Toughie No 3557 by Chalicea
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty */2 – Enjoyment ***
Greetings one and all. The pink-feet (and attendant fly-over squeaking) have continued to increase. but the major weekend excitement was (and still is) a very obliging Slavonian Grebe on West Kirby Marine Lake, and with sunshine to boot. Birders and general public have enjoyed a treat!
Chalicea, to whom, many thanks, has given us the mildest of puzzles today – so much so that I feel even a one-star difficulty would have been a bit OTT. I had to check a couple of elements to confirm my suspicions, but even these didn’t take much unearthing. I’m sure the resultant expanded GK will come in handy at some point. 13a, 19a and 30a get my rosettes today.
Hopefully the formatting has worked this week – thanks to CrypticSue for expanding the scope of Hints and Tips beyond untangling impenetrable crossword clues!
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1 Ability to tolerate money restricting day trip from time to time (8)
PATIENCE Alternating letters (from time to time) of “day trip” are inserted into (restricting) a component of money – In UK terms, the part that isn’t pounds or shillings
5 Old British plane circles round front of captured target (6)
OBJECT The usual letters for “Old” and “British” precede a type of plane (named for the propulsion method) into which is inserted (circles round) the initial letter (front) of “captured
9 Characters bathe, frolicking on mountain (8)
ALPHABET A three letter mountain (eg Franco-Swiss) followed by an anagram (frolicking) of “bathe” to get the characters used in a system of writing
10 Second substantial try (6)
SAMPLE A charade of the the usual letter indicating “second” and a synonym of “substantial” (or enough) gives a synonym of “try” (or taste)
12 Gold box essentially rearranged for seating on theatre’s main floor (9)
ORCHESTRA A charade of the two-letter heraldic “gold”, a type of sturdy box and the central pair of letters (essentially) of “rearranged” gets a seating location, apparently mainly used in American theatres (or theaters).
13 Warm heart of Kentish kiln (5)
TOAST The central letter (heart) of “Kentish” is followed by a type of kiln associated with that county. A simple but very elegant surface
14 Employs tricks with no reason initially (4)
USES The initial letter of “reason” is removed (with no) from a synonym of “tricks”
16 Protection of regularly added boundary (7)
DEFENCE A charade of the even-numbered letters (regularly) of “added” and a type of boundary
19 Thing to put in order this evening (7)
TONIGHT An anagram (put in order) of “thing to”. Another elegant surface.
21 Cry of pain from chicken, but no cry of pain? (4)
YELL Take a colour associated with (being) “chicken” and remove a two-letter cry of pain to get another more generic cry, which may or may not be of pain, as indicated by the “?”
24 Friend‘s aching, dropping back when cycling (5)
CHINA A Cockney rhyming slang “friend” is formed by removing the final letter (dropping back) of “aching” and then moving (“cycling”) the initial letter to the end
25 Playing cat and mouse with husband’s facial hair (9)
MOUSTACHE An anagram (playing) of “Cat”, “mouse” and the letter indicating “husband” gets a type of facial hair.
27 Frozen stick of oleic acid smashed without foolish ado (6)
ICICLE An anagram (smashed) of “oleic acid” but lacking the scrambled letters (without foolish) of “ado”
28 Uninformed, I storm angrily about disorderly NGO (8)
IGNORANT Take “I” from the clue and a four letter synonym of “storm angrily” and insert (about) the letters of “NGO” but in a slightly different order (disorderly).
29 Grasping guy heartlessly holding overturned hoofed beast (6)
GREEDY Remove the central letter (heartlessly) of “guy” and then insert an inversion of (holding overturned) a hoofed mammal
30 Suggests an engagement for models (8)
PROPOSES A charade of the prefix meaning “for” and a synonym of “models” as a verb
Down Clues
1 Sanctimonious adult son set up musical instruments (6)
PIANOS The two-letter “sanctimonious” (rarely encountered outside of Crosswords these days) is followed by the letter indicating “adult” and then an inversion (set up) of “son”
2 Subjects of conversation where film fans go (6)
TOPICS Splits (2,4) these subjects could be where people could be casually said to go in order to see a film.
3 Expunge extract from opera series (5)
ERASE The solution is lurking in (extract from) the letters of “opera series”
4 Institutes cases involving espionage principally (7)
CREATES Insert the initial letter (principally) of “espionage” into types of “cases” eg used in storage to get a synonym of “institutes” in the sense of “starting off”
6 Lovely British river in good condition rising on heart of Mull (9)
BEAUTIFUL This synonym of “Lovely” is a charade of the usual letter for British, a three-letter river and an inversion (“rising” ina down clue) of a three letter word meaning “be in good condition” followed by the central letters (heart) of “Mull”. I didn’t know of the river, and I may be doing it a disservice, but it doesn’t seem like a major waterway – except when it decides to flood
7 Accounts for former flat areas (8)
EXPLAINS The usual prefix meaning “former” is followed by types of flat areas associated with tracts of grasses
8 Supports organised settlers (8)
TRESTLES An anagram (organised) of “settlers” gives these supports, often associated with tables
11 Measure area of land (4)
YARD A double definition. The first an imperial unit, the second land a associated with a building
15 Conveyed indication a student directed (9)
SIGNALLED A charade of a four-letter type of indication, “a” from the clue, the usual letter denoting “student” (eg driver) and synonym of “directed” in the sense of eg “was in charge”
17 Supplying leg covering (8)
STOCKING A double definition, the first more “storing with the intent to supply”
18 Boundless, popular and sensitive about it (8)
INFINITE The usual two-letter “popular” is followed by a synonym of “sensitive” as in delicate or not robust into which has been inserted (about) “it” from the clue
20 Male in secure prison sentence (4)
TIME Insert the letter indicating “male” into a verb meaning “secure” as in eg shoelaces
21 Call for attention, yearning to ditch leader with less maturity (7)
YOUNGER Take a 6-letter “yearning”, remove the initial letter (to ditch leader) and precede that with a two-letter, very informal call for attention (famously used by George Dubya to address The Right Honourable Tony Blair at the G8 in 2006)
22 Abandons fights (6)
SCRAPS A double definition
23 Profundities thrown up when drinking pint (6)
DEPTHS Insert (when drinking) the abbreviation for “pint” into an inversion (“up” in a down clue) of a synonym of “thrown” (as in cast off)
26 Inferior tango upset band (5)
TROOP Take an adjective meaning “Inferior” (or not very good) and the letter represented by tango in NATO phonetics and invert the lot (upset)
Good afternoon. This was almost a record for me today and as luck would have it, two seconds faster than the back pager, which was filled very quickly as well. 5a is a peach of a clue and I really enjoyed 12a also. Many thanks to setter and reviewer.
All pretty straightforward although 12a was a bung in as I didn’t know the seating area but it was fairly clued. A pleasant diversion though. Favourite was 15d. Thanks to Chalicea and Whybird.
Not sure as to what the benchmark for a toughie is, but this was particularly gentle.
It wasn’t that long ago when we had a run of Tuesday offerings that were on a par with the Friday brainscramble.
That said, I did learn the name of a river in Lincolnshire which had previously flowed straight past me.
From a selection of well-written but rather straightforward clues, the shout going out in 21d and the swear-up whilst on the beer in 23d both grabbed my attention.
My thanks to Chalicia and to Whybird, who is no doubt finding blogging considerably easier than a few months ago when he started with a baptism of fire.
It definitely takes the pressure off when the Crossword Gods don’t get their calendars confused!
This was most definitely a Floughie but, that said, it was certainly very enjoyable.
The only thing that briefly held up my progress was the river in 6d, which I was rather surprised to find existed!
Many thanks to Chalicea and to Whybird.
I always enjoy Chalicea’s puzzles – never too difficult yet elegantly constructed and conceived. This was no exception, with 23d my favourite this afternoon.
Many thanks to her and Whybird.
Floughie indeed but good fun. Like others, I hadn’t previously come across the river but that was the only bit of investigation I had to do.
Smiles went to 2,7&17d.
Thanks to Chalicea and to Whybird for the review – I’ve sadly only ever seen a Slavonian Grebe in winter plumage.
They’re a bit flashy in full summer plumage. It is just great to see one at all at a distance measured in metres rather than miles!
Having been prompted to visit Toughieland by Huntsman in his earlier blog (my usual stance is that life is too short for two crosswords in a day), I was delighted to complete this more quickly than the mild back pager – at least until reading here that everyone else seemed to sail through it too. Nevertheless, a very enjoyable offering and 2d, my COTD, made me chortle. Thanks very much to Chalicea and to Whybird.
As ever, a good romp with Chalicea. It was a tale of four quarters really, for me finished in clockwise order from the NE. Clue constructions read effortlessly, with no awkward word order or desperate choice of words. If only it had lasted longer!
You can always rely on Chalicea to provide an entertaining puzzle and this was no exception. A couple caused the brain cells to overheat but, on the whole, an enjoyable solve. Mind you, I must refrain from bunging in answers without fully parsing the clue. Had I done so I wouldn’t have entered “offence” at 16a. (Look at it, Cowling how can that be correct, idiot?) My COTT is where film fans go at 2d.
Thank you, Chalicea for an entertaining puzzle. Thank you, Whybird for the hints.
We always have a pleased feeling when we see this setter’s name come up. She never fails to delight.
Thanks Chalicea and Whybird.
What a cracking puzzle from Chalicea, I am used to compound anagrams from proXimal and on Sunday we had three. I thought that was maybe one too many, but today Chalicea was possibly one to few.
Thanks to Chalicea and Whybird a real tonic for a bloke with a cold.
6d my favourite today even if the river was new to me as it gave me a chance to listen to this again
And there was everyone expecting James Blunt…
Thanks for sharing that, SJB. I’ll email you separately for advice on how to add in YouTube links
If John had posted James Blunt he’d have got some right stick from me & ALP.
If I catch any of his stuff on the radio I always think of Bryn in the car in Gavin & Stacey.
Probably marginally the easier of today’s two puzzles but very enjoyable nevertheless. Add me to those who’d not heard of the river but the smoothest of sailing elsewhere for a finish time that alerted the drug testers when benchmarked against the usual. Had hoped to see a few comments from the regulars in the other place.
Thanks to Chalicea & Whybird