Toughie No 3204 by proXimal
Hints and tips by Dutch
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *****
I enjoyed this, only just into 3* time. The clues all read very nicely
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.
Across
9a Sheep gathering around after a drink (9)
AMERICANO: A type of sheep containing (gathering) the 2-letter Latin abbreviation for around, all after A from the clue
10a TV presenter Richard having no tips for singer (5)
ADELE: The surname of TV presenter Richard without the outer letters (no tips)
11a Nit perhaps beset by wound in Roman province’s running event (12,4)
THREELEGGED RACE: I’m used to the first word being hyphenated. What ‘nit’ is an example of goes inside (beset by) a verb meaning wound, all inside (in) a Roman province
12a King aboard vessel with aluminium exterior (7)
FRONTAL: The Latin abbreviation for king goes inside a vessel used in baptism, plus the chemical symbol for aluminium
13a Upset tons with rebuke (7)
TEARFUL: The abbreviation for tons and a rebuke or reprimand
15a Title to divine German tale? (15)
RUMPELSTILTSKIN: I misspelt this at first which of course gave me some problems later. Not really two meanings, but two definitions and the whole clue could also read as a definition
19a Be seen leaving Aberdeenshire rum that’s plundered (7)
HARRIED: An anagram (rum) of ABERDEENSHIRE without (leaving) the letters in BE SEEN
22a Players directed and made changes on board (7)
CASTLED: The players in a movie or theatre, and a word meaning directed or guided
24a Politicians in private, most cautious banning outsiders (4,11)
HOME SECRETARIES: A word meaning ‘in’, a word meaning private, then a 7-letter word meaning ‘most cautious’ without the outer letters (banning outsiders)
26a First of Camorra dons turned clean (5)
SCOUR: The first letter of Camorra is inside (dons, as in ‘wearing’) a word meaning turned or gone off
27a Moves from position and avoids being pierced by missile oddly overlooked (9)
DISLODGES: A 6-letter word meaning avoids contains (pierced by) the even (oddly overlooked) letters in ‘missile’
Down
1d Tense quarrel after leader’s demoted (4)
PAST: A quarrel or row with the first letter moved down two spaces
2d Item passed down on radio broadcast tower (8)
HEIRLOOM: A homophone (on radio) of a 3-letter word meaning to broadcast and a verb meaning to tower
3d Mum is coming over fast (6)
SILENT: A reversal (coming over) of IS plus a Christian fast
4d Swift beasts fixed look over hawk coming north (8)
GAZELLES: A 4-letter fixed look, and the reversal (coming north) a word meaning to hawk
5d Scrapped opening of obituary that’s nasty in newspaper (6)
FOUGHT: The first letter (opening) of obituary and an exclamation of disgust (“that’s nasty”), all inside the abbreviation for a pink newspaper
6d Light vehicle in America stopped deer, so Spooner says (8)
HANDCART: How Americans might say stopped and a stag deer, as Spooner might say
7d Crazy amount this account might show — unfathomable (6)
BEHALF: An anagram (crazy) of AMOUNT + (THE ANSWER) gives UNFATHOMABLE
8d Simple home requires fences (4)
MERE: Hidden ( … fences)
12d Conducive to thrill abandoning stream for river (5)
FORTH: A preposition that means ‘conducive to’ or ‘in favour of’, plus TH(rill) without (abandoning) another word for stream
14d Gave wrong information holding note that’s wrinkled (5)
LINED: A 4-letter word that means ‘gave wrong information’ containing (holding) the abbreviation for note
16d One despatched from base, girl on a railway (8)
EMISSARY: The base of natural logarithms, an unmarried girl, A from the clue and the abbreviation for railway
17d Sides of invention fold up (8)
INCREASE: The outer letters (sides) of inventions and another word for fold
18d Big profits from book about misfortune (8)
KILLINGS: A biblical book goes around (about) a 3-letter misfortune
20d Type of film from Hammer, say, set in space (6)
ROMCOM: The initials(?) of American rapper Hammer inside (set in) a word meaning space
21d Cut around East End (6)
DECIDE: Reversal (around) of a word (past tense) meaning cut, then the abbreviation for east
23d Kept feeding pig, constant companion (6)
SHADOW: A 3-letter word meaning kept or owned goes inside (feeding) a pig
24d Legwear selected, but no top (4)
HOSE: A 5-letter word meaning selected, but without the first letter (no top)
25d Elite soldiers, hard band (4)
SASH: Some special forces and the abbreviation for hard
I enjoyed 7d, which took me a while to see, but I think my favourite is 15a (which also took me a while to see!). Which clues did you like?
I think proXimal’s toughies are tough because he disguises his definitions very well, e.g. 12a, 7d, 21d and even 15a I guess. So those 4 were pretty sneaky and I liked 9a and 20d too.
Thanks to proXimal and to Dutch.
Most enjoyable. 7d gave me some gyp but the penny dropped during a chat with ALP on the backpager blog.
Re 11a, the puzzle app has the first word hyphenated, as Dutch expected it to be.
Thanks proXimal for the challenge and Dutch for the review.
Also hyphenated in the dead tree version.
I don’t understand the first part of 15a. Steady progress and towards the gentle end of the spectrum for a Friday.
Thanks to proXimal and Dutch.
You had to guess his name!
Thankyou.
As Philbert says, 7d required some Reverso, especially with its rather buried definition. Very clever, if a tad mean. But this was hugely enjoyable – some lovely clues. I see the ever-impressive Dutch has marked 15a as his favourite. And, while I bow to his greater judgement, I remain unconvinced. As a double definition it just seems a tad loose to me. I’m pretty sure there must be other German tales to which this applies (not with this letter count perhaps and certainly not with these checkers, but still). It read more like a quick than a cd/dd. But I may well be wrong – I often am. And it does make a change to have a spare afternoon rather than spending the day sweating over an Elgar. Not a criticism of the great man in any way, just an admission of my own inadequacy. Many thanks to proXimal, and Dutch, of course.
You had to guess his name!
Sorry erroneous message. I understand your comment.
How encouraging to complete the Friday Toughie. Very enjoyable but I bunged in 7D and 15A and still can’t understand the parsing. I must be dim. I also thought 11A should be hyphenated. Lots of ticks but I liked 23D.
Many thanks to Dutch and ProXimal.
7d in (outer letters of invention, sorry typo in hints)+ crease=fold
15a Rumpelstiltskin is a german tale which involves guessing his name ( title to divine)
Dutch I am embarrassed how long this clue took me to parse
11a Never mind the hyphenation … the enumeration is wrong (12,4)
We did wonder how to get 16 letters into 11a. Quite a lot of head-scratching for 7d too.
A really enjoyable and challenging solve for us.
Thanks proXimal and Dutch.
An eminently approachable Friday Toughie, requiring modest GK and considerable lateral thinking. Still perplexed by my biffed 7d – I understand the anagram element but not how the purported definition relates to the answer.
The incorrect enumeration of 11a (printed from the site) was a mild frustration but otherwise the three long clues went in relatively swiftly.
So many great clues, but I’ll go for 1a, 22a, 18d & 21d.
Many thanks to Proximal and Dutch
7d, 2nd def in chambers = sake, account
As in on behalf, on account
D, 7d. I was just wondering, and I might be completely wrong, if the confusion with the definititon is because it should be just “account” and not “this account”?
Somewhat late to the party here.
Encouraged to give this Friday Toughie a crack from the comments on the back pager I found it challenging enough for me but enjoyable and to a large degree rewarding.
However I absolutely could not see how to parse 7d and my answer was a bung in from the crossers, and now having read the hints I get the construct but not how the answer fits the clue?
For 11a I reached for Dutch’s help with the parsing, but even with that, and I know I am going to regret asking, I am still no wiser so would someone please help me see what must be obvious – I get the Roman province, but nits and wound???
Thanks to Proximal and Dutch, and to whomsoever can shine light on my darkness…
P, 11a. Nit perhaps (EGG) beset (or surrounded by) wound (REELED*) gives: REEL(EGG)ED. All placed in (inside) Roman province (THRACE) – [TH]REEL(EGG)ED [RACE]
* As in: The string was wound/REELED around a stick.
PS. The enumeration is (11,4) not (12,4).
Thank you, silly mind block as I could only see wound as in do harm not as in wind. Nit is a bit more perplexing as I did not think it an egg so much as a parasite( although you do get nit eggs).
Time for me to do a bit of research!
Thanks for your help.
Right, done my research, I stand corrected!
Nits are the eggs of head lice.
7d see previous comment
Some discussion on 15A.
In the eponymous tale the heroine has to find out (ie divine) the titular characters’ name (ie title) hence the answer is the title to divine.
Made a start this afternoon & finished it off this evening. Great to get a Friday Toughie that I’ve a reasonable prospect of completing. Disappointingly failed to register an unaided finish as my last two in 7d & even more annoyingly 13a (couldn’t think of the rebuke synonym) only yielded when I revealed the F checker but pleased to parse them all. Certainly the trickiest puzzle of the week as you’d expect & very enjoyable too.
Thanks to proXimal & to Dutch
I know that I am being thick but I still do not understand the answer to 7 down, despite reading all the hints and tips. Could someone please put me out of my misery by using words of only one syllable (or less ha ha) in the order of thought that is needed to reach the answer. I did guess “behalf” because it was the only word that fitted the letters I had, but I don’t get how behalf is the answer to any part of the clue. TIA
Welcome to the blog, Gay Freeman.
7d is what’s called a compound anagram. You have to make an anagram (crazy) of AMOUNT + your answer (this word meaning account) to get UNFATHOMABLE. Another way of getting to the answer is to remove the letters of AMOUNT from UNFATHOMABLE and make an anagram of what’s left to get BEHALF.
Behalf means account as in the request “Don’t go to any trouble on my account/behalf”.