Toughie No 3316 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ****
Osmosis has given us a proper Toughie with a lot of clever wordplay (which I really enjoyed working through). This time his puzzle is a full pangram with no missing letters.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Waffle, pound, twirled in honey (6)
BABBLE: reverse the abbreviation for a pound avoirdupois inside a synonym for honey as an affectionate endearment.
4a PC helpline user may thus invite trouble (3,3,2)
ASK FOR IT: when the operator answers this is what the PC user needing help may do.
10a Specific knitwear ready, brought in to Hollywood celeb (9)
TARANTINO: insert a type of traditional Irish knitwear and a dated word for money in TO.
11a Light green snails occasionally returning (5)
LASER: occasional letters of green snails in reverse.
12a Cleaner having brew’s embracing my Alsatian (7)
CHAMOIS: an informal word for tea (brew) and its ‘S contains a French word for my (?). It’s a long time since I did French A-level but I think the required word means ‘me’ rather than ‘my’.
12a (revised clue posted on the Puzzles site) Cleaner purchasing me French teas (7)
CHAMOIS: (engaging Yoda-mode) informal teas contain the French word for me.
13a Huge firm bunk provided by one airline (7)
TOSHIBA: assemble an informal word for bunk or rubbish, the Roman numeral for one and an airline.
14a Trip to Mecca Bingo includes, for starters, drinks and food (5)
BHAJI: the starting letters of Bingo and Includes contain (drinks) the 3-letter spelling of a trip to Mecca.
15a Application taken away from meeting with GP? (8)
OINTMENT: start with an arranged meeting, possibly with a GP, and delete the abbreviated computer application.
18a Perennial bridesmaid’s principal, following career ‘eartache (8)
HAREBELL: the principal letter of bridesmaid follows a verb to career. Finish with a synonym of heartache or purgatory without its first letter.
19a Unity seen after backing personnel department (5)
RHÔNE: a synonym of unity follows the reversal of the modern abbreviation for personnel.
21a Obsessed with midfield of team ahead 11-1? (5,2)
EATEN UP: the central letters of team and a phrase (3,2) meaning leading by 11-1.
23a User of blade shaved somewhere off kitchen? (7)
SCULLER: a room usually off the kitchen without its final letter.
24a Rigorous Spurs discussed passage of play (5)
EXACT: what sounds (a bit) like a verb meaning spurs or encourages followed by part of a play.
25a Last of salmon and plaice cooking? That indicates four for fish (4,5)
NEON TETRA: splice together the last letters of salmon and plaice, an adverb meaning cooking and a prefix meaning four.
26a Second grade whirlwind leading to extra litter perhaps (5-3)
BEDDY-BYE: string together the letter used to mean second grade, a whirlwind or circular movement and an extra in cricket.
27a Monstrous image written in shadowy vernacular (6)
WYVERN: hidden.
Down Clues
1d Cricket club, sixty-four for one, entertaining husband in essence? (8)
BATHCUBE: a club used in cricket and what sixty-four is an example of in maths bracketing the genealogical abbreviation for husband.
2d Writer spoke twice with Bill, replacing that man in vitally important area (7,8)
BARBARA CARTLAND: repeat a synonym of a spoke or rod then replace the leading male pronoun in the most important part of a country with the abbreviation for a bill or invoice.
3d Maybe make Cockney dish, first off separating sole (9)
LONDONISE: a male ‘dish’ without his first letter is contained in an adjective meaning sole. The answer is a horrible word but it is in the BRB.
5d Generous hero inspires small B team abroad (8,6)
SPORTING LISBON: an adjective meaning generous or fair followed by a word meaning hero containing the abbreviation for small and B.
6d Chaps, without pained expression, racing on these? (5)
FELLS: remove the expression of pain from chaps or blokes to leave areas in northern England where competitors race.
7d Language course recruits granted life-changing venture? (7,8)
RUSSIAN ROULETTE: a Slavic language and a synonym of course containing a verb meaning granted or allowed.
8d Macho man‘s parting disturbed by variable winds, essentially (6)
TARZAN: an informal word for goodbye contains one of the algebraic variables. Finish with the central letter of winds.
9d Overlook capital with Yankee touring Penn, or PA (4,10)
MISS MONEYPENNY: rivet together a verb to overlook or fail to see, a synonym of capital or wealth and the letter that Yankee represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet containing PENN.
16d Son abandoning search in couple’s craft (9)
MARQUETRY: a search or pursuit without the genealogical abbreviation for son goes inside a verb to couple or unite.
17d Fruit and veg Mike put in bucket (8)
PEARMAIN: start with a green vegetable and add the letter that Mike represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet inside a verb to bucket down.
20d Northward branch stocks, shifting ton, rival of Liverpool Echo (6)
REVERB: a reversal of the abbreviation for branch contains Liverpool FC’s local rivals without TON.
22d Extremely fond of Hazel? (5)
NUTTY: double definition. The falsely-capitalised hazel is a foodstuff.
The clues which I liked best were 4a, 18a, 21a, 7d and 8d. Which one(s) did you favour?
A game of two halves in which the RHS went in much more easily than the left. I liked the neatness and simplicity of 15a, the cleverness of 1d and the humour of the “parting” in 8d. I didn’t like far too many proper nouns and what looks like an editing failure in 12a.
Thanks to Osmosis and Gazza.
12a has been changed/corrected on-line:
Cleaner purchasing me French teas (7)
Thanks for that; I’ll update the blog.
A slow but steady solve, with the LHS proving trickier than the right. Especially enjoyed 1d, 26a and LOI 14a. Thanks Osmosis and Gazza :)
I haven’t done a Toughie for a while and it certainly showed as I laboured somewhat to get across the line. Spotting the pangram helped too. A nice sense of achievement, though, with some excellent clues, of which 7d was my favourite (and 8d my top cartoon).
Thanks very much to Osmosis for the mangling, and to Gazza.
Don’t see anything wrong with the original (newspaper) clue for 12 across, although the apostrophe is arguably superfluous.
Tea = cha, so tea’s = cha’s.
An Alsatian is a person from Alsace, so he speaks French.
The problem was that ‘moi’in French means ‘me’ rather than ‘my’.