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Toughie 3123

by Gazza  

Toughie No 3123 by Firefly
Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **

Thanks to Firefly for a decent puzzle which wasn’t too tricky and didn’t really hit the heights for me. There is a theme identified at 15d/12a.

Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.

Across Clues

1a Primeval impulse at last gaining access to an award (3-3)
AGE-OLD: insert the last letter of impulse into an award (1,4).

5a Purchase gripping crime drama with excited glee (8)
LEVERAGE: an anagram (excited) of GLEE contains the name of a TV crime drama starring a female CID officer. The answer will be familiar to those who have completed Ray T’s back-pager today.

9a Jury witnessed cutting tool (5,3)
PANEL SAW: a synonym of jury and a verb meaning witnessed.

10a Divorces perpetually taking place in extremes of stress (6)
SEVERS: an adverb meaning perpetually goes between the outer letters of stress.

11a Joy sets off from wild house parties (8)
EUPHORIA: our first subtractive anagram of the day. Remove ‘sets’ from HOUSE PARTIES and make an anagram (wild) of what remains.

12a See 15d

13a Assume hospital’s moved from spa town (8)
ARROGATE: remove the map abbreviation for hospital from the name of a spa town in North Yorkshire.

15a Support beginning to turn for jackanapes (4)
BRAT: our usual female support and the first letter of turn.

17a Internal visas approved now (4)
ASAP: hidden in the clue.

19a Spikes cocktails? (8)
STINGERS: double definition, the first being spiked devices used by the police to bring a speeding car to a halt by shredding its tyres.

20a Antiguan American relocated, wanting “No Trumps” — cold-blooded creature! (6)
IGUANA: remove the bridge abbreviation for no trumps from ANTIGUAN then move the (first) abbreviation for American. I thought this was rather odd because the answer is lurking in plain sight in the clue.

21a Part of keel reportedly one-and-a-third yards long (8)
FOREFOOT: it sounds as though this front section of a ship’s keel could measure one-and-a-third yards.

22a Last swallow (6)
ENDURE: double definition, the second meaning to swallow or put up with.

23a Nearer the source, M Pasteur flounders (8)
UPSTREAM: an anagram (flounders) of M PASTEUR.

24a Runner contemplates time that’s most heavenly! (8)
SKIEYEST: string together a runner over snow, a verb meaning contemplates and the physics abbreviation for time. What a horrible word but given the checkers Firefly didn’t have much choice.

25a Offences involving sex producing protests (3-3)
SIT-INS: immoral offences containing a short informal word for sex.

Down Clues

2d Sandy erects sun-god of silver, once with hint of gold (8)
GRANULAR: assemble the Egyptian sun god, an old adjective meaning ‘of silver’ (thanks to BRB) and the first letter of gold. Now reverse it all.

3d Old surgeon taking in flightless bird that’s become too feverish (8)
OVERHEAT: the abbreviation for old and an animal surgeon containing a South American flightless bird.

4d Possibly Tommy‘s having to abandon informer (6,3)
DESERT RAT: a verb to abandon and an informal word for an informer or grass. Tommy is the informal name for a private soldier and the answer is the nickname given to one fighting in the North African campaign in WWII.

5d Cherries, say, growing in hatfuls, unexpectedly not small (3-7,5)
LOW-HANGING FRUIT: an anagram (unexpectedly) of GROWING IN HATFUL[s].

6d Cheer up girl in middle of facelift with a bit of music (7)
ELEVATE: insert a 3-letter girl’s name between the middle letters of facelift and a musical note.

7d They punish grievances painfully when in charge elsewhere (8)
AVENGERS: another subtractive anagram. Remove the abbreviation for ‘in charge’ from GRIEVANCES and make an anagram (painfully) of what remains.

8d Moderating exams, initially pausing for review (6,2)
EASING UP: the initial letter of exams followed by an anagram (for review) of PAUSING.

14d Article (gold) is tops for typically shrewd speculators (9)
THEORISTS: concatenate our definite article, our usual tincture of gold, IS and the top letters of typically shrewd.

15d/12a Concern with Twitter corporation’s language (as in 5a, 17a, 23a, 2d, 5d, 19d?) (8,6)
BUSINESS JARGON: a synonym for concern or firm and the specialised language used by the Twitter corporation (now X?) gives us what the identified answers are examples of.

16d Catholic invocation chanted heavenward amidst atomic explosive going up (5,3)
AGNUS DEI: reverse a synonym of chanted between the abbreviation for atomic and the reversal of the abbreviation for a simple (and very nasty) explosive device.

17d Provoke annoyance with a satire about Foreign Office resistance (3,3,2)
ASK FOR IT: assemble A and a satire or comedy sketch containing the (old) abbreviation for our Foreign Office and the abbreviation for electrical resistance.

18d Nato hub a complex way to proceed (8)
AUTOBAHN: an anagram (complex) of NATO HUB A.

19d Yankee horses, leaping over heart of fence, showing harmony of muscles? (7)
SYNERGY: bring together the abbreviation for Yankee and horses of a specific colour containing the central letter of fence. Now reverse the lot.

My favourite clue was 4d. Which one(s) appealed to you?

16 comments on “Toughie 3123”

  1. I found this quite tricky for a Thursday. I wonder if this is the first time a setter who has painted themselves into a corner has had to use a word from the Scrabble Dictionary?

    Thanks to Firefly and Gazza

  2. I found it quite, no make that very, tricky too. All a bit of a slog really & then to last in 24a – couldn’t believe it was actually a word. Completed but only with aid of a letter reveal & shy on a couple of the whys too. Despite having the themers identified & solved I’ll admit to still being very slow to figure out the first word in 15d/12a.
    Thanks to Firefly & to Gazza

  3. A very pleasant puzzle from a setter we unfortunately don’t see as often as we used to these days.
    Last in was 24a where fortunately the double unches didn’t really matter as that end of the clue was always going to be what it was given the wordplay and checkers.
    I totally agree with our blogger regarding 20a…I’m surprised the editor didn’t ask for it to be changed.
    An enjoyable solve I’ll go with the clever theme related clues as the highlight.
    Many thanks to Firefly and Gazza.

    1. SL, I sincerely hope I didn’t dent your enjoyment of this entertaining puzzle too much with my careless comments in t’other place. Sorry again.

  4. Typically Firefly, fairly tough [especially the SW] but a bit joyless. I, too found 20a most odd and spent a while trying to figure out how the lurker was indicated, not helped by a complete ignorance of bridge. 24a had to be what it is, and it is [sort of] in Chambers but it was 15d with 12a that held me up the longest. Now I see that the stuff in brackets is the definition it just seems rather banal, sorry.
    Thanks to Firefly and to Gazza for the explanations and the blog.

  5. I found this more enjoyable than our esteemed blogger, and a tad more difficult, with a fair amount of reverse engineering needed to complete the parsing. Like SL, I particularly liked the themed clues.

    Thanks to Firefly and Gazza.

  6. Got off to a bad start by putting the wrong first word in 9a (seemed quite feasible) and that somewhat scuppered my chances with 2&3d. Thought the 15/12 combo was somewhat weak and as for 24a – words fail me!
    Not to worry, I did enjoy Gazza’s depictions of the angel of the north and the wasp so I finished with a smile on my face.

    Thanks to Firefly – sorry this wasn’t for me – and to Gazza for the very helpful review and brilliant cartoons.

  7. The themed words brought a smile as these often appear when we play buzz-word bingo in the office meetings whilst the execs are droning on 🙄. Enjoyable solve despite the horrible 24a and un-lurking lurker at 20a.

    Thanks to Firefly and Gazza for the entertainment today.

  8. Most of this puzzle was reasonably straightforward and could have graced a late-week backpage; the bull**** bingo leapt out quite quickly – although giving it a polite name is so rare that 15d was one of my last half-dozen completed clues. Puzzle let down by 20a and the abysmal 24a. Is that non-word really in a Scrabble dictionary? Certainly not in the BRB that I could find, or several online sources. Surprised it made it through the edit, though I suspect so many changes would have been required to get something else to fit that hands may have been thrown up in the air resignedly with an exasperated cry of “blast* it, that will have to do”.

    Thanks to Firefly, and to Gazza

    * – or WTTE

    1. The base adjective for 24a is in the BRB under ‘sky’. It says skyey or skiey means ‘of or like the sky’ so what we have here is the superlative of that.

      1. Speaking of skies and heavens, this week I scrapped a grid that had “empyreal” to try and cut down obscurities… I feel much less bad about it after seeing 24a 🤣

  9. Needed hints to parts 22a, 2d, 15d/12a and 16d hadn’t heard of 21a and the less said about 24a the better although I did get it I had to check it was a real word. I wasn’t very keen on 15d/12a either. I had to use electronic help for a few so not a very satisfying solve. Favourite was 11a. Thanks to Firefly anyway and Gazza.

  11. 24a .. really?

    I can’t quite parse the 15/12 combo, is the hint correct? It looks to me that “jargon” is supposed to be a synonym for “Twitter”, and the definition is “corporation’s language”?

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