Toughie No 3588 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
We have a typical Osmosis puzzle with cunningly-disguised definitions, clever wordplay, nothing really obscure and a welcome lack of anagrams. I enjoyed the challenge – thanks to Osmosis.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Battle fast with poles to secure toilet (11)
PRESTONPANS: an adjective meaning fast followed by the two geographical poles containing a word for a lavatory bowl. You can read more about the battle here.
7a Fine iron runs through all the best fabric (7)
TAFFETA: the pencil abbreviation for fine and the chemical symbol for iron go into a term meaning ‘all the best’ or cheerio.
8a Joker keeps double parking in London area (7)
WAPPING: a joker contains a double dose of the abbreviation for parking and IN.
10a Turned to regulars in casual clothing (5)
ASCOT: TO plus regular letters from ‘casual’ all reversed.
11a Film producer winning Oscars never unoccupied (9)
MOONRAKER: a producer or creator contains two of the letters which Oscar represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet and the outer letters of ‘never’.
12a Will extra fish here in Boulogne end in creel? (7)
CODICIL: assemble a food fish, the French word for ‘here’ and the end letter of creel.
14a Minor gentry drinking retro cocktail (7)
NEGRONI: hidden in reverse.
15a Bakery regular, say, defends north in plain language (2,5)
EN CLAIR: a type of cake regularly on sale at a bakery contains the abbreviation for north.
18a Light pan fills space (3,4)
GAS LAMP: a verb to pan or criticize harshly goes inside a space.
20a Perhaps saw monkey and other primates disrupting rented property (9)
IMPLEMENT: a monkey or mischievous child followed by human primates contained in a rented property.
21a Love following game (5)
FLAME: the abbreviation for ‘following’ and a synonym for game (as an adjective).
22a Sinner ahead of all other players? The ultimate achievement (7)
EVEREST: the earliest Biblical sinner precedes all the others.
23a Hand Geordie reduced sentence primarily for good behaviour (7)
MANNERS: rivet together a synonym of hand or worker, the abbreviation for Geordie and the primary letters of Reduced Sentence.
24a Beige round actor’s posh house (11)
SANDRINGHAM: charade of a beige colour, a verb to round or circle and an informal term for a poor actor.
Down Clues
1d Humourless female wicked in school (2-5)
PO-FACED: the abbreviation for female and an adjective with the modern sense of wicked go inside a fishy school.
2d European singer’s ruined punk’s hair thus? (5)
ERECT: an abbreviation for European and a homophone of a synonym of ruined.
3d Drive on motorway disturbing Terry’s hamper (7)
TRAMMEL: a verb to drive or force and the abbreviation for motorway are contained in a popular shortening of the forename Terry.
4d Recent issue of novel largely supported (7)
NEWBORN: a synonym of novel or original and a truncated adjective meaning supported or carried.
5d A treatment centre served up dearest veg (9)
ASPARAGUS: this very popular veg comes from A, a health-giving treatment centre and the reversal of an endearment such as dearest.
6d Keep using credit in half of shops (5,2)
STICK TO: an informal word for credit or ‘time to pay’ goes inside the first half of a synonym of shops or emporia.
7d Tory so tense probing Blair? (11)
THATCHERITE: a word meaning ‘so’ (in the sense of “Is he an idiot? – he is ****”) followed by the grammatical abbreviation for tense inside a member of the Blair family.
9d Dracula overwhelmed by this urge means to impart bite (6,5) –
GARLIC PRESS: what is supposed to repel Dracula and a verb to urge or encourage.
13d Tea with juicy fruit bypassing electronic blender? (9)
CHAMELEON: our usual word for tea and a juicy fruit going round the abbreviation for electronic.
16d Forester initially rings Belgian site delivering tree (7)
CYPRESS: the initials of novelist Forester (author of the Hornblower books) contain the name of the town in Belgium where a number of WWI battles took place.
17d One regrets losing Penny’s record again (2-5)
RE-ENTER: a person who regrets loses the abbreviation for penny.
18d Bouncer from star cheers Glamorgan’s opener up (7)
GATEMAN: stick together a word for a star or celebrity, a short word of thanks (cheers!) and the opening letter of Glamorgan then reverse the lot.
19d Train crosses no English city (7)
ANAHEIM: This city in California is formed from a verb to train (a rifle, say) containing a dialect word for ‘no’ and an abbreviation for English.
21d High-flier drained frascati and regularly demolished gnocchi (5)
FINCH: the outer letters of Frascati followed regular letters from gnocchi.
I particularly liked 22a, 7d, 9d and 16d. Which one(s) did you favour?
Some lovely surfaces. 1a was quite a tricky kick-off, I thought, but very fairly clued – thank goodness!
8a’s comical, 2d’s fun and 7d’s a cracker. Best thanks to Osmosis and Gazza.
Phew, that was hard work! I needed a couple of hints to get across the line…I knew 1a was probably going to be a battle but couldn’t think which one and I’d never heard of the Californian city, so thanks for those Gazza. I appreciated help with a couple of parsings too.
I suppose 11a has to be my favourite although I’m more Wiltshire M**********r than Bond aficionado (don’t think I’ve ever seen the film!).
Thanks to Osmosis for the puzzle and Gazza for the hints and tips.
Great fun but on the mild side for Osmosis. I had most trouble with the LH edge – just couldn’t see the Tory or 10 and 20a. Got there in the end. Favourites must include the Tory and the other Blair as well as the Will extra and the Forester initially.
Thanks to Osmosis and Gazza.
Yup, that was hard going, with plenty of less obvious definitions adding to the confusion.
I’m still not happy with the game synonym in 21a, though I had to larf at the choice of word used to express the negative in 19d.
Plenty of ticks again though, with the author hidden in plain sight in 16d winning the Booker Prize for me.
My thanks to Osmosis for the brain ache and to Gazza for his usual well illustrated blog.
I needed 3 attempts at this to complete it.
I had a couple of goes this morning, and revisited the puzzle late afternoon to finish my final four. My last in was 19d (I would have stood no chance without all 4 checking letters).
The two I double ticked were 7d and 9d.
Many thanks to Osmosis and to Gazza.
Managed 14answers under my own steam & parsed ‘em too before throwing in the towel & opting for checker reveals starting at 1a/d (really ought to have twigged 1d down). Oddly enough I had heard of the place where the Jacobites handed out a good hiding to the English after playing Royal Musselburgh Golf Club nearby but needed the checker to jog the memory. 2 reveals later & thought fuggedaboutit & revealed all. AMPG – NTS.
9d my clear fav of the few I solved with 11a&13d other likes.
Thanks anyway to Osmosis & of course to Gazza & much respect to those who crack this.
Ps Andrew popped up near the bottom of the puzzle in t’other place so rather fitting his new digs make an appearance at the foot of this one.