Toughie No 3591 by Kcit
Hints and tips by ALP
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Toughie difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I pretty much flew through this, largely via definitions. A spot of reverse parsing was required, with a couple of synonyms prompting some scrolling – 28a’s “small child”, for one. But it’s all very fair. There is, perhaps, a little vocab, but once you’ve seen 1a you never forget it and, though, botany remains my nemesis, 3d is clearly built. All yours.
Across
1a Decorated stone wrecked giant painting after rolling over (8)
INTAGLIO: GIANT, wrecked, + painting (not watercolour), reversed/rolling over.
5a Arrest religious figure, admitting no changes (6)
STASIS: Religious figure/holy person + admitting no changes/unaltered (2,2).
10a Danger from empire – I’m leaving, and head of army too (5)
PERIL: from/relating to empire, minus the initial “IM” and internal ‘A’.
11a Sublime Parisian is one America held in lock-up (9)
CELESTIAL: “Is” in French/Parisian + the usual “one” + “America” (held) in lock-up/prison room.
12a Split, heading off for holiday (5)
LEAVE: Split/divide, minus the first letter.
13a Me and Charles installing a lot of precise procedures (9)
MECHANICS: “ME” + (diminutive) Charles, containing/installing precise/accurate (as per Chambers, definition #6) minus the last letter.
14a Star of the past mostly resident in European city (7)
POLARIS: Of the past/aged, minus the last letter, (resident) in European city/capital.
15a Cross, suppressing clever image (7)
TABLEAU: (T-shaped) cross suppressing/containing clever/skilled.
18 Location for royal family and daughter being accepted by elder statesman (7)
KINGDOM: Family/relatives, plus abbreviated “daughter” accepted/contained by the abbreviation for an elder statesman, i.e. a grand old man.
20a Restaurant reduced charge a good deal (7)
CARVERY: Charge/custody, minus the last letter, + a good deal/greatly.
21a Put off drink: finished swallowing last of spirits (9)
SUSPENDED: (to) drink + finished/over, containing [spirit]S.
24a Worn-out, having missed start of breakfast? Tuck in (3,2)
EAT UP: Worn-out/dilapidated (4-2), missing/minus B[reakfast].
26a I’m in a state showing excitement (9)
ANIMATION: “IM” inside ‘A’ state/country.
27a Question degree of tilt after missing first earth movement (5)
QUAKE: Abbreviated “question” + degree of tilt/inclination, minus its first letter.
28a Fixed penalty when abducting small child (6)
FINITE: Penalty/punishment abducting/containing small/young child. My daughter banned me from calling her kiddo when she was 11 – this Chambered synonym would have caused WW3!
29a Recalled the verse about English blokes being passionate (8)
VEHEMENT: “The” + abbreviated “verse” reversed/ recalled about/containing the usual “English” and “blokes”.
Down
1d Force that is keeping politician on Left (5)
IMPEL: Abbreviated “that is” keeping/containing politician/representative, on/before the usual “left”.
2d Waterproof urinal apt to crack (9)
TARPAULIN: URINALAPT, cracked.
3d Follow up to secure historic river plant with yellow flowers (9)
GOLDENROD: Follow/tail, reversed/up, securing/containing historic/aged and abbreviated “river”.
4d Rewards for work including places to live? Not at first (7)
INCOMES: Abbreviated “including” + places to live/domiciles, minus the first letter.
6d Opera soprano, gutted in performance, returns (5)
TOSCA: S[opran]O in(side) performance/deed, reversed/returned.
7d Turned up extract of terrific story in literary genre (3-2)
SCI-FI: Lurker, reversed in the fifth and sixth words.
8d Remark about Irish city, not new location of cathedral (9)
SALISBURY: Remark/utter about/containing (Northern) Irish city, minus the abbreviated “new”.
9d Call forth cup match upset, involving endless defeat (6)
ELICIT: (Cup) match upset/reversed, involving/containing defeat/beat, minus the last letter.
14d Crew, pursuing fish, showing something like harpoon? (9)
PIKESTAFF: Crew/workers pursuing/after (freshwater) fish.
16d Parody? British rules rewritten, quite outlawing it (9)
BURLESQUE: Abbreviated “British” + RULES, rewritten, + “quite”, minus its “it”.
17d Turn out smooth and tight after inverting cake ultimately (9)
EVENTUATE: Smooth/flat + tight/tense, reversed/inverted + [cak]E.
19d Servant cuddling medic in big city (6)
MADRID: (Female) servant cuddling/containing the most common “medic”.
20d Head of college very good about study, making change in pitch (7)
CADENCE: C[ollege], plus very good/super about/containing “study” (room).
22d Charlie and Oscar separately interrupting wrong child (5)
SCION: The usual “Charlie” and “Oscar” separately (i.e., not together) interrupting/inside wrong/offence.
23d Court supporting dismissal after turning milk? (5)
EXACT: Abbreviated “court” supporting/after dismissal/sack, reversed/turning.
25d After hollow pretzel, consume tuck (5)
PLEAT: P[retze]L + consume/scoff.
We’ve got three anagrams, a fair few cities and a flurry of containment/deletion. 12a reads well but 23d‘s wordplay was my favourite, though the surface escapes me! How did you get on?
I would not win any awards for my solving time, but I managed to complete it without too much difficulty.
The couple that I struggled to parse were 18a [elder statesman] and 28a [small child].
14a gets my tick.
Thanks to Kcit and to ALP.
I had the same parsing issues as Jezza, but those aside this was a fairly swift solve with no special favourites this afternoon. If pushed I would probably nominate 27d.
My thanks to Kcit and ALP.
A solid puzzle – thanks to Kcit and ALP.
I needed the BRB’s help to validate the 28a ‘small child’.
My favourite clue was 24a.
This was a joy to solve from start to finish.
The answers to 1a and 3d were new to me, so needed confirmation but couldn’t be anything else from the wordplay.
The sublime 11a, the passionate 29a and the turn out in 17d were particularly well clued as well as being pleasing words in their own right.
Nice one, Kcit and thanks to ALP for the blog.
I’m ashamed to say that the 8d city was almost my last one in…I was born and brought up there! Curiously, the city is also mentioned in the Telegraph today, an article about the various paintings of the cathedral by Turner and Constable. The Cathedral Close is still one of my favourite places.
Like ALP, I had to do some reverse parsing and checking (like 8d!) but it was an enjoyable solve.
Thanks to Kcit for the crossword and ALP for the hints.
1a was a new word for me and needed the hints to parse 10a, 11a and, inevitably, 28a. Also guilty of a bit of reverse engineering. Still a completed grid is a completed grid. Favourite was 29a. Thanks to Kcit and ALP.
Surprisingly gentle for a Thursday, and most enjoyable, a satisfying solve.
Managed just in time to notice it would print out on 2 pages and was able to reverse the page. Phew. Why cannot the Telegraph’s Puzzles/IT teams sort out what after all must be a very basic template? Never had a problem with The Times or, indeed, any other paper.
Many thanks to Kcit and ALP
If a puzzle spills onto two pages, I always try and mentally solve what’s on the second page before I press print (page 1 only).
This morning, the solution to 25d leapt off the page, and 29a wasn’t far behind.
I agree with you that it’s a little strange that one cannot shrink the puzzle onto a single sheet of paper.
Found it pretty chewy & a bit short on humour. Like our reviewer solved largely via definition though I’m sure it took me 5 times longer to twig the answer & even longer to nail down the why. Last in 1a & the yellow plant were notable exceptions (where the wordplay saw me home) as I wasn’t entirely sure of the definitions. NTS the small child synonym was new. Podium spots for 24a + 14&16d.
Thanks to Kcit & to ALP – not familiar with QCNH & am enjoying listening to them.
2*/3* …
liked 2D “Waterproof urinal apt to crack (9)”