Toughie No 3387 by Silvanus
Hints and tips by Gazza
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Silvanus is as smooth and enjoyable as ever – many thanks to him.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Lure from Madrid cast for movie thriller (4,1,3,6)
DIAL M FOR MURDER: An anagram (cast) of LURE FROM MADRID gives us a Hitchcock thriller. The answer became obvious once 3d was in place.
8a Reportedly fail to notice drink becoming cloudy (5)
MISTY: homophones of ‘fail to notice’ and a non-alcoholic drink.
9a Crack in pub heard occasionally following last month’s opening (8)
DECIPHER: the map abbreviation for a pub and occasional letters from ‘heard’ follow the start of the last month (3,1).
11a A league team lacking two Europeans playing for country (9)
GUATEMALA: remove two of the abbreviations for European from A L[e]AGU[e] TEAM and make an anagram (playing) of what you have left.
12a Maize finally consumed by adult ram, devoured entirely (3,2)
ATE UP: insert the final letter of maize into the film classification for adult and another word for a ram.
13a American fell adopting exercise tip (4)
APEX: the American spelling of a verb to fell contains the abbreviation for exercise at school.
14a Reference book omits unknown film-maker (8)
DIRECTOR: a reference book without its trailing mathematical unknown.
17a Drunk approaches bar, crossing a main thoroughfare (4,4)
HIGH ROAD: an adjective meaning drunk and a bar or pole containing A.
19a Convention is crowded, we hear (4)
PACT: this sounds like an adjective meaning crowded or chock-a-block.
23a Towel perhaps left out, oddly placed between taps (5)
CLOTH: insert the abbreviation for left and the odd letters of ‘out’ between the markings on bathroom taps.
24a Big bloomer angry head condemned (9)
HYDRANGEA: an anagram (condemned) of ANGRY HEAD.
25a Seek jet, maybe missing home after holiday’s over (8)
SCAVENGE: what jet (or turboprop, perhaps) could be without the adverb meaning ‘at home’ follows the reversal of an abbreviated holiday and its ‘S.
26a Language of loud revolutionary Middle Eastern priest ignored (5)
FARSI: the musical abbreviation for loud and the reversal of a Middle Eastern citizen after we’ve removed the Old Testament priest.
27a Doctor pals undermined never lose hope (3,11)
NIL DESPERANDUM: an anagram (doctor) of PALS UNDERMINED.
Down Clues
1d Visual images will support March population data (12)
DEMOGRAPHICS: visual images follow a synonym of a march or rally.
2d Endangered meerkats taken to shelter (2,5)
AT STAKE: hidden.
3d Chaos created by Tory leader, flipping mediocre! (6)
MAYHEM: the surname of a Tory leader of recent years (there have been so many it’s easy to forget) followed by the reversal of a slang interjection meaning mediocre (which may derive from a Yiddish term for the sound of a bleating goat).
4d Distressing experience in exam, receiving low grades (6)
ORDEAL: a type of exam contains the letters used for less than excellent grades.
5d Opportunity to remove second egg seen underneath minute snake (8)
MOCCASIN: remove the second occurrence of the egg-shaped letter from a synonym of opportunity and append that to the abbreviation for minute.
6d Watch TV show broadcast again, hospital drama (8)
REPEATER: this is a specific type of watch which comes from joining a term for a subsequent showing of a TV show and a US hospital drama best known for introducing George Clooney to his adoring fans.
7d Gold, possibly small amount (7)
ELEMENT: gold is just one of the 118 of these currently identified.
10d Song medium claims is means of contacting the dead (12)
SPIRITUALISM: a religious song associated with the southern states of America and the clothing abbreviation for medium bracket IS.
15d Not all research I’ve downloaded gets stored away (8)
ARCHIVED: our second hidden word.
16d More than one expert potter may clean up thus? (3,5)
DAB HANDS: a potter may get a bit messy when manipulating clay so could do this to clean up.
18d Discovered rich banker endlessly around eating hotel’s pasta (7)
GNOCCHI: assemble ‘rich’ without its outer letters and a major river in central Africa without its final letter. Now reverse that and insert the letter that hotel represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet.
20d Month getting half-cut on posh wine as predicted (7)
AUGURED: bind together half of a Summer month, our usual letter meaning posh and a generic type of wine.
21d Stick with cycling, that fellow learned (6)
ADHERE: start with a phrase meaning ‘that fellow learned’ (2,4) and cycle the letters.
22d Natural fibre typically Nadal ingests whenever served up (6)
RAFFIA: what Mr Nadal is typically called (a shortened form of his forename) contains the reversal of a conjunction meaning whenever.
I liked 25a, 2d and 6d with my favourite being the excellent 16d. Which one(s) did the trick for you?
Super-smooth as ever and a joy to solve. It was nicely challenging with the hardest part picking a podium choice. I’ve finally settled on 8a, 26a & 10d but you would get a valid selection by perming any three clues from the whole grid.
👍for the American indicator in 13a. 👎 for the lack of an American indicator in 6d.
Many thanks to Silvanus for a superb puzzle and to Gazza for a great review with some hilarious cartoons.
Wonderful stuff. Top class but reasonably accessible.
So many ticks, but I will restrict myself to:
Across – 8, 9, 11, 17, 23, 26
Down – 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 16, 20
CoD – a tricky one, but if pushed, I’ll go with 11a.
I needed Gazza’s help with 18d and 21d for which, many thanks.
Thanks also to Silvanus.
More like this, please!
This was another very enjoyable challenge from Mr Smooth. I agree with RD that an American reference to 6D would have helped the parsing as it did at 13A. I’d never heard of the programme and so I failed on this one. Thank you Gazza for explaining, now all is clear.
There was so much to like but my podium goes to 9A
Thank you Gazza for the excellent blog and all the fun and to Sylvanus for so much enjoyment.
Gazza, all the answers are exposed!!
They’re not exposed here. Did you get to the blog from the notifying email? If so I think it’s my fault because I forgot to insert the ‘break’ line (which has caused a problem before). Sorry.
If you access the puzzle from the main page the answers are hidden.
Yes that’s what I did! That must be why
Managed all the long outside clues straight off, which gave me the best start possible. 6d LOI, but I had to check the hint to parse it. 9a tricky as well I thought.
Thanks Sylvanus, and Gazza for the explanation
A firmly embedded earworm had me on the bonnie banks of Lock Lomond for much of the solve – with any luck, the hunk from the TV show will soon be joining me!
Sorry, I digress – another superb puzzle from Mr Smooth with plenty of twists and turns to be negotiated. Leader board here shows 9&17a plus 1,6&20a with a mention for the wonderful phrase at 27a. Slight harrumph at the dreadful word for mediocre in 3d and I was very grateful for knowing the required pasta which enabled me to work the clue in reverse.
Many thanks to Silvanus for a joy of a puzzle and to Gazza for the review and cartoons – the one at 9a really made me laugh.
Top notch puzzle as ever from Mr Smooth. A pretty straightforward grid fill in well under my usual Toughie time but a couple of the whys eluded me (5d&25a – thanks Gazza). Impossible to pick a fav from so many goodies – I had ticks against all of Shabbo’s selections + a few more. Hitchcock was a bit dismissive of 1a but I think it’s a super film & I could watch the great Ray Milland in anything. I’d love to see it on stage.
Thanks to Silvanus for yet another cracker & to Gazza for the review & cartoons
Charming as ever, with a beautifully light touch. 1d just couldn’t be smoother. Many thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.
Fabulous entertainment for a miserably wet afternoon here in Shropshire. This, combined with the RayT earlier, really was crossword heaven. let’s go for 4d as a favourite.
Many thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.
Excellent as ever, not easy though but all done and parsed. Favourite was 22d. Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.
Good fun and solvable even after a leisurely lunch. 8a is a bit of a dud – nobody pronounces it like that except in the song of the same name – but 9a, 26a and 5d are top notch.
Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.
I can’t think how else it could be pronounced!
Me neither, but I’ve become bored arguing about homophones!
Many thanks to Gazza (excellent cartoons as well as excellent explanations) and to everyone solving and commenting.
Like Huntsman, I’m also fond of 1a, but then I’m a fan of most Hitchcock films, especially North By Northwest, Rear Window and Strangers On A Train.
I doubt if I’ll have another Toughie scheduled this year but I hope to return early in 2025.
North By Northwest my fav with Shadow of a Doubt & Notorious on the podium but pretty well like ‘em all really.
If no Toughie trust we’ll have at least a couple of your puzzles in t’other spot before Christmas.
Late reporting in today but had to record our appreciation for a top class puzzle.
Don’t know where they have hidden the setter’s name on the new format so when we were solving it was a case of ‘guess who’.
Thanks Silvanus and Gazza.