Toughie 3215 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie 3215

by Gazza  

Toughie No 3215 by Beam
Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

Beam has given us a pretty gentle puzzle today with all of his usual trademarks. Thanks to him.

My only hold-up was needing to check one of the reptiles in 25a. Now I know where one of our Toughie setters got his pseudonym from.

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

Across Clues

1a Alarming detectives with hose crushing resistance (10)
DISTURBING: our usual senior detectives followed by a word for hose (not the type you wear) containing the abbreviation for electrical resistance.

6a Metal canister containing mineral (4)
TALC: hidden.

9a Drained and drawn about Republican (5)
TIRED: a past particle meaning drawn containing the abbreviation for Republican.

10a Bass player? (9)
FISHERMAN: cryptic definition where bass is a swimmer.

12a It’s tougher accepting one is stouter (7)
HARDIER: a comparative meaning tougher or more difficult containing the Roman numeral for one.

13a Throne under dynasty of rulers, initially (5)
TUDOR: an initial letters clue.

15a Releases common people around America (7)
PAROLES: the shortened form of a word for working-class people contains an abbreviation for America.

16a Twin regularly rejected in warlike wedding (7)
MARITAL: reverse the odd letters of twin inside an adjective meaning warlike.

18a Little friendship following second love (7)
SWEETIE: a synonym of little and a friendship or relationship follow the abbreviation for second.

20a Bust, possibly, is about right size (7)
STATURE: what a bust may be contains an abbreviation for right.

21a Books au pair occasionally for animal (5)
OKAPI: occasional letters from the first three words.

23a Some annual man accomplished (7)
ALMANAC: hidden.

25a Roll reptile over eating large reptile (9)
ALLIGATOR: join together a roll or roster and a venomous lizard, reverse that and insert the clothing abbreviation for large.

26a Quits nevertheless without love (5)
EVENS: a phrase (4,2) meaning nevertheless without the love-resembling letter.

27a Language is Queen’s English (4)
ERSE: assemble the cipher of our late Queen, the ‘S and an abbreviation for English.

28a Entry in a ball holding hand (10)
ADMITTANCE: A and a ball containing an informal word for a person’s hand.

Down Clues

1d A little upset seeing intelligence (4)
DATA: A and an informal word for a small amount all reversed.

2d Excessive load put daily into stream (9)
SURCHARGE: put a daily or cleaner inside a verb to stream or gush.

3d Body, perhaps where body is found? (13)
UNDERCLOTHING: what a body (a women’s close-fitting garment) is an example of describes where one’s body might be found when split 5,8. It’s probably better if I don’t illustrate this.

4d Brains rancid inside rubbish containers (7)
BOFFINS: a synonym of rancid goes inside the containers that you put out for the refuse operatives.

5d Good persona in zero alcohol panacea (7)
NOSTRUM: the abbreviation for a holy person goes inside ‘zero alcohol’ (2,3).

7d Damaged, first off, having weapons (5)
ARMED: remove the first letter from a verb meaning damaged.

8d Restrained criminal was digitally abusive (10)
CONTROLLED: splice together a slang word for a criminal and a verb meaning was abusive online.

11d Performance record smear about blokes (13)
ENTERTAINMENT: assemble a verb to record or log and a synonym of smear containing blokes.

14d See saint wearing majestic old crown (10)
EPISCOPATE: the single-letter abbreviation for saint is contained in an adjective meaning majestic. After that we need the abbreviation for old and an archaic word for the crown of one’s head.

17d Staff organise church in time period (9)
TRUNCHEON: a verb to organise and an abbreviation for church go between the physics abbreviation for time and a long period of time.

19d Claimed former partner pretended (7)
EXACTED: our usual former partner and a verb meaning pretended or feigned.

20d Strange, like overturning top warrior (7)
SAMURAI: stick together an adjective meaning strange and an adverb meaning like. Now reverse that and append what looks like an abbreviation meaning top or perfect.

22d Greek god is ultimately endless (5)
ATLAS: a phrase meaning ultimately without its last letter.

24d Man, say? One’s left sweetheart (4)
ISLE: bring together the Roman numeral for one, the ‘S, the abbreviation for left and Beam’s usual swEetheart.

My ticks went to 10a, 20a and 3d. Which one(s) made your shortlist?

26 comments on “Toughie 3215”

  1. Well I do love a RayT puzzle and though for me this was somewhat simpler than I might otherwise expect from a Thursday Toughie I thoroughly enjoyed it. Not only that but after nearly killing myself on yesterday’s mind mangler I felt we rather deserved this! Hearty thanks to Beam.
    My pick of the best were 10a, 28a & 11d – with fotd honours going to 10a because it’s a clever clue and because I am one but still took a while to spot it….
    Thanks again to Beam and to Gazza whose help I did need on a couple of parsings.

  2. Having failed miserably yesterday I was heartened to have finished this with just the reptile and the panacea unparsed.
    I particularly liked 3d and 10a.
    Thanks to Gazza and Beam.

  3. Gentle but charming. 28a was fun. 8d too. And 3d tickled me, taking me happily back to the 90s (do women still wear bodies? I really have no idea!) I do think 24d’s man deserves a rest, though. Thanks to Beam and Gazza.

  4. A gentle workout for a Thursday but nevertheless most enjoyable. A very succinct and orderly looking puzzle. My ticks went to 10A, 8, 20 and 22D with top spot going to 5D.
    Many thanks to Beam, and to Gazza for his explanations and of course, his usual humour.

  5. I was also pleased to complete this most enjoyable puzzle after having a failure yesterday. Beam never lets us down, and this was a delight to solve. 5d was my favourite.

    Thanks to Mr T and Gazza. Great cartoons.

  6. A little on the light side of Beam’s usual fare. I particularly liked 10a, which took quite a while to suss, and my last one in, 2d.
    Thanks to Beam and to Gazza.

  7. Can’t quite believe how long it took me to twig 16a, it’s so close to being one of our setter’s trademarks!
    Tops for me today were 10a plus 4&8d but I could easily include several others.

    Devotions as usual to Mr T/Beam and many thanks to my knight in shining armour for the review and the great cartoons – I always look forward to those.

  8. Mercifully easier than yesterday (where I’m still one shy of a finish) & very enjoyable too. A much quicker completion than the back-pager & would have been quicker but for a head scratch at 3d&18a for some reason. The reptile needed confirmation but otherwise pretty straightforward. 15a brought back boarding school memories as we were frequently referred to as p****s or plebs by the prefects. 14d was my favourite where I hadn’t appreciated saint could be clued in the wordplay as a single letter but see CL has it listed as ok in the DT with an asterisk that says generally reserved for Toughie puzzles.
    Thanks to Beam & to Gazza – great cartoon at 10a.

  9. The usual excellence from Beam and great fun. At the lighter end of his spectrum but a welcome relief from yesterday’s dnf. As usual it’s hard to pick a favourite from a plethora of contenders but I’ll go with 14d. Thanks to Beam and Gazza.

  10. Was sailing along but then held up a bit by 3d and 15a, the former being my favourite clue. Thanks to Beam and Gazza.

    1. Good evening, Mr T, always good to hear from you although I have to say that your attendance on back-page days has been rather woeful in recent times!

  12. I am usually on wavelength with Ray T and, seeing this was a Beam toughie, I thought I would give it a go. Knowing there would be no anagrams was a definite plus! I surprised myself and managed an unaided finish with only the reptile not fully parsed. Favourite was 14d with podium places for 10a and 2d. Many thanks to Beam for the boost to my self esteem and Gazza for sorting out 25a for me.

    1. Well done, Mhids.
      I’m always surprised that most of those commenters who really love Ray T back-page puzzles don’t give the Beam Toughies a go. As you’ve found, as long as you take account of the ‘no anagrams’ rule, they’re not really any trickier than the Ray T puzzles.

  13. Stumbled a bit with 3d as we did not know the garment but a few checkers soon sorted that one out.
    Enjoyable solve for us.
    Thanks Beam and Gazza.

  14. This is the first time I’ve posted on this toughie site. I found this relatively straightforward and enjoyable. This is the sixth completed toughie out of the last 7 . Two weeks ago I would have said that’s impossible. Maybe the toughies have been easier over the last ten days .?
    Anyway will probably not complete any of the next few. Onwards and upwards.. Thanks to all.

    1. Well done, Fran. Contrary to what most commenters on the back-page blogs seem to believe the Monday-Thursday Toughies are generally not too tough. It’s a pity that more people don’t have a go at them.

    2. Well yesterday’s one certainly wasn’t & if you cracked that one I’d say you’re a natural.

      1. I’m still sticking up for yesterday’s! But I’m not sure we’ll see Vagabundo again anytime soon. MG (fierce!) may well have seen the poor fella off!

  15. My comments here would generally echo almost exactly what I said with regard to today’s back page puzzle, but, with different favourite clues. Great entertainment on a horrible wet Salop afternoon. Thanks Beam and Gazza.

  16. A benign Beam, all completed and parsed with a feeling of satisfaction and considerable pleasure. We are not now seeing enough of RayT, whether in the back page or Toughie slots. Podium places to 1a, 10a, 16a & 14d.

    Many thanks indeed to Beam, and also of course to Gazza – great cartoons!

  18. What a day. No time to tackle this until now but well worth the wait particularly after yesterday’s horror.

    Although the answer to 3d was obvious, I couldn’t parse it due to lack of knowledge of women’s undergarments.

    Many thanks to Beam and to Gazza.

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