Toughie No 3719 by Django
Hints and tips by ALP
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Toughie difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
Pleasingly gentle from Django today. The only vaguely time-consuming element was checking the anagram fodder but – like a saint! – I’ve done it so you don’t have to. There’s some Beam-ish mention of boobs and blue tablets that makes the presumably accidental four-letter central Nina seem rather appropriate. There’s also the Miss Piggy reference that, for some reason, always makes me smile. ‘Tis all very jolly. The floor, as ever, is yours.
Across
1a Man maybe taken in by crazy fool (7)
MISLEAD: the usual “Man maybe” taken in by/inside crazy/insane.
5a Accept honour after cycling competition (7)
EMBRACE: honour/gong, after cycling (last to first, here) + “competition” (of speed).
9a Thinking about a shanty for one without home (9)
REASONING: two-letter “about” + ‘A’, plus “shanty” (by example) without/containing the usual two-letter “home”.
10a Dictator’s radical course (5)
ROUTE: homophone (“dictator’s”) of “radical”. I had always assumed this was a mathematical synonym but Chambers says not.
11a Noble sort of festivity enjoyed (7)
GALAHAD: festivity/fête + enjoyed/possessed.
12a Sussex town besieged, we hear – it may be read as a warning (4,3)
RIOT ACT: homophone (“we hear”) of (East) “Sussex town” (3) + besieged/assaulted.
13a In America, game wife dancing in ballgown holds in … (4,7)
LAWN BOWLING: abbreviated “wife” held in/contained by IN+BALLGOWN, dancing. I’d never really thought about this as an Americanism – in fact, I’ve never really thought about it all. But it clearly is. Even Chambers snubs it!
16a … boob, somewhat overreacting (3)
ERR: lurker, hidden in the last word.
18a Second, very big distress signal (1,1,1)
S.O.S: abbreviations of “second” + “very big” (clothing).
20a Correct sir, he, Donald Trump is president here (5,6)
RHODE ISLAND: SIR+HE+DONALD, corrected.
22a Hot food rejected by order – on your head be it! (7)
HOMBURG: abbreviated “hot”, plus food/scoff, by/after order/gong, as per Sir David Attenborough – though that probably doesn’t help much as he has, rightly, picked up every award going!
23a Spinning top with novel problem (7)
DILEMMA: “top” (jar, etc), spinning/reversed, plus (Austen) “novel”.
25a Broken Ford next to drive (5)
KAPUT: (old model of) “Ford” + “drive” (as in drive a stake through Dracula’s heart, etc).
26a Return trigger after bullet (5,4)
ROUND TRIP: trigger/cause (a wired explosion, say) after five-letter “bullet”.
27a See terms of the government’s green papers in recess (7)
DIOCESE: terms/last letters of “[th]E [government’]S” + the usual “green” prefix + two-letter “papers”, all reversed/in recess.
28a Top one percent finally (7)
SINGLET: “one” + [percen]T.
Down
1d Writing about a boring plant with familiar blooms (9)
MARIGOLDS: two-letter (piece of) “writing” about/containing ‘A’ + “boring plant” (as in machinery that bores) + familiar/accustomed.
2d Perhaps Miss Piggy assumes auditorium is empty (7)
SHALLOW: “perhaps Miss Piggy”/female pig, assuming/containing “auditorium”.
3d Age of ambassador holding policewoman back (5)
EPOCH: two-letter “ambassador” holding/containing policewoman/officer, all back/reversed.
4d Dehydrated? Doctor has seconds to give her advice (5)
DRIED: usual “doctor” + the second letters of the last three words.
5d/6d New girder a civil engineer used for support tunnels, reported writer (5,4,9)
EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS: GIRDER+A, new, plus abbreviated “civil engineer”, plus homophone (reported) of “tunnels”. I took “used for support” as a placement link (in a down clue) but I suppose it could just about be seen as part of an extended definition for the “civil engineer” as they do indeed design supporting structures. Seems unlikely though. With sincere apologies …
6d See 5d
7d Celebrate Viagra’s latest cracking blue tablet (7)
ADULATE: [Viagr]A cracking/inside blue/not for children, plus the usual drug/tablet.
8d Put up before court (5)
ERECT: (poetic) “before” + abbreviated “court”. Commendably restrained of Django not to link this with 7d!
14d/15d Ordered pawnbroker to get her ring out – ultimately you should be 16 (4,2,3,5,4)
BARK UP THE WRONG TREE: PAWNBROKER+TO+GET+HER+[YO]U, ordered, minus one ‘O’ (“ring out”) = a synonym of 16a.
15d See 14d
17d North Yorkshire town, favourite place to see stars (3,6)
RED CARPET: six-letter Yorkshire town + (teacher’s?) “favourite”.
19d Promise that’s been broken, like many in the lower leagues (4-3)
SEMI-PRO: PROMISE, broken.
21d For example Nelson Mandela regularly turned on awful liar (7)
ADMIRAL: M[an]D[el]A (regularly), turned/reversed + LIAR, awful.
22d After greeting King, journalist rambled (5)
HIKED: greeting/hello + abbreviated “king” + (senior) journalist.
23d Dopes in essentially dodgy toupees (5)
DRUGS: [do]D[gy] + “toupees”. Not wigs or syrups – the other ones!
24d Case to explain after youth is charged (5)
LADEN: E[xplai]N after youth/youngster. I have to say I did rather enjoy Paul Dacre describe a 41-year-old bloke as a “young man” this week – I feel positively skittish!
We’ve got five anagrams, two homophones and a lurker, etc. I rather liked the 13a/16a couplet and – because I’m 103 going on 12 – 7d tickled me. But 1d’s “boring plant” takes it for me. How did you get on?
This was just about manageable for me, but the NW held me up for quite a while. The “American” game at 13a had me going round in circles primarily to find the type, but once twigged the blooms 1d became apparent as did the 11a noble.
14 /15d was inspired and 20a a clever use of the anagram, but my favourite was the writer at 5/6d.
My thanks to Django for the entertainment and ALP for the enlightenment.
3*/4*
What a super puzzle, thoroughly enjoyable, another one from our setter’s top drawer.
Once more, it is hard to highlight just a few clues but thinking in 9a, the titfer at 22a and the see at 27a were so cleverly put together.
My thanks to Django and ALP.
You cannot be Serious! I’m with Croye Dave in finding this at least 3* and probably 4. A mixed bag with the superfluous words in 5/6d and 1d rather detracting from the excellence of the rest of it. 20a was cleverly done as was 19d and the 14/15 [and 16a] combo was an absolute cracker. I too wondered about the [intentional?] juxtaposition of 7 and 8d.
Thanks to Django and ALP.
It took me some time to get through this (I blame the soporific effect of the heat) and I thought Django had upped his difficulty somewhat. The enjoyment level remained consistently high – thanks to Django and ALP.
For my podium I’ve selected 22a, 27a and 2d.
I found this a proper Thursday Toughie – definitely 4* difficulty – the NE corner seemed to take longer than the rest, mainly I suppose because of working out the anagram and the ‘reported’ tunnels
As Gazza says, the usual consistently high enjoyment level. Thanks to Django and ALP
Enjoyable, came together nicely although investigoogling required to check the author.
Shout out for Miss Piggy in 2d and the blue tablet in 7d plus the homophone in 12a.
Thanks to Django and ALP.
I’m pleased I’m not the only one who found this at the extreme end of the difficulty rating, in short a bit of a snorter. Last in was the NW but the writer came to me in a flash of inspiration enabling me to complete it and finally stumble over the line. Favourite was 22a. I think i need to lie down in a darkened room. Thanks to Django for the brain mangling and ALP.