Toughie No 3740 by Luxor
Hints and tips by Gazza
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Thanks to Luxor for an enjoyable and quite tricky Toughie where my progress was steady rather than meteoric.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Main defender of honour with answer for nothing (7)
WARSHIP: a synonym of honour or venerate with a letter substitution.
5a Ruminator checking bar bill upset argumentative type (7)
DEBATER: a ruminating creature contains the reversal of a bar bill.
9a Set wash to be propped up above fans (5,4)
CROWD SURF: another word for a set or group of people and a synonym of wash (waves breaking on a beach).
10a Perhaps Nan’s daughters frequented places lacking hotel (5)
AUNTS: frequented places without Nato’s hotel.
11a Look of Spain maybe when travelling around East (3-4)
EYE-BEAM: the IVR code for Spain followed by an anagram (when travelling) of MAYBE containing the abbreviation for East. The answer (new to me) means a glance.
12a Intelligence about Chinese leader not essentially harmful (7)
NOXIOUS: an informal word for intelligence or common sense contains the family name of the current Chinese leader and the essential letter of ‘not’.
13a Last character advancing in Bond movie returned Oscar? (9)
STATUETTE: start with a synonym of a bond then move its last letter a bit towards the front and finally reverse Spielberg’s most famous movie.
16a Searches way to replace content with AI slop primarily (5)
RAIDS: replace the central letters of a way or thoroughfare with AI then append the primary letter of slop.
17a Unenthusiastic about epidemic supplies (5)
TEPID: hidden.
18a Waffle from wife, a load cooked over griddles at intervals (4,5)
WORD SALAD: the abbreviation for wife followed by an anagram (cooked) of A LOAD containing letters 2, 5 and 8 from ‘griddles’.
21a Oscar equivalent for Greek scriptwriter? (7)
OMICRON: The answer is the Greek equivalent of the letter that Oscar represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet and the last six letters are a type of pen used for calligraphy so it looks like a double definition but I can’t find any examples of the whole answer being such an implement. Can anyone help with this or am I on the wrong track? Ignore most of the foregoing – it’s just a cryptic definition where Greek scriptwriter means anyone writing Greek. Thanks to Jezza for putting me on the right track.
22a Skinny Parisian friend swallowed dietary essential (7)
THIAMIN: a synonym of skinny contains a French male friend.
25a Spontaneously sacking daughter having single excuse (5)
ALIBI: drop the abbreviation for daughter from an adverb (2-3) meaning spontaneously and add the Roman single.
26a Drug cop with problems – ecstasy taken – lad hooked on reflection (9)
NARCISSUS: a US slang word for a drug enforcement officer followed by a synonym of problems minus the abbreviation for Ecstasy. You can read about the lad who became hooked on his own reflection here.
27a He’s the one power constraining king and queen (2,5)
MR RIGHT: a synonym of power or strength containing the abbreviations for rex and regina.
28a High standing surround for fire removed in work on home (7)
DIGNITY: remove the outer letters of a verb to fire or set alight and place it inside an abbreviation for working on your home (without employing a professional!).
Down Clues
1d Tearful session initially covering romantic turn-off dismissals (7)
WICKETS: a synonym of tearful or moist and the initial letter of session contain a modern slang word (so modern that it hasn’t reached the BRB or me) for a sudden shift from fancying someone to being turned off.
2d Run with perfect French runner (5)
RHONE: the abbreviation for run and a verb to perfect or sharpen.
3d Possibly Laurel and Hardy’s original sharpness of mind (5)
HEDGE: the original letter of Hardy and a word for sharpness of mind.
4d Fruit gathered in fall (7)
PLUMMET: a fleshy fruit and a verb meaning gathered or congregated.
5d Support submission – no hesitation (7)
DEFENCE: remove one of our expressions of hesitation from a synonym of submission or acquiescence.
6d Style of French kiss received by lover excited star (5,4)
BEAUX ARTS: the letter used for a kiss goes between a male lover and an anagram (excited) of STAR.
7d Daft son replacing acceptable temperature in lesson on hairdressing (9)
TONSORIAL: start with a lesson given to an individual or small group of students then replace the letter meaning acceptable and the abbreviation for temperature with an anagram (daft) of SON.
8d Defies orders – first task oddly disregarded (7)
RESISTS: disregard the odd letters of three words in the clue.
14d It can boost briefly lit campfires discovered raging (9)
AMPLIFIER: an anagram (raging) of LI[t] and [c]AMPFIRE[s].
15d Assistant stressing – missing a couple of duplicate letters (9)
UNDERLING: start with a present participle meaning stressing and remove one of the repeated pairs of letters.
17d Trained gun to agree a time at the centre (4,3)
TOOK AIM: assemble TO, an informal verb to agree or approve, A and the central letters of ‘time’.
18d It’s easy to rotate, with tuning not right (4,3)
WING NUT: the abbreviation for ‘with’ and an anagram (not right) of TUNING.
19d Had another shot, bringing up one’s abandoned post (7)
RETIRED: start with a verb meaning ‘had another shot’ and move the Roman one northwards.
20d House is filthy after day on vacation (7)
DYNASTY: a synonym of nasty or foul follows the outer letters of day.
23d Seasoning without special glaze (5)
ICING: drop the abbreviation for special from a present participle meaning seasoning.
24d African celebration reportedly excellent (5)
MASAI: what sounds like a Roman Catholic celebration is followed by an abbreviation meaning excellent.
I particularly liked 26a, 27a and 19d (all for their neatly disguised definitions). Which ones got your seal of approval?
A proper Friday Toughie. Given the verbosity of the clues, I did wonder whether our setter has an arrangement with Telegraph Towers whereby they pay her by the word. Particularly annoying when the ten word clue on the second page couldn’t be solved straight away and had to be written on the first sheet
Thanks to Luxor for the brain stretching and Gazza for the blog
I found this very difficult and took a very long time to complete. My last in was 13a.
My ticks went to the easier ones; 1a, 3d, 4d, and 20d.
Many thanks to Luxor and to Gazza.
Re 21a, I read it as O(oscar) is the same as what O represents in the Greek alphabet.
Thanks, Jezza. I’ve concluded that I was overthinking the clue. As you say I think that scriptwriter here just means ‘person writing’.
A proper toughie today and a very slow start. 4d was my favourite. Thanks to Gazza and Luxor.
As difficult as Wednesday’s, and really enjoyed as the difficulty was achieved by superb, cunning clueing rather than by arcane obscurities. Some of the wordplay defeated me, so, for explanations, thanks to Gazza, and of course to Luxor
Yes, this really took some getting into and I needed a lie down half way through – but thankfully it got easier in the lower half, There was a nice penny-drop moment when I [also] stopped overthinking 21a and again when I twigged the definition of 26a.
Thanks to Luxor and Gazza.
Like other before me I, too, found this pretty chewy and difficult to solve. Some of the clueing was very complex and the parsing equally mind-bending. But when all is said and done, the wordplay was fair so any slowness is entirely down to me. As is often the case on a Friday the sense of achievement upon completion was very high. For a favourite this afternoon I chose 27a.
My thanks to both Luxor and Gazza.