Toughie No 3610 by Prime
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ***
The final Toughie of 2025 was set by Prime; I found it a mix of the straightforward, some ‘what is he on about here’ and the need to see what the BRB thought while preparing some of the hints
Happy New Year to Prime, all the other setters, my fellow bloggers and all the commenters, including the lurkers
Please let us know what you thought
Across
1a Go right through rosé (6)
TRAVEL The abbreviation for Right inserted into a rosé wine from the south of France
5a Tax pre-empted by city news (6)
LATEST A verb meaning to tax or try is preceded by (pre-empted) by an abbreviated American west coast city
10a Primate buzzed on over (5)
ORANG A more formal way of saying telephoned than using the word buzzed goes on or after the cricket abbreviation for Over
11a Frank had possibility (9)
CANDIDATE An adjective meaning frank followed by had [food]
12a Did Wheel of Time actors tolerate, at first, getting covered in blood? (7)
ROTATED The first of a couple of instances of misleading capitals – the first letters of Of Time Actors Tolerate inserted into a colour like blood
13a In Quebec I love going round splendid old city (7)
JERICHO The official language of Quebec is French so you need the French word for I and the letter representing love ‘going round’ one of the many definitions of the adjective splendid
14a Hot whitewash which fixes locks (9)
HAIRBRUSH The abbreviation for Hot and a verb meaning to whitewash or remove
17a Stony silence consumes family (5)
SKINT A slang word for being penniless (stony) – an interjection meaning hush or be quiet ‘consumes’ family or relatives
18a Very French woman’s battleground (5)
SOMME An adverb meaning very and an abbreviated French woman
19a Yeomen, say, surprisingly ready for little work (4,5)
EASY MONEY An anagram (surprisingly) of YEOMEN SAY
21a New Look to buy Aldi, making some noise (7)
AUDIBLY Misleading capitals to help the surface reading – an anagram (new look to) of BUY ALDI
23a Decisive argument from student puncturing me (7)
SETTLER The usual abbreviated student ‘puncturing’ how Prime would refer to himself in connection with this, and other, crosswords
25a Arrangement of letters and musical symbols followed by dash (9)
FLATSHARE Musical symbols followed by a verb meaning to run fast (dash)
26a Mum mostly spoke African language (5)
MASAI Another informal name for a mum and most of a synonym for spoke or uttered
27a Regret pressing computer key to save (6)
RESCUE A verb meaning to regret into which is inserted (pressing) a key on your computer keyboard
28a Port wine’s divided, no longer at full strength (4,2)
PAST IT A type of sparkling wine divides the abbreviation for port
Down
2d Condemn authority about stifling oxygen (5)
ROAST A reversed (about) person appointed as an authority into which is inserted (stifling) the chemical symbol for Oxygen
3d Food in middle of oven within one’s grasp after temperature drops (9)
VEGETABLE The letters in the middle of oVEN followed by an adjective meaning within one’s grasp after one of the abbreviations for Temperature is ‘dropped’
4d Transparent cap holding caps (5)
LUCID A cap or top of something ‘holding’ the abbreviation for capital letters
5d Pants worn by gents? (4,5)
LONG JOHNS The name of these pants might imply that only men could wear them, although some of the images available on Google would disagree! American -English slang for a gents toilet inserted into (worn by) a verb meaning yearns (pants)
6d One sampling part of Moselle (5)
TRIER Someone sampling something or a city in the Moselle region of Germany
7d Eminem song, brief hit covered by Sting in bar (9)
STANCHION The title of a song by Eminem, the first two letters (brief) of Hit, the latter covered by a sting in the sense of trick or swindle
8d River surrounding university quarter (6)
FOURTH A Scottish river surrounding the abbreviation for University
9d Escape, say, picking up tip (3-3)
GET-OUT A reversed (picking up) of an abbreviation meaning say, or example, followed by a verb meaning to recommend (tip), especially in connection with betting on racehorses for example
15d One’s referee next (9)
IMMEDIATE An abbreviated way of saying I am (one’s) and a verb meaning to referee
16d Ed’s beauty needs fixing when something goes bad (3-2,4)
USE-BY DATE An anagram (needs fixing) of EDS BEAUTY
17d Not always when one takes it easy in cry for help (9)
SOMETIMES When one takes it easy and focusses on oneself and what you want to do inserted into an abbreviated distress call (cry for help)
18d Provides team for county (6)
STAFFS Double definition
20d Chocolate terrier (6)
YORKIE A chocolate bar or an informal name for a type of terrier
22d Underlying bachelor? That’s what she said! (5)
BASIC An abbreviated Bachelor of Arts and a Latin word used to indicate that the original is being faithfully reproduced even though it may be incorrect
23d Difficult phase takes energy (5)
STEEP The symbol for Energy inserted into a phase
24d Pal on screen spurning final drink (5)
LASSI A canine pal who featured in several film and television series without (spurning) the final letter
As crypticsue says, some of this was straightforward, and there were some that required verification.
A very enjoyable puzzle that warrants at least 4* satisfaction from me.
My only delay was justifying 26a, I didn’t know it could be spelled/spelt with a singular s.
Many thanks to Prime and to CS; I hope that 2026 brings you and your families good health and happiness.
A really enjoyable puzzle – thanks to Prime and CS and a Happy New Year to both.
The 1a wine was new to me.
Ticks from me for 14a, 19a, 17d and 24d with my favourite being the clever all-in-one at 5d.
I tried & failed to think of an instance where worn was somehow synonymous with long thinking gents maybe had a toilet context hence johns but settled on an all-in-one. Think I’m missing something though – why clever?
Gents goes inside pants.
Got it. Ta
Another enjoyable toughie and a south to north solve for me. I needed some help with parsing of a couple (obvious when explained!). Plenty of smiles along the way but the chocolate terrier and lock fixer were probably my favourites.
Thanks to Prime for the puzzle and Cryptic Sue for the hints, nice to see you back in the blogging seat. Happy New Year to you both.
A bit tricky at the top then a breeze until 25a which resisted for long enough to merit another star for difficulty. So that one gets a vote as do 14a, 17d and the star of the show – 5d. I agree with Gazza, a clever all-in one.
Thanks to Prime and CS.
A fitting way to end the Toughie year. I had to check some of my answers before I was able to parse them. I found this more difficult than our respected blogger, but Prime always seems to challenge me. However, it’s always pleasing when I cross the line.
My picks were 25A and 5 and 17D.
Many thanks to CS and Prime and a happy 2026 to you both.
Not surprisingly found this a bit trickier than Sue’s rating. Not an unaided grid fill either – revealed a letter (23d/25a checker) having lost patience waiting for those last two pennies to drop then promptly kicked myself. The 1a wine was unfamiliar, not sure I’d encountered the 17a interjection to keep shtum before & can’t abide Mr Mathers so had to check the song (ok with Dido singing until he butts in).
Enjoyed the puzzle – 13,14,25&26a + 3,17&20d particular likes.
Thanks to Prime & to CS – good to have you back in the Toughie blogging chair.
We are still confused by 17 across since this was never used in any school, library, museum or church in our collective 135 noisy years.
Could this be a honest mistake, or perhaps a conspiracy…
Mr & Mrs T
(Send reward to Mrs T, 01945-2823, USA)
Quirky and great fun. Thank you Prime and welcome back to blogging duty, Sue.
The wine at 1a was new to me.
7d was tricky for me to parse. I am not familiar with any of Eminem’s work, but I don’t think I’m missing much?
The use of UC for upper case at 4d was new to me. One to remember.
I thought the primate at 10a was missing a bit, but according to Chambers, he also answers to the single word name.
I tried to get YPRES to work at 18a, to no avail, obviously.
Liked 26a, as we were in Kenya a couple of years ago and loved it. I have always wanted to watch Out of Africa, particularly as it is set in Kenya, but also for the beautiful John Barry score and the music by Mozart. Apparently we can get just about anything on our new smart TV, but to download the film required a QR code and various usernames and passwords, so we gave up and Mrs Shabbo bought it on DVD. Perhaps we will have to ask a granddaughter.
Ticks for 19a, 21a, 27a and my CoD, 5d. Once I realised that plus fours was not the right answer, I parsed it like Halcyon at 2 above.
Happy New Year to everyone involved in this wonderful blog and, of course, to all of our setters and the crossword team at the Telegraph.
5d is an absolute corker. Thanks to Prime & CS; I’m off to brush up on Eminem.
We found this quite a lot harder than others are reporting but did persevere and get a completion. Slow start as we did not know the 1a wine and were fixated on ‘through’ being ‘via’ which didn’t help. Last in was 25a. Favourite 5d.
Thanks Prime and CS.
The time now in NZ is approximately 7:16am on January 1st 2026.
Happy New Year to 2Kiwis.
Thank you Stan. Happy New Year to you too.
I found this tough going and required 3 or 4 sittings to complete, albeit not totally unaided as I needed the hints for 1a, 12a & 13a which unlocked the last 3 in the NE.
Like others the wine district was new to me as was the Eminem song.
Plenty of likes with 25a as my favourite.
Thanks to Prime and CS.
A curious puzzle, some good stuff (I particularly liked working out 14a and 3d), some spoiled by obscure GK (wine region and Eminem song titles) and the cleverness of 5d was wasted given that it would work as a Quickie clue.
Thanks to Prime and to CS for plugging the gaps.
I am trying to find out if there is an Elgar Double toughie this New Year..2026. You were kind enough to help me find last years so I wondered if I could ask you again as there doesn’t seem to be a way of contacting the website to ask the question.
Hope you can help,
HNY Sue.
I don’t think there was a Double Toughie this Christmas
Happy New Year to you too
Thanks 🥲.
1*/4* …
liked 17A “Stony silence consumes family (5)”