Toughie No 3765 by Chalicea
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from a soggy-morninged Wirral. I found this to be a curious puzzle. Three-quarters (especially the southern section) were very much at the Floughie end of the scale, but the North-west was almost its own separate mini-Toughie, with some relative obscurities and a bit more head-scratching required; nothing outrageous, though, and very clearly clued as usual with Chalicea. 1a was my stand-out favourite today, with honourable mentions to 5a, 5d and 20d.
Thank you, Chalicea, for a gentle and pleasant start to the Toughie Week
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
Work are sending me off to California at the weekend (it’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it…) so next week you will have Gazza to explain and entertain. Thanks in advance to him for filling in and letting me off the leash!
Across Clues
1a 1960s teen, one with Latin touch (7)
MODICUM The name of a member of one of the youth cultures from the ‘60s followed by the letter resembling the number one and the Latin word for “with”
5a Proceed to enter haunt, possibly this one? (7)
HANGOUT Insert a two-letter word meaning “Proceed” into an anagram (possibly) of “haunt”. The question mark is a strong hint that there is “something funny going on” and in this case both “haunt” and “possibly” are doing double duty as implicit parts of the definition
9a Directly proving edict flawed I see in a text (7)
DEICTIC An anagram (flawed) of “edict” followed by “I” from the clue and then the single-letter abbreviation commonly used for “see” in a text message. A new word for me.
10a Bringer of gas in unstable area on hill (7)
AERATOR An anagram (unstable) of “area” followed by a three-letter type of “hill”
11a Communist Chinese person periodically dreads how he might be caught (3-6)
RED-HANDED A charade of the colour associated with Communists, a three-letter member of a Chinese dynasty and the odd-numbered letters (periodically) of “dreads”
12a Rotten nuisance reveals dissatisfaction (5)
ENNUI The solution is lurking within (reveals) the letters of “Rotten nuisance”
13a Relative in Spain, in coastal resort (5)
NIECE Insert the usual letter indicating “Spain” into a French coastal resort
15a Family head‘s walk includes a short cut (9)
MATRIARCH A five-letter synonym of “walk” surrounds (includes) “a” from the clue and a synonym of “cut” lacking its final letter (short). Without the initial checking letter, it’s easy to misgender this clue and get bogged down trying to work out a solution based on a different synonym of “walk” (or “way”)
17a Where to see art including, say, right mix (9)
INTEGRATE A (2,4) description of where you might go if you were to want to see some art (based on the name of a series of art galleries) surrounds (including) a two-letter term meaning “say” and the abbreviation for “right”
19a Tropical fruit starts to grow usually after viruses axed (5)
GUAVA Take the initial letters of (starts to) “grow usually after viruses axed”
22a Some subaqua sites, as it were (5)
QUASI The solution is lurking within (Some) the letters of “subaqua sites”
23a Wrongly owe picker for kind of labour (9)
PIECEWORK An anagram (wrongly) of “owe picker”
25a Suffering in tranquillity when street’s cut off (7)
ILLNESS Remove (cut off) the two-letter abbreviation for “street” from a synonym of “tranquility”
26a Inactivity I retain in commotion (7)
INERTIA An anagram (in commotion) of “I retain”
27a US area I reorganised, large land mass (7)
EURASIA An anagram (reorganised) of “US area I”
28a House with tense principal, impetuous person (7)
HOTHEAD A charade of a two-letter abbreviation for “House”, an abbreviation for “tense” and a synonym of “principal”
Down Clues
1d Mini rod converted for type of club (7)
MIDIRON An anagram (converted) of “Mini rod”
2d Decrease of somewhat wild wind level (7)
DWINDLE The solution is lurking within (somewhat) the letters of “wild wind level”
3d What priest could don in bed with a grateful word (5)
COTTA A type of “bed” (associated with infants) is followed by a two-letter informal word used to indicate gratitude
4d Road surface I adapted at first for tree (9)
MACADAMIA The name of a type of “Road surface” is followed by “I” from the clue and the initial letter of (at first) “adapted”
5d Difficult keeping old treasure (5)
HOARD A synonym of “Difficult” has the usual letter indicating “old” inserted (keeping)
6d By arrangement ensuring beginning of love for infant (9)
NURSELING An anagram (By arrangement) of “ensuring” and the initial letter (beginning) of “love”
7d More frequently this is added to last wash cycle, not first! (7)
OFTENER Take the name of an additive commonly used in a “wash cycle” then remove the first letter (not first). There is plenty of room for discussion here about the overall surface and the point at which the additive is employed. And the word itself isn’t in my BRB, although it is in my old Concise Oxford. Very curious!
8d Dirty mountain lake is next to hotel (7)
TARNISH A charade of a name for a “mountain lake”, “is” from the clue and the NATO phonetic alphabet’s letter “hotel”
14d They measure and encourage peculiar merits (3,6)
EGG TIMERS A synonym of “encourage” followed by an anagram (peculiar) of “merits”
16d He threw it out after that (9)
THEREWITH An anagram (out) of “He threw it”
17d Investigate popular singers on the radio (7)
INQUIRE A two-letter word meaning “popular” followed by a homophone (on the radio) of a name for a group of singers
18d One who lags behind open cart (7)
TRAILER A double-definition
20d Advanced job with gutless leftie advocate (7)
APOSTLE A charade of the abbreviation for “Advanced”, a synonym for “job” and the remainder of “leftie” after removing the internal letters (gutless)
21d Difficult heartless work in a prison division (7)
AWKWARD Remove the inner letters (heartless) from “work” and insert the remainder into “a” from the clue and a word for a “prison division”
23d Some grandpas hand-picked Turkish bigwig (5)
PASHA The solution is lurking (Some) within the letters of “grandpa’s hand”
24d Incident of first lady with Bible books (5)
EVENT Take the name of the Biblical “first lady” and then add the two-letter abbreviation for the relatively more recent collection of “Bible books”
A disappointingly brief solve, this wasn’t a toughie at all.
Apart from 9a being a slightly obscure word (and the wordplay gifted the answer), I can’t see why this wasn’t put out as an early-week backpager.
I’m not criticising the puzzle itself, just its placement.
Oh well, there’s always tomorrow…
My thanks to Chalicia and Whybird.
I didn’t find this as easy as Frankiemillwall above but did manage to complete it. 9a abd 3d were new words for me.
My top pick was 25a.
Thanks to Whybird and Chalicea.
Whybird’s description is entirely accurate. Every answer is achievable including my last two – 2d and 9a, which I’d never heard of before.
Favourite was 7d. I wonder how the word is pronounced.
Thanks to setter and hinter
This was the second excellent puzzle of the day. A perfect accompaniment to the back-pager.
Imade life slightly difficult for myself in the SW by initially entering “crawler” for 18d rendering 17a impossible until I realised my mistake.
I had four unknowns to check on in 9a, 1d, 3d & 23d but all were clearly clued.
Does anyone apart from crossword setters ever use 12a? What makes it such a popular choice? There are two or three other words which fit E???I.
Many thanks to Chalicea and to Whybird.
Without having read the clue for 12a and with no checkers except for the last letter ‘provided by’ 8d I immediately and correctly thought it’s xxxxx! An indication of how frequently it appears?
As ever, a very enjoyable start to the 4 day Toughie week. It wouldn’t be anything else with a Chalicea puzzle but it was ‘floughie-ish’ rather than ‘floughie’ – 1.5*/4.5*
Candidates for favourite – 1a, 17a, 25a, 14d, and 17d – and the winner is 14d.
Thanks to Chalicea and Whybird.
I had to check what 9a meant and what a 3d was but both fairly clued. 4d has cropped up before so I knew that. 7d is not a word I’ve ever used. I thought this about right for a Tuesday. Favourite was 15a. Thanks to Chalicea and Whybird.
As Whybird suggested in the hints. I was caught bang to rights re 15a, and rushed to write in the wrong initial letter (path=walk) and although I couldn’t parse it, I placed a question mark to look at it later. 4d sorted that one out!
A few here that required some thought.
Thanks to Chalicea and to Whybird
This took me just over half the time to complete as the backpager, with the excellent 1a my favourite. As always with this setter, the relative ease of the solve was not at the expense of the enjoyment.
Thanks to both Chalicea and Whybird.
The tone was set by the brilliant 1a and the fun continued through the entire solve.
Thanks Chalicea and Whybird.
I found this significantly more straightforward than the backpager and completed this unaided in a fraction of the time; in fact their placement could easily have been reversed. Whilst 3d and 9a were new words for me they were both readily accessible from the word play. Having said that, this was a short enjoyable diversion for me with 23a, 8d and 15a being my picks.
Many thanks to Chalicea and Whybird.
1*/3*
Very entertaining, thanks to all.Only 9a gave cause for concern .Pity it was over so quickly .
I thought this was a great start to the week and a typical Tuesday Toughie, whereas the back pager was imo hard for a Tuesday anyway what do I know!!
15a Family head and 17a art location were my top picks.
the only stumble was the 9a anagram my LOI, I had all but 3 of the letters and had to try those 3 letters in 3 different combinations before the computer said yes!
great fun thanks all
Always a treat to see Chalicea on toughie duty. A really enjoyable solved, lots of great clues, a couple of new words, some smiles along the way, what more could you ask for? Another one next Tuesday please!
Thanks to Chalicea and Whybird.