Toughie No 3468 by Karla
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Thanks to Karla for an enjoyable puzzle. After failing to notice his Nina in the past I remembered to look this time but failed to find one. Did you do any better? I did notice that there are a number of metals in the grid but not enough, I think, to form a theme.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Opportunist must change side section of church (7)
CHANCEL: start with an opportunist and change his last letter from one side to the other.
5a Run ahead of runner filming item on the road (7)
DASHCAM: a verb to run fast precedes a river in East Anglia.
9a Reptile mass rounded up by degrees (5)
MAMBA: the abbreviation for mass is corralled by two degrees.
10a Tough hunter briefly tails dog with American (9)
LABORIOUS: a hunter from Greek mythology without his last letter follows the abbreviation of a type of dog. Finish with an abbreviation for American.
11a County being used for two musical events creates upset (10)
DISCONCERT: cement together two musical events with the abbreviation for county being shared at the join.
12a Overheard pin-up in need of occupation (4)
IDLE: a homophone of a pin-up or celebrity.
14a Tablet possibly crushed in part of theatre? (12)
BATTLEGROUND: an anagram (possibly) of TABLET and an adjective meaning crushed or pulverised.
18a Essential books on a large capital left inside (3-9)
ALL-IMPORTANT: A is followed by abbreviations for large and some Biblical books. Inside that place a South American capital containing the naval left.
21a Track camera around base part of neck (4)
NAPE: reverse a verb to track with a camera and append the letter used for the base in logarithms.
22a Reconsider narrow range accepted by family (5,5)
THINK AGAIN: a synonym of narrow followed by a kitchen range contained in a word for family.
25a Sign of cold sailors eating fruit with tons cut (9)
CAPRICORN: the tap abbreviation for cold and the abbreviation for our serving sailors contain a juicy fruit without the abbreviation for tons.
26a Fissure on ledge essentially gathered snow (5)
DRIFT: a synonym of fissure or rupture follows the central letter of ledge.
27a Painful condition of area, unusually red (7)
EARACHE: an anagram (unusually) of AREA and the name of a well-known South American communist.
28a Openness in perfect animal enclosure (7)
HONESTY: charade of a verb to perfect and an animal enclosure.
Down Clues
1d Retired elderly Democrats welcoming play? (6)
COMEDY: hidden in reverse.
2d Nearly fall exposed atop second stone (6)
ALMOST: the inner letters of ‘fall’ followed by abbreviations for a second or short time and stone.
3d Senator taking over maybe holding small insignia (4,2,4)
COAT OF ARMS: a Roman senator and orator contains the cricket abbreviation for over. Follow that with what a holding may be in the countryside and the abbreviation for small.
4d Decision reversed about one shade (5)
LILAC: reverse a synonym of decision (such as that made by a cricket captain at the toss) containing the Roman one.
5d Exclusion of French people serving time (9)
DEBARMENT: split the answer 2,6,1 for the French ‘of’, people serving and the abbreviation for time.
6d Climbing archer becomes vexed (4)
SORE: reverse the name of the archer seen in Piccadilly Circus.
7d Fill bird with suspicion leaving first of bread (5,3)
CROWD OUT: a black bird and a synonym of suspicion or mistrust without the first letter of bread.
8d Fools putting metal into skip (8)
MISLEADS: insert a heavy metal into a verb to skip.
13d Band in denim on air rocking (4,6)
IRON MAIDEN: an anagram (rocking) of DENIM ON AIR.
15d Yummy sides of hummus in overly large volume (9)
TOOTHSOME: insert the outer letters of hummus into a synonym of overly and a weighty volume.
16d Crab Lane excited one attached to Hull? (8)
BARNACLE: an anagram (excited) of CRAB LANE.
17d Shrewd relative with a pest repellent? On the contrary (8)
FLYPAPER: assemble an adjective meaning shrewd, an affectionate abbreviation for a male relative and a preposition meaning ‘a’ (as in ‘50p a kilo’).
19d Nameless Serbian spreading disease (6)
RABIES: an anagram (spreading) of SERBIA[n].
20d Rugged banks of Tay supporting shorebird (6)
KNOTTY: the outer letters of Tay follow a type of sandpiper.
23d Small part of new clue originally dropped (5)
NINTH: the abbreviation for new and a synonym of clue with its first letter relegated to the basement.
24d Short unit surfaced with unknown element (4)
ZINC: a truncated imperial unit is preceded by an algebraic unknown.
The clues I liked best were 5a, 11a, 3d, 5d and 8d with my favourite being 17d. Which one(s) made your shortlist?
Not quite the usual Friday headbanging, even with the appearance of 13d. but still very enjoyable.
Lots of ticks, including 11a,14a, 22a and 23d.
21a and 17d last two in as the parsing pennies took a time to drop.
Hard to pick out a favourite clue, but at a push I’ll nominate the very palatable 15d.
Thanks Karla and Gazza.
Karla in a very friendly mood today, with this taking only marginally longer than today’s back-pager to complete.
The only couple that took a while to parse (even though the answers were obvious were 18a and 3d).
Favourite (for the surface) – 14a.
Many thanks to Karla and to Gazza. 2*/4* for me.
I rarely attempt Friday Toughies. However, having enjoyed various Karla compositions, I thought I would give this one a go, and I’m very glad I did.
I thought this was very enjoyable. It was nicely challenging and not as tough as today’s back-pager.
With plenty of goodies to chose from, 3d gets my vote as favourite.
Many thanks to Karla and to Gazza.
Not too 20d for a Friday, as well as the metals I did spot a couple of constellations but still not enough to declare a theme. 5d came from the wordplay and today’s learning moment.
It was good to catch up with Karla and Elgar yesterday and I understand they will both be making regular Friday appearances here.
Thanks to Karla and Gazza
Good to catch up yesterday, John.
Karla seems about right for the non-Elgar Fridays – toughish but not too tough, and fun to boot.
I started well with 1a [that’s 2 in a row] but then thought it might be a real stinker until the NW corner yielded and off we went.
Liked the inventiveness of 11 and 22a and thought 17d was one of the better “on the contrary” clues.
Thanks to Karla and Gazza.
Evening all. Thanks for the comments and thanks to Gazza for the blog and cartoons. No Nina this time.
@5 halcyon I think one puzzle editor (can’t remember which) doesn’t allow ‘on the contrary’ clues. I suppose I’ve used the device in definition rather than in wordplay.
Have a great weekend everyone. Now… back to the snooker. I missed the 147 earlier.
Loved this great (and benign for a Friday) Toughie from beginning to end. Thank you so much Karla, and of course Gazza.