Toughie 3310 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie 3310

by crypticsue  

Toughie  No 3310 by Hudson

Hints and Tips by crypticsue

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

I was delighted to find that today’s Toughie was by one of my favourite setters but I wasn’t expecting it to be quite this tricky.  There were several opportunities to find yet more ‘stuff’ lurking deep in my memory, together with  an ear worm  and even a discussion about Billy Bunter over breakfast! (I remembered the master, Mr CS didn’t)

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought

Across

1a           Dodgy rip off dogging endlessly cool whizz kid (5,7)
CHILD PRODIGY An anagram (off) of DODGY RIP following (dogging) an ‘endless’ synonym for cool or make cold

8a           Former London stadium twice falling short of the required standard (2,2,3)
UP TO PAR  Remove the last letter (falling short) of both words in the name of the stadium formerly the home of West Ham United

9a           Official runs late in Crosby? (7)
CORONER Bing Crosby was a particular type of singer – move the cricket abbreviation for Runs one place down in the word

11a         Mostly stormy, all grey (7)
LARGELY An anagram (stormy) of ALL GREY

12a         Shot senior officer with old sort of blowpipe (7)
PICCOLO An informal photograph (shot) and an abbreviated senior officer with the abbreviation for Old

13a         Ian Redpath regularly getting dropped? That’s awkward (5)
INEPT Drop the even (regularly) letters of IaN rEdPaTh and remember the solution because you will need it later

14a         Beaufort scale winds churning out real cloud (9)
OBFUSCATE This splendid word meaning to cloud, obscure or confuse is obtained from an anagram (winds) of BEAUFOrT SCale,  removing the letters REAL (the anagram indicator – churning –  telling you they aren’t in that order in the fodder)

16a         Almost constantly in this island with a yen to see the sun go down here? (6,3)
GALWAY BAY Almost all of a synonym for constantly inserted into the abbreviated way of referring to our island, followed by A (from the clue) and the abbreviation for Yen (currency).  The wordplay refers to an Irish folk song (apparently once sung by Bing Crosby) :

If you ever go across the sea to Ireland
than maybe at the closing of your day
you can sit and watch the moon rise over Claddah
or watch the sun go down on xxxxxx xxx

19a         Befuddled Modernist poet initially visits addiction help group (2,3)
AT SEA The initials of a Modernist poet ‘visits’ the abbreviation by which an addiction help group is informally known

21a         French city boundary once breached by defensive blunder (7)
LIMOGES Roman border fortifications (boundary once) ‘breached’ by an abbreviated defensive blunder in a football match, for example

23a         13 unexpectedly entertaining Roman god (7)
NEPTUNE I hope you have remembered the solution to 13a as you need to write it down in front of the word ‘unexpectedly’ and find the Roman god that is being ‘entertained’ within

24a         Rarefied atmosphere in which Lord Lucan blended? (4,3)
THIN AIR Nothing or nothingness (rarefied atmosphere) into which Lord Lucan disappeared without a trace (blended)

25a         He creeps around front of ship, both hands holding end of rope (7)
PROWLER The front of a ship and abbreviations for both hands ‘holding’ the letter at the end of ropE

26a         Promising faithfully again to thank fans (6,2,4)
TAKING AN OATH An anagram (fans) of AGAIN TO THANK

Down

1d           Group company Head of Taxation upset Ireland (7)
COTERIE An abbreviated company, the ‘head’ of Taxation and a reversal (upset) of another name for Ireland

2d           Government cash advance current politician deposited on holiday (7)
IMPREST The symbol for electrical current and an abbreviated politician put on top of (deposited) a holiday to produce a loan or advance of money, especially from government funds for some public purpose

3d           Obscene fortune one’s made, in part, from toxic waste (5,4)
DIRTY BOMB A synonym for obscene and an informal word for a fortune

4d           Up-and-coming public relations expert’s bored, in summary (5)
RECAP A reversal (up-and-coming) of the abbreviation for Public Relations ‘bored’ by an informal expert

5d           Orders shooting? (7)
DIRECTS Gives the orders when shooting a film

6d           Craft shown by old nag, surprisingly first in Oaks Stakes (7)
GONDOLA An anagram (surprisingly) of OLD NAG into which is inserted (stakes in the sense of protects or takes in) the first letter of Oaks

7d           Developing story when writing pad’s sat here (8,4)
BUILDING PLOT Developing a written story or a level area of land (pad) to support foundations

10d         A-list actor tangling with Spanish wine touring eastern city (3,2,7)
RIO DE JANEIRO The surname of an A-list actor ‘tangling with’ Crosswordland’s favourite Spanish wine, the result ‘touring’ the abbreviation for Eastern

15d         One gets well oiled after bringing home the bacon! (6,3)
FRYING PAN A cryptic definition of somewhere to cook bacon – I prefer mine grilled!

17d         Large dominion dumping European area currency (7)
LEMPIRA The currency of the Honduras – the abbreviation for Large and an empire without (dumping) the second abbreviation for European which should be replaced by the abbreviation for Area

18d         Ready for Trott’s team? (7)
AFGHANI This is one of those ‘who knew?’ clues – the currency (ready) required for the solution was obvious from the checking letters but it took a bit of investigoogling to discover that Jonathan Trott, the former English cricketer, is now the head coach of a Central Asian country’s cricket team, the members of which would be paid in this currency

19d         American male artist capturing soup container (7)
AMPHORA Abbreviations for American, Male and artist ‘capturing’ a Vietnamese noodle soup

20d         Crush on master from Greyfriars’s son (7)
SQUELCH The abbreviation for Son and one of Billy Bunter’s masters at Greyfriars School – just me, or does the clue read as if the son goes after the master?

22d         Expression of indifference as second husband put on wig (5)
SHRUG Abbreviations for Second and Husband put on a slang name for a wig, especially a toupee

13 comments on “Toughie 3310”

  1. Some inventive clueing here. I particularly liked 8a [twice falling short] 9a [runs late] and 19a [poet initially]. Agree 20d is a bit clunky.
    Thanks to Hudson and CS.

  2. :phew: This was the toughest Hudson Toughie I have encountered, although I did enjoy it despite being unable to parse 12a and 19a (thanks to CS for the decryptions). I also learnt three new words (one of which was very old!): the boundary in 21a; the answer to 2d; and the obscure answer to 17d.

    Doesn’t 20d work if you read it as “on master from Greyfriars is son”?

    I think I need to lie down now.

    Many thanks to Hudson and to CS.

  3. I was pleased to see the name of the setter this morning and expected an enjoyable, amusing and not too tricky puzzle. The first two proved to be the case but the trickiness was more than I remember from previous Hudson puzzles.
    I knew Trott’s job and the Greyfriars master but I needed to verify where the sun goes down (16a), the 21a ‘boundary once’ and the 17d currency.
    Top clues for me were 8a, 9a, 12a and 23a.
    Many thanks to Hudson and CS.

  4. It always looks so easy once you’ve finished, but actually this Toughie took care and some research to get over the line. What a lovely word 14A is. I agree with you Sue that 20D reads as if the S should follow but that obviously wouldn’t make sense.
    Ticks go to 8 9 and 24A, 5 and 10D with favourite 15D which made me smile.
    Many thanks to CS and Hudson

  5. Excellent, albeit decidely chewy in places. Certainly some quirky GK which, bizarrely, flew right in. In fact the only “GK” that I feared utterly beyond me (14a) turned out not to be GK at all! Very clever stuff here that required a fair chunk of reverse parsing. I do think some of the contruction was a tad mean (14a again – that deletion was far from clear) and 20d. But 19a tickled me, as did 16a. And I loved 19d’s “soup”. Learned a few things too, namely 21a’s boundary and 17d’s currency, so it’s a win-win. Top notch. Many thanks to Hudson and CS.

  6. A tough enough toughie for a Wednesday. Agree with RD on 20d. The s after the ‘ at the end of a word ending in s can indicate is, so the s comes before master from Greyfriars. Works for me. Thanks to Hudson and CS.

  7. Where do I start? Needed the hint to parse 9a, 12a, 21a, which I still don’t understand, 23a, 2d, 10d, which I also still don’t understand, 18d and 19d. Never heard of’s, the boundary in 21a, the obscure currency in 17d, and the equally obscure Vietnamese soup in 19d. Far too obscure for me to find enjoyable. No real favourite but thanks to Hudson anyway CS for explaining most of the parsings, I would normally look things up that I don’t understand but I’m starting losing the will to live.

  8. 21a LIMES were Roman border fortifications. Insert OG, Own Goal (blunder)

    10d Tangle together DE NIRO and RIOJA and then insert E (Eastern)

  9. A quality puzzle again that we know we will get from this setter. Took some time and checkers to get the second word of 3d.
    An enjoyable solve.
    Thanks Hudson and CS.

  10. Surprised on coming here post-solve to find that this puzzle was from Hudson. Very far from being his best, and I found little satisfaction in completing it.

    Thank you anyway Hudson, entirely my problem and I very much look forward to your next one. Thanks also to CS.

  11. Crikey that was a tough nut to crack & it needed a couple of letter checker reveals to get there, Mr G on speed dial & Sue to explain one or two of the whys. Found the east a bit easier than the west. I did enjoy the challenge but for this bear of little brain I think I prefer Hudson in a gentler mood. That said I loved 1,8,9,12,14&24a plus 7,10&15d.
    Thanks to Hudson & to Sue

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