Toughie No 3191 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie No 3191

by StephenL  

Toughie 3191 by Silvanus

Hints and tips by StephenL

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

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

Hello everyone from a sunny (at the time of writing but liable to change) South Devon coast.

As Gazza very kindly did the Tuesday blog I have the pleasure of providing the review for a Silvanus production that I enjoyed a lot.

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.

Across

1a Unusually quiet, almost timid person (11)
MILQUETOAST: Anagram (unusually) of the following two words.

7a Well-off daughter has European currency order rejected (7)
MONEYED: Put together abbreviations for Daughter and European, an Asian currency and an abbreviated Order of Merit and reverse (rejected) the result.

8a Individual bringing forward time to feed vegetable plant (7)
PETUNIA: Start with an individual in the sense of an undivided entity and move the abbreviation for time from the back to the front of the word. Now insert (feeding) into a three-letter vegetable.

10a Bookish drunk, discontented revolutionary concealing age (8)
LITERARY: An informal word for drunk and the outer letters of RevolutionarY go around (concealing) a long or specific period of time.

11a Be sparing with fabric that attracts grandparent essentially (6)
SCRIMP: A strong, coarse fabric and the essential letter of grandParent.

13a Number, all except leader, in uniform (4)
EVEN: A number between six and eight loses its initial letter (all except leader).

14a Artist, one amongst last to catch Ava Gardner’s debut (10)
CARAVAGGIO: Start with a synonym of last in the sense of load (it’s in the BRB) and insert the letter that looks like the number one in the appropriate place. The resulting word then contains (to catch) AVA from the clue and the “debut” of Gardner. I really liked this one.

16a Ancient monument single female visits gets vandalised (10)
STONEHENGE: A synonym of single and a female (bird perhaps) inserted into (visits) an anagram (vandalised) of GETS

18a Eyesore local community removed from Yorkshire town (4)
SCAR: Remove a district that is an administrative unit from a Yorkshire seaside resort. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that three Yorkshire (I think) towns have appeared in this setter’s puzzles recently!

21a Subtlety in any pub dancer repeatedly being naked? (6)
NUANCE: The inner letters (being naked) of aNy pUb dANCEr.

22a Drug stops camel mostly developing germs (8)
BACTERIA: Insert (stops) the abbreviation for Ecstasy into all but the last letter of a two-humped camel. Developing here is just a link word.

24a Language student inspired by sign he translated (7)
ENGLISH: Insert the single-letter abbreviation for a student or Learner into an anagram (translated) of SIGN HE.

25a Doctor needs to keep half-cut wife upright (7)
ENDWISE: Anagram (doctor) of NEEDS placed around half the letters of WIfe.

26a Picked up homeless aristocrat without hesitation (8,3)
STRAIGHT OFF: Split the solution 7,4 and we have a homophone (picked up) of a homeless aristo. A real smiler.

Down

1d Desert rat near me occasionally, revolting creature (7)
MANATEE: A reversal of alternate letters of dEsErT rAt NeAr Me. Great spot!

2d Films those engaged in egg production (6)
LAYERS: Double definition.

3ad Entrepreneur, one involved with boxing people? (10)
UNDERTAKER: A cryptic/double definition, the box being a coffin!

4d Mistake by writer entering party politics (4)
TYPO: Hidden in the final two words (entering)

5d Tyrant a court condemned over case of assault (8)
AUTOCRAT: Put together an anagram (condemned) of A COURT and the outer letters (case of) AssaulT.

6d Bronze presented to man for defeat (7)
TANKING: A synonym of bronze as a noun or verb and a man on a chess board.

7d Corrupt female embroiling for instance African politicians in official’s criminality (11)
MALFEASANCE: Anagram (corrupt) of FEMALE around (embroiling) a synonym of for instance and a (South) African political party.

9d Fit lift (11)
APPROPRIATE: Double definition, one an adjective the other a verb.

12d Country clearing mum after arrest is overturned (10)
BANGLADESH: A charade of a reversal (overturned) of an informal arrest, a clearing in a forest maybe and an exclamation demanding mum in the sense of silence. Another winner.

15d Note tense singer touring Italy is comparatively grumpy (8)
TETCHIER: A note on the sol-fa scale, the single-letter abbreviation for Tense and one of crosswordland’s favourite female singers placed around the single-letter abbreviation for Italy.

17d Fruit of round variety beginning to smell (7)
ORANGES: Piece together the “round” letter, a synonym of variety and the initial letter of smell.

19d Immersed in stuff I’d raced around capital (7)
CARDIFF: Hidden and reversed (immersed in/around).

20d Film company diligent American leaves (6)
STUDIO: Remove an abbreviated American from the end of a synonym of diligent or scholarly

23d Asian couple in conversation (4)
THAI: We end the down clues as we ended the across ones with a homophone (in conversation) of a synonym of couple as a verb.

Thanks Silvanus, very enjoyable. In a strong field my top three are 26a plus 12d with top spot going to the super 14a.

 

23 comments on “Toughie No 3191”

  1. Like our blogger, the neatness and cleverness of 14a shone through and was my favourite. The whole grid was a delight to solve, and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.

    Many thanks to Silvanus for the fun, and to SL.

  2. 1a is a new word to me, who have thought such a word existed? Needed the hint to parse 14a. Apart from those no real problems with steady solving all the way through. Favourite was 9d. Thanks to Silvanus and SL.

  3. For me, etc, a not too tough Thursday Toughie that would be equally as good as a Friday back pager – 2*/4.5*

    1a did require some ‘thumbing’ through the BRB for a word which was unfamiliar bur probably not new to me. 14a is probably the sort of charade that, if he were blogging, would have Shabbo saying that he wasn’t being paid enough (again).

    Candidates for favourite – 21a, 26a, 7d, and 12d – and the winner is – 26a.

    Thanks to Silvanus and StephenL.

  4. I had problems with 1a (never heard of it) and required all the checkers to enable me to find the word in the BRB. After that the puzzle got easier and very enjoyable – thanks to Silvanus and SL.
    For my podium I’ve selected 14a, 26a and 12d.

  5. 14a was a bit of a gimme [I already had g.o at the end] but neatly done. I also liked 16a but my cotd is 26a [at last, a decent homophone].
    Thanks to Silvanus and Stephen.

    1. BTW Stephen, thanks for the Toto track. Haven’t really paid them much attention [apart from Messrs Lukather & Porcaro]. Hope this doesn’t mean more expenditure on CDs.

  6. So creative and clever. And that is from someone who is not ‘toughie level’. Really enjoyed, despite needing some help. Thank you Silvanus and Stephen.

  7. Apart from being flummoxed by the bizarre 1a, this was not too difficult but it was exceedingly good. My experience with 1a mirrors that of Gazza when I ended up removing the checking letters from the anagram fodder, playing around with what remained and then looking up the least unlikely in the BRB.

    With a plethora of ticks on my page, my favourite was 14a, closely followed by 26a,

    Many thanks to Silvanus and to SL.

  8. I did like 14a, it was a lot of work to parse the various bits but he is a brilliant artist, but probably a bit of a scoundrel as a person (understatement – googling his life outside of the studio is NSFW)
    Should 1a have an indicator? I am sure some think so but I am of the school that thinks they should be used as sparingly as possible
    Thanks to Silvanus and StephenL

  9. A very smooth and enjoyable Toughie from the master of smooth. Always enjoy his challenges. Joint favourites 3D and 26A.
    Many thanks to Sylvanus and Stephen.

    1. You’ve used a different alias from your previous comments so this needed moderation. Both aliases will work from now on.

  10. I wasn’t familiar with 1a but thought of another more common word for the person and built it up from that – I guess a piece of toast would eventually soak up the milk!
    14a took ages to parse – that definition of ‘last’ didn’t spring to mind at all, so that’s something else learned.
    Bouquet going to the glorious 26a with a nod to the fit lift which made me smile.

    Many thanks to Silvanus for the double-duty day – very much appreciated, and to Stephen for the review. All good wishes to both of you for an excellent New Year.

  11. Many thanks to Stephen for his Hints and Tips and huge congratulations on joining the ranks of Toughie setters earlier this week. You’re very welcome :-)

    I had expected my puzzle on the 13th of this month to be my last Toughie of 2023, but the Editor thought differently (perhaps he read Huntsman’s comment lobbying for me to appear as regularly as Elgar?!). So I’m very delighted that I am appearing once more before 2023 becomes 2024 and I’m extremely flattered that only Elgar and Robyn have had more weekday Toughie puzzles published this year.

    Thank you to everyone for your kind comments, not just today but throughout the year. May I wish everyone a very Happy New Year.

    1. Many thanks for another top puzzle Silvanus and especially for your kind words re my Toughie debut, both very much appreciated.
      Congratulations for being “on the podium” with Robyn and Elgar too and of course a very Happy New Year to you.

  12. Have an inkling that I had encountered 1a before (in a Graun puzzle I suspect) but, needless to say, had long forgotten about the comic strip character. It was last in & even with the Q a given & despite correctly figuring where the S was likely to be it still took 2 stabs to allocate the remaining 3 vowels correctly so not a correct first time finish. I preferred this one to the back-pager & had plenty of ticks – 16,21&26a plus 3,5&12d ones that particularly stood out. Think I’ll plump for 3d as my fav for the time it took for the penny to drop.
    Thanks to Silvanus & to Stephen

  13. Good evening

    Pen down! Chuffed to have completed a Toughie. Thank you Silvanus for the double braincell workout today. Thank you Stephen L for the explanations; I couldn’t properly parse 10, 14, and 22 across owing to unfamiliarity with the synonyms involved.

  14. Luckily one of our team had heard of 1a so not a major hold up there, despite the other team-member insisting that she had just made it up to fit the anagram fodder.
    A really enjoyable solve for us.
    Thanks Silvanus for both puzzles and SL.

  15. 14a required electrons, OK if you know these things but hard to construct without the GK. 1a was my stand out favourite.

    Thanks to Silvanus and SL.

  16. Generally straightforward and very enjoyable, but I always feel that clueing an extremely obscure word as an anagram is like bowling the last ball of a match underarm to prevent the batsman from scoring. It rather took the shine off for me. Podium to 7a, 16a & 26a.

    2.5* / 2.5*

    Thank you to Silvanus and Stephen

  17. Another hugely enjoyable Silvanus puzzle which I found only marginally tougher than the back pager. Like many, 1a was unknown but gettable from the checkers and anagram fodder.
    14a took some parsing – I was another one who was not familiar with that meaning of “last”.
    Great stuff. Many thanks to Silvanus and Stephen L and congratulations to SL for joining the ranks of the Toughie setters.

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