Toughie No 3724 by Dharma
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Enjoyable but very gentle for a Friday Toughie – thanks to Dharma. Having a single 3-letter anagram did seem slightly odd and I wondered whether there had been a last-minute change to what had been intended to be an anagram-free puzzle.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Call for silence, one at crease taking first off break (7)
SHATTER: a request for silence and a player at the crease without his/her first letter.
5a Expert in the deep and superficial? (7)
SURFACE: as 4,3 this could be an expert at sea.
9a Provocative person goes for a walk naked (5)
TROLL: ‘goes for a leisurely walk’ without the outer letters.
10a Standard business with bad look after brief stumble (9)
TRICOLOUR: assemble a truncated stumble, the abbreviation for a business and a sullen look.
11a Cycling speedway possibly opening in city (10)
PORTSMOUTH: what speedway is an example of with its first letter cycled to the back followed by a type of opening.
12a Long pithy comment abridged (4)
MAXI: a pithy comment or saying without its final letter.
14a Are riots accompanying session taking place very disruptive? (3-9)
EAR-SPLITTING: a lonely anagram (riots) of ARE followed by a synonym of session containing the abbreviation for place.
18a Temporary difficulties using blades to cut good French loaves (7,5)
GROWING PAINS: a present participle meaning ‘using blades’ is inserted between the abbreviation for good and the French word for loaves.
21a Direction of United discussed, … (4)
TIDE: a homophone of united or wedded.
22a … panel faced with clubs inhibited by painful record? (5,5)
SCORE SHEET: a synonym of panel preceded by the abbreviation for clubs contained in an adjective meaning painful. Both the BRB and Collins have the answer as a single 10-letter word.
25a Swap drills, wanting current model (9)
TRANSPOSE: a verb meaning drills or exercises loses its symbol for electric current and is followed by a verb to model.
26a Layabout in discount store covering head on being knocked back (5)
IDLER: drop the first letter from one of the German discount stores and add the reversal of a preposition meaning on or about.
27a The Blues, Rangers send a signal over drinks (7)
SADNESS: hidden in reverse.
28a Runs down motorway and straightens up (7)
MALIGNS: the abbreviation for motorway and a verb meaning ‘straightens up’.
Down Clues
1d Muscle toners just the thing to plug small delivery company (3-3)
SIT-UPS: a word meaning ‘just the thing’ goes between the abbreviation for small and a well-known delivery company.
2d Periods before noon ignoring husband’s love affairs (6)
AMOURS: periods before noon (2,5) without the abbreviation for husband.
3d Is boyfriend, one dividing white powder, bringing luck? (10)
TALISMANIC: IS, a term for boyfriend and the Roman one all go inside a white powder used to prevent chafing.
4d Old-style railway system having run for miles (5)
RETRO: start with an urban railway system and replace the abbreviation for miles with that for run.
5d Tiny suspicion wrong steering device delivered (9)
SCINTILLA: this sounds like (to some people) a moral wrong and a boat’s steering device.
6d Opportunity offered by open area to the north (4)
ROOM: reverse an open upland area.
7d American idealist hasn’t name like Basil perhaps (8)
AROMATIC: an abbreviation for American and an idealist or fantasist without the abbreviation for name.
8d Proceeds with scholarship, having wasted fifty seconds (8)
EARNINGS: start with a word for scholarship or erudition, delete the Roman fifty and append the abbreviation for seconds.
13d Stomach queasy digesting first pair of strawberries and jam (10)
STANDSTILL: a verb to stomach or bear and a synonym of queasy bracket the first two letters of strawberries.
15d Knowing the story, Charlie is hosting centrepiece of tour (9)
SAGACIOUS: a long story followed by Nato’s Charlie and IS containing the middle letters of tour. ‘the’ seems redundant.
16d Worries of a soldier over condition beginning to end (8)
AGITATES: weld together A, an American soldier and a synonym of condition with its first letter relegated to the end.
17d Forest, club country supports (8)
WOODLAND: a golf club followed by a synonym of country or nation.
19d It could hinder dropping off posh car rentals regularly scratched inside (3,3)
JET LAG: the informal name for a posh British sports car has inside it regular letters from ‘rentals’.
20d Sailor on base wearing ship’s goggles (6)
STARES: an informal name for a sailor and the letter used as a base in logarithms go inside our usual abbreviated ship.
23d What about dividing strong drink to bring about sleep? (5)
RHEUM: the reversal of a terse query (what?) goes inside a strong drink. Sleep is an informal name for the mucous matter often found in the corners of your eyes when you wake up.
24d For the audience I intend to rock out at sea (4)
ISLE: a homophone of ‘I intend to’.
For my podium I selected 18a, 25a and 19d. Which ones did the job for you?
Superb, best toughie of the week by a mile, I’ve got double-ticks by the bucketload.
The cycling speedway at 11a and the French bread being cut in 18a, along with the blues rekrul in 27a stood out, as did the shrewd 15d, what could hinder dropping off in 19d and the crafty definition of sleep in 23d.
Not a single word was obscure or needed looking up, the obfuscation was purely down to the setter’s skill with words and ability to misdirect, whilst producing wordplay which I’m sure would pass Mustafa G’s pub test.
Talking of which, ‘appy days, it’s Friday…
My thanks to Dharma and Gazza.
A cracking mid-week back-pager that somehow found its way in to the Friday Toughie slot. Dharma in highly unusual gentle mode. Either that or I had the fortune to tune in immediately. Great surfaces throughout and yes, Frankie, passing the pub test – which I attribute to Rabbit Dave, and he, quite possibly, to someone else.
You have to look carefully to find a strong (minimum 40% ABV) version of the drink in 23d – most on supermarket shelves are watered-down and taste of anything but.
I’m going for a podium of 1a (great surface, perfect time of year for it), 18a & 5d, with 13d runner-up.
Many thanks indeed to Dharma for the brief lunchtime diversion, and to Gazza for the super blog.
Good to see SL appearing on a Friday, even if a little light. */****. Flowed very well and, again, he now seems to avoid obscurities. Great stuff. 14a and 19d (only because I have one) on top. With Rangers and Forest appearing, I’m surprised MCFC didn’t make an appearance, apart from “the Blues”!
Is it 3 years now since Stephen/Dharma first appeared as a compiler? Thanks to him and Gazza.
Excellent puzzle from Dharma and unusually kind for a Friday. I needed help with 11a but, as is always the case, I wondered why once I got it. I liked the riots at 14a but my COTT is 18a with its French loaves. Took me straight back to Brittany and going to buy a warm baguette in the morning. I don’t know anywhere in the UK that can bake bread like the French.
Thank you, Dharma for a very enjoyable puzzle. Thank you, Gazza for the hints.
Like others, 18a was my standout clue this afternoon in what was a highly enjoyable and nicely testing Friday Toughie.
My thanks to Stephen L/Dharma for a terrific challenge and to Gazza.
A second 5* enjoyment DT puzzle today!
20d made me smile, 18a came in second place, but the winner for me was 25a.
Many thanks to Dharma and to Gazza.
It must be the Devon scrumpy because although I parsed and solved 8d correctly, I entered it incorrectly causing me delays on both 12a and 14a. I concur with others who praised 18a.
Thanks to Dharma & Gazzs.
Many thanks to Gazza for his usual spot-on review and to those who have commented, much appreciated.
Thanks for dropping in, Dharma, and thanks for the great puzzle.
Well for me that was tough, maybe not ln the right wavelength or maybe not quite up to scratch. I have only started tackling toughies on a regular basis since outing myself on the blog (as a previous lurker)
12a stumped me – often the way with the 3 & 4 letter words.
I did like 26a and 9a and agree with others 18a was very neat. However I am choosing 5d as my COTD great word and great clue!
Thanks all
I’m with Frankie in rating this the week’s best puzzle in this slot & by a margin too – it’s always appreciated to have a Friday puzzle accessible to we division two solvers. On the whole gentle(ish) & it was a brisk anticlockwise grid fill until total brain fog with 7d&12a which needed the letter checker revealed for the penny to drop (d’oh).
Ticks aplenty but 18a has to be the pick of ‘em.
Thanks to Dharma & Gazza
Another superb Toughie from Dharma! What super, distinctively Dharma-esque clues!
Like others, my favourite is 5a ‘using blades to cut good French loaves’. This is followed by 1d and 19d.
There are, however, many other contenders and my printout is covered in ticks, including:
5a (the ‘expert in the deep’ seems very topical), 10a, 14a and 25a (lovely word with relevance to music (inter alia) and we are now in the Proms season!).
I found much to enjoy in the excellent down clues as well, such as 5, 7, 15, 16 and 24d.
I agree with Hunstman in describing this Toughie as ‘on the whole gentle(ish)’. Nonetheless, I did need Gazza’s expertise to unravel 11a, for which very many thanks.
Very many appreciative thanks to Dharma for a most entertaining and enjoyable Toughie.
Many appreciative thanks to Gazza for an excellent review and delightful cartoons.
2*/4* …
liked 9A “Provocative person goes for a walk naked (5)” …
and the cartoon in the hint thereto.