Toughie No 3731 by Silvanus
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty */** – Enjoyment ****
‘Tis always a (rare-ish) treat to see Silvanus pop up on a Thursday – elegant as ever and nowt too tricky, with a very faint French flavour. 22d was new to me but it’s generously clued and I had to run through a few comedians to crack 12a. Still, the deletion and definition couldn’t be clearer. Even 7d’s botany (my bête noire) is gifted on a plate. So, not tremendously tough, just tremendously entertaining. À vous la parole!
Across
7a Oscar-winning film produced, inspired by two Americans (7)
AMADEUS: produced/created, inspired by/inside two (different) abbreviations for “American”.
8a Paint a circle almost, roughly surrounding yard (7)
ACRYLIC: A+CIRCL[E], roughly, surrounding/containing the abbreviation for “yard”.
10a Restore government control at first (9)
REINSTATE: government/realm, after control/check (at first).
11a Type of happy person this writer visits when upset (5)
DEMOB: person/individual (slang), visited by/containing “this writer” (i.e., Silvanus), all reversed. I’ve been seeing “upset” used as an across reversal more and more recently. So, what I thought was a “rule” clearly isn’t. Duly noted!
12a Comedian has no place making series (5)
CHAIN: (named) “comedian” (silent movie star) minus the abbreviation for “place”.
13a Dinosaur bone discovered by retired academic early in August (9)
IGUANODON: [b]ON[e] (discovered), by/after a reversal of “academic” and (very) “early in August”.
15a Wearing a singlet, one appearing later most childlike (7)
NAÏVEST: “wearing a singlet” (2,1,4), moving the Roman “one” (from first to third).
17a Praise parking large car close to juggernaut (7)
PLAUDIT: abbreviations for “parking” and “large”, plus (German) “car” and [juggernau]T.
18a Conference backs banning outsiders? Suggest it’s permanent (9)
IMMUTABLE: conference/talks, reversed and minus its outer letters, plus suggest/propose.
20a Content to share national sporting venue (5)
ARENA: lurker, hidden in the third and fourth words.
21a Someone unattractive and extremely detestable sacked by French newspaper (5)
LEMON: “French newspaper” (2,5), minus D[etestabl]E.
23a Identify England’s opener after scoring runs taking drug (9)
RECOGNISE: E[ngland] after SCORING, running, taking/containing the usual “drug”.
24a Become popular and successful in skit (4-3)
TAKE-OFF: become popular and (suddenly) successful/surge. Add a hyphen.
25a Channel keen ultimately to have darts (7)
NARROWS: [kee]N + “darts” (game).
Down
1d Top Europeans dismissing article essentially blaming economic system (10)
CAPITALISM: top/lid + “Europeans” (country of circa 59m) + [bla]M[ing].
2d New revolutionary regularly annoys older national hero (6)
NELSON: abbreviation for “new”, plus the regular letters of “annoys older”, reversed/revolutionary.
3d Bacon, perhaps? It’s easy to cook small cuts (8)
ESSAYIST: ITS+EASY, cooked, with the abbreviation for “small” cutting/inside.
4d French craft utilising different topping for cake (6)
GATEAU: “French (water) craft” with a different first letter.
5d Endless craze strangely to purchase former PM’s sideboard (8)
CREDENZA: CRAZ[e], strangely, purchasing/containing a PM from the 50s.
6d Hang vertically we hear to obtain fruit (4)
PLUM: homophone of “hang vertically”.
7d Oliver in fact trained under adult in plant (7,6)
AFRICAN VIOLET: OLIVER+IN+FACT, trained, under/after the abbreviation for “adult”.
9d Prime ministers, maybe those regularly using planes? (13)
CABINETMAKERS: how one might describe PMs with regard to what they form. “Planes” are tools here, not aircraft.
14d Australian music producer made love, embracing Spice Girl before party (10)
DIDGERIDOO: make/create + the usual “love” (tennis, etc), embracing/containing a Spice Girl (first name) and the usual two-letter “party”.
16d Son stops old singer developing muscle (8)
EXTENSOR: abbreviated “son” stops/goes inside old/former + “singer” (Pavarotti, say).
17d Loud item of jewellery (8)
PIERCING: double definition.
19d Robbed of hat touring France … (6)
BEREFT: (traditionally French) “hat” touring/containing France’s IVR.
20d … risks wasting day in French city (6)
ANGERS: risks/perils, minus the abbreviation for “day”.
22d Māori tattoo is instant hit (4)
MOKO: instant/second + hit/floor.
We have five anagrams, a lurker, a double definition, a homophone and a raft of Lego. I especially enjoyed 13a, 23a, and 14d. How did you get on?
Once again, Silvanus comes up with some very amusing and perfectly readable surfaces.
My two standouts are the drugged-up Test batsman at 23a and the Aussie muso getting lucky with a Spice Girl at 14d.
The little tramp alluded to at 12a and the hero of Trafalgar at 2d were other picks.
As a cricketing tie-in, I fondly recall umpire David Shepherd standing on one leg when 2d was on the scoreboard. Jonners, Bloers, CMJ et al in the TMS box with the Bearded Wonder on scoring duties.
‘Appy days…
My thanks to Silvanus and ALP.
Thursday Heaven, with RT in the other place and silvanus on Toughie duty. This was as elegantly clued as ever, with only a couple of difficult parsing exercises. I particularly liked 23a for the cricketing references, but also for the surface read. Sheer excellence.
My thanks to both the aforementioned and ALP.
A very classy and entertaining puzzle from Silvanus – thanks to him and ALP.
Amongst many ticked clues on my printout are 7a, 13a, 15a, 4d and 14d.
Mercifully a good bit gentler than Zenas yesterday & as ever a pleasure to complete. The sideboard & the tattoo were both unfamiliar but thankfully the wordplay in both wasn’t too tricky & there aren’t many PMs with 4 letter surnames. ✅s all over the shop – 7,11,12,18&23a + 1,2,9,14&17d would be my top ten.
Thanks to silvanus (no capital duly noted) & to ALP – great spot/choice with the born/produced clip at 1a (still reckon Isbell’s take on the song with his ex on fiddle better than any of Bruce’s renditions) & will need to check out the JLP Sessions Project.
Nothing here that was too taxing. 5d was new to me but the wordplay was clear. 18a took a little while to parse.
Ticks awarded to 7a 11a 13a 1d 4d.
Double ticked were 23a and 14d.
Many thanks to Silvanus and to ALP.
A lovely puzzle from silvanus. It was a DNF because I needed the hints for a couple but it’s the furthest I’ve got on a Thursday Toughie. I seem to be getting tuned into his wavelength more these days. Lots to like and, like Huntsman, I have ticks all over the paper. If I have to chose one as COTT it would be the planing prime ministers at 9d.
Thank you, silvanus for an enjoyable puzzle. Thank you, ALP for the hints, which came in useful for the two I couldn’t see.
Didn’t know the maori tattoo but I do now. Some of the parsings took a while but I got there in the end. Enjoyable and amusing in equal measure. Hard to pick a favourite but I’ll go with 18a. Thanks to Silvanus and ALP.
Expertly crafted and fairly clued this was a pleasure to solve. I was a little hesitant at first, but once I had a few in place, the rest fell like ninepins. Like others I didn’t know the maori tattoo, but readily parsable. 9d was last in once all the checkers were in place (or should that be Chequers?). Plenty of ticks with 8a, 13a, 18a being amongst my picks, but 3d is my COTD.
Many thanks to Silvanus and ALP.
Many thanks to ALP and to all solvers and commenters. I’m sure that our regular NZ correspondents the 2Ks would not have had any trouble with 22d.
The slight French “theme” was entirely coincidental, it’s strange how sometimes a grid throws up things like that.
See you all again soon.
Many thanks for yet another belter – and for popping in.
You are of course correct that 22d went straight in for us Silvanus and had to be our favourite in what was another superb puzzle.
Many thanks.
A pleasant and relatively gentle solve for. Thursday Insider. Helped by being able to move generally from West to East, instead of getting a foothold in the SE and fighting the grid uphill. Lots of lovely surfaces, with 14d getting special mention, but I’m giving my top prize to 9d.
Thanks to silvanus and to ALP. Clever choice with 7a, too. Thanks to Huntsman for making me think about it!
A perfect Toughie!
I’ve been out all day, playing cricket and only just returned home so this is a very late positng.
Many thanks to Silvanus and to ALP.