Toughie No 3631 by Beam
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty * – Enjoyment ***/****
Standard Beam fare – a sweetheart, a queen and an imaginative, tight word count … but no lavatorial humour today. Who could he have been listening to?! Over to you.
Across
1a A final flipping ball for crowd (10)
ATTENDANCE: ‘A’ + final (as per result, etc), reversed, + the usual five-letter “ball”.
6a Endlessly scrutinise macho man (4)
STUD: Scrutinise/read, minus the last letter.
9a Relation with sweetheart in particular (5)
NIECE: Beam’s usual “sweetheart” in(side) particular/fastidious.
10a Punishes move trapping knight on board (9)
SANCTIONS: Move/movement of events trapping/containing abbreviated “knight”, all inside/on board (implicit, abbreviated ship).
12a Sign of excitement going after gold (7)
AUSPICE: Excitement/heat after the symbol for “gold”.
13a Capital of India? (5)
RUPEE: Indian money.
15a Close shaven, blowing top (7)
AIRLESS: Shaven/bald, minus the first letter. I can’t explain the erroneous picture that accompanies this clip – but at least she’s wearing the right frock!
17a Such air’s clear, oddly less common (7)
SCARCER: Odd letters.
19a Followed around queen being protected (7)
ENSURED: Followed/came after, around/containing abbreviated “queen”.
21a Mount with gold inside safe? (7)
STORAGE: The other “gold” (heraldry) inside mount/put on.
22a Manifestation of a burning desire? (5)
ARSON: Cryptic definition.
24a Competent guy nursing old man (7)
CAPABLE: Guy/rope nursing/containing old man/father.
27a Time went slowly catching second shift (9)
TRANSLATE: Abbreviated “time” + went slowly/tardily, catching/containing abbreviated “second”.
28a In Rome, Galileo showing Greek character (5)
OMEGA: Lurker, hidden in the second and third words.
29a Absolute class (4)
RANK: Double definition.
30a Habit of French coppers circling lair (10)
DEPENDENCE: The French for “of” + “coppers” (money) circling/containing lair/study.
Down
1d Spots around chin needing emollient, initially (4)
ACNE: Acrostic.
2d Sign seen outside explosive’s storehouse (9)
THESAURUS: (Star) “sign” outside the usual-ish “explosive’s”.
3d Yearns for massages, it’s said (5)
NEEDS: Homophone.
4d Strikes when socialist’s leader weakens (7)
ASSAILS: “When” + S[ocialist] + weakens/sickens.
5d Audibly crushes nuts! (7)
CONKERS: Homophone.
7d Party elevated weak head of Tories (5)
TROOP: Weak/lacking + T[ories], reversed (elevated).
8d Crush food consumed round dinner’s end (10)
DISHEARTEN: Food/fare + “consumed”, round/containing [dinne]R.
11d Twister charged over a con (7)
TORNADO: Charged/raced + ‘A’ + con/cheat.
14d Daniel Craig perhaps embraces female villain (10)
MALEFACTOR: What Daniel Craig is by example (4,5), embracing/containing abbreviated “female”.
16d Wanders around with shopping, maybe (7)
ERRANDS: Wanders/goes astray, around/containing a synonym of “with”.
18d Animal concealing hard time seeing lizard (9)
CHAMELEON: (Desert) “animal” concealing/containing abbreviated “hard”, plus (very long) “time”.
20d Cost of accommodation, in the main? (7)
DOCKAGE: Cryptic definition playing on “main” as sea.
21d Certain this compiler keeps pressure highest (7)
SUPREME: Certain/convinced + “this compiler”/how Beam would refer to himself, keeping/containing abbreviated “pressure”.
23d Small tool producing offspring (5)
SPAWN: Abbreviated “small” + (humble) “tool”.
25d Reportedly hatched chicks? (5)
BROOD: Homophone of hatched/cooked up.
26d Empty pub before time, finally (4)
BARE: Pub/inn + [tim]E.
We’ve got three gentle cryptic definitions, one double, a lurker and the usual acrostic, etc. I particularly liked 10a, 14d and 16d. What did you make of it?
I found this quite tricky today and probably one of my longest ever solves of a Beam toughie.
Top three for me were 24a, 16d, and 18d.
Many thanks to Beam and to ALP.
No particular fav but very much enjoyed the solve. For once I’m in agreement with our reviewer’s difficulty rating as it all went in smoothly (by my lowly Toughie solving ability) other than some brain fog with last in 8d. Missed the risqué stuff though.
Thanks to Ray & to ALP – thought we might get a bit of Coltrane at 21d & will play the music when back home.
Ha, you know me too well. I just couldn’t find a shortened clip that wasn’t an abomination. I have it (very loud) on vinyl as we speak!
Great isn’t it. I’m playing Ronnie Earl’s Maxwell St album
Definitely more friendly than the last couple of days, with nothing unknown or contentious.
I4d is such a smart clue, with a surface as smooth as Bond himself.
My thanks to Beam and ALP.
I enjoyed this a lot. Synonyms stretched in some cases toward the limit of credulity, as always. Best clues for me were 14d and 18d.
Bit of a grump about 20d. I have sailed for fifty years and perhaps 150,000 miles. The normal noun for the cost of mooring on a dock is “mooring fee” or “berthing fee”. I have only ever heard of the required answer here uttered by Americans, whose also use the same word to describe the act of earthing alongside and also the dock itself. Vive la difference!
Thanks to Beam and ALP.
Very enjoyable puzzle, always helpful to remember Mr T’s Beam quirks and not look for anagrams! Like Huntsman 8d was my LOI and there was an audible clang when the penny dropped. 20d could as easily have been (the obsolete) deckage, but fortunately I plumped for the right answer.
Many thanks to MrT and to ALP – I love that version of Rock The Casbah.
deckage my 1st thought too but it lost the coin toss
This was a thoroughly enjoyable Toughie which wasn’t too challenging.
I had a lot of ticks with 14d my favourite.
Many thanks to Beam and to ALP.
Evening all. Many thanks to ALP for the decryption and to all for your comments.
RayT
Best thanks for popping in. Tis always greatly appreciated.
A pleasant and enjoyable change from yesterday’s dnf (more correctly a did not start). I too miss the slightly smutty schoolboy humour. Many contenders for favourite but I’ll go with 5d. Thanks to Beam and ALP.
For a Toughie of any day of the week, I found this surprisingly straightforward and very enjoyable. Some reverse parsing needed for 10a and used the e-dictionary to fit 14d, which is my COTD. As soon as I saw the answer, it was a ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ moment and kicked myself
I can’t disagree with ALP’s rating. Thanks to him and Beam/RayT
1*/5*
Solved in fits and starts, probably due to solving late in the evening, and the SW didn’t yield until this morning post a refreshing damp dog walk. Easier than Weds for me, but I found it harder than Tuesday. Funny how it rolls!
Thanks to RayT and to ALP.
Incidentally, the picture for 22a is better than the actual clue.
Well, it has taken me on an off until Saturday luchtime to fill my grid, but I’m really pleased that I have at least got there, because it was a most absorbing puzzle. 20d was a new word to add to my vocabulary.. 23d, 25d 29a were among the last few to fall and 14d gets my gold medal award. Thanks to Beam and ALP – and now for the Saturday cryptic, sadly and again it’s far too wet outside to do much else.
2*/3* …
liked 5D “Audibly crushes nuts ! (7)”