Toughie No 3628 by Karla
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Thanks to Karla for an entertaining and not too tricky puzzle.
I am hoping to see many of you at Bridge House tomorrow.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Shade southern bigwig wearing white (8,4)
SHOCKING PINK: start with the abbreviation for southern then insert a word for a bigwig or the most important person in an organisation into a white wine.
9a Boring grind to endlessly study utilitarianism? (9)
TREADMILL: ‘to’ without its last letter followed by a phrase (4,4) meaning to study (the works of) an English philosopher and advocate of utilitarianism.
10a Artist following game close to small country (5)
RURAL: our usual abbreviated artist follows our usual abbreviated sport. Finish with the closing letter of ‘small’.
11a Film Yugoslav at arcade screens (6)
AVATAR: hidden in the clue.
12a Unaware of man in Sicily hiding second colonist (8)
IGNORANT: the Italian title of a man without the abbreviation for second and a non-human colonist.
13a Break unwrapped supermarket mirror (6)
ESCAPE: our largest supermarket without its wrapping letters and a verb to mirror.
15a Top dog cut piece of rolled meat (8)
NOISETTE: a way of writing top (2,1) and a breed of dog without its last letter.
18a Hidden access point cross constituent recalled (8)
TRAPDOOR: stick together a word for a cross or crucifix and a synonym of constituent then reverse it all.
19a Places storing whiskey on area in any case (6)
ALWAYS: a verb meaning places or puts down containing the letter represented by whiskey in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet follows the abbreviation for area.
21a OAP’s shifting gold and half of loot in city (3,5)
SAO PAULO: an anagram (shifting) of OAPS precedes the chemical symbol for gold and half of the word loot.
23a Run through essential ingredients of his yummy pasty (6)
IMPALE: the essential letters of his yummy and an adjective meaning pasty or wan.
26a Broad and slow craft with learner at the bow? (5)
LARGO: the craft used in the quest for the golden fleece has the abbreviation for learner at its front.
27a Delight of two Americans covering Charlie in glue (9)
AMUSEMENT: two different abbreviations for American followed by a verb to glue with the letter represented by Charlie in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet removed/covered.
28a Certain data implicating officers near island sent west (12)
INDISPUTABLE: a word for data transferred to a computer contains the abbreviation for senior police officers. Finally reverse the name of an island off the coast of Italy.
Down Clues
1d In Germany, she tours flipping tense place (7)
SITUATE: a German feminine pronoun contains the reversal of an adjective meaning tense.
2d Rolling Stone inside of boat takes letter from Crete (5)
OMEGA: the inner letters of boat contain the reversal of a precious stone.
3d Fool had dropped off novel (9)
KIDNAPPED: stick together a verb to fool and a verb meaning dropped off or had forty winks.
4d Kind of film I won’t broadcast without adult (4)
NOIR: a response meaning “I won’t” and a verb to broadcast without the abbreviation for adult.
5d Tongue expert Olly got sacked after first of piercings (8)
POLYGLOT: an anagram (sacked, in the sense of ravaged) of OLLY GOT follows the first letter of piercings.
6d Sergeant perhaps seizing a Republican agent in NY (5)
NARCO: what an army sergeant is an example of contains A and the abbreviation for Republican.
7d Institute entertaining Mike with ace meal (5,3)
CREAM TEA: a verb to institute contains the letter represented by Mike in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet. Finish with the cards abbreviation for ace. Remember that the jam goes on top!
8d Cheery male bearing most of aerial attack (6)
BLITHE: a male pronoun is preceded by a word, from German, for an aerial attack without its final letter.
14d Makes a racket when preparing rum colas (8)
CLAMOURS: an anagram (preparing) of RUM COLAS.
16d Most glum single maiden introduces Den (9)
SOLEMNEST: an adjective meaning single and the cricket abbreviation for maiden precede a den or lair.
17d Carp about hotel hound eating starter of red cabbage (8)
KOHLRABI: a type of carp contains the letter that hotel represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet and an abbreviated breed of dog containing the starting letter of red.
18d PM having run off before the French fight (6)
TUSSLE: the name of a ‘here today and gone tomorrow’ PM loses the cricket abbreviation for run. Add a French definite article.
20d Royal staff Peter’s caught cavorting (7)
SCEPTRE: an anagram (cavorting) of PETER’S and C(aught).
22d Unclothed lads regularly poor on deck (5)
ADORN: the inner letters of lads and regular letters from ‘poor on’.
24d Bitter that retired hombre carefully bottles (5)
ACERB: hidden in reverse.
25d Professor on board cycling to see group (4)
LUMP: cycle the surname of the Cluedo professor. Group here is a verb (usually followed by ‘together’).
Top clues for me were 9a, 13a and 17d. Which ones did the job for you?
It is a rare Friday when a Toughie only takes what I consider to be a Friday backpager time but that’s what happened today. Very enjoyable while it lasted
Thanks to Karla and Gazza
Not a duff clue amongst them , but I did particularly like 9a as I was only reminded of Jeremy Bentham and the Mills family by an old episode of QI I watched yesterday. Thanks to Karla and Gazza. See you tomorrow!
I rarely tackle Friday Toughies which are usually out of my league, but I decided to give this one a go today as I always enjoy Karla’s puzzles. This proved to be a good decision as it was nicely challenging (apart from one impenetrable clue) and very enjoyable to boot.
17d flummoxed me completely. I asked my resident expert to identify a type of cabbage fitting the checking letters but she too couldn’t help. After I had used a crossword solving app using the checkers to find the answer, I still couldn’t parse it and Mrs RD still hadn’t heard of it.
9a was my favourite – brilliant!
Many thanks to Karla and to Gazza.
Mr CS grows 17d but, while it is a member of the cabbage family, it is most definitely not a cabbage
When Elgar is at home with his feet up every other Friday, I wonder who’s turn it is to fill his size tens. Karla has done a cracking job.
Many answers were pencilled in fairly quickly and gradually inked over when a revisit brought clarity and appreciation of the setter’s art, as well as a big grin.
I must have heard of the cabbage in 17d before, as once I’d fitted the hound in place, the carp presented itself and another smile followed.
I wasn’t familiar with 24d without an extra two letters on the end, though it was literally spelled out.
Plenty of ticks once again, with my COTD being 27a for the 27a factor.
My thanks to our brilliant setter and to Gazza for the blog and cartoons.
I enjoyed this although was braced for a stiffer challenge being a Friday. Some clever clues, 25d gets my vote. Thanks to Karla and Gazza.
A really enjoyable Friday Toughie for a change as I usually have to concede defeat, but I managed 80%+ unaided.
Having put the wrong answer in 12a, it stymied me in the middle east so resorted to Gazza’ for inspiration re the rolled meat at 15a.
This aided the solve of 7d, 8d & 16d which highlighted the earlier error. I also hadn’t come across 24d without two final letters which I believe is more of an Americanism.
Thank you Karla for the mental workout and Gazza for the pointer. Call me pleased as punch.
As always Karla produces another top-notch puzzle.
I printed this off early morning and spotted there were two pages before sending it to the printer; fortunately 25d was obvious (I took group to be a noun as opposed to a verb).
Top clue for me was 13a.
Many thanks to Karla and to Gazza.
Thoroughly enjoyable fun from start to finish. The problem with picking a favourite is finding one to leave out so we’ll stop looking.
Thanks Karla and Gazza.
Thanks to Gazza and to everyone who has commented.
17dn arrives in our fortnightly Riverford veg box from time to time. Very tasty. ‘A variety of cabbage…’ according to my Chambers.
Enjoy your bash tomorrow. I was at the Magpie annual do yesterday evening, good to catch up with Elgar and Prime there. But had to get back home today so maybe next year.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
Not an unaided finish as like RD ‘twas the cabbage wot dun me in. Annoyingly I’m sure I’ve eaten in tasty homemade coleslaw but couldn’t bring the name of it to mind. Couldn’t get there with the wordplay elements so cheated & looked up varieties – only with the answer in (as is the case with me for a good % of Toughie clues) did I make sense of the why. Other than a brief blip in initially not reading 25d correctly (& entering plum as lump cycled) it was a largely problem free, albeit somewhat pedestrian, grid fill.
As ever with a Karla puzzle hugely enjoyable with ticks aplenty & not a dud clue in there. Many thanks to him & to Gazza for the review, which I’ll read anon.
The sun was shining so I was grateful for a relatively kind toughie that was also good fun. Top clues for me were 9a [which held out to the end] 27a [which has a surface both amusing and a little worrying] and 25d [for the PDM].
Thanks to Karla and Gazza.