Toughie 3238 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie 3238

by crypticsue  

Toughie  No 3238 by Robyn

Hints and Tips by crypticsue

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

Another fairly friendly and most enjoyable  Toughie from Robyn.

If I had one quibble, there did seem to be quite a lot of ‘lettery’ clues – use the outside letters of words, or the ‘leaders’ etc, particularly in the Acrosses

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought

Across

1a           Man’s main town house — he lived at No 10 (7-4)
DOUGLAS-HOME The main town on the Isle of Man and a dwelling place (house) – he was the Prime Minister who lived at No 10 from 1963-1964

7a           Loud noise of farm animals running (7)
FLOWING The musical abbreviation meaning loud and the noise made by cattle (farm animals)

8a           Providing coverage of races in sporting publication (7)
MATTING Some races some of which take place on the Isle of Man and IN (from the clue) inserted into (sporting) an abbreviated publication

10a         Drug-smuggling arch criminal gets stretch (5)
REACH An anagram (criminal) of ARCH ‘smuggling’ crosswordland’s favourite abbreviated drug

11a         One wanting good fare from German city keeping up with Turkey’s capital (3,6)
BON VIVANT A German city ‘keeping’ a Spanish or Italian interjection  meaning ‘up with’ or long live, the result followed with the ‘capital’ of Turkey

12a         Cash allocation farm invested in banks in Tennessee (7)
TRANCHE A farm inserted into (invested in) the ‘banks’ of TennesseE

14a         Pathetic sort of mobile phone cover for owner (2-5)
NO-HOPER An anagram (mobile) of PHONE and the outside letters (cover for) of OwneR

15a         Close to collapse, a short nap is most relaxing (7)
EASIEST The ‘close’ to collapsE, A (from the clue) and a truncated post lunch nap

18a         Like a fiend‘s appeal over attending prison briefly (7)
SATANIC Abbreviated Sexual Attraction (appeal), a reversal (over) of a simple way of saying attending and almost all (briefly) of an informal name for a prison

20a         Series of penalties drive away solicitors (5-4)
SHOOT-OUTS An interjection used to scare birds or animals away and some solicitors, these ones not members of the legal profession!

21a         Section of poetry in French, mostly empty (5)
ENVOI The concluding part of a poem – the French word for in and most of an adjective meaning empty

22a         Take care of U-turn when travelling about (7)
NURTURE An anagram (when travelling) of U TURN and the usual ‘about, on the subject of’

23a         US lawman left case of unnerving obstruction of hearing (7)
EARPLUG The US lawman involved in the Gunfight at the OK Corral, the abbreviation for Left and the ‘case’ of UnnervinG

24a         Send us wild in Italian opera? This might! (6,5)
NESSUN DORMA An anagram (wild) of SEND US inserted into an Italian tragic opera

Down

1d           Model scene in play concealing bits of information (7)
DIORAMA A play ‘concealing’ bits of information sent between computers

2d           Leader of unbelievers locks up a biblical figure (5)
URIAH The ‘leader’ of Unbelievers and a reversal (up) of some locks combine to give us an Old Testament figure

3d           Clear Paris Match articles involving British territory (7)
LEGIBLE Two French (as used in Paris Match) definite articles into which is inserted (involving) an informal name for a British territory

4d           Mystery man, a bit vain — one mischievously turning up (7)
SIMENON A French author of mysteries is inserted in reverse (turning up) in vaiN ONE MISchievously

5d           Trick shot in golf? Tell me all (3,4,2)
OUT WITH IT To defeat by superior ingenuity (trick) and a golf shot

6d           Pie concocted with grouse and bit of fruit peel (7)
EPICARP An anagram (concocted) of PIE with a synonym of grouse in the sense of complain

7d           Perhaps I press on, with rift developing (5,6)
FIRST PERSON An anagram (developing) of PRESS ON with RIFT

9d           Good film with great start (3,8)
GET CRACKING The abbreviation for Good, crosswordland’s favourite film and an informal way of saying great or very good

13d         Heard superfans of activity with knights and horses (9)
CHESTNUTS A homophone (heard) of an activity with knights and people with an obsessive interest in something (superfans)

16d         Gambler’s odds on gold getting smuggled in pouch (7)
SPORRAN Some abbreviated betting odds, the heraldic term for gold and a synonym for smuggled

17d         Not lying about Germany to the French PM (7)
TRUDEAU Not lying but genuine goes ‘about’ the IVR Code for Germany, the French word for ‘to the’ being added at the end

18d         Compilers upset while away in bar temporarily (7)
SUSPEND A reversal (upset) of the way a group of compilers might refer to themselves followed by a verb meaning to pass time (while away)

19d         Book Vauxhall to cover short distance (7)
NOVELLA A Vauxhall car ‘covers’ a measure of length

21d         Rolls with eggs on the outside — flipping silly idea! (5)
ERROR The informal way we refer to a Rolls-Royce car inserted into (with … on the outside) a reversal of some fish eggs

 

17 comments on “Toughie 3238”

  1. Terrific puzzle & the full ***** for enjoyment though needless to say I found it a touch more difficult than a * rating. The input/output bit at 1d went over my head & 6d needed a post solve check but otherwise reasonably straightforward. Loved all 4 peripheral long ‘uns (24a the pick of ‘em) but from a plethora of ✅s 13d crossed the line well clear of the field.
    Thanks to Robyn & to Sue – can you tell me the link to complete FT puzzles online without a subscription. I’ve done so in the past on the iPad but can’t remember how.

    1. I usually go via the Today’s Cryptics link at the top left of the home page of 15sq

    2. Huntsman, regarding 1d I too wondered at first if the missing I and O were related to Input/Output but then I remembered “bits”. In a computing sense, this refers to Binary Digits, i.e. 1 and 0, as implied in Sue’s decryption.

  2. This was much tougher than yesterday’s Toughie but equally highly enjoyable. There were several complex parsing challenges where finding the answer was relatively straightforward but unravelling the complexity of the wordplay was altogether a different kettle of fish.

    This was a joyful relief after my struggles with the back-pager today.

    Many thanks to Robyn and to CS.

  3. I certainly rated this a little harder than our esteemed blogger, but it was not impenetrable by any means. It was highly entertaining and of a high standard IMHO, with some excellent clueing. 24a was brilliant and my favourite by a mile.

    My thanks to Robyn and Sue.

  4. A cracking puzzle with not a dud clue in sight – thanks to Robyn and CS.
    The 4d mystery man usually comes up when someone is asked to name five famous Belgians.
    I have so many ticks on my printout that I’ve had to employ a new pen. I’ll just mention 1a, 24a, 1d, 3d, 5d and 18d.

  5. So much care and cleverness as always – tight surfaces and whip-smart wordplay. 8a,11a, 6d and 21d (et al) are all brilliant. While away, viva, rolls, etc – so very good. But does 5d really need the golf? Who cares! I hate the opera itself but 24a is just magnificent. A joy to solve. Many thanks to Robyn and CS.

      1. Ha, it’s not the opera I mind so much, it’s the duration. In my opinion, the only thing that should acceptably last for four hours is a bike ride!

  6. Needless to say, this took me far longer than it did for our reviewer – equally needless to say that the bits of information in 1d were beyond me, but the answer was fortunately obvious. Most enjoyable challenge from our setter with ticks awarded to 1,7,20&24a plus 13&18d.

    Thanks to Robyn for an excellent puzzle and to CS for the review.

  7. This was a one person solve as Carol had to dash away to meet friends as soon as we had done our blog. This meant that I was able to have the pleasure of solving this delightful puzzle all to myself for a change.
    Thanks Robyn and CS.

  8. Got there but now without some head scratching and a bit of looking up. Very enjoyable. Thanks to CS and Robyn.

  9. Super puzzle from a top notch setter. Lots of fun and excellent wordplay.

    I had the pleasure of hearing the great Pavarotti belting out 24a at Leeds Castle. The crowd did indeed go wild 👍

    Thanks Robyn and CS for the review.

  10. On my first pass I got four answers, however, I managed to get my act together and struggled through. How on earth 11a popped into my head with my lack of French I’ve no idea, I must have heard it sometime. All fairly clued and I enjoyed the challenge. Favourite was 20a. Thanks to Robyn and CS.

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