Toughie No 928 by Dada
Hints and Tips by Bufo
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Another gentle puzzle from Dada. The only hold-up came with 15 down which has an answer that I wasn’t familiar with. I managed to work it out from the wordplay.
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
1a Tree French author felled? (5)
{SUMAC} Reverse the surname of a French Nobel Prize winning author (felled = knocked over = reversed)
4a Greatly impress an admirer of the East End? (4,4)
{BOWL OVER} Whem split (3,5) it gives you an admirer of a particular district in the East End of London
10a Poison found in medicines, rarely recalled (7)
{ARSENIC} Hidden in reversed form in mediCINES RArely
11a At first, really happy to get connected (7)
{RELATED} The first letter of Really + ‘happy’
12a Party elected to kill (2,2)
{DO IN} Party + elected
13a Comfortable thing, right to this point (2,3)
{SO FAR} Something comfortable to sit on + R (right)
14a Ill having missed starter, too sweet (4)
{ICKY} Remove the first letter from an informal word meaning ‘ill’
17a Author reads novel about legendary leader among poltroons (7,7)
{CHARLES DICKENS} An anagram (novel) of READS round L (first letter of legendary) goes inside ‘poltroons’
19a Be an axe murderer — or make peace? (4,3,7)
{BURY THE HATCHET} An axe murderer might do this in someone’s body
22a Mock gemstones in one’s shop, well hidden (4)
{JEER} Remove WELL from a shopkeeper who sells gemstones
23a US president storing old volume on the next floor up? (5)
{ABOVE} The usual crossword representation of Mr Lincoln goes round O (old) V (volume)
24a Man, say I do crosswords regularly? (4)
{ISLE} The Man is the one in the Irish Sea. I + alternate letters of a 5-letter word meaning ‘do crosswords)
27a Tea houses otherwise in place of buns? (7)
{CHELSEA} ‘Tea’ goes round ‘otherwise’ to give part of London associated with buns
28a Arrangement to switch all seats marked J perhaps with K (7)
{NETWORK} If A is row one then J will be *** ***. Reverse (switch) this and add K
29a Bridge ace takes journey (8)
{BESTRIDE} ‘To bridge’ = ace + journey
30a Wander over to collect unknown civic dignitary (5)
{MAYOR} A reversal of ‘wander’ round a letter signifying an unknown
Down
1d Fruit salad to begin with, then fish (8)
{SHADDOCK} An E Asian citrus fruit = S (first letter of salad) + a fish
2d Chaos in a Sicilian city (7)
{MESSINA} Chaos + IN + A
3d Hit on the head — or nose (4)
{CONK} 2 meanings: hit on the head/nose
5d Translation of Navaho and Rumanian book (3,3,2,6)
{OUR MAN IN HAVANA} An anagram (translation) of NAVAHO RUMANIAN gives the title of a Graham Greene novel
6d Opera in state capital only showing second half (4)
{LULU} An opera by Berg is the second half of the capital of Hawaii
7d Papal authority to have vessels laden with incense, primarily (7)
{VATICAN} I (first letter of incense) comes between two 3-letter vessels
8d Damned / healthy-looking (5)
{RUDDY} 2 meanings: damned/healthy-looking
9d Sweeping movement of men like so? (6-3-5)
{ACROSS THE BOARD} How chessmen might move
15d Trifle to be held over a basin (5)
{PLAYA} ‘To trifle’ + A gives a Spanish word for a basin which becomes a shallow lake after heavy rainfall and dries out again in hot weather
16d Fish / skim over the surface (5)
{SKATE} 2 meanings: fish/skim over the surface
18d All off, one off? (8)
{STREAKER} A cryptic definition for someone off (in motion) after taking everything off
20d So save more scrap (7)
{USELESS} When split (3,4) it’s an instruction to save more
21d Anything but her Labour background? (7)
{HISTORY} The male equivalent of ‘her’ + someone who is definitely not a member of the Labour Party
22d Account penned by one biblical character — for another? (5)
{JACOB} AC (account) goes inside one Old Testament character to give another one
25d All initially in the soup, appointing rotten old Russian leader (4)
{TSAR} The initial letters of The Soup Appointing Rotten
26d Staunch / supporter of a plant (4)
{STEM} 2 meanngs: to staunch/a stalk (supporter of a plant)
Once upon a time I blogged the first ever Dada Toughie and it was a genuine Toughie. I have been disappointed with the toughness level of all the other Dada Toughies that I have blogged.
Agree that it wasn’t a tough toughie but I enjoyed solving it. Interesting that he avoided the romantic theme and went for murder and poisoning! Thanks to Dada and Bufo too.
I agree and thought it more straightforward than the backpager which had a few ‘iffy’ clues! maybe the theme was crime passionelle
A nice, gentle puzzle, that produced a few smiles along the way. Thanks to Dada, and to Bufo.
I like puzzles that make me smile and this did just that .Very pleasant .New usage of the Spanish beach for me too.
Thanks very much .
Definitely an easy toughie,as I was able to do most of it. Thanks ,a lot, to Dada and Bufo. I still don’t understand 29a. Is be =ace ?
ace – best
thanks
Many thanks to Dada and Bufo, a most enjoyable if untaxing toughie and an excellent review.
Thanks to Dada & Bufo. A Toughie is never easy for me, I managed to solve 8 clues, then used some hints to get me going again. Managed to solve 10 more before looking up the rest. Favourite was 19a which, surprise surprise, one I managed to solve
Gentle but good fun along the way, favourites were 4a 21d and 28a thanks to Dada and to Bufo for the comments.
Really enjoyed this one and managed to finish it without the blog but without Bufo’s explanation I’d never have worked out why 28a was right! Many thanks.
Done the top half at the dentist but was then called to the torture chamber!
Last one in – Shaddock. never heard of it until today. Nice puzzle.
OK, finished now but the bottom half took a bit of doing as the local anaesthetic’s starting to wear off
An enjoyable puzzle with a few laughs so thanks to Dada and to Bufo for the review.
Such a hiccup for me! I started off very merrily because I’d muddled up the cryptic and toughie print outs, so didn’t have any real fears as I started solving…. And then I suddenly noticed my mistake, and – what a surprise – lost all my confidence. Ridiculous, but goes to show how much influence our minds have!! Anyway, staggered through to the end & needed quite a few hints & lastly had to peep for a couple (1d I’ve never heard of). So it’s done, hurrah. Many thanks to Bufo for beautifully clear hints. Liked 19a & quite a few others as well. Thank you Setter, too.
I agree about mind set – as soon as someone calls it a Toughie I go wobbly. Am getting better at telling myself that it’s just another crossword although some days I really can’t do them.
The four long clues went in relatively easily for us which gave a nice skeleton of checking letters. We are great fans of Dada’s sense of humour and really appreciated it in this puzzle. Somewhat harder than 2* toughness for us. Spent time on 4a looking for a Cockney expression rather than an area and that misleading island in 24a misdirected us AGAIN.
Thanks Dada and Bufo.
I agree that this can’t have been a tough Toughie as I didn’t have too much trouble with it – only needed the hints to explain a few.
Favourites 12 and 19a and 1, 5, 18 and 21d.
With thanks to Dada and Bufo.
shaddock new to me and an enormous penny drop at network.thanks bufo and dada
why am I only getting half of the puzzles online from the telegraph?
Welcome to the blog Julia
Are you asking about the online website or the iPad app?