Toughie No 3784 by Luxor
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
This came as a blessed relief after yesterday’s Toughie – no obscurities (well, Planet Normal was new to me but I didn’t need to know it to solve the clue). This is fairly gentle for a Friday Toughie – thanks to Luxor.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Support around Tory leader withdrawn by recorder of minutes (10)
TIMEKEEPER: a support on the golf course contains the reversal of the current Tory leader’s forename. Finish with a preposition meaning ‘by’.
6a Rock opera sacking old queen live at the opening (4)
OPAL: kick out the cipher of our late Queen from opera and append the opening letter of live. Am I the only one who, when ‘the Queen’ is mentioned on the news, still thinks of the old one rather than the current consort?
10a Follow The Daily T (5)
CHART: a word for a daily cleaner and T.
11a Briefly prioritise patients, admitting new bad back for testing (9)
TRIALLING: a verb to decide the order of treatment for waiting patients loses its last letter. That contains the reversal of the abbreviation for new and a synonym of bad or sick.
12a Planet Normal initially chasing electronic material for Planet Normal mug? (7)
EARTHEN: Planet Normal is apparently a Telegraph podcast which awards a mug to the email of the week. We need one of the planets of our solar system followed by the initial letter of normal after the abbreviation for electronic.
13a Jointly entertain last couple to leave, dividing everyone’s drink (7)
ALCOHOL: a verb to jointly entertain or compere without its last two letters goes inside a synonym of everyone.
14a Henna blend fixes bleached highlights, for example (12)
ENHANCEMENTS: an anagram (blend) of HENNA followed by a verb meaning fixes or bonds.
18a Left phoney war – teamwork indicated main retreat (3-5,4)
LOW-WATER MARK: the abbreviation for left followed by an anagram (phoney) of WAR TEAMWORK.
21a Lacking northern energy in grid originally absorbs Miliband (7)
NEEDING: string together abbreviations for northern and energy, IN and the original letter of grid. Now insert the abbreviated forename of Mr Miliband our current Foreign Secretary (although he was probably still the Energy Secretary when this topical clue was written).
23a Oleic acid only half digested in someone avoiding gluten (7)
COELIAC: an anagram (digested) of OLEIC AC[id].
24a One cry during lust in outburst of bad behaviour (5,4)
CRIME WAVE: the Roman one and a (feline?) cry are inserted in a verb to lust or yearn for.
25a Trouble behind meme discovered in message (5)
EMAIL: a verb to trouble follows the inner letters of meme.
26a Device content from travelog ongoing (4)
LOGO: hidden.
27a Loan provider misused brawn in game (10)
PAWNBROKER: an anagram (misused) of BRAWN goes inside a card game.
Down Clues
1d Adherent not having leader’s heart (6)
TICKER: a word for an adherent or someone remaining loyal loses its leading letter.
2d Some agreements somewhat lacking (6)
MEAGRE: a hidden word.
3d Unit of storage (KB) technician recalibrated – and in French (7,7)
KITCHEN CABINET: an anagram (recalibrated) of KB TECHNICIAN followed by the French word for ‘and’.
4d Underrate distance across Ukraine and Spain (9)
EXTENUATE: a synonym of distance or range contains the IVR code for Ukraine. Finish with the IVR code for Spain.
5d Plant unlimited rice in time (5)
ERICA: insert the inner letters of rice in a period of historical time.
7d Caught trawling bait for unwary surfers (8)
PHISHING: a homophone (caught, i.e. heard) of a synonym of trawling at sea.
8d Support tabloids regularly (medium strictly observing the law) (8)
LEGALISM: assemble a supporting member, regular letters of ‘tabloids’ and the clothing abbreviation for medium.
9d Illicit trader‘s dodgy remark about character after dark (5-9)
BLACK-MARKETEER: an anagram (dodgy) of REMARK contains the spelled-out form of a letter of the alphabet. That all follows an adjective meaning dark.
15d Admit fraud involving note, plainly falling short (4,5)
COME CLEAN: a fraud or swindle contains a note from tonic sol-fa and an adverb meaning plainly without its last letter. My initial thought was that the truncated word required is an adjective not an adverb but the BRB allows it as an adverb and I think it works in a phrase such as ‘her voice came loud and ***** from the kitchen’.
16d Detached spray of lilac, endlessly charming brought inside (8)
CLINICAL: an anagram (spray) of LILAC with a truncated adjective meaning charming or friendly inserted.
17d Son tearful for blanket (8)
SWEEPING: the abbreviation for son and a present participle meaning tearful.
19d Three characters following Golf – gang heading off to take over vehicle (6)
HIJACK: the three letters following the letter that golf represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet followed by a word for a gang (of wolves perhaps) without its heading letter.
20d Looker’s light-hearted taking off top (6)
OCULAR: an adjective meaning light-headed or playful without its top letter.
22d Plough a nation contributing land (5)
GHANA: hidden.
I particularly liked 1a, 24a, 7d and 19d. Which one(s) featured in your selection?
A surprisingly speedy finish for a Friday Toughie, no doubt due to a lack of obscurities to contend with.
No particular favourites, it all seemed to flow quite nicely with no complicated parsings to overcome, which made a nice change.
My thanks to Luxor and Gazza.
As Gazza and Frankiemillwall say, not that difficult for a Friday, but there were a few that I had to think long and hard about.
I put a big tick against 7d, so that gets my vote.
Many thanks to Luxor and to Gazza.
A very nice midweek Toughie – thanks to Luxor and Gazza.
I had to mark an 25a as 7d yesterday so that’s my favourite
Over the moon !! My first Friday Toughie solve unaided!! I made one error put a letter e at the end of 8d instead of a letter m otherwise 100%
Could get everything from the clueing – I did use Mr Google to check my spelling of 23a (correct 😀)
Thank you very much Luxor for such an excellent puzzle made my day.
Favourite was 3d as it made me chuckle
Congratulations, Spangledcat. Let’s hope this is just the first of many such successes with Toughies.
Thank you!!
I will probably be brought back down to earth on Sunday lol
Nice one Spangledcat! A toughie solve any day is satisfying but cracking a Friday is always extra satisfying!
A blessed relief summed up my thoughts precisely. I doubt I’d have been able to spell 23a correctly had I been asked to do so out of the blue but like Spangledcat took a correct punt from the fodder. Just my type of Toughie really (not very & free of obscure words) – this was a pleasure & solved in only a marginally longer time than the back-pager. Nice also to see the only 2 podcasts I listen to name-checked.
Lots to like but 7d my fav with ticks against 1,11,18,24&27a + 3,4,15&19d.
Thanks to Luxor & to Gazza