Toughie No 3556 by Karla
Hints and tips by Gazza
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
This is pretty gentle for a Friday Toughie but very enjoyable. Many thanks to Karla.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Crustacean expert reflected on day with school (7)
DECAPOD: reverse a synonym of expert after the abbreviation for day and append a fishy school.
5a Son follows old lady cycling to get flask (7)
THERMOS: the abbreviation for son follows one’s old lady with the letters cycled.
9a Person near Senegal mostly recycled metal (9)
MANGANESE: a male person and an anagram (recycled) of SENEGA[L].
10a Couple patrolling centre of Pinner search me (5)
DUNNO: a synonym of couple contains the central letters of Pinner.
11a Pole loads food you might get from a bar (7)
NOODLES: the abbreviation for a geographical pole and an informal word meaning loads or masses.
12a Adult touchy about contents of gold spray can? (7)
AEROSOL: assemble the abbreviation for the film classification Adult, the reversal of an informal adjective meaning touchy or irascible and the inner letters of gold.
13a Flattening of school on South Island boy catches (11)
COMPRESSION: string together the abbreviation for a type of secondary school, a prefix meaning on or concerning, the abbreviation for south and an abbreviation for island contained in a boy.
16a Fine wiping out husband’s money (3)
TIN: remove the genealogical abbreviation for husband from an adjective meaning fine or narrow.
18a Bill and his TV partner returned (3)
NEB: reverse Bill’s partner in the old children’s TV show to get a dialect word for a bill or beak.
20a Relative became stuck with a silly pet hen (5-6)
GREAT-NEPHEW: a verb meaning became with A and an anagram (silly) of PET HEN stuck inside it.
22a Soup child’s left outside of awful ex-reform facility (7)
BORSTAL: remove the abbreviation for child from a type of soup (which appeared in the back-pager on Wednesday) and add the external letters of awful.
23a It’s played across Toscana stadium (7)
CANASTA: hidden.
25a Arab very shortly heading to port (5)
OMANI: reverse (to port) a phrase meaning very shortly (2,1,2).
26a Start agitating toerag in Italy (9)
ORIGINATE: an anagram (agitating) of TOERAG IN and the IVR code for Italy.
27a Fellow covering for leader in Royal County (7)
DONEGAL: an academic fellow replaces the leading letter in a synonym of royal.
28a Official tense when king advances (7)
PREFECT: start with a grammatical tense and advance the abbreviation for king towards the front.
Down Clues
1d Brother in car after party half-drunk (9)
DOMINICAN: a make of car follows a festive party. Finish with half of an informal word meaning drunk.
2d Clubs performing well toe the line (7)
CONFORM: the cards abbreviation for clubs and a phrase (2,4) meaning ‘performing well’.
3d Gem lettuce originally topped with fruit (5)
PEARL: the first letter of lettuce preceded by a type of fruit.
4d Medic held up sister regularly in shift? (5)
DRESS: the abbreviation for a medic and the reversal of regular letters from sister.
5d Practitioner‘s charge collected by the first (9)
THERAPIST: a slang word for a criminal charge is contained between THE and a shorthand way of writing ‘first’.
6d Beetle finally moving under can for survival (9)
ENDURANCE: the final letter of beetle and an anagram (moving) of UNDER CAN.
7d Police force adopting popular sergeant’s attitudes (7)
MINDSET: the informal term for London’s police force contains an adjective meaning popular and an abbreviation for sergeant.
8d Look of gloom from second hood (5)
SCOWL: the abbreviation for second and a hood often worn by a monk.
14d Correct rug inscribed with name in blue (5-4)
RIGHT-WING: a verb to correct and what rug is an informal word for containing the abbreviation for name.
15d Nick reportedly over in base upset abrasive cleaner (5,4)
STEEL WOOL: a homophone of a verb to nick followed by the abbreviation for a cricket over inside the reversal of an adjective meaning base.
17d Fresh herb selection bought at last shop (9)
NEWSAGENT: glue together an adjective meaning fresh, a culinary herb and the final letters of two words in the clue.
19d Steal profit put beneath counter (7)
BARGAIN: a synonym of profit follows a counter.
21d One who’s taken stockings with label inside (7)
HOSTAGE: a term for stockings contains a synonym of label.
22d Fuse outside left one with a fair shock? (5)
BLOND: a verb to fuse or weld containing the abbreviation for left.
23d Primate‘s Greek cross maybe raised after noon (5)
CHIMP: the cross-looking Greek letter and the reversal of the abbreviation meaning ‘after noon’.
24d Green area of church the setter occupies (5)
NAIVE: an area inside a church contains the subjective pronoun used by our setter.
Top clues for me were 18a, 25a, 19d and 22d. Which ones cut the mustard for you?
Very gentle, but more importantly, very enjoyable. My last in was 13a.
Many thanks to Karla and to Gazza.
25a gets my vote (heading to port).
Good fun, and doable (just! in my case). Thank you to Kala, and to those commenting on the backpage review who inspired me to try this crossword.
The 1a fellow was my favourite of the clues I parsed by myself; 25a became my actual favourite once Gazza had explained it — thank you. 18a is a new word to me, but this clue may provide a handy way of remembering it.
Very light, and very nicely done. I really liked 25a’s “heading to port” and 27a. I don’t quite get 23a’s “across” as an indicator here, though it was perfectly clear. And 1d’s “drunk” foxed me for a second as, personally, I’d use the word with just the one ‘N’. But … it is, of course, in Chambers. Best thanks to Karla and Gazza. May your cartoons never run dry!
23a – the answer straddles (ie. is across) the two final words.
Yes, but the answer doesn’t straddle the last two words, it’s straddled by them!
Good afternoon. I think the setters have gone easy on us all today, perhaps it being the last Friday of the month? Plenty to smile about but 11a and 14d share top spot for me. Thank you for the review and thanks to the setter.
This was very light for a Friday Toughie, but who cares when it’s this much fun?
Although I got the answer to 25a almost immediately from the definition, it took quite a while for the parsing penny to drop, leading to its immediate elevation to favourite!
Many thanks to Karla and to Gazza.
I was expecting a Toughie from this setter, especially on a Friday but … it was very enjoyable for the surprisingly short time it lasted
Thanks to Karla and Gazza
Bit too easy really as I was hoping it would occupy me for a train ride. Thanks to Karla and Gazza.
My thanks to Huntsman, together with ALP and Gazza, who encouraged me to try this Toughie. Very enjoyable so thanks to Karla. I will take issue with ALP however, I did not find it easier than the backpager. Thanks again to Gazza for the hints which I needed to understand some of the parsing.
Sorry for misleading you, Humph. Huntsman said summat similar, to be fair! But yes, it’s all v subjective, of course.
Very enjoyable, if excessively light for a Friday. I wonder if The Times will be an Elgar snorter or if it too will be on the gentle side? I shall find out this evening.
Many thanks to Karla and of course to Gazza, too – great cartoons!
Lovely to have an FTT (Friday Toughie treat) accessible not just for those in the A team of solvers. If anything it was maybe a tad gentle but extremely enjoyable for the short time it lasted, which was about half the time that the other puzzle took. From a strong bunch 25a would be my pick.
Thanks to Karla & Gazza
Very enjoyable and, for me etc, easier than today’s back pager. Excellent clues throughout with a couple of chestnuts – 11a for example – and smiles aplenty. I had not heard of 18a but given the clue it could be nothing else. I used to play a lot of 23a when at uni but can’t remember how to now. My COTT is the son following his old lady at 5a.
Thank you, Karla for a great puzzle. It is the first Friday Toughie I have solved. Thank you, Gazza for the hints and toons.
Evening all. Thanks to Gazza for the excellent blog and to all who have commented. I shall stiffen things up for my next offering.
(There are a couple of Karla Ninas in there, thematically positioned)
Back pager duty next week, see you all then I hope. Happy weekend to you all.
Damn – I forgot to look. I’ve seen them now, lurking in the corners.
Many thanks Karla and Gazza – a very enjoyable puzzle done whilst watching the Ryder Cup. I needed Gazza’s help to parse 25a and learnt a new word in Bill’s backward potmate – but on checking there it was.
Please can I have a bit more help in seeing the nina?
Look at the SW and NE corners.
Doh. I see it now – how did I not see that before?
Thanks Gazza
Such a pleasure to get a solver friendly Friday Toughie. Thoroughly enjoyed this one with favourite being 25a.
Thanks Karla and Gazza.