Toughie No 3650 by Weatherman
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Even allowing for the two words most of us have probably never heard of (both fairly clued), I thought this was just right for a Wednesday Toughie. All I’ve got to do now is get rid of the ear worm!
Please let us know what you thought
Across
1a Making retrospective on Tinder again? (4-6)
BACK-DATING Without the hyphen, this way of making something retrospective might mean that you were using the Tinder app again
9a Song by The Kinks that’s funny and adult (4)
LOLA An abbreviated way of saying ‘that’s funny’ and the abbreviation for Adult.
10a Criminal vacations, touring old province (4,6)
NOVA SCOTIA An anagram (criminal) of VACATIONS into which is inserted (touring) the abbreviation for Old
11a Angles on the face of Republican thinker (6)
CANTHI The angles where the upper and lower eyelids meet – without the checking letters, I would have taken longer to spot that the solution is hidden in the last two words of the clue
12a American shows British crowds seafood (7)
LOBSTER Two American television programmes (4 and 2) ‘crowds’ the abbreviation for British
15a Snap captures a cleaner ocean (7)
PACIFIC An informal name for a photograph ‘captures’ A (from the clue) and a brand of cleaning products
16a That’s woman’s going to oil giant (5)
SHELL Another way of saying that woman’s going to without the apostrophe. I wonder whether the ‘s in that’s is an error?
17a Cornish saint quietly leaves country (4)
IRAN The patron saint of Cornwall without the musical abbreviation meaning quietly
18a Support disheartened playwright (4)
PIER A playwright without the two middle letters of his surname (disheartened)
19a Nosy commercial regulator probes new head of legal (5)
NASAL The abbreviated name of the advertising standards regular ‘probes’ or goes between the abbreviation for New and the ‘head’ of Legal
21a Prophet binding devil regularly causing divisions (7)
MEIOSES A biological term for cell divisions – an Old Testament prophet ‘binding’ the regular letters of dEvIl
22a I’m a bit surprised a remedy works (5,2)
DEARY ME An anagram (works) of A REMEDY
24a Sides from Toronto almost tricked City (6)
TOLEDO The outside letters (sides) from TorontO and almost all of a phrase meaning tricked (3,2)
27a Cabbie arrived, dishevelled, on time around 11 (4-6)
TAXI-DRIVER An anagram (dishevelled) of ARRIVED goes on or after the abbreviation for Time; the result then going ‘around’ the Roman numerals for 11
28a Test against debt solution (4)
VIVA A Latin abbreviation meaning against and an abbreviated agreement to repay a percentage of one’s debts over a fixed period of time in order to avoid bankruptcy
29a Removing the impact of assessment of company? (10)
CASTRATING Split 4,6, this might appear to be an assessment of a [theatrical] company
Down
2d Particle accelerator too often malfunctions initially (4)
ATOM The initial letters of Accelerator Too Often Malfunctions
3d Every now and then, king’s guards welcome old rogues (6)
KNAVES The odd (every now and then) letters of KiNgS ‘guarding’ an archaic word of welcome
4d Comes to an office rising record label lets occasionally (7)
ACCEDES A reversed (rising in a Down solution) record label followed by the even (occasionally) letters of lEtS
5d Keen on Love Island, flipping bored by books (4)
INTO A reversal (flipping) of the letter used to indicate a score of love and the abbreviation for Island, between which (bored by) is inserted the abbreviation for the books in the second part of the Bible
6d Hostile politicians in London left housing agency (7)
GLACIAL The abbreviation for the London Assembly and the abbreviation for Left ‘housing’ the American Intelligence Agency
7d Flirt with hidden faith, or different imaginary being (5,5)
TOOTH FAIRY A verb meaning to flirt into which is inserted an anagram (different) of FAITH OR
8d Horse treatment twice stopped by independent scientist (5,5)
MARIE CURIE Insert the abbreviation for Independent into both a female horse and a treatment
12d Vote limits revolutionary phrases (10)
LEITMOTIVS An anagram (revolutionary) of VOTE LIMITS
13d Travelling via last bar in capital (10)
BRATISLAVA An anagram (travelling) of VIA LAST BAR
14d Reportedly brings up birds (5)
RHEAS A homophone (reportedly) of another way of saying brings up
15d Maintain power cable (5)
PLEAD The symbol for Power and a cable
19d Like a biased person I beat up in the centre of Birmingham (7)
NEPOTIC A reversal (up) of I (from the clue) and a verb meaning to beat or come first inserted into the abbreviation for Birmingham’s exhibition centre
20d Lover that might make you leer? (7)
LEANDER The lover of Hero in an old Greek tale – his name can be obtained by inserting a conjunction between the two halves of LE ER
23d Refuse son another chance to pass sandwiches (6)
RESIST The abbreviation for Son sandwiched by another chance to pass an examination
25d These help people plotting cuts (4)
AXES Helpful to people plotting graphs, this can also be a verb meaning cuts
26d Unlimited free wine? Check (4)
REIN The inside letters (unlimited) of fREe and wINe
While 80% of this was happily straightforward once I’d managed vaguely to tune in to the setter’s wavelength, the last 20% or so was a different matter. As CS says, the word play was however very fair.
I’m amazed to see that the record company still exists – I occasionally buy or rip a CD as an MP3/MP4 but record labels are a thing of the past to me. The facial angles were totally new and thank heavens for the checkers/lurker, but I was very pleased to work out the divisions from the wordplay and then remember the word itself. With the checkers the biased person at 19a “could only be” but I got hung up with the centre of Birmingham being “in” rather than “nec” and so could not parse it. Ah well, no matter.
CS – I mulled over the “that’s” for a while, then parsed 16a as a double definition by expanding the first contraction: “That is woman’s going to” becomes “That is she’ll”
Honours to 1a, 7d, 8d & 20d
Many thanks to Weatherman and to CS
On the whole reasonably straightforward, although I had to verify 11a, the Cornish saint, and the divisions at 21a.
Top three for me were. 6d, 8d, and 19d.
Many thanks to Weatherman and to CS.
4* enjoyment.
A cracking puzzle, not super tough but requiring a lot of thought for some clues. Thanks to Weatherman and CS.
In spite of Mustafa’s valiant attempt to justify it I haven’t changed my opinion that there’s an error in 16a.
The 11a angles and the 21a divisions were new words for me.
My ticks went to 1a, 8d, 19d and 20d.
The further I venture into Toughieland the better I get. This was going swimmingly for about 80% but then stalled at the top. Needed Sue’s hints for 1a, 6d, 11a and 19d in order to complete. 21a is a new word for me and probably for many others. For 1a I was trying to find an anagram employing Tinder, but didn’t associate it with the app.
My favourite is the horse scientist at 8d.
Thank you Weatherman and CS
3*/3*
The two or three new words aside, all was fairly clued with accurate wordplay so absolutely no complaints from me. There were some cracking clues with great surfaces, none better than 1a.
My thanks to Weatherman and Sue.
Above my abilities, but in a good way, and I’m so grateful to CrypticSue for enabling me to enjoy Weatherman’s clever puzzle. Highlights included 15a with a cleaner ocean, the 2d particle accelerator, and 25d plotting cuts, with my favourite being 8d’s horse treatment. Thank you.
Excellent puzzle off to a good start with 1a. Other goodies were 19d [the centre of Birmingham isn’t “in” then] and 20d.
Thanks to Weatherman and Sue.
For some reason that is not obvious now we made verry heavy weather of this and eventually threw in the towel with most of the SW corner unsolved. Largely caused by lack of knowledge of American TV shows, debt repayment systems, Cornish saints plus a few more. Favourite was 8d.
Thanks Weatherman and CS.
Another toughie manoeuvred and enjoyed although the top half fell into place very easily, apart from 11a which I’d never heard of . Having had a 28a for my Ph.D this clue helped in sorting out the rest of this quadrant , also 21a fell easily.I must have spent hours looking down microscopes with my students at this kind of cell division.21a gave me an oblique reference to 29 – my favourite , although I did like many clues today so could have picked others. Had to look up the Cornish saint but the country was probably one of a very few . Thanks to all .
Never heard of 11a, the first American show in 212a, the Cornish saint, the divisions, the test or the phrases so very difficult for me. Favourite was 20d. Thanks to Weatherman for the mental beating and CS.
This was a serious gear change compared with yesterday’s Toughie, although less so than Bandit’s Wednesday debut. Plenty to strain the brain, but nothing unfair (and even the error – I’m with Gazza on this- in 16a doesn’t impact: in fact I didn’t even notice it; poor attention to detail).
No particular standout clues – they’re all pretty clever – so I’ll vote for the general ethos of 26d.
Thanks to Weatherman for the mind crunch, and to CS for the blog
Thanks to Sue and commenters – mea culpa for 16a, which I hope didn’t unduly confuse too many for too long. Until next time…
Ahem, this is of course Weatherman….!
Finished eventually but a helluva struggle getting there & very nearly threw in the towel at last in 11a before remembering the ‘if all else fails’ rule. Mr G needed to confirm that one, the divisions at 21a & the only Cornish saint I know is Austell ‘cos he does a nice pint of Tribute & Proper Job. Whybird wasn’t alone either in not noticing the erroneous ‘s at 16a & for the same reason as MG the why at 19d eluded me, which is annoying as we’ve had that NEC device not that long ago. I did briefly wonder whether there might be a US TV theme going on when taxi appeared but no others surfaced. Thoroughly enjoyed the tussle – 1,9&18a + 6,8&20d the standouts for me with 20d my fav.
Thanks to Weatherman & for popping in & to Sue.
Thanks to Weatherman for a fine puzzle that I have just caught up with. The Cornish Saint was timely as I believe his saint day was quite recently celebrated.
Thanks to Jamie and Sue
Memo to Sue, there is a discrepancy between the puzzle no (3650) and what is shown in the preamble (3659)