Toughie No 3646 by Prime
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Dear Telegraph Towers, if you are going to start paying your crossword compilers by the word, then you really must do something to reduce the size of the grid on the print out. There is absolutely no need for it to take up half of a page of A4 paper.
Even allowing for the time taken to read the wordy clues, this crossword was, for me anyway, on the cusp between a Friday backpager and a Tuesday Toughie. If I had been test solving it, I would certainly have remarked on the number of times we were required to remove a letter or letters. I did enjoy the solve – my favourite clue was 25, closely followed by 21d
Please let us know what you thought
Across
1a Computing and IT involved in most of hate crime, sadly (10)
ARITHMETIC IT inserted (involved) in an anagram (sadly) of most of HATe and CRIME
6a Generation lost to rubbish clothing (4)
GARB Remove a generation from some rubbish
9a Country club dine with fish stewed and half-baked (10)
UNFINISHED A group of the world’s nations (country club) and an anagram (stewed) of DINE with FISH
10a America and Thailand once almost combined countries (4)
ASIA The abbreviation for America and almost all of the former name of Thailand
12a State of uncertainty when leaving second-class car (4)
LIMO A state of uncertainty without (when leaving) the letter used to indicate that something is second-class
13a Rotters in maroon dismissing working lock keeper (5,4)
ALICE BAND Some people worthy of contempt (rotters) inserted into a verb meaning to maroon without the two-letter word indicating that something is working
15a Hairstyle that is repeatedly worn by quiet, sweet child (5-3)
CUTIE-PIE A slang name for a sweet child. A hairstyle and two lots (repeatedly) of the abbreviation meaning that is, into which is inserted the musical abbreviation meaning quiet
16a Where democracy began being essential to USA, then stopped (6)
ATHENS Hidden in (being essential to) usA THEN Stopped
18a Unsteady after swallowing ecstasy, never to be repeated (3-3)
ONE-OFF Not steady (like a relationship) ‘swallowing’ the abbreviation for the drug Ecstasy
20a Problem for viewers not quite satisfied with Oblivion receiving rating below PG (8)
GLAUCOMA Not quite all of happy or satisfied and a state of oblivion ‘receiving’ the film rating below PG
23a Member no longer lives to work in parliament? (9)
LEGISLATE Part of the body (member) and a two-word phrase meaning no long lives
24a Cycling forward in ruins (4)
ENDS ‘Cycle’ or move the first letter in a synonym for forward or dispatch to the end of the word
26a Fine artist’s a bit in a stew? (4)
OKRA An informal way of saying fine or all right and the usual abbreviated artist
27a Round people claiming depression about where filming may occur (2,8)
ON LOCATION The ‘round’ letter and the people of a state ‘claiming’ a reversed (about) a depression or pass in a mountain range
28a Maybe enjoy Close Encounters with the author before another Spielberg movie (4)
MEET How Prime (the author) might refer to himself followed by another Spielberg movie
29a US commentary in double bill of Henry IV Parts 1 and 2? (4-2-4)
PLAY-BY-PLAY An American running commentary on a sports game could perhaps describe a double bill of Parts 1 and 2 of Henry IV
Down
1d Are neighbours concerning when dropping round? (4)
ABUT A preposition meaning concerning ‘dropping’ the round letter
2d Exact time to support popular French police officer (7)
INFLICT The abbreviation for Time supports (in a Down solution) the usual popular or fashionable and a French slang name for a police officer
3d Quickly surrender before France is ultimately lost (4,4,4)
HAND OVER FIST Surrender (4,4), the IVR code for France, IS (from the clue) and the ultimate letter of losT
4d Joyous cast in play entertained by quote from the floor (8)
ECSTATIC An anagram (in play) of CAST ‘entertained’ by a reversal (from the floor) of a verb meaning to quote
5d Peaceful and pleasant, shortly after anger (6)
IRENIC Almost all (shortly) of a synonym for pleasant goes after some anger
7d To lose like Joan of Arc when she died (2,5)
AT STAKE Where Joan of Arc died can also be an expression meaning at risk or to lose
8d Bit of Bourbon after it? That’s the same biscuit (6,4)
BRANDY SNAP The first letter (bit) of Bourbon, lustful (after it) and an interjection meaning that’s the same
11d Result of IVF trial round holding Abraham up (4-4,4)
TEST-TUBE BABY A trial, and round and fat ‘holding’ a reversal (up) of the diminutive form of Abraham
14d Where children learn to fix toilet, with hot and cold taps finally turning round (10)
SCHOOLROOM A reversal (turning round) of a verb meaning to fix, an informal name for the toilet, the abbreviations for Hot and Cold, and the final letter of tapS
17d Passage about golf, or meaningful story (8)
ALLEGORY A passage goes ‘about’ the letter represented by Golf in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet and OR (from the clue)
19d Prepare to fight nurse where beds are short (2,5)
EN GARDE An abbreviated Enrolled Nurse and somewhere beds are found without its final letter (short)
21d Police statement no longer applicable? (3,4)
OLD BILL This informal name for the police could also refer to a statement of account which is no longer applicable
22d Erotic writing perhaps found in unnatural passage (6)
CARNAL The letter by which three subjects including writing and the solution to 1a are known inserted into an artificial (unnatural) watercourse (passage)
25d Creator of toy vehicles releasing Delta jet (4)
INKY A manufacturer of toy vehicles without (releasing) the letter represented by Delta in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet
An enjoyable midweek Toughie – thanks to Prime and CS.
I liked 7d and 21d but my favourite was a photo-finish between the 13a lock keeper and the 22d unnatural passage.
I wanted to check the parsing of one of the clues. My crossword (in the printed paper) is labelled not as 3646 but 3464! That was an Elgar puzzle from a year ago. Most confusing.
Well I made jolly hard work of that one & feared the need to succumb to a letter reveal to complete the upper reaches. In the event the pennies finally dropped. Can’t say I was familiar with the 29a expression nor 5d so they required post entry investigation. Lots of ticks – 9,13,15&20a + 3,17,21&22d particular likes but my fav was the slug of Woodford Reserve after Ugandan discussions in the 8d surface.
Thanks to Prime & to Sue
I struggled with this so was surprised [yet again] to see CS rated it only 1*. It never seems to work the other way ie a CS4* that I find a walk in the park. Whatever, it was an enjoyable solve with plenty of cunning defs and nifty wordplay. My top picks are the neat little 26a, the fruity biscuit at 8d and the short beds at 19d.
Thanks to Prime and CS.
For a midweek Toughie I found this quite manageable, with about 50% going in fairly quickly and the remainder stretching my solving skills to a full unaided completion.
My favourites were the lock keeper and the sweet child, but I’ll go with the problem for viewers at 20a as my cott simply because I have it.
Thank you prime and CS
I had this rated nearer a three star than a one, but it is as always down to individual abilities and skill. I filled the grid in reasonably good time but some of the parsing took a good deal longer. That aside, it was good fun and rewarding to solve: I couldn’t improve on Gazza’s choices for the podium.
Many thanks to Prime for the challenge and to Sue.
A busy day meant a late afternoon solve, when I am considerably slower than I would normally expect to take in the morning.
I found it fairly difficult but very entertaining.
Top three were 15a, 20a, and 19d.
Many thanks to Prime and to CS.
We also found it trickier than our blogger is reporting.
Lots of ticks on our pages and 20a our favourite as it is something that one of us is more familiar with than he would prefer to be.
Thanks Prime and CS.
A battle to get started, then another to finish, once again the South yielding before the North. The 2d/12a combo provided of the delay. I Iiked 22d, 9a’s “country club” and 13a’s “lock keeper”.
On the wordy side, but also it felt like plenty of white squares to fill in.
Thanks to Prime for the challenge and CS for the blog.
Unsurprisingly my paper version also 3464 but I didn’t curving it until it was pointed out #2. I also made pretty hard work of this but I was expecting to. NW last in. Favourite was 21d. Thanks to Prime for the mental beating and CS.
I found this a struggle, well beyond my abilities, with just one across entry and two downs on the first pass, and I probably used Sue’s hints or letter-matching for over half the clues. Often it turned out I had parsed them correctly, but I just couldn’t think of the required synonyms for the components. Or, in the case of 5d, both parsed and solved the wordplay correctly, but failed to recognize what it came out with as a valid word!
Massive thanks to CrypticSue, without whom this would’ve ended in frustration, and to Prime for the ingenuity. The unsteady 18a was my favourite of the clues I got entirely by myself, and the 8d biscuit my favourite of ones Sue hinted me to.