Toughie No 3332 by Artix
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
It was a pleasure to see the name of Artix when I printed off the puzzle this morning. He’s not at his most tricky here but it’s an enjoyable Friday Toughie.
Artix regularly incorporates a theme in his puzzles and, just as regularly, I fail to spot it. I look forward to someone explaining today’s to me.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Californian intended to have fun here before I do? (8,5)
BACHELOR PARTY: cryptic definition of the North American term for a shindig arranged for a fiancé (intended) on the eve is his saying ‘I do’.
9a It hasn’t been decided if option with only half of motion is resolved (4,5)
MOOT POINT: an anagram (is resolved) of OPTION MOT[ion].
10a Bad guy drops in house … (5)
VILLA: drop ‘in’ from a word for a bad guy.
11a … in Rome, and here’s right thing to do (5)
ETHIC: join together Latin words for ‘and’ and ‘here’.
12a Journey by plane, possibly leaving trailer park at last (4)
TREK: what a plane (in a forest perhaps) is an example of without its trailing letter followed by the last letter of park.
13a Bear stretcher (4)
YOGI: double definition, the first a cartoon character.
15a Sculptress gets royal household to back mammoth features reduced by 40 per cent (7)
TUSSAUD: a Middle-eastern royal family follows 60% of the curved features of a mammoth to make the surname of a French sculptress.
17a Sound of loud club (7)
BRASSIE: a homophone of an adjective meaning loud in appearance and manner.
18a How criminals run much of Italy? (7)
BOOTLEG: split 4 and 3 these form the shape of most of Italy on a map.
20a Bitter commentary when broadcasting endless massacre (7)
SARCASM: an anagram (broadcasting) of MASSACR[e].
21a Qualified for several races (4)
MEET: double definition, the first an archaic adjective meaning qualified or suitable.
22a Dismiss British Member of Parliament (4)
BOWL: an abbreviation for British and a creature belonging to what a parliament is a collective noun for.
23a Substitute sex drive with this (5)
VICAR: the Roman numeral corresponding to the Latin word sex and what you drive in. The BRB tells me that the answer can mean a delegate or substitute.
26a Dislodge string found aboard Nelson’s flagship? (5)
EVICT: a string of letters hidden in the name of Nelson’s flagship (3,7).
27a Coach group from SA stuck behind chestnut horse (9)
CHARABANC: a South African political party follows the abbreviation for chestnut (to describe a racehorse) and a breed of horse.
28a Absolutely irrational adult with made-up story about how to appeal to the young and wealthy? (13)
YUPPIFICATION: assemble an informal word for absolutely or yes, an irrational number and the film classification abbreviation for adult contained inside a made-up story.
Down Clues
1d Bouncers sitting around until queue’s like this? (6-2-6)
BUMPER-TO-BUMPER: another word for a bouncer at cricket is repeated around a synonym for ‘until’.
2d Clergy‘s fate in its traditional environment (5)
CLOTH: a synonym for fate or destiny is placed inside the abbreviation for a place where the clergy hang out.
3d Leader of EU introducing plan to link with India and China in particular (10)
ESPECIALLY: string together the first letter of EU, the short form of a word meaning a plan or design, the letter that India represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet and what china means in rhyming slang.
4d Left out pud scoffed by rabbit with head down (7)
OMITTED: pud is an informal for a hand. Put another word for that inside a female rabbit with her first letter relegated to the bottom.
5d Member of the Greens further in lead? (3,4)
POT HERB: insert an adjective meaning further or additional into the chemical symbol for lead. Greens here is falsely capitalised.
6d Composer’s unfinished fanfare (4)
RAVE: drop the last letter of the composer of Bolero. Fanfare here means a display of enthusiasm.
7d Body of water moving slowly across English Channel some say (6,3)
YELLOW SEA: an anagram (moving) of SLOWLY contains an abbreviation for English. Finish with a dialect (some say) word for a drainage channel.
8d One of the people with reservations after organising a race in Vietnam (6,8)
NATIVE AMERICAN: an anagram (after organising) of A RACE IN VIETNAM.
14d Cheers to support artist embroiled in country music drama (2,8)
LA TRAVIATA: a short word of thanks follows a Baltic country in which the abbreviation for an artist is embroiled.
16d Tickets you all but lost for club (5,4)
STOKE CITY: an anagram (lost) of all except the last letter of TICKETS YO[u].
19d Venetian fare‘s good – not so tiny quantity welcome! (7)
GNOCCHI: rivet together the abbreviation for good, a word of denial (not so), the abbreviation for a small metric quantity and a word of welcome.
20d One following ballsy cooking programmes (7)
SYLLABI: the Roman numeral for one follows an anagram (cooking) of BALLSY.
24d Company in Italy’s source of fur (5)
COATI: the abbreviation for company, a preposition meaning ‘in’ and the IVR code for Italy.
25d Focus lost in difficult dance move (4)
STEP: start with an adjective meaning difficult (as in a ***** learning curve) and lose the central letter.
For my podium I’ve selected 1a, 15a and 23a. Which one(s) rang your bell?
Very friendly for a Friday but an enjoyable solve particularly as it includes my favourite word for a coach
Many thanks to Artix and Gazza
12a’s trailer (park) is just lovely. But the “gets” in 15a seems slightly odd, no? 23a’s brilliant – incredibly smooth and fun. Still, I know you do see ***, as here, without a Roman indicator and it was totally gettable but it still raised a whisper of an eyebrow. Felt nicely fresh this and, dare I say it, surprisingly friendly for a Friday. Many thanks to Artix and Gazza.
Yes, I did think that 15a was another example of ‘definition producing wordplay’ but I didn’t want to air the same quibble two days running.
Haha, I did suspect as much. And you were, of course/as ever, right. Sorry for stirring the old pot!
Didn’t get to the finish line but certainly enjoyed what I was able to do. New word for me in the 4d dessert, that’s a strange one!
From those I managed to solve unaided, I gave the honours to 2,5&19d.
Thanks to Artix for the puzzle and to Gazza for the review and cartoons – the one for 8d made me sad but I’d love to know whether the lady shopper obtained her young man!
Just about 4* for toughness and a lot of fun. I spent a while looking for wordplay in 1a before I realised the significance of “I do”. I also took a shamefully long time to parse 23a – trying to start with “viagra” got me nowhere. Top clue by a mile was 12a – so good in so many ways. Runners up were 14d [country music drama] and 16d [as good as anagrams get].
Thanks to Artix and Gazza [there are a couple of clubs and a couple of Italian clues but Stoke City doesn’t figure in La Liga so I can’t help with any NINA].
Super puzzle, surprisingly benign for the Friday slot – I realised something was amiss when I wrote in a half-dozen answers quite speedily, and figured that while Elgar was last week, this certainly wasn’t Osmosis! Great fun throughout and I loved some of the definitions/surfaces (eg 1a, 10a, 20a, 1d, 14d, 20d). I “followed the bear” at 13a and didn’t worry overly about the stretcher; the Roman numeral was in The Times recently but vicar for substitute was new to me; 26a biffed.
Many, many thanks to Artix and to Gazza
I took on board Silvanus’ point yesterday about more people commenting on the Toughies, so that we solvers show more appreciation for the bloggers’ considerable efforts to produce the hints to help us all along.
I had to check with Gazza to parse 23a, but thought this was rather a good puzzle worthy of its 4* difficulty.
I’ll try not to lurk on Toughies any more!
Thanks Gazza and Artix
Thanks, Jules – that’s appreciated. I think the word Toughie puts off a lot of potential solvers who would enjoy the puzzles. Most of the Toughies on Tuesdays to Thursdays are only marginally trickier than the end-of week back-pagers.
I wonder how many lurkers there are to commenters.
I wrote a few years ago that a particular toughie was a good starter puzzle for anyone who hadn’t given them a go. Someone called me patronising and had a bit of a rant !! Time for a beer🍺!
I couldn’t agree more, the Toughies are a great place to stretch your skills but I confess I am often solving them too late to comment. I must try harder to stop being a lurker in toughie blogs, but unlikely to be on a Friday because other duties get in the way
Thanks to Artix and Gazza
Cor! ‘Toughie’ is certainly the word.
I had a bit of spare time so thought I’d give it another go. A bit wasn’t enough! I have a lot to learn:
I haven’t seen these in crosswords:
The Roman for six
The abbreviation for chestnut
Local dialect for channel
‘All but’ meaning drop the last letter
The synonym for ‘in’ in 24d (I recall possibly seeing it once)
‘Focus’ meaning the central letter
‘Trailer’ meaning the last letter
‘A string’ being a lurker indicator
A lurker in words that aren’t in the clue. I’ve also never heard it called Th* ****ory. I’ve only heard HMS ****ory. So, I didn’t stand a chance.
I didn’t know that you could do a two-step answer in crosswords, i.e 3d, China plate = mate = ****
I wouldn’t have parsed 4d in a squillion years. Too tough for me.
Saying all that, what I did solve was enjoyable.
I will try to stick at it so one day I could finish an Elgar, my personal Everest!
Many thanks to Artix and Gazza.
5*/4*
Crikey you do pick your days Tom 😀
It’s okay.
I’ll stick at it….when I’m feeling match-fit as I love a challenge.
As you can see, I’ve learnt a lot from today’s.
I’m really surprised that hidden lurkers and two-step clues are allowed.
I think it’s one too far.
I found this one way too tough for me to complete without so much help that I might just as well have used revealed the grid option. It seems even my cat tried to give me the hint that it was futile to continue.
“Brahms and Liszt” always makes me think of Steptoe and Son.
Many thanks to one and all for your comments and to Gazza for impeccable blog. It’s very pleasing to see so many people airing their views and interesting to read which clues are each solvers’ favourites. No hidden theme this time – but there will be one in the next Artix Toughie!
Thanks for the enjoyable puzzle, Artix, and thanks for looking in. We do appreciate it when setters comment.
I too enjoyed it although very late in the day. Or rather on the next day! I really surprised myself by getting g Stoke City without a hint!
Although this wasn’t an Elgar or Osmosis it certainly deserved the Friday Toughie spot. It took me a while to get into it with only three in after the first pass. Little by little I built on that and eventually crossed the line. 25A was my only doubt because I couldn’t parse the answer. The E was my problem. It was a very good puzzle with so much to like. Favourite was 1A.
Many thanks to Gazza as always for his excellent blog with all the humour and to Artix for the challenge.
Too hard for me!! 🥲
Elgar & Osmosis remain no go territory for me so pleased to have a Friday Toughie to have a stab at. Completed, albeit with the aid of two letter reveals & the check grid facility, but needed Gazza’s help to understand a couple (4d&23a – the pud context was unfamiliar & I failed to peg the rabbit with its head down + my Latin failed me with substitute sex) & the parsing of a good few more arrived on a much later bus. Like Tuesday’s Zenas puzzle probably a bit above my pay grade but enjoyed the tussle. 1a my fav.
Many thanks to Artix & to Gazza – love the cartoon at 8d.
I’m with Tomdisappintingsturges65 that the ship was called HMS Victory. I parsed it as E string and Vict found aboard.