Toughie No 3467 by Silvanus
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Silvanus is as enjoyable as always. Many thanks to him.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Kid who’s cheeky with a photographer inhales joint (14)
WHIPPERSNAPPER: string together the abbreviation for with, a preposition meaning ‘a’ and an informal word for a photographer. Finally insert a bodily joint.
9a Examine piano covered with woodworm, maybe (7)
INSPECT: the musical abbreviation for piano is contained inside what a woodworm is an example of.
10a City on the Douro bears essentially nice architectural feature (7)
PORTICO: a city on the Douro river in the Iberian peninsula contains the central letters of ‘nice’.
11a Unbleached linen resourceful revolutionary collects (4)
ECRU: hidden in reverse. A word I only knew from previous puzzles.
12a Frequency of spiritualist confronting doubters reducing by half (6,4)
MEDIUM WAVE: a spiritualist or clairvoyant followed by the first half only of a word meaning doubters or ditherers.
14a Stone, diamond, shown on quiz briefly (6)
PUMICE: an informal word for a diamond follows a verb to quiz or grill someone without its last letter.
15a Region of Europe, one familiar to Homer (8)
FLANDERS: double definition. Having ruled out the venerable Greek and the pigeon I was left with the animated cartoon character but I needed Google to discover that the answer is the surname of the character’s neighbour.
17a Wickedly heartless notice appears outside popular comprehensive (8)
SINFULLY: a 3-letter verb to notice without its central letter contains adjectives meaning popular and comprehensive.
18a Note bug going round, it brings sadness (6)
PATHOS: join together a note from tonic sol-fa and a verb to bug or eavesdrop then reverse it all.
21a Top barman ultimately dismissed over drink (10)
CAPPUCCINO: assemble a verb to top, an Italian composer (of La Bohème, for example) without his last letter and the cricket abbreviation for over. This is one of the words that I can never spell.
22a Back new direction for something boring (4)
YAWN: reverse the abbreviation for new and a direction or route.
24a Describe cycling to see part of rugby union match (4-3)
LINE-OUT: cycle the letters of a verb to describe or sketch out. Silvanus has carefully specified ‘rugby union’ because this set piece doesn’t feature in rugby league.
25a In winter they’ll hang out here abroad by cold bar briefly (7)
ICICLES: rivet together a foreign word meaning ‘here’, the tap abbreviation for cold and a truncated preposition meaning bar or ‘except for’.
26a It sets hard papers for Italians, suspect Scotsman conceded (7,2,5)
PLASTER OF PARIS: remove a usual Scottish forename from PAPERS FOR ITALIANS and make an anagram (suspect) of what remains.
Down Clues
1d Old ill-natured sheep, as stated in report (5-2)
WRITE-UP: we need homophones of a) a three-letter adjective which according to the BRB has an old meaning of ill-natured and b) a male sheep.
2d Console jury members south of Fife, perhaps (10,5)
INSTRUMENT PANEL: a word for the members of a jury follows what the falsely-capitalised fife is an example of.
3d Excuse firm departing from purpose (4)
PLEA: remove an adjective meaning firm or unwavering from a synonym of purpose in the sense of something desirable.
4d Pretty? Yes, indeed! (6)
RATHER: I’m taking this to be a triple definition (although there’s an overlap between the second and third) largely because if Silvanus had intended a double definition he’d have only needed one of the last two words.
5d Wedding, tailor plans it around second of June (8)
NUPTIALS: an anagram (tailor) of PLANS IT containing the second letter of June.
6d Unknown country fills computer person with burning desire (10)
PYROMANIAC: put an algebraic unknown and a Balkan country inside the abbreviation for a type of computer.
7d Film star in hat, beret, lazily dressed receiving Oscar (9,6)
ELIZABETH TAYLOR: an anagram (dressed) of HAT BERET LAZILY containing the letter that Oscar represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet.
8d Dog back from walkies pants (6)
BOXERS: a type of dog and the rearmost letter of walkies. Here’s Buster starring in the best-ever John Lewis Christmas advert:
13d Harry curls up with American, keeping love tender (10)
SCRUPULOUS: an anagram (harry) of CURLS UP followed by an abbreviation for American with the love-resembling letter inserted between them.
16d Formal boycott over measure to evict 1000 (5,3)
BLACK TIE: a verb to boycott and a measure of duration without the Roman numeral for 1000.
17d Foolish to overlook lake when touring islands in Mediterranean destination (6)
SICILY: an adjective meaning foolish loses one of its abbreviations for lake and contains the abbreviation for our islands near France.
19d Head pockets returning schoolmistresses’ unisex clothes (7)
SINUSES: hidden in reverse.
20d Nation needing energy to replace atomic plant (6)
INDIGO: an Asian country with a synonym of energy replacing the abbreviation for atomic.
23d Soft left politician, inspiring one (4)
LIMP: the abbreviation for left and our usual elected politician bracket the Roman one.
The clues I liked best were 12a, 24a, 6d and 19d. Which one(s) did the job for you?
Enjoyed that. Helped that the long ones fell swiftly. Smiled at 15a among others. Honours to 1a, 12a & 2d.
Thanks to Silvanus and of course Gazza – great cartoons &c!
Having done my blog for the back-pager, it was a real pleasure to solve this gem from Silvanus in the garden without any time constraints.
Top class as ever, although it is of slight concern to me that our setter’s knowledge of The Simpsons appears to know no bounds! I am pleased to say that I have not watched a single episode and, like Gazza, I had to resort to Mr Google to confirm the solution at 15a.
So much to enjoy, especially the definition in 19d. 2d brought back long distance memories of the song involving the musket, fife and drum. Amazing that I can remember things like that, but I can’t remember where I left my glasses. They are on the top of your head, Shabbo, you fool.
I got in a right pickle with my last three in: 3d, 8d and 22a and am ashamed to report that I resorted to electronic assistance to complete the puzzle.
Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza. Most enjoyable.
Phew! I think that was the toughest Silvanus puzzle I have ever solved but I absolutely loved – a veritable pièce de résistance.
I didn’t know Homer’s acquaintance in 15a but I correctly surmised which Homer was required, and confirmed my guess at the answer using Google. I also didn’t know that 13d could mean “tender” and needed the BRB to confirm this.
From a page littered with ticks, my top picks were 1a, 12a, 2d & 6d.
Many thanks to Silvanus and to Gazza.
Like Mustafa G, I too managed to get the four long answers in early but the rest still took a fair while to resolve.
18a and 3d were bunged in as obvious solutions, thought they needed a revisit before I could parse them correctly.
Podium for today is 6d, 8d and the superbly disguised and defined reverse lurker in 19d.
Great stuff, thanks Silvanus and Gazza.
The two that caused the most problems for me were the region of Europe (I have never watched the Simpsons) and the pants (with the checkers in place I couldn’t get Rover our of my head for the dog ).
A most pleasant puzzle with lots to enjoy – I thought the film star anagram was nicely put together.
Many thanks to Silvanus and to Gazza.
Delightful, and typically scrupulous. 19d is an absolutely cracking lurker. And 1a made me smile. Et al. Best thanks to Silvanus and Gazza. Rugby league? What’s that then?!
It’s always going to be a good day when Silvanus is in the chair. He never fails to bring out the smiles. A most enjoyable puzzle with so much to like.
1A was a great way to start and gets my vote for favourite over so many other excellent clues.
Many thanks to Gazza for the blog and hilarity and of course to Silvanus.
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It’s always nice to get 1a straight away – but then it got a bit tougher. I too had to Google 15a but settled on the pigeons, whatever. Lots of head scratching for 3d – take away a synonym you can’t think of from another synonym you can’t think of to get a word that’s reasonably obvious! But I liked 20d and agree with ALP that 19d is worth the price of admission.
Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.
Many thanks to Gazza and to everyone solving and commenting.
Thanks for an excellent puzzle, Silvanus.
A couple of lucky guesses for 8d and 15a saw us safely across the line for what was a really good fun solve.
Thanks Silvanus and Gazza.
I stalled with four to go so went and solved the inside back pager which sparked me back into life. 15a was a bung in as was 3d, which I still don’t fully understand, and needed the hint to parse 25a but I’ll settle for that. The rest I managed fairly comfortably. Favourite was 21a. Thanks to Silvanus ams Gazza.
The 4 long ‘uns went in pretty quickly but a helluva struggle elsewhere & needed the hints for the last two in at 8&20d – neither particularly difficult but the crossword brain is sub par today. Despite not really being a fan of The Simpson I did know Ned though even that one took an age for the penny to drop. 3d also unparsed. As ever some terrific clues – 21a was my fav with 1&12a plus 6&19d particular likes.
Thanks to Silvanus & Gazza