Toughie No 3411 by Karla
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Karla has upped the difficulty level a bit from his last Toughie but this is still relatively straightforward, albeit with a couple of words that I didn’t know. I enjoyed solving the puzzle – thanks Karla.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Plant cold sides of ham next to island dish (5,5)
PEACH MELBA: assemble a vegetable-producing plant, the tap abbreviation for cold, the outer letters of ham and a Mediterranean island.
6a 50% of captains refuse container (4)
SKIP: half of an informal word for captains.
9a Actor recalled chopper bearing right (5)
EXTRA: a chopping tool containing an abbreviation for right all reversed.
10a Bombastic relative given bishopric with no church (9)
GRANDIOSE: a female relative followed by a synonym of bishopric without one of our usual abbreviations for church.
12a Degenerate books in port near America (7)
RIOTOUS: insert some Biblical books into a South American port and an abbreviation for America.
13a Replica ECL cryptically delivers? (5)
CLONE: split ECL 1,2 and show how this could be presented (2,2,1) in an across clue. Very neat!
15a Old Charlie wearing a former soldier’s waders (7)
AVOCETS: the abbreviation for old and the letter that Charlie represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet are contained in A and an abbreviated former soldier plus the ‘S.
16a Estate men working with seed (7)
DEMESNE: an anagram (working) of MEN SEED.
18a College tyrant originally overlooked fraud (7)
GRESHAM: a man-eating tyrant without their first letter and a synonym for fraud or pretence. Not a college that I’ve heard of but you can read about it here.
20a Parks maybe captured by film lacking sparkle (7)
PROSAIC: the forename of American civil rights campaigner Parks goes inside an informal word for a film.
21a Envelope protects unloaded Boer weapon (5)
SABRE: the abbreviation for a prepaid envelope contains the outer letters of Boer.
23a Plaster moulding from my French city (7)
CORNICE: an exclamation of surprise (my!) and a French city.
25a Once posed crudely for theatre camera? (9)
ENDOSCOPE: an anagram (crudely) of ONCE POSED. The theatre is the scene of ops rather than plays.
26a Profile wise men cycling east (5)
IMAGE: cycle the last letter of wise men to the front and append the abbreviation for east.
27a Votes against some prissy Anglican retracted (4)
NAYS: hidden in reverse.
28a Gutrot regularly stocked by comfortable pub in capital (10)
WELLINGTON: regular letters from gutrot are contained in an adjective meaning comfortable and a synonym for pub.
Down Clues
1d Raptor dropping bone in quarry (4)
PREY: delete the anatomical word for bone from a raptor.
2d Craft on English river capsized tiny vessel (9)
ARTERIOLE: start with a synonym for craft or knack then reverse an abbreviation for English and a French river. The vessel is a bodily one (new to me).
3d Try coating bird with hot fish completely (4,4,5)
HEAD OVER HEELS: a verb to try in court contains a bird. Add the tap abbreviation for hot and types of slender fish.
4d Absorb attention of twelve dozen following measurement of space (7)
ENGROSS: a word for an amount equal to twelve dozen follows a printer’s space.
5d Slowly cooked kebab at last brought up (7)
BRAISED: the last letter of kebab and a verb meaning brought up or reared.
7d Revolutionary play divides fine city (5)
KYOTO: a verb to play or trifle goes inside a response meaning fine then it all gets reversed.
8d Liking endorsement in support of Penny (10)
PREFERENCE: an endorsement (for a new job perhaps) follows the abbreviation for penny.
11d Written testimony about commander breaking down (13)
DECOMPOSITION: a formal written testimony contains the abbreviation for commander.
14d Staff leave youth beneath small tropical tree (10)
MANGOSTEEN: weld together verbs to staff and leave, the clothing abbreviation for small and another word for youth or adolescent. Not a tree I knew but the wordplay is clear.
17d Duplicate component of spring on twisted snare (5,4)
SPARE PART: a health-giving spring is followed by a preposition meaning ‘on’ and the reversal of a snare used to catch animals.
19d Bug timid people smuggling plunder (7)
MICROBE: a metaphor for timid people contains a verb to plunder.
20d Virgin finally scrubbed mobile for composer (7)
PURCELL: an adjective meaning virgin or chaste with its last letter scrubbed off is followed by a North American term for a mobile phone.
22d Fish rolling on edges of lily is not in a good way (5)
BADLY: reverse a small flatfish and add the outer letters of lily.
24d Head started losing heart (4)
BEAN: a verb meaning started without its middle letter.
My ticks went to 10a, 15a and 20a with my favourite being the clever 13a. Which one(s) appealed to you?
My first solve from Karla. Enjoyed it but was more a workaday solve than many lightbulb or smiles. Still fun. Thanks to Karla and Gazza
Plenty of fun, a bit of head scratching, some great clues. 23a was my favourite. Thanks to Karla and Gazza.
This all started quite slowly, then I picked up speed. My last one in was 2d; I wasn’t expecting a specific river, as I assumed I had the r(iver) in 5th place as an abbreviation.
Excellent puzzle – it gets 5* from me for enjoyment. 13a is my favourite as well.
Many thanks to Karla, and to Gazza for the write-up.
Nice Thursday Toughie
Thanks to Karla and Gazza
An enjoyable puzzle deserving the Thursday slot. Lots to like with 10A, 2 and 3D deserving a mention but now the parsing of 13A has been explained….how very clever…that has to take the podium.
Many thanks to Gazza for the enlightenment and fun ( 25A takes the honours) and to Karla for the enjoyment.
Top end of my solving abilities and took a fair time to unravel.
I did know the name of the college but not how it functions – must be every Dean’s dream to head up a college that doesn’t accept students! The tropical tree was new to me as was the tiny vessel but I know more about 25a’s than I ever wanted to!
Pick of the clues for me were 15,20&28a plus 1d.
Thanks to Karla and to Gazza for the review and cartoons.
A very accessible and enjoyable puzzle with some clever clues, foremost among which were, for me, 25a and 1d.
Thanks very much to Karla and Gazza.
A relatively straightforward Toughie, which nevertheless engaged me for rather longer than an average back pager. Some splendid clues, such as 25a, and a smooth and satisfying solve throughout. I didn’t know the college, which was my last one in, but the word play got me most of the way and then there weren’t many feasible second letters to choose from. Thanks to Karla and to Gazza for the thorough explanation.
After failing completely with Karla’s debut Toughie, I swore never again so I didn’t attempt this.
However everyone seems to have enjoyed it, so has (s)he dialled back on the difficulty since then and should I reconsider my position?
Karla is definitely a he and he’s given us an enjoyable puzzle.
Needed the hints to parse 13a, 1d and 2d which I hadn’t heard of either, the tree was a new word for me as well. Good stuff though. Favourite was 14d because I got something I’d never heard from the clue. Thanks Karla and Gazza.
Surprised that no one knew the monkey puzzle tree or araucaria. It is why Araucaria the crossword setter used Cinephile as his alias when setting puzzles for the FT
Sorry CS but you’ve lost me now! I guess you’re saying that a monkey puzzle tree is a type of 14d but where does cinephile come into the equation?
Ignore me, I’m thinking of another tree in another crossword. I did know the one in this crossword
No, you are kind of right. He used Cinephile as it is an anagram of Chile Pine, another name for the monkey puzzle tree.
We struggled with 18a as it was new to us and we are ashamed to admit that 28a took far longer than it should have.
Enjoyed the solve.
Thanks Karla and Gazza.
Evening all. Thanks Gazza for the blog (25a cartoon, excellent) and thanks to everyone for commenting. See you next time round, K.
Really enjoyed this one. The tropical tree was unfamiliar so needed a check but the wordplay was straightforward. Less easy & last in was 2d – not only was I not entirely certain what the vessel was but I suspect I was messing about in the same blind alley as Jezza where the wordplay was concerned. The why at 13a far too clever for me sadly. No problems elsewhere & among plenty of ✅s 20a was my clear fav.
Thanks to Karla for a great puzzle & for popping in & to Gazza – great cartoons as per
Thanks Karla and Gazza, I got there after a lot of brain scrambling. It was a really fun solve, with the immense satisfaction of having finished in the end. I won’t win any prizes for my time though, but a win is a win and never mind the clock, solving a ***Toughie is a new experience for me.