Toughie No 929 by Notabilis
That was like throwing three pickled onions into a thimble!
(Sid Waddell 1940-2012 RIP)
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
When you see that Notabilis is the Toughie setter, you know you are in for a treat, and today is no exception.
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
1a Cover is more elegant without repetition (7)
{ SMOTHER } – a verb meaning to cover is derived by dropping one of the repeated letters from an adjective meaning more elegant
5a Notorious robber mostly got around injunction when trading was shaken up (3,4)
{ BIG BANG } – most of one of the Great Train Robbers around an injunction – the definition is a reference, not to the possible origin of the universe, but to the changes in the system and rules of the British Stock Exchange, instituted on 27 October 1986 – I was working at the International Commodities Clearing House at the time and remember it well
9a In Riviera’s setting, one is right about fabulous girl (7)
{ MERMAID } – the three-letter abbreviation for the area which includes the Riviera around the reversal (about) of a phrase meaning one is (1,2) and R(ight)
10a Banff setting theatre blatantly uses in review (7)
{ ALBERTA } – the setting of Banff in Canada, not the one in Aberdeenshire, is hidden (uses) and reversed (in review) inside the clue
11a Packing semi-automatic rifle, came to Land’s End (5)
{ LIMIT } – a semi-automatic rifle inside a verb meaning came to land or alighted
12a Unscramble hint before another turns up against it (2,3,4)
{ IN THE CART } – an anagram (unscramble) of HINT followed by (before) another hint, this time reversed (turns)
13a Threaten to break banks , as secondary school administrator must do (3,4)
{ RUN HIGH } – a phrase meaning, for a river, to be close to overflowing could be what a secondary school administrator must do
14a Unstable prohibitionist harnesses extra energy (7)
{ DODDERY } – a noun, more usually used as an adjective, meaning a prohibitionist or teetotaller around (harnesses) extra, as in left over, and E(nergy)
16a Enjoy loose domesticity with drudge when in drink (5,2)
{ SHACK UP ) – a literary or journalistic drudge inside a small mouthful of alcoholic drink
19a Don’t speak with favourites about dam replacement (7)
{ STEPMUM } – a word meaning don’t speak and some favourites all reversed give a replacement for a dam or mother
22a Target for darts having last of poison contained by drug’s essence? (9)
{ NINESCORE } – A charade of the final letter (last) of poisoN, a two-letter word meaning contained by, the usual single-letter drug, the S from ‘S and a word meaning the essence – it wouldn’t have been the same if Sid Waddell had called this out every time three darts went in the treble twenty!
24a Group from central Somalia with Farah, say, on location in Sweden (5)
{ MALMO } – the middle three letters (group) of SoMALia followed by the first name of Olympic double-gold medallist Farah
25a Sport is ultimately a disappointment for a philosopher (7)
{ RUSSELL } – the two-letter abbreviation for a sport followed by the final letter (ultimately) of iS and a disappointment or let-down
26a Black stone carried in anger, to show it (7)
{ BRISTLE } – B(lack) followed by ST(one) inside (carried) a four-letter word meaning anger gives a verb meaning to show anger
27a Material providing strength and power for leading trio in film industry (7)
{ PLYWOOD } – P(ower) replaces the first three letter (leading trio) of the place most associated with the film industry
28a Lacking variations when contrarily stopping something they’re based on? (3,4)
{ THE SAME } – a two-letter word meaning when reversed (contrarily) inside (stopping) a basis for things lacking variations
Down
1d Piece of embroidery is small, getting bigger (7)
{ SAMPLER } – S(mall) followed by an adjective meaning bigger
2d Disarray as roman type employed in galleys ? (7)
{ OARSMAN } – an anagram (disarray as roman) of AS ROMAN
3d Detect sound of clock keeping seconds down (9)
{ HEARTSICK } – a phrase (4,4) meaning to detect the sound of a clock around (keeping) S(econds)
4d Sorrel or bay , main leaves seared on prepared food (7)
{ REDDISH } – drop sea (main) from seaRED and add some food prepared and ready to eat
5d Blooming after all the rest in part of garden (7)
{ BLASTED } – an adjective meaning blooming or darned the position of being after all the rest inside part of a garden
6d Billions overlooked in gibberish which underlies peak in housing ? (5)
{ GABLE } – drop one of the B(illion)s from some gibberish
7d Male ejected from wedding when one’s raised high temper (3,4)
{ AIR RAGE } – drop the M(ale) from a wedding and then move the I (one) up (raised0
8d I must leave in a hurry after beginning to get very ill (7)
{ GHASTLY ] – drop the I (I must leave) from an adverb meaning in a hurry and put what’s left after the initial letter (beginning) of Get
15d Lie marked out as unrealistic (5-4)
{ DREAM-LIKE } – an anagram (out) of LIE MARKED
16d Dash past with run for good place to get bronze ? (7)
{ SUNTRAP } – an anagram (dash) of PAST with RUN
17d Pardon little woman for decorating home (7)
{ AMNESTY } – put a Little Woman (the youngest of the March sisters) around a bird’s home
18d Rising sea surrounds old place filled with inhabitants (7)
{ PEOPLED } – reverse another name for the sea around O(ld) and PL(ace)
19d What makes tongue tingle and female diarist’s heart flutter (7)
{ SHERBET } – The female pronoun followed by the middle letter (heart) of diaRist and a flutter or gamble (thanks Pegasus) - I originally thought this was a reference to Bridget Jones’ Diary, but I have never read the book nor seen the film, nor will I!
20d One fired up in purpose in revolution’s territorial force (7)
{ MILITIA } – I (one) and a verb meaning fired up inside the reversal (revolution) of a purpose
21d Mass on Jovian moon topped landscape from millions of years ago (7)
{ MIOCENE } –M(ass) followed by a Jovian moon and a landscape without its initial letter (topped)
23d Deal with opening position of queen’s bishop’s pawn in commentary? (3,2)
{ SEE TO } – sounds like (in commentary) the opening position of the white queen’s bishop’s pawn on the chessboard
They don’t get much better than this.
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Absolutely superb – thanks to Notabilis and BD.
For 11a I thought that the definition was just ‘end’ with lit being ‘came to land’.
11a That’s what I thought too.
Same here.
Fabulous toughie from Notablis, I’ve been struggling with it most of the morning but now it’s done I’m not too sure why I found it so difficult. Many thanks to Notablis and to BD for the hints. 5*/5* +.
I thought last fridays Toughie was difficult but this seemed a notch harder, many favourites including 8d 12a 19a and 23d thanks to Notabilis and to Big Dave for the review.
Agree with BB’s comment above. Took ages to unravel but looking at the answers now I wonder what the difficulty was. Splendid stuff!
5*/5* from me too.
Thanks to Notabilis and BD.
Superbly wonderfully tough Toughie – it took me on and off all morning (I did a bit before official start time and then carried on and off until just before lunch) it was a game of four corners SE NW NE and then finally SW but as Big Boab says when you have finished you wonder why it took you so long to see the wordplay, which is, of course,the mark of a very clever setter.
Thanks to Notabilis for a really super Toughie and to BD for explaining it all.
BTW, a truly horrible grid IMO – like 4 separate crosswords which I did solve one at a time (just for the hell of it)!
superb- best setter on the grid by a mile
Dave Re 19d I read it as female-she diarist heart-r flutter bet.
Thanks – once I thought it was something to do with the over-weight diary writer I lost interest.
I am in awe of every one of you who could figure out the word play and completed this without hints. I managed about half on my own, with no real idea why my answer was correct except that it just made sense to me. Many, many thanks, Big Dave for the hints! I’d thank the setter, too, but I’m still reeling from the onslaught on my brain.
Extremely enjoyable stuff, great fun.
An excellent puzzle, which I found quite hard, but not as tough as last Friday’s Elgar puzzle.
Many thanks to Notabilis, and to BD for the review. 4*/5* for me.
Toughest crossword that I have had the patience to complete ,but because it was so enjoyable .Completed NW,SE,NE and finally SW which took by far the longest but as others have said you think Why ?
Thanks very much .
Took a lot of effort but we got there in the end and even managed to parse everything correctly. NE was the last in. Until we had the initial G for 8d even tried to justify putting “Big Dave” for 5a. At least the first word in the clue worked as a definition. Initially tried a much more scatological last word in 12a too. As you can see we had a lot of fun.
Thanks Notabilis and BD.
Managed to stagger over the line well behind the rest of the field.
Tough but not as tough as last Friday! I actually managed to complete over three quarters without resorting to dictionary and only had three left when I resorted to hints (only had to highlight 19d – you are missing a fantastic movie BD. If you can’t face Bridget Jones try one of H Fielding’s other ones. Cause Celeb is on my top 200 list (along with many Jilly Cooper, Jane Austen and Julian Barnes titles).
Going against the grain, a la Pommers last Friday, I really keeel hauled myself through this and I do have respect for the setter, No lol moments for me. Guess that is why I’m a mere solver and novice. Sorry Notabilis. Mea Culpa. ta BD for the hints
Thank goodness the cryptic today was not time consuming which gave me a chance to do this beautifully constructed crossword. Thank you.