Toughie No 3396 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ****
We can rely on Osmosis to give us a proper Toughie and I always enjoy the challenge he offers. There are no anagrams and no obvious gimmes (except 2d) here and each answer needs to be prised out. Thanks to the setter.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
4a Pound stores support British game (8)
CRIBBAGE: a pound or enclosure contains a supporting bone and an abbreviation for British.
8a Dainty mushrooms son repositioned (6)
MORSEL: start with types of mushroom (edible as long as you cook them properly) and move the abbreviation for son a couple of places.
9a Ham still stifling outside rear of shop (8)
INEXPERT: an adjective meaning still or inactive contains a prefix meaning outside and the rear letter of shop.
10a Riot stirring island sheep (4,2,2)
LIVE IT UP: assemble an adjective meaning stirring or active, an abbreviation for island and a male sheep.
11a One having days consumed by crack, going before court? (6)
ADDICT: two abbreviations for day are contained in an abbreviation meaning crack or excellent. Add the abbreviation for court.
12a Some Scrabble recruit welcomes match against high-fliers (8)
GRAFFITI: scrabble here means scribble or scrawl. A US army recruit contains a verb to match after our flying service.
13a Perhaps bow down in front of Don (8)
NECKWEAR: an informal verb to down or drink and a verb to don.
16a Bag inside ripping, as something stuck to fridge? (8)
MAGNETIC: a verb to bag or capture goes inside an adjective meaning ripping or wonderful.
19a Rank men on decks ordinary alongside music producer (8)
ABSOLUTE: string together an abbreviation for men who work on decks, the abbreviation for ordinary and an old musical instrument.
21a Hazel maybe recalled theatre work, harmonising (3-3)
DOO-WOP: reverse what hazel is an example of and add our usual abbreviated work in a hospital theatre. Not a term I’d heard of – this apparently means vocalizing in harmony.
23a Prize bout’s principal man making weight (5,3)
PLUMB BOB: an adjective meaning prize or first-class precedes the principal letter of bout and a man’s name.
24a Graduate doctor dated flowery type (8)
MARIGOLD: charade of an arts graduate, a verb to doctor and an adjective meaning dated.
25a Plaything used less lawn with edges removed (6)
SEESAW: remove both edges from three words in the clue.
26a Advance towards Tube in daydream (4,2,2)
MOVE IN ON: a bodily tube goes inside a verb to daydream or mope.
Down Clues
1d Finest on tumbling class trains, and leaves with defined shape? (7)
TOPIARY: an adjective meaning finest or foremost, the reversal of an abbreviation meaning class (as in ‘a class act’) and the abbreviation for railway.
2d Three legs characterise this series of races here (4,2,3)
ISLE OF MAN: two ways of defining a self-governing place in the Irish Sea.
3d Muscles tense during Bond flick, at core (6)
GLUTEI: the grammatical abbreviation for tense goes in a verb to bond and the core letter of flick.
4d Town‘s payment method good, superior to parking in London area (8,7)
CHIPPING CAMPDEN: cement together the two elements of a phrase used to define a payment method using a card and a personal code, the abbreviation for good and the abbreviation for parking inside an inner London Borough. The required town is in Gloucestershire.
5d Dean’s famed for such level of expertise in international churches (3,5)
ICE DANCE: insert a word for one’s proficiency level in a martial art into the abbreviation for international and two occurrences of an abbreviation for church.
6d Constant turning when asleep? It could describe husband (5)
BIPED: reverse a constant used in geometry and place it where you usually are when asleep (2,3). I thought the definition here was rather woolly.
7d Clear out German tea gathering dust, finally (7)
GERTCHA: an abbreviation for German and an informal word for tea bracketing the final letter of dust.
14d First testing centre, say, probing country’s sports team (9)
WALLABIES: the first such scientific testing centre could be called 3,1. Insert that into a country within the UK.
15d Paddy’s northbound where many Irish settle and retire (4,4)
STEP DOWN: reverse a paddy or strop with its ‘S and add a county in Northern Ireland.
17d Good book on love rat, Oscar, is fruity stuff (7)
AVOCADO: collate an abbreviation for the Bible (good book), the love-resembling letter, a rat or rotter and the letter represented by Oscar in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet.
18d Extraordinary state of sultan’s seat (7)
OTTOMAN: an abbreviation meaning extraordinary or excessive and a state in the Middle East.
20d Jam sandwich’s uppermost, as stomach empty (6)
SQUASH: the uppermost letter of sandwich, a conjunction from Latin meaning as or ‘in the capacity of’ and the outer letters of stomach.
22d Record fair announced (5)
WRITE: homophone of an adjective meaning fair or just.
My rosettes were pinned on 11a, 25a, 5d and 14d. Which one(s) met your exacting standards?
A real brain mauling today as befits a Friday toughie. Lots of reverse engineering required. Enjoyed the northbound Irishman and the genuflecting Mafioso.
Should hint to 18d have sultan’s underlined?
Thanks to Osmosis for the work out and Gazza for the explanations and chortle-inducing cartoons.
18d No it shouldn’t and it won’t once I’ve edited it. Thanks.
I’m not sorry this took a while to crack as it is as miserable as sin outside and I therefore have a free afternoon. I found this pretty sticky in places and needed two sittings, but once I got stuck in it went in quite smoothly. There was plenty to enjoy, with my favourite being 4d.
Many thanks to Osmosis for the considerable challenge and to Gazza.
A most enjoyable and satisfactory puzzle, not too brain-scramblingly tough for a Friday. 18d made me smile on two counts – my parents had one of these, and I remembered from long ago the A. A. Milne poem, describing a teddy bear’s sleeping arrangements. Many thanks to Osmosis and Gazza.
Yep, definitely a proper toughie and a game of two halves for me. The RHS went in relatively smoothly but the rest took a little longer with the intersecting DOO WOP and WRITE being joint LOI. Lots to like. GRAFFITI probably held me up the longest.
Thanks O and G
Took a while to get going but happily I too had a vacant afternoon to fill. Grew up playing 4a with the old man, who frequently used the term in 7d. Didn’t know it had a ‘t’ in the middle though. Thanks to Osmosis for the challenge and to Gazza for his usual concise unravelling.
Certainly a significant struggle and very satisfying to eventually get everything sorted. Our favourite 14d.
Thanks Osmosis and Gazza.
Smiles of admiration all the way through. It was certainly tough but hugely enjoyable, the only gripe being the flabby definition at 6d. Top picks for me [edited down from a bigger list] were 12a [some scrabble!] 21a [theatre work] 4d [the payment method] and 18d [state of sultans].
Thanks to Osmosis and Gazza.
Last night’s solve was hampered by my cider advent calendar. All fell into place this morning, great puzzle, very entertaining.
Thanks to Gazza and Osmosis.
Too busy yesterday, so a tough start to Saturday morning. It was looking like a pangram right til the end, but no J or Z. (I had zone for the first word in 26a, but couldn’t parse it!) 23a my favourite, 7d close runner up. Thanks Osmosis, and Gazza for clearing up a couple of points.