Toughie No 3070 by Django
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
It took me a while to get on Django’s wavelength this morning and then when I had a full grid, the parsing of several of the clues took quite a bit of teasing out. As usual with one of this setter’s crosswords there were several things to make the solver smile and give a feeling of satisfaction on completion of this enjoyable puzzle
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought
Across
1a This implant ultimately mimics bone (6)
STAPES The ultimate letters of thiS and implanT and mimics or imitates combine to produce one of the tiny bones in the inner ear
5a Meet the cost of smooth, hard pavement (8)
FOOTPATH To meet the cost of something, smooth in the sense of precisely or fluent, and the abbreviation for Hard
10a Wind breaks through form of weather protection (6)
BROLLY A verb meaning to wind breaks or is inserted into a preposition meaning through
11a Church pastor peeled a cold vegetable (8)
CELERIAC The abbreviation for the Church of England, the inside (peeled) letters of a pastor or clergyman, A (from the clue) and the abbreviation for Cold – a vegetable that tastes a lot nicer than it looks!
12a Lively German ladies sob over musicians essentially releasing new patriotic song from Berlin (3,5,7)
GOD BLESS AMERICA This patriotic song was written by Irving Berlin and so has nothing to do with Germany! An anagram (lively) of GERMAn LADIES SOB and the ‘essential’ letter of musiCians
16a Address atmosphere during theatre around rehearsal (5,3)
TRIAL RUN Insert an address on the World Wide Web and an atmosphere into the abbreviation for a theatre on London’s South Bank and then reverse (around) the result
18a Attractive priest with cake on the counter (6)
NUBILE A reversal (on the counter) of crosswordland’s favourite Old Testament priest and a type of cake
20a Pre-noon power nap’s mostly controlling bad temper (6)
SPLEEN Most of a nap ‘controlling’ or going round the abbreviation for Power before (pre) the abbreviation for Noon
21a They cycled around in France and Spain with energy — they’re sometimes capped (3,5)
EYE TEETH Cycle or move the first two letters of THEY to the end and then insert (around) the French word for and, the IVR code for Spain and the abbreviation for Energy
22a Once government position ruins something — I will be needing correction (7,8)
HOUSING MINISTER An anagram (needing correction) of RUINS SOMETHING I
27a Powerful men called first for promotion (8)
MAILSHOT A homophone (called) of men goes before (first) a synonym for powerful
28a Six workers wanting hot food (6)
VIANDS The Roman numerals for six and some workers without (wanting) the abbreviation for Hot
29a Meaning daughter for example is eating out (8)
DENOTING The abbreviations for Daughter and For Example into which is inserted (eating) a two-word phrase meaning out
30a Refunds from agent, when handling unknown (6)
REPAYS An abbreviated agent and a conjunction meaning when ‘handling’ or going round a mathematical unknown
Down
2d Swimmer finally leaving for Portugal, gets plane (9)
TURBOPROP Almost all of a large flatfish (the final letter ‘leaving’), a preposition meaning in favour of (for) and the IVR Code for Portugal
3d They might do the conveyancing for your last move (4-7)
PALL-BEARERS People carrying the coffin at your funeral (last move)
4d Fashion label (5)
STYLE The solution can be a synonym of both fashion and a label
6d Conclusion drawn from income gap (5)
OMEGA Hidden in (drawn from) incOME GAp
7d Topic this writer raised in article (5)
THEME A reversal (raised) of how this writer might refer to himself inserted into the definite article
8d Wall in Bosnia’s prime locations provide defence? (5)
ALIBI The prime (numbered) locations of the letters in wAlL In BosnIa
9d Supply teacher’s area (7)
HECTARE An anagram (supply) of TEACHER
13d Ray Harryhausen made you stab skeletons from Olympia, conclusively with animation (7)
SUNBEAM An anagram (with animation) of the ‘conclusions’ of HarryhauseN madE yoU staB skeletonS froM OlympiA
14d West maybe carrying bridge team — one might be 22 (5)
MANSE The forename of Ms West the actress ‘carrying’ the initials of one pair of bridge players – the connection to 22a did make me smile
15d People massaging tense American politician get unquestioning approval (6,5)
RUBBER STAMP People massaging, the abbreviations for Tense and American and an abbreviated politician
17d Loveless 23 with King starting quarrel (3-2)
RUN-IN Remove the letter representing love (love less) from the solution to 23d and then put it after (King starting) the Latin abbreviation for King
19d Modern coffee right on time (6-3)
LATTER-DAY A type of coffee, the abbreviation for right and a period of time
20d Contrived solution discovered after school (7)
SCHEMED The inside (dis covered) letters of a solution or cure go after the abbreviation for school
23d Club working to support college (5)
UNION The usual two-letter ‘working’ goes after (to support) an abbreviated college
24d Perhaps gusset isn’t replaced to cover embarrassment initially (5)
INSET An anagram (replaced) of ISNT ‘covers’ the initial letter of Embarrassment
25d Stuck-up men inspired by Harry’s complaint (5)
GROAN A reversal (stuck—up) of some abbreviated soldiers inserted into (inspired by) a verb meaning to harry or find fault with
26d Gall bladder’s close to bottom? Not at all! (5)
NEVER Move the R (bladder’s close) in a synonym for gall or impudence to the bottom of the word
A bit like yesterday’s Toughie – top quality clues and a few smiles. Favourites were 12a [the clever German mislead] 14d with its link to 22 and the modern coffee in 19d. I can’t see the point of “in” in 21a, both the wordplay and the surface would be better without it.
Thanks to Django and CS.
And as ‘used’ in France – without the in, you’d need to change France to French
OK – bang to rights!
A quite tremendous puzzle to accompany the old cheese & biscuits, and both were very satisying indeed. It took a while to get on to Django’s wavelength, and I ended up starting in the S before moving N, picking up the pace in the final third. Some inspired clueing requiring quite a lot of lateral thinking, so many great surface reads (So many clues full stop: nice to get such good value from a setter!) and such wit and amusement throughout.
I thought 12a, 16a, 29a & 20d all quite wonderful, but for me 14d was COTD – super red herring, brilliant connection with 22a.
3* / 5*
Many thanks to Django and to CS (by the way, 21a: is the ‘cycling’ not an instruction to move the ‘ey’ of ‘they’ to another position and otherwise leave the letters in the same order, rather than an anagram direction?)
I thought that first thing this morning when I was scribbling on my solved piece of paper and obviously didn’t transfer the thought to the hint. Now amended
Great fun and as ever with this setter somewhat easier to fill in than parse due to the very clever wordplay.
I particularly liked 12,20&29a plus 1,15&26d but top spot has to go to the linked 17d/22a, genius!
Many thanks to Django and Sue for a top puzzle and review, including the parsing of 8&13d, which I just bunged in.
Found this a bit of a slog. 10a and 15d were my picks.
Thanks to CS and Django.
Another notch up in difficulty with one or two needing some reverse engineering to solve, but I got there in the end. 3d was my favourite by a considerable distance.
My thanks to Django and CS.
Enjoyable puzzle with a few clues where I needed to truffle out the wordplay – thanks to Django and CS.
I ticked 29a, 2d and 3d with my favourite being the very neat 14d.
An enjoyable solve for us.
Appreciated the novel way of presenting the anagram fodder in 13d so will make that our favourite.
Thanks Django and CS.
Totally agree – I don’t recall having seen a clue like this before. I resisted the temptation to wonder who Ray Harryhausen might be and after a bit of thought the penny dropped. Very clever.
15d was my favourite today. For me the parsing of a Django clue usually follows on a different bus to the solution. 13d was bunged in from what I thought was the definition, I needed CS to help there, very clever but a month of Sunday’s would pass before that penny dropped. 3d was a satisfactory PDM too
I’m still at the stop with not a bus in sight. I’ve a correctly filled in grid but with quite a few to parse & they’ll have to wait as eyelids heavy & an early start tomorrow. 15d my fav too.
Thanks CS. And thanks all.
FWIW, I think on the original gridfill I had something else at 14d – mange, I think. It was only after clueing 22a that I thought there was an opportunity to use it as a definition. I was expecting to have to change the grid significantly to accommodate the idea and pondering whether it was worth the effort when I saw the gift waiting for me at 14.