Toughie 3673

Toughie No 3673 by Dada
Hints and tips by Whybird

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***  – Enjoyment ***

Welcome to another Toughie Week. I’m back in a Very Spring-like Wirral for this week.  The migrants continue to arrive or pass through heading North; the sand martins are back exploring the nesting wall at RSPB Burton Mere, and I managed to successfully twitch the wryneck that spent a day in one of Burton village’s sheep fields.  Well, just its head, really – I didn’t have much time en route for a stroll with The Present Lady Whybird through Burton Mere’s lovely bluebell wood.

We have a full-on Toughie from Dada today that could easily have slotted in a day or two later in the week.  There are a few musical references, but I’m not sure there are enough to constitute a theme.  My solve wasn’t helped by the Dead Tree arriving late, which meant I started on the iPad and only really got into the swing once I had a suitably-folded Broadsheet in my hands.  I felt this was a rather quirky puzzle, with a few I’ve had to scratch my head over, but there are also a few absolute belters.  I knew I was going to love 14d from the moment I saw it – the idea of an extra brock in reserve that it brought to mind made me smile, although I doubt that was the allusion Dada intended. Nothing to do with the solution, either. Anyway, 14d takes top spot in a 28a with 2d, and with honourable mentions for 1a and 20a. Thank you, Dada, for getting the mental cogs spinning.

Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle. 

Across Clues

1a Political device gets more complex, with land acquired (11)

SWINGOMETER An anagram (complex) of “gets more” surrounds (acquired) a three-letter synonym of “land” in the sense of “obtain”

9a Surrender made difficult certainly by Leader of Opposition too (3,4,7)

FOR GOOD MEASURE Start with a five-letter synonym of “Surrender” then add the initial letter (Leader) of “Opposition” then an anagram (difficult) of “made” and a synonym of “certainly” and slice up as indicated

11a What runners may do in southern China, heading west (4)

LAPS Take the usual letter for “southern” and a synonym of the rhyming slang sense of “China”, then reverse them (“heading west” in an across clue). 

12a Nitpicking – catty or doggy? (5)

PETTY The solution is a word you might use in the domestic animal sense to generically cover “catty” and “doggy” 

13a Out loud, run through flier (4)

SKUA This “flier” is a homophone (out loud) of a synonym of “run through” in the swordfighting sense

16a Musical age caught by eye (8)

OPERATIC A three letter synonym of “age” is inserted (caught by) a synonym of “eye”

17a Wunderkind in retail area bearing little weight (6)

MOZART A (principally American) term for a “retail area” surrounds (bearing) an abbreviated small, Imperial weight to give a musical prodigy

19a Odd characters made redundant, some free to accept a type of light work (6)

OEUVRE Remove (made redundant) the odd-numbered letters/characters in “some free” and then insert (to accept) a two-letter abbreviation of a type of light – the sort usually defended against using sun cream.

20a Rum etc spoiled dish with beer (8)

HEBRIDES An anagram(spoiled) of “dish” and “beer” to get the island grouping that includes Rum and others

22a Itch, both sides scratched on distinguishing mark (4)

ACHE Remove the first and last letters (both sides scratched) from a synonym of “distinguishing mark” (or prestige)

23a Clearance sale’s initial rate (5)

SPACE The first letter (initial) of “sale” followed by a synonym of “rate” (or speed)

24a Small group turn it on, every second (4)

TRIO This small group is found in the alternating, odd-numbered (every second) letters of “turn it on”

27a Vegetable balti ergo nauseating, gag! (5,9)

GLOBE ARTICHOKE An anagram (nauseating) of “balti ergo” followed by a synonym of “gag”

28a Doubly hard if options blurred, still proof of result (5,6)

PHOTO FINISH An anagram (blurred) of two instances of the letter indicating “hard” (doubly) and “if options”.  I sort-of get the inclusion of “still proof of” in this context, but the solution is a synonym of (close) result – the “proof” aspect is just the evidence, not the event, hence it isn’t underlined.  It’ll be interesting to hear what others make of this.

Down Clues
2d Yay, such bananas and topping of icing on raspberry surprise? (7,7)

WHOOPEE CUSHION An (exclamatory) synonym of “Yay” followed by an anagram (bananas) of “such”, then the initial letter (topping) of “icing” and “on” from the clue. A definite giggle clue!

3d Man sans coat coming (4)

NIGH The outer letters are removed (sans coat) from an equine chess piece

4d Italian tune, old record company’s boring song (1,4,3)

O SOLE MIO Start with the usual letter indicating “old”, then add a four-letter word for a musical piece performed by an individual (it’s also a title of a song by Clean Bandit and also a few other tunes, although I’m not sure if this is the sense Dada was aiming at) into which is inserted the name of a famous British record company. 

5d Venom release has poison finally going in, unknown quantity (6)

ENMITY Take a four-letter synonym of “release”, insert (going in) the last letter (finally) of “poison” and then add the usual algebraic letter for an unknown

6d Hole expanding, toga ripped last of all – darn it! (4)

EGAD This exclamation is found by taking the terminal letters (last of all) of “Hole expanding toga ripped”

7d Wingers making a splash in game? (5,3,6)

DUCKS AND DRAKES This water-based game is also the name of male and female waterfowl 

8d Aptly so, net rippling where punt originally buried – from here? (7,4)

PENALTY SPOT An anagram (rippling) of “Aptly so net” also includes the first letter (originally buried) of “punt” to get the location of where the buried punt may have been kicked from

10d Fruit with claret primate ate in the end (5,6)

BLOOD ORANGE A charade of the body fluid sometimes known as “claret”, the first part of the name of one of the great apes and the final letter (in the end) of “ate”

14d Spare badger (5)

HARRY This synonym of badger is also the name allocated to himself by a Californian resident Duke in his autobiography

15d Roaster’s skin smothered in sauce, eh? (5)

SORRY The first and last letters (skin) of “Roaster” is surrounded by a type of sauce popular in Far Eastern cookery

18d Bandanna king and queen put on head (8)

KERCHIEF A letter indicating “king” and the usual letters associated with the late Queen precede (“put on” in a down clue) a synonym of “head” (or principal)

21d Pluck something from the drinks cabinet? (6)

SPIRIT A double definition (although if you offered me a treble, I’d take it…)

25d You got it in eye, a hair (4)

YEAH The solution is lurking amongst (in) the letters of “eye a hair”

26d Fine item shortened (4)

THIN Remove the final letter from a synonym of “item”