Toughie No 3657 by Dada
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
Croeso o Gymru! This week’s travels find me in a very nice cottage on the Bodnant Estate, overlooking the Conwy valley and the village of Dolgarrog. The Present Lady Whybird, Lord Alfie and I are enjoying a few days of downtime following Lady W’s latest sewing retreat, coincidentally situated in the aforementioned village. Anyone would think there was a plan… We’ve had a hefty dose of spectacular early spring weather, but we are now experiencing something more traditionally North Walian. As with the last time I was in this area, several hours over a couple of days in St Mary’s Churchyard, Caerhun, involved plenty of obliging finches (Gold, Green, Chaf) but not Haw. There’s always a next time, and the Roman archaeology is interesting.
Dada, to whom, many thanks, has given us a very enjoyable puzzle today, towards the more straightforward end of the spectrum, I felt, which is especially welcome as I’ve been solving on the iPad rather than my much preferred Dead Tree. Just a couple of pieces of explanations had me scratching my head a little, but nothing too strenuous. I did wonder if Dada had dined on an Atlas given the number of geographical references. My prizes today go to 18a, 19a, 27a with 14d getting an honourable mention
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
Across Clues
1 Linguistically explain speed of light, astronomical unit (6)
PARSEC A charade of a term meaning “linguistically explain” (precisely what I am attempting here) followed by the letter used to indicate the speed of light
5 Vitreous matter I said, no rocks, black parts (8)
OBSIDIAN An anagram (rocks) of “I said no” into which is inserted (parts) the letter indicating “black”
9 Plant in teapot is sprawling (10)
POINSETTIA An anagram (sprawling) of “in teapot is”
10 Nail course of action (4)
TACK A double definition, the second sense also being a yachting term
11 Train picks up last of people after evacuation of Rome (8)
REHEARSE Take a word meaning “picks up” in the auditory sense, follow that with the final letter (last of) “people”, preceded by the first and last letters (after evacuation of) “Rome”
12 Asian city I understand bound by traditions (6)
LAHORE A two-letter exclamation meaning “I understand” is inserted into a synonym of “traditions”
13 Somewhat sweet, we established? (4)
TWEE The question mark means that there is something a little left-filed with this clue. In this case, we have a lurker (Somewhat) with the definition also giving part of the hidden letters giving the solution. I could easily have underlined the first two words, or the whole thing, but have plumped for just the second word. A lot easier to solve than to explain!
15 European chambers occupied by American nationals, primarily (8)
AUSTRIAN Take a word meaning “chambers” in both a biological and architectural sense, insert (occupied by) a two-letter term meaning “American” and append the first letter (primarily) of “nationals”
18 Small group of us, more at sixes and sevens! (8)
FOURSOME A (well-disguised) anagram (at sixes and sevens) of “of us more”. Right up Huntsman’s street!
19 Ultimately aloof superhero, Batman resident in Gotham, for example (4)
FONT The final letters (Ultimately) of “aloof superhero Batman resident” gives a word of which “Gotham” is an example
21 A line observed in sport for Olympian (6)
APOLLO Take “A” from the clue, then insert the letter meaning “line” into (observed in) an equestrian sport
23 Pace cut when reversing past split in road, always (3,5)
FOR KEEPS A four-letter word meaning “split in road” is followed by a synonym of “pace” from which the final letter is removed (cut) which is turned round (when reversing) and then split (3,5)
25 Reporter’s narcissistic manner (4)
VEIN The solution is a word that sounds like (Reporter’s) a synonym of “narcissistic”
26 Wetter South American native displayed clothes (10)
SHOWERHEAD Take a synonym of “displayed” (or demonstrated) and insert (clothes) an avian resident of South America. The solution is a noun rather than an adjective.
27 Long novel, questionable covers – one doesn’t translate! (8)
MONOGLOT An anagram (novel) of “Long” is inserted into a synonym of “questionable” (or debatable, as well as referring to something so trivial it isn’t worth doing so – got to love the English language!)
28 Unfortunate twilight years, time after period in America? (6)
DOTAGE A three-letter synonym of “time” is preceded by the term an American may use in place of the “period” punctuation mark
Down Clues
2 Make up very early in the day? (5)
ATONE Split (2,3) the solution could also be a reference to a time in the early morning
3 Poet on electronic system accessing prophet (9)
SONNETEER Insert “on” from the clue and a three-letter name for an “electronic system” into (accessing) a synonym of “prophet”
4 Appeal having snaffled that woman’s cricket ball (6)
CHERRY Take a three-letter synonym of “Appeal” (or call out) and insert (having snaffled) the possessive term meaning “that woman’s”. Not an obvious answer if you are not familiar with cricket, but clearly clued. And a good excuse to show my current avian nemesis…
5 Old Oscar winner floating on air (2,3,10)
ON THE WATERFRONT An alternative description of eg a boat “floating” followed by (“on” in a down clue) a synonym of “air” in the sense of “attitude presented”
6 Dark, alert snakes captivated by sibilant sound? (8)
STARLESS Insert an anagram (snakes) of “alert” into (captivated by) a repeated three letters that could be how you would write a “sibilant sound”
7 Opening in dip, long channel (5)
DITCH The initial letter of (opening in) “dip” is followed by a synonym of “long” as a verb
8 Identify a crime where suspicious crate’s imported (9)
ASCERTAIN Take “a” from the clue, a three-letter synonym of “crime” and insert (‘s imported) an anagram (suspicious) of “crate”
14 Question ludicrous dope leading party in White House furore? (5-2-2)
WHOOP-DE-DO “In White House” here is a clear signal we are seeking an Americanism (as well as making for an amusing surface). A three-letter question (or Sci-Fi Doctor) is followed by an anagram (ludicrous) of “dope” and then (leading) the usual two-letter “party”. I first encountered this phrase in You’re a Good Sport, Charlie Brown cartoon where Charlie Brown on a clapped-out old bike beats Peppermint Patty and the Masked Marvel.
16 Great fun scoffing meat – banger? (5,4)
RIFLESHOT A four-letter term meaning “great fun” (or violent protest) surrounds (scoffing) a synonym of “meat”. The question mark indicates that the “banger” is a cryptic definition
17 Titanic, casualty featured in item of mine? (8)
COLOSSAL A synonym of “casualty” is inserted (featured in) a product extracted from mines, coincidentally formerly strongly associated with the southern part of the area where I am typing this blog
20 Day getting close, bruv (6)
FRIEND A charade of a three-letter abbreviation for one of the days of the week and a synonym of “close” gives a translation of the slang expression “bruv”
22 Good books devoured by stellar beast slowly (5)
LENTO An animate star sign surrounds (devoured by) the abbreviation for the later part of the Bible to give a musical instruction
24 Bump signalled after start of pregnancy (5)
PRANG A synonym of “signalled” (that you might associated with bells) follows the initial letter (after start) of pregnancy
A great start to the toughie week. Most of this went in fairly quickly though the SW held me up a little.
14d was the problem, as I thought initially it must end in ‘it up’ until I cracked the very smart 27a. As our blogger says the last three words of the clue suggest the definition is an Americanism, which at least partially absolves the ungainly sound of the answer.
The train evacuation in 11a, and the wetter in 26a received ticks, but my COTD has to be the bruv in 20d, which made me larf, mate.
Great fun, my thanks to Dada and Whybird.
Once again my thoughts on the difficulty level aren’t the same as Whybird, as I found it quite tricky so more of a 2.5* than a 1* for me
Lots of clever sneakiness throughout. Thanks to Dada and Whybird
It must be something in the Welsh Air (or the mind-expanding powers of Welsh Breakfast Sausages)…
Fun and not too tricky except for the 14d phrase which I’ve never heard of (and neither apparently have the BRB and Collins). I ended up consulting Merriam-Webster which does know it.
My ticks went to 1a, 19a, 26a and 24d.
Thanks to Dada and Whybird.
I’m with CS and found that vastly tough(i)er than today’s cryptic, with 1a, 4d and 14d being new terms to me. It was an enjoyable tussle nevertheless and all made perfect sense in terms of the parsing. 26a was my COTD, not least for the effective misdirection. Thanks very much to Dada and to Whybird.
Didn’t enjoy this much. But once started I had to finish and required a few to many letter hints at the end for my liking
Never heard of 1a, 4d or 14d and hope to never come across 14d again.
Will concede there were some great clues and it was a good brain workout particularly liked 18a and 23a
Thanks so much for the explanations above as I got 5d very early but could not parse it at all
Add me to what I fully expect to be an expanding contingent of those who found this a deal tougher than our reviewer did – I’ll have some of those sausages please. A pedestrian solve with 16d & 26a (+ parsing the latter) adding a further 25% to the solve time. 14d was a crumpet scratch until the wordplay penny dropped & I then remembered a Knopfler tune off his Shangri-La album, albeit with an extra doughnut. 19a also required a post solve check with Mr G.
Thoroughly enjoyed the tussle. As you would expect my fav was 1st in 5d with plenty of ✅s elsewhere – 11,12,26&27a + 3,8&20d other particular likes.
Thanks to Dada & to Whybird – enjoy your downtime.
I am forgetting to give due credit to the team at Conwy Breweries, who have clearly had some systemic benefit built up over preceding days. Well worth sampling if you (or anyone else) get the chance! Along with Purple Moose.
Never heard of 14d a phrase, I won’t be using it in the near future or ever if it comes to it, didn’t know the font, needed all the checkers to get 5d and the hint to parse it, and 28a was a bit weird as I’ve always looked upon ‘period’ in that sense as an Americanism. Some real head scratchers in the rest. Not really a Tuesday toughie to me more late week. Favourite was 1a. Thanks to Dada for the mental drubbing and Whybird.
A somewhat challenging enjoyable puzzle to solve. Much tougher than we were expecting on a Tuesday but still a lot of fun.
Thanks Dada and Whybird.
I’m certainly with those who found this relatively challenging – I just couldn’t get on Dada’s wavelength, so solved it in fits and starts. Solid but unremarkable overall. Oddly enough, 14d would have been my first one in, solved from the parsing rather than the definition, so I waited to make sure. I’ve always taken it as being a sarcastic, almost sour, way of saying “yeah, really, you think that’s impressive / big / etc” as in “well whoop de (bluddy) do”.
Many thanks to Dada and Whybird
I’ll go with those who found it tougher than normal for a Tuesday. Only found 5 on the first pass and following a mental reset 1, 5 and 9a went in quickly, although I subsequently found I had spelt the plant incorrectly, which stymied 4d. I have never heard the white house dope but sussed it from the wordplay. For 2d I was thinking of another slow musical movement and would never get 25a. All in all a bit of a head scratcher, but got there in the end with Whybird’s hints needed for the last 3, which isn’t bad for me.
Thanks to Dada and Whybird.
3*/3*
Far tougher than the last few Tuesdays, needed a hint or two but finished it in reasonable time..14d least favourite .1a cotd for me closely followed by 4d , a good word for anyone who follows this sport .Thanks to all
14dn: saw it, solved it, hope I never see it again.
Came home after a tough evening at the bridge table so I was cross enough already.
Due to 14d it was a */**** downgraded */***