Toughie No 3223 by Silvanus
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
I thought that Silvanus had upped his difficulty level a smidgen with this very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to him.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Irritation caused by yarn told in London Crown Court (8)
WOOLWICH: a homophone (told) of an irritation caused by yarn or spun thread (4,4) produces a London Crown Court (the pronunciation of which is designed to confuse foreigners).
5a Muslim ruler sacks revolutionary over untruth ultimately (6)
SHERIF: reverse a verb meaning sacks containing the ultimate letter of untruth.
10a Second one struck by Red Planet’s icy moon (5)
TITAN: a shade of red (named after an Italian painter) without its second Roman numeral for one.
11a Advanced on Poles stopping union issuing flier (9)
MERGANSER: the abbreviations for advanced and both earthly poles are contained inside a union or amalgamation.
12a Large crowd in area of Plymouth crossing road (5)
HORDE: the area of Plymouth where Drake is said to have finished his game of bowls before tackling the Armada contains the abbreviation for road.
13a Hundreds gutted about article thrown carelessly into trees (9)
HAWTHORNS: the outer letters of hundreds contains one of our indefinite articles and an anagram (carelessly) of THROWN.
14a Heard boundary by England cricketer brings cheer (4,3)
ROOT FOR: the surname of a current England cricketer and what sounds like a boundary he might score.
15a Mostly regret Geordie musician showing signs of decline? (7)
RUSTING: squash together a verb to regret without its last letter and the stage name of the musician who fronted the Police.
18a Games of tennis still end occasionally being fixed (7)
SETTLED: a minimum of six games of tennis and occasional letters from ‘still end’.
20a Two Cameron Cabinet ministers meet, preceding this? (7)
FOXHUNT: join Liam and Jeremy to get the way the unspeakable chase the uneatable after their meet.
21a Disputes elitist reforms Georgia brought in (9)
LITIGATES: an anagram (reforms) of ELITIST containing the standard abbreviation for Georgia (the state, not the country).
24a Flash cycling in green spaces (5)
PARKS: cycle the letters of a flash or glint.
26a Shorten introduction to Eliot’s poem, is it ruined? (9)
EPITOMISE: the introductory letter of Eliot followed by an anagram (ruined) of POEM IS IT.
27a Propose store drops focus of pricing (5)
OFFER: a verb to store or hoard without the central letter of pricing.
28a Lead United, after conceding own goal (6)
TETHER: a synonym of united without the abbreviation for own goal.
29a Humbled Europeans separately interrupting inquiry (8)
DEMEANED: insert two single-letter abbreviations for European separately into a word for an inquiry.
Down Clues
1d Mind game before leader’s overthrown (5)
WATCH: start with a game involving mixing and matching colours (not a game I’d heard of) and delete its first letter. Thanks to Jane for pointing out that the parsing is more straightforward – turn the first letter of a game or contest upside-down to get the answer.
2d Extreme public storm somehow overshadows race’s conclusion (9)
OUTERMOST: an adverb meaning public and an anagram (somehow) of STORM bracket the concluding letter of race.
3d Fabulous part of Honolulu Fred nowadays seen around (9)
WONDERFUL: hidden in reverse.
4d Liniment husband puts on affected work essentially (7)
CAMPHOR: the genealogical abbreviation for husband is contained in (i.e. puts on or wears) an adjective meaning affected and the central letters of work.
6d PM in trouble before start of hustings (5)
HEATH: a word for trouble from the police precedes the starting letter of hustings.
7d One getting up vertical pipe (5)
RISER: double definition.
8d Prescience having literary saga broadcast (9)
FORESIGHT: a homophone of the literary saga by John Galsworthy. I remember watching in the late sixties the TV adaption of this featuring the fragrant Nyree Dawn Porter.
9d Signatory of cheque when compensation is raised (6)
DRAWER: reverse a word meaning compensation.
14d Unconfined agony over right time to get tough (9)
RESILIENT: assemble the reversal of a word for agony or suffering without its outer letters, a legal term for a right to property and the physics abbreviation for time.
16d Instrument one’s played with amp outside unknown old pub (9)
SAXOPHONE: an anagram (played) of ONE’S A(mp) contains an algebraic unknown and abbreviations for old and pub.
17d Drug that is new, protecting British university professor (9)
IBUPROFEN: abbreviations for ‘that is’ and new contain abbreviations for British and university and the short form of professor.
19d Task force in dock? (6)
DETAIL: triple definition, the third a cryptic verb to remove a bodily part (of a young lamb, perhaps).
20d Type of lens through which a doctor perhaps looks (7)
FISHEYE: split 4,3 this could describe the seeing organ of a creature which can be called doctor.
22d Swindle couple, nothing taken initially (5)
TWIST: a couple without the nothing-resembling letter and a shorthand way of writing ‘initially’.
23d Half-heartedly chamfer wood (5)
GROVE: another word for a chamfer without one of its central letters.
25d Scrap lavish redevelopment to some extent (5)
SHRED: hidden.
I ticked 1a, 10a, 14a and 20d but my favourite was the clever 20a. Which one(s) did the business for you?
A highly enjoyable and inventive puzzle from one of our favourite setters with a mass of good, tight clues and great surfaces. Being a cricket nut I have to go for 14a as my favourite this afternoon.
Thanks to both Silvanus and Gazza.
An absolute gem of a Toughie despite, as Gazza said, it being at the top end of our setter’s spectrum.
My favourite is the 11a flier with its upturned bill giving it a somewhat snooty air and I also liked the irritating yarn, the cheerful cricketer and the sneaky mind game. You may need to revisit that one, Gazza, I think the game is far more generic!
Many thanks to Silvanus and also to Gazza for the review and cartoons – particularly liked those accompanying 9&17d.
Thanks Jane – penny has now dropped on 1d. Blog about to be updated.
Have only just got the hang of rotation & now I’ve got to turn ‘em upside down. Great spot.
I agree with Gazza, this was more challenging than we have come to expect from SIlvanus’ regular Thursday Toughies particularly in the top half. It was however as enjoyable as ever with ticks all over my page, although I did fail to parse 22d.
Gazza, I took match and game in 1 d to be synonymous as in football match/game.
Many thanks to Silvanus and to Gazza.
Tough, but hugely enjoyable. Thank you Silvanus.
No surprise to see the Crown Court in 1a – isn’t that where your football team plays, Silvanus?
I failed to parse 1d, so well done, Jane for clarifying that one.
I also had a typo in 7d, putting a D in the middle of the word. That led me to think that the flier was the other sawbill. Oh well. Fat fingers, I guess.
Ticks all over the place but, if pushed, I would probably run with the very clever 1d as my CoD.
Thanks again to Silvanus and take a bow, Gazza – that was a tough one to blog!
Many thanks. 1a was more a nod to my two weeks doing jury service there in 2016, an interesting experience to say the least! Being jury foreman for one of the cases and delivering the verdict was one of the most stressful moments I’ve ever experienced. I was convinced that nervousness would lead me to say “guilty” rather than “not guilty”, but fortunately it didn’t happen!
My favourite puzzle of the week. Sylvanus never fails to give enjoyment with his smooth, clever clues. I have ticks aplenty but I have 1A and 1D as my pick of a great bunch. Podium has to go to 1D which I thought was so clever.
Thanks to Gazza and Sylvanus
Typically classy. 11a was certainly new to me but very fairly clued. 20a’s fun and 28a is excellent but it’s hard to look beyond 1d for a favourite. Many thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.
Super puzzle, with most of it reasonably straightforward until I hit the SW where I found that my inability to ‘see’ the anagram in 24a (I seldom write them down) combined with these being a half-dozen apparently more challenging clues, brought me to a grinding halt. Podium places for me to 1a, 11a & 4d, with gold going to the wonderful 20a – the meet I shall be attending on foot this weekend will be wet & muddy, but our spaniels will enjoy the extended walk!
Thank you to Gazza (cracking cartoons, comme toujours) and Silvanus
Many thanks to Gazza (great cartoons once again!) and to everyone commenting.
Apologies to those overseas solvers who might consider some of the GK rather UK-centric, it is!
We were certainly challenged by the politicians and the geographical references which added an extra layer of difficulty to what was already a hard puzzle. Never mind, we did get there with a bit of Google help although we had missed the very clever wordplay for 1a.
Thanks Silvanus and Gazza.
Neither Shabbo with his slightly nor Gazza with his smidgen reflected my solving experiences today though this cracker actually took me about the same time as the back-pager. Had to check that the fish existed, look up what chamfer meant to solve it, failed to parse 1d & had 19d as double rather than triple definition. As ever a plethora of ✅s – 1,10,11,13,14,20,28&29a plus 8,16,17&22d particular likes.
Thanks to Silvanus & to Gazza – thoroughly endorse your unspeakable/uneatable observation. Seem to recall Lady Archer being described as fragrant by the judge in her idiot hubby’s libel case.
Thank you, Huntsman. You are correct, I did intend 19d to be a Double Definition.
Thanks for the clarification, Silvanus. I took detail (as a transitive verb) to mean to task (Chambers has ‘to set apart for a particular service’) and as a noun to mean a small military force. I was probably overthinking it.
An excellent puzzle. I hadn’t heard of the duck and fish creatures, but that didn’t hinder me much. Nor was I aware of the more archaic definition of 26a meaning ‘shorten’. 1d is brilliant. We had an ‘N’ rotating for ‘Z’ the other day too. All very inventive.
Thanks Silvanus and Gazza for the entertaining blog.