Toughie No 3268 by Sparks
Hints and tips by Dutch
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ****
Well that was interesting. I didn’t know who the setter was. Only just noticed it says Sparks on BigDave’s site. There used to be a section on toughie setters in “the knowledge” on the telegraph puzzles website but it seems to have disappeared. It didn’t feel like Sparks, though there is some of his quirky clueing.
Across
1a Electronic device‘s volume limited by live and earth coming briefly loose (10,5)
THERMIONIC VALVE: An anagram (loose) of LIVE+EARTH+COMIN(g) (briefly) goes around (limiting) the abbreviation for volume
9a Editing revolutionary lawsuit (9)
REDACTION: A 3-letter revolutionary and a lawsuit
10a Hawaii embraces small island republic (5)
HAITI: The state abbreviation for Hawaii contains a small island
11a Genuine anger with rights being delayed before now (7)
EARLIER: A 4-letter word for genuine and a 3-letter word for anger with the abbreviations for right shifted to the right
12a Playwright given nod starts to enjoy Telegraph Toughie (7)
BECKETT: Another word for nod and the first letters of ‘enjoy telegraph toughie’
13a One member of parliament that hurts Liberal (3)
OWL: An exclamation of pain plus the abbreviation for Liberal
14a Brainbox dropping in as early as possible checks quiet sculptor (7)
EPSTEIN: The brainbox with a theory of relativity drops the first occurrence of IN, then insert the musical abbreviation for quiet
17a Too much missing the ball stuffs school team (7)
EVERTON: a preposition meaning too much without the initial O is inserted into (stuffs) the name of a school
19a Unbeatable opponents see men’s blunders (7)
NEMESES: An anagram (blunders) of SEE MEN’S
22a Warrior painting fills canvas sheet, lines having been drawn (7)
SAMURAI: A wall painting is inserted into a canvas sheet on a boat, then remove all the abbreviations for line
24a Docked minimum wage newsworthy – ultimately, it’s disgusting (3)
UGH: The penultimate letters in ‘Mininum wage newsworthy’ – (ultimately after docking off the last letter)
25a Partly coincide with end of transmission circuit (7)
OVERLAP: What you might say at the end of a transmission plus a 3-letter circuit
26a Net deposit 17 for one wouldn’t want (3,4)
OWN GOAL: Cryptic definition of a way that a team like 17 would not want something in the net
28a When linked, Georgia and Chas periodically visited Heather (5)
ERICA: Even letters in GEORGIA+CHAS
29a Royal officials finally have doubts about king (9)
EQUERRIES: The last letter in have, then a word for doubts or questions goes around the Latin abbreviation for king
30a Be ready by corner, punches landing shiners (10,5)
ANGLEPOISE LAMPS: A verb that can mean to be ready follows a corner, then a word that can mean punches
Down
1d Important date holds up vulgar, out-of-print musical play (10,5)
THREEPENNY OPERA: An important date or period of tome follows a 10=letter word for cheap or vulgar plus the abbreviation for out-of-print
2d Princess picked up duck (5)
EIDER: A homophone (picked up) of a 3-letter princess
3d Engine speed of circa 340mps in which 0 should be 1 (7)
MACHINE: Not sure I’ve got the maths here. I think the intention is a (4,3) speed corresponding to the speed of sound, in which the O is replaced by an I – or have I missed something? Quite possibly, given Sparks is a Maths professor!
4d Scratching head, funny crony endlessly writes letter overseas (7)
OMICRON: A 5-letter word meaning funny without the first letter, then remove the last letter from both this and CRON(y)
5d Standing priest holding hookah base (7)
IGNOBLE: Reversal (standing) of a 3-letter priest containing a 4-letter hookah
6d Victor, say, secures this large conveyance (7)
VEHICLE: A spelled-out version of the letter with radio code victor contains the Latin for ‘this’ plus the abbreviation for large
7d Sheep lice treated with chemical compound (9)
LEICESTER: An anagram (treated) of LICE plus a type of chemical compound
8d Freedom of choice advocates anarchic sit-in with “Seattle Six” (15)
EXISTENTIALISTS: An anagram (anarchic) of SIT-IN + SEATTLE SIX
15d Cooking affected when male overcomes pressure (9)
SIMMERING: A 9-letter word meaning affected with an M replacing the P
16d Mostly aim for fish (3)
IDE: A 4-letter word for aim or plan without the last letter
18d Son avoiding endorsement gets through (3)
VIA: A 4-letter endorsement or permit to travel but without the abbreviation for son
20d Half of gravel spread in herb border (7)
SELVAGE: An anagram (spread) of the second half of graVEL goes inside a 4-letter herb
21d Boss wrestling before cuts (7)
SUPREMO: Some Japanese wrestling is cut by a word meaning before
22d Time to leave weapons for military dictators (7)
SHOGUNS: Some 8-letter firearms without the abbreviation for time
23d Ill-defined among religious houses (7)
MONGREL: Hidden ( … houses)
27d Number 10 beginning to upset MP following reshuffle (5)
OPIUM: An anagram (following reshuffle) of IO+U(pset)+MP
I quite liked the last clue – which were your favourites?
I found this a bit of a relief from the usual Friday fare altho the top half seemed a lot tougher than the bottom. Spent a while trying to account for “Important” in 1d until Chambers put me right. Some inventive clues here, of which 11a [the delayed rights] and 14a [“in as early as poss” is clever] get my votes for tops. That member of parliament makes yet another visit and where would we be without that 3-letter fish?
Thanks to Sparks and Dutch.
Many more than mentioned in 1d had to drop before I got through this, but in the end I thought it was easier than most Friday offerings (which I usually have to give up on).
Thanks to Sparks and Dutch!
1a almost had me running for the hills – not a device that I’m familiar with – 30a’s are far more my scene!
The birds, fish, sheep and good old Heather were a great help but I did still need to turn to our reviewer for a hint or two elsewhere.
Enjoyed wrestling with this one – thanks to Sparks and to Dutch for the review – didn’t realise that Sparks is a maths professor – our conversation at The George revolved around dogs, family and medical matters. I’d have probably been quite scared had I known of his qualifications!
An enjoyable Friday tussle! Plenty of gettable clues certainly helped with the head-scratchers. Your maths is correct Dutch with the speed of sound (343 m/s). 😁
Thank you Sparks and Dutch
Thoroughly enjoyed working through this one. Particularly liked the four long perimeter clues.
Thanks Sparks and Dutch.
Good challenge, properly tough. Felt 1a very unfair – an anagram of something of which almost no one will have heard. 1d biffed – the answer was familiar but the clue made no sense to me. Brian Epstein a sculptor – who’d a thunk it? 😉 I’ll go for 2d as my COTD because it made me smile!
Parsed 4d as [C]OMIC[C]RON[Y] – scratching the head of comic, then crony endlessly.
Many thanks to Sparks and Dutch
Thank you Dutch for another great blog, and to all for taking the time to solve and comment on the puzzle. It certainly wasn’t meant to feel different from the usual ‘sparky’ stile :-/ And apologies if 1ac felt unfair to some: I’ve genuinely known about such valves since I was but a wee taker-apart of things — including old tape recorders and amps — in the 1960s. The first version of the clue at 3dn was “Engine speed of 340.3mps in which 0 should be 1”, but we changed it to a more approximate value as Mach 1 varies with temperature and pressure. Finally, 2Kiwis@5 inadvertently cited the location of the ‘invisible’ Nina on this occasion, which was that all 15-letter perimeter entries were juxtapositions of a trio of 5-letter words: THERM.IONIC.VALVE, THREE.PENNY.OPERA, EXIST.ENTIA.LISTS and ANGLE.POISE.LAMPS. A la prochaine!
So nice to see you pop in, Sparks, how’s Tia?
I’ve never been a wee taker-apart of things like tape-recorders and amps, so perhaps that’s the reason why I’d never heard of 1a!