Toughie No 3733 by Beam
Hints and tips by Gazza
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Whybird is off on his holidays so I’m standing in today.
Beam is obviously the flavour of the month at Telegraph Towers – this is his second Toughie in three days. All his trademarks are present today in a gentle and enjoyable puzzle.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
9a Punch from goalkeeper for a team (9)
PERFORATE: hidden.
10a Bowl a new period’s over (5)
ARENA: reverse all of A, the abbreviation for new and a period of history.
11a Dream occasionally after Ring fantasy (7)
CHIMERA: occasional letters of ‘dream’ follow a verb to ring or sound the time.
12a One under canvas on second frolic (7)
SCAMPER: someone living in a tent follows the abbreviation for second.
13a Strong accessories, back to front (9)
STRAPPING: start with a word for accessories or embellishments and move the last letter to the front.
15a Spots masking masculine looks (5)
SEEMS: a verb meaning spots contains the abbreviation for masculine.
17a Sailor withdrawing chains losing right tack (7)
RATIONS: reverse a sailor and add a synonym of chains or fetters without its abbreviation for right.
19a Spirit of honour about to end (7)
SPECTRE: a verb to honour or venerate with the 2-letter preposition meaning ‘about’ moved to the end.
20a Concur it’s almost a sin (5)
AGREE: A and a truncated deadly sin.
21a Covered empty loft before in outhouse (9)
SHELTERED: L[of]T and a poetic ‘before’ go inside an outhouse.
24a Cover the woman with adult article (7)
SHEATHE: assemble a feminine pronoun, the abbreviation for adult and a grammatical article.
26a Sheet could be one of these (7)
ANAGRAM: what’s significant about the letters of ‘sheet’ and ‘these’?
28a Golf competition for charity (5)
GRACE: Nato’s golf and a sporting competition. I’m not sure how the answer means charity but I assume it’s related to the term ‘***** and favour’.
29a Notice small mistake wearing ring (9)
DISMISSAL: the abbreviation for small and a mistake or failure go inside a verb to ring or call.
Down Clues
1d Step on board finding rooms (6)
SPACES: a step or stride is ‘on board’, i.e. inside our usual abbreviated ship.
2d Referee‘s rubbish skill one supporter elevated (10)
ARBITRATOR: glue together synonyms for rubbish and skill, the Roman one and a female supporting garment then reverse the lot.
3d Endured tedious person in pub? (4)
BORE: double definition. I’m not sure why this person is only tedious when in a pub.
4d One’s climbing taking a distant expedition (6)
SAFARI: reverse the Roman one and its ‘S and insert A and an adjective meaning distant.
5d Reports a government’s leader in failures (8)
MESSAGES: A and the leading letter of government go inside failures or foul-ups.
6d Badgering male animal protecting animal males (10)
HARASSMENT: a male deer contains a rideable animal and male humans.
7d Vance expecting eventual presidency, initially (4)
VEEP: initial letters.
8d Viciousness or callousness holding up game (8)
LACROSSE: hidden in reverse.
14d Support Queen even owning land (10)
PROPERTIED: rivet together a temporary support, our late Queen’s regnal cipher and a synonym of even or ‘with equal scores’.
16d Infiltrate force displaying initiative (10)
ENTERPRISE: join a verb to infiltrate or 9a and a verb to force or lever.
17d Transfer of buffoon in government? (8)
REASSIGN: a word for a buffoon (which appears in another guise in 6d) is inserted in a period of government or rule.
18d Arrests American over payments (8)
SUSPENDS: reverse a two-letter abbreviation for American and append an informal term for money paid out.
22d Sweetheart’s livid about pass (6)
ELAPSE: concatenate Beam’s usual swEetheart plus its ‘S and an adjective meaning livid then reverse the lot. Livid is one of those words in English which can mean something and its exact opposite.
23d Suggest supporting Democrat having cheeky features? (6)
DIMPLY: a verb to suggest follows the abbreviation for Democrat.
25d Dairy product from European cow? (4)
EDAM: an abbreviation for European and what a cow is an example of when it’s had a calf.
27a Ace song lifted vocal solo (4)
ARIA: the card abbreviation for ace and the reversal of a synonym of song.
I particularly liked 19a, 14d and 23d. Which one(s) worked best for you?
This was certainly a fairly benign Beamer yet it still managed to keep my interest throughout. Of many terrific clues I liked 23d the best just ahead of 17d.
My thanks to RT and Gazza.
Always enjoy Beam .
26ac especially
Not often I highlight a lurker as COTD, but for me 9a and 8d are joint winners. Very often this type of clue is rather stilted and obvious but both examples here read very smoothly and I didn’t clock either until I had a few checkers in.
On the downside, 7d? An awful Americanism which has no place in the English language. There are plenty of words which would have fitted instead, so that’s a disappointment.
That apart, I enjoyed the challenge and don’t want to sound like a miserable old so-and-so, there were many more pluses to weigh against that single minus.
My thanks to Beam and Gazza.
great puzzle, and I agree with Frankie 8d was a great lurker. I did like 26a as well
This comprised 29 brilliant clues and 7d, which is a horrible, horrible Americanism (immaculately clued, of course!)
23d was my favourite.
Many thanks to Beam for a relatively light but very enjoyable Toughie.
And many thanks too to Gazza!
The great thing about a Beam/RayT puzzle is there are all the hallmarks present, which makes things familiar from the start. I can’t say I finished this unaided because I did need a couple of Gazza’s hints but it was a very enjoyable solve. My COTT is the sheet at 26a.
Thank you, Beam for a fun puzzle. Thank you, Gazza for the hints, which were most helpful.
Either I’ve led a very sheltered life, or perhaps I have little or no interest in US politics, but either way, I’ve never heard or 7d (Im actually surprised it’s a real word).
19a gets my vote.
Thanks to Beam and to Gazza.
All good fun, verging on floughie. Thanks to Gazza and much respect to Beam and his trademarks.
I had to check that 7d was actually a word, not one I’ll be using any time soon or ever if it comes to it. That apart a really enjoyable crossword that I solved clockwise from the NE and managed to parse everything as I went. Numerous contenders for favourite but I’ll go with 2d. Thanks to Beam and Gazza for being there just in case.
A slow start, a short revitalising nap and a brisk finish. This Beamer was a pleasure to solve. I needed Gazza to explain the passing of 22d as I was not aware of the livid duality. 8d was last in when I remembered to apply the adage, if all else fails look for the lurker.
Many thanks to Beam and Gazza
1.5*/3*
Both lurkers, 9a and 8d took longer than they should have to un-lurk for us so get our vote for top clues. Really good fun as ever from this setter.
Thanks Beam and Gazza.
A rare venture into Toughies after Huntsman mentioned the friendliness of this one, and I thought I’d have a look before bedtime, then finished this morning.
LOI was 17A – how would someone use this ‘tack’ in a sentence?
4D – I too was confused by the ‘in a pub?’, why is that needed?
I tried 17A earlier, thinking it was wrong (solving on app) only to find I had a mistake elsewhere – the wrong ending for 14D; not a nice word but a silly error from me.
Pody picks are the nice featured word of 23D, 2D’s Lego which helped me by landing this early, and 6D’s rekrul which I couldn’t see last night and I was convinced ‘game’ such as RU was involved, much more apparent after some sleep.
Many thanks to Beam for a confidence-bolstering grid, to Gazza for the hints which I needed for some parsing assurance, and to Huntsman for inspiring me to pick this up. ⭐️
Tack is sailors’ slang for food or provisions.
Thank you Gazza, good to know!
Glad you took up the challenge Simon. Tuesday Toughies are invariably gentle & often no more difficult than the back-pagers later in the week plus you get the likes of Hudson, Chalicea & Shabbo as well as Ray in the slot.
23d made up for the horrible 7d