Toughie No 3494 by Dharma
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
I don’t think we have had a Wednesday Toughie from Dharma before.
Please let us know what you thought
Across
1a Cause a fight stalking number one in boy band (5,5)
BRING ABOUT A (from the clue) and a fight going after (stalking) the first (number one) letter in Boy and a band
6a Screen with nothing on in bar (4)
VETO Screen or examine critically with the letter that looks like ‘nothing’
10a Country music genre not entirely American (5)
INDIA Almost all (not entirely) of a music genre and the abbreviation for American
11a Gloomy function takes a twist (9)
SATURNINE A trigonometrical function ‘takes’ A (from the clue) and a twist
12a Right of Republican to plug Iron Dome, bringing defence essentially to the fore (7)
FREEDOM The abbreviation ‘plugs’ the chemical symbol for iron, followed by DOME where the letter found in the middle of defEnce is brought to the fore of the word
13a Counters lies, assuming bias on a regular basis (7)
RESISTS Lies in the sense of reposes ‘assuming’ the even (regular) letters of bIaS
14a Teacher’s pet denied opening triumph (12)
MASTERSTROKE Teacher’s followed by a verb meaning to pet without (denied) the opening letter
18a Large can boiling? Deposit to the left and blow it (4,1,7)
DROP A CLANGER A verb meaning to deposit goes to the left of an anagram (boiling) of LARGE CAN
21a Sharp and ongoing, old look discarded (7)
PRONGED A synonym for ongoing without (discarded) an old-fashioned or poetical word for look
23a Observation of side – struggle up front (7)
VIEWING A verb meaning to struggle goes in front of a side
24a Liberal Nick taking a lot of stick from the Right (9)
INDULGENT A notch or nick ‘taking’ a reversal (from the right) of almost all of a synonym for stick
25a Hot air, it comes from the gut? (5)
TRIPE An informal name for hot air or rubbish or a food item from the gut of a ruminant
26a Wearing clothes from England, King put on new anorak (4)
NERD The Latin abbreviation for king ‘wearing’ the outside letters (clothes) of EnglanD, the result being put on or after the abbreviation for New
27a Strategic position of card-game addict? (10)
BRIDGEHEAD If addicts can be described as the name of the drug and a slang name for a person habitually using them, could this strategic position also refer to a particular card game addict?
Down
1d Clues in Concise Chambers at the end … (6)
BRIEFS Concise or short in duration followed by the letter at the end of chamberS
2d … certainly poor, daughter replacing an unknown number (6)
INDEED A two-word phrase meaning poor where the abbreviation for Daughter replaces the second appearance of the abbreviation for an unknown number
3d Leftie read “Darling Starmer’s capital and kindly spirits” (8,6)
GUARDIAN ANGELS A newspaper read by ‘lefties’, a synonym for darling and the ‘capital’ of Starmer
4d Perhaps tin of second-rate meat failing to absorb ales drunk? On the contrary (4,5)
BASE METAL The letter that indicates that something is second-rate and contrary to what it says in the clue, an anagram (drunk) of ALES absorbs another (failing) of MEAT
5d State representatives leaving Trump set flustered (5)
UTTER The surface reading produces a misleading definition – here we need a verb not a country. An anagram (flustered) of TRUmp SET once you have removed some abbreviated representatives
7d Disregard one involved in energy company finding leak (8)
EMISSION A verb meaning to disregard and the Roman numeral for one inserted into (involved in) an energy company
8d Runs abroad when escaping from trap (8)
OVERSEES A homophone (when escaping from trap) of a synonym for abroad
9d Understand what leads to heightened English anger and act decisively (5,3,6)
GRASP THE NETTLE Understand, the ‘leads’ of To Heightened English and a verb meaning to anger
15d Repaired grass keeping Djokovic for the most part tense (9)
RENOVATED A type of grass ‘keeping’ most of Djokovic’s forename and the abbreviation for Tense
16d Endorsement from headline forgetting Conservative Party splits (8)
ADOPTION A headline without the abbreviation for Conservative into which is inserted (splits) a party
17d Number by singer – it’s far from shocking (2,6)
NO WONDER An abbreviated number and the surname of an American singer
19d Eat around four or six, either’s perfect (6)
DIVINE A verb meaning to eat goes around either the Roman numeral for four or the Roman numeral for six
20d Soldiers with old housing? Yes! (6)
AGREED Abbreviated Royal Engineers (soldiers) ‘housed’ in a synonym for old
22d This writer leaving fantasist’s flat (5)
DREAR How our setter might refer to himself ‘leaving’ a fantasist
Some of this was quite tricky. The two that caused the most difficulty for me were 24a and 3d.
19d gets my vote.
Thanks to Dharma and to CS.
Enjoyed that, just right for a Wednesday. While putting in the ‘bars’ something in the SE leapt out at me and that corner filled itself pretty quickly, such that I was misled into thinking this would be a gentle stroll. Progress then slowed somewhat but it was still a good steady lunchtime solve, finishing in the SW. After an early music reference, 17d then made me think this could be Dharma, so was pleased to see on coming here that I was correct. Was misled at 24a (as D doubtless intended), not thinking of a nick in that sense. Just so long as Nick is never (the to me vastly over-rated) Cave …
Honours to 19d, 8d, & 1a. Many thanks indeed to Dharma and CS
I struggled with this, but eventually finished apart from the parsing of 24a.
I expect I’m missing something but isn’t “denied opening” unnecessary in 14a if you take the ‘s to mean has. Also I suspect “what” in 9a is padding too.
I rather liked 19d.
Thanks to Dharma and to CS.
Dharma has upped his difficulty level somewhat I thought and given us a very entertaining Toughie – thanks to him and CS.
The surface of 24a is brilliant with its allusion to Nick of ‘I agree with Nick’ fame. I also liked 1a, 27a, 3d (Leftie read – excellent), 8d and 19d.
I always enjoy Dharma’s toughies.
He has a very distinctive style, constantly adding or subtracting letters from words which he subtlely uses as part of his lego clues, more frequently than other compilers do. There always seems so much to think about in his puzzles.
My top clues are 26a, 16d and 19d.
8d took a while to parse as the definition of ‘trap’ he used completely threw me.
Thanks for the fun Dharma, and to CS as always.
That was a well-pitched Toughie for a Wednesday from a Setter who always makes me think. I have so many ticks, but pick out 11, 21A, 3, 16 ,19 and 20D, with 26A taking the podium for it’s clever construction.
Thanks to CS for the blog and parsing some of my answers and to Dharma for the challenge.
I found this really difficult and began to wonder if Dharma has his eye on the Friday slot. There’s a lot of really good clueing and clever misleads [Leftie read is terrific] but a lot of the clues were a bit “samey” in depending on subtractions. And I really didn’t like 14a where “denied opening” is redundant if “Teacher’s” is read as “Teacher has”, but then the surface ain’t so good..
Thanks to Dharma and CS.
I found this a good bit easier to complete than some of this setter’s recent puzzles. As ever with me many of the whys travelled on a later bus but at least they all reached their destination other than 16d – having just read the hint d’oh of course how did I not peg that. Always pleased to see Dharma including lots of political references in his surface reads & they are all among the host of ✅s for me – 1,12,24&27a plus 3,5,9&19d particular likes.
Thanks to Dharma & to CS – do you know that Hudson set the back-pager btw?
Many thanks to Sue for the blog and to those who have commented and given their thoughts, much appreciated.
To clarify a couple of points if I may.
The reason we need “denied opening” in 14a is that the ‘s for “has” to connect wordplay isn’t allowed (or strongly discouraged) in the DT, and of course, as noted, the surface read wouldn’t really work.
“What leads” in 9a is a first letters indicator for the following two words so definitely not padding!
This one certainly had us working hard and we had to start at the bottom and work our way north to finish in the NE corner. 24a was our favourite.
Thanks Dharma and CS.
Perfect for a Wednesday, thanks, Dharma. I thought I’d never get started, but once 18a gave me a foothold, it rolled along fairly smoothly, barring the odd hiccup. 6a took a long time to drop, for some reason, but I like the surface. 3d and 27a both made me giggle, but 24a takes my top spot. Thanks also to CS for the blog.