Toughie No 3165 by Donnybrook
Hints and tips by StephenL
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hello everyone from a sunny and mild South Devon coast. Long may it continue.
Donnybrook gets us underway this week with a superb puzzle that had me working harder to parse it all than solve it. I started in the south and worked my way steadily up. I think I have everything done to my satisfaction.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.
Across
1a Mariners returned, leaving area by island for divine female (7)
NEMESIS: Reverse (returned) some mariners, remove the abbreviation for Area and add the abbreviation for ISland to the result giving a goddess of retribution.
5a Order wine? That’s congenial (7)
KINDRED: Order in the sense of type and one of the usual wine references.
9a Nightdress shortened, not wanting zip that’s slack (9)
NEGLIGENT: Remove the last letter from a nightdress and add the outside letters of NoT (wanting zip…the zip here being zero). Repetition radar bleeped on the link word but a great clue.
10a Contest among Greeks to provide chaser for whiskey one carries (5)
WAGON: The single-letter abbreviation for Whisky and a Greek contest or competition.
11a Horse from the east in African country – not South African (7)
UGANDAN: Took me a while to see this. Place a reversal of an informal word for a horse inside an African country missing the abbreviation for South from its front. Super smart.
12a Characters central to The Fifth Element (7)
HAFNIUM: The chemical symbol of the element is the central letters of tHe fiFth.
13a Inability to stop taking offence? (11)
KLEPTOMANIA: Cryptic definition, the taking being stealing. Shoplifters of the World Unite by The Smiths narrowly missed out as today’s music selection.
16a Ancient letter from emissaries to Helike, first of all (3)
ETH: The initial letters of Emissaries To Helike (first of all)
18a Type of cat embodied by Tantomile (3)
TOM: Hidden (embodied by).
20a Cricket club and Barmy Army with this right-wing movement? (11)
MCCARTHYISM: Start with the abbreviation for a cricket club based at Lords and add an anagram (barmy) of ARMY and THIS. Brilliant!
22a Charge bundle to detain bird, missing flight? (7)
WARHEAD: A bundle (of notes in the sense of money perhaps) placed around a flightless bird.
23a Dish is extravagant served in rhino’s hide (7)
RISOTTO: I can’t imagine a dish served in a rhino’s hide but this one needs to be for the wordplay. Place IS from the clue plus an abbreviated Over The Top (extravagant) inside the outer letters (hide) of RhinO.
25a Fruit not right served in with a cheese variety (5)
GOUDA: Remove the abbreviation for Right from a large fleshy fruit and add A from the clue.
26a Broken rule again produces intermittent pain (9)
NEURALGIA: Anagram (broken) of the following two words.
27a Article about Sally Ann appearing in May? (7)
THERESA: I “may” be missing something here but it looks like the definite article followed by a preposition meaning about and the abbreviation for Sally Ann or Salvation Army, giving the given name of a recent and eminently forgettable PM.
28a Hours needed to consume a drink in small amount (7)
HAPORTH: Consume here is a containment indicator. The abbreviation for hours goes around A from the clue and a fortified wine.
Down
1d Topless man with food in bag comes to resort near Cape Cod (9)
NANTUCKET: An insertion of mAN (topless) plus some food typically eaten by schoolchildren into a synonym of bag as a verb perhaps. Never heard of it but the wordplay is crystal clear.
2d Maybe Hearst’s money initially descended through male line (7)
MAGNATE: The initial letter of money and a person descended from the same male ancestor as another.
3d Entertained by second daughter, chatterer passed on secrets (5)
SPIED: Insert (entertained by) an informal name for a vocal bird into abbreviations for Second and Daughter
4d Splendid clothing possibly for Bridges, acting family (5)
SHEEN: After a bit of research I’ve come to the conclusion this is a very good triple definition with Bridges falsely capitalised.
5d Earl, King and Queen crossing chalk stream in Hampshire (9)
KITCHENER: Place an abbreviation for King and the royal cipher of our former Queen around a river in Hampshire.
6d Bulletin shows Welsh fans rampaging (9)
NEWSFLASH: Anagram (rampaging) of the preceding two words.
7d Be angry about Minchin’s piano style? (7)
RAGTIME: Place a word meaning be angry or furious around the first name of the (apparently Australian) entertainer (never heard of him) in the clue. Here’s possibly the greatest piano solo in the history of rock music.
8d Coming north, searched for gold or silver cloth? (5)
DENIM: Reverse (going north) a verb that could mean searched for gold or silver (or any precious metal). Clever.
14d Clement worried by tendency to blow top (9)
TEMPERATE: Place a synonym of worried or fretted after an angry state of mind.
15d Former country club definitely not opening rally round back (9)
MACEDONIA: Follow a ceremonial club with an insertion of a reversal of NO (definitely not) into a reversal of AID (rally round back)
17d Quack perhaps from duck in domestic driveway? (9)
HOMEOPATH: Place the letter representing a duck in cricket inside what could be described (split 4,4) as a domestic driveway. Lol the definition
19d Pack up short man’s tent (7)
MARQUEE: A reversal (up in a down clue)of pack as a verb plus a man on a chess board minus its last letter. Nothing to do with vertically challenged men!
21d Vocalist missing intro holds note in number (7)
INTEGER: Remove the initial letter from a general word for a vocalist and insert a note of the sol-fa scale into the result.
22d Isle of Man? (5)
WIGHT: The archaic definition of the solution is “a person of a specified kind” so a cryptic definition?
23d Uneven grating below par (5)
ROUGH: I have this as a triple definition.
24d Extract from Mandelstam poetry shows character (5)
STAMP: Hidden (extract from).
Great stuff, many thanks Donny. My winners are 9,11&20a plus 4,17&19d but could have mentioned more.
I found this tough enough to be a Thursday or even a Friday Toughie, and although I usually enjoy Donnybrook’s puzzles immensely, was surprised to find it was his creation on coming in here just now. It felt distinctly below his normal high standard, lacking much of the wit and amusement one has come to expect from his puzzles. Maybe I just got out of bed on the wrong side, but for me too many “subtract a letter” clues, repetitive men, and too many obscurities – have never heard of Tim Minchin, nor “Sally Ann” either as an abbreviation for SA or Salvation Army (it’s not in the BRB that I can see), the obsolete Greek contest, and if someone could please explain Bridges in 4d I’d appreciate it! Podium places to 13a and 17d, with 22d a runner-up.
4* / 2*
Thanks anyway to Donnybrook – I rather suspect I shall be an outlier today! – and thanks also to Stephen, especially for not including a Smiths track, the inclusion of any of which can only make an off day infinitely worse.
No, you are not alone. I would have given the same rating as you did. I found it harder than I would expect for a Tuesday, and with specific knowledge required that I did not have.
Thanks to Donnybrook and to StephenL
Never heard of Tim Minchin? Tsk! You’ve obviously not been dragged to see Mathilda a million times! But glad you mentioned 4d. Didn’t understand that “triple def” at all. Still don’t. Without checkers, I would never have got that.
I know I could google, ALP, but for the benefit of others reading the blog will happily don my “1960’s Lady Chatterley Trial Judge persona” to ask: Who is Mathilda? Is she a singer?
I don’t know about Mathilda, but Tim Minchin is the composer/lyricist of Matilda the Musical.
Jose knows! My mistake, sorry. I’ve seen Matilda so many times now, you’d really think I’d know how to spell it by now wouldn’t you? Doh! But as a hack myself, the song that really chills the blood is Minchin’s “song for Phil Daoust”. It’s very rare that I feel sorry for someone from the Guardian, but this is one occasion. Monstrous.
As well as writing the songs for Matilda the Musical, a stage musical and now also a film based on the Roald Dahl children’s book, Tim Minchin is a pianist and singer-songwriter. He played a Prom with a BBC orchestra in 2011, so he’s been around for a while and isn’t completely obscure.
Crossword fans may appreciate the wordplay (anagram, effectively) in this song of his, called Prejudice — watch till at least 2 minutes 40 seconds to check your answer:
And School Song (from Matilda) has some strong punning on each letter of the alphabet:
My favourite Tim Minchin song is If I Didn’t Have You. I first heard it being performed by a Catholic priest in hall in Castle Acre in Norfolk (where we were staying on a pilgrimage to Walsingham). It starts off sounding like a love song until, um … it doesn’t:
Great call, Smylers. He is undoubtedly brilliant. But .. what do you think about the Phil Daoust song?
You both need to get out more often or see a doctor.
Since the Telegraph are being very coy about revealing the identities of the Toughie setters this week I was unaware of who set this puzzle when I solved it. I thought it was pretty tricky for a Tuesday but very entertaining – thanks to Donnybrook and SL.
I don’t know the 7d Minchin (and ‘Louise’ doesn’t fit) so I had to verify him. I also had problems with 4d – I got the acting family from the checkers but I’m still not sure about the bridges unless there’s a dental connection. I also needed to check out the 12a element and the 22d man.
My ticks went to 11a, 20a, 22a and 8d but my clear favourite was the splendid 13a.
My take on sheen was….and I could be entirely wrong
Def 1…Lovely, beautiful (adjective…it’s in the BRB)
Def 2 a sheen is a possible coating for an oral bridge maybe
Def 3 …acting family
…or it could just be a double definition with the acting family one and the whole of the rest the other…not sure.
Sheen…Michael and Martin but they aren’t related
There’s Charlie Sheen. And Emilio (?) too. Still don’t get the bridge bit though – I was hoping the setter might pop up and explain. Re SL’s ingenious “coating for an oral bridge” – he may well be right, he generally is, but … really?
I thought this was a good Thursday Toughie, although when solving I did wonder whether I was making the clues harder to solve by trying at the same time to decide who might have written them
I agree with Gazza that 13a has to be the favourite and I’d also be grateful if someone could explain the bridges
Thanks to Donnybrook and Stephen
I’d guessed (correctly as it happens) the setter within about five minutes of solving.
I found this tougher than all of last week’s Toughies, but I enjoyed it a lot with the exceptions of 28a and the dire 4d unless I have misunderstood the latter. I assume “clothing for bridges” is referring to paint applied to those structures. Having retired after working for half-a-century in the paint industry, I can say that neither “sheen” nor “clothing” is synonymous with “paint”. In particular, “sheen” describes a property of paint not the paint itself. I would also have said that “splendid” is a bit of stretch for “sheen” when used as an adjective, but, to try to be fair, the BRB implies that meaning is “rare or poetic”.
Surely 28a should be enumerated (3’4) not 7.
I didn’t know the the last four letters of 10a meaning a Greek contest. I wasn’t feeling confident when I looked it up in the BRB but lo and behold it was there.
I had loads of ticks all over my page and my top picks were 13a, 20a & 5d.
Many thanks to Donnybrook and SL.
One of the definitions of sheen according to dictionary.com is a poetic noun for “splendid clothing”.
Great stuff, quite tricky for a Tuesday, but most enjoyable. I didn’t understand the bridges either, but I got the right answer, mainly as we are watching The West Wing for a third time, and said actor plays the President. No contest for the favourite spot; 13a.
Thanks to Donny and SL.
I don’t think the “Tough for Tuesday” phrase is relevant any more as on most weeks you put any of the three midweek puzzles on any given day and they wouldn’t look overtly out of place.
Thought this was a bit GK heavy for a Tuesday and I needed Mr G’s help with both the Greek contest and the element.
4d was a guess based on the acting family and I handed out the rosettes to 13a plus 6&17d.
Thanks to Donnybrook and to Stephen for the review.
Haven’t read the comments in full but I’m sure pleased that everyone seems agreed it was tough – nearly choked on a mouthful of coffee when I saw the difficulty rating. Threw in the towel with 2d & 12a outstanding & it took 3 stabs to get that far. Cheated & looked up a list of elements beginning with H (had heard of 3 of the 5) & still didn’t instantly parse it even though the symbol was in front of me. Needed the hint for 2d which I ought to have got despite being unfamiliar with the word. 4d was a complete bung in – twigged the right clan but that was it. Thoroughly enjoyed the challenge & learnt a few other new things in the process (a river, a dramatic Greek set to & another ancient letter) all no doubt forgotten by tomorrow. 20a my clear fav with ticks for 1,9,11,13&22a plus 2&17d.
Thanks to Donny & to Stephen – there’s a great cover of Born In The USA by Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires that I prefer to the original – even Ronnie R couldn’t have misinterpreted the song’s meaning from this version.
I’ll take a listen. Maybe I should have given two ratings, one for solving, one for parsing!
Glad to see that many of you found it too tough for Toosday because I thought either it was a right stinker or my brain had solidified after 3 weeks off. Even with a full grid I was still scratching my head over 22d and 4d and I’m still not convinced about the bridges bit.
Never mind, 12a was clever and 13a was a super cryptic def which raised a smile.
Thanks to Donnybrook and to Stephen for the review [2* my foot!]
A few bung ins resulting from some of the (not so) general knowledge.
Thanks to Donnybrook and SL.
Hadn’t come across the Greek contest or the Sally Ann term so they were bung-ins as was 4d and I had to Google Minchin. I agree with the majority that this was very tough. A number of excellent clues though 22a was the one I liked the most. Thanks to Donnybrook and SL.
A DNF for me. I enjoyed a lot of it but in the end the obscurities were too much for me
No problems with 1d. Remember Dylan Thomas and Captain Cat in Under Milkwood?
Re 17d, I am not one myself but I do not think that homeopaths would take kindly to being classified as quacks.
We also found this quite a challenge and ended up using quite a few references and websitess to eventually get everything sorted.
Agree with others that 13a was the pick of the bunch.
Thanks Donnybrook and SL.
No problems with this for me, and with today’s daily being so tame (in a nice way) it was good to get my teeth into something. But was it so hard? I have to say, I didn’t really notice anything outrageous.
Agree with StephenL re the standouts, so thanks to him, and to Donny.
I have just printed this off and am greatly looking forward to it. Always enjoy Donnybrook puzzles. Have carefully averted my eyes from the review and comments!!!
Thanks all for comments, and also to StephenL for the blog.
The SHEEN one was not penned entirely by yours truly, I can reveal. As SHEEN, for posh clothing, is poetic according to Chambers, a poet (Robert Bridges) was added in to clarify the usage. The idea was to bring in Lloyd and Jeff to make Martin and Charlie less ovbious. I think we can say that worked :D
Many thanks
Bronnydook
Thanks for popping by, a top puzzle and for clarification of SHEEN, pleased to say I was far from alone in not spotting that particular piece of misdirection! I’m presuming Michael Baker had a hand in it.
I gave up yesterday after only ‘getting’ the two three letter answers. I picked it up again today and began to solve from the bottom upwards and oh my, what a difference it made. Everything fell nicely into place and was a total pleasure to solve. Lots to like, but my favourites have to be 9a,13a, 20a, but my very favourite was 6d, purely because I found it most comical. Thanks to Donnybrook, who never disappoints and of course to SL.
Can I modestly say that after a month of venturing into Toughieland, the challenge is getting ever easier. That said, today’s was certainly tough – ****/****.
If newcomers ever wanted evidence of the genius of compilers here, then 13a “Inability to stop taking offence” is a perfect example; brilliant. Thanks to all.