Toughie 3011 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie 3011

by Gazza  

Toughie No 3011 by Silvanus
Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****

Silvanus has given us a fairly gentle but very enjoyable pangram – many thanks to him.

Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.

Across Clues

7a Endlessly fill hours working and do well (8)
FLOURISH: an anagram (working) of FIL[l] HOURS.

9a Triumph in the past for newspaper? (6)
HERALD: an old Triumph (the capital T is necessary).

10a Bill runs out of luck (4)
BEAK: remove the cricket abbreviation for runs from an opportunity or lucky *****.

11a Rejected character breaks fancy souvenir dumping current date (10)
RENDEZVOUS: the reversal of a spelled-out letter (one that’s needed for the pangram) goes inside an anagram (fancy) of SOUVEN[i]R without the symbol for electric current.

12a Supporting English hotel that’s in difficulty (6)
BEHIND: an abbreviation for English and the letter that hotel represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet go inside a word for a difficulty or tricky situation.

14a EU citizens inspired by EU’s backing for African (8)
SUDANESE: some EU citizens are inserted into “EU’S” reversed.

15a Provide American car to transport female (6)
AFFORD: an abbreviation for American and a make of car contain the abbreviation for female.

17a This writer’s emphatic refusal to withdraw title character (6)
EPONYM: join together “this writer’s” and an informal word for an emphatic refusal and reverse the lot.

20a Forestalls dust-up ultimately before tempers frayed (3-5)
PRE-EMPTS: the ultimate letter of dust-up followed by an anagram (frayed) of TEMPERS.

22a Essentially eloquent Oscar-winning actress heading off, put out (6)
QUENCH: the central letters of eloquent and an Oscar-winning actress without her first letter.

23a Undecided about British animal vet treated … (10)
AMBIVALENT: an anagram (treated) of ANIMAL VET goes round an abbreviation for British.

24a … bemoan creature being picked up (4)
WAIL: this sounds like a sea creature.

25a Remove gum young Luella purchases (6)
UNGLUE: a hidden word.

26a Chum nursing advanced muscular pain following operatic work (8)
PARSIFAL: a synonym of chum contains the abbreviations for a) advanced, b) a muscular pain usually in the hands and c) following (in a literary reference).

Down Clues

1d Plant dahlias at intervals around gazebo’s base always (4,4)
ALOE VERA: regular letters from ‘dahlias’ go around the final letter of gazebo and a synonym of always.

2d Rowling, penning vacuous Utopian rubbish? (4)
JUNK: the initials by which Ms. Rowling is known contain the outer letters of Utopian.

3d Hunter from Maryland or Minnesota, travelling north (6)
NIMROD: hidden in reverse.

4d Inferior liquor perhaps you audibly sink (5-3)
SHEEP-DIP: what a homophone of ‘you’ is an example of followed by a verb to sink.

5d Source of article dividing French region (10)
PROVENANCE: one of our grammatical articles goes inside a region in the south-east of France.

6d Striking airline boastful criminal mocks (6)
FLOUTS: strike out a well-known airline from the word ‘boastful’ and make an anagram (criminal) of what remains.

8d Upstanding individual aboard high-speed train (6)
HONEST: an adjective meaning individual or single goes inside the abbreviation for a high-speed train.

13d Adamant it’s unpalatable replacing Davey maybe with Cable (10)
INFLEXIBLE: Silvanus wants us to think that the surface is about a change in the leadership of the Liberal Democrats. Start with an adjective meaning unpalatable and replace the forename of Mr Davey with a word for a cable or lead.

16d Watch for instance salesman needing support from Apple? (8)
REPEATER: an abbreviated salesman followed by a type of (falsely-capitalised) apple.

18d Aiming somehow to dam Switzerland’s vast lake (8)
MICHIGAN: an anagram (somehow) of AIMING contains the IVR code for Switzerland.

19d Inattentive PM’s ashamed at heart when shown up (6)
ASLEEP: a 19th century British Prime Minister (and the ‘S) followed by the letter at the centre of ashamed with the whole thing being reversed.

21d Language crook oddly avoided a lot (6)
ROMANY: the even letters of crook and a word meaning ‘a lot’.

22d Arab TV show entertains ace sailor (6)
QATARI: the name of a TV quiz show contains the card abbreviation for ace and a dated word for a sailor.

24d Fancy having power to oust male Government official? (4)
WHIP: a fancy or notion has its abbreviation for male replaced by that of power.

My top clues were 9a, 10a and 4d. Which one(s) graced your podium?

18 comments on “Toughie 3011”

  1. A very enjoyable pangram from the master of smooth – **/****

    Candidates for favourite – 9a, 17a, 4d, and 5d – and the winner is 9a prompting an automotive memory.

    Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.

  2. I thought this brilliant, bang on wavelength too as I did it quicker than the back-pager….and a panagram to boot.
    In a mega strong field I’ll go for 17&20a plus 4d as worthy of special mention but my favourite is the quite brilliant (and perhaps appreciated more by native solvers) 13d, what a great spot.
    Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza for the top-notch entertainment.

  3. I thought this pangram was absolutely wonderful. In terms of toughness it seemed more like a back-pager but who cares when it’s this much fun.

    13d is a creation of pure genius. Initially I decided that we needed to replace Ed with a homophone of Vince in “inedible”. Hence, the answer must be “invincible”, which is a reasonable synonym for “adamant”. Ah, but where is the homophone indicator? Then the penny dropped!

    So, with 13d in the lead and hotly pursued by 14a, all the rest of the clues were in an ever-changing peloton closely behind.

    Many thanks to Silvanus and to Gazza.

  4. Now that I know who the Lib Dem characters are in 13d, it is even more brilliant a clue than I thought when (correctly) answering it last night. Turns out mine was a bung-in, more or less. I also was unfamiliar with the Triumph model and solved 9a purely on the basis of the old newspaper. Still, I finished he puzzle without Googling or seeking letter reveals and was delighted with it, especially 17a, 11a, & 22a (incidentally, for JD’s brief but sparkling, Oscared performance in Shakespeare in Love)–with 13d my COTD. Thanks to Gazza and Silvanus.

    Another stellar day with Ray T and Silvanus doing a friendly mano-a-mano, as it were.

  5. The enjoyment keeps coming today with another excellent piece of compiling, this time by our very own Silvanus.
    Really like the sound of the word at 23a and hopefully our setter has given me a way to remember the spelling of 26a, invariably have a hiccough over that one.
    Top favourites here came from the ‘downs’ – 5,6,13& 24d gracing the podium.

    Many thanks to Silvanus and also to Gazza for the review.

  6. We have been well and truly spoilt, with Ray T on the back page and this highly enjoyable romp from Silvanus in the Toughie slot. I cannot look beyond the excellent 13d for a favourite clue, although 22a and 2d ran it close.

    Thanks to the aforementioned, and to Gazza.

  7. My poor performance on the toughies continues ultimately defeated by 4d which I didn’t know. Favourite was 20a. Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.

  8. I tuned-in far more adeptly than earlier with the back pager, and in consequence found this a less than typically Thursday Toughie. But what a super puzzle, with trademark smooth surface readings, wit and humour throughout. 13d quite outstanding. Most of the others could with ease claim places on the podium steps, but 17a gets its nose in front for the silver medal.

    Many thanks indeed to Silvanus and to Gazza

  9. I found the left hand side went in quickly but the right was more of a struggle. I well remember my aunt’s 9a but my COTD has to be 4d. What a marvellous expression. Do we thank our friends from Oz for it?

  10. By the way, does anyone know how our kiwi friends are doing? I was concerned to hear Hawkes Bay had suffered. All that lovely wine!

      1. Thanks I missed it. I hope for an update once they are home
        I hope the Hawkes Bay Area recovers. Such delicious wine

  11. Many thanks as always to Gazza and to everyone commenting, I’m glad that you found much to enjoy.

    1. Even by your high standards this was a spectacular puzzle. I’m so pleased 13d was picked out by many – it was my last in & having enjoyed the clues (all ticks in my book) so much I didn’t even twig that we were an X shy of the pangram. COTY for me so far – how you see such wordplay is beyond me.
      Bravo.
      Thanks to Gazza for the review.

  12. Easy and good, filled with fine clues.

    4D I found slightly indirect really, though it amused me nonetheless. So I’ll plump for it!

  13. I’m glad I saved this from yesterday, I seldom (if ever!) get on with Zandio puzzles, so this was a good alternative. A very enjoyable puzzle, thanks Silvanus. Thanks to Gazza for explaining the one or two I couldn’t parse.
    Many years ago, I had a bottle of 4d and I seem to remember it was!

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