Toughie No 3349 by Chalicea
Hints and tips by ALP
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***/****
This was very jolly, extremely brisk and rather generous. I don’t think I’ve ever written the words “A from the clue” so many times! Chalicea’s been remarkably sparing with her magic dictionary today, too. I doubt anyone will be left chewing their pencil. All yours.
Across
4a Dance along with Come Together on the radio or scoff? (8)
MEATBALL: The usual “dance” with/after a homophone (on the radio) of come together/bump into.
8a Fertiliser mixed at shop (6)
POTASH: ATSHOP, mixed.
9a Second Queen sorted out church order of succession (8)
SEQUENCE: The usual “second” + QUEEN, sorted out, plus the usual “church”.
10a Developing pharmaceutical to isolate catastrophic trauma of the head (8)
CEPHALIC: A subtractive anagram. Remove TRAUMA, catastrophic, from developing PHARMACEUTICAL.
11a Add a very soft concluding passage (6)
APPEND: ‘A’ from the clue + the usual “very soft” + a synonym for concluding passage/finish.
12a Farm husked grain supply on area of land (8)
AGRARIAN: [F]AR[M] + GRAIN, supply, on/after ‘A’ from the clue.
13a Musical artist‘s offspring primarily giving sway to elevated recitals (8)
SONGSTER: (Male) offspring + the primary letters of the next five words.
16a Old writer cross over unrestricted immigration (4,4)
OPEN DOOR: The usual “old” and “writer” plus cross/crucifix, reversed/over. And NO. I refuse, on principle, to play Gabriel-light Genesis!
19a Well-informed remedy involving a very violent disruption (8)
UPHEAVAL: A two-letter synonym for well-informed/versed + (to) remedy, involving/containing ‘A’ from the clue and the usual “very”.
21a Fail to think of furnace temperature (6)
FORGET: Furnace (smithy, etc) + the usual “temperature”.
23a Instructs arboriculturist conclusively where to store leaves (3,5)
TEA CHEST: Instructs/trains + [arboriculturis]T.
24a Found in local, a marinaded seafood (8)
CALAMARI: A lurker, hidden in the third, fourth and fifth words.
25a Having a row over a band (6)
OARING: The usual “over” + ‘A’ from the clue + (wedding) band. This always seems to be a vaguely controversial word/definition but it’s in Chambers!
26a A function in prison of the 17th century (8)
CAROLEAN: ‘A’ from the clue + function/job in(side) the prison that’s not a “nick” or “stir”.
Down
1d Make a show of importing gold from abroad (7)
FOREIGN: Makes a show of/pretend, containing/importing one of the usual gold(s).
2d Was hospital essentially underbuying? A regrettable omission, this bathroom fixture (9)
WASHBASIN: WAS from the clue plus the usual “hospital” + [under]B[uying] + ‘A’ from the clue + regrettable omission/transgression.
3d Hot food that’s cold when delivered? (6)
CHILLI: A homophone (delivered) of a word meaning “cold”. A chestnut but sweetly done.
4d Wrong interpretation of flawed instructions company centrally implemented (15)
MISCONSTRUCTION: INSTRUCTIONS+CO+[imple]M[ented], (barely!) flawed.
5d Familiarise a Conservative with whimsical following (8)
ACQUAINT: ‘A’ from the clue (for the umpteenth time!) + the usual “Conservative” + whimsical/fanciful.
6d Censor part of unacceptable episode (5)
BLEEP: Another lurker, hidden in the last two words.
7d Give permission for adjusted scene to replace ending of story (7)
LICENSE: The usual story/fiction, with its last letter deleted and replaced by SCENE, adjusted.
14d Method of signalling unusual atmosphere when short of time (9)
SEMAPHORE: A[t]MOSPHERE, unusual.
15d Clash with fool over the closure of welfare programs (8)
SOFTWARE: Clash/conflict with/after a nounal synonym for fool (in Chambers) more commonly used as an adjective for foolish. Plus [welfar]E. Fool can be an adjective, but only in the US and Scotland. Apparently!
17d Proportionately favouring a sailor on the rise (3,4)
PRO RATA: Favouring/for + ‘A’ (from the clue!) + the usual “sailor”, reversed/on the rise.
18d Casual stupid person absorbed by computer connectivity test (7)
PASSING: A stupid person/twit is absorbed/contained by a four-letter network response test that’s derived from sonar technology, hence its onomatopoeic name.
20d Female accepting fuss involving direct confrontation (4-2)
HEAD-ON: A female (domestic fowl, say, or possibly Glaswegian, though I seem to remember some BD kerfuffle once about this!) accepting/containing fuss/trouble.
22d Ultimately daring adult to take part in game in which players have to pick up manure (5)
GUANO: [Darin]G, then the usual “adult” inside/taking part in a (card) game, ie in which players have to pick up (cards). Though they have to get rid of them to win!
A gentle blend of seven anagrams (including partials and a subtractive), two lurkers, a couple of homophones and some friendly Lego. I enjoyed 26a, 1d, 3d, 7d and 18d, but the subtractive 10a gets the first dance. What did you make of it?
This was certainly quite light in terms of difficulty, but most enjoyable and great fun to solve. I thought 10a was quite brilliant and deserving of top spot this afternoon.
Many thanks to Chalicea and ALP.
For the most part this was light and good fun, but a couple of clues in the bottom half needed quite a bit of head scratching. I was unable to parse 19a, which doesn’t surprise me given ALP’s explanation, and I spent far too long trying and failing to parse Jacobean (the wrong period of the 17th century!) as the answer for 26a before the penny finally dropped.
I have tried my best to accept the awful (and sadly frequent in crosswordland!) occurrences of scoff as a noun and oar as a verb, but I can’t. I detest both!
A little niggle with 15d. Although the definition is correctly written as programs, this spelling would only be right for the surface reading in America!
I had ticks aplenty with 10a, 26a, 3d & 4d making it onto my podium.
Many thanks to Chalicea and to ALP.
Most of this would not have been out of place in an early-week back page puzzle, but a few clues lifted the challenge level somewhat. 12a “had to be” and having read the blog I think I now distantly recall “supply” being an anagram indicator; 25a is just ghastly, and Daisy’s George will, quite rightly, dislike it. Really didn’t like 15d’s soft. 22d’s game was new to me (probably since the last time it featured in a cryptic!) but unnecessary for the answer, fortunately.
Podium to 26a, 21a and 20d. A light lunchtime solve in the Toughie slot, but slightly too many anagrams and hummm clues – I’ve enjoyed other Chalicea puzzles considerably more.
Thanks to Chalicea – entirely my state of mind today, sorry, and to ALP
Totally agree re 25a – this has come up many times before. Whatever Chambers may say, I have never seen or heard the word “oar” or any of its derivatives used as a verb – except in crosswords!
You are right about Daisy’s George losing his hair 😀 over 25a. Just as well I’ve just done it on my own with a cup of hot chocolate and a digestive and he is fast asleep! Horrid word. You’d be chased out of Stewards. Otherwise a very doable toughie. Thank you!
Really enjoyed this one. Had to consult Mr G to confirm my last in answer for 26a (like RD Jacobean was my first thought but it didn’t tally with the wordplay) as it wasn’t a term I was familiar with. Disappointingly I missed husked as an indicator so failed to account for the A&R at 12a but otherwise my parsing tallied with our reviewer – though surely only the first bit of 4a is a homophone. I did think the fool synonym a stretch until reading the hint. Fully agree that 10a is pick of a fine bunch.
Thanks to Chalicea & to ALP – particularly liked Stella & Loudon from the music choices. Bit surprised Rocky III made it for 4a – felt sure you’d go with an old clip of the song One Meatball (Calvin Russell does a great acoustic cover) or Free’s Come Together in the Morning off Heartbreaker.
Ooh, thanks for pointing out my intentional error in 4a! As for Rocky III, tis one of the best flicks of all time!!
You’re pulling my leg squire
Not a bit of it! It’s right up there with Withnail and Casablanca!!
Mostly straightforward but with enough head scratching moments to make it exceptionally enjoyable. Despite my general dislike of anagrams the very cleverly devised 10a became my favourite. I spent longest in the SW and had to consult Mr G to sort 26a. Luckily, I had played the card game with some of my grandchildren only yesterday which gave me the required checking letter. Further podium places for 19a and 17d. Thanks to Chalicea and ALP.
Well, I thought I’d finished it no problem, but I’ve just read the previous comments and see I’ve fallen into the “bung-in” trap at 29a. So it’s a DNF for me !!! No prisons or functions in Jacobean!
Thanks ALP and Chalicea
I made harder work of this than I should have but in mitigation there were some pretty tough ones. I also fell into the Jacobean trap but couldn’t parse it so that termagants un-entered until I stumbled upon the right answer. I had to look up the card game as was never heard of it. Good fun though. Favourite was 12a. Thanks to Chalicea and ALP.
Like others, I had problems with the function in the 17th century until the parsing requirement sorted me out and it saddened and rather surprised me to see our setter using scoff as a noun, what is the world coming to!
Rosettes here went to 16&21a plus 1d.
Thanks to Chalicea for the puzzle and to ALP for the review.
The SW corner gave us lots of problems, particularly 25a and 15d. Trying to justify a mathematical function did not help at all.
The solve was good fun as it always is from this setter.
Thanks Chalicea and ALP.
Many thanks to ALP and all. As always, I am delighted to have pleased. I’ll have to take note of your dislike of all the oaring and scoffing!
Huge thanks for popping in Chalicea and for a very enjoyable puzzle. “Eats” always causes a flurry too!
1*/3* ….
liked 16A “Old writer cross over unrestricted immigration (4,4)”