Toughie No 3665 by Django
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***/**** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from a very Spring-like Wirral – just as long as you can stay in the sun and out of the rather toothy wind!
I was delighted -and somewhat nervous – when I saw Django’s name when I opened my Dead Tree. I missed his recent Tuesday appearance and was hoping for a repeat visit. However, I was also well aware that I don’t always find his puzzles straightforward, so solving against a deadline adds an element of peril. I always start by getting lost in Django’s narratives – I read the clues as mini stories, and forget to take them as directions to an answer, and it takes a little while before I start to treat them like a puzzle. That’s a large part of what I like about Django’s crosswords, and today was no exception.
We have an interesting mix of (relative) “gimmes” to get the ball rolling, some good mid-rage difficulty clues and some that took quite a lot of head-scratching to tease out, hence the elevated overall difficulty rating. A fun challenge, though, and many thanks to Django for giving the brain cells a jump-start! I’m giving rosettes today to 12d, 16d and 19d. However, top prize goes to 24d, for the amusing mental image.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
Across Clues
1 12 × 24 Heather finds trivial (8)
FOOTLING A charade of the measurement you get from taking twelve of 24d and a synonym of “heather” ignore the capitalisation)
9 Accidentally catch 6 balls – then try (8)
OVERHEAR A charade of what 6 (legal) balls are in cricket and a synonym of “try” in the legal sense
10 and 11 Across Bringing in expert obviously, checks building regs require them (4-5,7)
DAMP-PROOF COURSES Insert a three-letter “expert” (good enough to make a living from something) and a (2,5) expression meaning “obviously” into a synonym of “checks” (in the sense of blocking the flow). Slightly unusual to have the hyphenated term bridging two clues, or at least I’ve never noticed it before, but it “works” as the grid has these running over two consecutive lines
11 See 10 Across
13 View page about German writer backing Twain and Orwell? (3,5)
PEN NAMES Take a three-letter synonym of “view” (as a verb), the usual abbreviation of “page” and insert (about) a German Nobel prize-winning writer (new knowledge for me) and then reverse the lot (backing) to get a term of which both Twain and Orwell are examples (hence the question mark)
15 Convict popular couple (6)
INMATE A charade of synonyms of “popular” and “couple” (in the reproductive sense)
16 Cease work on street (4)
STOP A synonym of “work” follows (on) the usual abbreviation of “street”
17 Literary work – first to satirise politician (5)
STORY The initial letter of (first to) “satirise” followed by a name for UK politicians associated with the colour blue
18 Comfortable home is part of Crown Estate (4)
NEST The solution is lurking within (is part of) “Crown Estate”
20 Andy regularly failing to get guidance (6)
ADVICE The odd-numbered letters (regularly) of “Andy” are followed by a synonym of “failing”
21 Court tense – ultimately you arraign almost all bawdy houses (8)
TRIBUNAL Start with the usual letter indicating “tense”, follow that with a synonym of “bawdy” from which the last letter is removed (almost all) into which the final letters (ultimately) of “you” and “arraign” are inserted (houses)
23 and 26 Across Damage wrecked Hulk tie-in rollercoaster? (5-7,4)
WHITE-KNUCKLE RIDE An anagram (Damage) of “wrecked Hulk tie-in” gives something of which “rollercoaster” is an example (hence the question mark)
26 See 23 Across
27 Shock, with pacifist on flyer (4,4)
ROCK DOVE Take synonyms of “shock” and “pacifist” to get a type of bird, the ancestor of the familiar, feral pigeon
28 Glib words after tryst? There’s a time and place for this (8)
DATELINE A charade of a four-letter synonym of “tryst” and a word which can be used to mean “glib words” (eg something someone might be said to have spun)
Down Clues
2 Most unclear as Post Office rejected an inquiry (8)
OPAQUEST Reverse (rejected) the abbreviation for “Post Office” and follow that with a (1,5) term meaning “an enquiry”
3 Top secret number – good feature for TV gameshow (7,5)
TIPPING POINT A charade of a synonym of “top”, a three-letter terms for a “secret number”, the usual abbreviation for “good”, and a synonym of “feature”
4 Grass doing well (6)
INFORM Forget gardening! A (2,4) phrase meaning “doing well” (currently) when conjoined gives a synonym of “Grass” as a verb
5 Mistake giving new order to “about turn” (4)
GOOF Start with a pair of two-letter synonyms for “about” and “turn” and then put the first synonym to the back (new order)
6 Intensity of keeping fit in climbing centre – quite the reverse close to holiday (8)
FEROCITY “quite the reverse” here means “do the opposite of the foregoing, so take “fit” from the clue and then insert (keeping) a reversal (“climbing” in a down clue) of a synonym of “centre”, and then add the final letter of (close to) “holiday”
7 Trouble Smee discovered on ship (4)
MESS Remove the outlet letters (discovered) of “Smee” and add Crosswordland’s popular two-letter term meaning “ship”
8 Street getting louder – sounds like tea party is scrapped (8)
CRESCENT Take a musical term meaning “getting louder” and the letter that sounds like “tea”, then remove (is scrapped) a two-letter synonym of “party”
12 For example, I translated Norman Mailer after I left university (5,7)
ROMAN NUMERAL An anagram (translated) of what is left of “Norman Mailer” after “I” is removed (“I left”) but the abbreviation for “university” is included
14 Film succeeded, one getting a lot of laughs (5)
SHOOT Take the abbreviation for “succeeded” and add a term for something that gets a lot of laughs. “Film“ here is a verb.
16 Making Law Reform Institute pens dependable (8)
STALWART Take a synonym of “Institute” as a verb and then insert (pens) and anagram (making… …reform) of “law”
17 Vocally support processed pork, safe (5,3)
SPEAK FOR An anagram (processed) of “pork safe”
19 Didn’t leave guy swelling up (6,2)
STAYED ON A synonym of “guy” in the sense of “rope” or “tether” is followed by biological synonym for “swelling” which is reversed (“up” in a down clue)
22 Way to print degenerate joke, wasting a couple of seconds (6)
INKJET Take two four letter synonyms for “degenerate” and “joke” and remove both instances (wasting a couple) of the letter that means “second”
24 Creep home before church (4)
INCH Take a word for where you can be said to be if you are “home” and add the abbreviation for “church”. A lovely image of guilty conscience in action!
25 Employed and happy but not in the morning (4)
USED Start with a synonym of “happy” (in the not Queen Victoria sense) and remove (but not) the letters meaning “in the morning”
Needed checkers from some of the easier clues to unpick the more convoluted sufaces. I solved on a park bench admiring my Defender in the sunshine.
Thanks to Djando and Whybird.
Thank you Django for a wonderfully entertaining puzzle, which I found at the easier end of his range — and indeed easier than I find some backpagers. It was great to see the Post Office inquiry making another appearance; it’s truly impressive how many variations Django has come up with on this theme! Other highlights included the Law Reform Institute in 16d and the 22d degenerate joke.
And thank you to Whybird for blogging, especially for confirming how 5d works. One request: would it be possible for you to put ‘a’ or ‘d’ after clue numbers in your hints? That makes it easier to use Ctrl+F in a browser to jump to a hint for a particular clue. For instance, to find the hint for 20 across, it would then be possible to search for “20a”. Without the ‘a’ it’s necessary to search for “20”, which also matches various other 20s that happen to appear on the page. Thanks.
A lovely Tuesday lunchtime challenge, which threatened to be more testing than turned out to be the case. Like Jonners (nice Landy, classic colour) getting some of the more straightforward clues opened the rest of the puzzle, and with a few the answer sprang from the definition (eg 10/11, 21) rather than requiring the wordplay, the appreciation of which came second. Had vaguely heard of 3d as a TV programme, more familiar with it from old 1970s arcade games on holidays in France/drab UK resorts in the rain.
Cracking puzzle as ever from Django, to whom many thanks, and to Whybird for the excellent blog.
Some fairly intricate clue constructions made this a bit more difficult than we’re used to for a Tuesday Toughie.
I suspected a pangram at one stage but it appears we are a couple short.
COTD for me is the gameshow at 3d.
My thanks to Django and Whybird.
Most of this was fairly straightforward, however I struggled with a few.
I correctly guessed the flyer at 27a from the wordplay, and I have never heard of, or watched, the gameshow at 3d.
25d made me smile, as it was exactly how I felt this morning after the long weekend!
Many thanks to Django and to Whybird.
Definitely at the easier end of the Django range – I wonder if that was because so many of his lovely stories weren’t quite as long as usual? Perfect Tuesday Toughie with lots to enjoy
Many thanks to him and Whybird
A very entertaining puzzle as we always get from this setter – thanks to Django and Whybird.
There are too many ticks on my printout to list them all but just the downs are 5d, 8d, 14d and 22d.
Gazza, I tried to send a message to the BD team at the weekend and again just now using the “contact” section.
Although everything was properly completed and all boxes ticked, when I click the “submit” button I get a big red banner error message reading “Please fill out the form correctly.”
Not sure if this is a me-specific problem, or something wider?
I’ve just tried it and got the same result.
I’ll ask Mr K to investigate.
Thanks Gazza – glad to find that it’s not just me!
Dunno if this was at the easier end of Django’s oevre or not but it was tough enough for me on a Tuesday – the gimmes scattered over the grid, then “now what”! Good fun though and it yielded eventually. Faves were 8d and 22d.
Thanks to Django and Whybird.
Excellent Tuesday afternoon fare from this setter who was in one of his less verbose moods. Some terrific surfaces, a few difficult parsings, and a great deal of fun. Among the more noteworthy clues was 8d, my favourite.
Thanks to Django for the challenge and to Whybird.
I had heard of the gameshow but never seen it and needed the hint to parse it as I did with 5d and 8d, I couldn’t see where the ‘T’ came from. Still only three little bits of help parsing on a toughie is not bad for me. I always enjoy a Django puzzle and today was no exception. Favourite was 6d. Thanks to the aforementioned and Whybird.
We look forward to puzzles from this setter as they invariable are a lot of fun. This one certainly lived up to the expectation. Hard to pick a favourite but we’ll go with 13a.
Thanks Django and Whybird.
Thanks Whybird and thanks all!
Cheers!
Thanks for dropping in, Django. And thanks again for the entertainment and amusement!
Having failed to unearth Anthea’s hidden depths earlier this morning (& sought Shabbo’s help for the hints) pride restored with a pre lights out Toughie tussle. Plenty hard enough for me – found it trickier than his recent puzzles & as per a number of the whys were reverse engineered. I wasn’t familiar with either the tile or the pigeon so they needed an ok from Mr G & I spent far too long down the blind alley of racking what’s left of my brain trying to think of a 5 letter film title beginning with an S.
Ticks aplenty – 10/11,13&21a + 2,3,6,14,16&19d particular likes.
Thanks to Django & to Whybird
I started this late yesterday evening and took it to bed with me, but only managed 5 before I dropped off. I got 24d but forgot to ✖️ by 12 for 1a and consequently chased my tail with ‘inchling’, which surprisingly is a character in Minecraft and at a stretch could be synonymous with trivial. Picked it up this morning and still clear as mud, so resorted to Whybird for inspiration. With the hints for 10/11, 23a and a few others+ my wife’s input on the gameshow I was able to complete this stickler.
Django and Whybird have my respectful thanks.
4*/3*