Toughie No 3333 by Dharma
Hints and tips by ALP
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
As ever with Dharma, his typically fair definitions often got me over the line before I’d fully worked out all of the machinery. So this was a fairly brisk solve, but the full-parse did take slightly longer. All yours.
Across
1a Rider hurt on borders of Cornwall after clipping front of bike (6)
CLAUSE: (To) hurt/maltreat, minus/clipping B[ike], on/after the borders of CornwalL.
4a Yours truly, having composed an &lit is giving autographs (8)
INITIALS: Yours truly (ie, what the setter might call himself) + ANLITIS, composed. Dharma must, rightly, have been pleased with this surface. You don’t get much more in-house than this! Excellent.
10a Claret is drunk assuming one’s sensible (9)
REALISTIC: CLARETIS, drunk, assuming/containing the usual “one”.
11a In Spar store beside beauty product (5)
BOTOX: Store/place a two-letter “beside” in(side) a verb meaning (to) spar. Smart way to clue this.
12a Spiritual leader once more ditching popular mayor (3,4)
AGA KHAN: A synonym for “once more” ditches the usual “popular” + (London) mayor.
13a Altering my tone, getting back to grass roots (7)
ETYMONS: MYTONE, altered, + [gras]S. We saw this pretty eclectic word (in the singular) recently and it is an anagram.
14a Salt promotion – it requires curbing (5)
NITRE: Lurker, hidden in the second, third and fourth words.
15a Independent judge locking up Republican prior to appeal causes anger (8)
IRRITATE: The usual “independent” + (to) judge contain/lock up the usual Republican and/prior to the usual (sex) appeal. Great surface.
18a/26a Sharply reached a point or was blunt? (3,2,3,5)
CUT TO THE CHASE: I think this is sort of a cryptic definition (implying a pencil?) but it’s almost, to my mind, a slightly same-sidey double definition. In either case, you’re looking for a well-known expression that means “got/get to the point”.
20a I’m surprised! The setter reportedly producing nonsense! (2,3)
MY EYE: A two-letter “I’m surprised/wow” + a homophone of the setter/yours truly.
23a Implied nothing depressing in lecture (7)
OBLIQUE: The usual nothing + a homophone of depressing or grim. Nice definition.
25a Pass on last vestige of knowledge here? (7)
COLLEGE: (Mountain) pass + (cricketer’s) “on” + [vestig]E. It’s clever but I’m not sure this all-in-one definition totally holds water!
26a See 18a
27a Retiree cycling close to camps holding national traitors (9)
APOSTATES: Retiree/pensioner cycling (its first letter becomes its third/last) + [camp]S, holding/containing national/public (5).
28a Right to stop excess when facing Left’s spendthrifts (8)
WASTRELS: The usual “right” stops/is inside excess/surplus + the usual Left’S.
29a Woman being free takes time (6)
ASTRID: Being/in the manner of + (to) free/deliver, taking in the usual “time”.
Down
1d The end of short troubles, spending a penny (8)
CURTAINS: Short/terse + troubles/aches, minus the usual “penny”.
2d Fixed two plugs with worker, having taken day off (7)
ADAMANT: A plug/commercial + a (river?) “plug”, minus D[ay] + one of the usual workers.
3d Stealthy-sounding tax should be minimal (9)
SLIGHTEST: A homophone of “stealthy” + (to) tax (as in patience, etc).
5d Our car cleaner eating Tesco’s top bananas as source of energy (7,7)
NUCLEAR REACTOR: OURCARCLEANER+T[esco], bananas. Great spot and surface.
6d Thug regularly spent times drinking black stout (5)
TUBBY: ThUg + (maths) “times”, drinking/containing the usual “black”.
7d 4 of the Commodores rejected plugging when available for shows (4,3)
ACTS OUT: 4a’s answer of “The Commodores” rejected/reversed plugging/inside the two-letter “when” + available/released.
8d Prejudice shown by male relative upset about former partner (6)
SEXISM: The usual “male” plus a shortened, female relative, reversed/upset, goes about/contains the usual “former partner”. Reads well, this.
9d Mostly bitter article behind unexpectedly tough finish (5,2,3,4)
STING IN THE TAIL: Bitter/smarting, minus its last letter, + a usual “article” + behind/rear.
16d Guides briefly woo American city crowd to venture north (9)
TEMPLATES: Woo/entice, minus its last letter, + one two-letter US city + crowd/group, reversed (venturing north).
17d Cold month petered out (8)
DECEASED: A month (one of 12, obviously!) + petered out/passed.
19d Maybe posts online greatly increased? (7)
UPLOADS: A way of saying “greatly increased” as (2,5). Fun.
21d One putting up with cleric online? (7)
ERECTOR: How one might (but never would in real life) describe a clergyman on the internet, expressed as (1-6). Another fun one.
22d Outspoken place of worship starts to overwhelm Welsh city (6)
MOSCOW: A homophone of a place of worship + the starts to “overwhelm Welsh”.
24d Rum in France that is seen over here uncased (5)
QUEER: “That” in French +/over [h]er[e] (uncased).
There’s a healthy mix of clue types here: four anagrams, four homophones, a fair few deletions, a lurker and one bit of cycling, etc. A couple of the constructions are perhaps slightly fussy (eg, 2d/7d) but they were fun to work out and those two clues could easily be others’ favourites. The surfaces certainly worked for me, pretty much throughout. I especially enjoyed 1a, 11a, 15a and 5d. But I think I’ve got to give the emergency biscuit to 4a for its navel-gazing genius. What did you make of it?
This was great fun with, for me, a stark difference in difficulty between the RHS (floughie) and the LHS (toughie).
I loved the bizarre picture conjured up by the surface of 5d, which could, heaven forbid, lead to a continuation of the seemingly endless back-pager debate today about the use of ‘s to describe shop names (or should that be shops’ names? 😉 )
Many thanks to Dharma and to ALP.
Enjoyable fare – thanks to Dharma and ALP.
Lots of good clues with the cream of the crop for me being 25a, 1d, 9d and 19d (my favourite).
My first run through revealed no answers, zero. So after much head scratching I started to make inroads in the East which I completed albeit slowly, I stuck at it in the West and managed to get over the line. I thoroughly enjoyed this challenge, hard to pick a favourite from so many good clues though but I’ll go with 22d. Thanks Dharma and ALP.
A few in the SE corner held out on me so I had to turn to our reviewer’s hints for some clues to get me to the finish line.
Favourite was 19d with 22d coming in a close second.
Thanks to Dharma and to ALP for the review.
Splendid surfaces. 4a very clever. Could 17d be read as the first three letters showing the cold month and the whole clue meaning out?
Thanks to setter for the workout and ALP for making sense of the answers.
That’s a very interesting point. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen “petered” without the “out” and Chambers would seem to back that up. I also can’t envisage “out” as meaning “deceased/dead”, whereas “cold” can mean just that. Hopefully. Dharma will pop in at some point later. I’m delighted that you’ve kept me company by liking 4a! Tickled me, that.
I found this pretty tough, agree with jane [above] particularly the SE corner – but good fun. What a pity 4a isn’t an &lit – but it’s a great clue. Other faves are11a and the exceptionally cunning 7d.
Thanks to Dharma and ALP [Radio Moscow new to me – they sound convincingly psychedelic which makes a nice change – will pursue further]
I had ‘tempered’ for 17d, (petered ‘out’ + m). Seemed reasonable. Did consider ‘deceased’ but December isn’t cold everywhere and eased seemed to me to be different from petered out. This held me up for a while before I realised I was wrong from the crossers. In retrospect Deceased is much better.
Thanks to Dharma and ALP.
Many thanks to those who have commented and of course to ALP for his usual spot-on review. I hope he’ll be pleased to learn that my personal favourite in the puzzle matches his. Also my intended parsing of 17d is as per the blog.
Huge thanks for popping in, and for yet another crackerjack puzzle. I had a funny feeling you’d have a soft spot for 4a. And rightly so. I’m pretty sure some of your setter mates will be a tad envious of that one! Ta lots.
I really enjoyed a lot of this good Thursday Toughie, even though today’s Tuesday! Much wit and ingenuity on display, but I was a little surprised at how much repetition there was in letter deletions, two onlines in successive clues, and, clever though it is, 4a doesn’t quite work for me – the & is left dangling.
Many thanks to Dharma for the satisfying challenge, and to ALP too of course.
Unless of course one reads the & as ‘and’ to add the various elements of the anagrist together…
Yep, that’s the ticket. I thought we were going to be “locked” in another non-argument for a second there!!
😂
The Toughie blog feels like a snug.
I recall some recent chat about assonance but can’t find it anymore – I hope you recall Julie Walters taken on it from Educating Rita
In the 1983 film Educating Rita, Rita (Julie Walters) asks Professor Frank Bryant (Michael Caine) the meaning of assonance. Here’s an excerpt from the script, which believe it or not, I was able to find on the net:
R: What does assonance mean?
P: What?
R: Don’t laugh at me.
P: Er, no. Erm, assonance, it’s a form of rhyme.
R: Erm, what’s an example?
P: Do you know Yeats?
R: The wine lodge?
P: No, WB Yeats, the poet.
R: No.
P: Well, in his poem The Wild Swans At Coole, Yeats
rhymes the word “swan” with the word “stone”. You
see? That’s an example of assonance.
R: Ooh, yeah, means getting the rhyme wrong.
P: I’ve never thought of it like that.
OK, you students of verse, what’s wrong with this dialogue?
Well, what the professor is actually describing is consonance, which according to my Holman’s
Handbook, is the use of words in which the final consonants of stressed syllables agree but the
vowels that precede them differ, as in “add-read,”, “bill-ball,” and yes, “swan-stone.”
Assonance is the resemblance or similiarity in sound between vowels followed by different consonants, as in “lake-fate,” “dike-knight”, and “trodden-cobbles.”
Personally, I prefer my own definition of assonance: the sound assholes make when they’re
describing slant rhyme.
(Not original but I can’t credit the author as I have lost the tab)
Brilliant! I would have said that swan/stone was consonance, yes, but I *think* assonance can also be applied to consonants, oddly. So they’re both wrong, but they’re both right. Assonance has become an umbrella word for rhymes like this. And it’s certainly more often used in lit crit than consonance. Don’t ask me why! I thought Jose had the best description, with his “slant rhyme” but you, Sloop, have just aced him with your definition! Marvellous. So good, in fact, you’ve posted it twice, I see! Ha..
That is a top definition, Sloop!
Very funny.
We do like the film, btw. Great chemistry between them.
Should have been with your comment in Huntsman’s blog but I was rushing to get the review out
A most enjoyable solve for us too with the SE giving the biggest resistance. Favourite is 25a.
Thanks Dharma and ALP.
Like Taylor Gibson, my first run through yielded nothing other than a couple of possibilities. This continued for another hour or so. However the eastern side gave a couple up, and I’d managed about three-quarters before giving up for the night. That left the SW which suddenly dropped into place this morning.
Certainly harder than 2* for me, but in spite of that I didn’t need any of ALP’s hints, which I’ll now read through.
Thanks to him and the setter
A day late but wouldn’t miss one of Stephen’s puzzles. Enjoyed it as per though predictably found it harder than our reviewer (Gila today far gentler) evidently did & add me to those who struggled in the SE. I did rather miss the trademark political clues but at least Sadiq popped up.
Thanks to Dharma & to ALP – top music knowledge with Tubby & Radio Moscow