Toughie No 3652 by Karla
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Karla has upped the difficulty level a bit since his last Toughie but this is still pretty accessible and it’s very enjoyable. Many thanks to him.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Bird clip entertaining Charlie at rear of court (8)
WOODCOCK: a verb to clip or truncate containing Nato’s Charlie follows a verb to court.
5a Note wine bottles back in various tents (6)
CANVAS: a sparkling wine bottles an abbreviation for note. Append the rear letter of various.
9a Minor star cast in Downfall (9)
RAINSTORM: an anagram (cast) of MINOR STAR.
11a What star player may have in game after a reversal (5)
STRAD: reverse a flighty game.
12a Fugitive essentially abandoned taxi on here (6)
RUNWAY: remove the central letter from another word for a fugitive.
13a Most compact pieces returned by visitor out of uniform (8)
SNUGGEST: reverse what pieces are a slang term for in North America and add a synonym of visitor without the letter than uniform represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet.
15a Pupil reported row about stray dog (6,7)
BORDER TERRIER: what sounds like a pupil at a fee-paying school is followed by a synonym of row or rank containing a verb to stray or transgress.
18a Harbour 10 new soldiers within suitable division (13)
APPORTIONMENT: a synonym of a harbour, what looks like 10, the abbreviation for new and another word for soldiers all go inside an adjective meaning suitable.
22a Aquatic grass that might be the making of Eric (4,4)
WILD RICE: a reverse anagram which leads us to ERIC.
23a Artist missing trick in Arab’s quarters? (6)
STABLE: an English painter without a verb to trick or hoax.
26a Poet scratching queen’s watch (5)
VIGIL: a classical poet without the Latin abbreviation for queen.
27a Feeling small visiting south-east country (9)
SENSATION: the abbreviation for small is inserted in the abbreviation for south-east and a synonym of country.
28a Sail made from shirt held by stripped plank (6)
LATEEN: this triangular sail comes from a type of casual shirt contained in the inner letters of plank.
29a Ladies having a scrap of Spooner’s plump bird (3-5)
CAT-FIGHT: Spooner would convert this to a plump long-tailed bird of prey.
Down Clues
1d Clobber exhausted Dane carrying plunder after conflict (8)
WARDROBE: the outer letters of Dane contain a verb to plunder and that all follows the type of conflict that we’re currently all too aware of.
2d Joining when Oscar takes over from university head (5)
ONION: start with a synonym of joining or merger and replace the abbreviation for university with Nato’s Oscar.
3d Box full of fish almost going over waterfall (7)
CASCADE: a box or container contains the reversal of a small freshwater fish without its last letter.
4d 40 per cent of simple keyboard piece cut (4)
CHOP: the first 40 percent of a simple piano piece.
6d Sticker of African equine for one inside of jail (7)
ASSEGAI: assemble a hoofed animal, the abbreviation meaning ‘for one’ and the inner letters of jail.
7d Parts of column from summit mostly on Scottish bank (9)
VERTEBRAE: a synonym of summit without its final letter and a Scottish word for a bank or hillside.
8d Extract of twisted sonnet a despot composed (6)
SEDATE: hidden in reverse.
10d Track system running in LA room (8)
MONORAIL: an anagram (running) of IN LA ROOM.
14d Draws American street vehicle on the wagon heading north (8)
ATTRACTS: start with an abbreviation for American then reverse the abbreviation for street, a road vehicle and an abbreviation meaning ‘on the wagon’.
16d Bring up fair illumination at back of wheels (4,5)
REAR LIGHT: a verb to bring up or nurture and an adjective meaning fair or blonde.
17d Busy teen collects the right cabling that links computers? (8)
ETHERNET: an anagram (busy) of TEEN contains THE and the abbreviation for right.
19d Norm and Oscar shelter one out of prison (7)
PAROLEE: string together a synonym for norm or standard, the letter that Oscar represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet (it’s second appearance – perhaps appropriate for this weekend) and a word meaning shelter.
20d Exceedingly hot flan demolished (3,4)
NOT HALF: an anagram (demolished) of HOT FLAN.
21d Turn left with cycling spouses ahead (6)
SWIVEL: the abbreviation for left with a word for spouses cycled preceding it.
24d Swimmer going under black ice? (5)
BLING: an edible marine fish follows the abbreviation for black.
25d Andean no longer invested in skincare (4)
INCA: hidden in the clue.
My ticks went to 15a, 23a, 29a and 6d. Which one(s) made your day?
Good fun although I struggled to parse 4d which is now blindingly obvious. The rest was quite friendly for a Friday. Thanks to Karla and Gazza.
I didn’t find this too tough but it still took a fair bit of teasing out to get over the line. The wordplay was very fair, which meant even the more difficult clues could be worked out without any bung-ins. Plenty of potential favourites, but I went for 11 and 15a, plus 6d.
My thanks to Karla and Gazza.
Waiting in for various gas and electric engineers left plenty of time for both puzzles today. If anything Karla was slightly easier, but my experience is probably very subjective.
Spooner’s plump birds my favourite, but with the stray dog biting at the heels.
Thanks to Gazza and Karla
An enjoyable crossword of mid week level difficulty. Lots to like, especially 4d and 6d
Thanks to Karla and Gazza
I rarely tackle a Friday Toughie but I am happy to make an exception for Karla. This proved to be nicely challenging and a lot of fun.
I couldn’t parse my answer to 5a but, having seen Gazza’s explanation, it’s difficult to understand why I couldn’t unravel it.
With plenty of ticks to pick from, my podium comprises 1d, 4d & 6d.
Many thanks to Karla and to Gazza.
A busy day meant no guarantee of enough time to solve both DT puzzles today. I like Karla’s puzzles, so chose this one this morning.
I actually found it very approachable and solved with enough time to print off and complete the back-pager too.
Ticks awarded to 11a, 6d and 19d.
Many thanks to Karla and to Gazza.
I usually tremble in fear at the mention of the Friday Toughie, but this is the first time I have finished one (nearly) unaided. The lower half went in pretty quickly and then steadily teased out the rest leaving just the top line and 4d. Struggled for a while with a different bird pencilled in until I identified that rear of court was not a T. For 4d I was thinking of a different keyboard so needed Gazza’s hint and also for 6a.
My thanks to Karla, who will undoubtedly up the difficulty level in future to bring me down to earth, and to Gazza for his help.
Pretty relaxed for a Friday and I’m all for it. Fun definitions – 29a, 6d, and 25d, etc. 22a’s “that might be the making of” and 14d’s “on the wagon” were elegant too. Best thanks to Karla and Gazza.
A real pleasure to solve such a fine set of clues. A good chuckle from the 29a Spoonerism so that’s our favourite.
Thanks Karla and Gazza.
Can’t normally get the time for the toughie but if this is as described in the other place as ‘accessible’ and ‘not much harder than’ then for me © etc. that’s not the case. It was a DNF even with the hints for 5 clues mostly in the NE. I’ll go with accessible because I managed the rest but if the Toughie is usually tougher then it’s going to remain above my pay grade probably until I retire and get more time. Still enjoyed it though, so many thanks for the workout to Karla and Gazza
I found this one a good bit trickier than usual for a Karla Toughie. Annoyingly no unaided finish either falling short at 6a – I did parse the back of in but only solved the blighter after having lost patience & revealing the 1st letter – d’oh.
28a’s triangular sail also needed a post solve check.
As ever lots to like & admire – 6d’s sticker, the woofer at 15a & the division at 18a would be my podium picks.
Thanks to Karla & to Gazza – your cartoon at 12a reminded me of the poor BA captain who took the wrong taxiway at Joburg’s OR Tambo International & bashed the right wing of the aircraft into an office building – a bad day at the office & then some…..