Toughie No 3575 by Dharma
Hints and tips by ALP
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Toughie difficulty **+ – Enjoyment ****
Dharma’s back to tickle and tease, with engineered surfaces and fair definitions, as always. Some real graft here. All yours.
Across
1a Really perfect foxtrot compensates for earlier tango (2,4)
IN FACT: Perfect/complete (6), with the first of its two T[angos] replaced with F[oxtrot].
4a Good way to interrupt relative’s rhetorical devices (7)
SIMILES: Good/great way/distance (walked in another man’s shoes, say) interrupting/inside (shortened) relative.
9a Boat race in East London introducing prize, for what it’s worth (4,5)
FACE VALUE: Cockney “boat race” + (to) prize/treasure.
10a Cast keep entertaining audience at the back (5)
HEAVE: Keep/own entertaining/containing [audienc]E.
11a Promotes uncapped players (7)
ASSISTS: Players (guitarists) less the first letter (uncapped).
12a Dog showed the way after daughter went off (7)
CURDLED: Dog/mongrel, plus showed the way/guided after the usual “daughter”.
13a Pull the plug on the French scheming twenty-four-seven (9)
ENDLESSLY: Pull the plug on/finish + “the” in French + scheming/cunning.
16a Is backing singer from the East offering his instrument? (5)
SITAR: ‘Is’ backing/reversed + singer/informer, from the East/reversed.
17a Best pressure to serve up stout (5)
PLUMP: Best/choice + the usual “pressure”.
18a Limited by cue, ace finds rest (9)
REMAINDER: The abbreviated “ace” limited by/inside cue/prompt.
21a Fancy knight and my boss getting mentioned in the same breath! (7)
LIKENED: (to) “fancy” + abbreviated “knight” + Dharma’s boss (at the Telegraph).
22a General, top of the pecking order? (7)
OVERALL: Double definition, with the second being slightly whimsical. How might one say top of the pecking order/above everyone? As in “Lando Norris is the ******* leader”, etc.
25a He wrote notes in out-of-court ruling (5)
VERDI: Ruling/sentence, minus the abbreviated “court”.
26a Spread out at home with dog lying around, speaking freely (7,2)
OPENING UP: Spread out/extend + the usual “at home” + (a distinctively nosed) dog, reversed.
27a One chasing a lot of wine is for Macron most encouraging (7)
ROSIEST: The usual “one” chasing/after “wine” (not red or white) minus its last letter + “is” in French (for Macron).
28a Vicar’s meeting before worship (6)
REVERE: The usual “vicar” plus (is meeting) the poetic “before”.
Down
1d Balloon delayed visiting France previously (7)
INFLATE: Delayed/overdue, after the (previous) two-letter synonym for “visiting” and abbreviated “France”
2d Much ado about nothing next to Conservative centre (5)
FOCUS: Ado/trouble minus its last letter about/containing the usual “nothing” and “Conservative”.
3d Bar Merriam-Webster’s latest, really wants Chambers (5)
CAVES: Really wants/lusts after, bar/minus [Merriam-Webste]R.
4d Cut breaking news channel, it’s slapdash (7)
SKETCHY: Cut/carve breaking/inside (Murdoch) “news channel”.
5d Guiding light of masculine pop band – former prime minister! (9)
MAHARISHI: Abbreviated “masculine” + (80s) pop band + former (in this case, last) PM.
6d Felt Adele broadcast tried to generate interest? (9)
LEAFLETED: FELTADELE, broadcast.
7d Lean close to Barclays and Lloyds? (7)
SLENDER: [Barclay]S + what Lloyds (or any bank) is by example.
8d Gains pounds, fifty deposited early (6)
PLUSES: Pounds/throbs, with the usual “fifty” put back (deposited early), i.e. promoted from third to second.
14d Manage to split dark pants, dungarees, on vacation – they’re tight (9)
DRUNKARDS: Manage/operate splitting/inside DARK, pants, plus D[ungaree]S.
15d Stiff from sweeping, sacrificing technique primarily for power (9)
EXPENSIVE: Sweeping/wide-ranging, turning T[echnique] into P[ower].
17d One placing flags around city for song and dance (7)
PALAVER: Someone who places flag(stone)s goes around/contains (US) city.
18d Safely negotiate dire clue? (4,3)
RIDE OUT: Reverse anagram, i.e. how a setter might clue “dire”.
19d Suggested, with humour, covering T. Rex within limits (6)
MOOTED: Humour/temper covering/containing ‘T’ + [r]E[x].
20d Race cut short, feeling in one’s bones returning and worsening (7)
RELAPSE: (Baton) “race”, minus its letter, plus (special) feeling (that’s in your bones/intuitive), reversed. This second synonym is, I think, very Dharma – smart, unusual and almost bound to fox/vex some!
23d Pick softer version of drug? (5)
ELITE: How one might (please don’t!) say “softer version of drug” as (1, 4).
24d Bank investor twisted in the end (5)
ANGLE: Investor (theatre, etc), with its last two letters twisted/reversed.
Just two anagrams and a plethora of garlicky synonyms made for a hugely enjoyable tussle. I especially enjoyed 13a’s “pull the plug on”, 27a’s “a lot of wine”/2d’s “much ado”, 14d’s surface and 18d’s knowing reversal. But 3d tickled me the most, especially as Merriam-Webster has just released a new dictionary. Though, having heard how they suggest pronouncing “primer”, I will NOT be buying it! How did you get on?
We’ve been royally spoiled today.
A blinding backpager followed by a terrific toughie, with a certain vertically challenged ex-pm namechecked in both.
Ticks aplenty on this one too, so I’ll just pick out one clue in each direction.
The cosy image conveyed in 26a along with its superb surface is particularly good and the urban navvy song and dance at 17 was my pick of the downs. Lovely word to pronounce that is too.
Thanks to Dhama and to ALP.
A most enjoyable puzzle that took me a couple of visits to complete.
My last couple in were 22a, and finally 19d.
Ticks against most of the clues; I particularly liked “much ado about nothing”, and other contenders were 13a, 25a, and the softer drug at 23d.
Many thanks to Dharma and to ALP.
I find it incomprehensible that anyone would want to create a verb from the word leaflet. Yes, I know it’s in the BRB as a verb but surely this appalling word must have been spawned by our friends across the pond, especially as the past tense appears to be spelt with one T and not two. Rant over!
I have lots of ticks on my page with 17a my favourite.
One question regarding 21a. I can’t equate the answer with the definition. For me, one means “at the same time” while the other means “compared to”.
Many thanks to Dharma for a stiff but enjoyable challenge, and to ALP for the review.
Hi RD. I take your point re 21a, of course, but there is an EM to cover what is a slightly whimsical/left-field definition.
Is EM a valid abbreviation?
Ha, almost certainly not!
Quite tricky and very enjoyable – thanks to Dharma and ALP.
My printout is festooned with ticks – I’ll just mention 1a, 12a, 2d, 17d and 18d.
For me Dharma continues to get better. Generally, this flowed well, had better surfaces, good misdirection in places and less somewhat strained obscurities. Thanks Stephen. */***
This took a helluva lot of getting into, the top half being much tougher than the bottom half [unless I just got used to it]. I agree that Dharma only gets better: his clever choices of synonyms and inventive wordplay are top notch. It was difficult to pick faves amongst such overall quality but 18d stood out, as did 19.
Many thanks to Dharma and to ALP for the blog [thanks for The Omnific, previously unheard, a sort of Tesseract/AAL blend, will check em out].
Many thanks to ALP for his usual spot-on review and music choices and to those who have commented, always much appreciated.
Ta lots for popping in, and for yet another zinger. Two in fact!
A late post but just popped in to say how much I enjoyed the puzzle, completed early this morning. Oddly I found it less tricky than I usually find this setter’s Toughies. From a host of ticks 5d had to be the pick as he’d featured in t’other place.
Thanks to Dharma & to ALP – not sure about JC singing Ewan MacColl’s great song – first heard Roberta sing it in Eastwood’s terrific Play Misty For Me. Great Jam song.
Perfect Thursday level (despite it now being Sunday…) This was an absolute belter, thank you, Dharma. 1a and 3d are outstanding and there’s a host of other top-notch wordplay. No problem for me with 21a. I take the breath mention here as being a favourable comparison, rather than a matter of timing, although it can be both.
Thanks to ALP for the blog.
What a super Toughie!
The subtle and often cleverly devious wordplay made it most entertaining. It certainly did, in ALP’s words, ‘tickle and tease’! I enjoyed the challenge very much indeed.
My printout is covered in ticks and it is impossible to choose just a single favourite. My principal likes are 2d and 3d, as well as 1a, 3a, 17a, 21a, 25a and 27a; 5d, 6d, 7d, 14d and 23d.
Many appreciative thanks to Dharma for the superb entertainment.
Many appreciative thanks to ALP for the musically illustrated review. No clip for 25a? Our Merriam-Webster dictionary is the 1948 edition. It weighs a ton but is an amazing compilation.
Only managed to get round to this “early o’clock” this morning, but what an enjoyable and properly challenging Toughie. Many thanks to Dharma.
ALP – re 1d – to account for both delayed and previously, I think you need to parse it as “LATE (delayed) with IN+F previously”. Thank you for the great blog.
Ta lots for the catch MG. Great subbing. That is exactly what I meant to put + didn’t/failed to do! Sorted. Cheers.