Toughie No 3659 by Dharma
Hints and tips by ALP
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Toughie difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
I was, as ever, at a loss how to rate this for difficulty. I pretty much skipped through it, thanks largely to Dharma’s typically fair definitions – hence the 2 not 2.5. But full parsing took slightly longer because of some original wordplay. I did, however, initially draw a blank up top, having to dot round the grid to find a way in. Once I did, though, it all slotted into place fairly quickly. And the north-west is not, in fact, nearly as impenetrable as it at first (to me) appeared. Dharma effectively gives us 1a on a plate as you have only to delete two letters and add one, so it really should have flown in immediately. Smart stuff – I’m still chuckling about 15d’s “flimsy house”. Outrageous! All yours.
Across
1a Forward playing with protégé … (6)
ONWARD: “playing” + protégé/dependant.
4a … heads beauty, turning inside, showing ways to embarrass defenders (7)
NUTMEGS: heads/bonces with beauty/peach, reversed, inside.
9a Solve possible clue for “urge” if … (6,3)
FIGURE OUT: reverse anagram, i.e. how one might clue URGEIF.
10a … well-versed in English after a huge struggle (5)
AWARE: abbreviation of “English” after ‘A’ and (huge) struggle/battle.
11a Letter from energy company filled with regressive manner of speech (7)
EPSILON: (German-owned) “energy company” filled with/containing “manner of speech”, reversed (regressive). Think Chris Eubank.
12a Quietly half of boys boarding hum this? (3,4)
POP SONG: (musical) “quietly” and the first two letters of a synonym for “boys” boarding/inside hum/stench.
13a Amidst rapid movement to the left lines could get crossed (9)
TRAVERSED: lines/poetry, amidst/inside rapid movement/race, reversed (to the left).
16a Gets close to Poles receiving attention (5)
NEARS: (geographic) poles receiving/containing attention/heed.
17a Concerned with university guidelines (5)
REMIT: “concerned with” + (US) “university”.
18a Facing the sack, this could be your next move? (2,2,5)
GO TO SLEEP: cryptic definition. Nothing to do with getting fired.
21a Apocryphal book? Newspaper article from the east covers it (7)
SUSANNA: (red-top) “newspaper” + two-letter “article”, from the east/reversed, covering/containing “it”, AKA sex appeal.
22a Engineers Ford perhaps to be a power-creating machine (7)
REACTOR: the usual “engineers” + Ford (by example, i.e. a person).
25a/26a Bore doctor sick, adopting junior member’s political slogan (5,4,5)
DRILL BABY DRILL: bore/pierce + doctor (2) + sick/poorly, adopting/containing “junior member” (of family).
26a See 25a
27a Misguided Liberal leaving for SNP discovered and exposed (7)
DENUDED: misguided/mistaken, with [s]N[p] replacing L[iberal].
28a Reputation of Express almost entirely on the left of The Telegraph (6)
STATUS: (to) express/say, minus its last letter, plus how Dharma might refer to “The Telegraph”.
Down
1d Non-standard, like a PC that’s not working? (7)
OFFBEAT: how one might describe such a police constable as (3,4).
2d Console wife over what work gives her? (5)
WAGES: (game) “console” + abbreviated “wife”, reversed (over).
3d Country sport really evens out (5)
RURAL: (best!) sport + odd letters of “really”.
4d Book meal, taking Penny in show of approval (7)
NOTEPAD: (high?) “meal” taking/containing abbreviated “penny”, all inside (physical) “show of approval”.
5d Taken aback break rings, bells and whistles (9)
TRAPPINGS: break/divide, reversed (taken aback), plus “rings” (or text messages, say). You only need to change one letter for the second synonym.
6d Cheers up after Trump’s work to split Europeans is detailed (9)
ELABORATE: cheers/thanks, reversed (up), after American spelling of work/toil, all splitting/inside (two) abbreviated European(s).
7d Openers of Somerset lashing boundaries provokes insults at Lord’s (7)
SLEDGES: S[omerset] L[ashing] + boundaries/borders.
8d Tips beer bottles over son (6)
POINTS: (quantity of ) “beer” bottles/contains abbreviated “over”, plus abbreviated “son”.
14d Entrance fee incorrectly includes daughter, best to turn up (9)
ADMISSION: incorrectly/wrong(ly) including/containing abbreviated “daughter”, plus “best” (pop song, say), turned up/reversed.
15d Spending time in flimsy house sloping and twisted (9)
ENTANGLED: “flimsy house” (“house” as in dwelling place rather than building) minus one T[ime], plus sloping/bent.
17d Party charging militant settled (7)
RESIDED: party/team, charging/inside militant/revolutionary.
18d Rook caught in snare upside down getting bottom plucked (7)
GRABBED: abbreviated “rook” in (to) “snare”, reversed, plus bottom (of sea, perhaps).
19d Beats this making one stiff (6)
THROBS: “this” from the clue, with the usual “one” becoming (to) stiff/cheat.
20d Lets out standard cries of approval in Spain (7)
PAROLES: standard/norm + Spanish cries of approval (bullfighting, etc).
23a Go over ton, car being superior (5)
AUDIT: abbreviated “ton” after/below (make of) “car”.
24d Shame bit of Turkish isn’t spoken in part of London (5)
TAINT: T[urkish] + “isn’t” (as commonly said, by Cockneys for example).
We have just one (reverse) anagram, a cryptic definition and a battery of reversal, plus an all-in-one and two replacements. I enjoyed 4a’s definition and 19d’s “stiff”. 21a tickled me and 9a & 27a were both sharp. 1d’s fun too. How did you get on?
This was a nicely pitched Thursday Toughie which was good fun to solve. I agree with ALP that there were several cases where unravelling the parsing took considerably longer than arriving at the answer.
I needed Google to explain why the book in 21a was apocryphal, and the required meaning of “stiff” in 19d was new to me.
It’s unimportant but the BRB shows the enumeration for 4d as (4-3) and not (7).
With plenty of ticks to pick from, my podium comprises 4a, 9a & 27a.
Many thanks to Dharma and to ALP.
As soon as I saw the name atop this puzzle, I knew I was in for a treat. Dhama never let’s me down.
I gave up putting ticks against clues I admired as there were so many.
Arriving at an answer was often not particularly difficult, but I then would ponder over how the rest of the wordplay fitted in: my admiration and smile increasing in equal measure with each penny that dropped.
Being non-religious, I didn’t know 21a’s biblical connection and I’m still struggling to parse 19d.
If pushed, I’d have to pick out the Donald’s 25 & 26a as my COTD.
Wonderful, my thanks to Dharma and ALP.
Hi Frankie, 19d is a replacement clue. So take ‘I’ out of THIS and replace it with a three-letter synonym for (to) stiff – i.e. to cheat, short-change, etc. Hope that helps.
Got it, thanks mate.
I was a bit slow on the uptake, there.
As RD says some parsing did take some unravelling – notably 14d and 6d – Trump’s labor very clever – but all fairly clued. I do like sporting clues, 4a and 7d both caused a smile. Other clues getting ticks were 12a 27a 1d 6d 15d 18d and 19d once I’d remembered that synonym for stiff. I did need e-help to learn about the apocryphal book – now put away for future reference!
Great stuff. Thanks Dharma and ALP – I reckon ** was about right for this very enjoyable toughie.
An excellent puzzle that was at a perfect level of difficulty for a Thursday.
My last in and favourite was 19d, with further ticks awarded to 27a, 2d, and 6d.
Many thanks to Dharma and to ALP.
A top-drawer puzzle from Dharma with a welcome paucity of anagrams – thanks to him and ALP.
I thought the first clue was a bit weak with two-thirds of the answer appearing in the definition but after that the clues were all excellent.
I had most problems with the apocryphal book; I have enough difficulties identifying the books actually in the Bible so I’ve no chance with those which failed to make the cut.
The clues I liked most were 9a, 25/26a, 1d, 5d and 19d.
I didn’t find this as comfortable to solve as others, and 21a was my last one in and needed the explanation in the blog to understand it fully. On the whole I found the whole puzzle a little chewy, although upon reflection the clues were fair and the wordplay sound. 19d was my favourite after I had worked it out. Very neat.
My thanks to Dharma and ALP.
Definitely above my pay grade as I needed 4 or 5 hints to get moving again after, surprisingly, having started well with the NW and 25a being a quick fill. With the hints I could then join most of the dots, but had to resort to revealing 21a and 19d.
Thanks to Dharma for mangling my grey matter and ALP for providing a smidgeon of sanity.
This puzzle took me back to the start. Trainee chartered accountant with my copy of the DT the back page covered in scribbles as I tried (often failing) to solve the puzzle over the course of a day. No helpful blogs or electronic hints either.
I would be overjoyed if I fully completed the puzzle then and I can remember days where I only managed a handful of answers.
Today would have been one of those days. Happily however, with the help of the “check puzzle” function, I finally got there
I agree solving was one thing parsing was another altogether and needed the hint to parse 2d as I know nothing about gaming consoles. 21a was solved by the monkey and typewriter approach, keep substituting letters until it made a recognisable word and Google it. Not the right way to do it, but if you don’t know something you don’t know it. The rest were thoroughly enjoyable though. Many contenders for favourite but I’ll go with 20d. Thanks to Dharma and ALP.
A very enjoyable puzzle, well pitched for a Thursday. I also had difficulty parsing some of my answers. After 1A I thought I was in for a breeze but that soon changed.
Lots to like but I’ll go with 20D as favourite.
Thanks to ALP for the unravelling and to Dharma for the challenge.
Many thanks to ALP for another spot-on review and to those who’ve left a comment, always appreciated.
Ta lots for dropping in. Always a treat to see your name pop up on a Thursday.
Another top-notch puzzle. We’ve been treated very well this week. I’m with ALP on the ratings, and also found the solving to be simpler than the parsing. Nothing contentious, they just needed writing down, chopping up in different ways and a bit of lateral thinking. 19d gets my top prize, very clever simple construction, with honourable mentions to 12a and 21s for the fun I had parsing them.
Thanks to Dharma for a fun workout, and to ALP
Always a pleasure to get a Toughie from Dharma & this one no exception. A faster grid fill than usual for one of his but like others figuring the whys more of a challenge. Got there in the end though needed Mr G to explain last in 21a. Fav was 25/26a & did wonder if we’d get an ironic pic of Ed. ✅s aplenty elsewhere – 11,13&18a + 1,6,15&19d other particular likes.
Thanks to Stephen (& for popping in as per) & to ALP – liked that Imelda May, version which I’d not seen before.
Enjoyable puzzle, well-judged for its Thursday spot. Three-quarters or so went in quite swiftly, but the last half dozen took rather longer – though afterwards I couldn’t see why that had been the case.
Admirably few anagrams, making for a much more satisfying solve, right up my street.
Many thanks to Dharma and ALP
3*/3* …
liked 18A “Facing the sack, this could be your next move? (2,2,5)”