Toughie No 3385 by Zenas
Hints and tips by ALP
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
Pretty straightforward, I’d say. Some schoolboy French, a little GK and a smidgeon of vocab. Nothing too exotic, but I was grateful for 3d’s gimme wordplay, without which I might have been tempted to bung an extra half on. There’s a definite and surprising theme in 26a et al. There are just too many references to a show that first aired nigh on 40 years ago (followed by a 1a version 20 years later) for it to be a coincidence and it was a lot of fun spotting all (I think!) of them. I don’t know why, but I would never have had Zenas/Prolixic down as being a fan, so this Easter Egg tickled me enormously. All yours.
Across
1a Extraordinarily malicious number of political chief omitted in Hamilton? (7)
MUSICAL: MALIC[IO]US, extraordinarily, ie minus IO (Downing St).
5a Boatyard has storage unit for new instrument (7)
MARIMBA: Boatyard (berthing area) with a (computing) storage unit replacing/for the usual “new”.
9a Grim part of child rearing (5)
DREAR: Lurker, hidden in the last two words.
10a Business representative authorised sharing the blame (9)
COMPLICIT: The usual “business” + (political) representative + authorised/lawful.
11a Rowers maybe received command to be menacing (10)
FORBIDDING: A homophone (received) of a team of “rowers” (not the usual eight) + command (as noun).
12a Ireland has question about American country (4)
IRAQ: The abbreviations of “Ireland” and “question” about/containing the usual American.
14a Change version of a mother’s poem (12)
METAMORPHOSE: AMOTHERSPOEM (version of).
18a Looking again at university accommodating don (12)
READDRESSING: University (town) accommodates/contains (to) don.
21a Government department having way to reach president (4)
FORD: David Lammy’s department + the usual-ish “way”.
22a City leader buries Marxist revolutionary after noon (10)
MANCHESTER: Leader/boss buries/contains the usual Marxist revolutionary after the usual “noon”.
25a Ingenuity shown in representation of ten saints (9)
NATTINESS: TENSAINTS, represented.
26a Mast and anchor regularly dropped by sailors (5)
ACORN: A[n]C[h]O[r] + sailors/navy = the mast I’ve only ever seen in crosswords. I think Victoria Wood herself would have enjoyed the lamentable subtitles in this clip!
27a Service supporter (3,4)
TEA TRAY: Cryptic definition for what a service might be carried on … in the afternoon, say.
28a Global habit (7)
OVERALL: Double definition. The habit is wearable.
Down
1d Barney holds party for fielder (3-3)
MID-OFF: Barney/row (more usually seen as a verb) holds/contains the usual “party”.
2d Boat initially changes direction for Jerez? (6)
SHERRY: (A) boat changes its initial “direction” from West to South.
3d A recording involved bloopers (10)
CORRIGENDA: ARECORDING, involved.
4d Brilliant detectives supporting London Underground’s leaders (5)
LUCID: The usual-ish three-letter “detectives” supports/follows L[ondon] U[nderground].
5d Significant French question picked up by Times (9)
MOMENTOUS: French question (where) is picked up by/inserted into times/occasions.
6d US railway cutting railway bank (4)
RELY: American railway (the XX train) cutting/inside the usual “railway”.
7d RAF squaddie enters desert to find food (8)
MACAROON: The abbreviation for “aircraftman” inside (to) desert.
8d Collectible items not for detailed investigation? (8)
ANTIQUES: Not for/against + investigation/search, minus its last letter (detailed).
13d Magic words of tournament seed (4,6)
OPEN SESAME: Tournament (golf/tennis, etc) + a seed that comes, unaccountably, in various colours. The wife sent me out the other day to get black ones, and some tahini. Pfft. I came back with white ones, and peanut butter. She wasn’t impressed!
15d Rather leave Gary in disarray (9)
AVERAGELY: LEAVEGARY, in disarray.
16d Current fault in fishing gear (5,3)
DRIFT NET: Current/tide + (tennis) fault.
17d Leather hat I lost after Bill returned (8)
CABRETTA: (Catholic) hat, minus its ‘I’, following the usual bill/account, reversed/returned.
19d Teetotallers consuming too much from French poisoner? (6)
ATROPA: A group that’s teetotal (or trying to be) consumes/contains the French for “too much”.
20d Old city in Albania is a place to go (6)
URINAL: The usual “old city” + “in” from the clue + the code for Albania.
23d Kramer maybe beginning to swim in Italian lake (5)
COSMO: S[wim] in(side) the first Italian lake you’ll think of = a well-known TV character’s first name.
24d Upright member we hear (4)
PIER: Homophone of a “member” (of the Lords, etc).
Five anagrams, two homophones and a general mix: one lurker, one double definition and one cryptic definition, etc. The pangram I was half-expecting after 8d didn’t materialise. But that’s neither here nor there. Very pleasant Tuesday entertainment. I especially enjoyed 18a, 27a and 16d, but the theme’s the star. How did you get on?
PS It would seem rude not to let the late, great Victoria Wood have the last word.
Smiled my way through this. Loved it. One or two testers. Without the anagram I wouldn’t have known 3d. Many thanks to Zenas and ALP
A very enjoyable puzzle – thanks to Zenas and ALP.
I usually miss themes but I did spot this one (initally from the two answers on the bottom line which brought to mind the wonderful Julie Walters).
I’ve never heard of the 23d Kramer but the wordplay was very helpful.
My ticks went to 18a, 5d, 8d and 20d
I think I must be having a bad day because I thought it more testing than *. Several went in easily but then I came to a sudden halt before continuing. I missed the anagram indicator at 3D which didn’t help,especially as I’d never heard of the answer.
My favourite was 27A.
Thank you ALP for your excellent blog and Zenas for the challenge.
Is 11 across correct?
Welcome to the blog
Welcome to the blog, Billy.
What did you think of the crossword?
Thank you.
Puzzling. I don’t usually attempt the Toughie, since when I peek at the explanations they’re a bit too cryptic. Still, I’m trying.
Well spotted. It wasn’t, ta. Fat fingers. I’ve now whipped that naughty E out!
Sadly, I know little about the theme so any cleverness there passed me by. Several bouts of ‘looking up’ required and a couple of synonyms that rather surprised me but crossed the finish line in rather more than 1* time!
Top clues for me were 5,21&26a.
Thanks to Zenas and to ALP for the review – always enjoy Ms Woods ‘singing’ along to her piano!
Oops, failed on CABRETTA and the DRIFT part of DRIFT NET, although I had heard of the biretta.
I noticed that the online version no longer shows the setter’s name, and also that clicking Print no longer results in an automatic PDF but an extra step. No fault of this blog however.
Thanks Z and ALP.
I very often have to temporarily reduce the size of text on my screen in order to bring the Toughie setter’s name into view. That’s a bit of a pain.
That’s interesting. Until now I didn’t know it was possible to see the setter’s name under the crossword, as I’ve never tried reducing the text size before, so that’s never been visible to me before (using Firefox).
However, I think what Bohemian might be referring to is that you could also (until today) see the setter’s name when you click ‘More’, below the ‘Privacy and cookie policy’ line. As of today that seems to have vanished.
Welcome to the blog, hipponym.
Tougher than a * star difficulty rating for me too. Had to mess about with the fodder at 3d then check it with Mr G & also the abbreviation for aircraftman at 7d. Eventually battled to within 2 of a finish but needed the hints to complete both 17&19d. No excuses for forgetting the leather as I wear a golf glove made of it but didn’t twig the i-less hat & was fixated with TT for the abstemious folk with the other – again ought to have pegged it from Leo messing about with deadly nightshade in The Go-Between. Not the greatest solving start to the new Toughie week but I’ve a couple from last to catch up on. 2d my fav for no other reason than I’m very partial to a dry Jerez *herry as well as a pint of Woodforde’s *herry.
Thanks to Zenas for an enjoyable puzzle & to ALP for his usual excellent review – don’t you think that fella in AWB looks like Roy Wood?
Oh & completely missed the theme too
This was relatively gentle for a Toughie but good fun. 17d & 18d were new words for me, but readily derivable from the wordplay.
Theme? What theme?
I am not over-enamoured with “number of political chief” to clue “10”.
My top picks were 5a, 21a, 5d & 20d.
Many thanks to Zenas. Thanks too to ALP, although your hint for 23a is wrong – it should read “an obscure TV character’s first name”.
Haha! You scamp. Well, if you think 23d is obscure, I can quite understand how you might have found the theme tricky to spot. This should help..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Antiques
Thanks, ALP. I have never seen any episodes of either programme.
A good one for Tuesday but a tad more than 1* for me. Most of it solved waiting for a haircut with the last penny [17d] dropping on the bus back home. Favourites were 5a [liked the storage unit] and 22a. The theme went right over my head and had to resort to googling it. Could be right up my street, especially after listening to V Wood.
Thanks to Zenas and to ALP for the blog and the mixed bag. Can somebody please remind me which TV show used “Pick up the pieces” as a theme tune?
Mixed bag?! I feel appropriately chastised! PUTP was, I think, most recently heard in The Phantom of the Open. A film not a TV show but (if you’re a golfer?) I can imagine you might have seen it.
‘Twas no chastisement but a comment on your Catholic taste, tho I admit not a lot to excite me this week. A golf movie? Not me guv – anyone else put me out of ear-worm misery?
I also found this extremely difficult, not helped by things I’d never heard of, Jerez, 3d, the US railway, the leather, the poisoner or the French for to much or the Kramer character, so a lot of Googling required. If this was a Tuesday puzzle I think I might struggle for the rest of the week. Of the ones I didn’t have to Google I enjoyed 5a the most. Thanks to Zenas and ALP.
How dare you sir! My sense of humour is legendary – even Dr Spooner regarded me as a shining wit. My wife and I went to see the musical with the original cast in 2005 (was it really that long ago) and thoroughly enjoyed it.
That aside, thanks to ALP for the review and the musical smorgasbord and to all who have commented.
Haha! Huge thanks for popping in and for such a lovely puzzle.
A good Thursday Toughie. Always feel clues like 3d are rather below the belt, though I worked it out once I had the checkers. Questions, questions, one Irish the other French. Several obscurities, a couple of raised eyebrows, but all gettable from the precise clueing & / or checkers. Good surfaces. Entirely missed the theme, and the only Kramer I’ve ever heard of was in the name of a very old film I’ve never been interested in seeing!
Many thanks indeed to Zenas and ALP
Thursday??
That’s what it felt like to me, quite chewy in places.
Got stuck in the SW, didn’t know the musical instrument in 5a. The rest of it I found much harder than *
Didn’t like 15d as a word, but it was in the brb when I checked
Thanks for sorting out the missing bits Alp, and thanks Zenas
2*/3* ….
liked 22A “City leader buries Marxist revolutionary after noon (10)”