Toughie No 3503 by Beam
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***/****
Very gentle, very Beam: smart synonyms, tight constructions and, as ever, no anagrams. Always refreshing. Over to you.
Across
1a Low criminal well behind trailing detectives (12)
DISCONSOLATE: Criminal/lag + well behind (2,4), after/trailing the usual “detectives”.
9a Private cabin, say, with berth retracted (9)
STATEROOM: Say/aver + (to) moor/dock, reversed/retracted.
10a Nice word meaning love? (5)
AMOUR: Word in Nice, France, for love.
11a A foreign country rejected monarch (6)
REGINA: ‘A’ + (African) country, all reversed/rejected.
12a Bony gannet’s first going after fish (8)
GANGLING: G[annet] + going after fish, ie fishing.
13a Mark time getting to senility (6)
DOTAGE: Mark/speck + time/era.
15a Interior of planet here, almost unearthly (8)
ETHEREAL: Lurker, hidden in the third, fourth and fifth words.
18a Break china overturned after cold rhubarb (8)
CLAPTRAP: Break/split + china/mate, all reversed/overturned, after the usual “cold”.
19a Moderate sermon for the audience (6)
LESSEN: Homophone (for the audience) of sermon/lecture.
21a A strike rising over slaughterhouse (8)
ABATTOIR: ‘A’ + (to) strike + rising/rebellion, reversed/over.
23a Stalin occasionally taking distant trip (6)
SAFARI: S[t]A[l]I taking/containing distant/remote.
26a Country in bother following tariffs, finally (5)
SPAIN: Bother/nuisance following [tariff]S.
27a Breathless prisoner conceals naked panic (9)
INANIMATE: Prisoner/convict contains/conceals [p]ANI[c].
28a Sublime time sprinted close in track (12)
TRANSCENDENT: Usual “time” + sprinted/raced + close/finish in(side) track/spoor.
Down
1d Title keeps gentleman proper (7)
DESIRED: Title (to a house, etc) keeps/contains gentleman/knight.
2d Jargon in second speech half cut (5)
SLANG: The usual “second” + the first four letters (half cut) of speech/tongue.
3d Public outside nearly until morning? (9)
OVERNIGHT: Public/open outside/containing nearly/almost.
4d Pickle lid’s raised (4)
SPOT: Lid’s/covers, raised/reversed.
5d Berate latest sweetheart engaging a doctor (8)
LAMBASTE: Latest/ultimate + this setter’s usual “sweetheart”, engaging/containing ‘A’ + “doctor”.
6d Primarily tone with awfully nasal grating? (5)
TWANG: Acrostic.
7d Purity of alcohol, in essence (8)
HOLINESS: Lurker, hidden in the last three words.
8d Oddly for bung, sadly stingy (6)
FRUGAL: Odd letters, from ‘F’ onwards.
14d Possibly rip off hoodie? (8)
TEARAWAY: Rip off (4,4) = Cameron’s (huggable) hoodie.
16d Height of euphoria purchasing Tesla? (9)
ELEVATION: Euphoria/delight purchasing/containing what a Tesla is an example of. The question mark is both cryptically necessary and, given Tesla’s fortunes, arguably factual!
17d Artist capturing a hot Polynesian (8)
TAHITIAN: (Renaissance) artist capturing/containing ‘A’ + the usual “hot”.
18d Offensive passage in speech (6)
COARSE: Homophone (in speech) of passage/channel.
20d Least artful new undergarment covers top (7)
NAIVEST: The usual “new” + “undergarment” covers/contains top/best.
22d Singer could produce note heard (5)
TENOR: Homophone (heard) of (bank) note.
24d Stone top of atrium entrance (5)
AGATE: A[trium] + entrance (or exit, etc).
25d Mineral stock regularly contains aluminium (4)
TALC: [s]T[o]C[k] contains “aluminium” (2).
Three homophones, two lurkers and a trademark acrostic made this pretty swift work. I especially enjoyed 1a’s “well behind”, 12a’s “going after fish”, 28a’s “close in track”, 1d’s “desired” and 16d’s “Tesla”. But, on balance, I’ll go for 3d’s credible surface. What did you make of it?
Like today’s backpager, nothing to get 1a about for a Thursday.
My COTD was the smoothly worded 16d.
The subtle French reference in 10a, 21a’s slaughterhouse and the hyperventilating convict in 27a were also among my favourites.
Thanks to ALP and Beam, there was plenty to smile about here.
Super puzzle all went in smoothly but I got 12a wrong, and at 20d I mistook the undergarment for the top and therefore couldn’t make sense of AI — what a fool 🤦🏻♀️. Thank you Messrs T and P.
The only one I needed to check for spelling was 5d, as I’ve never seen it with an E at the end.
I’m embarrassed to say my last in was 19a; I spent ages looking for a synonym and homophone of “sermon”…. in hindsight they don’t come much easier than that!
Many thanks to Beam and to ALP.
A straightforward Thursday puzzle but nevertheless most enjoyable. This setter’s so concise he’s a joy to solve. So many clues were so good that I couldn’t find a podium big enough to accommodate them.
Thank you as ever to ALP for the blog and to Beam for the pleasure.
Very gentle (would not have been out of place on the back page early/mid week) and a lot of fun, with Beam/RayT’s trademark concise and pin-sharp clueing, all scrupulously fair. Honours I think to 6d, 14d & 27a.
Many thanks indeed to Beam and ALP
Wonderfully concise clueing as ever, not a word wasted and a joy to solve. Almost impossible to assign podium spots but eventually the awards went to 9&12a plus 3d.
Devotions as ever to Mr T/Beam and thanks to ALP for the review.
I didn’t find this too tricky but it was as fun to solve as always with accurate, concise wordplay to the fore. 27a was my favourite.
My thanks as always to Mr T and ALP.
At last one I could do and what a joy it was to solve. Top draw cluing and no obscurities. Superb. Lots of candidates for favourite but I’ll go with 12a. Thanks to Beam and ALP.
Evening all. My thanks to ALP for the review and to all for your observations.
RayT
Huge thanks for popping in – yet another corker.
Good evening, Mr T, thank you so much for popping in and for another top class puzzle, very much appreciated.
Well that was a treat! Too many good clues to pick a favourite Thanks to Beam and ALP.
Very late posting today, so I’ll just say “ditto” to Moonraker’s comment @11.
I’ll ditto RD’s ditto.