Toughie No 3331 by Silvanus
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Very enjoyable fare from Silvanus to whom many thanks.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Pity certain characters being treated, getting fever-reducing drug (11)
ANTIPYRETIC: an anagram (characters being treated) of PITY CERTAIN. New word for me.
10a Steep climb ignoring cold left uncle exhausted (5)
IMBUE: remove the abbreviations for cold and left from ‘climb’ and append the outer letters of uncle.
11a Spy’s tracking equipment inspiring a right palaver (9)
RIGMAROLE: an embedded spy follows a synonym of equipment with A and the abbreviation for right being inserted.
12a Proceeded to stop extremely tipsy individual reaching pontoon (6-3)
TWENTY-ONE: a verb meaning proceeded is inserted in the outer letters of tipsy. Follow that with a synonym of individual.
13a Bill Bryson perhaps providing article on English county shortly (5)
IOWAN: one of our indefinite articles follows an abbreviated English county. Is this not an example of a frowned-upon ‘definition produces wordplay’ clue?
14a Song expressing small religious tradition (6)
RITUAL: remove the abbreviation for small and a short word meaning excessively religious from a type of song associated with the southern USA.
16a Fan of commercial books around at this time (8)
ADHERENT: an abbreviated commercial and the less ancient books of the Bible bracket an adverb meaning ‘at this time’.
18a Foreign waiters close to clientele, in a way (2,2,4)
AS IT WERE: an anagram (foreign) of WAITERS followed by the closing letter of clientele.
20a Put forward time to see Benny, say (6)
TABLET: a verb to put forward or propose and the physics abbreviation for time. The falsely-capitalised benny is an abbreviated stimulant.
23a Airline entrepreneur hands over aeroplane keys enthusiastically to begin with (5)
LAKER: Freddie, the British entrepreneur who introduced ‘no-frills’ flights in the 1970s (and antagonized the established airlines in the process) comes from putting the abbreviations for both hands round the initial letters of three words in the clue.
24a Common antioxidant we gather transformed Mike (5,4)
WHEAT GERM: an anagram (transformed) of WE GATHER followed by the letter represented by Mike in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet.
26a Delegating authority to chap seeking a partner? (9)
MANDATING: split your answer 3,6 to get a chap seeking a sexual partner.
27a Pick up bangle another is purchasing (5)
GLEAN: hidden.
28a Use reportedly traditional features of these places? (11)
CHURCHYARDS: a clever homophone of what can be found in lots of these places. Thomas Gray wrote thus:
Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree‘s shade,
Where heaves the turf in many a mould’ring heap,
Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.
Down Clues
2d Chemist delaying medicine ultimately for peer (5)
NOBLE: a famous Swedish chemist with the ultimate letter of medicine relegated to the bottom.
3d Sloth, one found in tricky terrain overlooking river (7)
INERTIA: insert the Roman one into an anagram (tricky) of TER[r]AIN after we’ve removed one of the abbreviations for river.
4d Raised concern about area to display plant (6)
YARROW: reverse a word meaning concern or disquiet containing the abbreviation for area.
5d TV show of mine bosses will support (8)
EGGHEADS: a slang term for a mine (of the explosive sort) is followed by a synonym of bosses.
6d Suppose this writer’s popular amongst generation (7)
IMAGINE: a contracted form of how the setter would say that he is followed by an adjective meaning popular inside a synonym of generation.
7d Posh singer formerly receiving prize for gardener’s fruit (8,5)
VICTORIA PLUMS: start with the former name of ‘Posh’ (Mrs Beckham) and replace the Biblical gardener with an adjective meaning prize or choice.
8d Army officer welcomes something clarified involving women’s gear (8)
COGWHEEL: a Russian doll clue. The abbreviation for a senior army officer contains clarified butter which in turn contains the abbreviation for women.
9d Restoration of control over account (13)
REINSTATEMENT: a synonym of control followed by an official account (one released to the media perhaps).
15d View result of monarch’s diet? (8)
THINKING: split the answer 4,4. Very neat.
17d Comparatively heavy weapon held up, I fear, at intervals (8)
DROWSIER: reverse a sharp weapon and add regular letters from ‘I fear’.
19d Pervert Kathy discovered making military expedition (7)
WARPATH: a verb to pervert or distort and the inner letters of Kathy.
21 Opponent needs month to go round island (7)
ANTIGUA: a word for an opponent and the reversal of the abbreviation for a Summer month.
22d Period piece (6)
LENGTH: double definition, the second a piece of fabric perhaps.
25d Conclude tackling disease is correct (5)
EMEND: a verb to conclude containing the abbreviation for a debilitating disease.
I ticked 12a, 7d and 15d but my favourite clue today was 28a. Which one(s) did the job for you?
Great puzzle. A few unknowns and I needed Gazza’s help on the parsing of 28a which now becomes my CoD. A lovely clue.
I didn’t know 1a and also did not know the slang terms for egg and Benny. I have also learnt that the IoW is not part of Hampshire any more (wake up, Shabbo, I hear you cry!) and that 24a is an antioxidant.
A few unknowns, but all gettable and it is Thursday and this is a Toughie, so all is well with the world. Rather than bleat about the unfairness of the occasional unknown word, I welcome the opportunity to expand my vocabulary, even if I may well have already forgotten them all by this time tomorrow.
Thanks to Silvanus for a most enjoyable challenge whilst watching the test match and thanks to Gazza for an excellent blog.
Smart and lively entertainment, as always. Like Shabbo, I didn’t know “egg” but when a pineapple is a grenade, it sort of makes sense. 15d and, of course, 28a for me. Many thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.
Great puzzle, a lovely lunchtime diversion. Benny was a Biff & Hope and even on reading the blog I only had the vaguest recollection as to what it related. Fortunately one did not need to know VB’s maiden name to get the answer. All else known and surprisingly straightforward for a Thursday Silvanus, with trademark smooth surfaces. COTD 15d, joined on the podium by 23a and 17d.
Many thanks indeed to Silvanus, and also of course to Gazza
Thank goodness that 1a was an anagram, wouldn’t have stood a chance otherwise! My other ‘unknown’ was Benny, I’m only used to getting drug information from Hoskins so this came as a surprise from Mr Smooth………
Plenty of contenders for places on the leader board – 11,12,13&28a plus 15d in contention but I think the gold medal goes squarely to 28a – delicious clue.
Many thanks to Silvanus for an excellent Thursday Toughie and to Gazza for the review and cartoons – think the dateless girl gets my vote.
Another super puzzle from the setter who never disappoints. So many clues to like, making it difficult to choose a favourite. I’m picking out 12, 13, and 26A, 2 and 9D with 15D as favourite.
Many thanks to Gazza for the blog and humour and to Sylvanus for the enjoyment.
Another easier left/harder right for me. Took a long time to twig 13a and for the benny penny to drop. Top clue was 28a which again took a long time to realise.
Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.
Hi Gazza. Re 13a, I take your point, of course. But could Silvanus be using “providing” in its sense of “if” here? That would, I think, get round the apparent definition > wordplay problem. I just can’t see Silvanus breaking a “rule”. Ever!
Quite possibly if you take ‘providing’ to mean ‘providing you place..’. I did add a question mark to my comment and I hope Silvanus will look in to clarify.
Many thanks to Gazza and to all those commenting. I wish the Toughies would attract more comments, especially to thank the bloggers for the effort they all make in putting their Hints and Tips together.
I’ll try to explain what happened regarding 13a. My original clue read “Bill Bryson perhaps WITH article on English county shortly”. “Providing” resulted from an editorial tweak, as it was felt that some solvers might think “with” stood for W (rather than as the link word between definition and wordplay, as I intended) and “shortly” might be interpreted, not as the abbreviation for the county, but as IO(W), i.e. used erroneously as a last letter deletion indicator. Personally, I wouldn’t have used “providing”, but I will seldom, if ever, argue with an editor!
Aha, that does explain a lot. Ta Silvanus. But are you saying that “shortly” shouldn’t (also) be used for a last-letter reduction? Blimey.
I’m not saying that at all, ALP. It’s perfectly fine. Perhaps I should have said “erroneously, in this instance”. IOW is an abbreviation and so the editor didn’t want “shortly” to be misinterpreted by some as a last letter deletion indicator. Hope that clarifies.
Phew. Gotcha. You had me worried there for a minute! I feared there was yet another rule I had to try and get my head around. Thank you for clarifying. Gazza too.
I suspect that Silvanus is saying that shortly can be used as a last letter deletion indicator but not in the case of what is already an abbreviation, e.g. you wouldn’t use ‘force shortly’ to change RAF to RA.
Exactly, Gazza.
Thanks for the fine puzzle, Silvanus, and for clarifying 13a.
I agree that it would be good for more comments to be made on Toughies. I also think that one should be careful about how one makes comments. “This was very straightforward/easy” when read by others who have struggled for some time to complete perhaps just half the puzzle could make people feel quite inadequate and, in itself, put them off even trying in the future which is not good! Just my opinion!
Not a speedy solve for us. Thought that it was asking a lot of solvers in 13a to know where Mr Bryson came from and that the place that gets abbreviated is a county on its own. Neverthless we eventually got it. Also had the right answer for 28a but decided that grazing sheep there must be more common than we expected.
However we did appreciate and enjoy the puzzle.
Thanks Silvanus and Gazza.
Lovely puzzle as per. Most of my thoughts already mentioned above. Had temporarily forgotten IOW was a county & initially wrongly thought Bill hailed from Idaho but the penny dropped. The fodder at 1a took 2 stabs to assemble correctly & then required a check with Mr G & benny took some investigation having briefly wondered if it was a trade name for a kid’s iPad. Only a disappointing failure to peg Adam in the parsing of 7d took a wee bit of the shine off the satisfaction of completion. 28a was my clear fav with numerous ticks elsewhere.
I found that extremely difficult. Needed the hints to parse 14a, 20a, 28a, 7d and 22d. Never heard of’s 1a, 13a or known his birthplace if I had and 22d meaning that. 24a wouldn’t have been the first antioxidant to spring to mind. Having said all that I enjoyed the challenge. Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.
I found this beyond my solving capabilities and needed several of Gazza’s hints to get me over the line. Glad I persevered as I thought almost every clue was a gem when the parsing became clear. I would not have solved 13a in a month of Sundays as I’d no idea when Bill Bryson hailed from and 1a was an unknown term to me although i did twig the anagram fodder. Thanks Silvanus for the brain mangling. I’m in complete agreement with Gazza that 28a is the standout clue. I’m sure any compiler would have been proud of it!
Many thanks too to you Gazza for unraveling it all.
Sheer excellence!
Many thanks to Silvanus and Gazza – a wonderful Thursday double act.
Great puzzle, just solved a day late butpopped into the blog to make sense of 28a.
Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.
Also popped in re 28ac and 9d as I didn’t know the slang for mine. Thank you Gazza and Silvanus, a very satisfying solve and total groan for 15d