Toughie 3754

Toughie No 3754 by Prime

Hints and Tips by crypticsue

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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***

A crossword that took me exactly the same time to solve as today’s 3* backpager; what turned it into a Toughie was the time I spent trying to completely parse 32a.

I will be interested to see whether other solvers are tempted to use that phrase regarding the ease of solving the clues, the use of which is not encouraged here on Big Dave’s Blog

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought

Across

1a           Make black dynasty appealing (8)
CHARMING Reduce to carbon (make black) and a Chinese dynasty

5a           Rich vein covering a day (6)
LOADED A vein containing metallic ore ‘covering’ A (from the clue); the result followed by the abbreviation for Day

10a         Australian bouncer grabbing setter’s lover (5)
ROMEO An informal name for an Australian bouncing marsupial ‘grabbing’ how our setter might refer to himself

11a         Force member‘s awkward clam open when touring island (9)
POLICEMAN An anagram (awkward) of CLAM OPEN ‘touring’ the abbreviation for Island

12a         Window that is left on order after vacation (5)
ORIEL The abbreviation meaning that is and the abbreviation for Left go on or after the outside (after vacation) letters of OrdeR

13a         Albanian money includes English national emblem (4)
LEEK The abbreviation for English inserted into the currency of Albania

14a         University service ignoring defect in drug addict (4)
USER The abbreviation for University and the second word of the clue ‘ignoring’ the defect or fault

16a         Late bloomer caught fruit bobbing across lake (4,8)
UGLY DUCKLING A homophone of a type of citrus fruit and bobbing the head suddenly into which is inserted (across) the abbreviation for Lake

21a         Miserable work on the house, eating what toast? (4,3,5)
DOWN THE HATCH Miserable and work on the roof of a particular type of house “eating” an interjection expressing inquiry or slight surprise (what)

24a         About to abandon dog in square (4)
NINE The Latin abbreviation meaning about ‘abandons’ a dog

25a         Unintroduced woman who raised Cain? (4)
ADAM A courteous form of address to a woman without its first letter (unintroduced)

27a         Damage earth around edge of park (5)
SPOIL Earth or dirt goes around the first letter (edge) of Park

29a         Hard veterans show affection (4,5)
HOLD HANDS The abbreviation for Hard and some experienced performers (veterans)

30a         Maybe how to form a comparative adjective for snake (5)
ADDER To form a comparative adjective you xxx xx

31a         Stretch limo initially bends round (6)
SPRAWL A reversal (round) of the initial letter of Limo and bends or twists

32a         Strangely secret, with each bit hidden? (8)
ESOTERIC  I could see that this was an anagram (strangely) of SECRET but where do the O and I come from. Thank goodness for Gazza who informs me that they are bits or binary digits

Down

1d           Brought up lingerie edged with fleece, a help when dating? (6)
CARBON A reversed (brought up) piece of lingerie inserted into (edged with) a slang word meaning to swindle (fleece)

2d           Provide weapons for Gulf, where things might be hairy? (6)
ARMPIT Provide weapons for and a hole in the earth (gulf)

3d           How one works on fair to get extra income (9)
MOONLIGHT An abbreviated way of working, ON (from the clue) and a synonym for light

4d           State board promoting north-east (5)
NEPAL ‘Promote’ the abbreviation for North East in a thin flat piece of board

6d           Killer vehicle almost missing MOT (4)
ORCA Almost all of a type of vehicle without (missing) MOT

7d           Private feature of St Paul’s brief criticism (8)
DOMESTIC A feature of St Paul’s Cathedral and almost all of some informal criticism

8d           Put on The Godfather? (3)
DON Double definition

9d           Any real musical periodically dropped in song of praise (8)
ALLELUIA Any whatever followed by the even (periodically dropped) letters of rEaL mUsIcAl

15d         Boil second half of drink (4)
RAGE The second half of any liquid for drinking

17d         Unknown author not at first compliant (8)
YIELDING A mathematical unknown and the surname of an English novelist without the first letter

18d         Begin kid’s first tracksuit, wrongly having lost uniform (4-5)
KICK-START The first letter of Kid and an anagram (wrongly) of TRACKSuIT without (having lost) the letter represented by Uniform in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet

19d         Revered figure‘s form of cricket before noon (4)
ODIN A Scandinavian god (revered figure) – an abbreviated form of a type of cricket match goes before the abbreviation for Noon

20d         Tunbridge Wells weirdly not having gel, but somehow he profits dishonestly (8)
SWINDLER An anagram (weirdly) of tuNbRIDge WELlS without (not having) GEL BUT (somehow telling you that they aren’t found in that order)

22d         Pupil picked up skirt (6)
BORDER A homophone (picked up) of a school pupil who stays at school during term time

23d         Medical centre welcomes queen, not popular minister (6)
CLERIC The regnal cipher of our late Queen is welcomed into a medical centre as a replacement for the usual two-letter popular

26d         Prophet Hosea extremely bereft in written document (5)
MOSES hOSEa without the outside letters (extremely bereft) inserted into an abbreviated written document

28d         Grind cold cut (4)
CHEW The abbreviation for Cold and a verb meaning to cut with blows

29d         Carrion eaters no longer having desire for bears (3)
HAS Some carrion-feeding carnivores without (no longer having) an intense desire