Toughie 3355 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
View closed comments 

Toughie 3355

by Gazza  

Toughie No 3355 by Silvanus
Hints and tips by Gazza

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

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

Silvanus is being fairly gentle with us today but as entertaining as ever. Thanks to him.

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

Across Clues

1a Song of A-lister we once played (5,8)
SWEET CAROLINE: an anagram (played) of A-LISTER WE ONCE produces a song played (usually at high volume) at many professional sports events.

10a Wise book about extremely unusual round marine creatures (7)
BELUGAS: an adjective meaning wise and the abbreviation for book contain the outer letters of unusual. Turn it all round.

11a Mum is receiving that oddly revolutionary posh spa treatment (7)
SHIATSU: an instruction to stay mum and IS contain the odd letters of ‘that’ reversed. Finally append the abbreviation meaning posh.

12a Corner man, criminal, about to flee (4)
ROOK: remove an abbreviation meaning ‘about’ from a criminal.

13a Leisure pursuit of partner, acquiring love for United (5)
HOBBY: an informal word for a male partner with the abbreviation for united changed to the love-resembling letter.


14a Preoccupied with hidden danger when cycling (4)
RAPT: cycle the letters of a word for a hidden danger or ambush perhaps.

17a Bats idle? Yes, they’re seldom seen fully awake (7)
EYELIDS: an anagram (bats) of IDLE YES.

18a Pressing outlet to restrict information (7)
EXIGENT: an outlet or egress contains an informal word for information.

19a Sort of energy not blocked by crackpot endlessly (7)
NUCLEAR: an adjective meaning not blocked or unobstructed follows an informal word for a crackpot without its last letter.

22a Tip off shoe lost rambling in country (7)
LESOTHO: an anagram (rambling) of [s]HOE LOST.

24a Is found occasionally to review hotel food (4)
NOSH: reverse occasional letters from ‘is found’ and append the letter that hotel represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet.

25a Cheerful little male child, it’s said (5)
SUNNY: a homophone of an informal word used to address a small male child.

26a Still part of satirical magazine (4)
CALM: hidden.

29a Defenceless husband escapes without injury (7)
UNARMED: remove the genealogical abbreviation for husband from an adjective meaning ‘without injury’.

30a More outspoken individual showing skill at poker? (7)
BLUFFER: double definition, the second being a poker player able to deceive opponents concerning the strength of his/her hand.


31a Banker‘s name a news article surprisingly conceals (5,8)
SAINT LAWRENCE: an anagram (surprisingly) of A NEWS ARTICLE containing the abbreviation for name.

Down Clues

2d Overturn regulation placed on European PM (7)
WALPOLE: reverse a regulation and add a European citizen to get the surname of the 18th century politician generally regarded as our first Prime Minister.

3d Keenness of wife ignored by golf club (4)
EDGE: remove the genealogical abbreviation for wife from a short-range golf club.

4d Copper’s guarding most disorderly area of airport (7)
CUSTOMS: the chemical symbol for copper and its ‘S contain an anagram (disorderly) of MOST to get an area found at international airports.


5d Ludicrous anger consuming brother or sister (7)
RISIBLE: a verb to anger contains an abbreviated term for a brother or sister.

6d Aptitude to surrender following retreat (4)
LAIR: remove the abbreviation for following from a synonym of aptitude.

7d Explosive content possibly characteristic of Bevan broadcast (7)
NITRATE: this sounds like (3,5) a characteristic of Mr Bevan (the founder of the NHS) using his usual abbreviated forename.


8d Bovine American supporting SPFL team chanted topless (8,5)
ABERDEEN ANGUS: an abbreviation for American is preceded by a Scottish football team and a verb meaning chanted without its first letter.

9d Tender line that ends someone’s speech? (9,4)
QUOTATION MARK: charade of a tender or commercial bid and a synonym of line.

15d Former nurse inspires Irish woman who’s attractive? (5)
SIREN: the old UK abbreviation for an enrolled nurse contains an abbreviation for Ireland.


16d Upsets unknown drunk (5)
TIPSY: a verb meaning upsets and an algebraic unknown.

20d Idiot feeds pet rat unlimited ice cream (7)
CASSATA: an idiot is inserted into a domestic pet and the word ‘rat’ without its outer letters.

21d Transport for London logo maybe seen in underground elsewhere (7)
ROUNDEL: hidden.


22d Weapon, feature of a battleship perhaps? (7)
LONGBOW: split 4,3 this would be a feature of a battleship (or any other large ship).

23d In Barrow one very loudly held up vehicles (7)
TRAFFIC: a type of barrow contains the Roman one and the musical abbreviation for very loudly. Reverse the lot.

27d State of novel after initial rejection (4)
OMAN: a word, derived from French, meaning a novel loses its first letter.

28d Member of aristocracy expected to entertain king (4)
DUKE: an adjective meaning expected contains the chess abbreviation for king.

For my podium I’ve selected 12a (corner man – brilliant), 17a and the excellent 7d double homophone. Which one(s) have you picked out?

18 comments on “Toughie 3355”

  1. A very enjoyable not too tough challenge from the ‘other half’ of the Thursday Dream Team, not too sure about the difficulty rating as I completed the puzzle in two sittings ‘interrupted’ by supper – 3*/4*

    Candidates for favourite – 12a, 29a, 8d, and 15d – and the winner is 12a.

    Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.

  2. Enjoyable solve, although I found the SE harder than the rest. I had to check the spa treatment, not being a frequenter of such establishments!
    Thanks Silvanus and Gazza

  3. Could there possibly be a more Silvanus clue than 8d? Marvellous. 17a’s a lovely definition, 10a’s beautifully built and thank goodness 21d was a lurker! Typically fair and fun. Many thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.

  4. Super fun, not at all surprised to come here and see it is the work of Silvanus, and agree entirely with Gazza’s assessment. I was only playing Neil Diamond’s “All-Time Greatest Hits” on my phone earlier this morning, so was delighted to see the first clue, though the idea of song titles in general being fair game for setters does concern me! Great clues & surfaces, natch, and while I did not know the ice cream it didn’t matter. Honours to 12a, 8d & 9d.

    Many thanks to Silvanus & Gazza

  5. A really enjoyable and not too difficult puzzle. Thank you Silvanus and CL.
    For some reason, I took for ever to get 6d and 25a, but for the life of me I cannot think why.
    Thanks as ever to Gazza.

  6. My second helping of the Dream Team and this one has the added bonus of Gazza’s great cartoon selection.
    Mr Smooth on great form as usual bringing us a nice helping of music, wildlife and humour, something for everyone.
    Tops for me were 10a & 7d with the cute little 16d rounding off the podium threesome.

    Many thanks to Silvanus and to Gazza for the review – favourite cartoon today is that of the ‘helpful’ small child at the airport!

  7. Top notch puzzle. An absolute pleasure to solve. Don’t know why but I’m always quite chuffed if my pick of the clues matches those of our esteemed reviewer & can’t argue with his podium here.
    Thanks to Silvanus & to Gazza

  8. An absolutely brilliant puzzle which was nicely challenging and a joy to solve.

    8d seems just a tad “same-sidey” as the answer and the wordplay for the first word refer to the same city/county. That aside, I had ticked almost every other clue with 12a, 7d & 15d my podium selection.

    Many thanks to Silvanus and to Gazza.

  9. A very nice surprise when printing off this morning to find it was Mr Smooth. He always gives us an enjoyable solve. So much to like, it seems a shame to have a favourite but I particularly liked 12A, 5D, 8D and 20D with joint favourites 22D and 23D.
    Many thanks to Gazza, I’m with Jane with small boy as favourite cartoon. Thanks as always to Sylvanus for making our day.

  10. Lovely crossword, super surfaces and so many brilliant and ingenious clues. 8d has to be my favourite, ahead of 12a.

    My thanks to Silvanus for the fun challenge and to Gazza.

  11. I can only reiterate what has been said before. I’ll also go with 12a as favourite as it made me laugh when the penny dropped. Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.

  12. Many thanks, as ever, to Gazza and to everyone commenting.

    Thanks also to Caroline, Mark, Angus and Lawrence for lending their names for the perimeter solutions ;-)

Comments are closed.