Toughie 3410 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie 3410

Toughie  No 3410 by Stick Insect

Hints and Tips by crypticsue

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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty <*Enjoyment ***

An enjoyable crossword which, even with a couple of bits of tricky parsing,  would not have been out of place on a Friday Telegraph’s back page
Across

1a           Gradually prepare for adult Poe novel (4,2,2)
LEAD UP TO An anagram (novel) of ADULT POE

6a           Tune from a pretty entertaining daughter (6)
ADJUST A (from the clue), pretty in the sense of nearly or almost ‘entertaining’ the abbreviation for Daughter

9a           Bother Democrat defector (4)
DRAT An interjection of irritation (bother) – the abbreviation for Democrat and a defector

10a         Sounds of joy around compound heard finally in the past (10)
YESTERDAYS Exclamations of  joy go around a chemical compound and the final letter of hearD

11a         Salt and pepper, half hot, has gone into pie (9)
PHOSPHATE An anagram (pie) of the first half of PEPper HOT and HAS

12a         Agreed to include note for fanciful creatures (5)
YETIS A word of agreement includes the seventh note of the tonic sol-fa scale

14a         Sent back bill after wedding location in state (6)
CANADA A reversed (sent back) abbreviated advertisement (bill) goes after a New Testament wedding location

16a         French town and its art spectacles (6)
LENSES A city in Northern France and the French word for is (art)

19a         Goodness, I’m perfect, holding in smirk (6)
SIMPER Hidden in the first three words of the clue

20a         Problem getting behind dull selection of food (3,3)
DIM SUM A mathematical problem goes behind a synonym for dull

22a         Excellent fish (5)
BRILL An informal word meaning excellent or a type of fish

24a         Steppes introducing worker, perhaps in fruits (9)
PLANTAINS One of crosswordland’s workers ‘introduced’ to areas of land like the Steppes

27a         Perspective with river in proportion (10)
STANDPOINT A conjunction meaning with and this blog’s favourite Italian river inserted into an allotted proportion

28a         Carriage entrance announced (4)
GAIT A homophone (announced) of an entrance

29a         Soldier returning old record for lover (6)
GIGOLO An American soldier and a reversal (returning) of the abbreviation for Old and a verb meaning to record

30a         Beau embraces Eric, getting diamonds for right pledge (8)
DEDICATE A boyfriend (beau) ‘embraces’ ErIC (from the clue) once you have replaced the abbreviation for Right with that for the card suit of Diamonds

Down

2d           Your church supporting organ is vulgar (6)
EARTHY A possessive pronoun used in church services to mean your ‘supporting’ or going under an organ of the body

3d           Becomes old-fashioned, thanks politician for record receipt, perhaps (4-5)
DATE-STAMP Becomes old-fashioned, an informal word of thanks and an abbreviated politician

4d           Stay chirpy, wobbling in trick cycling? (10)
PSYCHIATRY An anagram (wobbling) of STAY CHIRPY, trick cycling being a slang name for the profession

5d           Start working and go down (5)
ONSET  Working and go down (like the sun, perhaps)

6d           Declare inn has lost its walls (4)
AVER An inn without its outside letters (walls)

7d           Hardy fellow welcomes good try (5)
JUDGE A Thomas Hardy character ‘welcomes’ the abbreviation for Good

8d           Broadcaster marks silhouettes (8)
SKYLINES  A broadcaster and some marks

13d         Got rid of ailment, die otherwise (10)
ELIMINATED An anagram (otherwise) of AILMENT DIE

15d         Answer papers, cheat using this? (3)
AID The abbreviation for Answer and abbreviated forms of identification (papers)

17d         Ruling care out, ignoring radius suffering nerve pain (9)
NEURALGIC An anagram (out) of rULING CARE ignoring one of the abbreviations for Radius

18d         Sour over ending getting promoted following outlines of Ligeti operatic texts (8)
LIBRETTI A reversal (over) of a synonym for sour, promoting the letter that is now at the end and then inserted into the outlines of LigetI

21d         Often listless selection for recruit (6)
ENLIST Hidden in the first two words of the clue

23d         “Landing, over and out” – military language, perhaps (5)
LINGO Remove (take out) the AND from LandING and add the cricket abbreviation for Over

25d         Animal’s home close to Ford estate owner in Scotland (5)
LAIRD An animal’s home and the ‘close’ to forD

26d         Medical procedure, repeated, upset partner (4)
OPPO Repeat an abbreviated medical procedure and then ‘upset’ the second one

 

 

16 comments on “Toughie 3410
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  1. This Toughie offering from Stick Insect was absolutely perfect for my aging brain – unlike yesterday’s which left my head spinning – well, almost. I agree with CS in that the puzzle wouldn’t look out of place on a Friday back page. No real stand out favourite clues, just a joy to solve. Thanks to you both for you efforts, SI and CS.

  2. This was for me the second enjoyable Toughie of the week, nicely challenging on the whole with a scattering of clues needing a bit more teasing out.

    I struggle to accept “gone into pie” as an anagram indicator but it seems that, in the words of the song, Anything Goes.

    26d is an interesting one. It is often used as meaning a friend or colleague. Neither the BRB nor Collins suggests it is synonymous with “partner”, although the OED does. It is increasingly being used in a sporting context to refer to the opposing team.

    My podium selection is 7d, 18d & 23d.

    Many thanks to Stick Insect and to CS.

  3. As has been suggested, this was not the most challenging of Toughies but yet it still managed to be highly entertaining throughout. 23d was my favourite.

    My thanks to Stick Insect and Sue.

  4. Hi RD, to a letterpress printer, the word pie or to pie a page of lead type would mean that a page or part of one had been accidentally (or sometimes purposely) dropped, mixing up all the letters. Some would call it printer’s pie. The type would on many occasions go back into the melting pot to be re-cast, but more often the letters would be sorted and returned to the appropriate type cases to be reused. So the use of the term pie in a crossword clue usually suggests an anagram – well, to me at least it does :-) :-)

    1. Thanks, SB. I didn’t know that. Not something that you would eat with custard or gravy!

      I see now that meaning appears in the second group of “pie” definitions in the BRB, which lets Stick Insect off the hook!

      I don’t think pie on its own as a noun would be adequate as an anagram indicator but SI neatly gets round it by prefacing it with “gone into” (which also leads to a meaningful surface). ✅

      1. 😃👍😃 Definitely no custard or gravy with this pie, lol. Otherwise one could be said to be eating one’s words. 🤣🤣

  5. A fairly gentle solve for a “not so toughie” Wednesday. 11A needed Sue’s parsing to confirm my answer, otherwise straightforward and enjoyable.
    Didn’t have any particular standout clue.
    Many thanks to CS and Stick Insect.

  6. Thank the Lord. Much more my level & enjoyable too. There were still one or two head scratches along the way but agree that it wouldn’t have been out of place as a Friday back-pager. The pie indicator had me nonplused so grateful for that explanation. Like RD 23d was my fav.
    Thanks to SI & to CS

  7. I enjoyed much of this but had reservations concerning three clues. Like RD, I wasn’t persuaded by ‘gone into pie’ in 11a, and I would refer to 14a as a country rather than a state. Lastly, I can’t make 18d work without ‘promoting’ more than one letter.
    I did particularly like 19&20a plus 7&25d.

    Thanks to Stick Insect and to CS for the review.

  8. I agree this was nothing like as tricky as yesterday’s. 23d is a cracker and I liked 16a even tho’ the French art is becoming a bit of a cliche. Not convinced by 27a – it’s fair enough but it’s a pity that perspective and proportion can be synonymous.
    Thanks to SI and CS.

  9. Needed the hints to parse 10a, 14a and 16a. A few head scratchers but over all fairly straightforward. Favourite was 3d. Thanks to Stick Insect and CS.

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