Toughie No 3391 by Beam
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ***
Thanks to Beam for a fairly straightforward and enjoyable puzzle with little to frighten the gee-gees. I only required BRB assistance to verify the second bit of 17d. I originally thought that there was an error in 13a but now I’m not so sure.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Reportedly weak person cringed in fear (7)
COWERED: a homophone of a scaredy-cat.
5a Dog and cat domesticated (7)
WHIPPET: a type of cat (one with nine tails?) and domesticated as an adjective.
9a Fruit varieties on top of oven (7)
ORANGES: a synonym of varieties follows the top letter of oven.
10a Record Queen with new spot (7)
DISCERN: assemble a (possibly musical) record, our late Queen’s regnal cipher and the abbreviation for new.
11a Understanding former wife, saucy one’s sweetheart (9)
EXPERTISE: string together the short word for a former wife, an adjective meaning saucy, the Roman numeral one with its ‘S and Beam’s traditional swEetheart.
12a Strike mouth of stinging bug (5)
SMITE: the first letter of stinging and a kind of bug or tick.
13a Itch oddly then take pulse (5)
THROB: the even letters of itch and a verb to take unlawfully. I suppose that ‘oddly’ in the sense of ‘occasionally’ works but I’m a bit surprised at its use here.
15a Snack of falafel, even sesame wraps (9)
ELEVENSES: hidden.
17a Spot healed around treatment centre (9)
BESPATTER: spot here is a verb. An adjective meaning healed or restored to health contains a commercial establishment offering health and beauty treatment.
19a Vagrant with stuff in empty tip (5)
TRAMP: a verb to stuff goes between the outer letters of tip.
22a Smears characters embracing Republican (5)
LARDS: a word for high-spirited male characters (as in “he’s a bit of a ***”) contains the abbreviation for Republican.
23a Grip fish pursuing ship’s crew (9)
HANDSHAKE: a fish caught for food follows a word for a ship’s crew.
25a Material return of big cheese (7)
TAFFETA: reverse a synonym of big and add a cheese from Greece.
26a French city banks after gold (7)
ORLEANS: a verb meaning banks or lists follows our usual tincture of gold.
27a Follow about cult seizing power (7)
RESPECT: a preposition meaning about and a synonym of cult containing the physics abbreviation for power.
28a Track taking opposite directions back (7)
SPONSOR: the track of an animal contains abbreviations for two opposite directions.
Down Clues
1d Best head of state in cabinet (7)
CLOSEST: insert the first letter of state into a type of cabinet or wardrobe.
2d Eminem, say, follows with cover (7)
WRAPPER: what Eminem is professionally follows the abbreviation for ‘with’.
3d What’s understood on the radio? (5)
ROGER: cryptic description of the word used to mean ‘I have understood’ in conversations over radio.
4d Rebel detective’s fired concealing identity (9)
DISSIDENT: the abbreviation for a senior CID detective and his ‘S are followed by a verb meaning fired or dispatched containing the abbreviation for identity.
5d Slice boundary following wide (5)
WEDGE: a synonym of boundary follows the abbreviation for a wide in cricket.
6d Secured by chains, is tentatively tenacious (9)
INSISTENT: our second hidden word.
7d Negligent supporting philosopher’s first proposition (7)
PREMISS: an adjective meaning negligent or careless follows the first letter of philosopher.
8d Notes from singers for the audience (7)
TENNERS: an old chestnut – what sounds like male singers.
14d See cheek namely concerning undergarment (9)
BRASSIERE: glue together a word for cheek or impudence, an abbreviation meaning namely and a preposition meaning concerning. ‘See’ is just padding but it adds to the innuendo.
16d Queen single in start nearly flawed (9)
ERRONEOUS: begin with the regnal cipher of our late Queen (having a double appointment today) and append a synonym of single in most of a verb to start or awaken.
17d Brace and bit from builder’s toolbox (7)
BOLSTER: double definition, the first a verb and the second (new to me) a type of cold chisel.
18d Elevated places hiding remote machine guns (7)
STRAFES: a verb meaning places hides a synonym of remote. Reverse the lot. The definition is not a noun but a verbal phrase.
20d Images of stripped maritime sailors (7)
AVATARS: an adjective meaning maritime stripped of its outer letters and a dated slang word for sailors.
21d Entertainer let out inside gutted pier (7)
PLEASER: a verb to let out or hire out inside the outer letters of pier.
23d Earth’s centre in thermal energy core (5)
HEART: insert the central letter of earth in a word meaning thermal energy.
24d Some artillery launches volleyed offensively, initially (5)
SALVO: initial letters.
The clues standing out for me (all with well-disguised definitions) were 28a, 1d and 18d. Which one(s) made your highlights reel?
On the whole this was very straightforward, although I struggled to see 22a. Having read the review I see I had 12a wrong, where I bunged in SLICE (in hindsight it doesn’t parse and bug would be louse).
Thanks to Beam, and to Gazza.
I sliced it as well.
3 clues in the SW put paid to what would have been a very brisk Toughie finish. Lacking any practical skill whatsoever I’ve no knowledge of the contents of your average toolbox beyond the obvious & only knew the def synonym was also a thing to be immediately discarded from hotel beds. Even after that went in 17&22a were both reluctant penny drops. Hey ho smooth sailing elsewhere other than the odd parsing head scratch. Can’t see anything wrong with 13a. Top two for me were 17&28a.
Thanks to Beam & to Gazza – great illustrations
13a Usually the odd letters of itch would be IC.
And if one’s not careful with the clue and see odd and put rum after th you get thrum which is also to pulse….
Sorry Gazza – hadn’t read the hints properly. I just took odd in this instance to mean alternate & never gave it a thought.
I enjoyed myself doing this.
As suggested in the cryptic blog the south west corner challenged most
But completed without external help
**/***
Thanks to all
A lovely puzzle, with a few head-scratchers late on for me.
I am another who had SLICE for 12a, but it didn’t really work, so I changed it as my LOI.
I also struggled to see the relevance of SEE in 14d and I was pleased to see from Gazza’s excellent notes that I didn’t need to worry about it.
Ticks for 5a, 25a, 17d and 18d. I completely missed the relevance of “elevated” in 18d. Clever.
Great fun.
Thank you RayT and Gazza.
A bit on the easy side but otherwise the usual from Beam. 2d made me smile, I like the ambiguity of “with” But I don’t like 13a and would be interested to know how the Setter parses/justifies it.
Thanks to Beam and Gazza.
So – I now know more about cold chisels than I’m ever likely to need but one never knows!
Couple of bits of lateral thinking eluded me for a while and I almost fell into the ‘slice’ trap but doubted that Mr T would go there, especially after he’d pushed his luck with the odd itch. Top clues for me were 5,23&28a plus 20d.
Devotions as ever to Mr T/Beam and many thanks to Gazza for the review and the fun – think the ‘huggers’ win my award today.
Lovely stuff from the King of Concise, with 18d my pick from a very strong field.
Many thanks to Beam for a fine challenge, and to Gazza.
SW last in for me as well but generally straightforward and, as always, enjoyable. Lots to like. Hard to pick a favourite but I’ll go with 18d. Thanks to Beam and Gazza. I didn’t finish either of yesterday’s on the day so I didn’t bother to comment.
Evening all. My thanks to Gazza for the review and to all who left a comment.
RayT
Good evening, Mr T. Hope you’ve got all your Christmas shopping done and also been to marvel at the restored Notre Dame?
Very late to post today as I’ve been out to a long boozy lunch with a very old friend.
This was a fine example of the master’s craft, not too tough but a joy to solve from start to finish.
Many thanks to Beam and to Gazza.