Toughie No 3372 by Sparks
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
As Friday Toughies go this was on the gentle side I thought. Sparks, as he often does, has included a couple of Ninas in the grid (see rows 1&3 and 13&15). Thanks to him.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
8a Whizz through free tour protected by clipped sunshade (8)
VIRTUOSO: an anagram (free) of TOUR inside a sunshade without its last letter.
9a Sons avoiding unnecessary enmity (6)
NEEDLE: remove two occurrences of the genealogical abbreviation for son from an adjective meaning unnecessary.
10a Simon and Garfunkel – not quite their last single (3)
ONE: penultimate letters.
11a Very fast way to blast name on gold (8)
AUTOBAHN: TO, an expression of annoyance (as is blast!) and the abbreviation for name all follow the chemical symbol for gold.
12a Graphic ‘extra’ shocked Democrat (1-5)
X-RATED: an anagram (shocked) of EXTRA and the abbreviation for Democrat.
13a House alterations are likely to follow it (7,8)
GENERAL ELECTION: something that we had as recently as July.
15a Through which wife wants present before birthday on vacation (7)
WHEREBY: assemble the genealogical abbreviation for wife, an adverb meaning present and the outer letters of birthday.
18a Floors European, in blue, carried by seconds (7)
STOREYS: an abbreviation for European goes inside a word meaning blue in a political sense. Now insert that between abbreviations for second.
21a New normal, cardinals being upstanding elements of the cloth? (8,7)
MANDARIN COLLARS: an anagram (new) of NORMAL CARDINALS.
24a Shrink back from bird crossing lake (6)
FLINCH: a colourful songbird contains the abbreviation for lake.
25a Soon wearing expression of joy when America takes pole position (2,1,5)
IN A HURRY: a preposition meaning wearing and an expression of joy or approval with the single-letter abbreviation for American moved to the front.
26a Skill to some extent attracts backing (3)
ART: hidden in reverse.
27a War criminal outed by traumatised Orwellian playwright (1’5)
O’NEILL: remove the jumbled (criminal) letters of WAR from ORWELLIAN and make an anagram (traumatised) of what you have left.
28a Food having left one doubled over with hint of stomach pains (8)
AILMENTS: start with an old word for food or nourishment, reverse the abbreviation for left and the Roman one within it and append the first letter of stomach.
Down Clues
1d Fine that is about lifted carpet design (6)
FIGURE: the pencil abbreviation for fine and the abbreviation for ‘that is’ containing the reversal of a small carpet.
2d Books on operating system are finally superfluous (6)
OTIOSE: glue together the abbreviation for some Biblical books, an Apple operating system and the final letter of ‘are’.
3d Everyone welcoming big gun under magnificent large concert venue (5,6,4)
ROYAL ALBERT HALL: a word meaning everyone contains the nickname given to a large German gun in WWI (Big BERTHA). That’s preceded by an adjective meaning magnificent or majestic and followed by the clothing abbreviation for large.
4d Flash preceding assault that makes satellite disappear (7)
MOONSET: a short word for a flash or short period of time and a synonym of a military assault.
5d Cube and exponential worked out exactly right (15)
UNEXCEPTIONABLE: an anagram (worked out) of CUBE EXPONENTIAL.
6d Worker in feast brought up wind (8)
LEVANTER: one of our usual working insects goes inside the reversal of a noisy feast to make the name of a wind in the East Mediterranean.
7d Dance performance exposed with bloody symbolic narrative (8)
ALLEGORY: remove the outer letters from a dance performance that you might see in Covent Garden and add an adjective meaning bloody.
14d Born in the purple, ultimately (3)
NEE: ultimate letters.
16d Male and daughter charging onward rashly (8)
HEADLONG: a male pronoun is followed by the abbreviation for daughter contained in an adverb meaning onward.
17d Lair in excellent hill put up furry creatures (8)
RODENTIA: insert an animal’s lair into the reversal of both an abbreviation meaning excellent and a rocky hill.
19d Consumer delivered letter overseas (3)
ETA: this sounds (to some people, not to me) like someone consuming food.
20d Dispensable explosive in vault (7)
UNVITAL: an anagram (explosive) of IN VAULT. What a horrible word!
22d Old music hall comedian I praise (6)
LAUDER: double definition, the first the surname of Sir Harry, the old Scottish music hall comedian and singer.
23d Thinness of line penning 10 in 26 (6)
RARITY: the abbreviation for a railway line contains the letter representing 10a inside the answer to 26a. Thanks to julesinsussex for sorting out the parsing.
The clues that I liked best were 13a, 25a and 6d. Which clue(s) piqued your interest?
I was expecting something tougher from Sparks on a Friday – perhaps I was helped by spotting the Ninas fairly early on
Thanks to Sparks and Gazza
Gentler than usual – the rather obvious big anagrams helped to get cracking, but there were 3 in particular which stood out for me: 15a [wife wants present is clever] 25a [my last in – took some working out] and 16d [daughter charging onward was nice].
Thanks to Sparks and Gazza.
Enjoyed that! (..and actually found it MUCH easier than today’s normal cryptic!) Glad I checked here on BigDave though, as the concept of “Nina’s” is entirely new to me!! Many thanks!!!
There’s more information about Ninas with more examples in FAQ #31.
Many thanks! 🙏
Yes, lighter than one would expect for a Friday, and the Ninas helped with a couple of the later answers. Took unconscionably long to crack the 21a anagram. If I never again see the answer to 20d it will still be too soon for such a ghastly word. No idea who the hell the Scottish comedian was: talk about obscure! Fortunately the “I praise” bit was clear.
Special mention to 27a for including the apostrophe in the enumeration: it is thus proved possible, so why cannot it appear in all puzzles?? Other honours to 10a (very clever) & 15a.
Many thanks to Sparks and Gazza
Had a mental fiver on that you’d point that out – what’s Eugene got that Pete didn’t I wonder….
Well I am happy to report that once again I missed the Ninas, although had I known the setter in advance I might have been prompted to look for one (or two). Like others I found this less strenuous than I might have expected, but I did enjoy it enormously, with the long ‘uns creating a good foothold in the grid. For a favourite, I have to go with the excellent 27a.
Many thanks to Sparks for the fun and to Gazza.
I found this a stiff enough test, with the SE last in. I’ve got a different spelling for your solution to 23d, Gazza, which I checked exists, and I saw it as (railway) line round 26a with (e)ta inserted. Otherwise there are too many As. Expect I’ve missed something!
Thought 25a meaning soon was a little tenuous.
Glad MG likes 26a!
Thanks to Sparks.
Thanks for the correction to my 23d parsing, though it’s I (one, i.e. 10a that gets inserted).
I think that 25a means soon as in “I won’t be subscribing to any social media site soon”.
Got it on both counts. I wrote over the clue number with Eta which made 19 look like 10… Duh!
Thanks
A real Toughie for me and I did have to get our blogger to hold my hand through the last few. Very much enjoyed those that I managed unaided, top three being 13,15 & 24a.
Thanks to Sparks and to Gazza for his help.
For once we managed to locate the Ninas but not until we had completed the solve and went looking.
An enjoyable solve for us.
Thanks Sparks and Gazza.
Hallelujah for the Js (Jules & Jane) – plenty tough enough for me too. Got there eventually albeit with a correction en route (2d) courtesy of the check button so not exactly unaided. 13a was my fav with podium spots for 15&28a. Missed the Nina as per. Enjoyed it.
Thanks to Sparks & to Gazza