Toughie No 3498 by Prime
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Another ‘proper’ Toughie, this time brought to us by Prime
Please let us know what you thought
Across
1a Fish hearts going bad (7)
HERRING The abbreviation for the card suit of Hearts and making a mistake (going bad)
5a Trump (American Truss) throwing a fit (7)
CAPABLE Do better than (trump), the abbreviation for American and a truss (of hay perhaps) without (throwing) the A
9a Meet plenty of humour, e.g. at Taskmaster (7)
REGATTA Hidden in plenty of humouR EG AT TAskmaster
10a Love poetry shunned by son at feast? (7)
OVEREAT The letter representing nothing (love), some poetry without (shunned by) the abbreviation for Son, AT (from the clue)
11a Look after trimmed pelt import for animal expert (9)
ZOOLOGIST A poetical or archaic word for look goes after a synonym for pelt or go very fast without its last letter (tripped), followed by the main point of a matter (import)
12a Power behind trophy (5)
PLATE The symbol for Power and behind or less advanced
13a Mark and Matthew etc taking over church (5)
NOTCH The abbreviated part of the Bible where the Book of Matthew etc is found ‘taking’ the cricket abbreviation for Over and followed by the abbreviation for church
15a Ring style incorporating large creature but not small one (9)
TELEPHONE A synonym for style into which is inserted (incorporating) a large creature without the last part of the word which is a small one!
17a Entertainer using that in France to cover half of Just William? (9)
CONQUEROR An entertainer using magic tricks using the French word for that to replace (cover) the first half of JUst
19a More mature epitaph for US TV show? (5)
RIPER An abbreviated epitaph and a US TV show
22a Bread’s inside that is empty (5)
INANE A type of bread inserted into the abbreviation meaning that is
23a He is cutting sign for reference (9)
THESAURUS HES (he is) ‘cutting’ a Sign of the Zodiac
25a A strange calm curtailed icy hail (7)
ACCLAIM A (from the clue) and an anagram (strange) of CALM and ICy (curtailed telling you to omit the Y)
26a Oscar sadly lied about father loving mother? (7)
OEDIPAL The letter represented by Oscar in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet and an anagram (sadly) of LIED going ‘about’ an informal father
27a Permanent resettlement of Leeds including north and south (7)
ENDLESS An anagram (resettlement) of LEEDS including N and S
28a Defer tariffs at last, with dollar overtaking pound (7)
SUSPEND The last letter of tariffS, the abbreviation for an American Dollar, the latter ‘overtaking’ a pound for animals
Down
1d Men in Hawaii area snubbed, as far as I can see? (7)
HORIZON Abbreviated soldiers (men) inserted into the abbreviation for the State of Hawaii followed by a truncated (snubbed) area
2d What’s taken up half of garden with tangled boundless growth? (7)
RAGWORT The first half of GARden is reversed (taken up) followed by an anagram (tangled) of the inside letters (boundless) of gROWTh
3d Start enjoying crossing river (5)
INTRO An informal way of saying enjoying ‘crossing’ the abbreviation for River
4d Picture snapper framing boy on island (9)
GLADIATOR An informal (chiefly US) name for an animal that snaps ‘framing’ a boy and the abbreviation for Island
5d Small volume published, say (5)
CLOUT An informal synonym for say or influence – an abbreviated measurement of volume and a synonym for published
6d One who entices support around “Ed Stone” (4,5)
PIED PIPER A support goes around ED (from the clue) and a fruit stone
7d Cross old dog keeping cost up (7)
BEEFALO A reversal (up) of the abbreviation for Old and a breed of dog into which is inserted (keeping) a cost
8d Unopened message about the setter’s tip (7)
EXTREME A message without its first letter (unopened), the usual about or on the subject of, and how our setter would refer to himself
14d Who might share a kettle of hot water in Yorkshire Tea (9)
HOUSEMATE The abbreviation for Hot, a Yorkshire river (water) and a type of tea
16a Wrongly taking extraordinarily clear wisdom (9)
LARCENOUS An anagram (extraordinarily) of CLEAR and some intellect or common sense (wisdom)
17a Tendency of capital to stop etc in recession (7)
CLIMATE The capital of Peru ‘stops’ a reversal (in recession) of ETC (from the clue)
18a Subtle nude dancing entertains party (7)
NUANCED As I said yesterday to someone who had sent me a crossword to test solve “does moving one letter really make it an anagram?” Here an anagram (dancing) of NUDE ‘entertains’ a South African political party
20a Dish‘s invention (4,3)
PORK PIE Something to eat or rhyming slang for an invention
21a Red coat with light stole (7)
RUSTLED A red coat on metal with a type of light
23a Head of Tudor house standing by (5)
TIMES The ‘head’ of Tudor and a reversal (standing of a type of house)
24a An editorial department ultimately missing high-profile features? (5)
ANDES AN (from the clue) and a department of a newspaper office missing its ‘ultimate’ letter
A most enjoyable puzzle. The two that caused me the most difficulty were 5a and 5d (my last in).
Ticks all over the page 13a, 15a, 17a, 28a, 20d, 21d, 23d (my favourite).
Many thanks to Prime and to CS.
A wonderful crossword! I clearly had the fortune to tune-in from the start and so found this a reasonably straightforward but hugely enjoyable lunchtime solve. I hope it gets a suitably wide audience. Smiles aplenty as pennies dropped (the 4d picture, 13a Mark etc) and red herrings (5d small volume, 14d Yorkshire Tea etc) gave up their secrets. Absolutely loved it.
So many ticks. A hard task but Honours to 13a, 17a & 23d, with runners-up 15a, 19a, 4d, 14d, 20d
Thank you Prime for a great puzzle, and thanks also to Sue for the blog
I shudder to think what Friday’s Toughie is going to be like if this is anything to go by.
Completed the grid then went back over half a dozen or so to fully understand the parsing, gradually seeing the light.
The Argentinian tea reference in 14d held me up, even though I’ve been there and drank the stuff.
Never heard of 7d, though it was gettable from the wordplay.
So many ingeniously misleading clues, it’s hard to pick just a few, but 15a, 1d and 16d (great word) are right up there.
Didn’t particularly like 19a as I’ve virtually no knowledge of American TV.
Not surprised CS was in the blogging chair
today, this one needed the A Team to demystify. Thanks to her and Prime.
A top puzzle which I made heavy weather of; I got bogged down for some time in the Aberdeen area. Thanks to Prime and CS.
The clues which stood out for me were 5a, 11a, 13a, 21d and 23d.
A really high count of top-notch clues in this – much admiration, though if I hadn’t got right onto the Setter’s wavelength I might not be quite so effusive. I’ve narrowed the picks down to 15a, 19a, 26a, 5d and the clever little 23d.
Thanks to Prime and CS.
In all the years we have been doing Toughies, this is one of the very few times that we have thrown in the towel with an unfinished grid. Found it a real struggle all the way and beaten by about four answers.
Thanks Prime and CS.
I loved this! It took a while, but it was (almost) within my abilities. I should probably attempt Prime’s Toughies more often. The “(almost)” is because I needed CrypticSue to explain 11a, and confirm the tea in 14d; thank you for that.
My top few included 10a’s poetry feast, William in 17a (which took me a while, because I’d translated ‘that in French’ to ‘ça’, so was trying to fit that in the answer), and 23d with “standing by”. My favourite is 15a for the large and small creatures. Thank you to Prime for the entertainment and brain-stretching.
A couple of days late to this & a couple of letter reveals required to finish. A proper Toughie indeed. Unless I’m mistaken (entirely likely in this infernal heat) it’s a rare double pangram – it would have helped if I’d clocked it sooner.
Thanks to Prime & Sue
Yep it’s the heat – I’ve just done the Stick Insect Toughie.
Super fun throughout. 17 across had this Richmal Crompton fan flummoxed for a long time but what a clever swap and entertaining surface. Prime made his debut in The Times today, for those who are interested in the compilers.