Toughie No 3075 by Kcit
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Good afternoon from what is, as StephenL reports elsewhere, a very sunny Devon. We have a hosepipe ban in force which looks as though it’s going to continue for a long time – the upside is that I have an excuse for not washing the car.
Kcit has provided an enjoyable but not too arduous puzzle with some Ninas (see 1a/6a, 23a/25a and 3a/24a). Thanks to him.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Moment male is engaged by equality (4)
TIME: the abbreviation for male is contained in a word for equality in the result of a match.
3a Piano organ finally fixed by qualified person (5)
GRAND: the final letter of organ goes inside the abbreviation for someone with an academic qualification.
6a Original founder of sports venue from Land’s End? (4)
LORD: the surname of the chap who gave his name to a sports ground in London comes from either end of the word ‘land’.
8a TV show depicting you in a domestic context, ultimately going wild (9,6)
SITUATION COMEDY: an anagram (going wild) of YOU IN A DOMESTIC and the ultimate letter of contexT.
9a A great deal, securing backing of fashionable European city (6)
MUNICH: a word meaning a great deal contains the reversal of an adjective meaning fashionable.
10a Play with Act I junked? That’s not usual (8)
ATYPICAL: an anagram (junked) of PLAY ACT I.
11a Government department attempt to secure unlimited quantity (8)
TREASURY: a synonym of attempt contains a word meaning quantity or amount without its outer letters.
13a Made ready? Something like 29 pence! (6)
PRIMED: something like 29 (or possibly 31 or 37) followed by the abbreviation for pence in olden times.
15a Tackle limitations to habitual energy (6)
HANDLE: the outer letters of habitual and the physics abbreviation for energy.
17a Love lots of money — it attracts people (8)
HONEYPOT: charade of an endearment (love) and a word for lots of money (usually seen in the plural).
19a Threatening to offload indefinite number, causing obstruction (8)
IMPEDING: remove the abbreviation for an indefinite number from an adjective meaning threatening or looming.
21a Note repeated before and during classical song? It’s a fantastic setting (6)
NARNIA: place the same abbreviation for note both before and inside a classical song.
22a Take decisive step when appealing to accommodate dodgy sorts in advance (5,3,7)
CROSS THE RUBICON: an adjective meaning appealing or angelic contains an anagram (dodgy) of SORTS. Finish with an adverb meaning ‘in advance’.
23a Unrestrained shift in Fahrenheit affecting diving venue? (4)
FREE: start with a structure under the sea where diving may take place and shift the abbreviation for Fahrenheit to the front.
24a Theatrical work offering nothing for each area (5)
OPERA: assemble the letter that resembles nothing, a preposition meaning ‘for each’ and the abbreviation for area.
25a Experienced receiving first instalment of National Assistance (4)
HAND: a verb meaning experienced contains the first letter of national.
Down Clues
1d Check for flare-up, say, in international game (4,5)
TEST MATCH: this could mean to check whether a lighting implement is working.
2d China restricting popular European film showing (7)
MATINEE: what china means in rhyming slang contains an adjective meaning popular and an abbreviation for European.
3d Entrance two audiences (9)
GATEHOUSE: the first audience is one for an outdoor sporting event and the second is one for a performance in a theatre or cinema.
4d Aberration, as expected, not right to appear within a year (7)
ANOMALY: an adjective meaning ‘as expected’ without the abbreviation for right goes between A and the abbreviation for year.
5d Criticise Irish county’s change of heart, bringing in Conservative (5)
DECRY: one of the ‘six counties’ in Ireland with its central letter changed to an abbreviation for Conservative.
6d Bound to accept source of personal documentation with unknown clarity (9)
LIMPIDITY: a verb to bound or confine contains the first letter of personal and the abbreviation for documentation to prove who you are. Finish with one of the algebraic unknowns.
7d Came to a point when cycling progress is slowed by this (3,4)
RED TAPE: cycle the letters of a verb meaning ‘gradually came to a point’.
12d Single recipient? Also include most of the others, do you understand? (9)
ADDRESSEE: join together a verb meaning ‘also include’, a noun meaning the others without its last letter and a query as to understanding.
13d Restrict slight cut applied to a coastal region (9)
PENINSULA: glue together a verb to restrict or corral, a slight or disparaging remark without its last letter and A.
14d Enjoyed course covering revolutionary paintings and English lit (9)
DETRAINED: a verb meaning enjoyed a course or had a specific meal contains the reversal of a synonym for paintings and an abbreviation for English.
16d A problematic situation between Democrat and Republican, one fancies (7)
ADMIRER: start with A and place a sticky situation between the abbreviations for Democrat and Republican.
17d Clean approach in elevated material on the radio (7)
HYGIENE: this sounds like homophones for elevated and a heavy-duty cloth.
18d Hard to miss style associated with a cure (7)
PANACEA: a word meaning style or verve loses the pencil abbreviation meaning hard. Append A.
20d Obsessed with stifling rook opening (5)
INTRO: a preposition meaning ‘obsessed with’ contains the chess abbreviation for rook.
My ticks today went to 7d, 12d and 14d. Which one(s) did the trick for you?
Super lunchtime Toughie from Kcit – started briskly and soon had the NW half in place, slowed to a crawl for a little while, and then gathered speed moving AC to the NE, with 6a my LOI: having been pleased at spotting 15a I did rather need to consume humble pie for not being able to parse that last one!
Great clues albeit with one or two odd surface reads. Ticks all over the place but my top three were 13a, 22a & 14d (lovely deception). Best (perennially topical) surface read possibly to 2d.
2.5* / 4*
Many thanks to Kcit & to Gazza (great cartoons, and I don’t think there was a single duff piece in either YM or YPM!)
Very enjoyable and perhaps one of this setter’s more straightforward offerings, with just a couple of parsings causing a bit of head scratching, one of which I’ve yet to nail so may well be back to tap into our bloggers knowledge.
I liked plenty including 17a plus 3,12,14&16d but my favourite has to be 6a.
Many thanks to Kcit and Gazza.
I seem to have found this trickier than others – properly Thursday-ish – but I did spot the Ninas so that’s a bonus
Thanks to Kcit and Gazza
NE corner was the final hurdle for me – 6d isn’t in my day-to-day vocabulary and I was looking for a different sort of ‘bound’.
Cycling clues always fill me with terror but once I found this one it became my favourite and was joined on the podium by 17a and the simple but effective 1d.
Needless to say, I missed the Ninas!
Thanks to Kcit and to Gazza for the review, great cartoons and especially the clip from Yes, Prime Minister – they don’t make sitcoms of that calibre these days.
6d was a new word for me but at least I managed parse it unlike 6a, 13a, 7d and 18d. Obvious now they’ve been pointed out. Most of the rest I made fairly heavy weather of but I got there. Favourite was 9a as I tried to put two other cities in before picking the right one. Thanks to Kcit for the challenge and Gazza for the hints.
Got there eventually with a bit of help from Gazza,
Missed the Nina but enjoyed the tussle.
Thanks to Azzag and Tick
Enjoyable solve though totally missed the Ninas.
14d gets the vote for favourite as it took a while to twig the well disguised definition.
Thanks Kcit and Gazza.
Add me to those who found this far from easy. The LHS yielded in respectable time but found t’other side much trickier. Prompted by the review’s intro I went back to look for the Nina but without success. How you folk spot these things is beyond me. Not sure I’d have correctly defined 6d without the benefit of the clue – reckon I may have plumped for a state of erectile dysfunction. As is often the case with Toughies too much of working backwards from the answer but needed the hints to fully parse both 6a&7d. Picks for me were – 13a plus 12&13d.
Thanks to Kcit & to Gazza – great cartoons as per
Solving 1a followed by 6a made me look to see what else I might find in the grid