Toughie No 3356 by Sparks
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Thanks to Sparks for what I thought was relatively straightforward for a Friday Toughie. It’s a pangram.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a My American off-road vehicle about to go over loose rocks through sierra (7,8)
JEEPERS CREEPERS: we have five different bits to assemble here – an American off-road vehicle, a prefix meaning about reversed, a word for loose rocks, a preposition meaning through and the letter that sierra represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet.
9a Draws back, lacking electronic energy (7)
STAMINA: a verb meaning draws without the abbreviation for electronic is reversed.
10a Side show location (7)
CHELSEA: double definition, the second the location for an annual horticultural extravaganza.
11a Rat on small skip (4)
SHOP: the clothing abbreviation for small and a type of skip or jump.
12a Commotion from adult by back-to-back houses (3-2)
HOO-HA: the film abbreviation for adult follows back-to-back abbreviations for house.
13a Turn large sailing ship, missing source of blockage? (4)
WIND: an old merchant sailing ship without something or someone that blocks a radio signal (Jammer).
16a Head of Unit Four is exceptionally violent (7)
FURIOUS: an anagram (exceptionally) of U[nit] FOUR IS.
17 Perhaps Alexander‘s soldiers entertaining question in church (7)
MCQUEEN: a word for soldiers contains an abbreviated church which in turn contains an abbreviation for question. The answer is a famous fashion designer.
18a Register watercourse crossing minute area from the east (7)
ALMANAC: a watercourse containing the abbreviation for minute is followed by the abbreviation for area. Reverse the lot.
21a Plant automatic software for backing up half of financial statements (7)
TOBACCO: reverse a computer program that runs automatically and add the first half of a word meaning financial statements.
23a Hero for the most part not to cross (4)
AJAX: an adjective meaning ‘not to’ or ‘not closed’ without its last letter and the cross-resembling letter.
24a Former old Liberal accepts ultimate in faint praise (5)
EXTOL: a prefix meaning former and abbreviations for old and Liberal containing the ultimate letter of faint.
25a Minuscule jumper, formerly two bob (reduced) each (4)
FLEA: the abbreviation for an old pre-decimal coin worth two shillings and the abbreviation for each.
28a Composer ignoring a novelist and artist (2,5)
EL GRECO: an English composer without the A and an Italian novelist.
29a Polish capital (7)
TRIPOLI: double definition. The polish is new to me and the capital is in North Africa.
30a Work by E L Kirchner with fun flourishes (11,4)
HUCKLEBERRY FINN: an anagram (flourishes) of BY E L KIRCHNER FUN.
Down Clues
1d Converted Joshua Tree fans embracing unknown saviour (5,2,8)
JESUS OF NAZARETH: an anagram (converted) of JOSHUA TREE FANS containing one of the algebraic unknowns. It’s a good job that Brian doesn’t do the Toughie.
2d Ascendant Gulf state Europe embraces, showing charm (7)
ENAMOUR: the reversal of a Gulf state is embraced by an abbreviation for Europe.
3d Using which dials may be adjusted on screen (1-3)
E-FIT: dial here is a slang word for face.
4d Gloom ultimately depresses 1960s band (7)
SHADOWS: a synonym for gloom or dimness and the ultimate (its second usage) letter of depresses.
5d Illustrator‘s stress precedes overacting (7)
RACKHAM: a verb to stress physically or mentally precedes a word for overacting. The answer is the name of a leading book illustrator of the last century.
6d Maybe female from Cotswolds goes on river vessel (4)
EWER: Cotswold is a breed of sheep.
7d Version of Usenet I linked to facilities? (2,5)
EN SUITE: an anagram (version) of USENET I.
8d Excellent reception from van doing broadcast in depot (8,7)
STANDING OVATION: an anagram (broadcast) of VAN DOING inside a synonym of depot.
14d Lout cycles on middle of triangular decking (5)
KO’ING: cycle the letters of a word for a lout or boor and add the middle letters of triangular.
15d 27 from Quebec entering near-perfect set of grades? (5)
AQABA: this 27d in Jordan comes from inserting the letter that Quebec represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet inside a near-perfect set of grades in an exam.
19d Dodgy guys regularly claim having problem with beef? (7)
MYALGIC: an anagram (dodgy) of G[u]Y[s] CLAIM. Beef is an informal word for muscle.
20d Fop, 90, residing in valley (7)
COXCOMB: insert the Roman numeral for 90 into a word for a type of valley.
21d Tense cad, a bit of a swine (7)
TROTTER: the grammatical abbreviation for tense and a synonym of cad.
22d Pizzas variable in state close to Italy (7)
CALZONI: insert an algebraic variable in an abbreviation for a US state, a preposition meaning ‘close to’ and the IVR code for Italy.
26d Ring phone engineer that’s late (4)
BELL: double definition, the first an informal verb and the second the late inventor of the telephone.
27d Bath, possibly extremely comfy, inspiring hanky-panky (4)
CITY: the outer letters of comfy contain a short word for hanky-panky.
I liked the 4-letter clues best today, especially 11a, 13a, 23a and 3d. Which one(s) sang out to you?
I found it a proper brain-mangling Friday Toughie, although I was helped by realising that it was probably going to be a pangram – my favourites were 3d and 26d
Thanks to Sparks and Gazza
Not quite Elgar tough, for sure, but “relatively straightforward”? Hahaha. This was great fun. 1a is a Lego masterclass. 23a’s “to” almost got me … again. Will I ever learn? And 29a’s double must have been done before, surely. It’s so incredibly neat. But I’ve never seen it and that “polish” was certainly new to me. The shorties were all especially tight. 13a was very sharp. Many thanks to Sparks and Gazza.
A good brain workout for me but all completed in the end. Thanks for the parsing of TRIPOLI. Never would have guessed. Ta v much Sparks and Gazza.
At least I managed the clever 1 d
Very satisfying to complete, albeit a DNF because I had to come here for one hint when I’d ground to a halt with a half-dozen to go. Without question a Friday Toughie for me, though not at the Elgar let alone Osmosis end of the scale. Was hugely encouraged by the number of write-in clues (inc 1a, 1d, 30a, helpfully), less so by the much greater number that verged on write-offs until pennies dropped. Spotting the pangram early helped.
The polish was new to me, the turn in 13a a biff-and-hope; always dislike clues such as 14d when the enumeration is given as (5) rather than (2’5); ultimately all very fairly clued. COTD for me 30a for the brilliantly spotted anagram and the use of that artist’s name to construct a real red herring of a clue.
Many thanks indeed to Sparks and Gazza
Oh – and for 1a:
14d got me in spite of realising the type of decking. I agree with Mustafa G re the enumeration. 17a didn’t quite make cotd, but 1a definitely did!
Thanks Gazza and of course Sparks
I found this a good deal harder than our esteemed blogger, and yet upon completion and review, there were only a couple that I didn’t fully parse. 14d would have been easier if the apostrophe had been included in the clue, for example, as highlighted by others. 13a and 19d were both very clever, but my favourite was 30a. Naturally I failed to spot the pangram, which would have helped enormously.
Thanks to Sparks for the mangling, and to Gazza.
Talk about being lulled into a false sense of security & optimism. The 4 peripheral long ‘uns yielded straight off the bat & there were a few gimmes here & there but the rest of it was jolly tough. I did manage to complete the grid without resort to a letter reveal (pegging the pangram earlier would have helped matters) but only with the assistance of the check facility & post entry confirmation from Mr G, two corrections en route & with more bung ins (or at least not fully parsed) than an alkie makes in weekly visit to the bottle bank. Enjoyed the tussle & a rare visit to Friday Toughiedom.
Thanks to Sparks & now over to Gazza for the explanations
Just the job after a week off. I also got some peripherals right away, but only 2, [1a and 1d] then it got a lot tougher, with the SE being the last to yield. I always find Sparks “straightforwardly tough” if that makes sense, with both definitions and clue elements well disguised. Faves were 23a [not to] 14d and 22d [last one in, kicks self when penny drops].
Thanks to Sparks and Gazza.
Certainly a significant challenge for us with the last few, particularly 14d, taking a lot of head-scratching.
Spotted the pangram and really enjoyed the solve.
Thanks Sparks and Gazza.