Toughie No 3579 by Prime
Hints and tips by ALP
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Toughie difficulty **+ – Enjoyment *****
Somewhat of a tour de force from Prime today: smartly studded with pith and wit. It took me a moment to find my stride but, from then on, this was a fair and fizzy romp. I loved it. Over to you.
Across
1a South American canteen cooked food (10)
SUSTENANCE: Abbreviated “south” + two-letter “American” + CANTEEN, cooked.
6a A certain amount of exuberance driving service (4)
UBER: Lurker, hidden in the fifth word.
9a A brown drink rising here? (10)
PERCOLATOR: The three-letter ‘A’ + (fizzy) “brown drink” + rising/peak. Very neat.
10a Mock American’s finale (4)
CODA: Mock/sham + one-letter “American”.
12a Doomed to get abruptly skinny (4)
INFO: Doomed to get or receive (2,3), minus the last letter. Delighted to see a pro validate this “skinny” synonym as I’m a great fan. I just need a “focus on” and a partial homophone from him now, please!
13a International kit manufacturer with leader to go and briefly smooth over tricky situation (9)
IMBROGLIO: Abbreviated “international” + (sports – football, etc) kit manufacturer, (leaderless), minus the first letter + (adjectival) smooth, again minus (briefly) the first letter + abbreviated “over”.
15a Where to place organ of legendary gunfighter – i.e. in front of church (8)
EARPIECE: “Legendary gunfighter” (think O.K. Corral) + “IE” + the most usual “church”.
16a One struggling with end of Countdown game: Conundrum (6)
ENIGMA: The usual “one” + [Countdow]N + GAME, struggling. As Prime recently appeared (brilliantly) on Countdown, I can only imagine this is a deeply personal clue!
18a Internal shaft where things go that are addressed and unaddressed? (2-4)
IN-TRAY: Abbreviated “internal” + shaft/beam. Ha, not a fan of paperwork, eh? Heck, who is?
20a Terrible to lose head in fair (8)
RIGHTFUL: Terrible/ghastly, minus the first letter.
23a Most dangerous diet leads to collapse (9)
DEADLIEST: DIETLEADS, collapsing.
24a Greetings from Hawaii, say, not initially returned (4)
HIYA: The code for Hawaii + “say”, minus the first letter and reversed. I was especially pleased that this had nowt to do with “aloha” which I’ve seen clued more times than Serengeti!
26a Introduction to gospel not included in part of Bible (4)
RUTH: Gospel/fact, minus the first letter.
27a Get prepared with Russian stamps (10)
SIGNATURES: GETRUSSIAN, prepared.
28a Party room? (4)
DORM: The usual “party” + abbreviated “room”. Very Malory Towers!
29a Protest Snow White character must follow book, delighted when campaign is almost over (5,5)
DEMOB HAPPY: The usual four-letter protest/march, plus one of seven characters in Snow White, following abbreviated “book”.
Down
1d Brief 30 days in clan (4)
SEPT: Double definition.
2d One close to Venus said it’s less cloudy (7)
SERENER: Homophone of someone close/related to Venus. Not a classical reference, so please don’t go down my brief Mars route!
3d Cocaine and Molly distributed cheaply (12)
ECONOMICALLY: COCAINEMOLLY, distributed. As regards the surface, I am reliably informed that Molly and Ecstasy are not the same thing, but it’s so beyond my ken I still don’t really understand the difference!
4d A spy on edge in an emergency (2,1,5)
AT A PINCH: ‘A’ + (to) spy/bug + (to) edge/creep.
5d How funny, award is hollow (6)
COOMBE: How funny/expression of surprise + award/gong.
7d Merseyside town guild’s first criminal record? (7)
BOOTLEG: Merseyside town (just north of Liverpool) + G[uild].
8d Just about like working with expert (10)
REASONABLE: The usual-ish “about”, “like” and “working” + expert/adept.
11d Let’s drink what’s going through blue straw (4,3,5)
DOWN THE HATCH: Two-letter “what” inside/through blue/sad and “straw” (on the roof).
14d Playwright turned medical drama into plot at sea (10)
BEWILDERED: (old Irish) playwright + (old US) medical drama, reversed, all inside (garden) plot.
17d Japanese company plan to probe local drama (8)
NINTENDO: (to) plan/mean inside/probing local (i.e., Japanese) drama.
19d Judas picked up bread and oil, perhaps (7)
TRAITOR: (Indian) bread + “oil” (by example), picked up/reversed. NB there is an indistinct swear word at the end of this famous Dylan clip. Please don’t click if you’re likely to be offended,
21d Plant that eats fuel wanting core function written up (7)
FLYTRAP: F[ue]L + function/bash, reversed.
22d Cat mostly nourished by crow’s foot? (6)}
FELINE: Nourished/sustained, minus the last letter + “crow’s foot”, by example.
25d Does live sport save City game?(1-3)
I-SPY: Does live/exists + sport/game, save/minus (US) city.
We’ve got five anagrams, two all-in-ones and a raft of reversal, deletion and Lego. I found it very hard to choose favourites. 9a’s clue-as-definition, 2d’s “Venus”, 14d’s Lego, 19d’s reversal and 25d’s surface all tickled me. As did 16a’s Countdown reference. Etc. But I think 11d raised the biggest smile. What’s your take?
Loved this. Last one in was 2d. Still couldn’t parse it. Then an hour later looked again and it hit me. Overhead smash I think. Make that my cotd. Thanks to Prime and ALP
On the whole not too difficult, but I struggled with 13a, and initially wrote in hola at 24a.
A most enjoyable puzzle; the two I liked most were 11d and 22d.
Many thanks to Prime and to ALP. I thought the definition of 21d is the first three words?
You’re absolutely right, it is. Just checking you’re reading through to the end! Ta lots, duly sorted.
Tricky in places but very enjoyable – thanks to Prime and ALP.
I liked 2d when the penny dropped (even though the homophone doesn’t quite work for me) and I also ticked 9a, 28a and 11d.
Can’t make my mind up if 2d is brilliant or awful, though I did like the end of campaign in 29a and the blue straw in 11d.
Best of all though is the criminal record in 7d.
All good fun, thanks to Prime and ALP.
A few holdouts near the end turned what had promised to be a reasonably comfortable solve into a slog. Can’t claim an unaided finish either. Bunging in sunnier at 2d rendered 9&12a impossible. Once deleted after using the check all facility they duly yielded but I then needed the hint to get 2d. Hey ho – a very enjoyable puzzle but I’ll need to read through the review properly to clarify a couple of parsings.
✅s against 9,15,28&29a plus 7,11&14d.
Thanks to Prime & to ALP
I struggled with some of this, which is fair enough for a Thursday Toughie. Something of a Curate’s egg for me. 29a has nearly as many words as an entire Beam puzzle, and I’m not mad keen on “doomed” and “sport”. However, there was lots of good, head-scratching stuff, notably 2d, 9a and 26a.
Thanks to Prime for the challenge, and ALP for sorting out the wrinkles.
To be fair, “doomed to [receive]” and “sport” are definitions straight out of Chambers!