Toughie No 3323 by Django
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
After his last Toughie which was veering towards orthodoxy Django has found his quirky streak once more and given us a very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to him.
Several of today’s long answers leapt out from the enumeration and a few checkers, just requiring some work to identify the wordplay.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
9a Rich exhausted oil and gas supply to become powerful businessmen (9)
OLIGARCHS: an anagram (supply) of RICH O[i]L (exhausted, i.e. emptied) GAS.
10a Conclusion of home games (5)
OMEGA: hidden.
11a Plastic sheet caused mild fungal condition (5,3,7)
DUTCH ELM DISEASE: an anagram (plastic) of SHEET CAUSED MILD.
12a Post Office representative seeing deficit – regularly buried evidence of settlement here (7)
POMPEII: assemble the abbreviation for Post Office, one of our political representatives and regular letters from deficit. Very topical surface.
13a Apparent reason not everyone can see this Virgin Mobile message (7)
PRETEXT: start with an adjective meaning virgin or chaste, remove the letter used to mean ‘everyone can see this’ and append a word for a message on a mobile phone.
15a Policy advisor of Keir Starmer discontented once urban regeneration is required (9,6)
INSURANCE BROKER: an anagram (regeneration is required) of KEIR S[tarme]R ONCE URBAN.
19a Netted dry ski slope will bend the board conclusively (7)
YIELDED: the concluding letters of seven words in the clue.
22a Study article before investing a pound in foreign stock exchange (7)
ANALYSE: start with an indefinite article then insert A and the abbreviation for pound sterling into a US stock exchange (not Nasdaq, the other one).
24a Son breaking into rear of fancy hotel with friend Bob outside dithering (6-9)
SHILLY-SHALLYING: the abbreviation for son goes into the last letter of fancy, the letter that hotel represents in the NPA and a synonym of friend. Around all that place the legal tender for which bob used to be an informal word. Lovely word!
26a Trouble with group of sailors on deck (5)
ADORN: a word meaning trouble and the abbreviation for our senior service.
27a Too zealous dean’s filling in old church official (9)
OVEREAGER: the inner letters (filling) of dean go into the abbreviation for old and a church official.
Down Clues
1d/12d/24d Left test screening after WC Fields’s last bit? True until recently (4,5,4)
LORD PRIVY SEAL: the abbreviation for left and a test or trying experience contain an outdoor WC and the last letter of fields. This office was important in the past but has no particular function today; it took some investigoogling to find out that its holder prior to 4th July this year was one Nicholas True, a Conservative politician who managed to stay under the radar.
2d When shows are broadcast by Sky first (8)
AIRTIMES: a word meaning ‘by’ (in a mathematical context) is preceded by a synonym of sky.
3d Club that is supporting Pulp (6)
MASHIE: the abbreviation for ‘that is’ follows a verb to pulp.
4d Rogue copper with two students after second one’s charged (8)
SCULLION: the chemical symbol for copper and two occurrences of the abbreviation for student follow the abbreviation for second. Finish with something that’s electrically charged. This word always makes me think of Tom Sharpe novels.
5d All out enjoy party (4,2)
USED UP: a verb to enjoy or get the benefit of and a political party in Northern Ireland.
6d Do without France putting soldiers on mouth of Seine River (8)
FORSWEAR: string together the IVR code for France, the abbreviation for rank-and-file soldiers, the first letter of Seine and a river in the NE of England.
7d Fighting to stop worker, say “watch out!” (6)
BEWARE: serious fighting goes inside what a worker is an example of in the insect world.
8d/14d/25d Tamper with Telegraph – occasionally retrying old Sun feature (4,5,4)
PAGE THREE GIRL: an anagram (tamper with) of TELEGRAPH and occasional letters from ‘retrying’. No pictures I’m afraid.
12d See 1d
14d See 8d
16d Fragrant wine over fast (8)
REDOLENT: cement together a generic type of wine, the cricket abbreviation for over and a religious fast.
17d Issued electronic order with Delta flying all the way south (8)
EMANATED: the abbreviation meaning electronic and an order or ruling with the letter that delta represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet relegated to the bottom.
18d Film about unknown band – they’re loopy! (3,5)
KEY RINGS: a Ken Loach film contains an algebraic unknown and a synonym of band.
20d Retro trend oddly missing court reporter’s boss (6)
EDITOR: reverse a synonym of trend or direction and add the even letters of court.
21d Tyrant beats 20 up (6)
DESPOT: a verb meaning beats or caps and the abbreviation for 20d all reversed.
23d Inattentive supermarket division discounting one record (6)
ASLEEP: a division that separates the shelves in a supermarket loses its Roman numeral for one. Add a musical record.
24d See 1d
25d See 8d
The clues I liked included 12a, 13a, 24a and 2d. Which one(s) did you appreciate?
Super-smart surfaces with some reverse parsing required, as per usual with Django. The 1/12/24 combo, in particular, made me sweat. Cracking definition! 15a made me smile, 24a’s lovely and 8/14/25 (SO Django) is fabulous. Many thanks to Django and Gazza.
One of those doesn’t have to be difficult to be enjoyable puzzles, although as a Thursday Toughie it ought to be more difficult than a Friday backpager
Lots to enjoy including, but not limited to, 13a, 1/12/24 (I even knew who Mr True was) and 8/14/25
Many thanks to Django and Gazza
Gazza’s choice of “quirky” to describe this entertaining puzzle is perhaps an understatement. Django has an off-the-wall approach to both definitions and wordplay which can present quite a challenge, and this one was no exception.
Generally though he manages this while still maintaining reasonably coherent surfaces. However, despite the very clever but obscure definition, the surface of 1d/12d/24d is on another planet.
I do like the way he presents the multi-light answers in a single column (or row).
I can’t do better than piggy-back off Gazza’s selection of top picks: 12a, 13a, 24a & 2d.
Many thanks to Django for the fun and to Gazza for the review.
Lots of fun references, as expected with Django — thank you for the entertainment.
I particularly liked 12a’s definition, as well as, as Gazza points out, its topical surface reading. I think Django (under various aliases) has managed to get quite a few clues referencing the Post Office scandal into recent crosswords. Other highlights included 27a’s zealous church official and 2d’s sneaky little “by”.
3d’s clubs and 4d’s rogue were new to me, but the wordplay led to them. Thank you to Gazza for explaining 13a’s virgin, 24a’s bob and, most of all, 1d’s True, which I would never have worked out by myself.
I must be in a grumpy mood as I found this rather dull for Django [which is a sort of compliment]. Plenty to respect but few smiles [only 12a and 13a]. 26a deserves a mention too.
Thanks to Django and Gazza.
Must be me but don’t be disappointed if you found this tough; I was staring at just six answers for ages!! Once I sorted the longer clues it started to fall into place. IMHO ****/** but thanks to setter for the challenge.
I needed a fair bit of inspired guessing and then reverse engineering to get me through this offering which I didn’t find straightforward at all. Needed the hints to parse 13a and obviously the 1d combination. More a feeling of relief than satisfaction on completion. Favourite was 12a. Thanks to Django and Gazza for the explanations.
We found this really hard work and almost threw in the towel. Perhaps it was that the local references were unfamiliar territory for us. However we did persevere and with considerable electronic assistance managed to get everything sorted.
Thanks Django and Gazza.
This one didn’t take too much longer than the back-pager & it was by a margin the pick of the two puzzles for me with 12a worth the admission price on its own. Podium places for 24a (was playing golf this afternoon with my good friend Bob) & 18d (if only because it prompted me to play a clip of Brian Glover & the football game in PE).
Thanks to Django & to Gazza