Toughie No 3081 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie No 3081

by StephenL  

Toughie No 3081 by Chalicea

Hints and tips by StephenL

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

Hello everyone from a sunny South Devon.

Chalicea kicks off the Toughie week with a typically fun puzzle that I found somewhat easier to fill in than parse.

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.

Across

1a Injuries caused by chain when cycling with no good son (6)
WRONGS: Start with a three-letter synonym of chain in the sense of a series and cycle the final letter to the front. Add abbreviations of No, Good and Son.

4a Forecast of journalists, mostly very old (8)
PRESAGED: A collective noun for a group of journalists without its last letter (mostly) and an adjective meaning very old.

9a Work steadily around border in stiffly correct way (6)
PRIMLY: A verb meaning work steadily (often followed by “one’s trade”) goes around an edge or border.

10a Guile misled sister-in-law lacking devious art (8)
WILINESS: Anagram (misled) of SISTER-IN-LAW once the letters that make up the word ART have been removed (lacking devious). The setter has correctly employed a secondary anagram indicator here.

11a Bond holding masculine student in unnamed Cambridge college for period allowed (4,5)
TIME LIMIT: Start with a synonym of bond or fasten and insert the abbreviation for Male. Add the abbreviation for a student or Learner, the letter I (in unnamed) and the abbreviation for the university in Cambridge USA.

13a Native American and Yankee fellow casually dance (5)
MAMBO: An indigenous South American and a familiar term of address for a man in the US.

14a Compiling again, crazily cutting corners (14)
RECONSTRUCTING: Anagram (crazily) of the following two words.

17a Losing cohesion is trickily disorientating (14)
DISINTEGRATION: Anagram (trickily) of DISORIENTATING.

21a Extended rest of career loafers essentially spent at home (3-2)
LIE-IN: Remove (spent) the essential letter of loaFers from a synonym of career and append the usual two-letter synonym of at home. I rather like this one.

23a Certain it could turn out to be difficult (9)
INTRICATE: Anagram (could turn out) of CERTAIN IT

24a Calming extremes of sensitive case (8)
SEDATIVE: The outer letters (extremes of) SensitivE and a grammatical case.

25a Forth river bridges do well (6)
THRIVE: A nicely concealed (bridges) lurker.

26a Defensive players, ones lamenting following conclusion of shambles (8)
SWEEPERS: Append some lamenters or wailers to the final letter (conclusion of) shambleS.

27a Royal Navy primarily cutting cost (6)
PRINCE: Insert the initial letter of Navy into a cost as a noun.

Down

1d Delay action, circling leader of pack, one large creature (6)
WAPITI: A simple synonym of delay as a verb into which is inserted the leading or initial letter of Pack followed by the letter representing one.

2d Drug centres strangely minus dope (5,4)
OPIUM DENS: Anagram (strangely) of the following two words. Good fodder.

3d Dubious legislation surprisingly isn’t abandoned for gifted astronomer (7)
GALILEO: Anagram (dubious) of LEGISLATION once the letters that form ISN’T have been removed ( surprisingly  abandoned). The setter has again correctly used a secondary anagrind.

5d Again bury priest in France and offer new explanations (11)
REINTERPRET: Put together the usual two letters indicating “again” a synonym of bury and the French word for a priest. Strange surface read.

6d Measure of course is microscopic. On the contrary, it’s earth-shaking! (7)
SEISMIC: Hidden (measure of). Excellent.

7d Regularly golfer aims to show brilliance (5)
GLEAM: Alternate letters (regularly) of GoLfEr AiMs.

8d Go away on retreat somewhere infernal (8)
DISLODGE: Place a name for the god Pluto, hence, the infernal world above a retreat as a noun.

12d Dissident young woman born quitter, we hear (11)
MISBELIEVER: The clue relies on homophones (we hear ) of the title of a young lady, plus B (the abbreviation for Born) and someone who departs or goes.

15d Complete separation from exposure to sun’s rays: tan finally avoided (9)
ISOLATION: Remove the first instance of the final letter of taN from a technical word meaning exposure to the sun’s rays. I love this.

16d Admires words from the bride and groom — tales about intentions, ultimately (8)
IDOLISES: Start with the two words spoken by the bride and groom at the altar and append some tales or untruths into which is inserted the final letter of intentionS.

18d Indefinite number on street work incessantly (3-4)
NON STOP: A charade of the letter representing an indefinite number, ON from the clue, the abbreviation for STreet and some abbreviated work.

19d Over there temperature painfully affected the lady (7)
THITHER: The abbreviation for Temperature, a word that could mean painfully affected (as in “the poor have been *** by rising prices”) and a pronoun indicating the lady.

20d Welsh like interrupting Frenchman (6)
RENEGE: Insert an abbreviated “for example” (like) into crosswordland’s favourite Frenchman. Welsh here is a verb.

22d Put clothes on bear? That’s not right! (5)
ENDUE: Remove the abbreviation for Right from a synonym of bear as a verb.

Thanks Chalicea, my podium is 10&21a plus 6d. Which ones floated your boat?

12 comments on “Toughie No 3081”

  1. 6d was a brilliant lurker that quickly became my favourite from this clever and far from straightforward puzzle. I needed a bit of reverse engineering to parse a couple, but it was a most rewarding process.

    Thanks Chalicea for the challenge, and to SL.

  2. A not too tough toughie that I really enjoyed. I admit to being helped along by the long anagrams that I purport to so dislike. I may have to change my opinion! No real favourite but thanks to Chalicea for the pleasure and StephenL for helping me out with a couple of parsings.

  3. I know from experience that our lady setter scrupulously checks every synonym she employs but I always feel the urge to check on some of them, today’s selection being 13a plus 8&22d. Don’t think I’ve previously heard of the technical term relating to exposure to the sun’s rays and no doubt I’ll forget it in due course!
    9a raised a smile and brought to mind all those young ladies we see depicted in period dramas working on their embroidery and my top three were 6d along with the intersecting 25a & 19d.

    Thanks to Chalicea and to Stephen for the review – what a handsome fellow you depicted at 1d!

  4. Quite friendly toughie today. I didn’t know the elk but it was ‘gettable’ from the clue. I also missed the lurker at 6d – convinced myself that the ‘course’ was South-East! Thanks StephenL for clarifying a couple of others that I was struggling to parse correctly.

  5. Pretty straightforward & very enjoyable but not for me quite as floughie as Chalicea has been in the past. Not for the first time I got into a tangle cycling having had trouble with the chain & fell off the bike. Even after reading the hint I still don’t get the wordplay for 13a but other than those two parsing blips it all went in smoothly. Tops for me 19d for no other reason than along with hither I like the word but I liked just about all of the clues & particularly the 2 subtractive anagrams. Comfortably the better of today’s two guzzles in my view
    Thanks to Chalicea & to Stephen

      1. I figured that but thought the first bit was double A & completely unfamiliar with the other colloquialism. Thanks

  6. Really enjoyed this lovely puzzle, thank you Chalicea. My COTD was the lurker in 25a, with close runner-up 6d. Super surface reads across the board. A great “waiting for the dentist” challenge!

    Thanks also to Stephen

  7. Many thanks, StephenL. I loved your 1d illustration. And thanks to all, I am always delighted when solvers are happy.

  8. I solved this earlier today but was so engrossed in the Test Match that I forgot to post. Great match, exciting finish, shame about the result.

    I really enjoyed this not-too-tough Toughie, where only 13a held me up. The answer for a dance with checking letters M-M-O was obvious, but understanding the wordplay was another matter entirely. Knowing this setter, I shouldn’t have been surprised when I found both obscure elements in the BRB.

    Many thanks to Chalicea for the fun and to SL.

  9. We had to work a bit harder on this one than we were anticipating but did get everything sorted and excellent fun as usual.
    Thanks Chalicea and SL.

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