Toughie No 3763 by Potoroo
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****/*****
A most welcome return by Potoroo – cunning misdirection, sophisticated wordplay and some smart surfaces. Oh, and a pangram to boot. All yours.
Across
1a Merge with traffic passing around one vehicle creating obstruction (10)
FILIBUSTER: “merge with (or into) traffic”, passing around/containing the usual “one” and “vehicle”.
6a Cry weakly ignoring a passing idea (4)
WHIM: cry weakly/mew, minus the three-letter “a”.
10a Setter’s reflecting on note about “parrot” (5)
MIMIC: how Potoroo might say “setter’s” (ignoring the fact that they’re actually a duo, of course!), reversed, plus (Sound of Music) “note” and the one-letter “about”.
11a Heat in Washington Square deli’s awful, needing day off (9)
EQUALISER: SQUARE+[D]ELI, awful. My mind initially jumped to Denzel which was oddly helpful. But both “heat” and the answer are US synonyms for a gun.
12a Tune is ruined by large instrument (7)
UTENSIL: TUNE+IS, ruined, plus abbreviated “large”.
13a Kid finishing early with hard work in cafe (3,4)
TEA SHOP: kid/rib, minus its last letter, plus abbreviated “hard” and the usual two-letter “work”.
14a Roughly boxing in clubs, fighter shows craft (5,7)
CABIN CRUISER: two-letter roughly/about, plus fighter/brawler boxing/containing IN + abbreviated “clubs”.
18a Monitor a thousand old government officials taking too much on, including newspaper (6,6)
KOMODO DRAGON: “a thousand” (e.g., money) + abbreviated “old” + government officials/department + “taking too much” (drugs, etc) + ON, including/containing “newspaper” (tabloid, say).
21a Footage of interviewer put on the wrong way cuts out (7)
NODDIES: put on/wear, reversed, plus “cuts out” (engine, phone, etc).
23a Evergreen song accompanying cheer at World Cup (7)
OLEARIA: (operatic) “song” accompanying/following “cheer at World Cup” (or bullfight, etc).
24a Mysterious secret objects and information primarily (9)
ESOTERICA: SECRET+O[bjects]+A[nd]+I[nformation], mysteriously.
25a Giving weapon to marine becoming cross leads to dismissal (5)
AXING: “giving weapon(s) to”, replacing its two-letter “marine” with the one-letter “cross”.
26a US idiot attempts to complete course over the phone (4)
PUTZ: homophone of (golfer’s) “attempts to complete course” (or hole).
27a Pastry paintings gallery sent back inside container (5,5)
TARTE TATIN: (generic) “paintings” + (London) “gallery”, reversed, all inside container/can.
Down
1d Wink hidden by German contractor almost noted (6)
FAMOUS: wink/very short time, hidden/contained by a German character who made a contract (with the devil), minus his last letter.
2d Soft shell from extinct mollusc (6)
LIMPET: soft/flaccid + E[xtrac]T.
3d Car and bike adverts edited, being full of unwanted advice (4-4,6)
BACK-SEAT DRIVER: CAR+BIKE+ADVERTS, edited.
4d Pressure auction houses with offer about new charm (9)
SPELLBIND: abbreviated “pressure” housed/contained by (to) “auction”, plus “offer”, about/containing abbreviated “new”.
5d Clear up last speck of dust in vent (5)
ERUPT: clear/unadulterated, up/reversed, plus [dus]T.
7d Hearts go faster wanting male repeatedly in secret (4-4)
HUSH-HUSH: abbreviated “hearts” + “go faster” (as in a canine command), minus abbreviated “male”, all (twice) repeated.
8d Additional meat for member of parliament? (8)
MOREPORK: additional/extra + (type of) “meat”.
9d Criminal Capone can let us behave better (5,2,4,3)
CLEAN UP ONE’S ACT: CAPONE+CAN+LET+US, criminal.
15d Children given a model insect with a changing lustre (9)
CHATOYANT: abbreviated “children” + A + “model” (car, say) + “insect”.
16d Warm jams leak out slowly on the surface (4-4)
SKIN-DEEP: warm/generous inside (jams) “leak out slowly”.
17d Adult film contains party gatecrashed by maiden right in the centre (8)
AMIDMOST: abbreviated “adult”, plus “film” containing the two-letter “party” that itself contains (is “gatecrashed by”) abbreviated “maiden”.
19d Drawer in cart is tiny (6)
ARTIST: lurker, hidden in the last three words.
20d Drink up glass of beer first giving unintelligible speech (6)
JARGON: (eggy) “drink”, up/reversed, following “glass of beer”.
22d Period set aside for mourning deity (5)
SHIVA: double definition.
We have five anagrams, one homophone, a double definition and an &lit, etc. I especially enjoyed 14a, 24a, 1d and 3d. How did you get on?
It has been quite a while since a setter borrowed Mr Manley’s Book of Obscure Words for Crossword Setters and our setters today certainly made full use of it. I am surprised neither they nor the editorial team at Telegraph Towers wondered about how many obscurities were too many, although all were fairly clued and I did know the NZ MP, probably because it has the sort of name you remember
I found the crossword a lot tougher than ALP obviously did and was pleased that it hadn’t turned up on a Wednesday. Thanks to him and Potoroo
Well this one did what it said on the tin. Proper toughie, wouldn’t have been out of place on a Friday.
Our setter must have been in a mean mood when he set this one, there were some weird and wonderful words I needed to look up.
That said, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The parliament member in 8d and the changing lustre in 15d were right out there. I was delighted when my answers were confirmed online, never heard of ’em, while my keen-gardening missus backed up my stab 23a.
21a, I’ve noticed interviewers on TV sycophantically assenting agreement, now I know there’s an actual term for it.
Some humorously misleading definitions too, the fighter in 14a, the monitor at 18a and the German contractor in 1d were superb.
One of the best puzzles in a long while, my thanks to Potoroo and ALP.
I do prefer Toughies where the trickiness comes from clever wordplay rather than obscure terms so I wasn’t greatly enamoured by this one (I only hope that tomorrow’s Toughie has fewer obscurities than this allowing my BRB more of a rest).
That said there are some nice touches here amongst the obscurities and I liked 14a, 21a and 7d with my favourite being 1d (German contractor – brilliant).
Thanks to Potoroo and ALP.
Wow – a real vocab expander with six new words going into the “Words I’ve Forgotten From Cryptics” file. Still, all good fun and I didn’t find this a slog. Yes, I’m another who didn’t know there was a word for the oft observed phenomenon at 21a. Other favourite clues were the comment on the climate in the US at 11a and the surface of 20d – no comment as to whether it has any personal relevance!
Thanks to Potoroo and ALP
I’m in the this was difficult camp…
I was so determined to complete this, which I did, that I didn’t really select a particular favourite. That said, as soon as I read 8d, I immediately thought of owls. The wordplay led me to the answer which I unconfidentally typed into Google. To my surprise it was indeed an owl and therefore wins my vote.
Thanks to Potoroo and ALP.
*unconfidently
13 correct (I’ve checked) answers in & bits of a few others & I’m throwing in the towel for now. May return to it later but with little expectation of unaided progress.
Clearly way above my lowly pay grade.
Thanks to Potoroo & to ALP whose help I will undoubtedly require.
Certainly a Thursday-level Toughie for me, and there have been occasional Friday Toughies softer than this. Very satisfying and good to get a properly challenging puzzle.
Some very tricky clueing for a few of the obscurities but I was pleased to put down the puzzle with only two answers unparsed and 3d has only now dawned, a half hour after reading ALP’s hint. Figuring 3/4 of the way through that we were on for a pangram did help, especially with 26a.
Broad smiles at the Monitor, Interviewer footage, and member of parliament – though I’m much more familiar with an alternative spelling, preceded by “Ankh-“. 15d and 23a both new to me but solvable from the wordplay, although the “world cup” cheer can be heard at almost any football match where a team is comfortably leading and enjoying easy possession.
Many thanks indeed to Potoroo, and also to ALP of course!