Toughie No 3409 by Donnybrook
Hints and tips by ALP
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *****
Well, I thought this was quite tricky for a Tuesday. Garlicky wordplay pretty much throughout, with cunning synonyms and smart cryptic definitions. Even one of the few gimmes refers to a dance that I’ve never heard of. And 14d pushed me hard. All yours.
Across
1a Personality reduced excess weight doing twist (4)
SELF: Excess weight (as per Chambers) or flab, minus the last letter and reversed.
3a/21d Double advantage missions from 26 to 29 may bring? (4,2,4,6)
BEST OF BOTH WORLDS: The supreme gain one might gain from 26a and 29a, say.
10a Cut but not finished when suggested? (5-4)
ROUGH-HEWN: A reverse anagram, suggested by WHEN.
11a Silent killer: is it Simone throttling Jack? (5)
NINJA: The best-known Simone (not Biles!) throttles/contains the abbreviation for “Jack”.
12a See 20a
13a Small carts returned fruit-laden in docks (9)
SHIPYARDS: The usual “small” + (horse) carts, reversed, containing (rose) fruit.
14a Fighting tool carried in transport (8)
BRAWLING: Pointed tool carried in/inside (to) transport/fetch.
16a Two men, both wanting piano music (3-3)
CHA-CHA: A synonym of man, twice (ie, men), with the musical abbreviation for “piano” missing/wanting in each.
19a State request to block a law – week to go (6)
ALASKA: (To) request blocks/goes inside A + LAW, minus the usual “week”.
20a/12a In which author 1 Across and the 24 Down fail to compromise? (6,2,5)
BATTLE OF WILLS: How one might describe an unresolved conflict between 1a’s author/journalist and 24d’s most famous example.
22a Rulers like Assad Richard Murphy’s called out? (9)
DICTATORS: Homophones of Richard and (a) Murphy(‘s), both informal. As Murphy campaigns against tax evasion, this surface actually seems quite plausible.
24a Perhaps man‘s plot securing small sum of cash (5)
BIPED: (Flower) plot secures/contains the small(est) amount of UK cash.
26a Male about to circle cunning fox’s home (5)
EARTH: The male pronoun reversed (about) circles/contains crossworders’ favourite nounal “cunning”.
27a Cut third of film one classified (9)
LACERATED: The third letter of “film” + one (cards) + classified/ranked.
28a After tailoring sash, pretty folk dance (10)
STRATHSPEY: SASHPRETTY, tailored.
29a Spoils of war? (4)
MARS: “Of war?” here refers to the (Roman God) of war. I’d say that question mark is doing some fairly heavy lifting. I was delighted to discover that Gazza had similar doubts when this exact same clue appeared in a 2012 Toughie. He wrote then: “a verb meaning spoils is also the Roman god of war. I’m not sure that the second bit works.” I find this extremely reassuring!
Down
1d Old hat‘s blemishes turned up (5)
STRAW: (Skin) blemishes, reversed.
2d Lord Justice confused Banjul with American capital (9)
LJUBLJANA: The abbreviation for Lord Justice + BANJUL, confused, + one of the usual American(s).
4d Service such as includes meat – not the heart (8)
EVENSONG: The abbreviation for such as/for example includes/contains (deer) meat, minus its central letter.
5d No German with you in Paris to find station (4,2)
TUNE IN: The German for “no” with/after the French for “you”.
6d Desire which brings goodness (5,4)
FANCY THAT: Synonyms for “desire” and “which” = an exclamation of surprise.
7d Keeper in depressing experience first to be dropped (5)
OWNER: Depressing experience or state, minus its first letter.
8d Playing charades female shows over-the-top material? (9)
HEADSCARF: CHARADES, playing, plus the usual “female”.
9d Resistance units sent by the monarch? (4)
OHMS: An abbreviation for “sent by the monarch”, ie doing their bidding. As (the perversely underrated) George Lazenby, perhaps.
14d Lawn thus exposed is left! (9)
BEARDLESS: Crikey, how to explain this? The word LAWN, when so treated by the answer (bearing in mind the three-letter word that lurks in LAWN), will leave the usual abbreviation for “left”. I guess one could call this a reverse compound but I’m not entirely sure. Any thoughts? Very sharp.
15d Savour knocking back whisky very quickly? (4,1,4)
LIKE A SHOT: How one might say savour/enjoy a dram.
17d Snake’s victim caught pole dancing at Royal Academy (9)
CLEOPATRA: The usual “caught” + POLE, dancing, + AT + the abbreviation for the Royal Academy.
18d Butcher‘s service fantastic, baker finally admitted (8)
MASSACRE: (Church) service + fantastic/super, with [bake]R admitted/inside.
21d/3a
23d Elderly assistant about to enter saloon? (5)
CARER: One of the usual “about”s inside a “saloon”, for example.
24d Beat group needs start from drummer and rhymer (4)
BARD: Beat (rhythm) group, ie a group of notes, plus D[rummer].
25d Birds disappeared – odds bad for incubating egg? (5)
DODOS: ODDS, bad, incubating/containing the usual “egg”.
Five anagrams (mostly partials) plus one reverse, no lurkers and just one homophone (and a couple of trademark split clues, of course) made for a slightly chewy solve. I especially enjoyed 10a’s reverse, 13a’s smooth Lego and 8d’s surface/definition but the muscular 14d stands out. How did you get on?
Very tricky for a Tuesday but I enjoyed the solve. We have had the dance before but not for a while
Thanks to Donnybrook and ALP
I couldn’t quite parse 14d, but got the gist of it. Otherwise no troubles. 1a my favourite, 14d LOI. Thanks Donnybrook and CS
I didn’t consider the Lazenby film, just went with what used to be printed on official government envelopes we used to receive.
Moi aussi.
I couldn’t quite parse 14d, but got the gist of it. Otherwise no troubles. 1a my favourite, 14d LOI. Thanks Donnybrook and ALP
I never considered the Lazenby film, just went with what used to be printed on official government envelopes we used to receive .
Apologies for mixing up the hinters above!
Somewhat of an enjoyable brain mangler for the first Toughie of the week which made me think that, with the split clues, it was submitted as a SPP but it was decided that it was more appropriate as a Toughie.
I also had my doubts about 29a.
Candidates for favourite – 11a, 22a, and 6d – and the winner is the amusing 22a homophone.
Thanks to DYBK and ALP.
Took time to get into this tougher than the usual Tuesday Toughie but well worth the effort. A very enjoyable solve with so many good clues it seems a shame to pick a podium, but 22A takes it for giving the biggest smile.
Thanks to ALP for the excellent blog and Donnybrook for the enjoyment.
I found this pretty tough for a Tuesday Toughie but I did enjoy DB’s quirkiness.
I bunged in 14d from the checking letters but am none the wiser regarding either the definition or the wordplay even with ALP’s explanation.
I am not keen on 29a but I decided that the answer is considered by classicists as the personification of war.
22a was my favourite, and it is joined by 13a & 6d on my podium.
LAWN minus AWN(beard) = L[eft]
Ah! Thanks, ALP. I had forgotten that I once knew the word “awn”. When I read your hint the only three letter word I could see was “law”! D’oh!
Ha, you’re not alone. It certainly had me sweating for a while!
Not the quickest solve but highly enjoyable to get it completed. Put me down as another who needed the parsing for 14d. Thanks D and ALP.
A proper Toughie on a Tuesday – whatever next? Thanks to Donnybrook and ALP.
Thanks also to ALP for the reference (in 29a) to the Toughie from 2012 (Toughie 840 if you’re interested). I always enjoy going back to look at old Toughie blogs to remind myself of who was commenting then – in this case many of the commenters are still with us but others are no longer around. The big plus in revisiting this particular Toughie blog was reading again the wonderful clues by the peerless Micawber.
Lots to enjoy in this one, including 10a, 20/12a, 22a and 6d.
Crikey – it is still Tuesday, isn’t it? I made very heavy weather of this and thought 14d in particular was something of a bridge too far. Top clues for me were 22a plus 5&6d and I’m now going to lie down in the proverbial darkened room!
Begrudging thanks to Donnybrook and well done to ALP for bringing us the review.
I thought this must be left over from a Friday. It took me as long as the recent Elgar and I’m reassured that it gets 3* rather than ALP’s usual 1* for puzzles I have trouble with. It’s the cryptic definitions that do it but how far can they be pushed? [29a]. I chuckled at 22a, admired 10a and scratched my head over the parsing of 14d [only bunged in as nothing else fits]. Now I get it [thanks ALP] it seems a bit “yeah right”.
Thanks to DonnyB and to ALP for enlightenment and old tunes.
Thanks to RD for asking the question I was going to ask about 14d; as Jane says, a bridge too far for me. That aside, this was a really excellent and quite complicated Toughie that took a lot of teasing out. Favourite was 6d.
Thanks to Donny and ALP.
Needed the hints to parse 4d and 14d and only the references to the 3a and 20a combo’s prevented 29a and 24d respectively also being bung ins. Hadn’t heard of the dance but at least it was an anagram. Favourite was 17d. Thanks to Donnybrook for the mental beating and ALP
Certainly much trickier than we were expecting but huge fun to solve. 14d was the last one in for us.
Thanks Donnybrook and ALP.
Largely straightforward as a Toughie other than for a few sticky clues (14d, 28a in particular) and the intensely irritating splitting and cross-referencing of clues, which entirely ruined for me what would otherwise have been a good and enjoyable puzzle. Two crossing aces raised an eyebrow.
Thanks Donny, but the sooner you get over this fad – and for good – the better. Thanks also to ALP.
I’d give it *****/*** It’s a tough one.
Way above my pay grade. Needed 4 letter reveals to complete eventually & only then after an almighty struggle. Did know the dance but not the Slovenian capital (‘twas 3 stabs with the fodder),4&14d both bung ins & not helped by being just slow to twig some of the easier stuff – even Nina a head scratch.
Thanks (I think) to Donny & of course to ALP for the decryption – now off for a lie down.
Thanks ALP et al.
To be entirely honest this one DID start off as an SPP, but its candidacy for that waned severely as I was tempted again and again to let rip. Or triple (anag.). But it was never presented as an SPP.
Cheers Noddybrook.