Toughie No 3351 by Prime
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
This is the first time I’ve had the pleasure of blogging a Prime Toughie and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Thanks to Prime.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Shed light on playwright cutting opening act after sacking name (11)
INTERPRETED: playwright Harold without his opening letter and a verb to act or feign without the abbreviation for name.
9a Boat race without gold, for one (4)
FACE: the word ‘for’ without our usual tincture of gold and what an ace is in card games. Boat race is rhyming slang.
10a United Kingdom perhaps deposing leader seen with pre-Euro currency, over 100 marks (11)
PUNCTUATION: the abbreviation for united and what a kingdom may be without its first letter follow the old Irish currency containing the Roman numeral for 100.
11a Long delay in Bow (4)
ITCH: a delay or snag in Cockneyland.
14a Found lying around in France, the next Brigitte Bardot? (7)
STARLET: a verb to found or initiate contains ‘the’ in France.
16a Colouring agents from USA filling hole (7)
PIGMENT: put a term for FBI agents into a synonym of hole.
17a I play the odds (5)
THESP: THE followed by the abbreviation for the odds in horseracing say,
18a Fire consuming middle of rolling pin (4)
AXLE: a verb to fire or sack containing the middle letter of rolling.
19a Rounds of skinless meat (4)
AMMO: a type of meat without its outer letters.
20a Turn after junction, seeing bridge obstruction? (5)
TROLL: a verb to turn follows a type of road junction to get the character in the fairytale who tried to stop goats crossing a bridge.
22a Warm saw? (7)
NOTICED: split the answer 3,4 to get warm.
23a Show me grasping a point (7)
MATINEE: ME contains A and a point.
24a Due to drop round camp (4)
WING: an adjective meaning due (a payment, say) without the round letter.
28a I mostly love an eccentric closing act’s send-off (11)
VALEDICTION: an anagram (eccentric) of I LOV AN containing an act or law.
29a Overlook first from Oxford University (4)
OMIT: the first letter of Oxford and the abbreviation for a university in Cambridge, USA.
30a Plane directed down to earth (5-6)
LEVEL-HEADED: an adjective meaning plane or flat and a verb meaning directed.
Down Clues
2d Intelligence agent finally abandoning them? (4)
NOUS: an informal way of describing ‘them’ (3,2) without the final letter of agent.
3d A head teacher is more than enough (4)
EACH: hidden.
4d First-class officers drop at speed (7)
PLUMMET: an adjective meaning first-class or choice and the abbreviation for the police force in London.
5d Index promoting the latest amphibians found locally (4)
EFTS: an acronym for the main shares index in the UK has its last letter promoted to the top to give us a dialect word for the amphibians loved by Ken Livingston.
6d Say scripture over epitaph for personal boost (3,4)
EGO TRIP: assemble three abbreviations – a) say or for example, b) part of the bible and c) an epitaph.
7d Republic once keen to corral extremely Stalinist crowds (4,7)
EAST GERMANY: a synonym of keen contains the outer letters of Stalinist. Finish with a word meaning crowds or lots.
8d Option for garden door kept her busy (3-3,5)
RED-HOT POKER: an anagram (busy) of DOOR KEPT HER.
12d I identified hiding spots to northern lawmaker (5,6)
ISAAC NEWTON: I and a verb meaning identified contain facial spots. Append TO and the abbreviation for northern.
13d Drug taken by Clare, partly for sport (5,6)
TABLE TENNIS: the form in which a drug may be taken followed by the town which forms part of County Clare in Ireland. This was my last clue to parse – I went on a round trip thinking of Clare as a forename, a poet, poor nuns and a Cambridge college before landing in Ireland.
15d One who monologued for A Bennett’s degree class (5)
THIRD: the name of an actress who recorded TV monologues written by Alan Bennett is written in the same way as the playwright here to get a degree class that used to be known as a Douglas.
16d One of 150 seats, after landslide, initially claimed by Starmer? (5)
PSALM: initial letters of three words in the clue contained in Keir Starmer’s title. Good topical surface.
20d Dog sitting outside former royal houses (7)
TERRACE: a verb to dog or track containing the cipher of our former Queen.
21d Unsophisticated curry served up on plate (7)
LADDISH: reverse a curry made with lentils and add a synonym of plate.
25d Item computers etc screened, displaying over and over again? (4)
MEME: remove (screen) the abbreviation for computers etc from ‘item’ and reverse what’s left twice.
26d Peak time for journey’s end, about noon (4)
ETNA: the abbreviation for when your journey is due to end contains the abbreviation for noon.
27d G.I. departed (4)
GONE: G and the number that’s I in Roman numerals.
The clues which I ticked were 11a, 14a, 20a, 12d and 15d. Which one(s) worked best for you?
I do like the way Prime’s Toughiest have gradually increased in difficulty, from his first one that appeared on a Tuesday, to his second on a Wednesday and now this just right for a Thursday one
My top favourite was 11a but the other clues listed by Gazza were close runners up
Thanks to Prime and Gazza
I really liked this challenge. It took me a while to get going, but everything was fairly clued, it just took some teasing out, particularly the pesky short ones. Tough to pick winners, as the choice was so plentiful, but 10a and 12d were some of the best.
Thanks to both Prime and Gazza. (Loved the cartoon at 10a)
I did need to get a couple of hints from our reviewer to complete this one but it was mostly my own work.
Favourite clues were the bridge obstruction (ear worm embedded!) and the degree class – loved those monologues.
Thanks to Prime and to Gazza for the review and cartoons.
A great Thursday Toughie. Slow to get into then sped up, with the NW providing the most resistance. Unconvinced that 21d (an otherwise great clue) = unsophisticated, and can’t see explicit support for that from the BRB. Loutish, yes. Otherwise, good surfaces, witty and challenging. Hon Mentions to 17a, 22a, 5d, 12d & 15d.
Many thanks to Prime, and to Gazza too – especially for the cartoons!
I suspect that Prime is using laddish in the sense of ‘like a lad’ or childlike (unsophisticated) but I agree that the BRB doesn’t support that meaning.
Good thinking Gazza – I’ll buy that, if grudgingly!
The GK required for 15d held us up for a while and we were totally defeated (not surprisingly) by 9a. Found it all quite a slog, possibly because of all the pesky 4-letter answers.
Thanks Prime and Gazza.
Hopelessly beaten with this one. Have managed a mere 13 answers & one of those I can’t parse. May have a look later otherwise it’ll be the review to the rescue.
Thanks to Prime for the pummelling & in advance to Gazza.
Completed but with 5 letter reveals & needed the hints to parse one or two. Not sure why I struggled so badly with it – wavelength I guess. 7d my fav.
Ps – great cartoons
I made a faltering start but it gradually turned into a rewarding solve. I’d only half parsed 28a, so thanks Gazza, and obviously thanks also to Prime.