Toughie 3281 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
View closed comments 

Toughie 3281

by ALP  

Toughie No 3281 by Gila
Hints and tips by ALP

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

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

A welcome and breezy return from Gila. Much needed after an unsettling trip to a heralded (really?) new restaurant in Borough Market. What on earth sausage, pineapple, honey and chilli are doing on the same “Greek” flatbread, I have no idea. Nor why I thought it was wise to give it a bash. It wasn’t. This, happily, proved much more palatable. All yours.

Across

1a Finished and had to carry friend until just before the end (11)
CONSUMMATED: Had (food, etc) carries/contains the most usual friend, minus its last letter (until just before the end).

7a Was suspicious of con, but somehow expected to get cleaned out (7)
DOUBTED: (to) con/rook + BUT, somehow + E[expecte]D.

8a Mythological character put in by artist (7)
ELECTRA: Put in(to office) + the usual artist.

10a Worthless piece sent back by American politician (8)
NUGATORY: Piece (weapon) reversed and/by one of the usual Americans + a (blue) politician. Horrid word but very fair.

11a Station fed by an unknown number of lines (6)
STANZA: The three-letter station, fed by/contains AN from the clue + one of the regular unknowns.

13d One assisting a swimmer (4)
AIDE: A from the clue ­+ (chub-like) swimmer .

14d Good luck describing what “crème de la crème” might entail? (3,3,4)
ALL THE BEST: Straightforward cryptic-ish definition.

16a Extravagant chap housing son in apartment (10)
FLAMBOYANT: The usual chap houses/contains the son that’s not “lad”, all inside the usual apartment.

18a Unfortunately due to receive nicked data (4)
INFO: Unfortunately due/doomed to receive  – a (2,3) definition pretty much straight out of Chambers, minus its last letter (nicked).

21a Soporific work, after which I went for lunch? (6)
OPIATE: The usual work + I + had/consumed lunch, etc.

22a Adult with very low energy recently (2,2,4)
AS OF LATE: A[dult] +/with “very” (2) + low/dejected + E[nergy].

24a Mysterious exhibit, ultimately coy about publicity (7)
SHADOWY: (to) exhibit/display + coY, about/around publicity (2).

25a Hostility shown by former manufacturing company head (7)
ICINESS: An old chemical company that became defunct in 2008 + the ever-popular head(land).

26a Large plant in the middle sometimes covered by negligible illumination (11)
STREETLIGHT: The large(st) plant + [some]T[imes] covered/surrounded by negligible/insignificant.

Down 

1d Drunk couple initially embraced (7)
CHUGGED: C[ouple] + embraced/cuddled.

2d Symbolically record the lack of an art gallery? (6)
NOTATE: How one might say the lack of a (famous London) gallery, split (2,4).

3d Doesn’t stress when badly snarled up around end of motorway (10)
UNDERPLAYS: SNARLEDUP, badly, around/containing motorwaY.

4d Podcaster’s shabby appearance (4)
MIEN: Homophone of shabby/low.

5d Agreements have to be restricted by judges (8)
TREATIES: Have (food, etc – as per 1a and 21a!) restricted by judges/hears.

6d Cadet entertains accepting reduction of hostilities (7)
DETENTE: Lurker, hidden in the first two words.

7d Distribute and sell soft hygiene product (6,5)
DENTAL FLOSS: ANDSELLSOFT, distributed. Cracking spot, this.

9d Engineer loathes taking on separate types of serviced buildings (11)
APARTHOTELS: LOATHES (engineered) takes on/contains (to) separate/split.

12d Jam in racks next to cash register (10)
STANDSTILL: Racks/shelves and, um, cash register.

15d A club in Paris you primarily rated a shambles (8)
ABATTOIR: A from the clue + (cricket) club + the French “you” + R[ated]. Super definition.

17d Rhinos, possibly, in a flipping crash heading north (7)
ANIMALS: INA from the clue flips, then crash/bang also flips (heading north). A little clunky perhaps but perfectly OK.

19d Close relatives live in comfy spot (7)
NEAREST: Live (to be) inside a (bird’s, say) comfy spot.

20d Expert, releasing book on golf, makes killing around Augusta? (6)
OFFING: A (science, etc) expert +/on (top of) G[olf]. Augusta has nothing to do with the golf here, it’s just a US indicator.

23d Odd pieces rejected by player with electronic instrument (4)
LYRE: pLaYeR + E[lectronic].

Some nice Lego, an admirably low anagram count, very fair definitions and just a couple of knotty parsings (well, just 18a really) made for a fun, fairly brisk solve. There was a tad too much eating (1a, 21a and 5d) going on for my money but I enjoyed this. I especially liked 7a, 16a, 9d and 15d. How did you get on?

25 comments on “Toughie 3281”

  1. Gila has given us an enjoyable Tuesday-level Toughie. Thanks to him and ALP.
    9d is a horrible word. I’ve never come across it before and I wouldn’t be totally devastated if I never saw it again.
    I liked the ‘nicked’ in 18a as well as 1a, 15d and 20d.

  2. I was quite slow to get into this and I’d say at least 2.5 for difficulty, but pleasant enough. Faves were 18a and 15d [my French is so rusty I had to think hard about the “you”].
    Thanks for the blog – good to see the Zappa clip [what a band] but you missed an opportunity for a Tool tune at 21a. And thanks to Gila for the puzzle.

    1. That is hilarious, halcyon. I’d never heard of Tool until yesterday (a mate was off to see them at the O2). But he informed me that their top song is entitled “Prison Sex” so I immediately dismissed their 21a tune out of hand. I also figured Zappa would already have Jane gibbering without stirring the pot further!

      1. Too right it did! I’d vaguely hoped for 17d’s House of the Rising Sun and a nice piece of classical music played on a 23d – silly girl………

  3. This was nearly excellent, spoilt only by the absolutely ghastly 9d. It is not in the BRB and so should not be in this puzzle. (Ed.- please note). It’s probably too awful a word even for Terence’s THE LIST.

    The setter has made an attempt at atonement by correctly including an American indicator in 20d.

    1. It is in Collins, to be fair, and I’ve certainly stayed in plenty. I thought 10a was way worse!

      1. APARTHOTEL/S is also in the OED, which in my humble opinion is an infinitely better/more interesting and valuable source of words than Chambers on account of the fact that it has actually been updated in the last 10 years. I’d have a lot more time/respect for the BRB if it actually moved with the times and became a B-erRB!

        Thanks for the kind words. Glad that 95%-ish of this went down well :-)

        1. Quite. I’ve certainly never understood the Telegraph’s obsession with Chambers. Personally, I prefer Collins. If it’s good enough for Scrabble, it’s more than good enough for me! Huge thanks for popping in – and for a cracking puzzle. Very entertaining, ta.

        3. For some years “Aparthotels” has been a term featuring almost weekly in planning applications down here in Cornwall, and I suspect Devon, too, as publicised in local media both ‘real world’ and online. They seem to be used as a justification for knocking down old hotels and large houses, replacing Victorian or Edwardian ‘character’ with soulless glass & white concrete boxes perched on cliff tops and along beachfronts.

          If only the impact of coastal erosion could be confined to causing only these new developments to topple, and preferably their name, too!

        4. The problem is that the OED costs £100/year for a personal online subscription; the 2-volume Compact OED 2nd Edition (1991) is £400 and requires one to use a magnifying glass to read it. The Oxford Dictionary of English is a more reasonable £28 from Amazon but unless I’m missing something the latest version is the 2010 edition – I don’t know how it compares with the BRB (£30), but the BRB is arguably slightly more up to date, published in 2014.

          I’m sorely tempted to invest in the Collins (14th ed), also about £30, because it was only published last August, however I’ve only just got my BRB house-trained, where it sometimes falls open almost at the page I want!

            1. Thanks Gila and Gazza – both observations much appreciated. Now I just have to find my old library card!

              Light bulb moment – I’ve just remembered I have a Waterstones Gift Card, courtesy of a Times Saturday puzzle… I feel a Collins parcel could soon be on the way.

          2. I don’t know about the 14th edition of Collins but I have the 13th edition and I much prefer handling the Chambers to the Collins because the Chambers has much better quality paper.

        5. 9d also gets used in the pages of The Telegraph, for instance in this recent article.

          It seems more reasonable to me that a publication’s crossword uses terms that appear elsewhere in that publication than in any particular dictionary.

  4. Well, I suppose I’ve learnt a couple of new words today – 10a & 9d, but I didn’t need to know them and I’d also prefer to forget that odious term for drunk.
    On the upside, I enjoyed the extravagant chap, the patient driver in 3d and 18a which took me an unbelievable length of time to fathom out.

    Thanks to Gila and to ALP for the review.

    1. I looked that odious term up, and discovered it means gulped rather than intoxicated.

  5. Apart from a couple of raised eyebrows to which earlier commenters have already alluded, this was really good fun and entertaining while it lasted. Plenty of lego to get us going, and in 16a a cracking clue to win gold medal.

    Thanks to Gila for the challenge and to ALP.

  6. 10a was a new word for me, but fairly clued as was 1d and 20d. With 9d I had most of the checkers and some letters left over and simply made a word up and Googled it, to my amazement it was real. Favourite was 24a. Thanks to Gila and ALP. I still can’t get into the site with DuckDuckGo.

  7. A rather enjoyable start to the week’s Toughies, a puzzle that initially threatened to be more of a challenge than turned out to be the case once I’d tuned-in to Gila’s wavelength. Life would have been easier had I not biffed “chimera” at 9a on the first read through (chime in / put in) but 5d & 6d just had to be what they were, so out came one mythical character in return for another. Not a duff clue in sight, smiled broadly at 20d, with other Special Mentions to 16a, 7a and 4d.

    Many thanks indeed to Gila & ALP

  8. Got there but wasted a bit of time with chime for put in before 6d forced a rethink. Not my favourite but can’t really put my finger on why so probably just a bit grumpy today.

    Thanks to Gila and ALP.

  9. Totally agree with Gazza about 9d. Our first reaction was disbelief that it was an actual word. The rest of it was a really enjoyable solve for us.
    Thanks Gila and ALP.

  10. Lovely puzzle. Thank you Gila and ALP.
    10a was a new word for me, but I knew the portmanteau word at 9d.

  11. Both 9d&10a unfamiliar but gettable. Enjoyed the puzzle but made harder work of it than I should have. Started late last night & tired eyes dictated that the NE had to wait until this morning.
    Thanks to Gila & to ALP – Frank & Withnail – my cup runneth over.
    Ps just off to see Standing At The Sky’s Edge in Covent Garden.

  12. 1*/3* ….
    liked 25A “Hostility shown by former manufacturing company head (7)”

Comments are closed.