Toughie No 3551 by Beam
Hints and tips by ALP
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
A fun romp from Beam today, with his usual brevity, wit and imaginative synonyms – plus, of course, royalty and “sweetheart”. I thought, for a second, that this might have a political bent, what with Labour tax cuts and fair Tories. But no, we soon got back to lingerie! Good, honest entertainment. Over to you.
Across
7a Labour’s leader with brilliant tax cut (8)
LACERATE: L[abour] + brilliant/superb + tax/charge.
8a Lecherous desire, love before noon (6)
WANTON: Desire/wish + the usual “love” and “noon”.
9a Reportedly raise rent (4)
HIRE: Homophone of (to) raise/lift.
10a An impediment to freedom of speech? (10)
LARYNGITIS: What (condition) might make it difficult to speak?
11a Check barrier on compound (6)
DAMPEN: Barrier (river, etc) + compound (prison, say). Just ignore the usual “on” convention in an across here.
13a Firm helping around bank’s opening (7)
ABIDING: Helping/assisting around/containing B[ank].
14a Resolute detectives seen in action (7)
DECIDED: The usual “detectives” in(side) action/feat.
16a Touching when snatching win before time (7)
AGAINST: The two-letter “when” snatching/containing win/secure, plus the usual “time”.
19a Head of ship getting fish? (7)
SKIPPER: S[hip] + (breakfast?) fish.
20a Pierce middle of blockages blocking drain (6)
SKEWER: [Bloc]K[ages] blocking/inside drain/channel.
21a Supporter with moan about new player (10)
BENEFACTOR: Moan/gripe about the usual “new” + player/actor.
22a White china plate’s finish (4)
PALE: The usual “china” + [plat]E.
23a Humble of French chap embracing European (6)
DEMEAN: The French for “of” + chap/bloke, embracing/containing the usual “European”.
24a Ushering English Queen into do (8)
STEERING: The usual “English” and “Queen” into/inside (to) do/cheat.
Down
1d Defence of royal retainer in speech (8)
PALISADE: Homophone (6,3) of “royal retainer”.
2d Fair start from Tories in charge (4)
FETE: T[ories] in/inside charge/price.
3d Degenerate with everybody in bog (6)
FALLEN: The usual “everybody” in/inside bog/marsh.
4d Leave more bitter about sweetheart, upset (7)
RETREAT: More bitter/sharper about/containing Beam’s usual “sweetheart”, reversed/upset.
5d To sleep, perchance to dream? (10)
INFINITIVE: Two definitions by example (indicated by perchance and question mark), neatly referencing Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” soliloquy.
6d Mislaying record including trespass (6)
LOSING: Record/enter including/containing trespass/(do) wrong.
8d Appealing with turn to bat (7)
WINNING: The abbreviation for “with” + “turn to bat” (in baseball – cricket would need an ‘S’).
12d Rich interfered pocketing filthy grand (10)
PRIVILEGED: Interfered/snooped, pocketing/containing filthy/foul and the usual “grand”.
15d Resolve without proposal to keep single (7)
EXPLAIN: Two-letter “without” + proposal/scheme, keeping/containing single/one.
17d Fantastic being clothed in chaster lingerie (8)
STERLING: Lurker, hidden in the last two words.
18d Gripe pain eating rhubarb (7)
PROTEST: Pain/nuisance eating/containing rhubarb/nonsense.
19d Nation‘s ally swamped by Japanese currency (6)
SWEDEN: (to) ally/unite swamped/contained by “Japanese currency” (coin). No ‘Y’ here!
20d Classified as somewhat monotonous or tedious (6)
SORTED: Lurker, hidden in the last three words.
22d Peel and remove exterior, initially (4)
PARE: Acrostic.
No anagrams, obviously, from Beam. Instead, we have two homophones, a couple of lurkers, an &lit and a cryptic definition, plus Lego. I did enjoy 7a, 1d, 5d (I liked it last time too!) and 19d but 19a’s &lit takes it for me. How did you get on?
Superb crossword, though the parsing of 1d had me going for a while. I assumed it was an inclusion clue before eventually realising it was simply a homophone.
The complaining crowd member in 21a struck a chord with me and I liked the ‘do’ reference in 24a.
The bitter reversal in 4d and the filthy grand at 12d were clever but my COTD, to be sure, had Hamlet scratching his chin in 5d.
Both crosswords today were hugely enjoyable
My thanks to Beam and ALP.
Another fine puzzle from Beam.
Plenty to enjoy, but I think I’ll opt for the 1d homophone as my favourite.
Many thanks to Beam and to ALP.
We are indeed spoilt today. Two great puzzles.
I thought our resident cricketer RD was bound to throw a wobbly with no S on the second part of 8d, but I forgot that it is perfectly legitimate in baseball.
I enjoyed the quote from Hamlet at 5d, but CoD must go to the excellent homophone at 1d. I’m sure it must have been done before, but I loved it.
Thanks to Beam and ALP.
Yes, Shabbo, 8d has three crosses by it on my page due to the lack of an American indicator!
I found this pretty difficult with a lot of head scratching going on but immensely enjoyable. Lots of candidates for favourite but I’ll go with the homophone in 1d, very droll. Thanks to Beam and ALP.
Evening all. My thanks to ALP for the analysis and to all who left an observation.
RayT
Many thanks for popping in. An absolute treat, as ever.
Very late in today, my apologies and devotions to Mr T/Beam.
Another excellent puzzle from the concise wizard in which the parsing of both 5&19d caused a bit of head-scratching. Another vote here for 1d as favourite and I also ticked 10&24a plus 15d.
Much appreciated, Mr T/Beam, and thanks to ALP for the review – quite enjoyed the recital of ‘IF’ but I’m sure you could have managed something from Sting to illustrate 24a!
Beaten by 1d – only twigged it once revealing the 1st letter. Very annoying after battling through the previous 2 days & this one was a relative breeze. That said I’m not entirely certain I fully understand 5d – recognised the soliloquy but beyond that a bung in from the checkers. Enjoyable as ever with the topical 10a (both sides of the pond) surface my fav.
Thanks to Beam & ALP – think those opening credits were my first exposure to King Curtis
A fun solve done late in the day Thursday after moving the Friday back pager.
Found this a little trickier than a RayT back pager, but all the usual RayT/Beam characteristics revealed themselves.
3*/4* for me
Thanks to RayT/Beam for the challenge & ALP
Funny how these things roll. I found this so Tough it could have been an Elgar. Just couldn’t get the SW. normally I “get” Ray T’s puzzles but he’s a comprehensive victor this time. 1d and 5d were my favourites, the latter only blocking when I went down the “find a word that fits and explain it” route. Very clever!
Thanks to Beam and ALP