Toughie 3203 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie 3203

by Gazza  

Toughie No 3203 by Django
Hints and tips by Gazza

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

Thanks to Django for a very entertaining and not too tricky Thursday challenge.

Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.

Across Clues

1a Still organising heist with two teams (2,3,4,4)
AT THE SAME TIME: an anagram (organising) of HEIST TEAM TEAM.

10a Bishop replacing foremost of vicars in revolutionary West African capital (7)
NAIROBI: start with a citizen of a West African country, reverse it and replace the first letter of vicars with the chess abbreviation for bishop.

11a Safer to retain company cleaner (7)
SCOURER: a synonym of safer contains an abbreviated company.

12a Tramp hiding in Greenwich Ikea (4)
HIKE: hidden in the clue.

13a/15a/16d/25a Kingmaker hands title out one’s accepted — I thought that too! (5,5,5,5)
GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE: an anagram (out) of KINGMAKER HANDS TITLE containing the Roman numeral for one.

14a Time as member of parliament for example (4)
BIRD: double definition, the second requiring knowledge of what parliament is a collective noun for.

17a Turn up and compete week after opening of rifle range (7)
PURVIEW: assemble the reversal of ‘up’, the opening letter of rifle, a verb to compete and the abbreviation for week.

18a Embarrassed a fake journalist (7)
ASHAMED: charade of A, an adjective meaning fake and our usual abbreviated journalist.

19a Conservative pursuing job with party as researcher? (7)
POSTDOC: an abbreviation for Conservative follows a job or position and a festive party.

22a Starts to take stock after mostly hating cycling helmets (3,4)
TIN HATS: the starting letters of Take Stock follow most of the word ‘hating’ after its letters have been cycled.

24a Learning new role (4)
LORE: an anagram (new) of ROLE.

25a See 13a

26a Leading man, 29 making variable husband (4)
HERO: another word for 29a with its mathematical variable changed into the genealogical abbreviation for husband.

29a Love Hearts cutting out sugar essentially (7)
NOTHING: the cards abbreviation for Hearts is inserted in a phrase (3,2) meaning out. Finish with the central letter of sugar.

30a Feeling round cog (7)
OPINION: the round letter and another word for a cog.

31a Clue for hater to see different attitude (6,2,5)
CHANGE OF HEART: the answer is how the setter might clue the word hater using an anagram.

Down Clues

2d Lean on King and Queen, mind (7)
THINKER: a synonym of lean, the chess abbreviation for king and our late Queen’s cipher. Mind here means an intellectual person (as used in 13a/15d/16d/25a).

3d Strip show permitted inadvertent stroke? (4)
HOOK: the inner letters of show and an abbreviation meaning permitted make the sort of unintended stroke that might be seen on a golf course.

4d Second series following child in squalid part of town (4,3)
SKID ROW: start with the abbreviation for second and add a synonym of series after an informal word for a child.

5d Initially, maybe Ayrton Senna’s gutted about car — this might make a flutter more attractive? (7)
MASCARA: assemble the initial letters of ‘maybe Ayrton’ and the outer letters of Senna containing ‘car’.

6d Possibly saw Rob in retirement (4)
TOOL: reverse a verb to rob or pillage.

7d Spoil 11 across — at last Mike reveals political ideology (7)
MARXISM: string together a verb to spoil, 11 in Roman numerals, the last letter of across and what Mike stands for in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet.

8d Paper having new article on first to invest in protective clothing business planned (2,3,8)
IN THE PIPELINE: rivet together the name of a daily newspaper, the abbreviation for new, a grammatical article and the abbreviation for protective clothing (the sort that Baroness Mone was so keen to supply) containing the first letter of invest. Take a deep breath and append a synonym of business or profession.

9d Ignore following switch — it’s a perk of the job (5,8)
TRADE DISCOUNT: a verb to ignore follows a verb to switch or exchange.

15d See 13a

16d See 13a

20d Challenge villain caught chasing good person (7)
STRETCH: a homophone (caught) of a villain or despicable person follows our usual abbreviated good person.

21d Some men go loco over perfume (7)
COLOGNE: hidden in reverse.

22d Leave shed (4,3)
TAKE OFF: double definition, the second a verb to shed or remove.

23d Fed story back to their studio (7)
ATELIER: an intransitive verb meaning fed followed by a fabricated story and the back letter of ‘their’.

27d Wrong to assume good character (4)
SIGN: a moral wrong containing the abbreviation for good.

28d Function of 27 by the sound of it (4)
SINE: a mathematical function that sounds like 27d.

The clues I liked included 14a, 29a, 7d and 20d. Which one(s) made the grade for you?

20 comments on “Toughie 3203”

  1. Thank you to Django for the fun, and to Gazza for explaining the 3 where I couldn’t work out the wordplay.

    My favourite was 7d, because I got caught out by “11 across” ‒ despite spotting that “across” isn’t usually used in unambiguous cross-referenced clue numbers (such as 26a’s reference simply to “29”), I still didn’t twig.

  2. The usual clever, if occasionally a bit wordy, stuff from Django. I loved the West African going back eventually to an East African capital [10a], the ambiguous syntax of 29a and the misleading reference to another clue at 7d. The 4-letter ones were pretty good too.
    Thanks to Django and to Gazza for the blog.

  3. A great puzzle, with so many witty, clever & ingenious clues – such inventiveness and deception, with not a little topicality, resulting in so much pleasure in solving the grid. Somewhat gentle for this part of the Toughie week (or I just tuned in quite swiftly) but I’m not complaining, and could put at least half the clues on the podium. Narrowing it down, from the left column, 1a, 10a & 31a; from the right 8d, 14d & 23d. For the third day in a row I can express the hope that the Toughie gets the wide audience it so merits.

    2* / 4.5*

    Many thanks indeed Django, that was super; thanks also to Gazza for the ever-amusing blog.

  4. Gentle for Django but very enjoyable, as always. I particularly liked 31a (I’m a sucker for a reverse anagram), I personally applaud the return of his old wordiness (5d, 8d) but 29a gets my top vote – beautifully put together. Many thanks to Django, and Gazza, of course.

  5. I liked this a lot. It was neither as tricky nor as wordy (with the exception of 8d) as Django can be, but with plenty of ingenious clues to grapple with.

    I would have said that 4d was definitely American, although Chambers lets the setter off the hook with the qualification esp N American.

    7d was my favourite.

    Many thanks to Django and to Gazza.

  6. Great fun with many new and clever ideas. A real joy to solve.
    Favourites include 10a, 11a, 3d, 7d and the 13/15/16/25 combination in the middle of the grid.
    Wonderful stuff.
    Many thanks to Django and Gazza.

  7. Great fun with many new and clever ideas. A real joy to solve.
    Favourites include 10a, 11a, 3d, 7d and the 13/15/16/25 combination in the middle of the grid.
    Wonderful stuff.
    Many thanks to Django and Gazza.

  8. Another enjoyable puzzle. We are being spoilt this week.
    Last one in was 3d as struggled to parse it until suddenly it made sense.
    Thanks to Django and Gazza.

  9. Mainly straightforward but all of it enjoyable. Like others I’m struggling to pick one as favourite. Needed the hints to parse 29a (embarrassingly) and 26d as I failed to assign the correct meaning to ‘caught’. I’m going with 10a as favourite, there were many contenders. Thanks to Django and Gazza.

  10. Yet another very enjoyable puzzle. We’ve been spoiled this week. Took me a while for the penny to drop for the letters being used in the anagram for 1A. I knew I was right with 8D but couldn’t parse it. Lots to like but 29A was so clever it takes the podium.
    Many thanks to Gazza for the explanations and humour and to Django for the pleasure he’s given.

  12. No time for a proper comment as I’m off out to see the film Ferrari in a mo.
    Just to say thanks to Django for the crossword which I really enjoyed and thought it rather more “doable” than many a Thursday offering that I have experienced before.
    Thanks also to Gaza whose hints I shall come back to later for a couple I found tricky to parse.

  13. A Django and a Hudson on the same week. What more could I wish for?
    Thanks to both of them for the great crosswords.
    Thanks to the reviewers too.

  14. A not-too-tough Toughie for a Thursday, but I’m definitely not complaining as it was so expertly crafted and fun to solve.

    I liked the deception of 7d and the reversed anagram at 31a, plus I do like the cheeky 3d!

    Many thanks to Django and Gazza.

  15. Plenty of stuff to amuse us here. Really enjoyable solve with lots of chuckles along the way.
    Thanks Django and Gazza.

  16. Django brings us another great crossword, 8d was too hard for this bear of little brain but with Gazza’s help it all becomes clear
    Thanks for the crossword and hints to both

  18. Solved early this morning but have been out since early afternoon so first chance to post. Really enjoyed it. A hat trick of very accessible Toughies this week & with proXimal tomorrow half a chance of a Friday one that the lesser brains like me can have a bash at. As usual the parsing of a number arrived on a later bus but for me that’s par for the course with this setter & the real fun. Too many ✅s to pick out a fav.
    Thanks to Django & to Gazza whose review will be pre lights out reading.

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