Toughie No 3365 by Chalicea
Hints and tips by ALP
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Very light indeed. I think, for once, we can all agree on a difficulty rating. Huzzah! A romp and a breeze with just a couple of dictionary checks for some slightly rarefied definitions. Well, one’s certainly rare, unless you’re Scottish. But this is as Tuesday as Tuesday ever gets and 18d deserves a special mention for being the gentlest clue of all time. All yours.
Across
9a Foreigner, having considerable skill, capable of being transferred (9)
ALIENABLE: Foreign(er) + skilled.
10a Modify church communion table, we’re told (5)
ALTER: Homophone of the usual church table.
11a Base equipment that’s needed to get car moving (3,4)
LOW GEAR: Base/mean + equipment/kit.
12a Resisted work put forward (7)
OPPOSED: The usual work + put forward (a question).
13a Army scout troubled according to habit (9)
CUSTOMARY: ARMYSCOUT, troubled.
15a Councillor not oddly hires Republican for official announcer (5)
CRIER: The two-letter “councillor” + [h]I[r]E[s] evenly + the usual Republican.
17a Person under stress, barely honest, meeting Santa’s little helper? (7)
ONESELF: [h]ONES[t] + one of the “little helpers” in Father Christmas’ grotto = an emphatic word for “person”.
19a Become more inflexible in small row with gutless Englishman (7)
STIFFEN: The usual “small” + row/spat + E[nglishma]N
20a In St Andrews briskly trips along golf course by the sea (5)
LINKS: The Scottish (it’s in Chambers) for “trips along briskly” or “moves nimbly”.
21a Logic shown in way to minimise alcohol intake? (9)
RATIONALE: How one might say “limit beer” as (6,3).
24a Law and image in person’s vocabulary (7)
LEXICON: Law (from Latin) + (symbolic) image.
26a Cold’s terrible, gripping somebody deprived of winter fuel payment? (7)
OLDSTER: Lurker, hidden in the first two words.
28a Discover whereabouts of strap for attaching animal (5)
TRACE: A words for a (husky, say) strap/rope that’s usually seen in the plural, and used to pull a sled, etc.
29a Beam beginning to end generally high quality for stage (9)
MILESTONE: A synonym for beam/grin has its first letter moved to the end before a quality/character that may be “generally high” but can also be lowered!
Down
1d Aromatic seasoning of fish with student in charge (6)
GARLIC: A pike-like fish + the usual student and “in charge”.
2d Of US region merest wind disrupted (10)
MIDWESTERN: MERESTWIND, disrupted.
3d Raised vessel’s advance payment (4)
ANTE: A (heating) vessel, reversed.
4d With start of snows this peninsula becomes harsh place of exile (6)
IBERIA: Working backwards, take S[nows] off the bitterly cold place of exile traditionally (also where no one wants to be sat in a restaurant, etc.)
5d Awkward moments absorbing Yankee – plastic for credit card is one of them (8)
METONYMS: MOMENTS, awkward, absorbs/contains the usual Yankee.
6d About cuppa raised in Acciano regularly, ordinary drink for locals (10)
CAPPUCCINO: The one-letter “about” + “cuppa” from the clue, reversed/raised, + [a]C[c]I[a]N[o] + the abbreviation for “ordinary” = a drink common in Acciano/Italy (but NOT after breakfast!) and pretty much everywhere else.
7d Greek characters fully satisfy in retrospect (4)
ETAS: To satisfy fully, reversed.
8d Frame of crossword feature; very hard (8)
GRIDIRON: The crossword feature that we all fill + very hard/tough.
14d Dubiously respect one hidden thing that is known to all (4,6)
OPEN SECRET: RESPECTONE, dubiously.
16d Breach within part of unit (10)
INFRACTION: Within/during + part of unit, or a little bit of anything, really.
17d Too chill, put out waterproof material (8)
OILCLOTH: TOOCHILL, put out.
18d For me, including Ena produces this, as an example (8)
FORENAME: Um, take FORME, from the clue, and include/insert ENA from the clue. I did actually check, as I wasn’t entirely sure which words to underline for the definition, but Chalicea’s real name is Shirley, not Ena!
22d Deliberately tries to offend ugly dwarfs (6)
TROLLS: Double definition.
23d Person acquiring skill, not initially one bringing in money (6)
EARNER: A word for a person acquiring skill/education, minus its initial letter.
25d Beam after whiskey (1-3)
X-RAY: The “beam” (that comes) after NATO’s “whiskey”.
27d Insult hospital food (4)
DISH: Insult/treat with contempt + the usual “hospital”.
Five generous anagrams, a fun lurker and some straightforward wordplay made for a brisk solve. 11a’s jaunty and topical 26a reads well but I rather liked 8d – a pleasing surface and I do have a soft spot for a semicolon. What did you make of it?
Pretty straightforward except that I didn’t know the Scottish word or the Latin law, but they couldn’t be anything else. This proves again that crosswords don’t need to be mind numbingly difficult to be enjoyable. Favourite was 21a. Thanks to Chalicea and ALP.
It’s not often I’m first.
I found this a little easier than the backpager today, and that was certainly a relative walk in the park. Chalicea typically offers fun, light and well compiled puzzles and this was no exception. Like our blogger, 8d was my favourite.
My thanks to our lady setter and ALP.
‘a relative walk in the park’ … yes but was it a links?
A light & gentle lunchtime solve. My ignorance of Scottish dialect terms remains near bottomless, but I’ve visited St Andrews and perforce walked near/around/through parts of that famous course, so the answer was readily to mind. Listening to a podcast afterwards there was an immediate reference to 17d – quelle coincidence! 3d’s wordplay came very vaguely to mind, but again I was saved by the definition.
Thank you to ALP & Chalicea
A barrel of fun from our lady setter today. I did use the definition to arrive at the raised vessel but took her word for it where the Scottish golf course was concerned and didn’t bother to check with the BRB.
My ticks went to the humorous ones, 11a (particularly in light of our blogger’s illustration) and 26a plus 25&27d.
Thanks to Chalicea and to ALP for the review – always good to see a Peter Kay clip.
Now that’s more like a Tuesday Toughie, leaving plenty time to get the Bolognese sauce going. I agree with the 1* for tough altho it did get a tad gnarlier in the SE. Faves were the clever definition at 17a, the topical lurker at 26a and the nicely clued 5d.
Thanks to Chalicea for the puzzle and ALP for the blog and Joe Strummer.
Lovely puzle today .
Thanks to all concerned.
Brilliant! I needed help with one, 6d of all things, but the rest went in smoothly. My favourite clue was logical restriction of alcohol at 21a.
Thank you, Chalicea. I do love your guzzles. Thank you, ALP for the hints. A pity I can’t play any of the vids – it wants me to confirm I’m not a robot.
Another cracking puzzle from Chalicea. Fun, wit and new words too …. many thanks.
When we see the name Chalicea we always know that we have a fun puzzle to look forward to. A couple of dictionary checks but we know to expect those too.
Thanks Chalicea and ALP.
Typically Tuesday Toughie, some dictionary use but a pleasant time was had by all
Thanks to ALP and Chalicea
I’m always delighted when a puzzle pleases. Thanks to ALP and all and happy solving.
Huge thanks for popping in, Chalicea. You went down a storm, as always.
A day late but what the heck. Lovely puzzle. A first – agree with our reviewer’s difficulty rating. Straightforward grid fill but a couple of trickier whys & the Scottish dialect was a new one.
Thanks to Chalicea & to ALP – enjoyed the Strummer song, Bob obviously (great album) & young Peter.
1*/3* …
liked 26A “Cold’s terrible, gripping somebody deprived of winter fuel payment? (7)”