Toughie No 3279 by Beam
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Beam is here to delight his many fans again (he seems to appear regularly on a 4-week cycle). He’s included all his usual trademarks and as always provides a few synonyms that require some head-scratching.
I was held up for some time on 6d as I read the first word of the clue as ‘flat’ – I do need to go to Specsavers!
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
7a Philosopher with jug held noxious liquid (8)
SEWERAGE: a philosopher or wise man contains a large jug.
8a Former leader of Left in disgrace (6)
STALIN: the abbreviation for left is contained in a synonym of disgrace or stigma.
9a Passionate backing for great female singer (4)
DIVA: reverse an adjective meaning passionate or enthusiastic.
10a Lacking will, Republican’s in Trump’s way? (10)
INTERSTATE: insert the abbreviation for Republican into an adjective meaning ‘having not made a will’.
11a Waterlogged pitch after damage (6)
MARSHY: a verb to pitch follows a verb to damage.
13a Lock partially securing letterbox (7)
RINGLET: hidden.
14a Arsenal’s international’s back inside park (7)
DEPOSIT: reverse the abbreviation for international and its ‘S inside an arsenal or storehouse.
16a Oddly sweary, failing in Mass? (7)
SERVICE: join the odd letters of sweary and a failing or bad habit.
19a Performer from start is teasing (7)
ARTISTE: our second hidden word.
20a Sort of betting odds studied (6)
SPREAD: the abbreviation for betting odds and a verb meaning studied. I’m not sure in what way the answer means ‘sort’ – perhaps in the sense of ‘arrange’? Ignore that – as Jezza points out the definition is the first three words.
21a Opportunity with press turning on minister (10)
CHANCELLOR: a synonym of opportunity and the reversal of a verb to press (a cricket pitch for example?).
22a Strip with cover quietly withdrawn (4)
PEEL: append the musical abbreviation for quietly to a word meaning cover or shelter then reverse it all.
23a French painter capturing grand charm? (6)
MAGNET: a French Impressionist painter contains the abbreviation for grand.
24a Denial, for example, seen in America? (8)
NEGATION: the usual abbreviation of ‘for example’ goes inside what America is an example of. When I was at school (a long time ago) it was drummed into us that America was a continent, not a country. Things have obviously changed since then.
Down Clues
1d Intervene after catching cold, getting drug (8)
MEDICATE: a verb to intervene or arbitrate contains the abbreviation for cold.
2d Very mature upcoming star (4)
VEGA: the abbreviation for very followed by the reversal of a verb to mature.
3d Swift embraces providing calm (6)
PACIFY: an adjective meaning swift contains a conjunction meaning ‘providing’.
4d Set off again in leisure craft (7)
RESTART: synonyms of leisure or relaxation and craft or skill.
5d Beam is against having smart clothing (10)
CANTILEVER: a preposition meaning against ‘wears’ an adjective meaning smart. I have a picture in my head of Beam participating in dress down Friday.
6d Fiat is rubbish with fool upset (6)
DIKTAT: rivet together a word for rubbish or shoddy things and a verb to fool then reverse it.
8d Funny gag doesn’t restrain Labour’s leader (7)
STRANGE: a verb to gag or choke without the leading letter of Labour.
12d Fat reduction (10)
SHORTENING: double definition, the first the sort of fat used by a pastry cook.
15d Study bug holding head of pin (7)
INSPECT: a six-legged bug contains the first letter of pin.
17d Accompany guy playing, covering Queen (8)
CHAPERON: a word for a chap and an adverb meaning playing bracket the cipher of our late Queen.
18d Passion of affair involving two sweethearts! (7)
FEELING: an affair or liaison containing two examples of Beam’s very own swEetheart.
19d Following a silence, beat retreat (6)
ASHRAM: after A we need an instruction to be silent and a verb to beat.
20d Kids seeing end of kids’ shows (6)
SPROGS: the last letter of kids and an informal word for broadcast shows.
22d Part inside tree’s heart initially (4)
PITH: just when I thought that Beam had forgotten to include one of his trademark initial letters clues one turns up right at the end.
The clues I liked included 10a, 11a and 4d with my favourite being 5d. Which ones hit the mark for you?
I thought this was fairly straightforward on the whole, although I struggled a little with the top right section.
My last one in was 14a.
Re 20a, I took the definition to be the first 3 words – “Type of betting”
Thanks to Beam, and to Gazza. 2*/4* for me.
That should read “Sort of betting”
Of course it is. Thanks.
Generally straightforward though not helped by this particular grid, and I found the NE the most challenging of the quarters – being a victim (a) of having thrown in Refloat at 4d earlier on, and (b) spending most of the puzzle wondering why ‘dictat’ would not parse given it had to be the answer! Gazza rightly alludes to Beam’s head-scratching synonyms, and I rarely step away from a Beam puzzle without a sense that my vocab and mental thesaurus have been given a good going-over.
Many thanks to Beam and Gazza
My crossword day has been perfection thanks to Silvanus & Mr T. Just have to admit to needing a visit to Specsavers along with Gazza and also, like Jezza, knowing perhaps a little too much about gambling………
Top clues for me were 11a plus 3&5d with a special mention for Harvey and his ‘borrowed’ set of teeth!
Devotions as ever to Mr T and many thanks to Gazza for a fun-filled review.
Tough, but very fair and most enjoyable.
14a was my LOI and I had to rely on Gazza for the parsing. I doesn’t look so difficult when you know how!
5d is my COD and it detained me far longer than it should have done. I convinced myself that the V was “against”, until it couldn’t be. Nice clue.
Thank you Beam and Gazza. Rather you than me on the parsing of this one!
Mainly straightforward with a number of head scratchers. I spent some time trying to shoehorn ‘stew’ (jug) into 7a until the checkers disabused me of that notion. Great fun as usual with Rayt. Favourite was 5d. Thanks to Rayt and Gazza.
The usual from Beam, not too taxing. Faves were 8a [good illustration Gazza] and 20d [first time I’ve seen it in a crossword?].
Thanks to both.
How lovely to have such a wonderful Beam Toughie on the same day as a Silvanus back-pager. Despite their very contrasting styles, both were absolutely excellent.
My page is littered with ticks from which my podium selection is 10a, 5d & 12d.
Many thanks to Beam and to Gazza.
A brilliant crossword even though lots of the clues were way beyond me – even with the hints (and occasionally the answers too);
My favourite clue was 20d – the best cartoon was 12d – my excuse was always for making bread as it cleans the nails beautifully!
Thanks to Beam for the crossword and thanks to Gazza for the hints and specially for the cartoons – a particularly good batch this week!!
I was impressed by the concise no-splits puzzle. An enjoyable solve with the NW holding out till the end 7A and 14A being last in. Some excellent clues, my podium goes to 14A.
Many thanks to Gazza for the parsing and fun and to Beam for the challenge.
Evening all. My thanks to Gazza for the review and to all for your comments.
RayT
Good evening, Mr T, both of your sweethearts seemed to be enjoying themselves today!
Well I’m with Shabbo in finding this Beamer rather tough – well certainly tougher than his recent ones. Very enjoyable as per but unfortunately can’t claim an entirely unaided finish as I had to look up the meaning of fiat (new to me but at least I didn’t read it as flat) having rightly suspected it had sod all to do with with the car model. Loved the double sweetheart but COTD for me across both puzzles was 10a.
Thanks to Beam & Gazza
The ‘shows’ in 20d were new to us but we had made a correct guess. A pleasure as ever to work through all the devious clues.
Thanks Beam and Gazza.