Toughie 3219 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie 3219

by Gazza  

Toughie No 3219 by Django
Hints and tips by Gazza

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

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

Django’s being pretty gentle with us today but he’s as enjoyable as ever. Thanks to him.

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

Across Clues

1a Perhaps llama or alpaca struggling with mink (4,6)
PACK ANIMAL: an anagram (struggling) of ALPACA MINK.

6a Cold boy gets dressed (4)
CLAD: the tap abbreviation for cold and a synonym of boy.

10a Force overseas team to pursue European wingers from Lille (5)
EXILE: a ‘Roman’ football team follows an abbreviation for European. Finish with the outer letters of Lille.

11a Almost no prospect of peer undergoing gender reassignment — expert’s taking note (3,6)
FAT CHANCE: a peer or equal with a change of sex for its first letter followed by an expert containing the abbreviation for note.

12a They swim in river inspired by all of France (5)
TROUT: the abbreviation for river is contained in the French word for all.

13a Ultimately then roid rage transformed American banker (3,6)
RIO GRANDE: an anagram (transformed) of [the]N ROID RAGE.

14a/20a Working on ball with chairman and president (7,7)
ABRAHAM LINCOLN: an anagram (working) of ON BALL CHAIRMAN.

16a See 19a

19a/16a Lump in one’s throat as water pipe oddly cracks (5,5)
ADAM’S APPLE: a humorous term for water has the odd letters of pipe inserted.

20a See 14a

22a Grass shouldn’t get too long if you have one keen cow, according to Spooner (9)
LAWN MOWER: Spooner might turn this into a verb to keen or grieve and a cow (based on the noise it makes).

26a Ceremonial position, revolutionary barrister-at-law’s defending (5)
ALTAR: hidden in reverse.

27a Conman‘s chain letter I replaced with funny last word (9)
CHARLATAN: start with chain and replace the I with an anagram (funny) of the previous answer. Sneaky!

28a This writer’s mature concept (5)
IMAGE: the contracted form of ‘this writer is’ from the setter’s viewpoint and a verb to mature.

29a Playboy‘s inclination (4)
RAKE: double definition, the second being an inclination or slope.

30a Possibly room in The Bastille, Paris once all Americans have to leave (6,4)
PRISON CELL: start with PARIS ONCE ALL and remove both the abbreviations for American. Very neat!

Down Clues

1d Rather small-minded Republican interrupts (6)
PRETTY: the abbreviation for Republican gets inserted in an adjective meaning small-minded.

2d Some food found in cool bag that occasionally sat under counter (9)
CHIPOLATA: the even letters of ‘cool bag that’ are positioned under a counter (one used in a casino, say).

3d A forward tolerates missing goal openings (9)
APERTURES: assemble A, and adjective meaning forward or cheeky and a verb meaning tolerates without its synonym of goal or objective.

4d Run hot iron on top for reason (5)
INFER: the cricket abbreviation for run preceded by an adjective meaning hot or trendy and the chemical symbol for iron.

5d Military figure crew ought to follow film director’s instruction (6,3)
ACTION MAN: a verb to crew or staff follows a film director’s instruction to get going.

7d Stroke new sheets (5)
LINEN: another word for a written stroke and the abbreviation for new.

8d Extended comic Jack wrote half-heartedly (8)
DEEPENED: the surname of lugubrious comic Jack followed by a verb meaning wrote without one of its middle letters.

9d Nearly the gold for hammer thrower (4)
THOR: ‘the’ truncated and our usual tincture of gold.

15d Threw a wobbly over classical work (4,5)
HOLD WATER: an anagram (wobbly) of THREW A containing an adjective meaning classical or ancient.

16d A party helping worship (9)
ADORATION: string together A, a festive party and a helping.

17d Bore final artist involved in Best of The Beatles (9)
PENETRATE: insert an adjective meaning final or ‘after tax’ and our usual abbreviated artist into the forename of Mr Best who was part of the Beatles until he was sacked.

18d Transport suspended — Telegraph roughly first to report (5-3)
CABLE-CAR: concatenate a verb to telegraph, an abbreviation meaning roughly and the first letter of report.

21d Spoken about case for defence making trial (6)
ORDEAL: an adjective meaning spoken contains the outer letters of defence.

23d Western journalist’s clout (5)
WHACK: the abbreviation for western and a derogatory term for a journalist.

24d Shoe 1 Across (4)
MULE: double definition.

25d Rows when eccentrics depose leader (5)
RANKS: drop the first letter from eccentric people.

My ticks went to 10a, 11a, 27a, 30a and 17d (Best of the Beatles – brilliant!). Which one(s) made your day?

28 comments on “Toughie 3219”

  1. Well, that was a pleasant walk-in-the-park whilst the lunch was cooking. Thanks to Django and Gazza for the comprehensive hints and tips.

  2. This was a gentle solve, albeit not always easy to parse. Lovely anagram spot in 14/20a. I did like 19/16a’s definition even though it made for a rather odd surface. Great Spoonerism, too. And ‘twas grand to see the correct word for a journalist (it’s not a slight but a badge of honour!) in 23a. 17d was such a Django clue – marvellous. Thanks to him and Gazza.

  3. A great week of toughies continues with this cracker from Django. So many witty and original clues that it’s hard to narrow the favourites down but I’ve got em down to these 5 [nearly the same as Gazza’s] – 10a [cleverly hidden definition] 19/16a [clever def and water] 27a [sneaky indeed] 30a [imaginative clueing] and 17d [Best of the Beatles – love it].
    Thanks to Django and Gazza.

  4. Great fun — I loved the cleverness of 30a’s phrase with added Americans, 19a/16a’s water, and 17d’s Best of The Beatles. Thank you to Django for the imaginativeness.

    I filled this without any hits, which for me (© Senf) makes this slightly easier than Tuesday’s Donnybrook Toughie, and considerably easier than Tuesday’s backpager.

    Thank you to Gazza, especially for explaining the “funny last word” in 27a.

  5. Thought this was a cracker. Yet to parse a couple (2a&27d) so will read the review once the pennies have dropped or the towel has been thrown in. Thought 17d was superb & it just pips 30a for top spot. ✅s aplenty elsewhere – 10&11a along with 3,8&15d other particular likes.
    Thanks to Django & in advance to Gazza.

      1. Perhaps our good friend, the reverend Spooner, had a part to play in Huntsman’s comment? :wink:

  6. I will gladly nominate 17d as COTY it was so good. The whole grid was a delight, if over a little too quickly, but the relative speed of the solve didn’t detract from the quality of the clues. Django seems to have evolved into a less verbose phase of compiling, which I for one am grateful.

    Thanks to the aforementioned and Gazza.

  7. Some real gems is this Toughie offering. Not too difficult at all but great fun while it lasted. 27a & 17d parsed afterwards, both very clever, ‘Best of The Beatles’ – brilliant!

    Thanks Gazza & Django.

  8. Despite a couple of less than convincing surfaces, this was good fun with several of the setter’s usual complex parsing challenges to unravel along the way. Although the answers were reasonably obvious, 27a & 17d were my last two to decrypt with the former getting the accolade of my favourite.

    What is “roid rage” in 13a? I can’t find “roid” in the BRB.

    Many thanks to Django and to Gazza.

    1. The OED has ‘roid’ as a clipping of ‘steroid’, especially the sort used by body-builders. I suppose that could lead somebody to rage, on the basis that people can get annoyed about pretty much anything.

      (My guess was a clipping of “android”, and so getting frustrated with dealing with robots.)

    2. Roid is a (mainly American) slang/abbreviation of Anabolic Steroid – I thought it was a typo of road rage at first!

      1. Thanks, Smylers and Philbert. Hmm! What happened to the Telegraph’s editorial requirement for words to appear in Chambers?

    3. roid rage
      noun
      variants or ‘roid rage
      : an outburst of anger, aggression, or violence attributed to the use of anabolic steroids
      Some experts believe that use of testosterone can contribute to paranoia, depression and violent outbursts known as “roid rage.”

    1. Thanks for dropping in, Django
      A great puzzle which was full of smiles.
      I am normally puzzled out on Thursdays by the time I have solved the back pager and written my blog, but I will always find the time for one of your puzzles. Please keep them coming!

  10. I have to agree with halcyon, we are being spoilt this week by our excellent setters. This was another most enjoyable and clever puzzle. I did however need Gazza’s help to parse my 16/19A and 27A answers. I have ticks all over the place but I’m giving the podium to 30A.
    Many thanks to Gazza for his enlightenment and humour and to Django for the enjoyment.

  11. Well that was a cracking puzzle for Thursday Toughie. I thoroughly enjoyed it and managed to complete it without too much delay. Having said that there were a couple where I thought the answer was clear but needed Gazza’s help to parse (18 down where I seemed to need an extra a and 2d where I just did not see it).
    Like others I too was thrown by the roid riot, but the construct and the answer were clear enough – I should add that to a little book of words I may only ever use in a crossword!
    But for the rest of this guzzle I was inundated with ticks – so to mention only my double ticks they were 11a, 16/16a, 30a and 17d.
    loved it, thanks Django and thanks Gazza for the necessary assistance…

  12. I enjoyed this and found it fairly straightforward despite needing the hints to parse 27a, 2d and 17d. I too had half an eye on ‘roid’ being a typo but happily not so. Unusually I’m going to award my cotd to an anagram 14a/20a. Thanks to Django and Gazza.

  13. 17d was our last one in, mainly because there was some GK we did not know but later confirmed with Google and realised what a clever clue it was.
    Good fun all the way through.
    Thanks Django

  14. I usually fail on the Toughie, so thanks to Django for making this achievable. I got there eventually without hints!

    My ‘best’ was 17d, but lot of excellent clues here, and great Spoonerism at 22a.

  15. Last night I stared at the toughie for half an hour with no results at all. Today I got stuck in straight away so many thanks Django. Thanks also to Gazza for helping me parse one or two. 27 is a great word we do not use often enough. I also liked the sly alpaca’s footwear.

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