Toughie 859 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
View closed comments 

Toughie 859

by Big Dave  

Toughie No 859 by Cephas

Hints and tips by Big Dave

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

A pleasant but untaxing start to the Toughie week.

Today I am trying out a new spoiler method – all you need to do is to hover over the usual space between the curly brackets. I’ll try to add instructions for mobile platforms later.

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.

Across

3a    Watch a pet’s fancy ribbon (6,4)
{

Spoiler

TICKER TAPE

[collapse]
} – a slang word for a watch followed by an anagram (fancy) of A PET

8a    Lots go under it (6)
{

Spoiler

HAMMER

[collapse]
} – a cryptic definition of an auctioneer’s gavel

9a    Remove the grain for harvest (8)
{

Spoiler

INGATHER

[collapse]
} – an anagram (remove) of THE GRAIN – the definition is to harvest as a verb

10a    Nag or badger noisily desperate character (8)
{

Spoiler

HARRIDAN

[collapse]
} – one of those derogatory words for a woman comes from a verb that sounds like to badger or pester followed by the first name of a Desperate cartoon character

11a    Over the Channel, no time for minority (6)
{

Spoiler

NONAGE

[collapse]
} – the French (over the Channel) for no followed by a period of time – in this context minority refers to infancy

12a    Related short comedy story (10)
{

Spoiler

COMPARABLE

[collapse]
} – a shortened form of COM(edy), as used, for example, in sitcom, followed by a story told to illustrate a moral point

14a    Kitty’s registered in hotels and loiters around (13)
{

Spoiler

TORTOISESHELL

[collapse]
} – a type of cat comes from an anagram (around) of HOTELS and LOITERS

20a    Job and Psalms perhaps contracted extra comment (10)
{

Spoiler

POSTSCRIPT

[collapse]
} – a job followed by a shortened form of sacred writings from the Bible

22a    Desire bride’s address after party (6)
{

Spoiler

LIBIDO

[collapse]
} – the word spoken by a bride during the wedding ceremony follow the shortened form of a political party

23a    Cooler overhead (8)
{

Spoiler

SUNSHADE

[collapse]
} – a cryptic definition of a parasol or awning

24a    Old film star lush wants to eat less food for a start (8)
{

Spoiler

DIETRICH

[collapse]
} – an adjective meaning lush or sumptuous preceded by (for a start) a verb meaning to eat less food

25a    Get exhausted as boring career comes first (3,3)
{

Spoiler

RUN DRY

[collapse]
} – an adjective meaning boring preceded by (comes first) a verb meaning to career or race

26a    Quartz coming from Ceylon and Chad (10)
{

Spoiler

CHALCEDONY

[collapse]
} – an anagram (coming from) of CEYLON and CHAD

Down

1d    Loafer‘s plan to get round Jack (8)
{

Spoiler

LAYABOUT

[collapse]
} – a plan around the usual two-letter abbreviation for a jack or sailor

2d    I am becoming unfit (8)
{

Spoiler

IMPROPER

[collapse]
} – the abbreviated form of I am followed by an adjective meaning becoming or suitable

3d    Brightly-coloured pictures turning up on ship (6)
{

Spoiler

TRADER

[collapse]
} – an adjective meaning brightly-coloured followed by pictures in general, all reversed (turning)

4d    Murderer, one put in gaol (4)
{

Spoiler

CAIN

[collapse]
} – the first ever murderer is derived by putting I (one) inside a slang word got gaol

5d    Irritability on the outside? (8)
{

Spoiler

EDGINESS

[collapse]
} – could be the property of being on the outside

6d    Carrying nothing from part of south London (6)
{

Spoiler

TOTING

[collapse]
} – drop the O (nothing) from a part of south London that is just south of Balham

ARVE Error: need id and provider

7d    Promise to put small amount of money on unfinished book (6)
{

Spoiler

PLEDGE

[collapse]
} – the abbreviation for a small British coin followed by (unfinished) an accounts book

13d    Groundwork done by graduates one’s completed (5)
{

Spoiler

BASIS

[collapse]
} – some graduates followed (completed) by I’S (one’s)

15d    Be hostile to it being included on the other side (8)
{

Spoiler

OPPOSITE

[collapse]
} – a verb meaning to be hostile around (being included) IT

16d    Drum or trumpet perhaps making connection (8)
{

Spoiler

EARTHING

[collapse]
} – split as (3,5) I suppose this could describe a drum or a trumpet

17d    A rapidly deteriorating cutter (8)
{

Spoiler

LAPIDARY

[collapse]
} – an anagram (deteriorating) of A RAPIDLY gives someone who cuts gemstones

18d    Polish or another language on the radio (6)
{

Spoiler

FINISH

[collapse]
} – sounds like a Scandinavian language

19d    Allowed nothing to be put over beam (6)
{

Spoiler

LINTEL

[collapse]
} – two three-letter words meaning allowed and nothing, all reversed (to be put over)

21d    Watch Second Coming (6)
{

Spoiler

SENTRY

[collapse]
} – S(econd) followed by a coming

23d    Drive off — no time to race (4)
{

Spoiler

SHOO

[collapse]
} – drop the T(ime) from a verb meaning to race

I hope you like the new spoiler facility – let me know how you get on with it.

23 comments on “Toughie 859”

  2. Just dropped in to get a starter for 10 then saw the new spoiler – I wholeheartedly approve although it does make it very tempting to cheat slightly.

    What with this new facility and the relatively new underlining of the solution required your quite spoiling us BD.

    Many thanks to you & to the setter.

  3. 3*/3* for me. I wasted unnecessary time on 20a, where PS(alms) ‘contracted’ just happened to give the same abbreviation as that of the answer, both of which are in Chambers.
    Thanks to Cephas, and to BD.

  4. Gentle yet pleasant enough start to Toughie week the new spoiler is fine by me thanks to Cephas and Big Dave for the comments.

  7. Giid description, pleasantly untaxing.

    I do recommend today’s Indy by Jambazi (Tramp of the Graun). Hilarious stuff!

    And today’s Guardian Shed puzzle, someone who would be terrific in the Friday Toughie slot!

  8. An enjoyable and somewhat untaxing puzzle. A very pleasant solving experience. Just to be different it was “earpiece” that we first tried to fit into 16d until we saw the light. Thanks Cephas and BD.

  10. BD re spoiler, I am so not a Techy. IE8 works today on my home laptop, but at work today the IE8 displayed the hidden words in the Toughie on accessing the site without “hovering” between the brackets. Libellules yesterday worked on both. Not making sense I suspect so maybe on Saturday over a beer I’ll try and elucidate , Cheers

    1. At home, I just see the solutions. At work I see the solution and ‘spoiler’ in red. When I hover over the word, the answer remains and the word ‘spoiler’ disappears.

      Looking forward to seeing you again on Saturday, both for beers, elucidations and catching up.

      1. Looking forward to Saturday for same reasons, logistically it’s been a challenge to sort out re Cynthia and Cuthbert however all sorted, as long as you head me to Kings Cross for 20:00 latest !!!

        1. I’ll do my best but last S&B I had to ring Mr CS and say you know I was getting the train at xx, well I am still in the pub so I’ll be getting the one an hour later!

  11. Back to the crossword …on train this morning nearly made a mess of 3a, swatch tape, I know I know……..time for last dog walk with head hung in shame

  12. Thanks to Cephas & Big Dave. I can’t seem to make the step up do the Toughies. Despite this being a gentle one, I had to look up 9 and use 3 hints, while only solving 15. I’ll have to try doing the crosswords earlier, then hopefully wont be too tired to think about the Toughie.

Comments are closed.