Toughie No 3749 by Chalicea
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
We have an enjoyable start to the Toughie Week with Chalicea being somewhat less benign than usual. I also didn’t help myself by mistakenly opening the Back-pager on the iPad (my dead tree being a little late today) and thinking we had an extreme Floughie, then realising that the clues I had already pasted into the Blog on my PC didn’t match my short-term recall, twigging my stupidity and having to start again. At least by this time, the dead tree had arrived so I was safe in analogue-land. The Present Lady Whybird is considering blocking me from the internet for our mutual safety. It was very interesting to experience the contrast in styles in back-to-back fashion and I felt it made solving Chalicea’s puzzle more difficult.
There are plenty of clues that get honourable mentions, including 1d, 4d, 6a, 7d, 16a and 19d, but I’m giving my top prize today to 3d.
Thanks, Chalicea, for a fun start to the week.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Since very cold, I swallowed last of food mixed (10)
ASSOCIATED I hope you have your Allen Keys handy… You need to assemble two-letter synonyms of “Since” and “very”, the abbreviation for “cold”. “I” from the clue, a word meaning “swallowed” (or consumed) and the final letter (last) of “food”
6a Couch found in contents of attic (4)
SOFA The solution is lurking amongst (found in) “contents of attic”
9a Take flight circling left of the sun (5)
SOLAR Take a synonym of “take flight” and insert (circling) the abbreviation for “left”
10a Tampered with mate’s menu for fun (9)
AMUSEMENT An anagram (Tampered with) of “mate’s menu”
12a Wasn’t able to consider boxing essentially wildly (7)
COULDN’T A synonym of “consider” surrounds (boxing) the central pair f letters (essentially) of “wildly”
13a Drink belonging to businesses under one ownership (5)
CHAIN A charade of a three-letter “Drink” and a two-letter synonym of “belonging to” (eg being a member of a certain group). My last one in: I couldn’t get my mind to think of anything other than a misspelt bedtime drink
15a Heartless son, even though nourished, showed contempt (7)
SNIFFED Remove the middle letter (Heartless) from “son”, add a two-letter synonym of “even though” and a synonym of “nourished”
16a Dodges ball game (7)
RACKETS A double definition
18a Disregarded problematic region by delta (7)
IGNORED An anagram (problematic) of “region” preceded (by) the letter represented by “delta” in the NATO phonetic alphabet
20a Group of lions devouring first bits of our vegetable supply (7)
PROVIDE The collective noun meaning a “Group of lions” surrounds (devouring) the initial letters (first bits) of “our” and “vegetable”
21a Whale oil process (5)
TRAIN A double definition. I didn’t know the whale context
23a Told to go round originally really very annoying attendant (7)
SERVANT A word meaning “Told to go” has inserted (round) the initial letters (originally) of “really”, “very” and “annoying”
25a Dubiously reinsures races for two-year-old horses (9)
NURSERIES An anagram (Dubiously) of “reinsures”
26a Frolic of little fish around noon (5)
DANCE Take a type of “little fish” and insert (around) the letter indicating “noon”
27a Walk dogs, say, in retirement (4)
STEP Reverse (in retirement) a word for the class of domesticated animals of which “dogs” are an example (say)
28a Rags sewn perhaps clumsily with hem initially overlooked (10)
NEWSPAPERS An anagram (clumsily) of “sewn perhaps” lacking the initial letter of “hem” (initially overlooked)
Down Clues
1d Endlessly false and at heart wrong too (4)
ALSO Remove the first and last letters (Endlessly) of “false” then append the middle letter (and at heart) of “wrong”
2d Singular poll choice (9)
SELECTION The letter representing “Singular” followed by a synonym of “poll”
3d Compass that goes around? (13)
CIRCUMFERENCE A double definition which also works as an all-in-one
4d Given poster to cover hospital room no. 5? (7)
AWARDED A two-letter synonym of “poster” (in the promotional sense) surrounds (to cover) a (4,1) phrase which is how you may refer to the fifth room of a hospital, with letters instead of numbers
5d Go off northwards, following mostly uniform notional line (7)
EQUATOR A reversal (“northwards” in a Down clue) of a word meaning “Go off” (or decompose) is preceded by (following) a synonym of “uniform” from which the last letter has been removed (mostly)
7d Theatre work by English artist (5)
OPERA A charade of a two-letter synonym of “work”, the letter indicating “English” and the usual two-letter term representing “artist”
8d Amazed, for instance, by massive weight I cast off (10)
ASTONISHED A charade of a two-letter synonym of “for instance”, a three-letter “massive weight”, “I” from the clue and a synonym of “cast off”
11d Decline a copy, a flawed compendium of knowledge (13)
ENCYCLOPAEDIA An anagram (flawed) of “Decline a copy a”
14d Helps a small son, one pursued by extremes of slyest scavengers (10)
ASSISTANTS Get the Allen Keys out again… Assemble “a” from the clue, the letters indicating both “small” and “son”, the letter that resembles the number “one” followed with (pursued by) the first and last letters (extremes) of “slyest” and a type of social, scavenging insects
17d Being distraught, exit scene (9)
EXISTENCE An anagram (distraught) “exit scene”
19d Not affected by rain in river (7)
DESPITE Insert a word meaning “rain (lightly)” into the name of a Scottish or Anglo-Welsh river
20d Expressions of stages in growth involving resistance (7)
PHRASES Insert (involving) the abbreviation for “resistance” into a word meaning “stages in growth”
22d Concur in mature years about religious education (5)
AGREE A three-letter term meaning “mature years” surrounds (about) the abbreviation for “religious education”
24d Without the French ship propelled by steam (4)
LESS A charade of the masculine definite article in French and the abbreviation designating a “ship propelled by steam”
I also didn’t know the whale oil component of 21a and had to check on the race otherwise I found this quite straightforward.
Top picks for me were 19d, 8d and 1d.
Thanks to Whybird and Chalicea.
I agree with Whybird’s ‘less benign than usual’ assessment; there was a sprinkling of pauses for thought – **/****
Candidates for favourite – 1a, 9a, 13a, and 17d – and the winner is 1a for its six pieces of Lego® in 10 letters!
Thanks to the not so Floughie Lady and Whybird.
This was Floughie and fun. No doubt there is a theme, but I can’t spot one.
It’s quite a coincidence that the answer to 10a appeared in today’s backpager not only with the same definition but also clued as an anagram.
1d was my favourite of many ticked clues.
Many thanks to Chalicea and to Whybird.
I used to have a theory that sometimes the editor might provide a certain word for different setters to clue in different puzzles. I said this before but nobody ever confirmed my conspiracy theory!
The forest in yesterday’s backpager also features in today’s Times backpager. I know that coincidence is no proof of relationship, but when an unusual word appears from the blue like that in two papers, it does make one wonder whether the same setter provided both puzzles.
Chalicea here – no Jezza and Mustapha G, honestly there is no connivance. We set completely independently. It is possible that one of the editors tweaks a clue in a similar way in two different setters’ compilations but I think the similarity is pure chance (probably because that is the easiest or most obvious way to clue the word). In the Listener series we are occasionally told that ‘we have changed that because the same word is appearing in a preceding – or following crossword’ but that is as far as it goes.
Thanks for dropping in, Chalicea! Excellent puzzle, even if you made me work hard to get a bird illustration in!
A lovely and light puzzle, for me comparable with the back pager today in terms of challenge level. 21A went in with a shrug, figuring it to be Chalicea’s Esoteric Answer, happily confirmed in the BRB post-solve.
Many thanks to Chalicea, and also to Whybird – especially for The Associates track, used for many years as the theme for R4’s brilliant “Weekending” satire. MacKenzie had quite a voice and it was not to all tastes, but I always enjoyed it. Died terribly young.
Weekending was where I first encountered the tune during Uni days, when I got my music fixes through album recommendations, not popular radio! It was a surprise to discover, many years later, that it was a genuine hit single. Great tune!
I think I might have heard of the whale oil somewhere before, but it was still my last in.
I didn’t know the horse race, but it was solved from the anagram fodder.
Many thanks to Chalicea and to Whybird.
Very gentle but great fun & for me the pick of today’s 2 puzzles. Pleased to remember that the 1st A precedes the 2nd E in the spelling of 11d (presumably as good as redundant now that Mr G is on hand to tell one all about whale oil & the like).
Plenty to admire but the competition for top spot was between the great starters at 1a & 1d.
Thanks to Chalicea & to Whybird – guessed the Beach Boys, didn’t know the 15a mob but liked the tune & had no idea Bananarama’s version of Na Na Hey Hey was a cover but they were easier on the eye.
Listen to the original and watch the video of the others with the sound muted, maybe?
Agree on both parts of the Bananarama bit.
I didn’t find this very tough, but the words play was of consistently high quality and I really enjoyed the challenge. The two unknowns, to others as well as myself, the whale oil and the horse race, were fairly easily solved, which to me is one of the marks of a good crossword. My favourite is the clue which took me the longest to solve, though obvious once the penny dropped, that rags pwas the definition rather than part of the Word play
I’m another who didn’t know the whale oil until fed into my search engine and the race for 2 y.o. was obtained from the checkers, but otherwise this proved to be somewhat easier than the back-pager. Last in was the unaffected by rain 19d which is also my COTT. Nicely clued throughout.
Thanks to Chalicea and Whybird.
Did a fair bit at lunch, then my wife just chipped in with a 1/3 and we finished it off together.
Pody picks – 20A’s veg-eating lions, 4D’s room 5 and the frolicking new (to me) fish of 26A.
Thanks to Chalicea and Whybird ⭐️
Thank you, Whybird. Glad your dead tree arrived! I loved today’s music and was amused to see that the subtitles for Puff didn’t know how to spell his land – so they just omitted it. As I’ve said before, your hard work on the crosswords is appreciated.
Glad you liked the tunes! We used to sing Puff on school sailing trips with the lyrics typed up on a song sheet, and with “Frolicked” being mis-typed as the vastly superior “frockled” and had been that ever since!
YouTube’s lyric predictors are often hilarious.
10a – Amusing to have the same answer in the back pager on the same day. I wonder what the odds are of that happening.
I haven’t looked up the whale oil business, so still don’t understand it.
Agreeable puzzle, much enjoyed.
Thanks to setter and hinter.
The answer is a type of whale oil as well as a synonym of process
Thank you for the info. Whybird. I’ll look out for it in the supermarket.
Smiling emoji
When we got to 21a we scratched our heads for a few seconds and then reached for BRB to confirm whether our guess was correct. It was.
Excellent fun as ever.
Thanks Chalicea and Whybird.