Toughie No 3374 by Robyn
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
I wasn’t expecting quite such a tough Toughie from Robyn today, but I did enjoy the battle
Please let us know what you thought
Across
1a Philosopher and intellect superficially trashing genius putting out paper (12)
WITTGENSTEIN Intellect or intelligence, the outside (superficially) letters of TrashinG and a famous physicist and mathematician (genius) without the single letter that is the name of a daily newspaper
9a Calm soldiers, as it happens, overrunning base (7)
RELIEVE Some abbreviated soldiers, a simple way of saying ‘as it happens’, the latter ‘overrunning’ the letter that is the base of the natural system of logarithms
10a C&A clothing article works for a royal (7)
CAMILLA C and A (from the clue) ‘clothing’ or going round an indefinite article and a building or factory (works)
11a US writer‘s wife, one who takes people out (7)
WHITMAN The abbreviation for Wife and someone employed to kill (take out) others
12a Pompous rubbish penned by Oscar and translated (7)
OROTUND Some rubbish ‘penned’ or inserted between the letter represented by Oscar in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet and the German (translated) word for and
13a Old poet wanting capital for Rolex watch (5)
VIGIL A Roman poet without (wanting) the capital letter in the word Rolex
14a One prates wildly, producing unnatural language (9)
ESPERANTO An anagram (wildly) of ONE PRATES
16a Basically where the Ruhr can be seen by church (2,7)
IN ESSENCE Where the River Ruhr can be seen followed by the abbreviation for the Church of England
19a Tory and Republican using more offensive language (5)
BLUER The colour associated with the Tory party and the abbreviation for Republican
21a `Revolutionary bowled over? Wait and see (7)
OBSERVE A reversal (revolutionary) of the cricket abbreviations for Bowled and Over followed by a verb meaning to wait or bring food to table
23a Energy to eat a bit of old French bread for lunch? (3,4)
PEA SOUP An informal term for energy ‘eats’ A (from the clue) and an old French coin (bit of bread)
24a Key dropped in Devon river delta in August (7)
EXALTED The capital A in August is there to mislead. A key on the computer keyboard ‘dropped’ or inserted into a Devon river, the result finished with the letter represented by Delta in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet
25a Apostle’s occasionally casual long coats (7)
PAULINE An adjective relating to a particular Apostle – the occasional letters of cAsUaL ‘coated’ by a verb meaning to long for
26a Worker, say, admitting banks in Liverpool bring in American capital (3-9)
ALL-IMPORTANT Capital in the sense of crucial. One of Crosswordland’s workers ‘admitting’ the outside letters (banks) in LiverpooL, bring in from an outside source , and the abbreviation for American
Down
1d Eager side defending poorly (7)
WILLING The side of something ‘defending’ a simple way of saying not very well (poorly)
2d Rising current temperature ruined realm staying hot (7)
THERMAL The abbreviation for Temperature and an anagram (ruined) of REALM into which is inserted (staying) the abbreviation for Hot
3d Nauseous-looking outlaw absorbing energy in food (5,4)
GREEN BEAN The colour one is said to turn when nauseous and a verb meaning to outlaw ‘absorbing’ the abbreviation for Energy
4d North American taps ball, producing a chip (5)
NACHO The abbreviation for North American, the letters found on taps and a ball-shaped letter
5d One beaten in awful rout receiving a quantity of information (7)
TAMBOUR A drum (one beaten) is obtained by inserting a quantity of (computer) information into an anagram awful) of ROUT
6d I’m going to spoil hostile act (3,4)
ILL TURN Another way of saying I’m going to followed by spoil or go bad
7d Don’t mention I’ve upset partner after Grant turns up (4,1,4,4)
DRAW A VEIL OVER An anagram (upset) of IVE and a romantic partner go after a reversal (turns up) of a verb meaning to grant
8d One records organ playing rag or hard, endless piece (13)
CARDIOGRAPHER An anagram (playing) of RAG OR HARD and PIECe (endless telling you to omit the E)
15d Aggrieved German player, one interrupting Pep furiously with pride (4,5)
PIED PIPER The Roman numeral for one ‘interrupting’ an anagram (furiously) of PEP with PRIDE
17d Tangle with topless fellows? Make menacing noises (7)
ENSNARL Some fellows without their first letter( (topless) and make a noise with a show of teeth (make menacing noises)
18d Parts of baroque compositions provoked titters (7)
STRETTI An anagram (provoked) of TITTERS
19d Skill of match official stopping a problem arising (7)
BRAVURA A system that helps match officials make decisions ‘stopping’ a reversal of A (from the clue) and a problem or impediment
20d Dreamer from British Isles welcoming Trump (7)
UTOPIST A group of islands in the Outer Hebrides ‘welcoming’ a verb meaning to trump or beat
22d Finally arrive in party, following different directions (3,2)
END UP A Northern Ireland political party goes after (following) two different compass directions
My fortune in tuning-in to Twm’s back page puzzle continued here, where I had little reason for any hold-up until the last two in the SE. It helped that I “saw” all four of the long framework answers without having to fully follow the wordplay instructions, remembered the US Writer from first encountering him in Dead Poets Society (US literature rather passed me by as I was growing up), the musical instrument and several others, had a brainwave on the Baroque thingummies, and dredged the pompous synonym from the depths. Realising the match official was not the Ref was a help, likewise putting T & Con for Tory, and B for British, all out of my mind.
Podium places to 11a,23a & COTD 15d.
A super puzzle and tremendous fun. Thank you Robin & CS
Getting the 1a philosopher straight away was a great help and I proceeded at a fair clip through the puzzle only to slow down in the SE corner. Tremendously enjoyable, as always with Robin -thanks to him and CS.
I’ll pick out 1a, 11a, 12a, 23a, 5d and 15d for special mention.
I too had trouble in the SE – after a flying start with 1d, 2d and that philosopher. Tops were 11a, 24a and 20d [my last to parse, forgetting that the Islands are plural].
Thanks to Robyn and CS.
Such a relief to see that our blogger had awarded such a high ‘score on the doors’ for the difficulty factor in this one, thought it was just me losing the plot completely!
It was the SE corner that caused me the most problems and I had to come in for hints for the last four answers. Hard to get much enjoyment from such a long slog but I did have ticks alongside 11&16a.
Thanks to Robyn for the mauling and to CS for making sense where I couldn’t!
Typically splendid. 1a’s great – loved that “superficially”. I’ve not seen that used before. Very smart. 7d’s fun too. And 15d’s superb. Akin to Halcyon, 20d was my LOI. That certainly took some mental dredging. Many thanks to Robyn and CS.
I found three quarters of this very challenging with the SE corner proving to be even tougher than the rest. It was all good fun, though.
I agree completely with Mustafa G’s top three: 11a, 23a & 15d.
Many thanks to Robyn and to CS.
A faster finish than the back-pager but with a couple unparsed & 1 correction en route via the check button (bunged in AN instead of ST at the end of 20d/always forget that damn isle) which enabled me to get last in 26a. 1a was a terrific opener & ‘twas a puzzle that kept on giving. Ticks aplenty as ever with Robyn – 11,23&26a plus 8&15d particular likes.
Thanks to Robyn & CS
Definitely harder than the back pager for me, as it should be of course. Likewise the SE proved trickiest, with 19 and 20d last to fall.
Liked 4d . Same as Gazza, 1a went straight in, which made for a good start. 8d cotd fir me
Thanks CS and Robyn
So it wasn’t just us who found this one harder than expected. Lots of fun though and well worth the effort.
Thanks Robyn and CS.