Toughie No 3465 by Donnybrook
Hints and tips by ALP
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
I found this quite chewy, in parts. 1a’s Norse god rather set the tone! I’m very fond of Donnybrook’s multis but my knowledge of rivers is firmly rooted in the SW, so they had me spinning for a while. The defining link is typically sharp, mind. There was a slight glitch with 11d (now amended online) but it had to be what it was. Toughest Tuesday of late, I thought. And nowt wrong with that! All yours.
Across
1a Bring down Norse god, blocking edict (8)
DECREASE: A Norse god (an inhabitant of Asgard, as I’m sure we all knew!) blocks/goes inside edict/law.
5a Diplomacy in command strategy (6)
TACTIC: The usual “diplomacy” + the usual “in command”. Oh blimey, there may well be another volley of argument about this synonym. Personally, I think it’s absolutely fine in a crossword. But then I’m not a military man!
9a Rough leaves green indeed (8)
TEARAWAY: Crosswordy “leaves” + green/naïve + indeed/yes (captain, etc).
10a River featuring a Makara initially (6)
WITHAM: Featuring/possessing + ‘A’ and M[akara].
12a/16a End satisfactorily, as do 10 and 24 14 Across, 20 and 21 Down? (4,3,2,3,4)
COME OUT IN THE WASH: This is indeed what they all do. Very flat, Norfolk. Lincolnshire too, I guess. Pushing my O-level geography to its outer limits here!
13a Unacceptable thought Independent excised (3,2)
NOT ON: Thought/idea, minus the usual “Independent”.
14a See 24a
16 See 12a
19a Left, perhaps still at crease, not bowled (7)
UNEATEN: What one effectively is if still at the crease (ie, batting), less the usual “bowled”. The definition relates to food that’s been left.
21a Temperature contained by temple power unit (4)
WATT: The usual “temperature” goes inside a Buddhist temple.
24a/14a River bird interrupted by wolf? (5,4)
GREAT OUSE: (Game) bird contains/interrupted by (to) wolf.
25a Student stops engineer working in shade (4,5)
NILE GREEN: The usual “student” stops/goes inside ENGINEER, working.
27a Seeing that seabird following ship (6)
ASTERN: Seeing that/because + usual-ish seabird (not gull).
28a Scotsman cut into playwright’s speech (8)
HARANGUE: The name of a Scotsman (not Ian for once) minus the last letter (cut) cuts/goes inside that of a playwright (Pravda, etc).
29a Poor exam grades dominate mock (6)
DERIDE: The two worst exam grades + dominate/oppress.
30a Partisan departs now, with soldier patrolling? (8)
ADHERENT: The abbreviation for “departs” + “now” (as in “the XXXX and now”) goes inside the usual cryptic “soldier”.
Down
1d Discern mistake: time to replace force (6)
DETECT: Mistake/flaw, with the usual “time” replacing the usual “force”.
2d With cold, Foreign Secretary sweaty (6)
CLAMMY: The usual “cold” plus our current Foreign Secretary.
3d She inspires weary author regularly (5)
ERATO: [w]E[a]R[y]A[u]T[h]O[r]. Smartly done.
4d Shy Dawn emptied latrine (7)
STARTLE: Dawn/origin + L[atrin]E = an intransitive verb (horses, etc).
6d Some malign men transfer political allegiance (9)
ALIGNMENT: Lurker, hidden in the second, third and fourth words.
7d Islander I see wearing red (8)
TAHITIAN: An expression meaning “I see” inside/wearing (artistic?) “red”.
8d Coachmen transported Native Americans (8)
COMANCHE: COACHMEN, transported.
11d Upset Chinese rulers showing taste (4) Fly from upset Chinese rulers (4)
GNAT: I didn’t get this – I thought I was going mad! But it’s now been changed, online, thanks to Gazza. The Chinese rulers/dynasty when upset = taste, but only when taste is also upset! I just didn’t see how “taste” could be the definition for a fly. It was either a slip or Donny was referring to the expression “A XXXX’s chance” as a small portion of chance for the “taste”. But that didn’t really, erm, fly. Robyn, as Picaroon, previously clued this (in an across, obviously) as “One may have a bite of taste from the east” (4).
The new, amended clue is, obviously, just a reversal (upset) of Chinese rulers.
15d Butcher turned out ignorant (9)
UNTUTORED: TURNEDOUT, butchered.
17d Cyclist using this defence against slander? (8)
MUDGUARD: What one might whimsically describe such a defence, as (3,5). Fun.
18d Sappers safe securing advanced weapon (8)
REPEATER: The usual Royal Engineers + the croswordy “safe” (strongbox) secures/contains the abbreviation for “advanced”.
20d River Neptune cleared out twice (4)
NENE: N[eptun]E, twice.
21d Source also for river (7)
WELLAND: Source (spa, etc) + also/with.
22d British shoot two under Darwin’s ship (6)
BEAGLE: The usual British + (to) shoot two under (golf).
23d Determined where Bedouin sleep? (6)
INTENT: How one could describe where Bedouin bed down (2,4).
26d Pleased haze at last is clearing (5)
GLADE: Pleased/happy + [haz]E.
A dose of GK, just three anagrams and some cunning wordplay made for a fairly challenging but fun solve. A Saturday puzzle this was not! 11d was (originally) odd – but there’s lots to love, including 9a, 19a, 29a, 17d and 18d. How did you get on?
I thought this was perfect for a Tuesday although I suppose it did help if you knew a bit about East Anglian rivers and could quickly decide there was something wrong with the clue for 11d. My favourite clue was 20d
Thank you to Donnybrook for a crossword that was a joy to solve 1*/4.5* (half a star removed for 11d) and to ALP for the blog
I thought this was much tougher than the average Donny Tuesday Toughie.
I didn’t know the Norse god. Strategy and Tactics were NOT synonymous a couple of days ago and are certainly not synonymous today.
I also don’t get shy being synonymous with startle in 4d. A horse shies when it has been startled; it doesn’t startle when it has been shied! I was very surprised to find that the BRB considers them as synonyms in equine terms.
I was utterly bemused by 11d but it seems the original clue wasn’t correct.
Those grumbles aside, this was good fun with lots of ticks, my favourite being a toss-up between 19a & 17d.
Thanks to Donnybrook and to ALP.
Hummmm. The curate, looking for a positive, said the egg was “good in parts”. And so was this crossword. A couple of synonyms that weren’t really, and an apparent error in the clueing, compounded my grump at answers again wandering around the grid like inebriated sots – albeit I’ve had to accept that Donny & Elgar employ this form as a matter of course, much as RayT has his own regular tics. I had 12/16 before I had all the rivers, though two of those were unknown and fell only because the clueing was so fair. Otherwise appropriately light for a Tuesday, and enjoyable.
Thanks to Donny & ALP
That wretched 11d caused me all sorts of trouble but the answer to 12/16a had to be what it was so I left the answer blank until Gazza stepped in.
Had to dig deep for the required rivers but our setter obviously knew them well. Never did find the Norse god in my searches, so bunged in what fitted with my answer – he must be on a list somewhere! Top clues for me were 17&26d.
Thanks to Donnybrook and to ALP for the review.
I enjoyed this – thanks to Donnybrook and ALP.
I liked the theme and thought all the rivers were sympathetically clued.
I had ticks for 19a, 24/14a, 17d, 20d and 22d.
Didn’t know the Norse god so that was a bung in as was 11d and had to check the hair colour and the shade. 12/16a helped enormously once I realised what was required of me as I had two of the rivers. In the end it came together quite nicely after a slow start. Favourite was 12/24a. Thanks to Donnybrook and ALP.
I liked the theme, and 11d and streched synonyms aside enjoyed the puzzle especially 19a. Thanks to Donnybrook and ALP.
Well 11d threw me for a while as I had it as a reverse lurker. Fly = lure to an angler!
I can only echo the comments above regarding one or two tenuous synonyms, the unlocatable Norse god and the 11d error.
Enjoyed the linked clues and managed to name the rivers before confirmed 12a the connection.
Because of the above, I found this one to be rather a slog.
Still it all came out in the wash. (Sorry, couldn’t resist it).
Thanks to Donnybrook and ALP.
Surprisingly a marginally quicker grid fill than the Prof’s back-pager but a whole heap of post solve research required. 12/16a went in before any of the rivers & as Gazza says it’s a good job they were sympathetically clued as I hadn’t even heard of two of them & wouldn’t have been confident of pinpointing 24/14a on the map either. The Buddhist & Hindu temple was new & I couldn’t find the Norse god in any list so took that on trust. Made a complete horlicks of the 28a parse having thought cut & run/ran which was particularly annoying as David Hare is a favourite of mine in both film & stage. Really enjoyed the puzzle – 19a my pick of bunch & 12/16,29&30a plus 17&18d other particular likes.
Thanks to Donny & to ALP – terrific music choices apart from Pete D with JC on Later the 🍒 on the 🧁.
Ha, I know you hate Pete D, but it’s the only “musical” tearaway I know!
A lot of my old mates used to go fishing so I knew 10, 14 and 21, which helped. But it was still a bit more of a challenge than the past few Tuesdays, which was nice. I liked 19a – the def is so obvious when you eventually see it and 25a [indicator as fodder]. 11d, well, who dealt this mess anyway? as Ed Sanders famously? sang.
Thanks to DBk and ALP [enjoyed the SR mix]
Well first of all I completed it with no assistance although I put in the Chinese fly as it was the only likely answer.
I enjoyed the puzzle as a whole as I could do it but definitely harder than the back pager. I did like the linked clues as I cross several of them on the way to Norfolk.
Thanks for the amended clue Gazza and to our setter.
Once a couple of rivers fell the multi word clue became clear and a look at the map helped with the obscure ones. I noticed the problem with 11d but bunged in the obvious answer without fretting too much.
I took a “shy” at 6d too and surprised myself when the confetti fell
Thanks to NYDK and Alp for some fine music “Thor” usual
Ah yes, the GNAT. It used to be ‘Kickback for old fighter?’ (TANG <) but it was edited as too hard (for word collision I suspect), and became what it is. That was sent back inter alia to me, and I said 'the whole thing looks splendid, may thanks for the edits' or words to that effect, and the engoofenment was therein inscribed. It happens, y'know, and we all skulk about a bit, as I am now, for a while. Thanks to Gazza & Co for attending to matters.
Cheers ALP, cheers all,
Gnattybrook
Ha, your original clue is, of course, typically smart. No need to skulk! Huge thanks for popping in, and for yet another snorter.