Toughie No 3548 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
This is a proper 19d from Osmosis with loads of clever wordplay, a lack of anagrams and a minimum of obscurities. I made solid progress through the puzzle until I got held up (largely due to 7d) in the NE corner. Many thanks to our setter for the entertainment.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Attire often blue, Marks primarily, cherished by Thatcher? (6)
DENIMS: insert the prime letter of Marks into a member of the Thatcher family.
4a Flash brace with jerks by mouth (3,5)
TWO TICKS: word meaning a brace and a homophone (by mouth) of facial jerks.
10a Cabbage splits centrally near some butter oil (9)
PATCHOULI: a word, from the French, for cabbage and the central letters of splits follow a shaped bit of butter.
11a Rock band’s touring for all to see famous sibling (5)
REMUS: a US rock band with its ‘S contains the letter meaning ‘for all to see’ in the cinema.
12a Tense way for Alsatian to touch mock bone (4,3)
TRUE RIB: assemble the grammatical abbreviation for tense, the French word for a way and a verb to mock or tease.
13a 4 rage after stripping of park furniture (7)
ARMOIRE: an abbreviated word for 4a and a synonym of rage follow the inner letters of park.
14a Pet, ignoring adult, leaves (5)
CRESS: a verb to pet or embrace without the abbreviation for adult.
15a Perhaps smoke and mirrors regularly function in illusionist’s cover (8)
IRRITANT: the even letters of mirrors followed by a mathematical function bracketed by the covering letters of illusionist.
18a Finish off drink having caught “Time” bell (6,2)
STRING UP: a verb to drink contains the abbreviation for time and a verb to bell.
20a Cockney’s warmer, one filling greengrocer’s shelf? (5)
EATER: warmer here is a device not an adjective.
23a I’m disgusted present contains old padding? (3,4)
YOU KNOW: an exclamation of disgust and an adjective meaning present with the abbreviation for old inserted.
25a Unsweetened new alternative to Stork? (7)
BITTERN: the opposite of sweet and the abbreviation for new. Stork is falsely capitalised.
26a White Christmas he nostalgically muffles (5)
ASHEN: hidden.
27a Tarzan costume? Look favoured by silly husband (9)
LOINCLOTH: string together an old instruction to look, an adjective meaning favoured or fashionable, a noun meaning silly and the genealogical abbreviation for husband.
28a Fairly pleasant location amid fells for reflection (8)
SWEETISH: insert a synonym of location into a verb meaning fells or cuts down then reverse the lot.
29a Book: what forecaster reads about southern sky’s front (6)
PSALMS: what a forecaster might read in order to tell your future contains the abbreviation for southern. Finish with the front letter of sky.
Down Clues
1d Hummus possibly paste, which indicates oil needed? (8)
DIPSTICK: what hummus is an example of and a verb to paste.
2d Clear bottom-right corner around this land for Japanese carving (7)
NETSUKE: a verb to clear (after tax, NI etc. have been deducted) and how we sometimes refer to the bottom-right corner of the grid containing the abbreviation for our country.
3d Dutch dancer’s not much appreciated by hard independent teacher (9)
MAHARISHI: remove the short word meaning ‘much appreciated’ from the name of a Dutch exotic dancer (and spy) with her ‘S. Append abbreviations for hard and independent.
5d Nation formerly small keeping one political broadcaster out (6,8)
WEIMAR REPUBLIC: an adjective meaning small contains the Roman one and the surname of Andrew the political broadcaster. Finish with an adjective meaning out or exposed.
6d Drone halfway across that Scottish territory (5)
THRUM: half of ‘that’ and an island in the Inner Hebrides.
7d On screen, he detected main Butlin’s venue operating? (7)
CAMPION: I got fixated on Clacton (where Sir Billy had a venue) for some time without being able to parse it. Getting 11a put paid to that idea. The main or first Butlin’s venue could be 4,1. Add an adverb meaning operating.
8d Teary inspiring woman, like Miss World upon victory? (6)
SASHED: a synonym of teary containing a feminine pronoun.
9d South-east town that holds beer game ably succeeded (9,5)
TUNBRIDGE WELLS: this is the town in Kent from where a disgusted individual often writes to an editor. Cement together a beer cask, a card game, an adverb meaning ably and the genealogical abbreviation for succeeded.
16d Crowded Sierra crossing estate’s rural backwater (3,6)
THE STICKS: an adjective meaning crowded and the letter that Sierra represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet contain the map abbreviation for estate.
17d Tube network earlier check through load (8)
BRONCHUS: the abbreviated name for our old transport network followed by the chess abbreviation for check inside a synonym of load or obligation.
19d How awful island’s controlled by Calabria ruffian? (7)
TOUGHIE: an expression of disgust and an abbreviation for island are contained inside how Calabria may be described based on its position within Italy.
21d Plant judge probes graft (7)
TREFOIL: an abbreviated judge probes a verb to graft.
22d After Becky’s outside, peg out skirt (6)
BYPASS: following the outer letters of Becky we need a verb to peg out or pop one’s clogs.
24d Musical piece broadcasting during practice session (5)
NONET: an adverb meaning broadcasting goes inside a practice session for cricketers.
For my podium I’ve selected 1a, 1d and 3d. How about you?
Good afternoon. This certainly lived up to its name. Not super tough, but testing. Ia and 1d fell into place quickly followed by a handful of others scattered across the grid. 10a needed the dictionary to check the spelling. 25a and 29a are my COTD. Thanks to the setter and Gazza for the review.
I found this quite difficult, but I’ve tackled harder toughies from Osmosis.
The two that caused me the most problems were 10a and 7d.
Many thanks to Osmosis and to Gazza – the same rating 4*/4*
I forgot to say that the bottom half was completed in entirety with only a couple filled in up north.
The NE also held me up, I found this corner contained the most complicated parsing.
2d was a new word for me, though I got it from the wordplay and 10a took me back to the hippy era when we all walked around stinking of the stuff.
A proper Friday workout, my COTD was the annoyingly excellent 15a.
Thanks to Osmosis and Gazza, great illustration for 1d. Keep it handy for when we get plonker as a solution.
Not too tough for Osmosis but full of his trademarks. I loved the definition of 23a, the effortless construction and surface of 27a, the cleverness of 3d and the cunning “network earlier” in 17d. “Calabria” [19d] was possibly a tad cheeky.
Thanks to The Master and to Gazza for the blog.
Great puzzle, and surprisingly accessible for an Osmosis challenge. Many thanks to Osmosis and Gazza
On the gentle side (for a Friday) and there’s a lot of clever clueing. ***/**** for me.
The choice of 7d is pretty obscure stuff, but the clue is very clever. 19d feels like a missed open goal, given the opportunity to reference the puzzle. A raspberry from me for 20a even with the ? – there’s no way they are “alternatives” even if they are part of the same family (although it does make the surface). 3d gets my prize for the clever subtraction, with honourable mentions to 7d and 16d.
Thanks to Osmosis for a pleasurable solve, and to Gazza for the blog