Toughie No 3748 by Sparks
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Thanks to Sparks for an enjoyable pangram.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Making a comeback, arrival constrained by dumb mistake (7)
ERRATUM: reverse all of an adjective meaning dumb containing the abbreviation for arrival.
5a Characteristic of one pair of diamonds held by one pair of spades (7)
ODDNESS: ONE containing a pair of abbreviated diamonds followed by a pair of abbreviated spades.
9a Clubs promoted Chuck, maybe for something with saucy connotations? (9)
CRANBERRY: assemble the abbreviation for clubs, a verb meaning promoted or put forward (a candidate, say) and the surname of Chuck the American singer and songwriter.
10a Stay over when daughter’s ousted Victor (5)
ABODE: a preposition meaning over or ‘on top of’ with the abbreviation for daughter replacing Nato’s Victor.
11a Style shown by TV duo, the first having a change of heart when given Oscar (3,4)
ART DECO: the ubiquitous TV duo with the first having his central letter changed. Finish with Nato’s Oscar.
12a Fantastic entrée after a drop of Penderyn, twelve years old? (3-4)
PRE-TEEN: an anagram (fantastic) of ENTRÉE follows the first letter of Penderyn.
13a Spanish woman embraces male compatriot in grass (9)
MARIJUANA: a female Spanish forename contains a male Spanish forename.
16a Documents island dialect (5)
IDIOM: abbreviations for documents and an island in the British Isles (but not in the UK).
17a Cleaner fastidiously scrubbing recycled tin (5)
DAILY: start with an adverb meaning fastidiously or fussily and remove the cycled letters of TIN.
18a Send a message to us (9)
TELEGRAPH: double definition.
21a Tricky situation difficult when hotel’s sacked sommelier? (7)
STEWARD: an informal word for a tricky situation and a synonym of difficult without Nato’s hotel.
22a Unknown detective plugs articles about lost people (7)
AZTECAN: an algebraic unknown and an informal abbreviation for a detective go between two indefinite articles. The BRB doesn’t list this adjectival form but it is in Collins.
25a Republican blocks unconvincing cause (5)
WREAK: the abbreviation for Republican is inserted into an adjective meaning unconvincing (an argument, say).
26a Censures half of rest after old boy left with nothing (9)
OBLOQUIES: the first half of a word meaning rest or inactivity follows abbreviations for old boy and left and the zero-resembling letter. A new word for me but fairly clued.
27a Slash hard bits from Unfinished Symphony (7)
SOLIDUS: a synonym of hard or rigid and the first letters of the last two words.
28a Trim back, cutting your old treatment (7)
THERAPY: reverse a verb to trim inside an old word meaning your.
Down Clues
1d State test incorporating two separate elements (7)
EXCLAIM: a formal test contains separately the chemical symbols for chlorine and iodine.
2d Cheerful alternative, but not very advanced (5)
RIANT: a synonym for alternative or different without the abbreviations for very and advanced.
3d Lie about second-class syllabus (5)
TABLE: a ‘porky pie’ containing the letter used to mean second-class. The answer is in the BRB with the meaning of syllabus or index.
4d Prima ballerina’s distinction at an end according to gossip (7)
MARKOVA: a synonym of distinction and what sounds (to some) like an adverb meaning ‘at an end’ or finished. You can read about the ballerina here.
5d Greasy member putting down one adult source of games? (7)
OLYMPIA: a greasy member of parliament with the Roman one moved down is followed by the abbreviation for adult.
6d Extremely loud engine DAF redesigned (9)
DEAFENING: a straightforward anagram (redesigned) of ENGINE DAF.
7d Base, drunk Heather reveals secrets to a few (9)
ESOTERICA: cement together the letter used for the base in logarithms, a word for a drunkard and a type of heather.
8d Bone needs hard lump shaved (7)
STERNUM: an adjective meaning hard or harsh and ‘lump’ with its outer letters shaved off.
14d Ascent overwhelming American – that guy’s gonna cause trouble (5,4)
RAISE HELL: an ascent containing an abbreviation for American and a way of saying “that guy’s gonna”.
15d Recklessly went in front of Lincoln and Ford et al? (9)
JAYWALKED: cryptic definition. The ‘et al’ could include Chrysler and Tesla.
17d Denies connection with police officers gobbling spread (7)
DISOWNS: the abbreviation for senior police officers contains a past participle meaning spread or scattered.
18d Boring outside broadcast (7)
TEDIOUS: an anagram (broadcast) of OUTSIDE.
19d Circular feature of plant … (7)
LEAFLET: double definition.
20d … one that’s straight up, though not large (7)
HONESTY: a feature (from the previous clue) that comes from an informal expression meaning ‘straight up’ without the abbreviation for large.
23d Covering combined forces that move round without resistance (5)
TOQUE: a word for a combination of forces which cause rotation loses the abbreviation for resistance,
24d Stopping for last game holds up church service? (5)
CHINA: the stopping (i.e. filling, inside letters) of the last game in a cup competition follows an abbreviation for church.
I particularly liked 11a, 5d and 24d. Which ones did it for you?
Well that was fun. I didn’t realise it was a pangram until quite late on, but it still helped me limp over the line. Apart from a couple of bung-ins this was a fairly smooth solve, with many potential favourites, including 5, 15 and 18d.
Thanks to Sparks for the fun, and to Gazza.
I didn’t find this too demanding; I actually solved it in a quicker time than the back-pager.
The two I struggled with were 24d [stopping for last game] and 5d [greasy member] btw very amusing!
11a gets my vote.
Many thanks to Sparks and to Gazza.
Too much online checking of words I’m unfamiliar with detracted from my enjoyment of this, which meant I found it to be a bit of a slog.
24d’s ‘stopping for last game’ part remained unparsed, so thanks to our blogger for the enlightenment.
The solution to 12a is strangely similar to today’s Wordle answer. Not keen on either word though the reference to 12 y/o Penderyn in the clue was pertinent as I’ve recently polished off a bottle.
My COTD was the Spanish couple gettin’ it on in the grass at 13a.
My thanks to Sparks and Gazza.
Not
On the setters wavelength today so didn’t enjoy this. Far too much help needed to get things solved.
Disappointed in myself as so often I was kicking myself for not getting the clue.
Thanks all
I found this quite tricky but got there in the end. My biggest hold up was putting the wrong letter at the end of 15d which made 27a difficult to solve! 12a is a ghastly word but the clue did make me smile as did the Spanish couple on grass! An enjoyable solve and a pangram too.
Thanks to Sparks and Gazza
More suited to a Tuesday and quite untypical of Sparks who often sets much more challenging puzzles. But fun enough, with 5a, 22a and especially 24d [stopping for last game] my favourites.
Thanks to Sparks and to Gazza for the blog.
Well it is a Friday Toughie after all and hoorah I managed to complete my first FT without recourse to the hints. It was a slog and the BRB was working overtime, but perseverance paid off. 26a and 27a were new words to me. The SW was last to fall, but once I got ‘senhorita’ out of my head at 13a, the rest fell quickly. My pick of the puzzle was 15d, although it took a while to realise a homophone of ‘president’ wasn’t going to work.
Many thanks to Sparks and Gazza.
That was a lot of fun and, as usual, we failed to spot the pangram until it was too late to be of assistance. Our favourite was 13a.
Thanks Sparks and Gazza.
Enjoyed this, but found it a good deal more difficult than the BD rating. I think I made it more difficult because I was expecting a particularly tough one after three easy days and was also distracted by solving onIine on phone with irregular connection on a journey involving five trains returning from holiday. Very satisfied to complete, favourite being the double definition message.
Since I started solving on my phone I have been plagued by what seem to mean very inane messages inviting me to “display streaks” or “boast about my prowess” , the most recent of which I am trying to attach. I fear I might have inadvertently signed up for something I do not want. Can anyone help me to get rid of them, please?
For me definitely a 4* Toughie – many of the clues withstood considerable wrestling, the ballerina was new to me, and I just couldn’t get on Sparks’ wavelength. Many clues remained possibles until confirming checkers arrived. Not sure I’d ever insult a sommelier by calling them a steward, whatever a dictionary might say!
Cracking challenge with which to end the week – many thanks to Sparks and Gazza
Unlike Jezza I found this way tougher than the back-pager. Nowhere near an unaided completion – used 2 letter checker reveals to get within 2d of a finish – never come across the adjective & didn’t peg the wordplay so needed the hint to get across the line. Had I clocked the likely pangram 23d & 26a might have yielded without revealing the checker – I was familiar with the latter word but still needed the hint to parse the back end of it (the inactivity synonym – d’oh). The stopping bit in the 24d parse very clever & went way over my head too.
5&15d were my joint favs with the Spanish hanky panky in the grass on the podium.
Thanks to Sparks & to Gazza for the much needed help
I’m definitely in the hard camp for this one. Thank goodness for the pangram without which I wouldn’t have had a hope for the forgotten 23d, the never heard of 26a or the very (for me) cryptic 15d. 27a and 24d, amongst others, were also pretty tough.
Hardly exciting, but there’s an in-house reference across the grid which expands on that in one of the component clues.
Thanks to Gazza and Sparks
17a and 18a ?
I didn’t even notice…
Me neither.
I was pleased to look at the blog this morning and find that I wasn’t the only one who found this Friday Toughie particularly difficult. I did however notice the ‘in-house reference’
Thanks to Sparks for the brain-mangling and Gazza for the blog
Full on Friday Toughie level for me. I enjoyed the challenge, even if I was defeated by 2d (one on several new words/people I had to check). And I still don’t understand the wordplay with the hint.
Thanks to Sparks for the battering and to Gazza for trying to educate me!
Now to return to the 33% completed Elgar from last week. I’m not getting on well with the Tough Toughies at the moment.
Got it now…