Toughie No 3777 by Dada
Hints and tips by Whybird
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
Welcome to a grey and damp Wirral. Dead calm, but that just means the drizzle isn’t going anywhere fast.
We have a proper Toughie from Dada today, pitched perfectly at Tuesday level; nothing outrageously hard, but plenty to think about and some parsings that weren’t immediately obvious. 12a and 18a occupy my minor medal places today, but I’m giving the Gold Award to 1a. Thank you, Dada, for an enjoyable start to the Toughie Week.
I am taking a(nother) short sabbatical after today, having been summoned for Jury Service. ALP has kindly volunteered to fill in next week, and Gazza for the week after, assuming I’m not discharged sooner than expected, so thanks to them both.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Romantic drama in Iberian igloo, perhaps? (10)
CASABLANCA This “Romantic Drama” (a very famous film) could be how the Spanish (Iberian) could describe an igloo on the basis of the colour of its construction material
6a Spirit shown in walk after dropping back (4)
MARC Remove the final letter (dropping back) from a synonym of “walk” with military connotations
9a Thick one, seed I have in pocket (10)
DIMINUTIVE A charade of a three-letter synonym of “thick”, the Roman numeral “one”, a three-letter “seed” and a (1’2) truncation of “I have”
10a Pop into cafeteria located to the west (4)
COLA The solution is lurking, in reverse, (“to the west” in an Across clue) amongst “cafeteria located”
12a Obsession, dream of underground engineer? (6,6)
TUNNEL VISION This “Obsession” is also a description of something that an “underground engineer” might be described as having if they were to dream about a conduit they were working on
15a Inaccuracies, bad lot through the years? (6)
ERRATA A three-letter synonym for (someone who is) a “bad lot” is inserted (through) a synonym of “years” (ie an extended period of time)
16a Profligate fellow participating in crime (8)
HEDONIST A synonym of “fellow” in the academic sense is inserted into a (theft-related) crime
18a A little worried, head of Mafia read about details on file? (8)
METADATA A reversal (read about) of all of “a” from the clue, a three-letter synonym of little”, a three letter synonym of “worried” and the initial letter (head) of “Mafia”
19a Brat feeling hurt (6)
IMPAIR A charade of synonyms of “brat” and “feeling” (or atmosphere)
21a Smooth run, the whole truth about that? (12)
FRICTIONLESS The letter meaning “run” is surrounded by (about that) a word meaning “the whole truth” (ie lacking anything made up)
24a Stock stuffed into box enthusiastically (4)
OXEN The solution is lurking (stuffed into) amongst the letters of “box enthusiastically”
25a One tucked in, check labels heading for Europe from Asia (10)
VIETNAMESE Take a three-letter synonym of “check” (or inspect), insert (tucked in) the Roman numeral “One” then append a synonym of “labels” followed by the first letter of (heading for) “Europe”
26a Last part written of assignment, request something to do (4)
TASK The final letter (Last part written) of “assignment” is followed by a synonym of “request”
27a Final call in the arena, moments away (7,3)
SECONDS OUT An announcement made before the action starts in a (boxing) arena is made up of small units of time (moments) and a synonym of “away”
Down Clues
1d Not authentic, a passage at the end (4)
CODA A three-letter synonym of “Not authentic” followed by “a” from the clue
2d Quoted amount, two or three? (4)
SOME I think this is meant to be a homophone (Quoted) of a synonym of “amount” (or total) which is also a way of saying “a small quantity” (ie “two or three” with the questionmark. But as the solution itself is also a synonym of (an) “amount” it doesn’t quite hang together for me and as a “double definition” the “Quoted” appears redundant.
3d Cage hitherto with it (4,2,2,4)
BANG UP TO DATE A charade of a (4,2) synonym of “Cage” (or imprison) and a (2,4) synonym of “hitherto”. It’s quite easy to put in a plausible but not quite so precise alternative first word if you don’t have the checking letters from 1a and 9a with the synonym for “hitherto” being (2,2,4). I did!
4d Caretaker in play (6)
ACTING A double definition, the initial sense being that of “interim”
5d Wanton has wine on lounger? (8)
CAVALIER A charade of a Spanish sparkling wine followed by (“on” in a Down clue) and a synonym of “lounger” based on the typical position adopted when using one
7d A survey about it, with vicar defrocked, neutral (10)
APOLITICAL Take “A” from the clue and add a type of “survey” – often associated with elections – into which is inserted (about) “it” from the clue and the internal three letters of “vicar” (defrocked)
8d Change in cash and rent for retailer (5,5)
CHAIN STORE An anagram (Change) of “in cash” is followed by a synonym of “rent”
11d Accomplished hosts on demand filling glass container – a taste of Burgundy? (5,7)
DIJON MUSTARD A Russian Doll clue. Start with a three-letter synonym of “Accomplished”, then insert (hosts) a three-letter glass container which itself contains (filling) “on” from the clue and a synonym of “demand”
13d Ground always icy, farmer slipping into opening (10)
PERMAFROST An anagram (slipping) of “farmer” is inserted into a synonym of “opening” (in the sense of position)
14d Looks bad in street, rider skirting around it (10)
PRETTINESS An anagram of “in street” is inserted into (skirting around it) a two letter abbreviation for a “rider” (or footnote)
17d I meant to wound, not once (2,2,4)
AT NO TIME An anagram (wound) of “I meant to”
20d Pickled beetroot initially served with game, for the better? (6)
BLOTTO The first letter (initially) of “beetroot” is followed by a type of gambling (for the better) game
22d Lead: source of metal hard to turn up (4)
HERO A reversal (“to turn up” in a Down clue) of a mineral from which metal can be obtained and the abbreviation for “hard”
23d One side split (4)
LEFT A double definition, the second sense being that of “departure”
Dada seems to have been unshackled and has given us a proper Toughie – thanks to him and Whybird.
I liked 27a, 3d, 5d, 20d and my favourite 1a (I was half expecting a picture of Mary Whitehouse in the blog).
A scary thought! Although I’d probably have plumped for The Goodies’ “Gender Education” character of Mrs Desiree Carthorse…
Well thank goodness it was raining, otherwise I’d be out playing golf and probably wouldn’t have had sufficient time to complete this brain mangler later on. The SE came fairly quickly, but I spent ages to get a foothold in the W until 13d hit me, after which it was a mixture of using the BRB search function and reverse parsing coupled with PDMs.
I’m another who has 1a as favourite followed by 16a & 21a.
Many thanks to Dada and Whybird
Very tough for both a Tuesday and a Dada. Like everyone else, my favourite clue was 1a
Many thanks to Dada for the brain mangling and Whybird for the blog
A slow start with slim pickings on my first run through the clues. As ever the pace picked up as checkers came to my rescue. My favourite was 20d but an honourable mention also to 1a.
Thanks to Dada & Whybird.
Well I’m glad it’s not just me who found this difficult, I wasn’t expecting this level of complexity on a Tuesday.
11d in particular had me staring at it for ages before I eventually worked out the parsing.
The Iberian igloo at 1a, 16a’s profligate fellow and the amusing terms to describe ‘with it’ at 3d and pickled at 20d were my favourites.
My thanks to Dada and Whybird.
Best of luck with the Jury Service. It can be extremely interesting if you get a good case or incredibly boring hanging around if you don’t. I’ve done it five times so far, including a murder case in Court One at The Old Bailey and an attempted murder at Belmarsh!
I thought it might just be me, out of practice or woefully dim, but I found this a bit of a stinker so I’m relieved that others did too. The top bit yielded grudgingly but the bottom half was worse, not helped by my deciding on “part” for 24d, making 25a impossible.
Thanks to Dada [don’t do it again] and to Whybird for the blog.
Phew, that was tough and pleased to read that others found it so. I found some of the parsing very complicated for example 25a and 11d, the answer to the latter was obvious with all the checkers in place but why was another matter! I’ll also vote for 1a as my favourite.
Thanks to Whybird for the explanations and Dada for the workout.
A difficulty rating of less than average for a Tuesday Toughie? That’s not what our solving time is telling us.
1a is our favourite and set the tone for a challenging and enjoyable solve.
Thanks Dada and Whybird.
A rare instance of finding myself on the same wavelength as Dada. Have your Bar-tailed Godwits made their miraculous arrival yet, by any chance?
Jeepers I found that very tough & feared a DNF without recourse to a letter reveal. Pleased that I stuck at it & resisted temptation though I did hit the check facility when stalled (requiring a correction en route) so not really an unaided grid fill. On the plus side all of my eventual parsings tally with Whybird.
Always struggle with this setter’s Graun puzzles & I reckon this one was pulled out of that drawer.
Ticks aplenty – 1a just pips 3d for top spot with 4,12,21&27a + 5,7,11&14d comprising a fine top 10.
Thanks to Dada & hats off to Whybird for finding it only of **/*** difficulty – my win double on Lola (10a) hit the deck at 21a where I felt sure you’d go for Carlos & Rob Thomas
I was not mentally prepared to face this on a Tuesday ( which is normally a fairly gentle puzzle ) and I couldn’t finish it. I think Dada was wearing his hob nailed boots when he set this, and I was one of his victims.
I’m hoping my incompetence was down to my bout of flu (called gripe here in Spain) and not me being a complete dimwit!
My rating (without stars) is very difficult, and sort of enjoyable.
Thanks to Dada and to Whybird