Toughie No 3655 by Bandit
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****/*****
Bandit makes a welcome second appearance with yet more cleverness and truly immaculate surfaces. A dollop of history (huzzah!) and a smidgeon of science (boo!) but all very fairly clued. All yours.
Across
1a Acclaim king reversing flow of sea (6)
CREDIT: “King” (his initials) + “flow of sea”, reversed.
4a Dragged out Corday’s victim just after ringing hospital (8)
MARATHON: (Charlotte) “Corday’s victim” + two-letter synonym for “just after”, containing abbreviated “hospital”.
10a I’m surprised guards head off, showing reason to go to bar (4,5)
ONE’S SHOUT: two-letter “I’m surprised” (as an interjection) guards/contains “head”(land), plus synonym for “off”.
11a Adult knocked back gin on his own (5)
APART: abbreviated “adult” + “gin” (not the drink), knocked back/reversed.
12a Bit from ChatGPT’s in AI piece about musician (7)
PIANIST: lurker, reversed in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth words.
13a Harry Potter regularly ignored same wizard (7)
MAESTRO: pOtTeR+SAME, harried.
14a In passing, former coach bit player (5)
EXTRA: “former” + (to) “coach”, with “in” passing/leaving.
15a American Express accepting PIN missing first element (8)
ASTATINE: abbreviated “American” + express/say, accepting/containing [p]IN.
18a General is charged after Queen’s left protecting Charlie (8)
ECLECTIC: “charged” (with power) minus abbreviated “queen”, protecting/containing C[harlie].
20a Pack animal completely around, with minute opening for air (5)
LLAMA: completely/totally, around/reversed, + abbreviated “minute” + A[ir].
23a English composer reflected about where piece might go (7)
HOLSTER: “English composer” (The Planets), plus two-letter “about”, reflected/reversed.
25a Print newspaper reporter’s opening words? (7)
IMPRESS: what a journalist might say by way of introduction (1’1,5). “Follow that car” remains my personal favourite, mind!
26a ‘Ow Dick Turpin made ‘is long journeys gradually diminish? (5)
ERODE: how Turpin travelled (2,4), Cockneyfied.
27a Awful to-do with Andrew endlessly causing a stink? This could help (9)
DEODORANT: TODO+ANDRE[w], awful.
28a Police officer’s comparatively rapid sacking following debacle (8)
DISASTER: usual-ish “police officer’s” + “comparatively rapid”, minus the abbreviation for “following”.
29a Serious cut close to eye (6)
SEVERE: cut/lop + [ey]E.
Down
1d Caught duffer going round university – he’s dealing, I’ll bet (8)
CROUPIER: abbreviated “caught” + duffer/more duff, containing abbreviated “university”. The “I’ll bet” is oddly helpful but I feel I should point out that women do this too!
2d Rearing badger inside box is fine (7)
ELEGANT: badger/pester inside (the) box/set, all reversed (rearing).
3d Start probe into spending limits on Vodafone (9)
INSTIGATE: probe/look into, spending/losing V and E.
5d George Orwell’s top tip – omit actual suffering (9,5)
AUTOMATIC PILOT: O+TIP+OMIT+ACTUAL, suffering.
6d Quickly pop round with one (5)
APACE: pop/father, around/reversed, plus “one” (cards).
7d Cheer try, crowning score? Not half! (7)
HEARTEN: try (in court) + half of “score”.
8d Thought socially unacceptable outside Italy (6)
NOTION: “(socially) unacceptable” (3,2), outside/containing abbreviated “Italy”.
9d Taking lead from Barclays, make smaller bank cards (8,6)
CONTRACT BRIDGE: make smaller/lessen + “bank” (of earth, etc), taking/containing B[arclays].
16d Introduction to this no help with EE mobile? It could be (9)
TELEPHONE: T+NOHELP+EE, mobile.
17d Media cover players getting hold of prescribed drug (8)
CASSETTE: players/actors getting hold of/containing prescribed/fixed + usual “drug”.
19d Hard decision over America (7)
CALLOUS: decision (it’s your ****) + abbreviated “over” and “America”.
21d Swear when held up by mature pedestrian (7)
AVERAGE: swear/attest, held up by/on top of (to) “mature”.
22d Pass hour probing what’s on bottom of shoe (6)
THREAD: abbreviated “hour” probing/inside “what’s on bottom of shoe” (not sole!).
24d Structure that’s extremely secure except for lock (5)
TRESS: extremely secure structure/building, minus its initial “for”.
We have four anagrams, one lurker and a riot of reversal. So much to like here but I especially enjoyed 9d’s surface, 17d’s definition and 19d’s topicality. What did you make of it?
I found Bandit’s debut Toughie very tough and this one was even tougher. I got there in the end after an almighty struggle although I failed to parse 10a.
The quality of the clues was admirable, but I’m not sure if I’ll be in too much of hurry to tackle his next one.
Thanks to Bandit and to ALP.
Pretty tough but very enjoyable with excellent surfaces throughout – thanks to Bandit and ALP.
My rosettes were pinned on 10a, 14a, 28a and (my favourite) 1d.
I solved this early this morning and then have had quite a busy day, so I can’t remember a lot except that I did enjoy the solve – I have written on the piece of paper “LH harder” but looking at the solved grid I would imagine that had something to do with 10a and 18a, but I could be wrong.
My ratings agree with those of ALP so thank you to him, and to Bandit
A very decent offering from Bandit, he certainly has his own style.
10a was my LOI, which I parsed ok, but hesitated as the solution looks a bit awkward written down.
Honours go to Harry Potter in 13a, the piece in 23a and Dick Turpin in 26a.
My thanks to Bandit and ALP.
I found this far more difficult than your rating ALP, but agree with your enjoyment. I got there after a slog which was very satisfying.
Favourite was the lol 26A closely followed by last one in 10A.
Many thanks to ALP for your help with some of the parsing and to Bandit for a real Thursday challenge.
Like others LOI was 10a and I also found it a bit odd. Never heard of the element or Corday or the victim if it comes it. The rest were just plain difficult, getting the two long ones helped though. Favourite was 18a. Thanks to Bandit and ALP.
I didn’t find this too difficult. It was an interesting solve because I did it online in bed this morning on my phone using my 5g data. We had a house electrical problem which meant I was unable to print any puzzle like I normally do every day.
The one I liked the most was George Orwell.
Many thanks to Bandit and to ALP.
2*/4*
That definitely exposed my limitations as a Toughie solver but I got there in the end and learned something about the French Revolution along the way. My favourites were the piece holder at 23a, the journo’s shout at 25a and Dick’s means of transport at 26a. Thanks very much to Bandit and to ALP doe helping me understand 10a and a couple of others.
Thanks, all
The entry at 10a was originally OVERSHOOT, but since that was the answer to 11a in the Toughie scheduled for the previous day it had to be changed. The only viable alternative was that (4,5) phrase, which wouldn’t otherwise have found its way into the puzzle.
Best thanks for a cracking puzzle – and for the clarification.
Until the end I largely enjoyed what for me was almost a Friday-level Toughie, with so much complex parsing and a lot of subtle definitons. 10a my LOI and required a clue from here, so a DNF. The answer just doesn’t work for me, spoiled the puzzle, and I don’t see why the same original answer could not have appeared twice in succession so long as the clue was different.
COTD 27a. Many thanks to Bandit and ALP
The clue was completely different (“Jeer after at least twelve balls go flying past”), but the issue as I understand it is specifically the repetition of an answer – I’m not sure how many days must elapse before an entry is allowed to make a repeat appearance!
Full on Elgar-level for me, which is exactly what I felt with Bandit’s first puzzle. At least I finished this one, even though I’d been at it so long I gave up trying to work out the parsing of 10a, and 22d still only half makes sense (possibly some knowledge I’m lacking, even given the hint). A lot of reversing and snipping out bits, but very cleverly done. I won’t be surprised if Bandit moves to a Friday slot. Thanks, Bandit , for the battle, and ALP for the blog.
In 22d pass is a verb as in ‘pass the cotton through the eye of the needle’.
Thanks Gazza. That was the part I understood. However, it has now clicked. I was using a two-letter abbreviation for hour, when only a single letter is needed. Now it makes complete sense. Not a lack of knowledge, just plain stupidity!!
Had a glance at this yesterday evening & could make head nor tail of it as too 🥱 so left it until today knowing Elgar would be on duty & he’s a no go zone for me. 10a last in here too but chuffed to twig the why eventually.
Had to look up Charlotte then struggled to justify the ‘on’ bit & the chemical element needed confirmation too. Tough going for the likes of me but hugely enjoyable & a plethora of clever clues – 18,23&27a + 1,3,9&17d the picks for me.
Thanks to Bandit & to ALP