Toughie No 3340 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Our setter continues his practice of providing a ‘nearly pangram’ (there’s no K as far as I can see). He’s also given us an anagram-less puzzle – I particularly admire his ability to clue the four peripheral names without the need to resort to anagrams. I enjoyed this a lot – thanks to Osmosis.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Old politician‘s issue with money monopoliser pocketing a grand (7,4)
QUINTIN HOGG: the name of an eccentric old politician (perhaps better known as Lord Hailsham) comes from a child with at least four siblings, a dated word for money and a monopoliser containing the abbreviation for grand.
7a Welsh person possibly disheartened elder stooge (3,4)
JOE SOAP: a common Welsh surname (easy for me to get) without its middle letter and the abbreviation for an older person. The answer comes from rhyming slang for a dope.
8a Black garlic, in a tasting, somewhat repellent (7)
SATANIC: hidden in reverse.
10a Tony, half wasted, pinching boozer’s mug (5)
NINNY: half of the word Tony contains a boozer (the place, not the person).
11a Element somewhere in Bedfordshire dividing unopened drug (9)
PLUTONIUM: a place in Bedfordshire (with an airport) goes inside a drug without its opening letter.
12a Tense second over in cricket practice when rejecting headgear (7)
STETSON: abbreviations for tense, second and over are inserted into the reversal of a term for cricket practice.
14a Yank with this small basket renouncing head of Iceland (7)
SPANNER: the clothing abbreviation for small and a basket (on your bicycle perhaps) without the first letter of Iceland.
15a Unknown German eight occasionally riled mariner (7)
YACHTIE: assemble one of the algebraic unknowns, the German word for eight and occasional letters from riled.
18a Cut beef around morning perhaps cold (7)
MOHICAN: a verb to beef or complain contains a greeting (Morning! perhaps) and the tap abbreviation for cold.
20a One discards, given change of direction, mountain bike? (3-6)
OFF-ROADER: someone who discards or palms off with its abbreviation for a direction changed to the opposite.
21a Island in middle of this land (5)
HAITI: a small island is inserted between the middle letters of ‘this’.
22a Kentish community pelt poor player (7)
RAINHAM: a verb to pelt from the heavens and an amateurish actor.
23a Mum and I felt that affair represents world of TV etc (7)
SHOWBIZ: string together an instruction to keep mum, an exclamation meaning ‘I felt that’ and an informal word for affair.
24a London club hurt by wag (7,4)
GROUCHO MARX: start with the name of a private members’ club in Soho and add a verb to hurt and the mathematical ‘by’.
Down Clues
1d Much rum lifted a German’s scallop (7)
QUEENIE: all but the last letter of an adjective meaning rum or strange and the reversal of a German indefinite article. The scallop is found in the Isle of Man.
2d Creeper assumes gold colour (5)
IVORY: a creeping plant contains our usual tincture of gold.
3d Football shirts maybe getting secure delivery at Old Trafford? (7)
TOPSPIN: what football shirts are examples of and a verb to secure or attach. Forget football – this is the other Old Trafford.
4d Dissident husband probing drinks and meals (4-3)
NOSH-UPS: a word for a dissenter or ‘voter against’ followed by the genealogical abbreviation for husband inside a verb meaning drinks.
5d Handler of frame and poster uncovered old trail (9)
OSTEOPATH: the inner letters of poster, the abbreviation for old and a synonym of a trail.
6d Plant dope on opponent switching sides (7)
GENTIAN: an informal word for dope or information and an opponent with its two syllables in the wrong order.
7d Ascetic diocese again reported consort (4,7)
JANE SEYMOUR: homophones of a) a member of an ascetic Indian religious order, b) another word for diocese and c) an adverb meaning again. This is the third consort of a lecherous old king.
9d Actress and film-maker introducing cleaner international cut (7,4)
CAMERON DIAZ: the surname of James, the Canadian film director followed by the proprietary name of a cleaning product containing the abbreviation for international.
13d Excavation area thus containing roofless meat house (6-3)
SUTTON-HOO: the site of a famous archaeological excavation in the 1930s comes from a synonym of thus containing a type of meat without its first letter and the abbreviation for house. The place is usually spelled 6,3 i.e. not hyphenated.
16d Restraining, with force, one copper principally finds no good? (7)
CUFFING: all the right bits are given here; it’s just a question of arranging them in the right order. The chemical symbol for copper and the principal letter of ‘finds’ are followed (with) by the physics abbreviation for force and the Roman numeral for one. Finish with the abbreviation for ‘no good’.
17d Prevalent Scotch label collectable at peak (7)
ENDEMIC: a verb to scotch, a music label and the top letter of collectable.
18d Bland type of music for nightclub’s top dancer (7)
MORISCO: the 3-letter abbreviation for a bland type of music replaces the first letter of a type of nightclub to make a dancer that is new to me.
19d Slot in this company file (4,3)
COIN BOX: the abbreviation for company and the name of the file where all the messages you receive accumulate.
21d Part of 13 Down hard, answer causing commotion (3-2)
HOO-HA: the last syllable of 13d and abbreviations for hard and answer.
My ticks were awarded to 7a, 21a, 3d, 6d and 19d. Which one(s) gained your plaudits?
Just not my week is it? Four more personal names! Still, it’s Osmosis so it’s sure to be fun as well as a challenge. The challenge bit came first and I stared at this for a good while before making a start with 7a, then 7d which provided some initial letters. 18d took a while to see and another while to parse [confusing the music and the nightclub].
Top clues were 23a [mum and I felt that] and 7d [clever triple homophone].
Thanks to Osmosis and Gazza.
Well, that was fun! Some lovely surfaces and a smidgeon of testing GK – 18d, for one. 24a tickled me. I agree with halcyon that 23a’s “I felt that” was a nice touch. Cracking lurker at 8a too. Did anyone else question the “a” grand in 1a? I thought that was ever so slightly naughty, myself. Very entertaining. Many thanks to Osmosis and Gazza.
No issue for me with ‘a’ grand to require a single ‘g’. “House sounds too grand” could give you the same surname but would be “too stage” and certainly naughty!
I quite like that, actually! But it would be naughty, yes. That “a” is no big deal, I was just curious to see if anyone else raised a Ximenean eyebrow. Clearly not!
Yes, I did but I’m a [reluctantly reconstructed] Ximenean. And it could so easily have been improved by “another grand”.
A reluctantly reconstructed Xim? Brilliant!! I’m the other way round entirely – a total Lib reprobate VERY reluctantly trying to stumble in t’other direction. Another grand is a cracking workaround. Hats off, sir.
Very surprised to have finished this during just lunch and a tea-break. A hugely enjoyable puzzle, helped no end by Osmosis being relatively gentle (IMHO) – I usually find him to be above Elgar in the cruciverbal Mohs scale, though last week was an exception – but still with no question a Friday Toughie. I still think that surface readings tend to suffer the more any setter ups the Mohs rating, and there were too many clues that – for me – read poorly. I’d also take issue with 14a (who ‘yanks’ with a spanner?), consider that 19d is not the slot, and agree with Gazza about the erroneous enumeration of 13d. 18d was a “biff and hope, nothing else fits”, and I’d never heard of it.
OTOH ticks everywhere, with 24a taking top spot, and runners-up including 11a, 12a, 15a, 16d & 17d.
Many thanks to Osmosis & Gazza – excellent cartoons, as ever!
I took 19d to be saying ‘(There is) a slot in this’.
Ah, so the definition being the third word in the clue, rather than the first three words. Which makes more sense, certainly.
My dead tree version has 13d as 6,3.
18d foxed me. Never heard of one, or the bland type of music, although got the nightclub bit. I thought 7a clever, but 24a my cotd.
Thnx to Gazza and Osmosis (no K!)
Thanks for that. I see that the enumeration of 13d on the puzzles site has now been corrected to 6,3.
Having done really well with Elgar last week, and finishing all three Toughies this week so far, I felt quite confident moving into Friday. How wrong could I be? Way beyond my pay grade and, after ***** time, for me, I had just five answers. Sorry, very clever, and total respect to those who completed it, but just not for me!!
Last week’s Elgar had me on the ropes, and my trainer threw in the towel. Wavelength is so important!
Better late than never. Took me a good while to get going yesterday but a then swift finish today.
Thanks to Osmosis & Gazza.