Toughie No 3602 by Weatherman
Hints and tips by ALP
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
A welcome return from Weatherman. As ever, the construction is immaculate and definitions fair, making for a steady solve. Yes, there is some pretty exotic vocab here – but it’s all generously clued. Still, I’ve tacked an extra difficulty pip on, largely for 5d and 9d. Typically, he’s made my bid to clip tunes extremely difficult, which no doubt comes as a great relief. Alas, I haven’t been totally defeated! Over to you.
Across
1a Stand-up and married Love Island hosts visiting Cricket Club (5)
COMIC: The abbreviation for “married” is hosted/contained by the usual “love” and abbreviated “island”, all inside/visiting abbreviated “Cricket Club”.
4a Perhaps sister collars dad about front cover of really old feminist magazine (5,3)
SPARE RIB: The shortened form of what a “sister” is by example collars/contains “dad” (another shortened form), the about/concerning and R[eally].
10a Plant seed, describing offence after ball’s gone (7)
PARSNIP: (fruit) “pip” describing/containing (fire) offence/crime, minus the usual “ball”.
11a One worshipped in song by writer from the East (7)
NEPTUNE: Song/air, by/after the usual writer, reversed (from the East).
12a Somewhat shockingly, this could help you move lower (6,4)
CATTLE PROD: Cryptic definition. This will certainly make them move!
13a Stable business partnership (4)
FIRM: Double definition.
15a In which parents might make a toddler go potty? (6,8)
TOILET TRAINING: Another cryptic definition. The “potty” did initially suggest a possible anagram. It’s not.
17a Boorish Aussies on roadside stuck with prison trousers (14)
KNICKERBOCKERS: Aussie slang for their boorish fellows, on/after roadside/pavement edge containing (stuck with) prison/jail.
20a Jaunty creature that’s charming female ducks (4)
AIRY: Charming creature, minus its initial, abbreviated “female”.
21a Inept sleuth finally following a friend of Mr Geller? (10)
AMATEURISH: [sleut]H following ‘A’+ “friend” + a four-letter possessive for “of Mr Geller?”. I could only think of one Mr Geller – and it’s that one.
23a Record producer in papers backing musician maybe putting out a tango (7)
DIARIST: Usual papers, reversed/backing, plus an umbrella word for “musician” (or other creative), minus one of its two T[ango]s.
24a Subtle pain is ignored by daughter (7)
NUANCED: Pain/pest, with “is” ignored, plus abbreviated “daughter”.
25a According to a speaker, Homer’s epic is a defence of the Creator (8)
THEODICY: Homophone (just about!) of Homer’s epic (sequel).
26a One supports art student with wealth (5)
EASEL: The usual student/learner with/after wealth/freedom (from financial worries, etc).
Down
1d Potential limit on a large town (8)
CAPACITY: Limit (spending, say) + ‘A’ + “large town”.
2d In Myanmar, a third language (7)
MARATHI: Lurker, hidden in the second, third and fourth words.
3d Against illness, so not starting where runners meet (10)
CONFLUENCE: “Against” (i.e. not “pro”) + (currently problematic) “illness” + so/thus, minus its first letter.
5d Hypnotic beat poet born in Barking (14)
PENTOBARBITONE: BEATPOETBORNIN, barking.
6d Tears of unbridled hope returning (4)
RIPS: Hope/strive, minus outer letters (unbridled), reversed.
7d Ruin one exotic island (7)
REUNION: RUINONE, exotic.
8d Ray eats river fish (5)
BREAM: Ray/shaft eats/contains abbreviated “river”.
9d Each dirty cheat might like a Maxim (14)
APOPHTHEGMATIC: Each (1,3) + CHEATMIGHT, dirty.
14d Wrong copper parts in an old car (10)
INACCURATE: “Copper” (symbol) parts/goes inside “in” and “an old car” as (1,5).
16d House band at last introduced to former TV host Lily (8)
ASPHODEL: Abbreviated “house” and [ban]D introduced to/inside former TV host (Michael).
18d Tell of occasionally unfair judge (7)
NARRATE: [u]N[f]A[i]R + judge/assess.
19d Displays English wine and those from France (7)
EVINCES: Abbreviated “English” + the French for (from France) “wine” and “those” (or, if it helps, “these”).
20d Check passage of mine about university (5)
AUDIT: An opening or passage of/into a mine about/containing abbreviated “university”.
22d Headers from Barca’s Iniesta nearly deciding tie (4)
BIND: Acrostic.
We’ve got three (two of which were pretty much essential!) anagrams, two cryptic definitions and a double, plus lurker, homophone and acrostic. I especially enjoyed 17a, 21a and 16d. How did you get on?
As ALP found, the two clues which turned this into a Toughie were 5d and 9d.
Thanks to Weatherman and ALP
Cracking puzzle, again with a couple of words which were unfamiliar to me though parsable from the wordplay.
9d took a bit of wrestling with and I gather there are variations in spelling but once I got the ‘each’ part of the clue, it all fell in to place.
I liked the namedropping of Mr Geller in 21a and Homer’s epic in 25a.
My favourite though was the 17a reference to gobby Aussies, a term I am familiar with thanks to several visits down under.
My thanks to Weatherman and ALP.
Another enjoyable solve. A couple of words I’d not come across – 9d which I had to use my Chambers clue finder to solve, I wouldn’t have got that one in a month of Sundays and 25a which I’d never heard of but could work it out and was my clue of the day.
Thanks to Weatherman and ALP
A fun solve which I really enjoyed. A reasonably brisk grid fill until last in 9d & it’s not that often you’re left scratching your crumpet having 7 checkers in albeit in this case with another 7 letters to find – took an educated & correct punt on 4 of ‘em but letters 5,7&9 required a thumb through the BRB so no unaided finish sadly. Was unfamiliar with the Indian language & had forgotten where the island was so they both needed post solve research. Was also fixated on sister (d’oh) in a nursing sense so didn’t parse 4a.
Solved in the very early hours so some 5d would have come in handy – I keep waiting for diphenhydramine to crop up in a puzzle which I only know from a Jason Isbell song.
I addition to our reviewer’s picks I also particularly liked 24&25a plus 1&14d.
Thanks to Weatherman & to ALP – Cattle & Cane; just listened to a few tracks off their covers album – not bad.
A dnf for me. As I didn’t get, and still don’t, each making 9d virtually impossible to solve a word I’d never heard of. Also never heard of 25a, 2d and 5d, didn’t know the French word for those either. Is 16d a lily? Far too difficult for me to enjoy the almost solve. I’ll leave it there. Thanks to Weatherman anyway and ALP.
Hadn’t heard of the magazine either.
Hi Taylor. “A pop” = “each” or “apiece”. Quite crafty, yes. As for the mag, it closed down in 1993 – back when Weatherman was but a boy! 16d is indeed a lily. Hopefully see you on Christmas Toughday – I’ve had a sneak peak and it’s a bit of a dazzler.
An enjoyable midweek puzzle – thanks to Weatherman and ALP.
I was held up by 5d and 9d until I had all the checkers in place.
I thought that 13a could be a triple definition.
For my podium I plumped for 12a, 23a and 25a.
Hi Gazza, I did consider that re 13a – but it would be rather same-sidey to clue it as both “business” and “partnership” wouldn’t it? And Chambers does define it as “a business partnership”. No doubt Weatherman will pop in later – at which point I’m more than happy to fall on my sword!
Like our blogger, the two long clues at 5d and 9d were unknown to me. Everything else was reasonably accessible.
I liked Homer’s epic at 25a.
Thank you Weatherman and ALP.
It was 17a that I had trouble with. I was focussed on “Boorish” as the definition, with “trousers a containment indicator. Got there in the end and thoroughly enjoyed it. Top clues must include the aforementioned plus 21a [of Mr Geller] 24a [is ignored took a while to see] and 20d [passage of mine].
Thanks to Weatherman and ALP.
Found this to be a tougher Toughie and needed ALP to enlighten me with 5d, 9d and 17a, which then allowed me to complete the remaining 21a and 23a. Never heard of the maxim at 5d, nor the boorish Aussies, but I nominate the inept sleuth as my favourite
Thanks to Weatherman and ALP
****/***
4*/ 3* Too hard for me, I was lulled by yesterday’s toughie and well and truly found out today. Still some cracking clues though, my favourite being the trousers at 17a and inept at 21a with the mention of the spoon bender.
Thanks to the Weatherman and ALP for the explanations
Ouch, that was hard. Several notches above Weatherman’s recent-ish Tuesday offerings. 5d and 9d were both new words for me, and I needed ALP to parse 9d (steam levels definitely very low…). 25a also new, but at least it wasn’t a 14 letter anagram. I did remember the mine passage from previous puzzles. 15a and 25a get my prizes.
Thanks to ALP for putting me out of my misery, and the Weatherman for the fun involved in being put into the misery in the first place!
2*/4* …
liked 20A “Jaunty creature that’s charming female ducks (4)”