Toughie No 3703 by Potoroo
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty * – Enjoyment *****
What a joy to welcome Potoroo to the jungle party. A fine debut (here) that’s fresh and fun. Nothing too spooky – only 5d needed a spot of time travel (my Geography O level was 100 years ago) but it’s very fairly clued. The floor, as ever, is yours.
Across
1a Whiskey drunk by pilots while flying is cause of going astray (4-1-3-4)
WILL-O-THE-WISP: NATO’s “whiskey” drunk/contained by PILOTSWHILE, flying.
9a Disapprove of loud quarrel with sister about work that’s rejected (5,4)
FROWN UPON: (musical) “loud” + quarrel/tiff, plus “sister” (not nurse) about/containing two-letter “work” that’s been rejected/reversed.
10a Jumper, I’m surprised, is certainly not tight (5)
ROOMY: the usual-ish “jumper” (not flea or frog – the other one) + I’m surprised/gosh.
11a New Yorker’s break with partner spanning a year (7)
LAYOVER: partner/(inti)mate, spanning/containing ‘A’ and abbreviated “year”.
12a Sound of bug beginning to seduce females probing flower (7)
SNIFFLE: S[educe], plus abbreviated “females” probing/inside (African) flower/river.
13a Tough setter from America returned a clue making crossword’s opener good (9)
SUPERGLUE: “from America” (i.e., abbreviated “American”) returned/reversed + three-letter ‘A’ + CLUE, making C[rossword] (become) G[ood]. Cute definition.
16a Floor temperature controlled by heater (4)
STUN: abbreviated “temperature” controlled/contained by (sky) “heater”.
18a First light attracted missing rook (4)
DAWN: attracted/magnetised, minus abbreviated “rook”.
19a Marriage almost wrecked? Time to get a drink (9)
MARGARITA: MARRIAG[e], wrecked, plus abbreviated “time” + ‘A’.
22a Nick trimmed modest cut of meat (7)
PURLOIN: modest/chaste, minus its last letter, + “cut of meat” (pork, etc).
23a Shoot, tackling ace winger (7)
BUSTARD: (floral) “shoot” tackling/containing ace/brilliant.
25a When to participate in small amount of alcohol? (5)
TOAST: two-letter “when” inside “small amount of alcohol” (dram). A pleasing all-in-one.
26a Go on jet boarded by international singer (4,2,3)
SPIT IT OUT: jet/spray, boarded by/containing abbreviated “international” and (avian) “singer”. Another smart definition.
27 Earn little at work, accepting odds of rise to be astronomically remote (12)
INTERSTELLAR: EARNLITTLE, at work, accepting/containing R[i]S[e].
Down
1d Smell in the air soft part of vegetables each cut for rabbits (7)
WAFFLES: “smell in the air” and “soft part of vegetables” (or fruit, etc), both (“cut”) minus their last letters.
2d Bats circle yard (5)
LOOPY: circle/ring + abbreviated “yard”.
3d Order, say, Bordeaux to be served up with Scandinavian bread for unfussy consumer (8)
OMNIVORE: “order” (Attenborough, for one) + “say, Bordeaux” (i.e., French wine) served up/reversed + Scandinavian bread/Swedish coin.
4d Over-excited twitchy person bites (5)
HYPER: lurker, hidden in the second and third words.
5d Snakes try hard to fly in this weather (4,5)
WIND SHEAR: snakes/twists + (legal) “try”.
6d Regularly, beginner eats rolls or other breaded meal (6)
SARNIE: [b]E[g]I[n]N[e]R[e]A[t]S, rolled/reversed.
7d Colourful cast fragments after union announcement? (8)
CONFETTI: cryptic definition.
8d Draconic beast very agitated in the confines of wagon (6)
WYVERN: VERY, agitated, inside W[ago]N.
14d Rest of productive people are now struggling to fill pages (5,3)
POWER NAP: ARENOW, struggling, filling/inside abbreviated “pages”. Lovely definition.
15d This setter’s cracking cryptic clues shine (9)
LUMINESCE: “this setter’s” (pronoun) cracking/inside CLUES, cryptic. Comical – and accurate!
17d Fish left in lake at the bottom, the deepest part? (8)
BASSLINE: (a) “fish” + abbreviated “line” + IN + [lak]E.
18d Record kept by tax official (6)
DEPUTY: record (vinyl) kept by/inside tax/excise.
20d Gold ingot’s base checked by luxury goods company’s accountant (7)
AUDITOR: usual-ish “gold”, plus [ingo]T checked by/inside luxury goods company (fashion).
21d Cloth roughly put on seat that old lady’s vacated (6)
COTTON: one-letter roughly/about + (cushioned) “seat” minus its two-letter “old lady”.
23d Joy tipped one pound and two shillings (5)
BLISS: “one pound” (weight) tipped/reversed + (abbreviated) “two shillings”.
24d A portion of land receding on large island (5)
ATOLL: ‘A’ + portion of land/patch of ground, receding/reversed, plus abbreviated “large”
We have six anagrams, a cryptic definition, an all-in-one and a lurker, plus a fair amount of containment/insertion. I especially liked the surfaces in 1a and 3d, the definitions in 13a and 26a, and 21d’s construction. 25a tickled me too. Etc. What did you make of it?
An unfamiliar name above a puzzle is always intriguing and a new style can often take time to get in to.
After a slowish start, I gradually cracked on and really enjoyed this one, particularly some of the quirkier definitions.
Sound of bug at 12a, the tough setter in 13a, and rest of productive people at 14d were fine examples and there are many more.
I look forward to the next time Potoroo makes an appearance, my thanks to him and ALP.
Well it is a Toughie after all so I took a while to get on the setter’s wavelength. Once I’d teased out the anagram at 1a the West filled first, but the SE held out, mainly because I’d pencilled in a different bird at 23a and spent ages trying to justify a non existent ace. Well you never know with modern rap artists!! All in all I really enjoyed this Toughie so welcome and thanks to Potoroo and ALP.
As I struggled but persevered to finish this when my self congratulation ego was deflated by ALP on giving it only one star for difficulty. Never mind. When it’s raining, again, outside I’m happy it takes as long as it takes. Welcome Potoroo I look forward to your next submission. Thanks to ALP for giving my ego a puncture.
A Toughie debut that seemed to take a while to get on the setter’s (or should that be setters’?) wavelength but I finished, like ALP in a one-star difficulty time.
Having now discovered that Potoroo is a collaboration between two setters, I think it might explain why parts of the puzzle ‘flowed’ better than others.
Thanks to ALP and Potoroo – I look forward to your next Toughie
Who are the two setters Sue?
Liari and Umpire
A warm welcome from me to our new setter who’s given us a top-notch puzzle well suited to the Thursday Toughie slot.
Thanks to Potoroo and ALP.
Many of the definitions were excellently disguised. I particularly enjoyed 12a, 25a, 26a, 5d, 6d and 14d.
I found this one comfortably the trickiest of this week’s Toughies thus far & NTS far much more demanding than our reviewer found it. That said the solve time wasn’t too pedestrian so I’ll take it. I did need Mr G for the Swedish coin & to establish exactly what 5d was plus I needed the hint to parse 1d (d’oh). Very much enjoyed the tussle & found lots to like – 9,12,13,23&26a plus 3,7,15,17&21d my top 10 with 13a in at number one.
Thanks to Potoroo for an excellent debut & as ever to ALP – good to hear Ben & Charlie + Hugh C (saw them in Cov when that was in the charts & left because the audience were all spitting). Thanks for sparing us early Pink Floyd at 27a which I tried to listen to & abandoned 3 mins in.
Why on earth were they spitting? How lovely.
it was punk thing – absolutely disgusting
How very odd – Ben and Charlie are hardly Sid and Johnny!
Did not see a quick way in at the top, so started in the S and made rapid progress to the equator, then anticlockwise (article in The Times today says that humans appear to have a natural affinity for going anticlockwise), finishing with 1d.
As with others it took extra time to get on to the setters’ wavelengths, but I thought this a cracking debut. Honours to 13a, 19a, 3d & 17d.
Many thanks to Potoroo and to ALP (I count six anagrams, not five)
You are, of course, absolutely right! Ta lots
This had a very different feel to it, but I did enjoy the challenge. I seemed to find a lot of clues where the answer arrived before the parsing and I have never heard of 5d but it was sympathetically clued.
25a was my favourite.
I see that CS is in enigmatic mode having identified that this is the work of two setters without revealing who they are. So thanks to the mysterons and to ALP.