Toughie No 3329 by Zenas
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Difficulty **+ – Enjoyment ****/*****
This was excellent – Zenas’ best Toughie yet for my money. A lovely mix of clues: just four anagrams (two absolute belters) some smart letter swaps and a fair chunk of GK. We’ve got science (boo!), opera, medicine and even some Latin. Oh, and a quadruple definition to boot. Tis muscular but scrupulously fair with drum-tight surfaces and cracking word selection. All yours.
Across
1a Spreading mould (7)
CASTING: Double definition. Think fishing (net) + jelly (nothing to do with wet rot).
5a Conserve kind of port bottled by worker (7)
HUSBAND: A (computer) port inside the worker that’s not an ant or a bee.
9a Flight member – one welcomed by major (5)
STAIR: The usual “one” inside major/leading = a part of the usual “flight”.
10a Report mother cuddling a senior cleric (9)
NARRATIVE: Mother as in “motherland” cuddles/contains A + an abbreviated bishop.
11a Where troops may be sent too much (4-3-3)
OVER-THE-TOP: Where soldiers were sent in WW1 etc = too much/excessive.
12a Announced scientist’s gathering (4)
BOIL: A homophone of, I imagine, 17th century scientist Robert (the first “modern” chemist – thanks Google) = a fey but horribly accurate word for summat quite unpleasant.
14a Opticians not trained to see this condition (12)
CONSTIPATION: OPTICIANSNOT, trained. Lovely spot, this.
18a Tosca and Norma maybe holding good theatre accessories (5,7)
OPERA GLASSES: How Tosca and Norma, as characters, might be described, containing the usual “good”. The Tosca rather gives the game away but this is fun.
21a Foley artist returns carrying charger (4)
TRAY: A reversed lurker (thank goodness, as I don’t know any Foley artists) carried/hidden in the first two words.
22a Delayed reaction when drink engulfs retiring princess (6,4)
DOUBLE TAKE: A (large) drink engulfs/contains our/the (reversed) princess. I had to check the definition as I didn’t think it quite meant this. But, of course, it’s there in Chambers, in black and white.
25a Start of emigration with million going abroad (9)
ORIGINATE: E[m]IGRATION, abroad.
26a After new beginning maybe Mark becomes mark (5)
TAINT: What Mark (from the New Testament) is/was becomes a mark/blemish when the first letter/beginning is changed. Clever, and very Zenas.
27a Lead Edward in exercise around sports area (7)
PRECEDE: The usual Edward goes inside the usual “exercise” and then, together they go around/contain the usual-ish “sports area” that’s not “arena”.
28a Minor is half-cut attending English resort (7)
MARGATE: A word for minor or borderline loses its last four letters (half-cut) + attending (2) + the usual English = a resort that just so happens to be English. Fun surface.
Down
1d Orderly system requires rating to support two army officers (6)
COSMOS: An ordinary seaman supports/follows a commanding officer + a non-commissioned officer. Neat.
2d Youngster hesitates when bringing up the rear (6)
SHAVER: A synonym for hesitates/dithers has its last/rear letter brought up, ie to the front. Lovely word.
3d Crazy numbers may be so (10)
IRRATIONAL: How one describes numbers that cannot be expressed as a fraction, etc. I think that’s pretty much right, but my Maths A-level was a long, long time ago!
4d Type of spirit – a drop of rum for yours truly! (5)
GENRE: A spirit (not one you drink!) has its one-letter “yours truly” replaced by (a drop of) R[um]. Whip-smart.
5d Abrupt Cornishman composed musical study (9)
HARMONICS: CORNISHMA[n], composed. Another snorter of an anagram.
6d Plunder pleated fabric (4)
SWAG: Double definition. A lovely word, again. What cat burglars always had emblazoned on their stash bag in Whizzer and Chips, as I recall.
7d Acerbic relative contracts ordinary blood complaint (8)
ACIDOSIS: A word for acerbic/sharp + a (truncated) relative contracts/contains O[rdinary] = a blood complaint that I’ve never heard of, but makes perfect sense.
8d Skilfully replacing old rendering for house (8)
DWELLING: Rendering/performing has its O[ld] replaced by skilfully/ably.
13d Pet creates struggles for runner (4-6)
PACE-SETTER: PETCREATES, struggles.
15d Ring up apothecary to get view about fixative (9)
SELLOTAPE: Ring (as bell) up/reversed + the abbreviation for apothecary, with (to) get view/observe outside/about. Surface of the day for me.
16d Flannel and gentle Pears? (4-4)
SOFT-SOAP: A synonym for “gentle” + Pears (boy, that takes me back) as a definition by example.
17d Bristle over bank’s reserve (3,5)
SET ASIDE: A bristle (from the Latin, so my degree wasn’t entirely wasted after all!) + bank (as in river) = (to) reserve.
19d Lovin’ American stars (6)
CARINA: Lovin[g]/tender (minus its last letter) + the usual American = a constellation that’s entirely new to me. But it couldn’t have been owt else.
20d Curse the French tool (6)
PESTLE: Curse/bane + the usual one-in-three choice of “the” in French.
23d Ray eats a bit of rancid fish (5)
BREAM: Ray (of sun) contains (a bit of ) R[ancid]. A “drop of R[um]” and now a “bit of R[ancid]” eh? See me after class!
24d File railway stock story (4)
LINE: This would appear to be an impressive – and rare – quadruple definition. Big finish.
I struggled to find a favourite as I ticked pretty much every clue. I especially enjoyed 14a, 26a, 1d, 2d, 4d and 8d. But I think the well-built and eminently plausible 15d takes it, by a whisker. How did you get on?
What a splendid Toughie. It doesn’t matter one jot but I did find it much more challenging than I would expect on a Tuesday.
The outstanding clue from a magnificent selection has to be the quadruple definition at 24d. An even more extraordinary feature of this is that the setter (using a different alias) had another QD leading to exactly the same answer in another newspaper today but with none of the eight definitions repeated! Chapeau!
Many thanks to Zenas and to ALP.
I loved this but confess to not finishing it. I read and entered 11a straight away and assumed it was going to be a warm up for the back page. I fell for it. Loved the anagrams. They get me going. I’m in awe if ALP considers this a ** difficult. This is just right for me. A few bung ins and a few head scratchers. Look forward to Zenas next visit.
Thanks to Zenas and ALP to reveal my losses
Enjoyed this a lot, tho’ I found it a tad above the toughness norm for Tues. Faves were Tosca and Norma [18a] and the manipulation in 2d. Took a while to come up with the “minor” when parsing 28a and thought 8d was rather inelegant/Yoda-esque, but that’s a minor quibble.
Thanks to Zenas and ALP for the blog. I hesitated before playing the Norman Wisdom ditty – hadn’t realised he was a singer as well as a comedian loved in Albania. The lyric is rather curious but then so is “spring clean for the May Queen”.
Yep, definitely a step up today. Re Norman, I think “singer” is debatable! His most curious line is “I’m sitting on a volcano with a halo around my head”. Eh?!
Yep. But given that the song appears to be a paean to a bar of soap I feel we should expect anything. Perhaps it translates well into Albanian.
A top-notch puzzle but I share the view of others that it’s trickier than our usual Tuesday fare. Thanks to Zenas and ALP.
For my podium I’ve selected 5a, 10a and 24d.
Got about halfway before coming to a grinding halt and never really getting started again. Took a lot of pushing and shoving from our blogger to get me to the finish line!
Ticked clues included 22&27a plus 3,13&23d.
Thanks to Zenas and to ALP for the review.
Evening all and thanks to ALP for a superb review and analysis of the clues and to everyone for their comments.
Huge thanks for popping in Zenas, and for a crackerjack puzzle. Busy day for you today, what with the Indy and all. Bravo.
A most enjoyable solve that had us working harder than we often do on a Tuesday. Managed to guess 12a from the checkers and scientist but don’t understand the gathering. Carefully reading the entry in BRB has not helped but we do note that Mrs B recognises a connection. Are we missing something?
Thanks Zenas and ALP.
Hi 2Ks. It’s certainly in my Chambers as the seventh and last definition for gathering: a suppurating swelling, boil or abscess (informal).
The last meaning of gathering in the BRB (13th edition) is a suppurating swelling, **** or abscess (inf)
Thanks both of you. We had searched the BOIL entry but not GATHER and indeed find it, as you say, in our 12th Edition. Totally new usage to us.
Wtf, this was never a 2/3 rating. I was stuck on a train today plodding my way through this. It was a Tuesday remember and wow. tenuous and Friday level logic. Clever but for me badly constructed. 1across only came from poorly constructed 1, 3 and 4 down which themselves were marginal. Nothing fed from this and it was far to tenuous for me to give an enjoyment like to either. Clever, but just a bit naff.
You’ve changed your alias (previously Tordy) so this needed moderation. Both aliases will work from now on.
My ‘ALP day’ continued on from solving his Rookie Corner puzzle to his review of this Toughie; compiled by a mystery setter (until I read the RC review comments). It did ‘what it said on the tin’ and was indeed a proper Toughie, a challenge which I thoroughly enjoyed, with a number of penny-drop moments to further brighten up what was already a very sunny afternoon in Kent. As ALP has noted, there were some very good anagrams, with 14a becoming my clue of the day. Not far behind on my tick list were 5a, 18a, 1d, 2d, 4d and the 4-definition 24d. I was introduced to a couple of things which I had to figure out from checkers and wordplay – a bristle and some stars which I can’t see from Kent! I’ll bet our Kiwi friends got 19d instantly! Last one in was the 4-letter 12a. I resorted to going through the alphabet and the only word I came up with that resembled ‘gathering’ was POOL. Of course, I quickly found a scientist named Poole, albeit not well-known, but neither was the bristle or the stars. I really should have looked up ‘gathering’ – the homophone for the correct and very well known scientist was prominent in Collins!
Many thanks to both Zenas and ALP. I will look forward to further puzzles from both setters.
We did have to check up on the stars, despite living in the Southern hemisphere. With the new information we learned from 12a we’re not sure we will ever feel comfortable when invited to an informal gathering in the future.
I’m taking a punt Robin’s wtf comment re our reviewer’s difficulty rating wasn’t way too friendly – ‘twas a big mistake to start this just before midnight as it was off the big boys tees. Above my pay grade really but did manage to get within 5 of a finish with 1 letter reveal & the odd educated bung in before knackered eyelids & mental 14a called it a day or rather night. Used the hints for 12a (also thought Pool),7,15,19&20d to complete this morning.
Enjoyed the tussle albeit it was a bit of a mismatch & relieved Robyn’s Toughie today is a comparative stroll in the park.
Thanks to Zenas & to ALP – great music clips
“Off the big boy tees”. Ha. And you’re not wrong. Decidedly chewy for a Tuesday but NOT an Elgar!