Toughie No 3707 by Kcit
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Another pretty gentle Toughie from Kcit. There is, I suppose, a spot of vocab (13a, 7d) but it’s very generously clued. I briefly flirted with adding an extra half on for difficulty but almost immediately recanted – it is, after all, Thursday. The floor is, as ever, yours to say I was right wrong!
Across
1a Room microphone picking up American Quartet or similar (7,5)
CHAMBER MUSIC: “room” + (shortened) “microphone”, picking up/containing abbreviated “American”.
9a Tantrum before a doctor leaves emergency vehicle in irritation (9)
PETULANCE: Tantrum/huff + “emergency vehicle” minus ‘A’ and two-letter “doctor”.
10a Tragic academic quickly adopting United (5)
FAUST: quickly/rapid, adopting/containing abbreviated “united”.
11a Reversing, you once nearly hit Bob (7)
CURTSEY: “you” (once/old) + hit/clouted, minus its last letter, all reversed.
12a A useless sort, but for a collection of features (7)
TOOLBAR: (a) useless sort/idiot + but for/except.
13a Birthday drunk seizing mike to deliver wild poem (9)
DITHYRAMB: BIRTHDAY, drunk, seizing/containing NATO’s “Mike”.
16a Maybe the end of work involves line for stage production (4)
PLAY: what one generally gets in return for work, involving/containing abbreviated “line”.
18a Away from university, academic embraces wife (4)
DOWN: academic/lecturer, embracing/containing abbreviated “wife”
19a Get the best of complete component of quadratic equation (9)
OVERPOWER: complete/done + “component of quadratic equation” (x², for example).
22a A lot of people regret returning manipulator? (7)
MASSEUR: (a) lot of people/crowd + “regret” returning/reversed.
23a Patchy dessert, perhaps unadorned (7)
PIEBALD: “dessert” (or not, hence the “perhaps”) + “unadorned” (of hair, say).
25a Some terrific stuff recalled in this genre (3-2)
SCI-FI: lurker, recalled/reversed in the second and third words.
26 Pause Bill for review? That’s likely (9)
PLAUSIBLE: PAUSEBILL, reviewed.
27a Details? Irons out reluctance to act (12)
DILATORINESS: DETAILSIRONS, out.
Down
1d Like Batman keeping company in New England resort (4,3)
CAPE COD: “like Batman” (other superheroes are, of course, available) keeping/containing abbreviated “company”.
2d Performer in part of composition after the opening (5)
ACTOR: part/element of the composition (of anything), minus the first letter.
3d Target certainly reflected in brief highlighted item (5-3)
BULL’S-EYE: certainly/agreed, reflected/reversed in(side) “highlighted (text) item”/****** (point), briefly/minus the last letter.
4d Organised guy, abandoning university, disposed to roam (5)
RANGY: organised/managed + G[u]Y.
5d Posh, undiluted beer around Belgium not fit to consume (9)
UNEATABLE: abbreviated “posh” + “undiluted” (no water, etc) + “beer” around/containing Belgium’s IVR.
6d Female depression coming after one new arrival (6)
INFLOW: “depression” (weather, etc) after Roman “one” and abbreviated “new”.
7d Coat not worthy of additional decoration (8)
FURBELOW: coat (on an animal, or at least it should be) + not worthy of/beneath. I suspect Beam, for one, might have clued this in a rather different way!
8d Solid work at university involving reading, perhaps? (6)
STURDY: “work at university” (haha!) involving/containing “reading, perhaps” (as in ‘riting and ‘rithmetic).
14d Recommendation to take in particular quiet settlement (8)
TOWNSHIP: recommendation/advice, taking in/containing own/personal and the “quiet” that’s not ‘P’.
15d High pay, or chap produces dubious works (9)
APOCRYPHA: PAYORCHAP, high.
17d Journalists heading for Klosters engaged in excellent evening in bar there? (5-3)
APRÈS-SKI: journalists/media + K[losters], in(side) “excellent” (2).
18d Poster put up: “Camouflage fabric” (6)
DAMASK: poster/bill, put up/reversed + camouflage/hide.
20d Left-wing outfit denying Democrat reparation (7)
REDRESS: left-wing/socialist + outfit/clothing minus its initial D[emocrat].
21d Big name from Italy in the sea at Cannes, here in France (6)
MEDICI: the “sea” at/off Cannes (or Palermo, etc) + French for “here”.
23d Group of soldiers with no working source of philosophy? (5)
PLATO: group of soldiers/company, minus its two-letter “working”.
24d Chance to unseat head of Government? No great hurry (5)
AMBLE: chance/risk, minus G[overnment].
We’ve got four anagrams, a lurker and Kcit’s usual blaze of containment & reversal. There’s no theme as such, summat that he loves to conjure up elsewhere, but … I couldn’t fail to clock two academics and three universities. A recent graduation in the family, perhaps, or just coincidence? I enjoyed 19a, 8d and 17d. How did you get on?
A decent mix of clues and for me, a slight step up in difficulty as the week progresses. I’d rate it more than a 1*.
I had to check the answers to 13a and 7d which were new words to me. Both have a mildly comedic ring to them. If you put them together with ‘and’ in between, they sound like a firm of solicitors from a Dickens novel.
The useless sort in 12a raised an eyebrow, I thought it to be a rather rude term in the context of the clue.
Ticks for the performer in 2d, the target in 3d and the source of philosophy in 23d.
My thanks to Kcit and ALP.
Enjoyed this very much (despite the grid and verbosity pushing it to 2 pages), and I agree with Frankie as to the step up in challenge levels. More than a 1-star for me, not quite a 3. Eyebrow up and hummmm moment at 12a, with tool being rather stronger than just “useless sort” IMV. Mind you the Bible allows “a fool”, so we should cut Kcit some slack. Enjoyed the very oblique definition though. Happily remembered both 13a & 7d once I had most of their checkers; took me ages to see the solution to 27a’s anagram – again, needed the checkers. Some cracking surfaces and constructions throughout, all very fair indeed.
Honours went to 16a, 1d & 17d, with runner-up 23a.
Many thanks to ALP and Kcit
Definitely more than 1* difficulty even while knowing the unknowns
Thanks to Kcit and ALP
I had different experiences with the two obscure terms; I had a vague recollection of 7d and the wordplay was helpful whereas working out the anagram fodder for 14a didn’t help very much and I ended up trying various combinations before hitting on the right one.
I liked 11a, 12a and 3d.
Thanks to Kcit and ALP.
After the first few at the easier end of the spectrum, it developed into a somewhat laboured solve to complete. For 7d I resorted to app-feeding the checkers to get the answer, but with a word like 13a I don’t feel guilty in using e-assistance to solve the anagram having never heard it before. Mind you, I shouldn’t forget it.
For my Toughie pay grade this was manageable and enjoyable.
Thanks to Kcit and ALP
2.5*/3.5*
The setter seems to have thought what obscure words can I include today. It was all fairly clued so with a little help from Mr G I was able to able to unravel them. Apart from that all fairly plain sailing.
I too raised an eyebrow at the useless individual.
Thank you ALP and Kcit.
Not easy but not as hard as yesterday. Obviously, like most, I didn’t know the obscure words. Favourite was 1d. Thanks to Kcit and ALP.
Gentle(ish) for a Thursday – maybe a 2* difficulty for me. Had heard of 7d but couldn’t recall precisely what it was. 13a was new & an educated/lucky stab from the fodder. 9&12a + 1,3,14,17&21d the ones I liked best.
Belated thanks to Kcit & to ALP – good tunes
I thought this was a proper Toughie and about right for a Thursday. A very piecemeal solve for various reasons, which didn’t help, but very well put together. 7d was buried in an obscure corner, but 13a was another “trust the clue and checkers” made up word. But it’s also my favourite.
Thank to Kcit and ALP