Toughie No 3380 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
We have a typical Osmosis puzzle today with clever definitions abounding. I had a hiccup in the SE corner and had to write over my first answer for 23a ‘titbits’ (which I thought worked quite well as a cryptic definition).
Thanks to Osmosis.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Drink port and heave (9,5)
SINGAPORE SLING: an Asian port and a verb to heave or chuck.
10a Prompt Jack perhaps to back turkey (5,4)
IDIOT CARD: what a Jack is an example of in bridge for example follows what turkey is a slang word for.
11a Spartan character in denim stripped boring property (5)
ENNUI: a Greek letter goes inside the inner letters of denim.
12a Josh‘s illustrating page during calm interval (3-4)
LEG-PULL: an abbreviation meaning illustrating and the abbreviation for page go inside a calm interval. The BRB and Collins only have josh as a verb but Merriam-Webster does have it as a noun.
13a Roughnecks here identified by greaser gear (3,3)
OIL RIG: something that greases and a synonym of gear.
15a Dash from final exam to reflect (4)
ELAN: hidden in reverse.
17a Writer who wins over press, after exchange (6,4)
VICTOR HUGO: someone who wins, a verb to press or embrace and the abbreviation for an over in cricket.
18a Boy down there finally rides Chopper more than once (5,5)
HELL’S TEETH: assemble a word for ‘down there’ or the netherworld, the final letter of rides and a set of choppers.
20a For certain European, retrospective festival’s engrossing (4)
YEAH: an abbreviation for European is contained in the reversal of an annual literary festival in Powys.
22a Mark visiting mentioned security in wardrobe? (6)
TIEPIN: a homophone of a verb to mark or print and an adverb meaning visiting. I’m not totally convinced that I’ve got this right so do shout out if you have a better idea.
23a Scraps for bird (7)
SPARROW: two occurrences of a scrap or disagreement, the first physical and the second verbal.
26a Fed cracks case of larcener, getting cheers in NYPD (5)
LATER: a verb meaning fed goes inside the outer letters of larcener.
27a Old car rally – working out the odds of victory (9)
TRIUMPHAL: an old British make of car and the even letters of rally.
28a Steal timber axes, then serve time here? (8,6)
WORMWOOD SCRUBS: assemble a verb to steal or slither, a synonym of timber and a verb meaning axes or cancels.
Down Clues
2d Dope out of seasoning for cake layer? (5)
ICING: remove the 2-letter slang abbreviation meaning ‘the latest information’ from the start of a present participle meaning seasoning.
3d Gazette, in margins, to advertise produce (3,3)
GET OUT: the marginal letters of gazette and a verb to advertise or sell.
4d Explorer‘s fruit and meat sustaining squad ultimately (5,5)
PEARL DIVER: a juicy fruit and a type of meat or offal containing the ultimate letter of squad.
5d Crested waves, with German river eddying? (4)
RODE: cycle the letters of the name of a major German river.
6d Increasingly dingy? Forecaster maintains “go west” (7)
SEEDIER: a forecaster or prophet contains a verb to go west or kick the bucket.
7d Private transport that’s subject to inflation (5,4)
INNER TUBE: an adjective meaning private or personal and a type of transport (especially in London).
8d Declining movement of Etonians before game? (5,2,3,4)
GOING TO THE WALL: the movement required for scholars at Eton prior to participating in the peculiar game that is played there.
9d Actress that is honourable kept within rules (6,8)
BILLIE WHITELAW: the abbreviation for ‘that is’ and an adjective meaning honourable or generous go between two words for a rule or act of parliament.
14d Numerical data still entertains first son (10)
STATISTICS: an adjective meaning still contains a way of writing ‘first’. Finish with the genealogical abbreviation for son.
16d Touring stately territory, go to Pierre’s particular ground (3-6)
ALL-SEATER: around a word for a stately territory or country abode we need the verb for Pierre (or any French speaker) meaning to go.
19d Postman’s central Stockport batch of letters picked up somewhere squalid (4,3)
SKID ROW: start with what looks like the postal area for central Stockport then reverse an element of speech or writing containing one or more letters.
21d Alpha males probing that woman’s athletics equipment (6)
HAMMER: the abbreviations for alpha and two males go inside the possessive pronoun meaning “that woman’s”.
24d Potential place for lush borders in Edinburgh tended by Scotsman (5)
REHAB: the outer letters of Edinburgh are contained in a Scottish forename.
25d Excessive drop of Olbas Oil (4)
OTTO: an abbreviation meaning excessive and the first letter of Olbas.
The clues that I liked best were 23a, 7d and 24d. Which one(s) featured in your highlights?
With some notable exceptions, I thought Osmosis was being unusually gentle with us today. A lot of the NE fell very swiftly, assisted by my quickly spotted first answer 8d, while 1a and 28a were also happily straightforward. I’d never heard of the actress in 9d and even checked whether any actress had taken the stage name of Margaret Thatcher’s Willie before the light dawned. All the slang – 18a, 20a, 26a, even 10a – gave me a real sense of 11a. As for “explorer” in 4d, that has to be one of the least convincing definitions yet, and doesn’t appear to be in the BRB that I can see.
OTOH, there was so much trademark Osmosis brilliance, so many truly great surfaces (highlights 1a, 28a, 21d, 25d to name but a few) and witty, clever constructions. After Thursday’s Friday Toughie, a wonderful Thursday Toughie on Friday.
Many thanks indeed to Osmosis and to Gazza – though I do wish you hadn’t included that picture of the revolting character at 24d: it was bad enough recalling him when solving the clue, but to add the image was rather putting the boot in!
What a week! Four corkers in a row. This was rather a mixed bag of straightforward and extremely cryptic clues, with the tough stuff concentrated [for me at least] in the NW. It started easily with a write-in at 1a but the foreboding began when only 2 of the top 7 downs were in. The RHS [except 20a] yielded fairly readily but the rest was into 5* time for me. Top clues were 12a [illustrating page] 18a [boy down there is great] and 16d [go to Pierre]. I’m sure yours is correct Gazza but I had an alternative “parsing” for 19d involving a row [batch] of letters with the SK i.d. on them, it doesn’t account for “central” or “picked up” and in fact is pretty rubbish but it diverted me for a while.
Thanks for the blog and thanks to Osmosis for the challenge.
How about just “TYPE IN” as a homophone at 22?
That was my thinking with Mark = TYPE and visiting = IN.
As MG said it must have been Thursday on a Friday because I’ve finished it unaided & with all bar one correctly parsed. Reckon that’s a first for an Osmosis puzzle (usually steer well clear but figured it couldn’t be much more brutal than the preceding 3 days) so even if the penny for the 16d why only dropped after reading Halcyon’s comment I feel decidedly 27a. The 4 peripheral long ‘uns yielded without too much bother which encouraged me to persevere. A very enjoyable solve with ticks aplenty- 11,23,27&28a plus 4,7&24d particular likes.
Thanks to Osmosis & to Gazza
Well I got there after another hour at it this morning, and some great PDMs, particularly 18a and 16d.
A good wrestle.
Thanks Gazza and Osmosis