Toughie No 3479 by Silvanus
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
This is a very entertaining and not too tricky puzzle from the prolific Silvanus. Many thanks to him.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Artist from Lambeth possibly on benefits (12)
GAINSBOROUGH: what Lambeth is an example of follows a verb meaning benefits.
9a Showing courage when tackling excellent opponents provides inspiration (9)
BRAINWAVE: an adjective meaning ‘showing courage’ contains an abbreviation meaning excellent and opponents at a bridge table.
10a Capital’s content to back run for musical composition (5)
RONDO: the inner letters of our capital city follow the cricket abbreviation for run.
11a Occasionally regrets ousting Democrat from country, finding apathy (7)
INERTIA: the even letters of ‘regrets’ replace the abbreviation for Democrat in an Asian country.
12a Maybe area between Arab’s shoulder blades becomes dry (7)
WITHERS: double definition. Arab here is non-human.
13a Reportedly rowers representing county get breathless (9)
SUFFOCATE: start with what could be a description of a rowing crew representing an East Anglian county (7,5) and make a homophone of it.
16a Terrible man, one appearing later to be conceited (4)
VAIN: a terrible Russian (no, not the current leader) with the Roman one moved to the right.
18a Exploit type in pursuit of money primarily (4)
MILK: a synonym of type or category follows the primary letter of money.
19a Bloated corporation growing without need for credit (9)
TUMESCENT: join together what corporation is a facetious word for and an adjective meaning growing (think moon) with the abbreviation for credit removed. The answer is usually seen as a description of a swollen appendage!
22a Oddball comedian, short of energy travelling around (7)
NOMADIC: an anagram (oddball) of COM[e]DIAN.
23a Express mirth as cost of drug increased (5,2)
CRACK UP: this could be a laconic way of saying that the cost of a potent type of cocaine has increased.
25a German left golf course (5)
LINKS: double definition, the first being the German word for left (i.e. the opposite of right).
26a Nothing wrong about claiming retired cleric is lush (9)
OVERGROWN: start with the zero-resembling letter, add an anagram (about) of WRONG and insert between them the reversal of an abbreviated clerical title.
27a Broken object traps tailless insect (12)
INTERMITTENT: a synonym of object or purpose contains an insect that lives in a mound without its last letter.
Down Clues
1d After fault is raised, discard small gadget (7)
GUBBINS: reverse a fault (in software, say) and add a verb meaning discard and the clothing abbreviation for small.
2d Head of practice denied operating illegally, becoming furious (5)
IRATE: remove the first letter of practice from an adjective meaning ‘operating illegally’ (which is how Radio Caroline and its like were described in the old days).
3d Succeeded with lawsuit to secure new licence (8)
SANCTION: the genealogical abbreviation for succeeded and a synonym of lawsuit containing the abbreviation for new.
4d President of Vietnam about to be shown up (5)
OBAMA: hidden in reverse.
5d Whoever struggles gets blame regularly for defeat (9)
OVERWHELM: an anagram (struggles) of WHOEVER followed by regular letters of ‘blame’.
6d Spin from vacuous guy introducing measure (6)
GYRATE: the word guy loses its innards and that’s followed by a verb to measure or assess.
7d Immature urge Dean disguised (5-3)
UNDER-AGE: an anagram (disguised) of URGE DEAN.
8d Originally stylish and elegant, old clothes deteriorate (6)
WORSEN: an adjective meaning old or shabby ‘clothes’ or contains the first letters of Stylish and Elegant.
14d Keen to follow motorsport thread (8)
FILAMENT: a verb to keen follows the abbreviation for a motorsport (one where they go to enormous lengths to allow the fastest competitors to start ahead of the others which is a bit like letting Usain Bolt start a metre ahead of his rivals).
15d Vegetable lorry that man Roger stops (9)
ARTICHOKE: the abbreviated word for a large lorry is followed by a male pronoun into which is inserted an abbreviation denoting agreement (such as ‘roger’ in telecommunications).
17d French course favourite, one that’s somewhat sluggish? (8)
ESCARGOT: an amusing cryptic definition of what often appears on a ‘plat du jour’ but is not a favourite this side of the channel.
18d Paper animal, misshapen (6)
MANILA: an anagram (misshapen) of ANIMAL.
20d Head hit planter keeling over (7)
TOPKNOT: I always thought that this was something arranged on someone’s head but the BRB says it’s also a slang term for the head itself. Rivet together an informal verb to hit hard and a container for plants then reverse it all.
21d Inventor adapted one’s idea, each conceded (6)
EDISON: an inventor in Crosswordland is very often this chap whose name is an anagram (adapted) of ONE’S ID[ea].
23d Best Sixties rock band (5)
CREAM: double definition.
24d Norwegian ready to cycle a single kilometre, right? (5)
KRONE: assemble a word meaning ‘a single’ and abbreviations for kilometre and right then cycle the last two letters to the top.
The clues I liked best were 13a, 19a, 23a, 8d and 17d. Which one(s) made the grade for you?
“very entertaining and not too tricky”… yep, that about sums it up. Great puzzle, hope it gets the wide audience it deserves.
Lots of ticks, so will limit honourable mentions to 1a, 13a, 8d & 14d. There could have been many more!
Many thanks indeed to Silvanus and Gazza
A very nice puzzle, which in the words of Gazza and Mustafa was not too tricky.
The last couple in were 19a and 20d.
I spent a few minutes wondering whether lamina could possibly mean paper at 18d, however luckily I didn’t write it in.
Many thanks to Silvanus and to Gazza.
Although this was not overly tough, Toughies don’t come any better than this, and the accompaniment of Gazza’s superb collection of cartoons is the icing on the cake.
1a was a brilliant start and the whole puzzle continued from there in top-notch vein.
Just one question, is “maybe” really necessary in 12a?
Many thanks to Silvanus and to Gazza.
Good point. Perhaps the “maybe” refers to the Arab (other equines are available)?
The master of smooth clue-writing entertains us again today and I do wish I’d paid more attention to his inclusion of ‘possibly’ in 1a – would have made the artist far easier to pinpoint! The German word for ‘left’ is now, hopefully, stored in the old memory bank, getting through French GCE was hard enough without delving into any other languages….. Podium contenders here include 9,12&13a plus 14d.
Many thanks to Silvanus and also to Gazza for the review and cartoon selection – think the happy cows and the fall guy won my prizes.
You & me both with French O’Level. My German & Spanish non existent.
You know it’s going to be a good day when Silvanus takes the chair. Always a pleasure to unravel his offerings with so many clever clues.
My standouts were 9A, 23A and 17D.
Thanks to Gazza for the blog and amusement and to Silvanus for the challenge.
Ticks all over the shop & great fun. Maybe some of the wordplay was a tad trickier than the back-pager but not by much. 1,9,13,19&23a plus 1,5,15&17d can organise themselves into 3 podiums. The county rowers were my clear fav.
Thanks to Silvanus & to Gazza.
Many thanks to Gazza for his usual excellence in the blogging chair and to all those solving and commenting. Much appreciated.
Thanks for dropping in, Silvanus, and for the top-notch puzzle.
I don’t often venture into Toughie territory but that was most enjoyable with a good chunk of the time taken being consumed in the SE. My gold goes to 13a, with 1d in uncharacteristically hot pursuit. Thanks very much to Silvanus and Gazza.