Toughie No 3643 by Silvanus
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty * – Enjoyment ***/****
Largely light, and scrupulous. There’s a spot of Scots vocab (6d), botany (7d) and geography (15a) but Silvanus is, of course, typically fair. The grid did prompt me to look for a Nina, but I certainly couldn’t spot one! Over to you.
Across
7a Appropriate language in front of audience ultimately? (7)
GERMANE: (European) “language” + [audienc]E.
8a In conversation blast individual having pair of shades (3-4)
TWO-TONE: homophone (in conversation) of “blast” (horn, say) + individual/single.
10a Element stealing essentially (9)
ALUMINIUM: the “essential” two letters of “stealing” provide the required element’s symbol.
11a Leave sweet dish and port (5)
SPLIT: triple definition.
12a Definite articles from Europe must be ancient (5)
ELDER: definite articles (from Spain and Germany).
13a Nordic person supermarket starts to employ regularly (9)
ICELANDER: (budget) supermarket + E[mploy] R[egularly].
15a Capital of state about to cut hunger (7)
YEREVAN: state/say, about/reversed, cutting/inside hunger/desire.
17a Indian popular at university keels over consuming punch (7)
PUNJABI: the usual “popular” and “at university”, reversed (keeling over), consuming/containing a type of punch (or poke).
18a Cut up by bully, Laura oddly abandoned timidity (9)
COWARDICE: cut up/cube, by/after bully/intimidate and [l]A[u]R[a].
20a Stop working for powerful business owner (5)
BARON: stop/block + usual “working”.
21a Stars emerging from old Vauxhall venue finally (5)
NOVAE: old model of Vauxhall + [venu]E.
23a Mere youngsters perhaps cringe facing Chuck cycling (9)
DUCKLINGS: cringe/yield + (to) “chuck”, cycling (first to last in this case).
24a University trivia occasionally dons substantiated (7)
HARVARD: [t]R[i]V[i]A donning/inside substantiated/definite (as facts, etc).
25a Taking up golf, resist playing fierce female opponent (7)
TIGRESS: NATO’s “golf” taken up by/inside RESIST, playing.
Down
1d Aircraft mechanics, with justification, became boastful (6,4)
GROUND CREW: justification/reason (more often seen as plural) + “became boastful”/did boast.
2d More friendly American ousts top European from job (6)
MATIER: abbreviated “American” ousts/replaces the top/first E[uropean] in job/calling.
3d Humanitarian aid I remember held up defending North-South line (8)
MERIDIAN: lurker, reversed in the first three words.
4d Block unknown character plugging suspect items (6)
STYMIE: one of the usual unknowns plugging/inside ITEMS, suspect.
5d One at the helm of Apple, supported by lover (8)
COXSWAIN: (variety) of “apple”, supported by/before (poetic or archaic) “lover”.
6d Game on table in Scotland stank (4)
POOL: the chiefly Scottish (and northern) meaning of “stank”, as noun.
7d Bloomer in The i angry chap condemned (5,8)
GRAPE HYACINTH: THEIANGRYCHAP, condemned.
9d Former Tory escapes from those twisted blackmailers (13)
EXTORTIONISTS: two-letter “former” + “those twisted” (people who “twist” for a living), minus three-letter Tory.
14d Double Dutch at first confused grenadier (4,6)
DEAD RINGER: D[utch] + GRENADIER, confused.
16d Wine from single named grape a relative mostly ordered (8)
VARIETAL: ARELATIV[e], ordered.
17d Extremely pertinent claims concerning tax for deputy PM (8)
PRESCOTT: P[ertinen]T claims/contains the usual “concerning” and (historical) “tax”.
19d English singer is flipping denying son salt (6)
IODIDE: abbreviated “English” + “singer” (who sang Stan with Eminem) + I[s] (i.e. denying/deleting abbreviated “son”) all flipped/reversed.
20d Pester adult to eat gutted fish, source of caviar (6)
BELUGA: pester/annoy + abbreviated “adult”, eating/containing (slippery) fish, minus its middle letter.
22d Distinctive dress, a third off? Absolutely (4)
VERY: “distinctive dress” or uniform, minus the first two of its six letters.
We have five anagrams, one triple definition, a homophone and a lurker. I especially liked 23a’s definition, 2d’s replacement and 9d’s deletion. How did you get on?
I found this slightly easier than the RayT backpager, but together hey formed a wonderful double act that has certainly cheered up what has become a thoroughly miserable Shropshire afternoon. 9d was very clever and my favourte.
Many thanks as always to Silvanus and ALP.
Super puzzle, and I agree that Silvanus is being gentle with us today, even though 6d was new to me and for a short time I entertained the notion that there might be a type of caviar called “nafhga” … Could not parse 22d for toffee, but it didn’t matter, and at 15a I tried to convince myself that it was RE in YEVAN, which was of course meaningless. 2d the most challenging for me, mentally scrolling through -A-I-R options for something that made sense.
Great surfaces, naturally, and oodles of humour. Honours could go to practically all the clues so will limit Mentions In Despatches to 10a, 23a, 5d & 17d. Many thanks indeed to Silvanus and ALP
Gotta laugh – see my reply to Alfiepops over in t’other place.
Maybe I’m having an off day but I found this jolly difficult & though no letter reveal can’t really claim an unaided finish as needed Mr G to confirm some unknowns. The 7d plant needed all the checkers in & then a check, couldn’t remember where 15a was, both 19d & 21a weren’t exactly familiar then took an age to twig ‘at uni’ in 17a & even longer to peg the escaped Tory at 9d.
As ever hugely enjoyed the puzzle. Among a plethora of ticks 17d was my fav – I’d love to think Ange finds time to tackle the Toughie when not busily scheming towards her triumphant return but somehow I doubt it.
Thanks to Silvanus for another splendid puzzle & to ALP for the review & 3 music clips from artists I’m unfamiliar with – the Baron EP clip reminded me of Colter Wall.
I’ll go against the tide (very small so far!) as I found a fair bit of this very challenging, particularly in the NE corner.
Mrs RD’s first husband was a Scot and she is usually ultra-reliable on matters of Scottish vocabulary, but “stank” was a new one for her so I needed to resort to the BRB regarding 6d, which told me all I needed to know.
However, I certainly agree with the review and comments so far, that this was a superb puzzle in every respect. It was particularly exemplary in terms of surface readings. Absolutely wonderful!
I did wonder if we were heading for a pangram (which would be unusual for this setter), but it finished up just short of a full set of letters.
Any of these clues would be worthy of being dubbed favourite, but for me 9d just noses ahead of the pack.
Many thanks to Silvanus and to ALP.
A cracking puzzle from Silvanus – thanks to him and ALP.
The Scottish stank (6d) and the 16d wine were new words for me and needed BRB verification.
I wondered when I solved 11a whether Silvanus had considered turning it into a quadruple (or even quintuple) definition by including, for example, separate and/or share.
I liked loads of clues including 17a, 5d, 9d and 17d.
I found this very challenging. I didn’t know the capital, the job (so a complete bung in), the Scots stank, the bloomer or the wine. It took a while for the parsing of 10a to become evident but the penny dropped eventually. The quality was well up to the normal Silvanus standard. Favourite was 9d. Thanks to the aforementioned and ALP.
Many thanks to ALP for his Hints and Tips and to everyone solving and commenting.
Interesting to see that half of those contributing so far found the puzzle “challenging” or “very challenging”, yet it only received one star for difficulty. Hey ho.
In answer to Gazza’s point about potentially adding even more definitions to 11a, I didn’t consider it as I always remember our late NTSPP colleague Alchemi thinking more than two definitions for a clue was either over-egging the pudding or the setter showing off. I imagine the sight of four or five definitions in one clue would have smoke coming out of his ears!
Best thanks for popping in – always a treat to see one of yours on a Thursday.