Toughie No 3459 by Django
Hints and tips by Gazza
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Great fun from Django today. Many thanks to him.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Bug six groups occasionally (5)
VIRUS: the Roman six and occasional letters from ‘groups’.
4a Evergreen musical with villain hiding two of the maidens (9)
MACADAMIA: start with a musical (5,3) and replace two consecutive abbreviations for a cricket maiden with a synonym of villain or rotter.
9a Agent upset to see GB News wasting seconds (2-7)
GO-BETWEEN: an anagram (upset) of TO [s]EE GB NEW[s] without the abbreviations for second.
10a More are assuming Texas turns towards the Left (5)
EXTRA: ARE contains the standard abbreviation for Texas. Now reverse it.
11a Shoot using 10 bore that’s sawn-off (7)
TENDRIL: spell out 10 and append a verb to bore without its final letter.
12a A struggle to comprehend a time before Delta operated aircraft (7)
AVIATED: assemble A and a verb to struggle containing A and the abbreviation for time. Finally add the letter that delta represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet.
13a/15a Goat felt clumsy (14)
BUTTERFINGERED: how a goat may be humorously described and a verb meaning felt or handled.
15a See 13a
18a/20a Perhaps cousins had more children (8,6)
EXTENDED FAMILY: how someone who had more children increased their flesh and blood.
20a See 18a
23a Get kipper on inside of apron (7)
PROCURE: a verb to kipper follows the inner letters of apron.
24a Government of revolutionary African country imprisoning this writer (7)
REGIMEN: reverse the name of a landlocked country in West Africa and insert the objective pronoun that Django would use for himself.
26a School Trust Board’s odd characters (5)
TUTOR: odd letters from two words in the clue.
27a Absorbent material in contact with outpouring (9)
TOWELLING: a preposition meaning ‘in contact with’ and a synonym of outpouring (of water from the earth?).
28a Accident with work going on strike (3-3-3)
HIT-AND-RUN: a conjunction meaning with and a verb meaning to run or function both follow a verb to strike.
29a Chisel polish off both taps initially (5)
CHEAT: a verb to polish off (a snack perhaps) follows the abbreviations on both bathroom taps.
Down Clues
1d/23d Spot rocket, possibly overhead where runners may be trained? (9,5)
VEGETABLE PATCH: a spot or area is preceded by what rocket (the sort that’s consumed rather than fired) is an example of.
2d Essentially Terry Scott lobbied against Kenneth Williams? (5)
ROBIN: the central letters of five words.
3d Clear TV star’s last to split appearance money (3,4)
SET FREE: a TV device followed by the last letter of star inside appearance money.
4d Stupidly use most of milk for breakfast? (6)
MUESLI: an anagram (stupidly) of USE MIL[k].
5d John Bishop is ingesting new American drug (8)
CANNABIS: another informal word for what a john is (especially in North America), the chess abbreviation for bishop and IS with abbreviations for new and American getting inserted.
6d Thinking stand-up Jack will go on compering failing clubs (7)
DEEMING: the surname of comic Jack and a present participle meaning compering without the cards abbreviation for clubs.
7d Air statement wanting hospital department to reassemble bones (9)
METATARSI: an anagram (to reassemble) of AIR STATEMENT after we’ve removed the abbreviation for Crosswordland’s favourite hospital department.
8d/16d Scandinavian band, after reforming, try adding cover of smash hit single (1,4,4,5)
A HARD DAY’S NIGHT: start with the name of a Norwegian band and add an anagram (after reforming) of TRY ADDING S[mas]H.
14d Maybe East End boater‘s payment in kind (3,3,3)
TIT FOR TAT: double definition, the first being Cockney rhyming slang for what a boater is an example of.
16d See 8d
17d One who left post office career ultimately to pursue what’s rightfully theirs? (8)
DESERTER: the ultimate letters of office career follow a word for something that is deserved (a word that we see more often in the plural preceded by ‘just’).
19d Type of bomb – it isn’t charged (7)
NEUTRON: I’ve marked this as a double definition although the first is named after the second. The charge that’s lacking is an electrical one.
21d Pure Northern Irish language elevating article (7)
ANGELIC: the abbreviation for northern and a language of Ireland (and Scotland) with the indefinite article promoted right to the top.
22d Appeal because of contract (4,2)
DRAW IN: a synonym of appeal or attraction and a preposition meaning ‘because of’.
23d See 1d
25d State of blue whale’s tail (5)
MAINE: blue here means the sea and we need another word for that followed by the tail letter of whale.
The clues I liked best were 4a, 13/15a, 28a, 1/23d and 2d. Which one(s) appealed to you?
What this crossword lacked in difficulty was more than made up for by the enjoyment.
I liked the inclusion of the comedians, although I did wonder in passing whether this would cause problems for overseas solvers. My favourite clue was 4a, closely followed by 13/15, and 1/23
Thanks very much to Django and Gazza
Goodness me Cryptic Sue. I’ve never been this high on the blog! Trickier than the back pager but not too challenging. As forewarned in the cryptic blog hosepipes and a child ran around but I kept my DT dry.
Thanks to Django and Gazza
Fairly straightforward but enjoyable nonetheless, the only delay being the precise parsing of 4a.
Some cracking surfaces particularly 23a, 2d and the excellent 17a.
Thanks to Django and Gazza for the clarification.
Needed the hints to parse 6d and 17d but I’ll settle for that. I made harder work of this than the others before me so nothing new there. Had the wrong answer for a while to 28a which held me up in the SW but once sorted it was plain sailing. I enjoyed the challenge. Favourite was 28a/20a. Thanks to Django and Gazza.
Several comedians but, unusually for Django, no laughs. Some excellent clues though, including 4a, 29a and 6d.
Thanks to setter and to Gazza for the blog.
For a Thursday this was very gentle . Didn’t understand 25d until I saw the hints .
Many thanks to all
Lots to like here and CS is right that we did have some hesitation over the proper names that were used.
The 13/15 combo gets our vote for best clue.
Thanks Django and Gazza.
Another terrific puzzle – it’s been a really high quality week. Didn’t properly parse 27a of all things but otherwise problem free. Loved the multi word clues (& that they follow in the grid) but 4a takes top spot.
Thanks to D&G – never seen the Peter Sellers HDN – brilliant.
Thanks Gazza and thanks all
Thank you to Django for the entertainment and Gazza for some parsing help.
My favourite was 4a’s musical villain: I’m never going to be able to think of the nut again without Abba springing to mind!
And impressive to come up with yet another Post-Office-scandal-themed clue, in 17d.