Toughie No 3623 by Silvanus
Hints and tips by ALP
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ****
Silvanus on a Thursday is always welcome. He’s returned with a typically toothsome number that has only a whisper of GK – money that I needed to spellcheck, a bird (that even I’d heard of!) and a Caribbean island probably better known for its eponymous liqueur. But there’s nothing too outlandish. Fun and fair. All yours.
Across
1a Checks stage of suit-making process? (8)
PREVENTS: What a stage of tailoring a suit (jacket) culd be called, expressed as (3-5). No single for me, please – I’m British. Make mine a double!
5a Former students left university in Maine almost spoilt (6)
ALUMNI: Abbreviations for “left” and “university” inside MAIN[e], spoilt.
10a Celebrate top new hit with ardent fans (5,3,4,3)
PAINT THE TOWN RED: TOPNEWHITARDENT, fanned.
11a Order by peer to find somewhere for sleepers? (7)
EARLOBE: Order/gong, by/after peer/aristocrat.
12a Positioned nearby, unfinished wardrobe at home (5-2)
CLOSE-IN: “Wardrobe”, minus its last letter, plus the usual “at home”.
13a Engineering task not involving one bringing change in Bulgaria (8)
STOTINKA: TASKNOT, engineered, involving/containing the usual “one”.
15a Distinguished major problem with dartboard, we’re told (5)
NOBLE: Homophone (not for everyone, I imagine!) of what would indeed be a problem for a dartboard when expressed (2,4).
18a Advantage of old savings account in retirement (5)
ASSET: An old savings account (1991-1999), reversed/in retirement.
20a Flier, leaflet backing mum over creche’s closure (8)
SHOEBILL: Leaflet/pamphlet behind/backing mum/hush + abbreviated “over” + [Crech]E.
23a Japanese dish from south remains this writer’s specialty essentially (7)
SASHIMI: Abbreviated “south” + “remains” (fire) + this writer’s/Silvanus is + [spec]I[alty].
25a Island dog flipping got away, occasionally biting Charlie (7)
CURAÇAO: Dog/mongrel + [g]O[t]A[w]A[y], reversed/flipping, biting/containing NATO’s “Charlie”.
26a Mullah briefly was having turns hosting international composer (7,8)
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: MULLA[h]WASHAVING, turning, hosting/containing abbreviated “international”.
27a Note attached to wrong lab flask (6)
RETORT: (Sound of Music) “note” + (legal) “wrong”.
28a Heather’s found here in make-up by large chamber, reclining (8)
MOORLAND: (genetic) “make-up” + abbreviated “large” + “chamber”, reversed/reclining.
Down
1d Place inspiring university course for Judy, possibly (6)
PUPPET: Place/set, inspiring/containing politicians’ favoured degree course.
2d Airline defends grand moves to new base abroad (9)
EMIGRATES: (Dubai-based) “airline” defends/contains abbreviated “grand”.
3d Dines at restaurant, each drink initially delayed (4,3)
EATS OUT: Abbreviated “each” + drink (beer), with its first letter “delayed”, i.e. pushed down one square.
4d Laugh from European after seeing what film raised (2-3)
TE-HEE: Abbreviated “European”, after “what” + setter’s favoured “film”, reversed/raised.
6d Dishonourable individual supports Liberal group losing credit (3-4)
LOW-DOWN: Individual/personal after/supports abbreviated “Liberal” and group/mob, minus its abbreviated “credit”.
7d Endeavour perhaps again to hug son (5)
MORSE: Again/further, hugging/containing abbreviated “son”.
8d Serrated edges of nut will cut actually (8)
INDENTED: N[u]T cutting/inside actually/really.
9d Instruction to performer in cast playing Roman senator (8)
STACCATO: CAST, playing, plus “Roman senator” – there were two but the “younger” one famously opposed Julius Caesar.
14d Marine scientists to some extent lacking in knowledge (8)
NESCIENT: Lurker, hidden in the first two words.
16d Battle headgear (9)
BALACLAVA: Double definition.
17d Old man seems exhausted during religious festival (8)
PASSOVER: Old man/father + S[eem]S + during/throughout.
19d Following tense collision he runs towards that place (7)
THITHER: Abbreviated “tense” + collision/prang + “HE” + abbreviated “runs”.
21d Criminal using both hands eating American food up (7)
BURGLAR: Abbreviated “both hands” eating/containing abbreviated “American”, plus food/scoff, all up/reversed.
22d Woke up having partied, about to leave (6)
ROUSED: Partied/revelled, minus the two-letter “about”.
24d Team ultimately changing for gym exercise (5)
SQUAT: Team/group (of players, etc), with a different last letter.
25d Feature of fine stripped cloth (5)
CHINO: (facial) “feature” + O[f] (abbreviated “fine” stripped).
We’ve got five anagrams, one lurker, a homophone and a double definition, etc. 10a, 20a and 28a stood out for me, but 11a was my favourite. How did you get on?
Sadly this puzzle is already out of date! Bulgaria (foolishly) switched to the Euro on January 1st this year.
My next struggle was how to pick a favourite from such a delectable selection. I’ve settled on 1a, 23a, 27a & 1d.
Many thanks to Silvanus and to ALP.
Hi RD,
As you rightly say, Bulgaria adopted the Euro three weeks ago, but my researches suggest that the Lev does not become redundant until the end of January, with this month being a sort of transition period where both currencies are valid. So, maybe 13a in the puzzle isn’t quite out of date yet (but it will be in ten days from now, unless Frankie’s comment below is confirmed!)
I’ll go with ALP for this, fun and fair.
I slowly worked my way into this with a couple of check ups for the Bulgarian ready and unknowledgeable marine scientists, both new words to me. Otherwise everything parsable from the definitions.
Ticks for the flier at 20a, the island at 25a, 9d’s musical direction and the cloth at 25d, although I believe technically the term applies only to the style of garment, since it can be manufactured with a variety of fabrics.
Thanks to Sylvanus and ALP
For me a 3*/4* simply because I finished it without the hints.
I’m with RD in finding this immeasurably harder than our reviewer evidently did (no surprise there). Most unusually, given he’s my favourite setter, I also found it a bit of grind. Not an unaided completion either as I hit the check button when greeted with the news that my grid fill was incorrect – I’d put spurt in at 24d which parsed (figured it may be some high intensity gym exercise) so that one took two bites of the cherry. The 14d lurker was unfamiliar as was both the bird & the currency unit but all gettable. 11a was my pick of the clues too.
Thanks to Silvanus & ALP – thought you may have gone for some early The Who at 1a
You’ve got me good and proper there – that would have been a great call!
Enjoyable stuff from Silvanus – thanks to him and ALP.
On reading the hints I discovered that I’d written in the wrong answer for 24d. I took ‘team’ to be BD’s favourite football team. It just proves, I suppose, that I’m not very familiar with gym exercises!
Top clues for me were 11a, 15a (unusually I’m quite happy with the homophone), 23a and 28a.
PS I’ve just noticed that I fell into the same trap as Huntsman at 24d.
I shall cease flagellation with immediate effect knowing I’m in such exalted company 😰
I’ll have to own up to being another member of the 24d club, though I did think it to be a rather wooly term for a gym exercise.
I’m very relieved to see that RD found this tough, I almost threw in the towel on several occasions! Can’t even blame it on obscure GK, it was simply a matter of my brain struggling to keep up with our setter’s clever contortions. Think I’m going to award the top prize to myself for having breasted the tape, whilst the grid winners were 1,11&20a plus 2d. Very much enjoyed the mechanics of the ‘engineering task’ and the rather different type of make-up.
Many thanks to Silvanus for a real brain-wrangler and also to ALP for the review.
Always a pleasure to see Silvanus’ name at the top of a puzzle. I admire a good surface read and there are typically so many here, along with some artful deceptions.
Somewhere for sleepers in 11a, where Heather’s found in 28a and 6d’s group losing credit were my picks of a very good bunch.
The Bulgarian wonga at 13a was new to me too. After a bit of digging, I gather the term is still currently used even though they have now adopted the Euro.
It literally means ‘one hundredth’, and referred to the hundred coins which made up a Lev. As the Euro is also a decimal currency, they still use their old term for the cent.
Well I never…
My thanks to our setter and ALP.
Many thanks and impressive research on 13a too (better than mine!).
And the research of you both is clearly better than mine!
This flowed reasonably smoothly for me and was finished in about few minutes longer than i spent on the back pager but needed help parsing 5d. Some fine clues already mentioned: 11a, 15a and 23a.
Needing a broad general knowledge to complete a xwd is a given, but that needs to be GENERAL knowledge to make it accessible. Today’s xwd requires knowledge of TESSAs (last sold in 1999) which knowledge must be restricted to those who were then old enough to have spare cash to invest .. likely well over 50 today – quite probably older.
If we want to widen the appeal of our pastime then the required GK should be within the grasp of the well educated rather than restricted to the long lived. If we don’t want to broaden the appeal then “Steady as she goes.”
I often coach my 22 yo grand daughter over some of the Monday/Tuesday backpagers. Her eyes would have rolled heavenward if I sought to I explain that clue.
Thanks to Silvanus and to ALP.
I’m with you regarding ridiculously niche knowledge in cryptics, S, but didn’t consider TESSA to be that arcane.
Last week’s ‘As seen here’ being the clue for opposite (Oppo site) was obscure on steroids.
I’m still trying to come to terms with that one.
The Two Kiwis will be pleased to hear I’m still trying to floss the last bits of hatband from between my teeth…
Ha, I’m with you – that was the stuff of sleepless nights!
I made extremely slow progress throughout this crossword. Hadn’t heard of the Bulgarian change and 1d was a bung in, I’ve still no idea what the university course is. Having got the ‘H and N’ in 26a I decided the first name had to be Stephen until I got 17d then it was obvious what the answer was. Most of the pleasure in this was in actually completing it. Favourite was 19d. Thanks to Silvanus for the mental drubbing and ALP
PPE (philosophy, politics and economics) as read by Liz Truss at Oxford. Not sure she learned much, mind!
I only got as far as Personal Protection Equipment so had to ask Mr G!
Not forgetting Rachel from Accounts……
I too went to Oxford.
3-0 we lost.
I was gutted, mate.
Thanks for that. 👍🏻
Many thanks to ALP for his Hints and Tips and to all those solving and commenting.
Many thanks for dropping in. Cracking puzzle, as always.
I didn’t find this too tricky, although I struggled with 28a (as soon as I see Heather, I think of erica and ling).
Very entertaining, with 9d and 25d sharing my vote.
Many thanks to Silvanus and to ALP.
This was great, although I didn’t get time to look at it until this morning. Lots to like in here, all very precisely clued, if often deceptively.
No issues with 13a – they’re accepting Lev and Euro for a while. Very clever clue, too.
My prize goes to 20a, however. One of the weirdest birds on the planet. Just a shame it didn’t come in a Tuesday puzzle.
Thanks to Silvanus and ALP