Toughie No 3157 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie No 3157

by StephenL  

Toughie No 3157 by Dada

Hints and tips by StephenL

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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****

Hello everyone from a bright and pleasantly mild South Devon coast. The calm before the storm?

The prolific Dada gets us underway this week with a supremely entertaining puzzle that was nevertheless very much at the gentle end of his spectrum.

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.

Across

7a Misery of the French couple (7)
DESPAIR: The French word for “of the” and a synonym of couple as a noun or verb.

8a Device with which setter has packed a punch (7)
MACHINE: Place a first person pronoun around A from the clue and an informal synonym of punch as a verb.

10a Language Danish unit translated (10)
HINDUSTANI: Anagram (translated) of DANISH UNIT.

11a Joker Jack, say? (4)
CARD: Double definition, the second by example.

12a Hunger for attack incorrectly noted (8)
MISSPELT: Put together a word that could mean “hunger or pine for” and a synonym of attack or bombard. Tricky.

14a Limes and core of fruit in a salad that’s eaten for breakfast (6)
MUESLI: Anagram (in a salad .. interesting indicator!) of LIMES and the core letter of frUit.

15a Point out man appearing dizzy in high place (8-3)
MOUNTAIN-TOP: Anagram (appearing dizzy) of the preceding three words.

19a Audibly scoff, flippantly (2,4)
IN JEST: A homophone (audibly) of a synonym of scoff in the sense of consume or eat.

20a Comprehensively humiliated, nitwit backtracking somewhat (2,6)
IN DETAIL: Hidden and reversed (backtracking somewhat)

22a Odd characters missing in delta near volcano (4)
ETNA: Alternate letters (odd letters missing) of dElTa NeAr.

23a Marginally different in a surprising way (10)
ALARMINGLY: Anagram (different) of MARGINALLY

25a Holiday island, rank Corsica after vacation (7)
MAJORCA: Put together a military rank and the outer letters (on vacation)of CorsicA.

26a Wonderful journalist on very comfortable seat (4,3)
SOFA-BED: An abbreviated synonym of wonderful and the usual senior journalist follow a word that means very when used as an adverb. I love this.

Down

1d Minister could it be? Come again? (7)
REVISIT: If you split the solution 3,2,2 you’ll see the wordplay.

2d Last of vegetables, sweet potato (4)
SPUD: The final letter of vegetableS and an abbreviated sweet course in a meal perhaps. Lol.

3d Ultimately covert matter — something up your sleeve? (6)
TISSUE: The final letter (again!) of coverT and a synonym of matter. Another lol. Do people actually put them there anymore?

4d Explorer touring large island, lucky thing (8)
TALISMAN: Place a Dutch explorer who discovered New Zealand amongst other places around the abbreviations for Large and Island.

5d Turn yellow bird away (7,3)
CHICKEN OUT: A bird that provides us with eggs and a synonym of away. Another amusing clue.

6d Where one may use spread betting consistently well? (2,1,4)
ON A ROLL: Double/cryptic definition, the first food related. Brilliant.

9d Extrovert, Democrats’ donkey? (5,6)
PARTY ANIMAL: Follow something of which The Democrats are an example with something of which a donkey is an example

13d Rough notes man has penned like that for builder (10)
STONEMASON: Piece together an anagram (rough) of NOTES and MAN from the clue into which is inserted a word that can mean “like that” particularly when preceded by “just”.

16d Bird in shade beneath dome? (8)
NUTHATCH: The dome here is one’s head, follow an informal word for it with a synonym of shade in the sense of mark (diagonally)

17d Sign language I read up about inspiring, originally (7)
INITIAL: Reverse (read up) the language of ancient Rome and I from the clue and insert the initial letter of Inspiring. Very smart.

18d Cricketer who retrieves ball if knocked up over tree (7)
FIELDER: A reversal (knocked up) of IF and a tree that produces berries.

21d Person wandering towards summit collects small fruit (6)
DAMSON: Reverse a synonym of a wanderer (towards the summit…it’s a down clue) and place it around (collects) the single-letter abbreviation for Small.

24d Cool without a splash? (4)
NEAT: Double definition. Without a splash refers to not adding water say to a drink or diluting it. Very smart.

Good stuff, thanks Dada. My picks are 26a plus 1,3&24d with 6d runaway winner. Which ones appealed to you?

 

 

29 comments on “Toughie No 3157”

  2. Not really a Toughie but who cares when it’s as entertaining as this with cracking clues everywhere? Thanks to Dada and SL.
    I ticked 8a, 26a, 5d, 6d and 24d but my favourite was the brilliant 9d.

  3. Not a Toughie, not even an end of the week backpager, but as Gazza says cracking clues Gromit, not least 1d,which if you’d solved Elgar’s York S&B Puzzle from last weekend, will have written itself in the grid

    Thanks to Dada and Stephen

  4. 6d my fav too & oddly enough have just done it to go with some nice carrot & coriander soup. As gentle as it gets in a Toughie slot though still enjoyable for the short time it lasted. Having said that I don’t understand the first 2 letters in the parsing at 16d – sorry if I’m being slow.
    Thanks to D & the other S.

    1. As the hint says, the first three letters of 16d are a synonym for head (dome) the rest of it being a verb meaning to shade with fine lines

  5. There was nothing remotely tough about this but it was huge fun from start to finish.

    My many top picks were : 8a, 19a, 5d, 6d, 9d & 18d.

    Many thanks to Dada and to SL.

  6. This must be the Floughiest, not a Chalicea, Toughie ever. Only twenty-six clues, a large number of them of the proscribed term variety, and it all came from Dada, was he having an off day? */*****

    Candidates for favourite – 11a, 19a, 1d, 4d, and 9d – and the winner 11a.

    Thanks to Dada and Stephen.

  7. Most enjoyable and our setter definitely in a friendly frame of mind. Could nominate almost any of the clues for podium places but, as I went through the grid, the ones that caught my eye were 19,23&26a plus 5&24d.

    Thanks to Dada for the gentle humour and to Stephen for the review.

  9. I hope many who normally shy away from a Toughie will have a go at this as it was very user-friendly yet highly enjoyable. I did not have to look any further than the exquisite site 9d to pick my favourite.

    Thanks Dada and SL.

  10. Super puzzle, and quite agree that Dada was in an unusually Floughie mood when setting this delight. I did get bogged down in the NE at the end, having biffed “as a rule” when having only the R, but eventually saw the error of my ways. Plenty of noteworthy clues from which I will highlight 1d, 9d, 21d & 24d.

    Many thanks to Dada & Stephen

  11. Most enjoyable. Thank you, Dada for letting me get another Toughie under my belt. 9a is my favourite.
    Thank you, Stephen for the hints.

  13. As straightforward as they come despite the unfriendly grid but as others have pointed out great fun. Favourite was 19a. Thanks to Dada and SL.

  15. I must be the only one who didn’t know the shade synonym at 16d, but then again art was never my strong point!
    8a was my last one in; it made me smile once I’d assembled it all together.
    Thanks to Dada and to SL.

  16. We always look forward to solving Dada puzzles and this one was no exception.
    Agree with others that 9d deserves best in show award.
    Thanks Dada and SL.

  17. As always I like Dada puzzles. A toughie on the easier end of his spectrum today was just what i needed.
    All straightforward today with nothing in his personal thesaurus.

    1.5*/4* for me

    Favourites include 11a, 12a, 14a, 2d & 3d — with winner 3d

    Thanks to Dada & SL

  18. Good evening
    As Young Salopian points out above, there are those who shy away from Toughies, and I count myself amongst ’em. Having said which, if I have the time, I will attempt them, but with very varying degrees of success! Happy to report a full grid this evening, but I won’t promise when the next one will be!
    Thank you Dada and Stephen L

  19. I invariably have a go at the toughie when I go to bed, but don’t always finish it. Sometimes next morning some of the answers miraculously come to me. Dads’s puzzle today was very good for my morale, all done and dusted in one fell swoop. I particularly liked 4d and the clever anagram at 23a. Another one to go into my Commonplace Book alongside dormitory – dirty room! Many thanks to Dada and to SL.

  20. This Toughie was most enjoyable. My fave is 5d, followed by 3d, 24d and 19a. I agree that there are some excellent anagrams.
    Many thanks to Dada.
    Many thanks to StephenL for a very entertaining review. Lovely illustrations. This is the first time I have head the 26a music and I must say I enjoyed it. It is very different from my usual classical fare…not that I eschew jazz or Jools Holland!

    1. Thank you Catnap. I’m always happy when someone appreciates my reviews and particularly so my musical choices which don’t always meet with universal approval!…so it’s great to get positive feedback. Pleased you enjoyed the clip, I always enjoy watching and listening to it too.

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