Toughie No 3382 by Weatherman
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
Weatherman set us a Toughie that was tricky in places and, for me anyway, at the tougher end of the Wednesday Toughie spectrum. He did seem a bit keen on insertions – six of the first eight Across clues require something to be inserted into something else
Please let us know what you thought
Across
1a Lots of water and wine drinking companion examined (8)
SEARCHED A large body of water and a type of wine ‘drinking’ an abbreviated Companion of Honour
6a Row after sailor died on a ship (6)
ABOARD A verb meaning to row goes after an abbreviated sailor and before the abbreviation for Died
9a Career Republicans pocketing the lot (6)
GALLOP An informal abbreviation for the US Republican Party ‘pocketing’ everything (the lot)
10a Break past Coe, keeping close to Cram (8)
OVERCOME Past or finished with and COE (from the clue) keeping the ‘close’ to craM
11a Talking about sport and running (9)
OPERATING Making a speech (talking) goes ‘about’ abbreviated school sport
13a Appears to be writing on diocese (5)
SEEMS An abbreviated written document goes on or after the office of a bishop (diocese)
15a Respected alumnus spotted (6)
OBEYED An abbreviated alumnus and a synonym for spotted
17a Moderate bit of inheritance covers time left (6)
GENTLE A part of your inheritance ‘covers’ the abbreviations for Time and Left
18a Ring doctor during birth (6)
ORIGIN The ring-shaped letter, a verb meaning to doctor or manipulate dishonestly and a preposition meaning during
19a Island fruit, oddly acidic (6)
HAWAII The fruit of the may tree and the odd letters of AcIdIc
21a Figures to the left and to the right (5)
STATS Until I read this clue, I am not sure I had ever noticed that these abbreviated figures were palindromic (to the left and to the right)
22a Use commercial vehicle identification badge at last (9)
ADVANTAGE Am abbreviated commercial, a vehicle, a mark of identification and the last letter of badgE
25a Unknown tongues confused most recent arrival (8)
YOUNGEST A mathematical unknown and an anagram (confused) of TONGUES
26a Ladies abandoned morals (6)
IDEALS An anagram (abandoned) of LADIES
28a Met founder reversing when in the van, not paying attention (6)
ASLEEP A synonym for when goes before (in the van) a reversal of the surname of the founder of the Metropolitan Police
29a Watched on, cautious when out of uniform (8)
REGARDED The usual on (the subject of) and a synonym for cautious without (out of) the letter represented by Uniform in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet
Down
2d Goddess wanting husband for a very long time (3)
ERA A Greek goddess without (wanting) the abbreviation for Husband
3d Are you texting student about returning part of geometry kit? (5)
RULER How you would say “are you” in textspeak, an abbreviated student and a reversal (returning) of about, on the subject of
4d Speculation he shot spy I broadcast (10)
HYPOTHESIS An anagram (broadcast) of HE SHOT SPY I
5d Sinks blade into rampant knight? On the contrary! (6)
DROWNS Do the opposite of what the clue says and put the chess abbreviation for knight into a reversed (rampant) bladed weapon
6d Degenerates set up video game company (4)
AGES A reversal (set up) of the name of a video game company, the makers of many games include those with a particular hedgehog
7d Playing hearts or clubs before players (9)
ORCHESTRA An anagram (playing) of HEARTS OR C(lubs)
8d Celebrating two bands receiving Eastern gong (11)
REMEMBERING A musical band often found in crosswords and a small circular band ‘receiving’ the abbreviation for Eastern and an abbreviated award (gong being slang for a medal)
12d Relative shares reason for travelling to prison (11)
PROPORTIONS For or in favour of and an anagram (travelling) of TO PRISON
14d Divisive chairs accepting reduced role (10)
SEPARATING Some chairs ‘accepting’ a truncated (reduced) role
16d Bigoted vice-president initially ignored reality (9)
EXISTENCE A synonym for bigoted and an American vice-president without their first letters (initially ignored)
20d Old queen takes her son’s ex to my boss (6)
EDITOR The regnal cipher of our late Queen takes the informal way we refer to her son’s first wife and TO (from the clue)
23d Someone else‘s son released from jail after ambassador intervenes (5)
THEIR Remove the abbreviation for Son (son’s released) from a slang name for a jail and then insert (intervenes) the abbreviated title of an ambassador
24d Go with rising cry (4)
WEEP A reversal (rising) of an informal way of saying urinate and the abbreviation for With
27d Contents of stranger story (3)
LIE The inside letters (contents) of a synonym for stranger
I thought this was an absolute snorter. Very tight and super-smooth. 9a, 11a, 18a and 16d all did it for me. 12d reads beautifully too. Many thanks to Weatherman and CS.
I thought this was middle-of-the-road for Toughie difficulty, and I enjoyed it a lot.
6d is ambiguous. Originally I entered the video game as the answer, which caused a slight delay in the NE.
I don’t care for the use of “oar” as a verb in 6a, even though the dictionaries seem to accept it.
My top picks were 22a, 14d & 20d.
Many thanks to Weatherman and to CS.
A pleasant puzzle though not terribly memorable – thanks to Weatherman and CS.
I agree with RD that having the reversal indicator in the middle of 6d makes the clue ambiguous.
I liked 17a, 18a and 5d. My favourite was 20d.
A well pitched Wednesday Toughie with lots to like. I couldn’t parse my answer for 28A because “in the van” was getting in the way. So thank you Sue for the explanation.
Out of many ticks I’ll choose 15, 18 and 22A and 14 and 20D.
Thank you CS for the excellent blog as always and to Weatherman for the enjoyment.
A very enjoyable puzzle, thank you Weatherman. My biggest problem was with one of the shorter clues, 24d, where I had “yelp” in mind and was trying to justify how ‘pley’ could work with the clue, which of course it didn’t. While I’m not advocating hiding the table legs, I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of ‘go’ used in this way, though it frequently occurs in The Times, too.
But a very minor niggle. A lovely crossword, with scarcely a wasted letter, let alone word. I had ticks everywhere, so will nominate 19a 29a & 5d for the podium, with runner-up 5d.
Many thanks Weatherman – don’t leave it so long next time! – and also to CS
This was a very pleasant midweek Toughie that hit the spot in terms of difficulty. Plenty to enjoy, with 20d my favourite.
Thanks to Weatherman and Sue.
Must be [another] senior moment but I don’t remember this setter at all. Whatever, I certainly like the style – tight clueing and excellent surfaces – no padding and mid-level toughness. There seemed to be rather a lot of anagrams but some turned out not to be anagrams, or only partials, which was clever. With the exception of 6d [see above criticism] there isn’t a dud clue and it’s difficult to pick faves, but almost at random I’ll go with 6a [I like the fact that “on a ship” turns out to be the def] 28a [Met founder] and 8d [OK the band’s a bit of a cliche but it works well]. More from this setter please.
Thanks to Weatherman and CS.
Ha. A senior moment, from you? No, I refuse to believe it! He made his debut in September. And you liked it.
Well at least I’m consistent [or he is].
Rather enjoyed this one, especially when I’d sorted out the inheritance – I was well off track for a while with that one. Like Mustafa, I’m not a fan of that particular ‘go’ but setters certainly make good use of it these days. Top clue for me was 20d and I also liked 28a & 16d.
Thanks to Weatherman and to CS for the review.
Lovely steady solve, with 24d LOI. 12d I’m struggling to justify the “reason” bit, which Sue doesn’t mention above. Maybe “a reason for” is a pro.
Thanks of course, and to Weatherman
Pros and cons!
A pleasant solve for us with considerable head-scratching needed along the way.
Thanks Weatherman and CS.
Thanks all for taking the time to solve & comment, and Sue for the blog (hopefully you’ll enjoy my future offerings more!). As the crossers resolve the ambiguity, I think AGES is sound, although in a harder puzzle I would want the certainty.
Re 6a I would (yet again!) query the use of the word “oar” as a verb. You don’t oar a boat, you row it, using oars. Whatever any dictionary may say, I have never yet seen or heard this word used as a verb – except in crosswords!
Thanks Weatherman and Crypticsue.
Very good puzzle. Nice blog.
Faves: 6a, 17a, 29a, 5d, 16d and 20d.
Welcome to the blog and thank you
As my father was a meteorologist, I feel duty bound to try a Weatherman puzzle but I found this really hard! Got there in the end, thanks to a few revealed letters and Sue’s very helpful hints.
Thanks Weatherman and Cryptic Sue