furniture.

6d Tips seeds over skirts (9)
{SIDESTEPS} An anagram (indicated by “over”) of TIPS SEEDS produces a word meaning bypasses, skirts.

9d For 3, say, set up makeover — around Tuesday the First? (6)
{TITFER} A word that gives you a slang word for what 3 is (they wouldn’t use it in 3, would they?) is found by taking a word for a makeover or amendment, reversing it and placing it around T (first letter of Tuesday)

13d Where we all set out in some up-to-the-minute rig-outs (5)
{UTERI) Places that physically produce people are found hidden in the phrase “up-to-the-minute rig-outs”

15d Steamship hove to at port, piping at bow and stern lost in accident (9)
{VAPORETTO} An anagram (accident) of (HO)VE TO AT POR(T) without HOT (piping) from the first two letters and the last letter (bow and stern) produces the little motorboats found in Venice. Are these steamships?

17d Writer’s copy found in midst of refuse heap (6)
{SCRIBE} A word meaning to copy or cheat goes inside SE (The middle of “refuse heap”) and produces a word for a writer, especially in ancient times.

18d Recite list of clubs defunct (4,4)
{CALL OVER} If you read a list, you do this, and it can be found by taking C (for Clubs in bridge) and adding to it an expression meaning defunct.

20d Uprooted, you and I worked for The Listener (6)
{WEEDED} A homophone of “we did” is used in gardening to mean uprooted.

22d Join Lesotho’s countrymen (6)
{YOKELS} Country bumpkins are found by taking a word that means join (as in cattle) and adding LS (IVR for Lesotho).

23d Amazingly, monk’s stood up and gone euphoric (5)
{ZINGY) If you take AMAL (“Monk” stood up) from Amazingly, you will be left with a word that means happy, euphoric.

25d Bit of muck in instrument held up brief celebration (4)
{XMAS} A short word for a musical instrument is reversed and has M (bit of muck) inside gives a short word for an annual festivity.

Thanks to Firefly for a really stern challenge today.

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The answer to the Araucaria clue is ALPHAMERIC – clever!