Toughie No 3067 by Silvanus
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
A fairly straightforward but very entertaining puzzle which I made more difficult than I should have down South by writing the 14d answer in the 15d space which gave me problems until I twigged what I’d done. Many thanks to Silvanus.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a £500 Geordie spent up front conveying Violet regularly into city (6,6)
MILTON KEYNES: assemble the bookies’ slang word for £500, the abbreviated area of England associated with Geordie and the first letter of spent. Now insert regular letters of Violet to get the place given city status only last year. The word for £500 is thought to have originally come from India where said creature appeared on a 500 Rupee note.
8a Rebecca’s husband is about to ring breakdown service (5)
ISAAC: IS and an abbreviation for ‘about’ contain one of our breakdown services.
9a Community deserted golf presenter close to corrupt individual (5,4)
GHOST TOWN: concatenate the letter that golf stands for in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet, a presenter (on TV, say), the closing letter of corrupt and an adjective meaning individual or personal.
11a Type of muscles amiable Don develops, drug-free (9)
ABDOMINAL: an anagram (develops) of AMIABLE DON after you’ve removed the single-letter abbreviation for a drug.
12a Discovered drawers in synthetic fabric (5)
RAYON: drawing implements without their outer letters.
13a Scared of ferret I’d trained, one is bitten (9)
TERRIFIED: an anagram (trained) of FERRET I’D with the Roman numeral for one inserted.
16a Old Peruvians amongst listed actors appearing briefly (5)
INCAS: a synonym for amongst and a word for a list of actors appearing minus its last letter.
18a Travelled over for display of Wild West skills (5)
RODEO: a verb meaning travelled and the cricket abbreviation for over.
19a Lie Mark concocted to visit Delaware is unreal (9)
DREAMLIKE: an anagram (concocted) of LIE MARK goes inside the standard abbreviation for Delaware.
20a Flipping excited after eating The Greatest Dish! (5)
PILAU: an adverb meaning excited contains the pugilist known as The Greatest. Reverse it all.
22a Tom perhaps drinks spirit, large bottle ultimately, in carriage (9)
CABRIOLET: what a tom is contains a word meaning spirit or zest, the clothing abbreviation for large and the ultimate letter of bottle.
25a Pink vehicle pursued by News at Ten getting clamped (9)
CARNATION: a road vehicle is followed by two occurrences of the abbreviation for new with AT and what looks like ten clamped between them.
26a Separately son left to exit football club stadium (5)
ARENA: remove the abbreviations for son and left separately from a London football club.
27a Manage eager detective infiltrating graduate event (4,4,4)
MAKE ENDS MEET: a synonym of eager and an abbreviated police detective are contained inside an arts graduate and another word for a sporting event.
Down Clues
1d Wound in arm needed to be treated (9)
MEANDERED: an anagram (to be treated) of ARM NEEDED.
2d Midfielder’s first pass back blocked by United substitute (5)
LOCUM: stick together the first letter of midfielder and a mountain pass. Now reverse that and insert an abbreviation for united.
3d Instrument in car failing to display miles (5)
ORGAN: start with a sports car made by a very traditional British motor company and remove the abbreviation for miles. I remember Sir John Harvey-Jones in his BBC series Troubleshooter making various suggestions as to how the company could become more efficient – none of which seemed to find favour with the management at the time.
4d Korean, outwardly solemn character with keenness for learning (9)
KNOWLEDGE: the outer letters of Korean, a creature known for its solemn expression (and its wisdom) and a synonym of keenness or sharpness.
5d Doctor quite upset, lacking power to take on current university element (9)
YTTERBIUM: one of the abbreviations for a doctor and an adverb meaning quite or rather without the physics abbreviation for power get reversed. Finally insert the symbol for electric current and an abbreviation for university.
6d Carpenter essentially needs thin sort of wood (5)
EBONY: the central letter of carpenter and an adjective meaning thin.
7d Article probing historic MP represented as cynical (12)
MISANTHROPIC: insert one of our indefinite articles into an anagram (re-presented) of HISTORIC MP.
10d Unnecessary lesson at nine is arranged (3-9)
NON-ESSENTIAL: an anagram (is arranged) of LESSON AT NINE.
14d Give vaccine to popular old couple, oddly worried (9)
INOCULATE: glue together an adjective meaning popular, the abbreviation for old, the odd letters of couple and a verb meaning worried. I always think, wrongly, that the answer should be spelled with its second letter repeated.
15d It may hasten Labour entry into office (9)
INDUCTION: double definition, the first relating to the sort of labour that men are spared. LOL
17d Hot ingredients over time becoming most cool (9)
CHILLIEST: some hot-tasting ingredients and the physics abbreviation for time.
21d Grub regular vacationers consumed (5)
LARVA: hidden.
23d Articulate German engineer shows flexibility (5)
BENDS: this sounds like the surname of Carl (or Karl) the German automobile engineer.
24d No good leaving ungrateful person hopping mad (5)
IRATE: remove the abbreviation for ‘no good’ from a word for an ungrateful person.
Top of my list of ticked clues were 25a, 5d and 15d. Which one(s) made your list?
A fine complement to Ray T’s back pager but a bit of a head scratcher for me – 3.5*/4.5*
Candidates for favourite – 22a, 27a, 2d, and 6d – and the winner is 6d.
Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.
I didn’t find this excellent puzzle particularly tough even though there were a few complex parsings which took some unravelling.
My podium selection is 25a, 2d & 15d.
Many thanks to Silvanus for the fun and to Gazza for his usual entertaining review.
Very enjoyable indeed as is invariably the case with this setter.
I’ve got ticks all over my virtual sheet but I’ll mention 1,9&26a plus 2(my favourite) 5 (top-notch))&15d.
Many thanks indeed to Silvanus and Gazza.
Gentle but very entertaining. Many great clues, 25a was my pick of the bunch with 23d my only hmmm.
Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.
So much fun and my favourite humorous clue of the year so far in 15d.
Other big ticks went to 1,8&27a plus 7d.
Being very unscientific, I did need to check on 5d which looked extremely unlikely!
Many thanks to Silvanus for a most enjoyable puzzle and to Gazza for the review and cartoons.
I got through this quicker than today’s backpager, although I needed help with the element at 5d.
Many thanks to Silvanus for the enjoyment and to Gazza for the write-up.
Great fun, rather more straightforward than today’s backpager. Wrote in a couple without worrying about parsing them; for a brief while wanted the Old Peruvians to be bears or OP. Hon Mentions to 27a, 1d & 24d; COTD 20a.
Many thanks Silvanus and Gazza
15d was my favourite once I had twigged the double definition; very funny. Today’s two setters certainly set the bar pretty high, and this one was right up there amongst the best.
My thanks to Silvanus for the fun, and to Gazza for the cartoons.
Plain sailing in places and head scratching in others, perfect for a Thursday. Favourite was 9a. Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.
Many thanks to Gazza as always (and for recommending the puzzle on the back-page blog) and to those leaving comments. Much appreciated!
It’s always so good when our setters pop into the blog – thank you, Silvanus, and thanks for bringing us another of your excellent compilations. I’m still chuckling over 15d!
BOTW thus far for me which is nearly always the case when a Silvanus guzzle pops up. Unexpectedly gentle (a quicker completion than Ray T but with the advantage of a distraction free solve on the iPad) & even more unusually no parsing queries. Couldn’t begin to pick a fav from so many big ticks – 1,9,11,22,26&27a along with 2,4,5,10,14&15d my top six of each with not a dud in the grid.
Thanks to Silvanus & to Gazza – great cartoons as per. Didn’t know the origins of a monkey/pony. Having worked in the industry the slang was a language all of its own with some clearly made up – eg £15 was a commodore because it was 3x a lady (Lady Godiva/fiver)
Good evening
CRIKEY!!!!
For the first time ever, I finished the Toughie!
Thanks Gazza for the explanations, to which I had cause to refer on several occasions, and thanks to Silvanus. (Just don’t expect me to repeat this feat! 😉)
Great puzzle; really enjoyed it. Best clues for me 1a & 1d. ***/**** Thanks to setter
Great fun unpicking all the complicated parsing and ending up with a totally completed grid.
Very satisfying.
Thanks Silvanus and Gazza.
1*/4* ….
liked 1D “Wound in arm needed to be treated (9)”