Toughie No 3509 by Dada
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***/**** – Enjoyment ****
Ouch! This was a bit of a shock to the system this morning. Maybe the exertions of the Parkgate Summer Ball, followed (seemingly immediately) by the Parkgate Prom has dimmed my senses (nothing to do with the refreshments, obvs…) but I found this rather tricky. To the point where I started wondering about checking the blog… something I might have done on any other Toughie day. D’oh!
I’m still not 100% on parsing some of the solutions, and had to do some general knowledge digging into shellfish and mythology. The cluing is a masterpiece of clever concision (with a couple of more wordy clues thrown in, but still just as clever) with lots of wonderful mis-directions. Thank you, Dada, for taking a sledgehammer to the Tuesday morning cobwebs!
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1 Skier perhaps embraced by Miss World (6)
GLOBAL What a cracking clue to start off! Nothing to do with snow, for the the “skier” you need to be thinking tennis. Insert a very aerial shot into a posh slang term for a young lady to get an adjective meaning “world”. A wonderful surface, a lovely misdirection and my clue of the day.
5 Country’s beyond that man’s planet (8)
HESPERUS A possessive of a South American country follows a shorter way of saying “that man is” to get a classical name for a bright planet
9 Vainglorious concierge proving difficult, resident finally granted access (10)
EGOCENTRIC Insert the final letter of “resident” into an anagram (proving difficult) of “concierge” yielding a synonym of “vainglorious”
10 Hum rhythmic music (4)
FUNK A double definition, the “hum” being odour-related
11 Third class always in step (8)
STEERAGE “Third class” on ships is formed by inserting a poetic synonym of “always” into a five-letter “step” (think the boosters in rockets)
12 Very short note (6)
MINUTE A double definition, the second being meeting-related, not musical. I spent too long trying to do something overly-clever with “minim” until the penny dropped
13 Spirit guzzled by lycanthrope, ritually (4)
PERI A Persian spirit is lurking (guzzled) in “lycanthrope ritually”
15 Book testing footballer? (8)
HARDBACK A type of book by reference to its cover is formed from a synonym of “testing” (or difficult) and the position associated with defensive Association footballers
18 Proper pink – and yellow (8)
PRIMROSE A synonym of “proper” (often used with it) to describe refined, polite behaviour, together with a shade of “pink” gets a shade of yellow
19 Nothing in Antigua and Barbuda, or in Bosnia and Herzegovina, last of all (4)
NADA A Spanish-derived, informal word meaning “nothing” is formed in the from the final letters of both “in Antigua and Barbuda” and “in Bosnia and Herzegovina”
21 Old feudal leader unloads bullet finally from weapon (6)
SHOGUN Remove the final letter of “bullet” from a weapon (that doesn’t fire bullets) to give a Japanese feudal leader.
23 Suppose confronted by spreading of rat poison (8)
ATROPINE A type of poison, which can also be used to treat types of poisoning, is formed from an anagram (spreading) of “rat” and a synonym of “suppose” in the sense of “offer a view on”
25 Choice of left or right wing in parliament? Left! (4)
PORT The alternatives you would have when choosing between the first and last letters (left/right wings in an across clue) of “parliament” yields the nautical “left”
26 Felon’s crime, act of collusion (10)
CONSPIRACY Split (3’1,6) a criminal’s crime (eg on the high seas) is an “act of collusion”
27 Infant, mere developing man (8)
EMERGENT A (posh) man follows an anagram (developing) of “mere” to get a synonym of infant (or starting to show)
28 Secure, like blood in banks (6)
TIERED Another lovely, clever surface. a three-letter “secure” (eg with a ripe” followed by the colour of blood forms an adjective meaning “formed into banks”
Down Clues
2 Fair clue (5)
LIGHT One of my parsing struggles. I think this is a double definition, with “fair” having the sense of colouration, and “clue” being something you may follow. If it is taken as an all-in-one, I think there is an equally fair, alternative (lawful) answer, so I don’t think that can be the intended reading
3 Microscopic organism or suchlike arising in metal (9)
BACTERIUM Insert the three-letter abbreviation for “or such like” inverted (arising) into a metal (used in medical X-ray imaging) to form a single microscopic organism
4 Leader in love with gold carriage (6)
LANDAU A type of carriage is formed from the first letter (leader) of “love”, a synonym of “(together) with” and the chemical symbol for gold
5 So here honest criminal has concealed publication in drawer (9,6)
HORSESHOE MAGNET Insert an informal term for a type of publication (think “glossy”, “Lad”, “Rag” depending on your inclination) into an anagram (criminal) of “so here honest” to get a particular form of a device that attracts certain metals. I lost time here trying to forge some connection with 4d. Definitely getting my drawers in a twist!
6 High score with may tree (8)
SYCAMORE A type of tree (and, in my opinion, garden pestilence) is an anagram (high) of “score” and “may”
7 Delicate female in river, surfacing (5)
ELFIN Insert the usual abbreviation for “female” into an inverted (surfacing ie coming up) long African river to give a synonym of “delicate”
8 Plain cakes not inconspicuous (9)
UNNOTICED My next parsing problem! My line on this is to take a (3,4) description of how an undecorated cake (lacking eg “royal” or “fondant” ornamentation) and then attached the two-letter prefix for “not” to get a synonym of “inconspicuous”. I could easily be missing something here, but this is by a distance my least favourite of today’s clues. **BUT See Frankiemillwall, CrypticSue and Gazza’s Comments (to whom, thanks) for a more conventional parsing: A term meaning “plain” in the baked sweets sense surrounds (cakes) “not” from the clue. I’m obviously too “down with the kids” today.
14 Maddening number surrounds the tailless burrower (9)
EARTHWORM Remove the final letter (tailless) of “the” and insert that into a term for a tune (yes, that type of number) that you hear and then can’t shake off (Kenny Rogers’ Lucille is a particular bugbear of mine) to get a denizen of the soil
16 Radius, say, covering a district for military commander (9)
BONAPARTE Something exemplified by “radius” (think skeletally) surrounds “a” from the clue and a synonym for “district” (or section) gets a famous French commander
17 Well above recess, coastal road (8)
CORNICHE A three letter exclamation meaning “well” (or blimey) is followed by a type of recess gets a word meaning coastal road, typically built into a cliff
20 Hollow craft boarded by politician and yours truly (6)
ARMPIT A bodily hollow is formed by inserting a parliamentary representative and the singular personal pronoun into a synonym of “craft” (or skill)
22 Roll with good twists for predatory reptile (5)
GATOR A “roll” in the sense of schedule and the letter indicating “good” are all inverted to get a casual term for a large reptile from the Americas
24 Crane out for shellfish (5)
NACRE An anagram (out) of “crane” gives the “proper” name for mother-of-pearl, and a shellfish that produces it (it’s in the BRB, but not easy to find using more generic search engines)
Loving your grading for difficulty, Whybird, as I managed to finish it and I am far from a regular Toughie completer. That said all your questions as queries echoed my own. I’d heard of the mother of pearl but not the planet, but getable from the wordplay. On 8d the answer was pretty obvious the cakes bit easy enough how and where you sorted the not bit? Thanks to Dada, I’m off to pat myself on the back
My first few minutes on this one yielded not much at all, but slowly and surely I gained a few footholds. I was able to steadily push on and picked up pace to finish in good time, which made me wonder at my slow start.
Whybird, in 8d I had the plain cakes, ‘uniced’ coating (going round) ‘not’ from the clue.
COTD was 14d, I all too frequently suffer from those maddening numbers.
The unloaded bullet in 21a was clever and the exclamation at the beginning of 17d always makes me smile.
All good fun, thanks to Dada and Whybird.
Thanks – I see that now. Although if we are having “youth speak” (as in 19a) then my construction does work. Adjective followed by not = un-whatever.
I wasn’t expecting a proper Toughie from Dada and didn’t write anything into the grid until the spirit in 13a. The mother of pearl used to appear regularly in the Quick Crossword but as I only look at the pun on Saturdays, I don’t know whether it still does
The light in 2d is a word in a crossword grid that is the solution to a clue. 8d is uniced with not in it
Thanks to Dada for a proper testing of the cryptic grey matter and to Whybird for the blog
Thanks CS. I follow 8d (see my comment to Frankiemillwall above). I hear what you say about 2d, but doesn’t that make “light” the answer rather than the clue? The spirit was my first one in, too.
I enjoyed most of this with 25a my favourite. It was a mixed bag in terms of difficulty, but I thought overall about right for a Tuesday Toughie despite a few real toughies thrown in.
I still don’t understand 8d. I get that plain cakes are un-iced, but where is the instruction to insert “not”?
According to the BRB, 10a meaning a smell is either obsolete or American, either of which should be indicated; and surely 22d needs an American indicator too (Collins agrees, although bizarrely the BRB says “chiefly” US.)
Thanks to Dada and to Whybird.
In 8d ‘cakes’ is the containment indicator.
Ah, yes. Thanks Gazza. That was far too clever for me.
Thanks Gazza!
I have twice posted a comment only to get a message both times saying “duplicate comment detected”. So I’ll try now pasting my comment here and see what happens!
It worked this time, only my original message has miraculously appeared, so I am now deleting the the pasted bit from this one using the edit function …
Dada has certainly upped his difficulty level today with some very neat misdirections; I hope this means that he has been released from his straitjacket and will be bringing us proper Toughies from now on. I enjoyed this a lot – thanks to Dada and Whybird.
Lots to like here including 1a, 15a, 14d, 16d and 20d.
Regular reader (well I come for the hints) but seldom commentator but was glad to get through this one without help and was over the moon to see I had completed one that was assigned more than a star or two of difficulty. I thought I had best comment to celebrate.
I do like Dada. The answers don’t flow in but very satisfying when they reveal themselves. Loved 14d and the ‘maddening number’ when the penny did drop.
Cheers to the blogger and everyone else who has provided me with hints over the months.
This had much more of a Paul in the Graun feel to it in terms of difficulty & very enjoyable it was too despite the hard work I made of the RHS. Like our blogger & CS 13a was my first in, I also spent too long down the minim blind alley, took a while to twig cakes as a containment indicator & even longer to peg 19a. Plenty of ✅s on my page – 1,26&27a plus 8,14&20d particular likes.
Many thanks to Dada & to Whybird
I’m pleased it wasn’t just me who found this difficult. If this sets the standard it doesn’t bode well for the rest of the week. 10a and 2d were both bung ins as I couldn’t see the synonym for either and 5a was a new one on me but fairly clued as was 22a. The rest were difficult but doable. Favourite was 21a. Thanks to Dada and Whybird.
A very busy day here in Valencia meant a late start on this. I was expecting a quick romp, but it took me twice as long as I expected.
Excellent puzzle. Many thanks to Dada and to Whybird for the write-up.
An absolute belter of a puzzle. My first go was during lunch and I limped to about 8 answers before deciding this was Dada in evil mode & mood. Picked it up again a short time ago, and the rest flowed in with barely a pause – a complete contrast and proof again that so often a rest is as good as a change!
Great puzzle, too many ticks from which to highlight just a few. Thank you to Dada but in particular to Whybird, whose task I certainly did not envy today.
I’m a regular Toughie but first time I’ve left a comment here, albeit belatedly. Found this one very tough with some obscurities. Very enjoyable though.
I’d like to offer an alternative answer to 5 across : HIMAWARI
As far as I can see it works as well.
Thanks for an uplifting Tuesday evening Dada
Welcome to the blog, Bill.
Now that you’ve de-lurked I hope that you’ll become a regular commenter.