Toughie No 3640 by El & Gar
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
You don’t get far into this enjoyable Friday Toughie before you realise that the setter’s name on the puzzles website isn’t a typo, but a strong hint as to the theme of this crossword. I have listed the partners at the end of the hints so don’t scroll down there until you’ve finished solving the puzzle.
We used to joke that the reason the Saturday Prize Puzzles were so friendly was to get a lot of entries as the DT had a deal with a company collecting postage stamps. It seems to me that most of the crosswords this week have had the final clue on a second page; could it be that the DT now has a deal with a printer paper company and they are hoping that we won’t notice that it says “1 of 2” before we press print?
Please let us know what you thought
Across
1a Detective left loads in front of sergeant (6)
HOLMES The abbreviation for Left inserted into (loads) ‘in’ followed by the ‘front’ of Sergeant
5a It hurts that girlfriend’s swiped oriental slipper (8)
BABOUCHE An oriental heelless slipper – an expression of pain (it hurts) ‘swiped by an informal girlfriend
9a Son blocking love from romantic film actor (8)
THESPIAN A 1993 historical romance film into which is inserted (blocking) the abbreviation for son; the letter representing love of nothing is removed from the end of the second word of the film’s title
10a After series of races, I will cut a murderous figure (6)
ATTILA A series of motorbike races and an informal way of saying I will without its final letter (cut) and A (from the clue)
11a Fan emerging from oddly functional design (7)
LINOCUT An anagram (oddly) of fUNCTIOnaL once you have removed the letters FAN
13a Spa offering something tripper drops briefly in river (6)
FACIAL Something ‘dropped’ by someone on a drug trip without its final letter (briefly) inserted into a Cornish river
14a The establishment backs poor old partner in fashion house (5)
DOLCE A reversal (backs) of an abbreviation for the Established Church followed by an anagram (poor) of OLD
16a Market rated for reviving direct deals (4,5)
FAIR TRADE A market and an anagram (for reviving) of RATED
18a Here we are in Cornwall, and I’m 50 per cent sure this is beachwear (9)
SWIMSUITS The abbreviated part of England where Cornwall is situated, IM (from the clue), the first 50% of Sure and another way of saying this is
20a After sunny holiday you’ll see this cop’s partner in film (5)
TANGO One of two detectives in a 1989 film could if split 3,2 describe what would happen on your return from a sunny holiday
23a First of lifelong delinquents thrown back into gaol, sadly (3,3)
OLD LAG The first letters of Lifelong and Delinquents inserted in reverse (thrown back into) an anagram (sadly) of GAOL
24a Publicity material bagged by Italian itinerant (7)
ROADMAN Some abbreviated publicity material ‘bagged’ by someone from Italy’s capital city
26a This involves washing facilities, given a reason to wash? (6)
LAVABO An abbreviated toilet (facilities) A (from the clue) and an abbreviated smelly condition that might be a good reason to have a wash
27a Appropriate line followed by one rocket (8)
LIBERATE The abbreviation for Line, the Roman numeral for one and a verb meaning to severely scold (rocket)
28a Distraught banker admits what state Lincoln’s in (8)
NEBRASKA An anagram (distraught) of BANKER ‘admits’ a synonym for what
29a The conclusion of Harrogate flower festival (6)
EASTER The ‘conclusion’ of harrogatE and a flower – a solution that was immediately obvious when I was writing the clue on the bottom of the piece of paper containing the grid and the rest of the clues
Down
2d Moor closed in northerly direction – what’s this? (7)
OTHELLO A reversal (in northerly direction in a Down solution) of an adverb meaning closed (which always reminds me of my Yorkshire Granny who would tell us to put the door xx) and an interjection expression surprise
3d Guy receives very good partner in department store (5)
MASON A guy ‘receives’ an adverb meaning very good
4d In contest it challenged interplanetary partner (6)
STITCH A partner in an American science fiction comedy film is hidden in conteST IT CHallenged
5d Partner in ices, in the north, raised bill (3)
BEN A Northern English dialect word for a bill or beak is reversed (raised) to give a partner in an ice cream company
6d Old bank partner runs probes damaging to daughter (8)
BRADFORD The cricket abbreviation for Runs ‘probes’ an expression meaning damaging to followed by the abbreviation for Daughter
7d Condition is painful for priest: ordeal exposed (9)
URTICARIA Remove the outside letters (exposed) from a way of saying is painful, a priest and an ordeal
8d Completely naked with partner in health food shop (7)
HOLLAND ‘Naked’ instructs you to remove the outside letters from a synonym for completely and then add a conjunction meaning with
12d Food checker ingesting trace of opioid brown bread because of it? (7)
TOASTER Someone checking food ‘infesting’ the first letter (trace) of Opiod
15d Work a miracle bandaging head in hygienic fabric (5,4)
CAMEL HAIR An anagram (work) of A MIRACLE ‘bandaging’ the first letter (head’ of Hygienic
17D Partner in game dropping periods? (8)
DUNGEONS An animal dropping and some long periods of time
19d Honnold, maybe, partner in franchise (7)
WALLACE Honnold is an American rock climber who could be an example of a xxxx xxx
21d In the ascent, say, tailed trapped carnivore (7)
GENETTE A carnivorous member of the civet family whose name can be spelt in many different ways. A reversed (in the ascent) abbreviation meaning for example (say) and almost all (tailed) of a synonym for trapped
22d Barrel quaffed by plucky partner in consumer goods (6)
GAMBLE An abbreviation for barrel inserted into (quaffed by) an informal word meaning plucky or courageous
25d High street partner has fun multiplying capital by 20 (5)
MARKS Multiply the Roman numeral at the start of ‘has fun’ by 20
27d Saucy partner dropping cap of beer (3)
LEA The first letter of a type of beer is ‘dropped’ to the end of the word
The partners are:
DOLCE & Gabbana
TANGO & Cash
Fortnum & MASON
Lilo & STITCH
BEN & Jerry
BRADFORD & Bingley
HOLLAND & Barrett
DUNGEONS & Dragons
WALLACE & Gromit
Proctor & GAMBLE
MARKS & Spencer
LEA & Perrins
Very clever, very devious, very time consuming. It was with a great sigh of relief that I crossed the line after what was, for me, something of a half-marathon. The theme was obvious from an early stage which helped the process, and as always I am indebted to Sue for a few of the less obvious parsings and explanations. 12d edged out the rest to be my favourite.
Thanks and congratulations to our setter(s) for the brain-mangling, and to Sue for the blog.
A terrific puzzle from our pair of setters – thanks to them and to CS for the blog.
I’ve never heard of the cop partners in 20a but the wordplay is excellent. I also had to check out who Honnold in 19d is but that’s another top clue.
I particularly liked 1a, 20a, 7d, 17d and 19d.
The title was a good steer to the theme, which emerged pretty quickly [1a, 3d]. Otherwise a relatively soft Elgar including a couple of clues only he could get away with – the first letter of 10a and the “what” in 28a. Also, does “in the north” [5d] refer to New England or just N America? It’s a tad superfluous.
The toilet humour of 26a raised a smile and I liked “brown bread” etc in 12d having dispensed with Cockney slang. 29a is an elegant take on an old chestnut.
Thanks to El & Gar & Sue.
The word for bill in 5d is North of England dialect.
I knew that when I was solving the crossword but by the time I got upstairs to the computer, I’d forgotten it
I’m sure you’re right Gazza but as a Yorkshireman by birth I rather thought everyone talked like that.
Great puzzle, the theme proved helpful on several occasions. 20a was new to me.
Thanks to CS & Elgar.
Brilliant puzzle. Sadly did not finish as i became convinced that 22d was the doll (partner of Ken) whose existence is all about consumer goods. Think my favourite was 17d, if only because it took so long for the penny to drop.
What a Jacob’s of a puzzle, really enjoyed that: so clever.
As our blogger found, the theme and hence the setter’s remodeled name quickly became apparent and aligned the thought process.
Like halcyon, 12d had me thinking of something toxic until the proverbial dropped.
I was particularly pleased to find that my parsing and answer to 7d was correct as I’m not familiar with the word, so that’s my COTD.
My thanks to Elgar and CS.
Enjoyable knockabout stuff. You usually see the reverse of this called ‘Mixed Doubles’ as a barred puzzle, where the clue leads to one half of a ‘double act’, but the answer entered is the unclued half. So if the clue led to MORECAMBE, the answer entered is WISE. I kept looking for the other part, but eventually realised it wasn’t necessary. Very enjoyable.
My comment is about the hopeless typography necessitating an infuriating second page – just for one or two lines. As an ex-newspaper compositor I know there are many ways to avoid this, but of course there are no comps any more. I’ve emailed complaints about it several times, but got no response whatsoever. Not really surprising.
A typo in your alias sent you into moderation. I have added the missing i
This won’t work for everyone but there’s at least one simple workround on a PC. In Acrobat Reader copy the offending clue, create a comment box on Page 1 and Ctrl-V the text into approximately the correct place.
Crossword
Not sure why I started this in the evening but glad to have got slowly through it. I seemed to be on wavelength with the partners which gave the framework to struggle through the rest.
Enjoyed TOASTER, ROADMAN and LAVABO
Thanks CS and Elgar
Can someone have another go at explaining 25d as I’m still mystified.
Welcome to the blog
The L at the start of Larks is the Roman numeral for 50
Multiply 50 x 20 and you get 1000, the Roman numeral for which is M
So you just replace the L with the M
Ah, I see. Thanks a lot Sue and thanks for the welcome.
Another delightful, mildly educational, two sitting solve, completed on a drizzly Saturday afternoon by guessing “tango” from the surface. It’s said that the art of the crossword setter is to lose gracefully and currently no one understands this better than Elgar.
You have changed from calling yourself CM1 and then CM2 to what I presume is your forename.
I’m genuinely sorry about that: I suspect it may be an outward sign of nascent cognitive decline. I’ll add another line to the password spreadsheet.
You should note that every time someone changes their alias, one of us has to check that it isn’t a new commenter and then approve the new comment, which can be quite time-consuming if people change their aliases on multiple occasions
Cracking puzzle, although I was defeated by 1a and needed some physical and e- dictionary assistance at times, also had to look up the climber to see what was happening in that clue. Had never heard of the film in 4d so took that one on trust.
Many thanks to El&Gar and to C&S!