Toughie 3418 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie 3418

by crypticsue  

Toughie  No 3418 by Weatherman

Hints and Tips by crypticsue

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

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

A nice Wednesday Toughie with a few clues where the solution was obvious but the ‘why?’ took a little longer to work out

Please let us know what you thought

Across

9a           Heard on EastEnders, one who keeps everything calm (5)
ORDER A homophone (heard) of how someone from the East End would refer to a person who never throws anything away

10a         This comic character takes to cooking porterhouse steak (9)
SUPERHERO An anagram (cooking) of PoRtERHOUSE steak without  the letters TO and TAKES

11a         Tea room returned bread (7)
CHALLAH Some tea and a reversal (returned) of a large room

12a         Did tramp originally tell Dickens to describe his simple character? (7)
TRUDGED The original letters of Tell and Dickens go round (describe) the surname of a simple man in Dickens’ eponymous novel

13a         London borough’s tendency to suppress resistance (5)
BRENT A tendency goes round (to suppress) the symbol for electrical resistance

14a         Club hit inspires teenager to start festival (9)
WOODSTOCK A golf club and a dialect or slang word meaning to hit, the latter ‘inspiring’ the letter at the start of Teenager

16a         Politician disseminating bald lie came to the heart of Surrey (7,8)
LIBERAL DEMOCRAT An anagram (disseminating) of BALD LIE CAME TO and the ‘heart’ of suRRey

19a         Typical EU, desperate for sources of oil (9)
EUCALYPTI An anagram (desperate) of TYPICAL EU

21a         New decorator’s more pleasant (5)
NICER The abbreviation for New and a decorator (of cakes, perhaps)

23a         Finish a large amount of stout, being unwilling to change (7)
DIEHARD A synonym for finish and almost all of a word meaning stout in the sense of strong and resolute

25a         Boat party in Hollywood location (7)
CARAVEL A party inserted into the abbreviation for the US State where Hollywood is located

27a         Tatty underclothes abandoned by the dirty dog (9)
SCOUNDREL An anagram (tatty) of UNDERCLOtheS without (abandoned by) THE

28a         Even you could make alcohol in this (5)
STILL An adverb meaning even or something you could use to make alcohol

Down

1d           At first, thief only really cared for jewellery (4)
TORC The first letters of Thief Only Really Cared

2d           Visualise section of ride at Eastbourne (6)
IDEATE Hidden in a section of the last three words of the clue

3d           Having a few parties after cracking audition (10)
TRILATERAL Having three parties or participants – a synonym for after ‘cracking’ an audition

4d           Avoid backing little Scottish boarding school? On the contrary! (6)
ESCHEW The opposite of what the clue says – an abbreviated school ‘boarding’ a reversal (backing) of a Scottish word meaning little

5d           Rising movement erupts violently, receiving fine (8)
UPSTROKE An anagram (violently) of ERUPTS ‘receiving’ an informal way of saying fine

6d           Some savour Dutch language (4)
URDU Hidden in the second and third words of the clue

7d           Sport extremely inviting black French robe (8)
PEIGNOIR Abbreviated school sport, the extreme letters of InvitinG and the French word for black

8d           Pressure on second princess, nursed by doctor for bug (4,6)
POND SKATER The symbol for Pressure, ON (from the clue) and the abbreviation for Second and the informal way we refer to a royal princess, the latter ‘nursed’ by an abbreviated doctor

13d         Book on tree spirit is nonsense (10)
BALDERDASH An abbreviation for Book, a type of tree and a synonym for spirit

15d         Promises no cryptic compiler may use this (10)
SPOONERISM An anagram (cryptic) of PROMISES NO

17d         One who’s not in a union, but embraces revolutionary look (8)
BACHELOR A preposition meaning but for ‘embraces’ a revolutionary who often appears in crosswords and an archaic interjection meaning look

18d         US police arresting one with uneven array of stones (8)
LAPIDARY The abbreviation for a US Police Department ‘arresting’ the Roman numeral for one, the odd (uneven) letters of ArRaY being added at the end

20d         Getting ready to drop a little lower? (2,4)
IN CALF A cryptic definition, the lower here being an animal rather than an adjective

22d         Picked up current deposit of ore’s yield (4,2)
CAVE IN A reversal (picked up) of abbreviated electrical current followed by a deposit of ore

24d         Cases of academic negligence leading to teenager’s complaint? (4)
ACNE The ‘cases’ of AcademiC NegligencE

26d         Singer heads off illnesses (4)
LULU Remove the ‘heads’ from two lots of an abbreviated illness

 

 

34 comments on “Toughie 3418”

  1. Fabulous, super-smart fun. A little vocab, for sure, but very sweetly done. Very taken with 12a and 14a and 10a’s brilliant but 9a is such a cracking kick-off it takes the tape for me. Many thanks to Weatherman and CS.

  2. Didn’t know the bread or the robe, but they were straightforward to work out. 20d my favourite
    Thanks

  3. I thought this was a top-notch Toughie, perfectly pitched for a Wednesday.

    My only qualm was that “steak” in 10a appears to be surface padding.

    My top picks were 12a, 14a, 15d, 20d & 26d with several more in close contention.

    Many thanks to Weatherman for the fun. You’ve taken to this setting lark like a duck to water. Thanks too to CS.

    2. Whoops, qualm withdrawn! I’ve just spotted that “takes” as well as “to” is part of the fodder to be removed.

  4. Lovely puzzle, really enjoyed it over coffee this morning. Great surfaces throughout. For me, below the NW/SE diagonal was easier than above it. COTD for me 10a (see below for alternative parsing), other highlights 7d for the gorgeous surface, 24a (again a cracking combined surface read & answer), 25a & 12a.

    10a – I took this as an anagram of “answer + takes to” = porterhouse steak, otherwise the word ‘steak’ is superfluous to the clue.

    Many thanks to Weatherman (impressive Times time this morning – I was a little over double that and still mightily pleased!) and CS.

  5. A pleasant enough puzzle, although I had a couple of doubts. I cannot make any sense of 10a; where does the word steak come into it?
    Surely not padding…

    Thanks to Weatherman and to CS.

    1. As ALP and MG have explained above 10a is a compound anagram.
      An anagram (cooking) of the answer (this) + TAKES TO produces PORTERHOUSE STEAK.

  6. A top-notch puzzle – thanks to Weatherman and CS.
    I ticked 10a, 14a and 3d with my favourite being the superb 20d.

  7. Persuaded to try this by the positive comments made about the setter by friends who attended the recent Birthday Bash. Really pleased that I gave it a go although, as our reviewer commented, some of the ‘whys’ came a long time after the answers.
    Plenty of fun to be found in this one with top marks going to 19a plus 8,15&20d. I’ll also give a nod to 13d for being such a great word. No more 15ds? That would please a lot of people!

    Many thanks to Weatherman and also to CS for the review.

  8. A very enjoyable puzzle pitched perfectly for a Wednesday Toughie. I too had an issue with 10A’s “steak.” I know that’s an anagram of “takes” but that word was used to take “to” out of the anagram. Am I missing a gem here?
    Many great clues including 9 and 28A and 26D but favourite goes to 20D.
    Many thanks to CS and Weatherman

  9. A good start with 9a and plain sailing until the SE corner where some of the hardest [and best] clues seemed to be. Favourites were the above-mentioned 9a plus 28a, 3d and 20d.
    Thanks to Weatherman and CS.

  10. I enjoyed that! 20d and 26d were particularly entertaining. A couple of new/forgotten bits of vocab, but all gettable from the clues. Thanks very much to Weatherman and to CS for help with parsing several chucked in answers.

  11. Having had a heads-up that Weatherman was making an appearance today I was looking forward to this and it didn’t disappoint. Some precise and clever clueing with some chuckles along the way. I did not know the bread and needed help from CS to parse 10a and still struggling to parse 22d even with the hint. Podium places for me go to 10a and the simple but clever 26d with top place awarded to 18d for the deceptive definition.
    Many thanks Weatherman for the fun and of course to the indefatigable CS

  12. As others have already said this was a must do after meeting Weatherman at the Big Bash.
    What fun it was too with a couple that made the brain work a little harder. Bunging Chapati in 11a (we were in the TAP room of The Bridge House) held me up. Loved the robe (Noir was a nickname at school) and the nod to The Reverend.

  14. Hugely enjoyable and very clever offering from Weatherman. Hard to decide on a winner as this one has more ticks than a mangy mongrel, but the extraction anagram in 27a takes the chocolate hobnob.

  15. My first one in was the French robe – I don’t know what that says about me! Great fun, my last in was 10a, I don’t know this character but I should have guessed. I liked the little lower and 1d, I have one of these and it is jolly uncomfortable to wear. Many thanks to the Weatherman (just don’t ever tell us to wrap up ‘warm’ please) and to SeeSue.

  16. What an absolute joy that was to solve. Great level of difficulty with smiles and chuckles all the way through.
    Thanks Weatherman and CS.

  18. Thanks CS for the fine blog, and to commenters and lurkers for your time and attention – I’m glad it raised a few smiles, and it was nice to meet some of you last weekend.

    1. Good evening Weatherman…. When you told me on Saturday at the bag that you were the compiler for this Wednesday’s toughie I said I’d give it a go. Here I am! I managed to complete it more or less unaided so very pleased with myself. Great puzzle, beautifully clued, thank you, and many thanks to crypticsue for the excellent hints.

  19. Enjoyed this although did need to check my constructions of robes and boats.

    26d made me smile. Thanks to Weatherman & CS.

  20. Terrific puzzle. Needed to check the bread (chapati occurred first here too), the robe, the boat & the of stones post entry but otherwise unaided. Missed the compound anagram at 10a & needed the hint to understand the why at 22d. Found it pretty tricky & especially so in the SE. Ticks all over the shop too numerous to list but if forced to pick a fav it’d be a dead heat between 20&26d for the eternity it took for the pennies to drop.
    Thanks to Weatherman – more like this please & to Sue.

  21. Enjoyed the puzzle and the blog.
    Thanks Weatherman and Crypticsue.
    10 a and 20 d were my top faves. Also liked 4 d and 26 d.

  22. I’m not quite good enough to solve puzzles like this (yet?) — but that isn’t a complaint! I went to bed with it mostly completed, and instantly got a few more when I looked at it this morning (on the way to my rescheduled fire marshal course, as it happens).

    There was so much to enjoy in this puzzle. Thank you to Weatherman for the fun and CrypticSue for unlocking the bits I needed help with. My favourite was ‘Did tramp’ in 12a.

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