Toughie No 3708 by Sparks
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
There are a couple of unusual words here and some synonyms requiring a bit of thought but all were very fairly clued. Thanks to Sparks for the pangram.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Performers initially provide line about dross, vacuous pun (4,2,5)
PLAY ON WORDS: assemble the initial letter of performers, a phrasal verb to provide (3,2), the reversal of a line and the outer letters of dross.
7a Maybe the poor and the meek sisters should admit nothing following public notice (7)
ADNOUNS: religious sisters containing the nothing-resembling letter follow an abbreviated public notice. The answer (new to me) means adjectives being used as nouns.
8a Exceedingly full pint? (3,4)
NOT HALF: how you might respond to a barmaid’s query as to what size of glass you want.
10a Bishop feeds tailless immature bird (5)
GREBE: an abbreviation for bishop is contained in a adjective meaning immature without its trailing letter.
11a Tries to interrupt sincere narration (9)
REHEARSAL: a verb meaning tries in court goes inside a synonym of sincere.
12a Old-fashioned con completely losing it (7)
ANTIQUE: a preposition meaning con (as opposed to pro) followed by an adverb meaning completely without IT.
14a Upstanding panel member’s minute point given cheers by end of Question Time (7)
MONTANT: this (new to me) is a vertical member in panelling or framing (thanks BRB). String together a minute or short period of time, a cardinal point, a short word meaning cheers or thanks, the end letter of question and the abbreviation for time.
15a Primates left in rainfall, cycling (7)
HOWLERS: insert the abbreviation for left in a brief fall of rain then cycle the letters.
18a Juliet and husband in proud, exotic Asian city (7)
JODHPUR: start with Nato’s Juliet then insert the abbreviation for husband in an anagram (exotic) of PROUD.
20a Standard group mainly working alongside labourer (5,4)
UNION JACK: glue together a small military group without its last letter, an adverb meaning working and a term for a labourer.
21a My perfect, lake-free island (5)
CORFU: an exclamation of surprise (my!) and a synonym of perfect without any abbreviations for lake.
22a Legislative assembly concerned with good way to get rid of Mass? (7)
DIETING: concatenate a legislative assembly, a preposition meaning ‘concerned with’ and the abbreviation for good.
23a Infantile party welcomes past Independent (7)
BABYISH: an informal word for a festive party contains an adverb meaning past and the abbreviation for Independent.
24a Dad fine about old times being seemingly absurd (11)
PARADOXICAL: an affectionate word for dad and a slang term meaning fine or excellent containing the abbreviation for old and the letter used for times in Maths.
Down Clues
1d Sarcastic, weedy, short chap (7)
PUNGENT: an adjective meaning weedy or feeble without its last letter and a posh chap.
2d Blue Arizona river (5)
AZURE: the standard abbreviation for Arizona and a river in North Yorkshire.
3d Notice shaved hooligans before start of court proceedings? (7)
OBSERVE: another word for hooligans shaved of its outer letters and the start of court proceedings often involving grunting.
4d Conceit reportedly associated with amateur sci-fi author (7)
WYNDHAM: start with a homophone of a word for conceit or hot air and add an adjective meaning amateur to get the author of The Day of the Triffids.
5d Calm and unemotional cutting son again disciplined (9)
RETRAINED: remove the abbreviation for son from an adjective meaning reserved and unemotional.
6d Graceful birds, each made of Cambrian porcelain (7)
SWANSEA: large graceful birds and the abbreviation for each. You can read about the porcelain here.
7d Dog adult cast outside unfinished African country hotel (6,5)
AFGHAN HOUND: the abbreviation for adult and a verb to cast or mould contain a West African country without its last letter and the abbreviation for hotel.
9d After one season overseas, clear fail (4,7)
FALL THROUGH: a season across the pond and a synonym of clear.
13d More regal, fancy line adopted by eccentric (9)
QUEENLIER: an anagram (fancy) of LINE is contained in a synonym of eccentric.
16d Review legal document heralding energy increase (5-2)
WRITE-UP: a legal document precedes the abbreviation for energy and a verb to increase.
17d Caught in seconds, worried (7)
SNAGGED: the abbreviation for seconds and a verb meaning worried or pestered.
18d Priestley perhaps keeps stringed instrument on once neat selection of recordings (7)
JUKEBOX: the abbreviations by which the novelist Priestley was known contain an abbreviated stringed instrument. Append what neat as a noun is an archaic word for.
19d Biased half of clauses checked by China (7)
PARTIAL: the first half of another word for clauses is contained in our usual ‘china’.
21d Copper starts to bring in charges of the third degree (5)
CUBIC: the chemical symbol for copper and the starting letters of three words in the clue.
For my podium I plumped for 12a, 22a and 18d. Which ones did you choose?
As to be expected for a Friday Toughie, there were a few new definitions to contend with.
The structural component in 14a and the archaic word for cow in 18d were unknown but fairly clued. 13d sounds like a made up word, grammatically clumsy, but there it is in the dictionary.
My favourite was 15a, with the image of the poor abandoned monkeys on pushbikes getting soaked in the rain.
My thanks to Sparks and Gazza.
Surprisingly approachable for a Friday Toughie, and the unfamiliar terms (for me montant, pungent, Swansea) were all very fairly clued. I agree with Frankie (not for the first time today) about 13d – eyebrow went up as it went in. Looked for but could not find a Nina. Rather suspected the pangram was on the cards from my FOI, 2d.
Many thanks to Sparks and Gazza.
I enjoyed solving this one lots of brain mangling before the penny dropped. And lots of reverse solving – answer first parse second.
I tried three different cities for 18a before hitting on the correct one – and then I couldn’t spell it.
Lots of fun answers- I liked the assembly at 22a and all four peripherals were excellent. Never heard of 7a or 14a but gettable from the clue once checkers were in.
Favourite today was 18d
Thanks all
For once I have completed a Friday Toughie, so slightly chuffed. The S was relatively straightforward, followed by the NE. 7a which I had never come across before was LOI. Thank you Gazza for the parsing of 24a, 1d and 7d all of which were solveable once checkers were in place. Thank you Sparks for providing something on my level.