Toughie 3218 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie 3218

by crypticsue  

Toughie No 3218 by Robyn

Hints and Tips by crypticsue

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

A nice ‘start of the Toughie week’ crossword from Robyn, although I did seem to be inserting quite a few things into other words, particular in the Across clues

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought

Across

1a    Spooner’s had no alcohol for a meal (6,5)
PACKED LUNCH How the dreaded Reverend would say that his meal was without a drink of spirits mixed with other ingredients

10a    African bounder in America, between cities there (5)
NYALA The abbreviation for American inserted between abbreviated cities on the East and West Coasts of America

11a    Overlooking loch, visited one area in Scotland (9)
CALEDONIA Remove one abbreviation for Loch (overlooking loch) from a synonym for visited (6,2) and then add the Roman numeral for one and the abbreviation for Area

12a    Wino coming in uncovered Ted Heath’s secrets (9)
ESOTERICA A habitual drunk (wino) inserted into the inside (uncovered) of tEd and a plant of the Heath genus

13a    Like some Native Americans jailed over there? (5)
INCAN Split 2,4 this way of saying belonging to some Native Americans would be an expression used in America (over there) to mean jailed

14a    Still holding coat of lovely logger called John (6)
EVELYN Still or calm ‘holding’ the coat of LovelY – this particular John didn’t cut down trees, he is famed for his diary

16a    Dope, you heard, admitted to love for Liberal (8)
GENEROUS Slang for information (dope) followed by a homophone (heard) of you inserted into the Greek love-god

18a    19 number of driving aids on the wagon (8)
TEETOTAL Split 3,5 this would be the 19d number of driving aids on a golf course

20a    After religious celebration, old monarch’s more livid (6)
WHITER A religious celebration seven Sundays after Easter and the regnal cipher of our late Queen – more livid in the sense of more anaemic

23a    Hike from capital south, about to go outside (5)
RAISE The usual ‘about, on the subject of, goes outside an abbreviated way of saying first-class, capital, and the abbreviation for South

24a    Places for trying trendy suit (9)
COURTSHIP Places for trying criminals and an informal synonym for fashionable (trendy)

26a    Novel found to contain a lot of compassion, which is novel (7-2)
UNHEARD-OF An anagram (novel) of FOUND into which is inserted (to contain) almost all (a lot) of a synonym for compassion

27a    Faultless boxing succeeded, getting boxer’s prize (5)
PURSE Completely without fault ‘boxing’ the abbreviation for Succeeded

28a    Criminal’s head down before sentence, it’s said behind bars (7,4)
CLOSING TIME The ‘head’ of Criminal, down in the sense of not winning and a prison sentence


Down

2d    Recalling medic for mission (5)
ALAMO A preposition meaning in the manner of and an abbreviated Medical Officer gives a mission which gave its name to a battle in the Texas Revolution

3d    Odd characters in Kansas really being wicked (7)
KNAVERY The odd letters in KaNsAs and an adjective meaning really

4d    Republican leaving drunk recited falsehood, say (6)
DECEIT An anagram (drunk) of rECITED without the R (Republican leaving)

5d    Antonio Guterres nearly departs to get kind of fuel (8)
UNLEADED Almost all of the position held by Antonio Guterres followed by the abbreviation for Departs

6d    Program incorporating a German number (7)
CODEINE To program (computer) ‘incorporating’ the German word for one (a)

7d    Tree sprouting bananas in lobby, perhaps (8,5)
INTEREST GROUP An anagram (bananas) of TREE SPROUTING

8d    Peach yogurt occasionally, following roast (8)
KNOCKOUT The occasional letters of yOgUrT following roast in the sense of criticise excessively

9d    One taking off coat gently — isn’t one taking off everything? (5-8)
PAINT-STRIPPER The musical abbreviation meaning to play gently, an informal way of saying isn’t and someone taking off everything

15d    Sense some having a row must welcome agreement (8)
EYESIGHT A number of people in a rowing boat ‘welcome’ a word of agreement

17d    Filling displays, fish shops may use these (8)
BARCODES A type of fish ‘filling’ a synonym for displays in the way a person taking everything off would do

19d    General stops guerrilla revolutionaries after uprising (7)
OVERALL Hidden in reverse (stops …. after uprising) in the third and fourth words of the clue

21d    Riot guards tense, spelling trouble here? (7)
HOTSPOT Something hilarious (riot) ‘guards’ the abbreviations for Tense and the abbreviation for spelling

22d    Blundering when dropping grand cake (6)
MUFFIN An informal way of saying blundering or bungling without (dropping) the abbreviation for Grand

25d    Fast runner on motorway getting some sultanas? (5)
HAREM A fast running animal and the abbreviation for Motorway

Thank you to Robyn for setting such an enjoyable crossword for what, according to the system, is my 1600th blog post – I think I’ll treat myself to a celebratory 22d while solving the crossword by our setter’s alter ego in today’s Graun

22 comments on “Toughie 3218”

  1. Robyn continues to dazzle. Another Spoonerism to kick off – is this becoming a thing? But what a cracker. This was so him: creamy surfaces, super-tight clueing and masterful misdirection. Quite chewy (1*? Sue, you swank!) in places, I thought, and huzzah for that. I still don’t quite see why 18a needs 19d in the clue but no matter. It’s all but impossible to pick a favourite as I loved it all – this was exactly what a Wednesday Toughie should be. A logger called John, peach yoghurt and Ted Heath were all brilliant. But I think my vote must go to 5d. Genius. Huge thanks to Robyn and CS.

  2. Excellent! This was my type of Toughie – nicely challenging without being impenetrable, with clever clueing and smooth surfaces throughout..

    I had ticks all over my page with 1a, 11a, 26a, 28a, 5d & 9d my top picks.

    Isn’t English wonderful? As well as extremely angry, livid can mean “black and blue” or “pale”.

    Many thanks to Robyn and to CS.

    1. I presume you didn’t solve Robyn’s Sunday Toughie as I was sure if you had you’d have commented on the enumeration of one of the clues

      1. I’ve tried not to get too distracted by crosswords on Sundays and confine myself to just Dada’s cryptic and about once a month Hoskins in the Indy. Would I have been pleased or horrified by Robyn’s enumeration?

          1. I just rifled through my paper recycling box and dug out Sunday’s Telegraph. And yes, I am delighted. 👍

  3. A very enjoyable Wednesday Toughie which I felt was slightly tougher than Sue’s 1*. I think it at least deserves 2*. I put so many ticks it seems unfair to pick a favourite, but I did enjoy the Spooner opener.
    Many thanks to CS and Robyn

  4. Definitely warranted more than a 1* for me, but thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. Sue must have been on superb solving form.

    I always enjoy the Spoonerisms and this one was great and got me off to a good start. Had to look up John the logger for confirmation. Loads of great clues to pick from but my fav was the excellent 9d.

    Thanks Robyn and CS of course. Congrats on the landmark blog, the 22d is richly deserved.

  5. Good fun but a bit tougher than 1* for me, especially the RHS. Lots of smiles at the clever clueing, especially 24a plus 15, 21 and 25d.
    Thanks to Robyn and CS.

  6. Great stuff – thanks to Robyn and CS.
    I have masses of ticks on my printout including 1a, 11a, 14a, 5d and 17d.

  7. Everywhere our setter laid a trap I managed to get caught by them but what an enjoyable tussle to extricate myself.
    I now know a fair amount about southern currencies, loggers named John, novels with the required letter count and varieties of peaches!
    Overflowing podium hosting 11,24&28a plus 9&21d.

    Many thanks to Robyn and to CS for the review – congratulations on reaching yet another milestone in your blogging history and I think you should reward yourself with something rather more than a 22d!

    1. How many times has CS blogged? It seems to have disappeared! I’m sure I saw it earlier.

      Well Done, CS!

  8. I would also say this was a two for difficulty for most solvers, but perhaps gauging it purely as a Toughie warrants a different weighting. However you rated it, this was terrific fun with a mass of inventive and fresh clueing. I particularly enjoyed 18a and 17d.

    My thanks to Robyn for the challenge and to Sue. Congratulations on your 1600th blog – quite an achievement.

  11. I struggled to get a foothold but having made a start I proceeded at a very sedentary pace before stumbling over the line but I got there. Didn’t know the ‘logger’ so I worked out what it could be and added the name John in Google and up it came. Favourite was 3d. Thanks to Robyn and CS.

  12. Found this one a great deal easier than his Sunday puzzle (though a bit harder than a * rating) & hugely enjoyable from a slowish start to a fast finish. Hadn’t heard of the diarist (wordplay straightforward thankfully) & must be honest that I hadn’t even twigged the context of logger until I looked him up afterwards.No point highlighting ✅s as I liked them all.
    Many thanks to Robyn & congrats/huge admiration to Sue for 1,600 reviews. I too am Graun bound for another helping as you can never get too much of a good thing.

  13. Another excellent puzzle from the supplier of three great Telegraph puzzles today.
    Thanks Robyn and CS.

  14. Well a great puzzle with suitable challenges and some new learnings but for me most definitely not in the one star category!
    To my surprise I am crediting the spoonerism as my fotd, it was in the end my last one in but gave me a good chortle when I spotted it…
    Thanks again to Robyn and to CS (my goodness that is a lot of blogs!)

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