Toughie No 3430 by Prime
Hints and tips by ALP
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
I fear you’ve got another double from me as Sue is still off on her jollies. But dinna fret: normal service will be resumed next week. Typically clever stuff from Prime today: some slightly knotty parsing and a smattering of (largely) light-ish GK. Greek myth and P.G. Wodehouse I can live with, but football’s another matter entirely! All yours.
Across
1a Bring up opportunity for picture (4,6)
REAR WINDOW: Bring up/raise + opportunity/opening.
6a American bought retro garment (4)
TOGA: The most usual American + bought/obtained, reversed (retro).
10a I don’t know about replacing a clasp (5)
PRESS: What one says (on Mastermind, say) when not knowing the answer, with the ‘A’ replaced by one of the usual “about”s.
11a One sporting informal top with French zip, covered in gold (9)
ORIENTEER: Short-sleeved top after/with the French for zip/nothing, all covered by one of the usual “gold”s.
12a A Russian plane over China (5)
AMIGO: ‘A’ + the usual Russian plane + the abbreviation for “over”.
13a Eastern US industry demolished complex (9)
ELABORATE: The usual “eastern” + the US (spelling of) industry/work + demolished (food).
14a Increase cast, scouring The Fifth Element (7)
ARSENIC: INCR[E]ASE, cast.
16a E.g. man‘s offer to host games (5)
BIPED: Offer/attempt hosts/contains the usual “games”.
19a Hunt for vegetarian alternative (5)
QUORN: The UK’s oldest (fox, now presumably drag, but who knows?) hunt and/or a plant-based protein (brand).
20a This might be high like NY’s? (7)
SKYLINE: LIKENYS, high. All-in-one.
22a Wise expert accepting day pass (9)
ADVISABLE: Expert/adept accepts/contains the usual “day” and (travel) pass.
26a Gender-neutral pronoun used by Doctor Psmith, say (5)
DRONE: A gender-neutral pronoun by/after the usual abbreviation for “doctor” = Wodehouse’s Psmith, as identified by his club, ie the same club that Bertie Wooster belongs to in the separate and more memorable series of books.
27a Brazilian footballer: someone who looks to be in reverse gear (9)
DUNGAREES: Brazil’s former player and manager (Carlos) + someone who looks (into the future), reversed. I’d never heard of this chap, so thank goodness for checkers and Google. Beyond Pelé, I’m lost.
28a Unable to complete tasks in record time (5)
INEPT: ‘IN’ + one of the usual “record”s + the usual “time”.
29a What might follow failure to cut international break (4)
REST: What one might do/take after failing (an exam) minus the abbreviation for “international”.
30a Doctor‘s obscene drug price (10)
ADULTERATE: Obscene (X-rated, say) + the usual “drug” + price/cost.
Down
1d Cancel toll again? (6)
REPEAL: How one might say, whimsically, to toll/ring a bell again.
2d What produces nice aroma when brewed? (9)
AMERICANO: NICEAROMA, brewed. Another fun all-in-one.
3d Wild cows in wrong place for dairy? (9)
WISCONSIN: COWSIN, wild, plus wrong/crime = a place known as “America’s Dairyland”.
4d Independent award following term of town crier (5)
NIOBE: The abbreviation for “independent” + one of the usual “award”s, after (term of) [tow]N = a legendary sobber from Greek myth who came a cropper.
5d Middle of sturdy bridge crossed by extremely grumpy country runners (9)
OLIGARCHY: The middle letters of a synonym for sturdy/robust, plus the usual bridge (not span) inside/crossed by G[rump]Y.
7d Lead in Hitchcock film dropped by a musical drama (5)
OPERA: Move the first letter of a 1948 Hitchcock film to the end, then add ‘A’.
8d More than one donkey helps to surround bird (8)
AIRHEADS: Helps/assists contains (flightless) bird.
9d Skinny piece of tin foil (4)
INFO: Lurker, hidden in the last two words.
15d Flow of Red River accordingly entering cave to the north (9)
NOSEBLEED: (European) river + accordingly/thus inside/entering cave/pit, all reversed (to the north).
16d Shock secures around 50 fish (9)
BLINDSIDE: Secures/ties around/containing the usual “50”, plus a freshwater fish that we saw in yesterday’s backpager in its two-letter form.
17d Male – scratch that, males – involved in each year’s events (9)
PHENOMENA: Male (pronoun) + scratch that/negative + males (noun), all inside the abbreviation for “each year”.
18d Blue queen interrupting light brown queen (8)
SQUANDER: The two-letter abbreviation for “queen” inside (interrupting) light brown/tan + our late Queen. I do like this definition but the surface did/does puzzle me. Is this meant to conjure up a (very odd) game of chess or a morose state visit?!
21d New arrangement of steel bar manufacturers (6)
NESTLE: The usual “new” plus STEEL, arranged.
23d Classical beauty spots shunned by English (5)
VENUS: Spots/places with one usual “English” omitted/shunned.
24d Male second name (4)
STAG: S[econd] + name/label.
25d Frame fish, having caught 14 (5)
EASEL: Crosswords’ favourite fish contains/catches the abbreviation for 14a.
Five anagrams, two all-in-ones and some smart synonyms/definitions made for a fun, thought-provoking solve. I did admire the more elaborate constructions but, for some reason, I particularly enjoyed the breezier smilers: 1a, 20a, 2d and 9d. How did you get on?
I had a few bung-ins to complete this one, and was grateful for a couple of the explanations given above. Overall I thought this was quite tricky for a midweek Toughie, and felt quite a sense of achievement when I staggered across the finish line. 14a and 15d were my co-favourites this afternoon.
My thanks to Prime for the fun challenge and to ALP.
My knowledge of Brazilian footballers beyond Pele, Wodehouse’s club and slang simply wasn’t up to the challenge but I quite enjoyed the clues that I could answer. Many thanks to ALP for walking me through the rest. I think your puzzles are a bit rich for my blood, Prime, but I’ll keep trying!
A proper Toughie, very enjoyable with a host of well-disguised definitions (I particularly liked ‘country runners’ and ‘flow of red’) .
I thought at one stage we might be getting a Hitchcock theme but it was not to be.
I needed to verify the dairy place and the skinny slang.
I have a raft of ticks including 1a, 26a and 18d with my favourite being the very neat 2d.
Many thanks to Prime and ALP.
Thank heavens for Google! I’m not the biggest fan of GK in cryptics and thought this was a large bridge too far, detracting from some very clever clue writing [10a, 28a, 30a]. There were also some amusingly well hidden definitions [bar manufacturers, country runners].
Thanks to Prime and ALP -liked The Drones -another new one for me.
I found this quite difficult and needed to come here for a couple of nudges in the right direction.
Many thanks to Prime for the puzzle, and to ALP for the help and decryption.
Thanks to ALP for standing in for me – at the time this blog was posted, our plane was waiting at Belfast airport, waiting for some ice to be removed from one of the wings
Having not solved a crossword for 8 days and even more unusually, not drafted a blog post for 12, I’m going to have to get back into practice before Elgar on Friday
That was a real struggle for me and needed your help ALP for the parsing of some of my answers. Also failed on three in the SW.
Info = Skinny?? and Squander = Blue??. I’m perplexed.
My favourite was the clever 5D.
Many thanks to ALP for the revelations and to Prime for outsmarting me.
For me a Friday puzzle on a Wednesday, and with far too much obscure specialist K, let alone GK. Not a huge amount of enjoyment in completing what I felt verged on being an unfairly loaded challenge.
Ancient films from 70-80 years ago, an obscure South American footballer, a rather unsporting reference to a US state, US slang, and some bizarre clueing/definitions (29a, 15a, 11a). Blue/squander feels as though it’s a mix of tenses or some strange verb usage. And if venues is being shunned by English, does that not become vnus?
Thank you Prime but sorry, this really wasn’t up my street. Thanks also to ALP – I still don’t understand the parsing of 15d so if you could explain further this tired brain would appreciate it!
Hi MG
15d = ELBE+SO inside DEN, all reversed.
PS Blue is in Chambers, by the way, as present tense squander!
Thanks old fruit, I was stuck on another European river reversed in the answer, the Dee. My very old Chambers (the current one is in another room) seems only to give blue as a transitive verb for ‘to squander’ – with no reverse reference to blue under squander. Ah well, live and learn! Thanks again.
I pressed the mental accelerator, the old lemon throbbed fiercely, I got an idea.
Thanks to Prime and ALP.
Bring on the old films but the sooner they ban Greek myth from crosswords the better – needed Mr G to tell me she was the daughter of our occasional weekend commenter from Boston. Too tough for the likes of me really (** my eye) but battled through to with 1 of a finish with the aid of a correction en route via the check facility & one letter checker reveal. Twigged seer reversed but hadn’t a scooby about the nickname for the Brazilian & needed the hint to complete plus 3 further parsing assists. Agree with Halcyon’s point about some of the definitions. Ticks for 1,11&30a plus 5,7,8&17d.
Thanks to Prime & to ALP – liked the clip so played a few tracks off that Ween album & not what I was expecting at all.
Ps at least the ide got its full complement of 3 letters.