Toughie 3697

Toughie No 3697 by Dada
Hints and tips by Whybird

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BD Rating – Difficulty **   – Enjoyment ***

 

Well this is a genuine Toughie, no worries on that score.  I thought the difficulty level was perfectly pitched for a Tuesday.  There is plenty of Dada’s characteristic, quirky clueing and if his name hadn’t been plastered across the top of the page, I would have ventured a few small coins on the setter’s identity and been correct for once.  23a piqued my Inner Pedant, 5d gave it a hard poke, and I’ve abraded the top of my head a little trying to parse 25d. 12a made me smile, I liked 14d’s structure, as well as the solution being a great word, but the clear winner of my Gold Star today is the clever, smooth-surfaced 15d. Thanks to Dada for making the Tuesday morning tea work somewhat harder than of late.

Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle. 

Across Clues

1a Kick up a fuss with loud music beat and hot dancing (4,3,4)

ROCK THE BOAT A type of music often associated with a lot of volume followed by an anagram (dancing) of “beat” and “hot” 

10a Marks printed in file bookkeeper returned (5)

OBELI The solution is hidden (in) in reverse (returned) amongst ”file bookkeeper”.  The clue also works as just “Marks”

11a Flute for example sings almost all we played (9)

WINEGLASS An anagram (played) of “sings”, the first two letters of “all” (almost all) and “we”

12a False teeth in twice – for this birthday? (9)

NINETIETH An anagram (False) of “teeth” and  “in in” (in twice)

13a Tropical tree with a brick knocked over (5)

BALSA Reverse (knocked over) “a” from the clue and a synonym of “brick”

14a Temple facing the wrong way, plain vulgar (6)

TAWDRY Reverse (facing the wrong way) a Thai word meaning “Temple” and append a synonym of “plain” as an adjective 

16a Lothario so, an eccentric overcome by drink (8)

CASANOVA An anagram (eccentric) of “so an” is inserted into (overcome by) a Spanish sparkling wine

18a Whole clue initially lacking? Flipping great! (8)

INTEGRAL Start with a synonym of “clue”, remove the first letter (initially lacking) and then append a reversal (Flipping) of a synonym of “great” in the sense of size

20a Canard followed by ostentatiously good seafood dish (6)

SCAMPI A charade of a synonym of “Canard” (or fraud) followed by Crosswordland’s favourite term meaning “ostentatiously good” (better known as a Greek letter and geometric ratio)

23a Itinerant fed by king and a nineteenth-century monarchy (5)

BURMA Take a (principally American) synonym of “Itinerant” (or tramp), insert (fed by) a letter than can indicate “king” then append “a” from the clue to give a country whose monarchy ended in the 19th Century, so clearly was a monarchy for most of the 19th century, but which had also been a monarchy for many centuries before then

24a Old weapon, pest by unconscious design? (9)

DOODLEBUG A charade of a synonym of “unconscious design” (eg a drawing whilst distracted) and a three-letter synonym of “pest”

26a Action due, miscreant admonished (9)

CAUTIONED An anagram (miscreant) of “Action due”.  I’m not totally convinced by “miscreant” as an anagram indicator as it is neither a verb nor an adjective, but it is clear enough (although “admonished” is a more likely anagram indicator and had me barking up the wrong tree for a while

27a Gold bit in lecture (5)

ORATE A charade of the heraldic “Gold” and a synonym of “bit” in the sense of consumed food

28a Definitely how to get six runs? (2,1,4,4)

BY A LONG SHOT Almost a double definition. The answer here is also what you could be said to have employed to score six runs in a single cricket stroke.

Down Clues
2d Lyric work concerned with theatre (5)

ODEON A charade of a type of “lyric work” and a two-letter synonym of “concerned with”

3d Trinket thrown for craftsperson (7)

KNITTER An anagram (thrown) of “Trinket”

4d Werewolf’s gaffe? (6)

HOWLER A double definition, the first sense being a cryptic way to describe a werewolf based on sound

5d Idiot, manager of skeleton staff? (8)

BONEHEAD Another “almost double definition” the answer also being a cryptic description of someone in charge of a constituent of a skeleton.  To me, a skeleton comprises more than one of these constituents, but I think the question mark blurs the lines enough

6d Subject with a fractured leg and vital organ dropping in (7)

ALGEBRA Start with “a” from the clue, add an anagram (fractured) of “leg” then a major organ from which the letters “in” have been removed (dropping in)

7d Where Americans go with vessel on small river for author (4,9)

JOHN STEINBECK A charade of an American term for a toilet, a large drinking vessel and a synonym of a small river

8d Everyone parting leaves clearer space for dance (8)

BALLROOM Insert a synonym of “everyone” into a tool that may be used to tidy up leaves, amongst other things. There’s one under construction down Pennsylvania Avenue.

9d To a limited degree, where that train perhaps terminates? (2,3,2,2,4)

AS FAR AS IT GOES Another almost double definition, the solution also being a cryptic definition of the end of a train’s journey

15d Vehicle was crossing river in replacement of Tube (5,3)

WATER BUS Start by putting the letter indicating “river” into an anagram (replacement) of “Tube”.  This is then surrounded by “was” from the clue (was crossing). A wonderfully-well constructed clue

17d Kind of point in flier (8)

CARDINAL A double definition

19d Force acting upon Newton’s apple sauce, it being eaten (7)

GRAVITY Take a synonym of “sauce” and insert “it” from the clue (it being eaten)

21d Cold, hard skin pierced by nothing (7)

CALLOUS A term for “hard skin” has inserted (pierced by) the letter that resembles the numeric “nothing”

22d Gracious teacher in line (6)

CORDON A charade of an exclamation meaning “Gracious” and a synonym of “teacher” (or academic)

25d Shindig: stand for it not happening? (5)

BEANO I’ve struggled with parsing this, and the best I’ve come up with is that if you split the answer (2,1,2) it would represent (stand for) a possible partial negative reply to the question “Is this shindig happening?” as in “that would xx x xx”