Toughie No 3604 by Karla
Hints and tips by Gazza
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
This is fairly gentle for a Friday Toughie but very enjoyable – thanks to Karla.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Press flower delivered by vehicle (6,6)
FOURTH ESTATE: a homophone of a Scottish ‘flower’ followed by a type of road vehicle.
9a Relative catching adult runner by lake naked (2,7)
AU NATUREL: a female relative containing the abbreviation for adult precedes a Yorkshire ‘runner’ and the abbreviation for lake.
10a Degrees incorporating popular courses (5)
MAINS: academic degrees containing an adjective meaning popular.
11a Binning a quarter of unnecessary thread (6)
NEEDLE: discard the final quarter of a synonym of unnecessary. Thread here is a verb.
12a US store rotated ornaments initially on tree (8)
SYCAMORE: reverse America’s largest department store company and add the initial letter of ornaments and a preposition meaning ‘on’.
13a National network holding one in reserve (6)
LIBYAN: the abbreviation for a computer network contains the Roman one and an adverb meaning ‘in reserve’.
15a Very hot current carrying queen (8)
TROPICAL: an adjective meaning current or newsworthy contains an abbreviation for queen.
18a Caught, formerly, by the setter’s grasp (8)
CONCEIVE: assemble the crickety abbreviation for caught, a synonym of formerly and the contracted form the ‘the setter has’ from his viewpoint.
19a Nick returning some shots erratically (6)
ARREST: hidden in reverse.
21a Close street prior to international launch (8)
STIFLING: string together the abbreviation for street, an abbreviation for international and a verb to launch.
23a Fear over much prejudice on edges of parish (6)
PHOBIA: the cricket abbreviation for over and a truncated synonym of prejudice follow the outer letters of parish.
26a For this purpose, supplement wine in auditorium (2,3)
AD HOC: this sounds like a phrase to supplement one’s supply of a specific German wine.
27a Peevish small student boring writer recalled quote (9)
SPLENETIC: rivet together the abbreviation for small, our usual student inside a writing implement and the reversal of a verb to quote.
28a Tripe men cooked in nice runny sauce (12)
IMPERTINENCE: an anagram (cooked) of TRIPE MEN goes inside a second anagram (runny) of NICE.
Down Clues
1d Cool king’s mistress finally promoted soft soap (7)
FLANNEL: join a verb to cool and the forename of Charles II’s most famous mistress then move the final letter to nearer the top.
2d Country conserving excavated Lydian remains? (5)
ULNAE: the abbreviated name of a gulf state contains the outer letters of Lydian. The answer may be parts of the remains of a human skeleton.
3d Turn on the Italian following singer in the night (9)
TITILLATE: an Italian definite article follows a feathered singer. Finish with an adverb meaning ‘in the night’ or after hours.
4d Off-white bird with collar gutted for maiden (4)
ECRU: start with a large bird and replace the cricket abbreviation for maiden with the outer letters of collar.
5d Lean on beam raised close to old jousting area (4,4)
TILT YARD: a verb to lean precedes the reversal of a beam of light and the closing letter of old. Not a term I knew but the wordplay is crystal clear.
6d American tailing pack in bay city (5)
TAMPA: an abbreviation for American follows a verb to pack something firmly in.
7d Twinkling device lined with gold? One’s now available (8)
DIVORCEE: an anagram (twinkling) of DEVICE with our usual tincture of gold inserted. Very droll!
8d Too harassed essentially at the start of spring (2,4)
AS WELL: the central letters of harassed followed by a synonym of spring or waterhole.
14d Enjoyable snack for Spooner’s rowdy bash (3,5)
BUN FIGHT: Spooner would have this as an enjoyable snack: FUN BITE.
16d Temple throne rebuilt in slate (9)
PARTHENON: an anagram (rebuilt) of THRONE inside a verb to slate or criticise.
17d Electronic parts of fan above church disappear (8)
EVANESCE: the abbreviation for electronic, the blades of a fan and an abbreviation for church.
18d Funds keeping sailor up in African fortress (6)
CASBAH: funds in ready money contain the reversal of one of our usual abbreviations for sailor.
20d Block steer periodically escaping across farm (7)
TRANCHE: drop regular letters from ‘steer’ and insert a large farm.
22d Place briefly bolstered by male stand-in (5)
LOCUM: a word, from Latin, meaning place loses its last letter and is supported by the abbreviation for male.
24d Right to become tense in noble club (5)
BATON: start with a member of the nobility and replace the abbreviation for right with that for tense.
25d Sandwich installing ordinary landscape eyesore? (4)
BLOT: an abbreviated sandwich includes the abbreviation for ordinary.
The clues I liked best were 1a, 12a and 7d. Which ones(s) made you smile?
I sat down after lunch expecting a typically brutal brain-bashing for a Friday but was pleasantly surprised to find this very approachable and accessible. Good fun as always, though, from this setter, with plenty of clever and inventive clues to keep us on our toes. My absolute favourite was 7d.
Many thanks to Karla and Gazza (great cartoons as ever).
I rarely attempt a Friday Toughie, but I have always enjoyed Karla’s puzzles so I decided to give this one a go and I’m glad I did. I found it quite challenging but I really enjoyed it.
I couldn’t parse 12a, which is not surprising as I’ve never heard of Macy’s. With hindsight, Googling “US Department Store” would have revealed all.
I think the definition for 2d is rather dodgy even with the question mark and, although it is in the BRB, I don’t much care for thread as a synonym for the answer to 11a. However, those two minor points aside, this was great fun.
Many thanks to Karla and to Gazza.
I’d agree with fairly gentle but very enjoyable
Thanks to Karla and Gazza
I agree, not the most difficult toughie for a Friday, but that’s not a complaint as I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I’m not entirely happy with the definition used in 11a and I bet a 7d would blow a gasket at being described as available.
17d is a pleasing word to say, but the vicar of the church in the clue must have been miffed at the fan parts getting nicked. Let’s hope the roof was untouched.
Great fun, my thanks to Karla and Gazza.
I found this pretty tough, especially the NW where 1 and 2d held out to the end. They both had to be what they were but I failed to identify the King’s mistress and remain unconvinced by 2d which seems deliberately awkward – what’s wrong with “bones”? I liked the “one in reserve” at 12a and 7d raised a smile.
Thanks to Karla and Gazza
The NW was a sticking point for me so needed Gazza’s hints for 1a, 9a and 3d to get me back on track. The rest flowed quite nicely.
Thanks to Karla for the mental workout and Gazza for the hints.
Reasonably accessible for a Friday Toughie and very enjoyable.
Ticks for 1a, 9a, 11a, 12a, 19a, 21a, 7d, 14d and 16d.
CoD is very tricky, but I will go with 11a.
Thank you, Gazza. Great cartoons, as ever.
Thank you, Karla. More of the same please in 2026.
It was a south to north solve for me and I was struggling a bit in the northwest. A couple of wild guesses including 2d (maybe not so wild, with the checkers there’s only one word that fits!). An enjoyable solve with just the right level of challenge for me. I liked the Spoonerism and the answer to 17d is a lovely word.
Thanks to Karla for the puzzle and Gazza for the hints and cartoons.
A PM solve, which after (probably) a little too much lunchtime libation, took me a couple of visits to complete.
I struggled on 2d, and 5d was a lucky guess.
I liked 16d, and 7d made me smile.
Many thanks to Karla for another fine puzzle, and to Gazza for the review.
For some reason we struggled more than we should have with 7d. An enjoyable solve for us with lots of clever wordplay. Favourite 1a.
Thanks Karla and Gazza.
Many thanks Gazza for the fine blog and thank you to all who have commented. Best wishes for the season.
Thanks for popping in, Karla, and thanks for a fine puzzle.
Best wishes for the season to you.
A Friday Toughie accessible for the non A Team solvers is always welcome & this gem didn’t disappoint. Pleasingly gentle but still plenty challenging enough for the likes of me. Don’t know how many times the computer network abbreviation has to crop up before it eventually lodges in my thick skull (13a unparsed) & the jousting area needed post solve confirmation but otherwise found it surprisingly more problem free than the back-pager. Ticks aplenty & at least 4* enjoyment for me – 7d just edges 1a&16d as my pick of the bunch.
Thanks to Karla (& for popping in) & to Gazza – great cartoon illustrations as per
Super puzzle and tackled with plenty of smiles over my lunch. A couple of raised eyebrows, but not enough to detract from the overall pleasure.
Many thanks Karla and Gazza
Very gentle by Friday standards, but great fun. I’d come across most of the “obscurities” before, so that definitely helped. Having said that, the required sense for 11a was new to me.
Thanks to Karla for another fun puzzle, and to Gazza for adding to the amusement with a great selection of illustrations. 19a’s Matt is a belter!
2*/4* …
liked 7D “Twinkling device lined with gold ? One’s now available (8)”
also the cartoons in the hints.