Toughie 2335 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie 2335

by Big Dave  

Toughie No 2335 by Dada

Hints and tips by Big Dave

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

Dada occupies the Tuesday Toughie slot this week with a fairly easy puzzle. I did have to look up the flowers in 13 Across, but the wordplay led straightforwardly to the answer.

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.

Across

1a    Food item in batter served with old port (4,8)
CLUB SANDWICH: a verb meaning to batter or bludgeon followed by an old Kentixh port

9a    Star runner running backwards (4)
NOVA: the reversal (backwards) of one of many rivers of the same name, one of which runs through Stratford and another is crossed by the Clifton Suspension Bridge

10a    Religious teaching restored ethics in University briefly (9)
CATECHISM: an anagram (restored) of ETHICS inside the first three letters (briefly) of a major University

12a    Native American swiftly lassoing horse’s head (6)
APACHE: an adverb meaning swiftly around (lassoing) the initial letter (head) of Horse

13a    Insects that pollinate about a hundred and one flowers (8)
BETONIES: put some pollinating insects around a score of one hundered and I (one)

15a    Incompetent one, where is US president? (10)
EISENHOWER: an anagram (incompetent) of ONE WHERE IS

16a    As a cloudless sky not entirely right, it’s not clear (4)
BLUR: most of (not entirely) the colour of a cloudless sky followed by R(ight)

18a    Army entertainer (4)
HOST: two definitions

20a    Indian thus translated — in his own words? (10)
HINDUSTANI: an anagram (translated) of INDIAN THUS

23a    Journalist, one coming between friends tries to make things work (8)
MEDIATES: our usual two-letter journalist and I (one) inside (coming between) some friends

24a    Sound of European torpedo (6)
FINISH: sounds lke someone from a country in Northern Europe

26a    High, a long distance apart (6,3)
SPACED OUT: two definitions – the first being high on drugs

27a    First male, a female (4)
ADAM: the A from the clue and a female animal

28a    The same meat runs out during visit (12)
COMMENSURATE: an anagram (out) of MEAT RUNS inside a verb meaning to visit

Down

2d    A punch absorbed by part of the body, draining (8)
LEACHING: the A from the clue and a punch on a facial feature inside a part of the body

3d    Champion defender (4)
BACK: two definitions – a verb meaning to champion or support and a defender in a sport such as football

4d    For cooking, heated tray available now (2,3,5)
AT THE READY: an anagram (For cooking) of HEATED TRAY

5d    Collecting boundaries in cricket, opener W. G. Grace, perhaps? (6)
DOCTOR: the outer letters (boundaries) of C[ricke]T inside an “opener”

6d    Visiting country briefly, taking in island first (7)
INITIAL: most of (briefly) a phrase meaning visiting a European country (2,5) around (taking in) I(sland)

7d    Last part in hand (4,8)
HOME STRAIGHT: where one is when “in” followed by a hand in poker

8d    Book Church of England extracted from novels (6)
ROMANS: this book of the bible is derived by dropping (extracted) CE (Church of England) from a genre of novels

11d    Look at notes and accept what must happen? (4,3,5)
FACE THE MUSIC: this could mean to look at the notes in an orchestral score

14d    Description of some trees of course, in ground (10)
CONIFEROUS: an anagram (ground) of OF COURSE IN

17d    Hopeful nation in a bit of difficulty, with nothing to lose (8)
ASPIRANT: put a four-letter country (nation) inside the A from the clue and a bit of difficulty without (to lose) O (nothing)

19d    Weapon is raised, well sawn off! (7)
SIDEARM: the reversal (raised) of IS from the clue followed by most of (sawn off) an expression of dismay similar to “well!” (4,2)

21d    Beast tethered by Peruvian, I’m a llama! (6)
ANIMAL: hidden (tethered by) inside the clue

22d    Willing to sit upon the empty egg perhaps? (6)
GAMETE: an adjective meaning willing followed by (to sit upon) T[h]E without its inner letter (empty)

25d    Prison service talking in riddles, primarily (4)
STIR: the initial letters (primarily) of four words in the clue

Enjoyable with, for me, no stand-out clues.

 

15 comments on “Toughie 2335”

  1. You need to amend the answer to 12a.

    Kept wanting to put begonias in 13a and couldn’t see why. The right answer came quickly after that.

    Lots of nice clues.

    Now, having finished the back page, I’m stuck on the Quickie. I’ll swear they’re often the most difficult puzzle in the paper!

  2. My solving time was about that I’d expect for a Friday back pager, so I suppose that’s approaching what I’d like to take for a Tuesday Toughie. I did know the 13a flower in the singular and, as BD says, the wordplay led straight to the solution.

    Thanks to Dada – although I will say you seem to have lost some of the ‘clues to make us smile’ – and also to BD

  3. An enjoyable puzzle – thanks to Dada and BD.
    I’m not very keen on ‘University briefly’ (10a) which, unless I’ve misunderstood it, seems to require us to truncate what is already an abbreviation.
    I liked 5d and 22d but my favourite clue was 20a.

      1. So did I. Yes Cantab is an abbreviation of the Latin name for said University and City. I thought it would have been better if Dada had made reference to the river.

      2. The BRB has Camb as an abbreviation for Cambridge but doesn’t mention the university so I presume it’s an abbreviation for the city.

  4. A head scratcher for me so I am pleased that it did not finds its way into the Sunday envelope – 3.5*/3*.
    Favourite – a toss-up between 1a and 13a – and the winner is 13a.
    Thanks to Dada and BD.

  5. I got quite close to finishing and happy that, apart from the tree, the ones I could not get were beyond my solving ability.
    Thanks to BD and Dada.

  6. I got on much better once I’d given up on the idea of the food item starting with ‘lamb’ and also ascertained the nicknames for Mr. Grace, but I still fell foul of the 13a flowers where I was determined to use ‘c’ for hundred.

    Ho hum – all’s well that ends well although I have to agree with CS that it was a bit short on ‘clues to make you smile’.

    Thanks to Dada and also to BD for the review and a couple of much needed hints.

  7. Didn’t know the flowers in 13a nor the expression in 7d but the parsing led me to it.
    Agree about the luck of fun. Felt like a Sunday prize.
    Thanks to Dada and to BD.

  8. Like Jane we wanted to use LAMB as the first word in 1a which was not a very helpful way to get started. Later we tried to use SCORE as the last word in 11d but could not work this into a known phrase, so more delay there. Over all we found it tougher than most people are reporting and enjoyable to solve.
    Thanks Dada and BD.

  9. i liked sitting on the empty egg and the sawn-off well. Also the Indian and the first male.

    Many thanks Dada and BD

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