Toughie No 3099 by Giovanni
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Giovanni must be mellowing because he’s given us a reasonably gentle Toughie with fewer obscurities than usual. The only two answers which were totally new to me were 2d and 10a and in both cases the wordplay was pretty clear.
Thanks to Giovanni.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Four American suits attractive, not half, for sailor (8)
DECKHAND: the US word for what we call a pack containing four suits and the first half of an adjective meaning attractive.
5a Feasts with son, yawning at first (6)
AGAPES: the genealogical abbreviation for son preceded by an adjective meaning yawning or wide open. The answer means meals eaten by some Christians.
9a Nasty non-English beers for community members (9)
VILLAGERS: join together an adjective meaning nasty without its abbreviation for English and some gassy beers.
11a Monsters among lesser gods repulsed (5)
OGRES: hidden in reverse.
12a Thin poles collapse finally (6)
SPARSE: poles such as are used on a sailing ship and the final letter of collapse.
13a Reveal situation with a cathedral adjacent to Hell? (8)
DISCLOSE: a term for the area surrounding a cathedral follows a word, from Latin, for Hell.
15a Serving a meat. I abandoned … this? (13)
VEGETARIANISM: an anagram (abandoned) of SERVING A MEAT I. Very neat!
18a Extra payment church wanted after worship — terrible rage! (7,6)
SERVICE CHARGE: one of the abbreviations for church follows a ceremony involving worship. Finish with an anagram (terrible) of RAGE.
22a A piece of furniture keeps operating — not beyond redemption (8)
ATONABLE: A and a piece of furniture with legs contain an adverb meaning operating or functioning.
23a See penetrating hit in race (6)
SLALOM: insert an exclamation meaning ‘see!’ into a verb to hit hard.
26a Stir created by No.11’s action unending (5)
BUDGE: No. 11 here is a metonym for the UK Treasury. Drop the ending letter from the annual statement from its Chancellor telling us how much more tax we’re going to have to pay.
27a Picture man, keen learner, being entertained by university official (5,4)
DAVID LEAN: insert an adjective meaning keen and our usual abbreviated learner into the title of a faculty head in a university. The picture man directed some great films including ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’ and ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.
28a Reduce the charges once banker implicates snitch (6)
DERATE: one of Crosswordland’s favourite rivers contains a slang word for a snitch or informer. The answer is an old verb meaning to reduce the tax charges which were levied on properties before the introduction of the ill-fated ‘poll tax’ in 1989/1990.
29a Gets agitated and rests irregularly after illness (8)
FLUSTERS: an anagram (irregularly) of RESTS follows the short word for a common illness.
Down Clues
1d Short stay in sleazy bar turns out to be inharmonious (8)
DIVISIVE: a temporary stay without its final T goes inside a sleazy bar.
2d Name a poisonous plant (5)
CALLA: a verb to name and A make a poisonous plant also called a Bog Arum apparently (that’s more information than I wanted to know!).
3d Chief group supplying item of audio equipment (7)
HEADSET: charade of synonyms of chief and group or clique.
4d Settled in home, good person no longer appearing in poverty (4)
NEED: a verb meaning ‘settled in home’ as a bird might without the abbreviation for a good or holy person.
6d Food with fancy choc — gin swilled to swallow it (7)
GNOCCHI: an anagram (fancy) of CHOC is contained (swallowed) in an anagram (swilled) of GIN.
7d A previous actor? (9)
PERFORMER: a preposition meaning a or ‘for each’ and an adjective meaning previous.
8d Wearing a band and unhappy, the female being kept in (6)
SASHED: an adjective meaning unhappy contains a feminine pronoun.
10d Hindu god on cut grass causing row in the Bible belt? (8)
SHIVAREE: a top Hindu god and a type of grass without its last letter. The answer (also called charivari) involves an informal ceremony involving a lot of noise including beating pots and pans. It is (or was) practised in various places including the American South.
14d The fourth item given legal status (8)
ARTICLED: this describes someone contracted to a period of training with a firm of solicitors, say. To understand the wordplay split your answer 7,1.
16d Cut more out-of-date fuel container (9)
GASHOLDER: assemble a deep cut and a comparative meaning more out-of-date.
17d Object of travel? Four years for a president, say (8)
TERMINUS: split your answer 4,2,2 to describe what lasts four years for President Biden.
19d Name of London street with a buried chemical (7)
REAGENT: the name of a shopping street in London with A buried in it.
20d Head of harems has various ladies in compounds (7)
HALIDES: the first letter of harems followed by an anagram (various) of LADIES produces chemical compounds.
21d Expert educationist is smeared (6)
DABBED: a word for an expert (often followed by ‘hand’) and a degree in education.
24d Lord, say, in act of deception (5)
LIEGE: the abbreviation for ‘say’ goes inside a deception.
25d Bad and upsettingly relevant (4)
EVIL: reverse an adjective meaning relevant or current.
I liked 27a, 7d and 17d with my favourite being 15a. Which one(s) hit the mark for you?
About right for a Thursday Toughie – the only one I wasn’t sure I remembered was 10d but it was very fairly clued. We have 2d in the garden so no problem at all solving that one
Many thanks to Giovanni and Gazza – my favourite was 15a, probably because I live with a vegetarian and No2 son and his wife are both vegans, although they don’t mind eating vegetarian if that is all that is on offer
It took me a long time to get into, finally starting with 11a and I’d probably give it 3*/3*. I wasn’t familiar with the plant at 2d but had heard of the answer to 10d ‘cos it’s such a lovely word, a much-improved Americanism compared to the original [see Chambers]. Compared with yesterday’s toughie this seemed a bit wordy but heigh ho that’s his style. I liked the simpler clues – 7d, 14d and 17d.
Thanks to Giovanni and to Gazza.
Great to see The Don return – I do miss his presence on the backpage. An accessible and as Gazza says, reasonably gentle Toughie, with typical style and precision in the clueing. I vaguely recalled 5a from somewhere (probably a DG crossword …) and so 10d was my new word of the day – good to look it up afterwards and see that it actually existed!
Probably spent as long on the last four clues in the SW as on the rest of the grid: had I put that ‘a’ in front of the furniture sooner I’d have mopped up those last few much more speedily. For a while I was hoping there was an expert called a “Dau” (as opposed to many lovely red Dao wines) as that would have given a better smear, but was not to be. At one stage when I only had two central checkers in 22a I noted that Giovanni fitted, although it would not parse!
So many good clues but for me, too, the top three were 27a, 7d and 17d.
Many thanks to the Don, and of course to Gazza.
Any word I didn’t know was fairly clued so no complaints from me. I thought this was a nicely balanced puzzle that had just the right level of complexity. Many good clues, but 17d takes the top spot.
Thanks to The Don and Gazza.
New words for me were 5a, 2d and 10d, I’ll try to remember them. I needed the hint to parse 14d, I’ve been caught by that device before. My only mistake was bunging in the wrong answer to 21d even though I couldn’t parse it, it made more sense to me than the actual answer. So a dnf for me. Favourite was 16d. Thanks to Giovanni and Gazza.
I,too, had problems with the SW corner. Being sure 16d should be the more usual “gasometer” didn’t help.
15a was a very clever anagram and my COTD
Approached with trepidation, BRB at the ready & Mr G forewarned to expect to be called upon to do some heaving lifting. In the event it was the same 3 as TG that were unfamiliar though 20d only rang a vague bell. The wordplay meant the 2d plant & the 5a feasts were straightforward enough but it took 3 stabs to locate my cut grass for last in 10d having opted first for weed & then hemp. Still I’ll take 2 letters shy of an unaided finish for one of the Don’s guzzles even if it was mercifully benign compared to his last Toughie. Like TG I also tried to parse daubed at 21d before that penny dropped & struggled to parse 23a before realising I was spelling it incorrectly (O not E). I’ll select 15&27a (the latter one of my all time fav directors) with top spot for 17d. A very enjoyable crossword.
Thanks to Giovanni & to Gazza whose review I’ll read in full later as the cricket highlights beckon
We also had problems in the SW where we had pencilled in the wrong fuel container. Once that was corrected the rest all fell into place.
A pleasant solving experience.
Thanks Giovanni and Gazza.
SW corner was my last section too. Trying for ages to find a 3-letter word for ‘operating’ to fit in the furniture…. Grrrr! Thems the breaks.
A nice steady Thursday Toughie. Thanks Gazza and Giovanni