Toughie No 3262 by Dharma
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ***
It is probably a wavelength thing but I found this crossword extremely difficult – the first solution I entered in the grid was that for 27a, I was more successful in the Downs and gradually filled in the grid, going from SE to SW and then NE to NW
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought
Across
1a Lefty in spot — growth delivered (7)
MARXIST Homophones (delivered) of a discoloured mark and a growth
5a Go back with boyfriend, one who wants to stay in? (7)
BATSMAN A reversal (the first of several) of an attempt (go) followed by a boyfriend
9a Tendency of lead character to display cleavage (5)
DRIFT The ‘lead’ character to Display and a cleavage
10a Man on board attracted to English woman at last shows face (9)
ENCOUNTER A playing piece in a game (man on board) attracted to or going after the abbreviation for English and the last letter of womaN
11a Hint for stage, having admitted new independent operators? (4,6)
FREE AGENTS The first word of solution is an anagram indicator which hints what you have to do with STAGE once you have ‘admitted’ the abbreviation for New
12a Cockney’s satnav announcement on arrival becoming unwanted product (4)
UREA If a Cockney had programmed a satnav, the arrival announcement might sound like an unwanted bodily product
14a Appeal judge in charge (8,4)
INTEREST RATE Appeal in the sense of engage the attention and a verb meaning to judge
18a Worried Spar’s restricting lease over joint head of supermarket’s concerns (12)
PARTNERSHIPS An anagram (worried) of SPAR ‘restricting’ a reversal (over) of a synonym for lease and a joint of the body, the result finished off with the ‘head’ of Supermarket
21a Settled, broken by pressure to reject strikes (4)
TAPS A reversal (to reject) of a synonym for settled (in a chair perhaps) ‘broken’ by the symbol for Pressure
22a Advanced cuts squeezing meagre benefits (10)
ALLOWANCES The abbreviation for Advances and a synonym for cuts or incises ‘squeezing’ a synonym for meagre
25a Soldier on exercise, Spartan, crushing resistance (9)
PERSEVERE Some abbreviated school exercise and spartan in the sense of harsh ‘crushing’ the symbol for electrical Resistance
26a Layer cake at the edges thus (5)
HENCE A layer of eggs and the edges of CakE
27a Most blue Democrats seen in dubious seats (7)
SADDEST Two abbreviated Democrats seen or inserted into an anagram (dubious) of SEATS
28a Improves from cutting drink a little (5,2)
TARTS UP Cutting in the sense of sharp or biting and a verb meaning to drink a little
Down
1d Tweak food from time to time, providing cracking goodness (6)
MODIFY The even letters (from time to time) of fOoD and a conjunction meaning providing inserted into (cracking) an interjection of surprise (goodness)
2d Provoked opponents, loading rifle (6)
RAISED Abbreviated opponents in a game of bridge ‘loading’ a verb meaning to attack (rifle)
3d Endless hair colourings applied before showering and using conditioner? (2,8)
IN TRAINING Remove the first and last letters (endless) from some hair colourings and follow with some weather quite often described as showers
4d Issue latest in correct pronouns (5)
THEME The latest letter in correcT and two pronouns
5d Prominent features of stag used with sufficient power (9)
BUCKTEETH A stage and having sufficient power to be effective
6d Tense is wrong in speech (4)
TAUT A homophone (in speech) of a wrong
7d Concrete refuge put up to support partner (8)
MATERIAL A reversal (put up) of an animal’s refuge ‘supports’ (in a Down solution) or goes after a partner
8d Details of webinar rat established (8)
NARRATES Provides a commentary (details) hidden in the last three words of the clue
13d Stuck-up favourite son, more remote, losing right to be family member (10)
STEPFATHER A reversal (stuck up) of a favourite and the abbreviation for Son, followed by more remote without (losing) the abbreviation for Right
15d Signing up — arranged rent money, pound for year! (9)
ENROLMENT An anagram (arranged) of RENT MONEy L (the abbreviation for Pounds Sterling replacing that for Year)
16d Recollected happiest commemorations (8)
EPITAPHS An anagram (recollected) of HAPPIEST
17d In the mood, already hooked up in conversation (8)
PREPARED In advance (already) and a homophone (in conversation) of hooked up as a couple
19d Tips from Sainsbury’s to include support for ice cream and cakes (6)
SCONES The ‘tips’ from SainsburyS ‘include something used to support an ice cream while you eat it
20d Upstanding prime minister regularly spat out (6)
ASLEEP A reversal of a Prime Minister in the 1800s and the regular letters of SpAt
23d Open to entertaining vicar in retirement (5)
OVERT A reversal (in retirement) of TO (from the clue) and an abbreviated vicar
24d Superheroine finally appearing in Madame Web feature (4)
MEME The final letter of superheroinE inserted into the abbreviation for the French word madame combine to get an idea disseminated on the internet (web feature)
Dharma has definitely upped his difficulty level to give us a proper Toughie today – thanks to him and to CS.
I had ticks against 9a, 28a and 5d plus the LOL 12a.
Not my favourite Dharma puzzle to be honest probably because I too struggled to get on wavelength. Not an unaided completion either as I used the check facility & made a correction at 2d (can never remember partners v opponents in bridge) en route to finish as well as reading the hint for last in 24d (a word not in the list in panagram on the puzzle site for some reason). 5a&d both took an age & very slow to peg the homophones at 1a. Favourite for me was 11a with 12a in the runner up spot.
Thanks to Stephen & to Sue
I found this a real toughie and needed Sue’s parsing to explain my answers to 1A, a great homophone, and 12A for which I still don’t see where FREE comes from.
Lots of excellent clues with 1A, 5A, 22A, 26A, 3D, 5D and for me the absolutely hilarious 12A, the star of the show.
Many thanks to CS and to Dharma for the difficult challenge.
Hi PJ,
Presume you mean 11a. As Sue says in the hint, FREE is the anagram indicator for the rest of the clue. I do like these type of clues. You almost need to get the answer before you can fully parse it. Very devious!
Anthony Plumb has used it a couple of times recently in his Tuesday puzzles. I’m a fan too of this clue type
I managed to finish this with a fair bit of reverse engineering to get me across the line. Tough it most certainly was, and a proper challenge that would not have been out of place later in the week. There were many outstanding clues in this most absorbing puzzle, none better than 12a.
Thanks to SL for a real brain-mangling and to Sue.
A veritable Toughie and no mistake (ok, I did make one), and while steady if slow progress saw 80% of the puzzle completed and parsed to my satisfaction, the NW proved to contain the most challenging half-dozen clues – and two of the most satisfying. I was pleased to knock them over, one by one, but was unable to parse my answer to 11a, for which many thanks to Sue.
A few odd surfaces, a number of somewhat “left field” synonyms and definitions, many requiring considerable lateral thought or the blowing away of cobwebs to retrieve them from the memory. I’m still rather unconvinced about rifle/raid, and felt there were two possible solutions for 28a (cutting being to turn something, as on a lathe, and turns up as in ‘the outlook improves’ – though the actual answer is much stronger), but otherwise did enjoy this challenge. Top three for me – 1a, 1d & 16d.
Many thanks to Sue and Stephen/Dharma
This was a challenge. Like CS I got to 26a before I wrote in an answer, and completed the lower half before getting anywhere in the top. Steadily got there, but needed Sue to help parse 5a as I just couldn’t see where the BATS came from.
So thanks to CrypticSue and Dharma.
Good evening
Thanks to CS and to those who commented, much appreciated.
To further expand on PJ’s query re 11a, the clue is a reverse anagram where the solution consists of the anagram indicator (in this case “free”) and anagram fodder. They are a particular favourite of mine so you may see a few more in the coming months.
Wow! Dharma really seems to have found his form. This was a right cracker which took an age to get into. I had 1d and 9a then nothing for an embarrassingly long time. There are some terrifically cryptic clues here – I have asterisks all over the place but will single out 1a [super homophone] 11a [is there a name for these reverse engineered clues?] 12a [another great homophone] 25a [soldiers on!!] 26a [layer cake] and 20d [hidden definition]. No rock n roll though!
Thanks to Dharma [keep it up lad] and CS [makes a change to find something marginally less taxing than you did – say 4.5].
A bit like wading through treacle for us but we did persevere and eventually got everything sorted. 12a our favourite.
Thanks Dharma and CS.
I don’t often Toughie, but I’ve enjoyed Dharma’s puzzles before, so gave this a go. Like Sue, 27a was the first full answer I wrote in. Unlike Sue, I used an anagram solver even for that and I only had one more answer (19d’s cakes) by the time I’d been through the downs (plus the final letter of 18a and the first letter of 4d!).
I used Sue’s hints for the other 28 clues(!) — and didn’t even get all the answers with those, about a quarter of answers requiring both hints and more crossing letters before I had them. So I’ve learnt that next time Sue rates a Dharma puzzle as 5*, I will believe her!
(Not that I’m in the habit of not believing Sue. But my mind seems to be tuned to an unusual wavelength: recently there’s been a 5* Friday backpager within my abilities and a 1* Tuesday backpager that wasn’t, so I don’t necessarily expect star ratings to match my experience.)
My favourites were 1d’s tweak and 17d’s ‘already hooked up’. Thank you to Dharma for the impressive challenge: plaudits to both you and everybody who did solve it.
And massive thanks to Sue, without whom this would have been an unsatisfying, mysterious and massive defeat. Though for 18a, I think the anagram is just of SPAR, with ‘head of supermarket’ being added at the end?
Thank you for spotting my ‘deliberate’
error which I have now corrected. I’m only surprised there weren’t more