Toughie 3257 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie 3257

by ALP  

Toughie No 3257 by Chalicea
Hints and tips by ALP

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

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

A hearty welcome back for Chalicea. She’s always hugely enjoyable and, better yet, I don’t (usually) have to look for – and invariably miss – a pangram or, worse still, a pesky Nina. But one does, of course, have to keep a dictionary handy. Her vocab was relatively restrained today but this puzzle was surprisingly and pleasingly tricky to break into. Still, Chalicea is ever a box of chocolates, isn’t she? You never quite know what you’re going to get. And that’s half the fun. But it eases up pretty sharpish. All yours.

Across 

9a        Advance crew member for sandwich (9)
SUBMARINE: Advance/lend + a crew member, ie a soldier serving on a ship. I once described one of these as a soldier in print and he was less than happy, but it’s in the dictionary!

10a      Letter of thanks following article (5)
THETA: The usual “thanks” follows one of the usual articles.

11a      Mostly hoard out-of-date Indian bread that’s plain (7)
SAVANNA: Hoard or keep, minus its last letter, plus defunct (out-of-date) Indian money. Don’t even TRY putting in “nan” here. Well, I did warn you to have your dictionary nearby!

12a      Not quite correct during one-time performance (7)
INEXACT: During (2) + one-time/old (2) + performance/gig. A splendid charade.

13a      Advertise local large disco – it’s hep occasionally! (9)
PUBLICISE: The usual local + L[arge] + dIsCoItShEp. An odd surface but it works. Does anyone actually say “hep” anymore? Did they ever?

15a      Believe student, ignoring untruth and cant (5)
BEVEL: Be[LIE]ve + the usual student. Nice clue this.

17a      Where you might spread something jammy? (2,1,4)
ON A ROLL: Where you might spread jam is also a description for having a run of good luck (spread … jammy). I’m not sure exactly how to define this clue type. It’s sort of an all-in-one double cryptic definition, I guess.

19a      Works with old ploughs behind house (7)
INNARDS: Obsolete and primitive (old) ploughs after/behind a (public) house = the works of a mechanism. This is such a Chalicea clue!

20a      Suspect party ultimately wild and extremely glitzy (5)
DODGY: The usual party + wilD + G[litz]Y.

21a      Yes, cent is surprisingly an indispensable thing (9)
NECESSITY: YESCENTIS, surprisingly.

24a      Vent when one succeeds completely in audition (7)
AIRHOLE: Homophones of one who succeeds (in a will, say) and completely/altogether.

26a      Obscure relative backing artist (7)
UNCLEAR: A male relative + the usual artist, reversed (backing).

28a      Be concerned about edge of veal slice (5)
CARVE: Be concerned/mind, with V[eal] inserted.

29a      Baffled microbiologist not exceptionally stoic in a perplexing situation (9)
IMBROGLIO: Remove (not) the letters of STOIC from MICROBIOLOGIST, then shuffle/baffle it.

 Down 

1d        Classy cat coming round to devour cream essentially leaves you without any (4,2)
USES UP: The usual classy/posh, then the usual cat, reversed (coming round), with crEam inserted (devoured).

2d        Position of shareholders, possibly, with no deception (5-5)
ABOVE-BOARD: How one might describe the position of a company’s shareholders (well maybe, but only major ones I’d have thought) in relation to the directors. I would have laid money on Collins sharing my dislike of the hyphen and I’d have won. Chambers, of course, insists on a hyphen, hence its appearance here. But I must protest!

3d        Puffed up blood vessel we hear (4)
VAIN: A homophone (of a blood vessel).

4d        Festival where Elvis regularly supports Aretha Franklin? (6)
DIVALI: eLvIs after/supporting what the great Aretha Franklin was by example.

5d        Twice be right over start of invasive tropical disease (4-4)
BERI-BERI: BE from the clue + R[ight] + I[nvasive]. Twice. Smart.

6d        Groups of instrumentalists discordant endless beat, lacking ecstasy (5,5)
STEEL BANDS: ENDLESSBEAT, minus E[cstasy], discordant.

7d        Plant fluids, rising, exist after end of droughts (4)
SERA: (They) exist/live, reversed, follows [drought]S

8d        One who couldn’t eat or drink tea loses energy, in the end skin and bone (8)
TANTALUS: T[e]A + skiN + (ankle) bone. Liked this.

14d     Retreat away from reality of, I worry, vote that’s miscast (5,5)
IVORY TOWER: IWORRYVOTE, miscast.

16d     Liver mix chopped with half of celery cooked in pasta (10)
VERMICELLI: LIVERMI[x] + CEL, cooked.

17d     Equipment regulation excluding Italy (8)
ORDNANCE: Regulation/decree minus I[taly].

18d     Story involving fashionable German ladies’ frillies (8)
LINGERIE: The usual story, including the usual fashionable + the three-letter German.

22d     Pleasantly plump Conservative partner (6)
CHUBBY: The usual Conservative plus a winsome word for a male spouse. Pleasantly?! No one’s going to call you pleasant if you describe them as this!

23d     Fret over a climbing plant (6)
YARROW: Fret/be anxious, reversed/climbing, with A inserted. Sweet little clue.

25d     Seldom encountered river measurement unit (4)
RARE: R[iver] + the land measurement that’s not (quite) an acre.

27d     Cut short season’s yield (4)
CROP: Double definition. You know the drill.

This was very jolly: a nice mix with five anagrams, homophones, charades and double/cryptic definitions, etc. Some NHO money and obscure farm equipment but nothing too exotic. Solid fun.

My ticks went to 12a, 15a, 8d and 23d. What did you make of it?

29 comments on “Toughie 3257”

  2. Straightforward until it weren’t, and like Playboy I felt the answer had to be what it is, but did not bother going to the BRB because “that’s never a word, surely.”

    Light and very enjoyable. Thank you for the challenge, Chalicea. Thanks also to ALP – two of my all-time favourite films there, The Blues Brothers (watched it again only a week or two ago) & The Rocky Horror Picture Show. A group of us “dressed up” and went to a late-night screening at a cinema in Oxford (heavens, getting on for 40 years ago now…): stopping off at a pub beforehand and club afterwards made quite an impact!

    1. Blimey, that image has put me right off my pastrami! Yes, Blues Brothers, what a corker. Why oh WHY did they remake it? The most pointless exercise aside from Stallone’s Get Carter *shivers*

        1. Yep, spot on. Not to mention Point Break (ugh). At least they haven’t touched Casablanca yet. But I do quite fancy Withnail & I, the musical. It can only be a matter of time, surely. I’m going to write it if no one else does!

            1. Yes indeed – it’s about the only thing that would drag me to Birmingham! But there are no songs and no “s**** in the bath” (the right decision, probably). I did actually half-heartedly try to do this some years ago with a pal of mine who’s written musicals for Broadway (so at least one of us would have known what they were doing!) and I got a lovely letter back from Bruce – in green ink – saying, very politely, NO ******* WAY!! But I would happily sell a kidney to hear “Monty, you terrible c***” set to music. I’m smiling just thinking about it..

        2. The Wicker Man & Psycho two other notable duds. On the flip side there are plenty of goodies – A Star is Born, The Jungle Book, True Grit (though the Coens had a shocker with The Ladykillers) to name but 3

    2. I hope that all photographic evidence of myself in basque and fishnets has vanished – it was a wild night at The Grand in Leeds sometime in the 80’s
      Richard O’Brien was still doing Riff-Raff, afterwards in The Wrens and Harvey’s Wine Bar was wild and many brain and liver cells perished that night

  3. A lovely puzzle from the Floughie lady. It was fun all the way and only the last couple to fall held me up very slightly.

    I had a lot of ticks, but the gold medal goes to the splendid 8d (which gives a nod to one of our fairly regular commenters from across the pond).

    Many thanks to Chalicea and to ALP.

  4. A not so Floughie Toughie but as enjoyable as ever from the Floughie Lady and, as ALP said, the BRB required close at hand especially for the old ploughs – 2.5*/4.5*

    Candidates for favourite – 29a, 7d, and 25d – and the winner, for the manipulation required, is 29a.

    Thanks to Chalicea and ALP.

    1. I often confuse 29a with the surname of Natalie, the Australian actress and singer. :wink:

  5. Beaten by two, in 4 and 7d. I didn’t think of the artiste as a diva, but there you go. Once pointed out, the answer was obvious, as is always the case. This puzzle had the sparkle and wit I missed in the backpager today. I particularly liked 29a and the story from the frau’s frillies in18d. Thanks to Chalicea and Alp.

  6. Easy until it wasn’t. Needed 2 letter reveals to complete the NE (7&8d the culprits, the latter despite being pseudonym of our occasional commenter from across the pond but then Greek myth not my forte), bunged in19a & had to check what the answer to 15a had to do with cant. Not so floughie for me then in the end. 29a was my pick of the bunch.
    Thanks to Chalicea for a very enjoyable puzzle & to ALP for his usual fine selection of clips & explanations

  7. I found this quite tough for Chalicea and took a while to really get going. But good fun and I’ll join the club for 29a. I do like a subtractive anagram, especially when they’re as clearly signposted as this.
    Thanks to Chalicea and ALP.

  8. Thank you, Chalicia for the first toughie I’ve completed for ages, and without any hold-ups today. I enjoyed all of it. Favourite was 8d which had me dredging my memory for mythological figures. I also liked the clever anagrams at 29a and at 6d with its apposite surface read. Add to the mix the fun in 18d and 22d and what’s not to like? Thanks also to ALP for confirming my answer to 19a.

  9. BRB came in handy for the plant fluids, the old plough and a reminder of the bone but everything else was reasonably straightforward. The clue for 22d made me smile thinking of Natalie, the eventual partner of the Conservative PM (Hugh Grant) in Love Actually. That was the nickname her father had given her so quite an all-in-one clue, I thought. Love the sound of the word at 29a so that got a place on my podium along with 15&24a plus 23d.

    Thanks to Chalicea for the afternoon’s entertainment and to ALP for the review – I now have a Jungle Book earworm and a vision of Hugh Grant dancing around No.10 – all good stuff!

  11. Welcome back to the lovely lady who always opens the week with a very enjoyable puzzle. Although I finished I also couldn’t parse 19A even though I knew I was right, so thank you ALP for explaining the old plough which I’d never heard of. Although 6D had to be what it was, I missed discordant as an anagram indicator…schoolboy error.
    Lots to like but giving a mention to 1,4 and 8D, and 15A, with podium to 24A.
    Many thanks to ALP and of course to Chalicea.

  12. I’m always delighted, as you know when a Toughie pleases even if it’s the floughiest of the week. Many thanks to ALP – greetings to all from Athens where the sky is orange with Sahara sand. We got here yesterday from Geneva where it was snowing.

    1. Huge thanks for popping in and for gifting us this little peach. I can but envy those vanilla skies. Enjoy.

  14. I got and parsed 1a but still fail to see what it has to do with a sandwich, had to check the plough, spent far too long trying to fit be or is into 7d and had to check the answer when it couldn’t be anything else and I still don’t understand the parsing of 25d even with the hint. In short I found those hard for a Tuesday. Hey ho. Favourite was 13a. Thanks to Chalicea and ALP. Ooh Leicester City have just scored again.

    1. Great news about the football! Re 25d, you need the R (river) plus the (metric land) measurement that is just one letter away from – and roughly a fortieth of – an acre, to give you a synonym of “seldom”. 

  15. As ever with Chalicea the dictionary was close by but I now know lots more about ploughs, plants and their fluids and gods and their ankles
    Thanks to ALP and Chalicea
    I also know too much about Mustafa G’s (and my) drinking habits

  16. 1*/4* …
    liked 29A “Baffled microbiologist not exceptionally stoic in a perplexing situation (9)”

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