Toughie No 3596 by Sparks
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Thanks to Sparks for an enjoyable puzzle.
When I was writing in the answers I noticed the number of high-scoring letters in Scrabble and thought that we might be heading for a triple pangram. Actually we seem to be a single Q short of the triple so only have a still impressive double pangram.
I think there’s an error in 2d.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Fling large eggs around back of stage following trade show (4,6)
LOVE AFFAIR: assemble the abbreviation for large, eggs containing the last letter of stage, the abbreviation for following and a trade show.
6a Backing Tory moderates in problematic situation (4)
STEW: reverse the term Margaret Thatcher used for her colleagues who were, in her opinion, insufficiently right-wing.
9a Complaint really briefly inflamed, then connected, both sides in argument (4,6)
SORE THROAT: an adverb meaning really or extremely followed by an adjective meaning inflamed without its last letter, a poetic form of an adverb meaning connected and the outer letters of argument.
10a Shelled horse, one in five? (4)
QUIN: a synonym of horse without its outer letters.
12a Passionate fighting male (4)
WARM: large-scale fighting and the abbreviation for male.
13a Hard times to come in Yard, say, after shake-up (5,4)
RAINY DAYS: an anagram (after shake-up) of IN YARD SAY.
15a Went back on fellow, for the most part breaking obligation (8)
RENEGUED: a preposition meaning on or concerning followed by most of an informal word for a fellow contained in a synonym of obligation or requirement.
16a Essentially, Marxist state welcoming international Jesuit (6)
XAVIER: the central letter of Marxist and a verb to state containing an abbreviation for international. This is a co-founder of the Jesuits.
18a Half-hearted hound hides stick, ultimately where he might sleep (6)
BASKET: a breed of hound without one of its middle letters contains the ultimate letter of stick.
20a Drug old cattle breed lying around boards (8)
KETAMINE: the reversal of a verb to breed or copulate goes inside an archaic word for cattle.
23a Capital of Brunei somehow entertaining Democrat Gary Hart to begin with (9)
EDINBURGH: an anagram (somehow) of BRUNEI contains the abbreviation for Democrat. Finish with the initial letters of Gary Hart.
24a American sailors picked up hero (4)
AJAX: an abbreviation for American and what sounds like an informal word for sailors.
26a US clumsy fool cutting head in jump on ice (4)
LUTZ: a slang US word for a clumsy fool without its first letter.
27a Sudden attack of glitz biker disrupted (10)
BLITZKRIEG: an anagram (disrupted) of GLITZ BIKER.
28a State of endless change caused by vote on viral problem (4)
FLUX: the letter we use to record a vote follows the short form of a viral problem which is prevalent at this time of year.
29a Sort of stalls additional resistance aboard ship (4-6)
NEWS-STANDS: an adjective meaning additional followed by a synonym of resistance inside our usual abbreviated ship.
Down Clues
1d Focus of developer on internet-gateway company’s programming language (4)
LISP: the central letter of developer and the abbreviation for a company providing internet access.
2d Very simplistic over potting right (supposedly magical) plant (7)
VERVAIN: start with the abbreviation for very and add the reversal of an adjective meaning simplistic or unsophisticated containing an abbreviation for right. Unless I’m missing something this doesn’t work because two of the vowels are in the wrong order.
3d Air of awful egoists, maybe (2,4,4,2)
AS TIME GOES BY: an anagram (awful) of EGOISTS MAYBE.
4d Conifers, three, regularly chopped into sacks (3,5)
FIR TREES: the odd letters of ‘three’ go into a verb meaning sacks.
5d Originally, Inland Revenue activated quick investment scheme for foreign nationals (6)
IRAQIS: first letters from words in the clue.
7d Reworking of Nuts in May uncovered – it’s a disaster (7)
TSUNAMI: my initial thought on this one was that the anagram doesn’t quite work but we need an anagram (reworking) of NUTS I[n] MA[y]. I’m not totally convinced that uncovered means without the end letters. An anagram (reworking) of [n]UTS IN MA[y] without the covering letters (Thanks Frankiemillwall).
8d Turns round frame of cover herein, intermittently giving protection from “driving” rain? (10)
WINDSCREEN: glue together a verb meaning turns round, the outer letters of cover and intermittent letters from ‘herein’.
11d What could keep warm approximately half of kipper? (6,6)
PYJAMA JACKET: cryptic definition where a kipper is someone having a kip.
14d Sign on staff from sport’s inner circle ahead of brief split (6,4)
TREBLE CLEF: the narrow inner ring on a dartboard where the highest scores can be achieved and a truncated adjective meaning split.
17d Exaggerated niggles percolate up about not this but the other (3,5)
PET HATES: reverse a verb to percolate or soak containing the alternative to ‘this’.
19d This half of hunt actively includes unknown dog (4-3)
SHIH-TZU: an anagram (actively) of THIS HU[nt] containing a mathematical unknown.
21d European wingless mythical monster crushes bones (7)
ITALIAN: a mythical monster without his outer letters contains large bones in the ankle.
22d Pick up some Dictionnaires Le Robert to find “threat” (2,4)
OR ELSE: reversed in the clue.
25d Long time in prison without beginning to contact son (4)
AGES: a prison without its first letter and the abbreviation for son.
My ticks went to 20a, 4d and 8d. Which clue(s) stood out for you?
After failing miserably with Dharma’s puzzle yesterday, I was pleased to finish this one. For me, it was just tough enough and lots of ‘aha’ moments…and a double pangram too. I noticed that the cryptic is too, you don’t get a pangram for ages then three come along at once! One or two parsings escaped me, so thanks for the explanations Gazza. Lots of good clues but I liked 3d and 7d.
Thanks to Sparks for the puzzle.
I agree about the misplaced letters in 2d, Gaz, though for 7d, the n and y are uncovered from (N)uts in Ma(y). The anagram then works.
I whizzed along this one, then got a bit held up by misspelling the answer to 27a, so 21d was a problem.
Good stuff though, pangrams in both puzzles today.
I liked the shelled horse in 10a (good to see you’ve illustrated with big Joe) and the protection in 8d but my favourite is the capital of Brunei in 23a.
Thanks to Sparks and Gazza.
Thanks for sorting out 7d, Frankie – hint now updated.
I spent so much time trying to justify the answer to 2d that I got rather irritated with this. One has to admire any setter who can work in so many “troublesome” letters but the only thing that made me smile here was finally cracking the Nuts in May.
Thanks to Sparks and Gazza.
2d had me stumped until I realised that the clue didn’t work. Apart from that, this was a clever and not too difficult puzzle that had some real gems and a couple of weird surfaces. As always I enjoy the tussle with 10a and 3d my top two. I am in awe of all the setters, but coming up with a cohesive set of clues to produce a double pangram is quite brilliant.
Thanks to Sparks and Gazza.
Three-quarters of this fell swiftly, much slower in the SE, and undone by four therein. Can’t say I enjoyed this puzzle very much, my mood not being helped by the verbosity of the clues forcing it on to two pages owing to the Telegraph’s persistent incompetence – one of my pet hates (a much stronger sentiment than 17d’s mere ‘exaggerated niggle’): a quick grab and reverse at least saved a second sheet of paper. The double pangram helped to a small extent. 1d is more than a bit niche, 2d doesn’t seem to work and does not need “supposedly magical”; 21d – presume the “wingless mythical monster” is a giant? If so a somewhat odd cryptic description. Quite a few rather strange surfaces. One of those puzzles where it often paid to biff and move on.
Thank you setter but sorry, this was just not for me. Many thanks also to Gazza.
Comfortably the toughest of the 4 Toughies this week for me – well it is Friday. Needed the hints to solve both 1d & 15a so not an unaided finish plus I cheated & looked up plants beginning with V at 2d then couldn’t parse it so didn’t notice the clueing error.
Thanks to Sparks for a very impressive double & almost treble pangram & to Gazza for guiding me over the finish line.
A curate’s egg for me. I didn’t know the programming language or the plant, so the NW was a struggle, and there were a few synonyms that didn’t click (9a connected; 20a breed; 29a additional). And I was too lazy to look up the names of bones for 21d. But it was all still good fun, even if I spent too much time trying to force a third Q into the incomplete clues.
7d gets my prize.
Thanks to Sparx for the battle, and to Gazza as usual for the enlightenment and amusement!
Hi can someone please explain the double pangram that you all refer to. Thanks.
Using just your forename rather than your full name sent you into moderation
A pangram is a crossword containing all the letters of the alphabet. A double pangram has two lots of all the alphabet