Toughie 3327 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie 3327

by Gazza  

Toughie No 3327 by Beam
Hints and tips by Gazza

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

Beam’s here today with all his trademarks (although his sweetheart has taken a different form). There are a couple of homophones which will work for some people, but not for me.

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

Across Clues

1a Quick hugs providing calm (6)
PACIFY: an adjective meaning quick contains a conjunction meaning providing.

4a Shanty on board aids for stokers? (7)
SHOVELS: insert a synonym for a shanty or rudimentary shack into our usual abbreviation for ship.

9a Old lizard, I assume, collects dung (9)
IGUANODON: I and a verb meaning assume or put on bracket dung produced by seabirds.

10a In speech, rise, giving lip (5)
SAUCE: a homophone (??) of a word meaning rise or origin.

11a Hint of sepia by sea creature (7)
INKLING: another word for sepia or blackish fluid and a large edible fish.

12a Case holding papers for manifest (7)
EVIDENT: a synonym of case or instance contains the abbreviation for personal papers.

13a Government’s first chap’s sound Prime Minister (9)
GLADSTONE: assemble the first letter of government, a synonym of chap or guy with the ‘S and a sound or timbre.

16a Humble sailor like Drake, finally (5)
ABASE: one of our usual abbreviations for a sailor followed by a conjunction meaning like and the final letter of Drake.

17a Laptop operator’s given identification needed initially? (5)
LOGIN: initial letters.

18a Heartless remark about sweetheart being fit (9)
COMPETENT: another word for a remark without its central letter contains an endearment like sweetheart.

21a Express using force tackling European Commission (7)
PRECISE: a verb to force or wrench contains the abbreviation for European Commission.

22a Small talk could be dirty (7)
SPATTER: the clothing abbreviation for small and a word for talk (by a salesman or comedian, say) give us a verb to dirty.

25a Decline following this compiler’s appearance (5)
IMAGE: a verb to decline or deteriorate follows the contracted form of ‘the compiler is’ from his viewpoint.

26a Antiseptic dressing more manageable back rash (9)
PREMATURE: an adjective meaning antiseptic or uncontaminated contains the reversal of a comparative meaning more manageable or less wild.

27a Largely destroy line, stopping grand railway (7)
GREATLY: a verb to destroy or consume and the abbreviation for line are inserted into abbreviations for grand and railway.

28a Autocratic leader of French facing quandary (6)
DESPOT: the French word for ‘of’ and a quandary or tricky situation.

Down Clues

1d Start of pained expression getting married (7)
PAIRING: the first letter of pained and a synonym of expression or voicing.

2d Prevent leaks of bung for auditors (5)
CAULK: this sounds (to some, not to me) like a bung or stopper.

3d Mushrooms possibly providing amusing grin, oddly (5)
FUNGI: an adjective meaning amusing and the odd letters of grin. I suspect that this clue would be criticised in Rookie Corner for its structure of ‘definition makes wordplay’.

4d Devout about to support wrong Church (7)
SINCERE: a preposition meaning about follows a wrong or transgression and an abbreviation for church.

5d Persistent smell rises, say, around current (9)
OBSTINATE: reverse the abbreviation for a personal smell and add a verb to say containing an adjective meaning current or trendy.

6d Count up some asset, a remuneration (9)
ENUMERATE: hidden in reverse.

7d Singular couple adopting little darling (7)
SWEETIE: an abbreviation meaning singular and a verb to couple contain an adjective meaning little.

8d Slowly in trouble suppressing a grunt? (6)
ADAGIO: a synonym of trouble or fuss containing A and the abbreviated fighter for whom grunt is a slang term in the USA.

14d Collect silver, say, in jar (9)
AGGREGATE: start with the chemical symbol for silver and then insert the abbreviation for ‘say’ in a verb to jar.

15d In dissent, I mentioned opinion (9)
SENTIMENT: hidden.

17d Drink endless plonk with good bird (7)
LAPWING: a verb to drink followed by what plonk is an informal word for without its last letter and the abbreviation for good.

18d Scally occasionally takes banger reasonably (7)
CHEAPLY: occasional letters of scally contain another informal word for a banger or decrepit vehicle.

19d Parade is essential covering Queen (6)
MUSTER: an essential precedes the cipher of our late Queen.

20d Overturned garbage let out cascade (7)
TORRENT: reverse another word for garbage or claptrap and add a verb to let or hire out.

23d Mindful of struggle in hospital department (5)
AWARE: an armed struggle is inserted in the abbreviation for a hospital department.

24d Former president beginning to touch bottom (5)
TRUMP: the first letter of touch and another word for a bottom.

I liked 1a, 26a and 14d but my favourite has to be the amusing 24d. Which one(s) floated your boat?

21 comments on “Toughie 3327”

  1. The usual from Beam, somewhat on the gentle side. I had no problem with the homophones but failed to spell 2d correctly, which held up 9 and 11 a bit. I smiled at the grunt in 8d and the [double] aptness of 24d.
    Thanks to Beam and Gazza.

  2. Unusually (well for me anyway) the Toughies this week have got progressively easier. A typically enjoyable one from Ray T with trademark lurkers & questionable homophones. Favourite clue has to be The Donald & can 9a in close proximity be a coincidence?
    Thanks to Beam & to Gazza

  3. Second course of the Dream Team and most enjoyable it was – once I’d dug myself out of the ‘sea shanty’ hole!
    Think I might have used ‘rises’ in 10a but even that wouldn’t have sat well with our reviewer on the homophone front.
    Plenty of ticks on my paper – 4,16&22a plus 17&23d all getting a mention. Perhaps I’ll award the gold medal to the good bird.

    Devotions, of course, to Mr T/Beam and many thanks to Gazza for the review and cartoons – the extensive rust was delightful!

  4. Great fun as always from Beam with a delightful if fairly benign puzzle that was nevertheless nicely and concisely clued. 24d has to be my favourite this afternoon.

    Thanks to Mr T and Gazza.

  5. Not my day I don’t think – I can usually cope with RayT, even with this Toughie hat on but I found this difficult.
    Thanks to RayT/Beam and to Gazza for the hints (and answers when I’m being dim) and, of course for the cartoons.
    My favourite cartoon was the one with the cat on the laptop.

  6. What a treat, and what a contrast this made to today’s back-pager both in terms of style and difficult. Both were extremely enjoyable but this one took me less than a third of my time for the latter.

    With lots of ticks to pick from, I am going with 24d as my favourite.

    Many thanks to Beam and to Gazza.

  7. As RD says, what a treat. Some lovely little flicks of language, as ever. Grunt, humble and rise, etc, are all magnificent. Never heard of 9a but the WP got me there. 22a’s fun and the comical 24d is so very Beam. It just works in so many ways! But 26a was the one for me. Many thanks to Beam and Gazza.

  8. Gazza, I’m still chuckling over your “homophobia”. I can just about (barely, mind!) see a possible issue with 2d but I can’t think of any other way to pronounce 10a. Am I missing summat?

    1. Like most people who live west of a line from Birmingham to Southampton and millions of English-speakers round the world I do pronounce the rhotic R. Both words which we need (in 2d and 10a) contain an R.

      1. Speak for yourself! I’m from Dorset but there’s no burr on me! I do get your quibble now, though. Ta.

    2. Good evening, Mr T. Thank you for another excellent Beam puzzle even though you did play fast and loose with your sweetheart!

  10. Quite often a clue will raise a wry smile, but Mr T’s 24d had me in stitches. Great puzzle and super hints which were needed for 26a and 19d. I thought 9a was excellent too, albeit a new word for me. Thanks to you both.

    1. Whenever I see Trump mentioned in a clue I’m reminded of this classic clue from several years ago by Beet (formerly of this parish):

      Given time, this arse would become president (4)

  11. I agree that this was a better puzzle for me than the back pager today. Thanks for the reminder Gazza.

    2*/4* for me

    Favourites 9a, 13a, 3d, 5d, 23d & 24d — with winner (although he’s *really* a loser) 24d

    Thanks to Beam(RayT) and Gazza

  12. Great puzzle, great blog and great fun.
    Like RD, this took me significantly less time than Silvanus’s back-pager today. Two great puzzles today, though.
    Favourite clue? It has to be 24d. Beet’s clue at #10 above on the same theme is even funnier.
    Thanks to Beam and Gazza.

  13. Excellent fun as usual from this setter. 18a gets our vote for top clue.
    Thanks Beam and Gazza.

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