Toughie 3265 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie 3265

by ALP  

Toughie No 3265 by Donnybrook
Hints and tips by ALP

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

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

This was mostly gentle, which made the few pokes in the ribs all the more painful and surprising. Tackled, as I now realise all crosswords should be – on a deserted Turkish beach – this was a romp. A couple of the surfaces made me sit up but it’s all very sweetly done. Allotting stars for difficulty is always the hardest and least consequential task. The peerless Sue would no doubt give this a * but others might well plump for a **. I’ve typically sat on the fence and gone with 1.5. Disagree with me at will!

Across

1a Drawing room goddess left – that is right (7)
ATELIER: The Greek goddess of mischief (the very best sort of goddess) + the abbreviations for left, that is and right.

5a Doctor says our bones are here (7)
OSSUARY: SAYSOUR, doctored,

9a Designate range and theatre for Spitfire (9)
TERMAGANT: Designate (4) + range (stove) + (a London) theatre. Lovely.

10a Home help in retreat in country I may represent (5)
INDIA: The usual “home” + help, reversed.

11a Keith Richards for one back in untidy heap in garden (7)
ROCKERY: What Keith Richard is, by example, and [untid]Y. Nicely disguised – I wasted an age trying to squeeze in an anagram of HEAP, untidy. Er, no.

12a Times letters from Greek theologian (7)
ERASMUS: Times/ages + Greek ‘M’s.

13a Divine environment for ace crew testing position? (11)
PREDICAMENT: (To) divine encloses (provides environs for, etc) the usual ace + the usual crew.

16a Brandy measure bargain, reduced by shilling (3)
NIP: (A) bargain, minus S[hilling].

18a Vicious, perhaps making comeback, underworld figure (3)
DIS: The only Vicious I know of, reversed. Fun.

20a Work hard, play hard for 19 28’s organisation (6,5)
LABOUR PARTY: Worked hard/graft + play hard (socially) = the organisation led by 19d/28a.

22a Jumps over fences initially under cloud (7)
STRATUS: Jumps (up?) reversed/over includes/fences U[under].

23a Exceptional bat must carry John around Cypriot city (7)
LARNACA: Batter batsman Brian carries/includes the (usually US) john, reversed/around.

25a Round piano with English artist for Fidelio? (5)
OPERA: The usual round, piano, English and artist.

26a This vicar turns out to be the record-holder? (9)
ARCHIVIST: THISVICAR, turned out.

27a Woman the French name in calamitous experience (7)
MARLENE: The French “the” + N[ame] inside (an essay-writing student’s?) crisis (slang). Hmm.

28a See 19 Down

Down

1d Non-U man, old school worker for instance? (9)
ARTHROPOD: A man’s name (less the U) + O[ld] + school (of fish). The question mark is doing some pretty heavy lifting here!

2d Running water locally, woman endlessly causes pain (7)
EARACHE: Drainage channel or running water, dialectically (2) + a woman’s name, minus its last letter. If you know this water, you know it (very popular with setters, apparently) and if you don’t, you may (like me) scream!

3d Eating this up vegan makes vegetarian furious (5)
IRATE: Reversed lurker, hidden in the sixth word, once the (funny but perhaps slightly unnecessary?) “vegan” has been removed.

4d Socialist penning article on yen to hand (5)
READY: The most usual socialist pens/includes the most usual article + Y[en].

5d Worn by tense, macho types, uniform available (2,3,4)
ON THE MENU: Worn by (2) + T[ense] + macho chaps + U[niform].

6d Sailor binding leg – old man up for procedure across the Atlantic? (6,3)
SPINAL TAP: The sailor that’s not AB or tar binds/includes the most usual leg + old man, reversed. I had no idea this was an “American” procedure but then, happily, I’ve never had one!

7d Belly when wobbling bad sign (7)
ABDOMEN: BAD, wobbling, + (bad?) sign.

8d Support given about engaging eastern poet (5)
YEATS: (A) support reversed, E[astern] inserted.

14d Header missed by Midlands team kid, embarrassed (3,2,4)
ILL AT EASE: A Brum football team, minus its first letter/header + (to) kid/mock.

15d Sudden attack advanced: bishop into wine endlessly (9)
AMBUSCADE: A[dvanced] plus the abbreviation for bishop inside a white wine (from the Loire) minus its last letter.

17d Pence rates may vary in cash dispenser? (9)
PAYMASTER: P[ence]RATESMAY, varied.

19d and 28 across Southern Irish king – alpha male in Ireland – runs as leader (3,4,7)
SIR KEIR STARMER: The abbreviations for southern, Irish and king, plus (a bright?) alpha + M[ale] inside Ireland’s (real?) name, plus R[uns]. A splendid piece of Lego.

21d Iceland’s outlying territory taking a practical view (7)
REALISM: The IVR code for Iceland inside territory/kingdom. I guess it’s the territory that’s outlying but outlie (rarely) can mean to camp (inside). Slightly unusual construction, I thought, but the definition is clear.

22d Violent disturbance to one side in sadomasochism (5)
STORM: “To” from the clue plus the side that’s not left inside S&M. Tickled me, this.

23d Somewhat leggy stripper almost in place? (5)
LOCUS: A (crop) stripper with six legs, minus its last letter. This made me smile.

24d Dish from 10 8 for example read out? (5)
RAITA: A homophone-ish (you might have to say it aloud a couple of times!) of what the great 8d was = a dish from 10a.

A fair few names, a spot of cross-reference and just 3.5 anagrams, this was largely light and very enjoyable. I especially liked 23a, 6d, 19d/28a and 23d. How did you get on?

19 comments on “Toughie 3265”

  1. A very enjoyable offering from DYBK, much better than his alter ego’s SPP three days ago, 2*/4.5*

    Favourite – a toss-up between 23a and 26a – and the winner is 23a.

    Thanks to DYBK and ALP.

  2. Good fun – thanks to Donnybrook and ALP.
    2d was my last to parse even though the answer was obvious from the checkers. I spent far too long trying to make the last two letters be the endless woman before the penny dropped with a great clang.
    I liked 13a, 23a and 3d but I have to give pole position to the leggy stripper in 23d.

  3. I started off well – our sons used to be fascinated by the 5a at St Leonard’s Church in Hythe; I suppose we ought to take the grandchildren next time they are over – but ended up in a time that was a lot longer than 1*, definitely a proper Toughie for me. I seem to remember seeing something very similar to 10a in a crossword recently but don’t ask me where

    Thanks to Donnybrook and ALP

  4. Couple of answers that pushed this into 2* Toughie territory for me but I’m still smiling about Mr Richards in an untidy heap in the garden! He gets a place on the podium along with 13a & 23d.

    Thanks to NYDK for a great puzzle and to ALP for the review.

  5. Enjoyed the vast majority of this puzzle, though the 19d/28a & 20a combo were gimmes and meant I didn’t fuss about parsing the former. 6d was only familiar to me because of the film (thanks for the clip), and I hated ‘bat’ – one wouldn’t use ‘bowl’ for a bowler. Was happy to recall the various oddities quite swiftly. I ended up with ticks against 9a (loved the misdirection, possibly still one of the most beautiful aircraft ever made), 13a, 2d, 14d and 23d.

    1.5* / 3*

    Many thanks to Donny & ALP

  6. Great fun this afternoon with a couple of tricky parsings lengthening my solving time. 9a was brilliant, so too the crop stripper.

    Thanks to Donny and ALP.

  7. Way harder for me than our fence sitter’s 1.5* rating. Feared I was going to have to seek help from the hints or a letter reveal but got there in the end albeit with one minor correction via the check facility. If I’ve ever heard of 5a it’s long forgotten & 15d rang only the vaguest of bells so both needed post solve investigation as did the goddess of hanky panky. Nowhere near to parsing 2d & had to read the explanation twice to finally get it.
    A cracking puzzle. Like Gazza top spot goes to the leggy stripper (a very slow penny drop) with ticks all over the shop elsewhere – 9,11&13a plus 1,5&14d other particular likes. The 19d/28a parsing was lego on steroids.
    Thanks to Donny & to Alp

  8. Flying visit — lovely puzzle as usual from NYDK, standout among many for me the ultra-Legoists’ delight, 19 28. Particularly liked the ‘alpha male’ element.

  9. I found this a lot tougher than you lot up there and eventually wound up with 2d and 9a still to do. On consulting the oracle [Mrs H] she solved both instantly, so it must be me. Faves were 3d [surprised nobody has used this before] and 14d [loved the Midlands team].
    Thanks to DB and ALP.

  10. We’re amazed that after all these years and many crosswords solved we had never encountered the running water in 2d. No wonder we had problems parsing that one. The 19/28 combo was also not as straightforward for us as it probable was for most solvers. That said, we did find it an enjoyable solve but obviously took quite a lot longer to do so than today’s blogger.
    Thanks Donnybrook and ALP.

  11. Way harder than the rating for me and ultimately defeated by 23a and 23d. Also needed the hints for 1d, 2d and 9a which I still don’t understand, 15d was a new word for me. Favourite was 3d. Thanks to Donnybrook for the mental drubbing and ALP.

    1. Many thanks for popping in – much appreciated. Hugely entertaining, as ever. Ta lots.

    1. I discovered I’d parsed this incorrectly, Mac – I took “running water locally” to be the EA – Environment Agency – however the correct parsing is EA+RACHE[L] with ea defined in Chambers as dialect for a river, running water; a drainage channel in the fens, so quite literally “running water locally”, with locally telling us that in this instance we need a localised usage of the term. New to me!

  14. Hi Mac

    The EA bit is defined in Chambers as ‘running water’ (OE ēa, related to Latin aqua, water), but qualified as ‘dialect’, so an indicator was needed to point that up. That took me to ‘running water locally’ = EA, plus the bit you’ve understood, which is RACHEL minus the L. I was trying to get people to think of badly-managed water companies, in case you hadn’t guessed.

    Hope that helps. EA is quite a hard thing to know, and doesn’t generally appear in ordinary dailies, but for the Toughie an exception has been made!

    NYDK

    PS tx Mustafa — you beat me to it!

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