Toughie 3478 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie 3478

by crypticsue  

Toughie  No 3478 by Light

Hints and Tips by crypticsue

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

A  Light Toughie in more ways than one – it was over far too soon but at least I got to enjoy it twice while I prepared the blog post

Across

1a           Furtive person hiding head of woodwork’s stand (5)
EASEL A furtive person without (hiding) the ‘head’ of Woodwork

4a           Histrionic period in Lens? (8)
OPERATIC A long period of time inserted into a lens

10a         No base once in defective ice cream pot (7)
CERAMIC An anagram (defective) of ICE CReAM without one of the letters that is the base of the natural system of logarithms

11a         Small amount on French wine? Price on screen, perhaps (7)
VINCENT A small amount of money goes on or after the French word for wine

12a         Maybe Hannah and Linda cycling in west side of Panama City (10)
PALINDROME Cycle the last letter of LINDA to the front and insert between the letter at the west side of Panama and a European city

13a         Notice questionable faculty Yale’s opening (4)
ESPY An abbreviated hypothetical ability and the ‘opening’ of Yale

15a         Sensitive, or behaving intolerantly? (14)
DISCRIMINATING Double definition

17a         Wasting easy opportunity in need of a childminder (7,1,6)
MISSING A SITTER Wasting an easy shot or needing someone to look after a child

20a         Misleading conversation in US dance (4)
JIVE  US informal expression meaning to talk nonsense or a lively dance

21a         Drop off drunk poet and elegist I must keep away from (3,2,5)
GET TO SLEEP An anagram (drunk) of POET and ELEGiST without the I (I must keep away from)

23a         Some deplore Leicester being on the rocks (7)
LORELEI Hidden in the second and third words of the clue

24a         This could be Taylor with Queen, getting more nimble (7)
SWIFTER The surname of Taylor the singer with the regnal cipher of our late Queen

25a         Greedy types stealing iron, note – and new and old coins (8)
PFENNINGS Greedy types ‘stealing’ the chemical symbol for iron and the abbreviations for Note and New

26a         Study on time in March (5)
TREAD The capital M in March is there to mislead – a verb meaning to study goes on or after the abbreviation for Time

Down

1d           Stunt ace departs in Dodge (8)
ESCAPADE The abbreviations for Ace and Departs inserted into a verb meaning to dodge – the third instance of the use of a misleading capital

2d           Moves text in lists below second chapter (7)
SCROLLS Some lists go below abbreviations for Second and Chapter

3d           Might Cook use this singer with Dud? (5,5)
LEMON GRASS By now, you should have realised that this is the day for Misleading Capitals.  An informal term for something disappointing or defective (dud) goes before a slang informer (singer)

5d           Designer whose work gets her down in a way? (8,6)
PAVEMENT ARTIST A cryptic definition of a creator of particular designs

6d           Starters of rendang and nasi goreng gave someone a buzz (4)
RANG The ‘starters’ of Rendang And Nasi Goreng

7d           Ultimately just grounds for rebellion (7)
TREASON The ultimate letter of jusT and some grounds

8d           Smart girl ignored by vacuous enemy (5)
CUTEY Intentionally ignored and the outside (vacuous) letters of EnemY

9d           No Ginger Creams? Ridiculously alarmist! (14)
SCAREMONGERING An anagram (ridiculously) of NO GINGER CREAMS

14d         Kitten said to be mad for high-protein regimen (6,4)
ATKINS DIET An anagram (mad) of KITTEN SAID

16d         Guardiola possibly welcoming runs by a left-winger, fit (8)
PREPARED The informal way we refer to Mr Guardiola, the football manager, ‘welcoming’ the cricket abbreviation for Runs, the result followed by A (from the clue) and an informal term for a Communist (left-winger)

18d         Where meter can be read upside down? (7)
INVERSE Split 2,5 this could mean where one might find meter in the sense of syllables in poetry (with this spelling, it would be American poetry!)

19d         Star regularly receiving warmth on stage at the end here? (7)
THEATRE The regular letters of sTaR ‘receiving’ some warmth, followed by the letter at the end of stagE

20d         Mixture doctor leaves with soft drink (5)
JULEP An abbreviated doctor leaves a confused mixture, the musical abbreviation for soft being added at the end

22d         Plot having top of peaty soil mostly (4)
PLAN The ‘top’ of Peaty and most of a synonym for soil

 

 

 

15 comments on “Toughie 3478”

  1. We are all different but I must remind myself never to look at CS’s difficulty ratings. Light this was not! I thought it was extremely tough, although I did enjoy the challenge with 15a, 3d & 18d making up my podium. Needless to say, I was delighted to see the American indicator in 20a.

    Many thanks to Light and to CS.

  2. Enjoyed this, and thought it about right for a Wednesday Toughie, with just enough to put the breaks on. Some lovely red herrings (eg 4a where I spent a short time thinking of French terms for a period of time, just as Light intended we should) and clever constructions. However a number of quite odd surfaces, and I thought 22d quite weak, what with PL starting both the definition and answer; why not “them” instead of “her” in 5d, or was that deliberate obfuscation?

    Anyhow, honours to 25a (despite the surface), 3d & 12a.

    Many thanks to CS and to Light

  3. An enjoyable midweek Toughie – thanks to Light and CS.
    I ticked 11a, 23a, 5d and 19d.

  4. Gentle, certainly, but hugely enjoyable. 4a was tight, 17a tickled me and 3d’s a terrific surface. I loved 23a’s definition too. Best thanks to Light and Sue.

  5. I also thought this was more difficult than *. It was definitely worthy of the Wednesday slot. Lots of clever cluing made it an enjoyable challenge with lots to like. My picks were 12A, 3D with joint favourites 17A and 5D.
    Thanks to CS and Light.
    PS Sue I think 3D should read ” Dud before the singer”.

    1. I was so determined to get it the right way round that I was bound to fail

  6. Think this was the first Light puzzle that I’ve attempted and I wasn’t sure what to expect. The jury’s still out where the enjoyment factor is concerned but I did rather like some entries once I’d got past some strange surface reads. Top three for me were11&25a plus 5d with a mention for 20d which always conjures up memories of the Bobby Goldsboro song – quite risque at the time!

    Thanks to Light and to CS for the review.

  7. As ALP says, gentle but hugely enjoyable.
    Plenty of ticks – 3d raised a smile remembering Derek and Clive…

    Many thanks to Light, and to CS.

  8. I can see the musical soft, but I can’t quite see the doctor in 20d what am I missing?. I found some sloes in the freezer and bunged them into a 1/3 of gin and 1/3rd sugar how long do I have to wait for some slow julep?

    Thanks to Light and Sue

    1. Doh I see it now The bachelor of medicine comes out of the mixture before the piano
      Very clever Light

    2. Take MB out – there are some great covers of One Mint Julep (Booker T & JTQ) but this Quincy Jones arrangement for Ray is my fav.

    3. Re Sloe Gin – I use a very different recipe, SJB, but generally leave the liquor on the fruit for about 3 months (less for soft fruits like cherries & plums).

      Mix it all around a couple of times a day for the first few days until all the sugar has dissolved, then into a dark cupboard for time to work its magic. Strain two or even three times: through a sieve, then through a jelly muslin, and if you want a properly clear spirit, finally through something like this (https://www.home-brew-hopshop.co.uk/wine-filters/366-vinbrite-filter-kit.html) – I use the premium grade CrystalBrite pads.

      Or if you are impatient you can just pour straight tots from the demijohn and make sure you don’t disturb the fruit or sediment!

      1. Thanks, I have a jelly bag but after that I have a v60 coffee filter to get the fine stuff out. It should be good to go around Christmas

  9. A merciful & hugely enjoyable stroll after yesterday’s Zenas route march. I’d somehow missed that Light was Twm’s Toughie alter ego & can’t say I would have realised. Plenty of likes including 11,12,15&23a plus 5&20d but 3d’s super surface was the hands down winner for me & 20a was responsible for prompting the first ever blast of The Bee Gees through my Linn speakers.
    Thanks to Light & to Sue

  10. This was one of those puzzles I needed to sleep on, then this morning the remaining answers slotted into place. Probably my fault for starting this so close to bedtime; I don’t often have time to do both the backpager and the Toughie, and arguably I didn’t yesterday either — I do wish they wouldn’t schedule two of my favourite setters on the same day!

    My top few were 11a’s Price on screen, 16d with its football-related surface reading, and 18d’s meter-reading. Thank you to Light for the enjoyable challenge, and to CrypticSue for explaining the wordplay in 3d.

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