Toughie No 3450 by Hudson
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ** – Enjoyment *****
The sun is shining, the sky is blue and cloudless and there’s another splendid Hudson Toughie to solve and blog – what more could anyone want on a Wednesday morning?
Please let us know what you thought
Across
1a Bern chef cooking hand peeled veg (6,4)
FRENCH BEAN An anagram (cooking) of BERN CHEF followed by the inside (peeled) letters of hANd
6a Facile drivel endlessly circulating (4)
GLIB A slang word for drivel without its final letter (endlessly) is then reversed (circulating)
9a King rejected young pig put on skewer (5)
KEBAB The chess abbreviation for King and a reversed (rejected) young pig in a children’s book by Dick King-Smith made more famous by a couple of films
10a Repaired replica? I’m using knowledge gained by experience (9)
EMPIRICAL An anagram (repaired) of REPLICA IM
12a Soldier‘s given a new order to James Garner (8,5)
SERGEANT MAJOR An anagram (given a new order) of TO JAMES GARNER
14a Coward wrote this irritating complaint (3,5)
HAY FEVER A play by Noel Coward or an irritating summer complaint
15a Australian city delaying atomic contract (4,2)
DRAW IN Move (delaying) the abbreviation for Atomic in a north Australian city further down the word
17a Leave telly on stand-by? (3,3)
SET OFF A way of describing a television on stand-by
19a Pitifully lazy, Yasmin cycles around collecting first of evening papers (4-4)
BONE-IDLE Yasmin is an English model – the surname she took when marrying the lead singer of Duran Duran) is cycled so that the first two letters go to the end of the word and then the first letter of Evening and some identity papers are inserted (collected)
21a Worker who fills in? (6,7)
DENTAL SURGEON A very cryptic definition of someone who fills teeth
24a Grumpy, cold and left stuck in Siberia shivering (9)
IRASCIBLE The abbreviations for Cold and Left ‘stuck’ in an anagram (shivering) of SIBERIA
25a Famous champion horse setting out runs good clip (5)
SHERGAR A famous Irish champion horse who mysteriously disappeared without the cricket abbreviation for Runs and the abbreviation for Good
26a One of Haaland’s strengths: commonly narrated Nordic works (4)
EDDA Scandinavian collections of ancient mythological and heroic songs. A homophone (narrated) of a common (without the H) way of referring to one of the strengths of the Norwegian footballer who plays for Manchester City (his name and his hairstyle make him one of the few footballers whose names I remember!)
27a Biscuit label, bluish-purple, the wrong way round (6,4)
BRANDY SNAP Label with a name or mark and a reversal (the wrong way round) of a bluish-purple colour
Down
1d Cod fish’s head put on headless fish a bit like cod (4)
FAKE F (the ‘head’ of Fish) put on a type of fish which is a bit like cod without its first letter (headless)
2d Mission to force into cove sinking steamship (7)
EMBASSY A verb meaning to force into a cove into which is inserted (sinking) an abbreviated steamship
3d A red wine one tossed back – 10F almost! (8,5)
CABERNET FRANC Something tossed at a highland games, a reversal (back) of 10 written in words and the French money for which F is (almost) an abbreviation
4d Rolls manufacturer taking on occasionally nerdier travel guide (8)
BAEDEKER A manufacturer of bread rolls into which is inserted (taking on) the even (occasional) letters of nErDiEr – the maps in the guide for England were used by the Luftwaffe to target raids on various English cities in the Second World War
5d American exhausted after taking time off here in the Rockies (5)
ASPEN The abbreviation for American and a synonym for exhausted without the T (after taking time off)
7d Mean about poor Jack’s reason to visit doctor (7)
LOCKJAW Low or mean goes ‘about’ an anagram (poor) of Jack
8d One who might pull a bob or two at work? (10)
BELLRINGER Given that I have pulled many a bell rope ringing bob doubles and bob minor, it did take longer than it should for the clanger to ‘drop’!
11d Sellers playing entertaining detective with Yard in a cruel way (13)
REMORSELESSLY An anagram (playing) of SELLERS ‘entertaining’ a fictional detective, the result followed by the abbreviation for Yard
13d Where finesse might come into play with this winding road (5,5)
WHIST DRIVE The abbreviation for With, an anagram (winding) of THIS and a road
16d Telegraph’s newspaper covers with even number (8)
FOURTEEN The informal way we refer to the ‘pink’ newspaper covers the way in which people at the Telegraph would refer to themselves, the result followed with a poetic word for even
18d “Parliament Upheld Law” – NY Times upcoming features (7)
TYNWALD The parliament of the Isle of Man is hidden in reverse (upcoming features) in uphelD LAW NY Times
20d Plague George contracted first in Newgate cell (7)
DUNGEON Plague, pester or harass, a ‘contracted’ form of George and the first letter of Newgate
22d Restrained one crying half-heartedly (5)
SOBER Someone crying without one of the middle letters (half-heartedly)
23d Clutch bag (4)
GRIP Grasp or hold (clutch) or an originally US name for a bag for travel
I did not find this easy, but I did find it very enjoyable.
I was slow to parse 19a – I should have seen Yasmin earlier.
26a had me scratching my head for a while – another that I should have spotted earlier.
My last in was 4d – the wordplay was clear enough but I had not heard of the travel guide.
Many thanks to Hudson and to CS – 3.5*/5* for me.
Hudson is as entertaining as ever and not too tricky today – thanks to him and CS.
My podium selections are 15a, 19a and 3d.
What an enjoyable Toughie. A real pleasure to solve from start to finish.
With ticks galore, my podium selection is 9a, 15a & 11d.
Many thanks to Hudson and to CS.
8d – bellringers ‘make’ or ‘call’ bobs; they do not “pull” them (they do pull ropes though). This clue would have been both better and entirely accurate had ‘pull’ been replaced by ‘make’.
Seemed rather on the soft side for Hudson. Favourites were 19a [I suspend my dislike of proper noun clues as this was so well done] 26s [I liked “commonly narrated”] and 16d. Had to think about “almost” in 3d.
Thanks to Hudson and CS.
Despite not knowing the GK associated with 19a and 26a we still got the right answers from definition and checkers in what was a most enjoyable solve.
Thanks Hudson and CS.
Most enjoyable solve. I thought 12a particularly clever, as it was said actor’s rôle (Zack) in the film Tank, for that reason, my COTD.
There is another syndrome, if that’s the right term, that fits 14a, which is playing at the Noel Coward Theatre, which I put in, and was held up by for a while.
Thanks CS and Hudson
A glorious day here in North Norfolk. The temperature reached a staggering 17 degrees according to the current Mrs Shabbo’s trusty Fiat car.
The puzzle? Very enjoyable and not too challenging.
I got confused about whether finessing was something one did in cards or chess. Sorry RD! Chess board seemed good until it wasn’t.
My ticks go to 24a, 25a, 5d, 11d and 22d.
I struggled to parse 16d, so thanks to CS for explaining it.
Thanks, as ever, to Hudson and CS.
Lovely pre shut-eye solve & the usual classy Hudson production. 3d my fav – a very underrated 🍇
Thanks H & to Sue
An enjoyable puzzle which I didn’t start until yesterday and finished today on the train between Bedford and Durham. My last one in was 3d, as I hadn’t heard of the wine. As to the parsing, I concluded that ‘F almost’ stood for ‘France’ without its last letter.
Précisément
2*/4* ….
liked 24A “Grumpy, cold and left stuck in Siberia shivering (9)”