Toughie No 3542 by Django
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Django is back with another enjoyable Toughie, which I thought was just right for a Wednesday. Some very clever wordplay, parts of which took a fair bit of unravelling – I’m looking particularly at you 28a!
Please let us know what you thought
Across
1a Object in special case on stand (4,9)
TAKE EXCEPTION A stand, viewpoint or opinion and a special case
9a Caught station interrupting show again – things go downhill fast here (6,3)
CRESTA RUN The cricket abbreviation for Caught and an abbreviated [railway] station inserted into (interrupting) a way of saying show (a tv programme perhaps) again
10a Go up first for chicken wing? (5)
CLIMB The first letter of chicken and part of a body such as a wing
11a Unpleasant in-laws stay occasionally (5)
NASTY The occasional letters of iN lAwS sTaY
12a Country India controlled (4)
IRAN The letter represented by India in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet and a synonym for controlled
13a Conversation in Siamese maybe translated into French (4)
CHAT A feline such as a Siamese ‘translated’ into French
15a Heard seals and young birds (7)
CYGNETS A homophone (heard) of small seals
17a Decline delivery (4-3)
DROP-OFF A decline or a delivery of goods
18a Let nine off to be merciful (7)
LENIENT An anagram (off) of LET NINE
20a Hole where bogeys could be upsetting to Ernie Els – but not the Europeans (7)
NOSTRIL A lovely misleading surface reading. An anagram (upsetting) of TO eRNIe eLS without any instance of the abbreviation for European
21a Record that a performer covers (4)
TAPE Hidden in (covers) thaT A PErformer
22a Put extremely expensive roof back on the house (4)
FREE The ‘extreme’ letters of ExpensivE and RooF reversed (back)
23a Old outspoken sea dog’s chance (5)
OCCUR The abbreviation for Old, the letter that sounds like (outspoken) the word sea and a worthless dog
26a Melania tripped, ultimately stopping First Lady’s escape (5)
EVADE The last letters (ultimately) of melaniA and trippeD ‘stopping’ the first lady in the Old Testament
27a Inspiring new design to fit plug in (9)
UPLIFTING An anagram (new design) of FIT PLUG IN
28a They sought excitement in adult books after getting a bishop’s 7 sins back to front (7,6)
KNIGHTS ERRANT The abbreviations for Adult and the books in the second half of the Bible go after the 7d of a bishop on a chess board, and part of a verb meaning sins where the last letter (back) is moved to the front
Down
1d Cite 24 lies told originally about minor details (14)
TECHNICALITIES An anagram (about) of CITE, the solution to 24d, LIES and T (the original letter of Told)
2d In retirement, look for ganja essentially to go inside joints (5)
KNEES A reversal (in retirement) of a verb meaning to look for into which is inserted (to go inside) the ‘essential’ letter of gaNja
3d Go steady with nurse – to begin with it’s not demanding? (5-5)
ENTRY-LEVEL An abbreviated Enrolled Nurse, a verb meaning to go and steady or well-balanced
4d/19d Completes horror film – animated short that’s repugnant (7,7)
CARRIES THROUGH A 1976 horror film, an anagram (animated) of SHORT and an exclamation of repugnance
5d/20d Tingling sensation when Nick returns with things found under Christmas tree? (4,3,7)
PINS AND NEEDLES A reversal (returns) of a notch or slit (nick), the conjunction meaning with, and things found under a Christmas tree
6d Short distance from a member of church (4)
INCH Belonging to (a member of) and the abbreviation for church
7d Starmer to Reeves for one hour being broadcast (9)
NEIGHBOUR What Starmer is to Reeves when they are both at home in Downing Street. An anagram (broadcast) of HOUR BEING
8d Regularly daub it with Flora Light spread – tasty! (1,3,2,3,5)
A BIT OF ALL RIGHT The regular letters of dAuB and IT (from the clue) followed by an anagram (spread) of FLORA LIGHT
14d Drives twelve 6s on the spin – exhausted another crosses the line (4,3,3)
GOES TOO FAR A synonym for drives, a reversal (on the spin) of the measure of twelve solutions to 5d, and the outside (exhausted) letters of AnotheR
16d Band with famous singer making independent label agree, initially, to provide access to smack? (9)
GANGPLANK A group of people associating together and the stage name of a famous American singer, where the abbreviation for Independent is changed to the initial letters of Label and Agree. I couldn’t find an illustration of one providing access to a fishing boat (smack)
19d See 4 Down
20d See 5 Down
24d 6 cycling with a mate (5)
CHINA Cycle the solution to 6d and then add A (from the clue)
25d I light up shop (4)
DELI A reversal (up) of I (from the clue) and a type of light
Certainly an increase in difficulty from yesterday.
Plenty to enjoy here. The two I enjoyed most were 13a and 20a.
Many thanks to Dharma and to CS.
Django not Dharma
Yes! Apologies to setter, and thanks to CS for the correction.
Thanks to Django for a very enjoyable puzzle.
A very entertaining puzzle – thanks to Django and CS.
I particularly liked 20a, 22a, 3d and 16d (very amusing surface but I don’t know why the singer is ‘famous’).
Enough straightforward clues to get a start and give me a fighting chance of solving the rest which I did with a mixture of inspired guessing and reverse engineering. I really enjoyed the challenge though. Favourite was 28a. Thanks to Django and CS.
I agree with Gazza in questioning the use of famous to describe the singer, but I suppose anyone who gets any kind of media coverage these days is so defined.
The solution to 8d made me smile and brought to mind dear old Sid James.
Also amusing though slightly distasteful to some is the definition in 20a.
My other picks are the rather complicated thrill seekers in 28a and the equally clever 14d with its twelve 6s on the spin.
This was a welcome return to a proper toughie after the floughiness we had yesterday.
I very much enjoy Django’s offerings, they never disappoint. My thanks to him and CS.
Of course she’s “famous”, even I’ve heard of her (on many occasions actually). Here’s just one paragraph from the Wiki page devoted to her.
Pink has sold over 135 million records worldwide (60 million albums and 75 million singles),[2] making her one of the world’s best-selling music artists.[3] Pink is also the most-played female solo artist in the United Kingdom during the 21st century,[4] while Billboard named Pink the Pop Songs Artist of the 2000s Decade. Her accolades include three Grammy Awards, two Brit Awards (including Outstanding Contribution to Music), a Daytime Emmy Award and seven MTV Video Music Awards (including the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award) and two MTV Europe Music Awards. At the 63rd annual BMI Pop Awards, she received the BMI President’s Award for “her outstanding achievement in songwriting and global impact on pop culture and the entertainment industry”,[5] and she was honored with the People’s Champion Award,[6] the iHeartRadio Music Award Icon Award.[7] Billboard also named Pink the 2013 Woman of the Year at the Billboard Women in Music and honored her with the Billboard Icon Award and the Billboard Legend of Live. VH1 ranked her 10th on its list of the 100 Greatest Women in Music.
Of course I’ve heard of her too, Jane.
You’re absolutely right, she is famous. Having checked several dictionaries, the definition of the word states it merely means widely know.
In the literal sense, there are lots of people who are technically famous, though relatively unknown to many others.
My apologies Jose, for getting your name wrong.
Notwithstanding that, maybe the setter used “famous” to indicate that a person’s name was required rather than merely a synonym of the word “singer”? You never know ……
re 27 across, ‘TO’ is not part of the anagram (9 letters).
So it isn’t
What did you think of the crossword?
I really enjoyed solving this one; 14 Down – brilliant, I think.
Jumped into this one, unlike Sundays. Living n Switzerland, 1a came to me quickly but needed a minute to parse it. 15a and 16d took some time. All in all, quite enjoyable with no shockers. Thanks to Cryptic Sue and the setter!
And thanks to Cryptic Sue and the setter.
Quite a lot of tricky unpicking to do so not a quick solve for us. Plenty to keep us smiling though.
Thanks Django and CS.
Brilliant puzzle, despite the cross-referencing back to 6 and the split clues at 4 and 5 – at least they weren’t wandering all over the grid!
A straightforward solve if one didn’t worry too much about parsing one or two of the answers. Which I didn’t. For example wouldn’t have known the singer if they’d been sitting at the kitchen table with me. Fame is relative. Is the drug reference (smack) also relevant to the singer?
Honours to 13, 4 & 14. A broad smile at 20a.
Many thanks to Django and Sue
Quality stuff here. A bit irritated at first by 1d-> 24d-> 6d so solved 6d and then the other 2 and felt much happier. Re 27a, which is one of the best constructed anagram clues for a long while, the word “to” is an essential part of the indicator. Other toppers were the Siamese to French in 13a, the clever use of the horror film in 4/19d and the definition in 7d [another brilliant anagram clue].
Thanks to Django and CS.
Thanks CS and thanks all.
My reason for using the phrase ‘famous singer’ in 16d was similar to my use of the phrase ‘horror film’ in 4/19d. ‘Singer’ and ‘film’ would have been fine technically but in both cases, I thought the qualifier made it a little fairer.
I didn’t expect people would quibble over whether Pink was or wasn’t famous, mind. (FWIW, she’s won 3 Grammys, 2 Brits, sold 60million albums, 75 million singles and (according to Wikipedia), in 2021 she was deemed the most played female artist in the UK in the 21st century!)
Anyway, it was intended as a gentle nudge to the solver to think of an actual famous singer as opposed to bass/soprano/chanteuse/tit/alto or whatever other term for singer one might otherwise have thought of.
I don’t doubt that she is famous, Django, it’s just that she and her fame have passed me by – I don’t think I’ve listened to daytime pop music radio for at least 15 years, and took increasing less interest in it for the preceding 15 years. Totally fair game for a crossword, though, with rest of your careful clueing, since the overall answer could be biffed in blissful ignorance!
Great puzzle, thank you once again.
Excellent puzzle. No surprise 20a my clear fav from many fine clues. As for Pink along with Taylor Swift can’t see what all the fuss is about.
Thanks to Django & to CS