Toughie 3516 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie 3516

by Gazza  

Toughie No 3516 by Sparks
Hints and tips by Gazza

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

My BRB had to work overtime today and the number of new terms for me made it hard work but all were fairly clued and there were some entertaining clues. Thanks to Sparks. I can’t spot a Nina – can you?

Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.

Across Clues

1a Flying westwards, low in spirit (7)
ZOOMING: reverse a verb to low inside a synonym of spirit or pizzazz.

5a Tack round odd bits of thin fine fabric (7)
BATISTE: a verb to tack or stitch contains the odd letters of thin. Both the fabric and the needlework term were new to me.

9a What about cutting Hebridean island’s rhubarb? (5)
RHEUM: reverse a curt query meaning ‘what?’ inside an island in the Inner Hebrides. The answer, according to the BRB, is the rhubarb genus – who knew?
10a Retrospectively give out prize case for carriage clock? (9)
TIMEPIECE: reverse a verb to give out or vent and add an informal term for a prize or spoil (thanks again to the BRB) and the outer letters of carriage.

11a Against drinking vigorous – no, old – wine (10)
CHARDONNAY: an abbreviation meaning against contains an adjective meaning vigorous or tough. Finish with an old word for no.

12a Square that’s right here … (4)
FOUR: the answer is visible here (on the far right).

14a Who might have condemned liaisons with Tito? (12)
ISOLATIONIST: an anagram (condemned) of LIAISONS TITO.

18a Dazed groups of agents with leader splitting hamstring in drop (12)
SHELLSHOCKED: a term for groups of agents or possibly terrorists without its leading letter and a verb to hamstring go inside a verb to drop or discard.

21a Praise twin from the east (4)
LAUD: reverse an adjective meaning twin.

22a Outside Germany, dreadful ignorance about male hormones (10)
ANDROGENIC: an anagram (dreadful) of IGNORANCE contains the IVR code for Germany.
25a Green poet ill, old, withdrawn (5,4)
OLIVE DRAB: assemble a literary word for a poet, an adjective meaning ill or adverse and the abbreviation for old then reverse the lot.

26a Business rival regularly checks clubbing-holiday Mecca? (5)
IBIZA: an informal word for a business is contained in regular letters of rival.
27a I agree to challenge Telegraph’s English in that sometime (5,2)
YOU’RE ON: insert the possessive adjective for Telegraph’s and an abbreviation for English into an old literary word for ‘that’.

28a Herb caught and bowled, perhaps causing stoppage in play (4,3)
TIME OUT: a homophone of a culinary herb and what bowled is an example of in cricket.

Down Clues

1d Unknown university supported by productive finance hub (6)
ZURICH: an algebraic unknown and an abbreviation for university followed by an adjective meaning productive or fertile.

2d Non-reciprocated love, fresh and ever poetic (3-3)
ONE-WAY: string together the zero-resembling letter, an adjective meaning fresh and a poetic word for ever.

3d Misled to my failing in a shameful manner (10)
IMMODESTLY: an anagram (failing) of MISLED TO MY.

4d Entered bar, cycling (3,2)
GOT IN: cycle the letters of an oblong bar.

5d Pompous manager almost frames business graduate with unlimited blame (9)
BOMBASTIC: an informal manager without his/her last letter contains a business degree. Finish with an informal word for blame or criticism shorn of its limiting letters.
6d Error made by vacuous Teletubby and another (4)
TYPO: the outer letters of Teletubby and the name of one of them.
7d Hurry set point after a couple of upsets? (4,2,2)
STEP ON IT: reverse two letters twice in ‘set point’.

8d Denounce cost of administration? (8)
EXECRATE: split the answer 4,4 for cost of administration.

13d C’est la guerre, say some firing indiscriminately (10)
FOREIGNISM: an anagram (indiscriminately) of SOME FIRING.
15d See female smile in opera (9)
LOHENGRIN: charade of an exclamation meaning see, a female (bird or woman) and a synonym of smile.

16d Olympiads, not one playing devotional songs (8)
PSALMODY: remove the Roman one from OLYMP[i]ADS and make an anagram (playing) of what you have left.

17d Black and gold invention buried in heart of pseudo Hampshire village (8)
BEAULIEU: start with the pencil abbreviation for black then insert the chemical symbol for gold and an invention or falsehood into the central letters of pseudo. The village is most famous for being the home of the National Motor Museum.

19d Violet-blue mythical monster decapitated (6)
INDIGO: remove the first letter from the name of a mythical cannibalistic monster amongst some Native American tribes. The monster required some searching on my part.

20d One month patrolling Bronze Sector (6)
OCTANT: the short form of a month contains a verb or noun meaning bronze.

23d Going over lump, drive back (5)
REBUT: reverse a lump or swelling.

24d Picked up top dog (4)
PEKE: this sounds like a top or summit.

I particularly liked 26a, 28a, 1d and 7d. Which clue(s) tickled your fancy?

12 comments on “Toughie 3516”

  1. This was quite tricky in places, but I’ve tackled harder…
    I had a lucky guess at 5a, 14a was quite nasty, and I did not know the 7 letter monster.
    As Gazza says “all were fairly clued”, although 12a took a while to spot! :-)

    I double ticked 28a, so that gets my vote.

    Thanks to Sparks and to Gazza.

  2. Friendly for a Friday Sparks but I did enjoy the solve, probably helped by knowing all of the unknowns.

    Lots of clues I liked but 12a was the first one to make me smile so I’ll choose that one as my favourite

    Thanks to Sparks and Gazza

  3. I agree about one or two unknowns which had to be solved correctly and after further investigation were confirmed.
    Some impressively sharp and elaborate clueing which still read very smoothly.
    I liked the injured spy in 18a, the Balearic businessman in 26a, the arrogant boss in 5d and the mysteriously concealed treasure in 17d.
    Not too keen on the first part of 27a as a five letter word though.
    Top stuff for a Friday Toughie, thanks to Sparks and Gazza.

  4. Not as hard [or as much fun] as the last two. A puzzle to respect but not to smile at – tho’ 7d was quite inventive.
    Thanks to Sparks and Gazza.

  5. Very enjoyable, and relatively kind for a Friday, with a full and correct grid even though the parsing of some answers, let alone some answers themselves, were new to my vocab – the mythical monster and fine fabric in particular. A good mental workout. Honours to 12a, 8d & 15d with runners-up 1a & 5d.

    Many thanks to Sparks and to Gazza – lovely cartoon selection, and thank you for some of the parsings.

  6. Required a bit of looking up to confirm a few of my constructions. 7d gets my vote.

    Thanks to Sparks and Gazza.

    1. The answer is found at the end of the clue, after the ellipsis, in brackets. It’s quite sneaky, but legitimate Friday Toughie stuff.

    2. The answer to the 12a clue is a square number which is visible in brackets at the right end of the clue.

      1. Revising my list of Toughies tells me that this was the 100th toughie from Sparks, but it doesnt help with finding a Nina.

  8. Very enjoyable, despite the several odd words, but all clearly and cleverly clued. On the gentle side for a Friday, for sure, but still a good challenge. 12a wins the prize for me, mainly because I never usually spot those “off-piste” clues, and this time I did. I also like 6d. It at least provides a use for the time spent watching/suffering the programme when the kids were young.

    Thanks to Sparks for the workout and to Gazza for the Blog, especially doing the research into 19d so I didn’t have to!

  9. A couple of places where the BRB was called upon but we managed to sort everything, even the Hampshire village.
    an enjoyable solve for us.
    Thanks Sparks and Gazza.

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