Toughie No 3476 by Sparks
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***/****
Sparks has given us an enjoyable but not too tough pangram today. Thanks to him.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a You presumably cross off what you’re doing, right? (4-7)
WORD-PUZZLER: remove the word ‘cross’ from what you’re trying to complete and append an abbreviation for right.
10a Unacceptable either way (3,2)
NOT ON: a palindrome.
11a Diamond jubilee’s finale follows very bright tune (9)
SOLITAIRE: the final letter of jubilee follows an adverb meaning very, an adjective meaning bright or glowing and a synonym of tune.
12a Eccentric won’t go for surprise (5-4)
WRONG-FOOT: an anagram (eccentric) of WON’T GO FOR.
13a Stealthy spy girl Juliet enters (5)
NINJA: a girl’s name containing the relevant letter from the Nato Phonetic Alphabet.
14a Consistently, one appears thus among Moonies (6)
EVENLY: how the letters of ‘one’ appear in the last word of the clue.
16a Say Joy hugs Charlie :-) ? (8)
EMOTICON: what joy is an example of contains the letter that Charlie represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet.
18a Associate judge’s first to block grand statute’s weak feature (5,3)
GLASS JAW: the abbreviation for associate and the first letter of judge get inserted into the abbreviation for grand and a synonym of statute. The answer is what a boxer who spends a lot of time on the canvas is said to have.
20a Learnt about place for organ (6)
SPLEEN: a past participle meaning learnt or discovered contains the street abbreviation for place.
23a Cottage near to old centre in northern parts (5)
BOTHY: the abbreviation for old and the central letters of northern bisect a preposition meaning ‘near to’.
24a Many leave each week charged with case of fraudulence (5,1,3)
QUITE A FEW: assemble a verb to leave and abbreviations for each and week then insert the outer letters of fraudulence.
26a See current in river is most erratic (9)
SPOTTIEST: a verb to see followed by the symbol for electric current inside a river in southern England.
27a Task for image developers in trouble for one month (5)
APRIL: the abbreviation for what image developers are paid to do goes inside a verb to trouble.
28a Order gifts that branch plugs (7,4)
PRESENT ARMS: another word for gifts into which is inserted a synonym of branch or wing.
Down Clues
2d Best public act (5)
OUTDO: join synonyms for public and act.
3d Exhausted girl in town and county (7)
DONEGAL: an adjective meaning exhausted or finished and an informal word for a girl. I don’t really understand the ‘town’ bit but my Dictionary of Slang describes the required word as Cockney so that may explain it. Update: Thanks to Jezza for pointing out that the answer is both a town and a county.
4d Did drugs when cycling? Here’s the outcome (6)
UPSHOT: start with an informal phrasal verb (4,2) meaning ‘did drugs’ and cycle the last two letters to the top.
5d South African issue over GMT (4,4)
ZULU TIME: a native South African and the reversal of a verb to issue.
6d Obsolete opening deleted from message in court (7)
EXTINCT: delete the opening letter from an electronic message and add IN and the abbreviation for court.
7d Fake blogs weakened foundation for AI? (9,4)
KNOWLEDGE BASE: an anagram (fake) of BLOGS WEAKENED.
8d Crown long cracked by salt (8)
PINNACLE: a verb to long or yearn into which is inserted the chemical symbol for common salt.
9d Punished lag – in new trial – one holding up bank (9,4)
RETAINING WALL: an anagram (punished) of LAG IN NEW TRIAL.
15d Oppressive demand from an exotic rogue (8)
EXACTION: an anagram (rogue) of AN EXOTIC.
17d Noble brand connected to ship (8)
MARQUESS: another word for a brand such as Jaguar and our usual abbreviated ship.
19d Bar employee who’s dodgy resents hysterical hosts (7)
SHYSTER: hidden. The bar is judicial rather than alcohol related.
21d Soft, mainly red sparkling wine that goes straight to one’s heart? (7)
PRECAVA: glue together the musical abbreviation for soft, most of the word red and a sparkling wine from Spain. This is a vein that carries blood to the heart (not a word I knew but the wordplay is very generous).
22d University figure showing means of digital protection? (6)
MITTEN: a US university and a 2-digit figure spelled out.
25d Meeting because of … I can’t recall (5)
FORUM: a preposition meaning ‘because of’ and an interjection indicating that the speaker has lost the thread.
My ticks went to 1a, 14a, 4d and 19d. What about you?
Plain sailing. 11a and 23a get my vote. Thanks to Sparks and Gazza.
I did not find this that easy at all, and would certainly not win any prizes for my solving time.
I talked myself out of 21d, convinced there was no such word, and also talked myself out of 26a (and that was before I had any checkers in place). 14a – I spent too much time wondering what “moonies” had to do with anything….
Anyway – I finished it, and enjoyed it!
Thanks to Sparks and to Gazza (re 3d, isn’t the answer both a town and a county?)
3d So it is. I didn’t know that – I’ll update the blog. Thanks.
About the expected level of difficulty for a Friday Toughie. Some flowing surfaces with more than a little pondering required to complete.
Wasn’t aware of the term used as the answer to 5d or the vein in 21d, but they were both fairly clued and gettable enough. Hard to whittle down to a podium, but I’ve ended up with 14a, 18a and 23a.
My thanks to Sparks and Gazza.
Hadn’t heard of either 18a or 21d before today, dithered over entering the answer to 5d and wasn’t keen on 1a so this wasn’t my favourite puzzle from Sparks although I’m sure that’s my problem rather than his! Clues that I really liked were 11&28a plus 17d.
Think you rather got the better of me today, Sparks, but I enjoyed the challenge. Thanks also to Gazza for the review and the always funny cartoons.
A most enjoyable Friday Toughie without the brain mangling. A very well composed puzzle and all fairly clued which helped with 21D, a word I hadn’t come across before. I couldn’t parse 14A, so thank you Gazza for explaining. That was clever and gets my vote for podium.
Many thanks to Gazza for the blog and great cartoons ( 7D my favourite) and to Sparks for the challenge.
I found this surprisingly gentle for a Friday Toughie, about the same level as Silvanus’s back pager, strangely enough. Had never heard of 5d, my POI, but it could not have been anything else. 21d rang a bell from O-level biology a lifetime ago. Spent a while on 8d, my LOI, convinced that ‘ache’ had to be in the answer, until the penny dropped with a loud clang. Was on pangram alert from some way out, but cannot find a Nina to go with it.
Honours to 24a with other podium places to 25d for the smile to which it gave rise and and 14a.
Many thanks indeed to Sparks and also to Gazza for the great blog and cartoons
Another one of this week’s ‘seemed tricky to start with until it wasn’t’ Toughies until it wasn’t
Thanks to Sparks and Gazza