Toughie 3379 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
View closed comments 

Toughie 3379

by Gazza  

Toughie No 3379 by Karla
Hints and tips by Gazza

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

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

Karla’s name will be known to aficionados of Enigmatic Variations but this is his maiden voyage as a Toughie setter. He’s given us a puzzle with a minimum of GK but lots of intricate and clever wordplay – that’s just what I like in a Toughie and I enjoyed it a lot. Thanks to him and here’s to many more Toughies from him.

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

Across Clues

7a Excavated across old city by southern capital (7)
DOUGLAS: a verb meaning excavated contains the abbreviation for old. Add a US city and the abbreviation for southern.

8a Animals unfortunately split by a lot of wolves? (7)
ALPACAS: a synonym of unfortunately with a group of wolves without its last letter inserted.

10a Crashing unnamed astronaut against moon by pole (9)
COLLISION: the name of the astronaut who accompanied Armstrong and Aldrin to the moon without the abbreviation for name is followed by one of the moons of Jupiter and the abbreviation of an earthly pole.

11a Nero’s feline perhaps eats first bits of new torso slowly (5)
LENTO: the Latin word for a big cat contains the first letters of new torso.

12a Deer leave with first two nowhere to be seen (5)
MOOSE: an informal verb to depart hurriedly without its first two letters.

13a Gemstone in cheap store cut by chap near Tyneside? (9)
ALMANDINE: one of our discount supermarkets has a synonym of chap inserted. That’s followed by the area of England where Tyneside is found.

15a Unhealthy moving around in 12 (7)
NOISOME: an anagram (moving around) of IN and the answer to 12a.

17a Leader of troops following articles on war zone (7)
THEATRE: the leading letter of troops follows two grammatical articles and is followed by a preposition meaning ‘on’.

18a Possible to head off in a car with kid away (9)
AVERTIBLE: A is followed by a type of car (not ideal for our current weather) with the verb to kid removed.
20a Relative making new parking section (5)
PIECE: start with a female relative and change the abbreviation for new to that of parking.

21a Medics backtracked within two feet (5)
IAMBI: the body often referred to as “the doctors’ trade union” is reversed inside the Roman numeral for two.

23a Job lot regularly rejected after four on factory unit (9)
MILLIVOLT: ‘job lot’ with regular letters omitted follows the Roman numeral for four and all that is appended to a type of factory.

24a Small area on fruit ultimately lacking pores (7)
STOMATA: the clothing abbreviation for small has the abbreviation for area following a type of fruit without its ultimate letter.

25a Greek character given obvious alternative to wind? (7)
NUCLEAR: the thirteenth letter of the Greek alphabet and an adjective meaning obvious.

Down Clues

1d Dispatching device of mostly base metal in craft (10)
GUILLOTINE: a synonym of base or sordid without its last letter and a silvery-white metal go inside a synonym of craft or cunning.

2d Petrol maybe Jack’s left below empty steel drain (6)
SLUICE: an informal word for petrol without the cards abbreviation for jack follows the outer letters of steel.

3d Quote from cycling magazine’s put away (8)
ESTIMATE: cycle the letters of a US news magazine (including the ‘S) and add a verb meaning put away or devoured.

4d LA agent periodically filling silent weapon (6)
MAGNUM: regular letters from the first two words go inside an adjective meaning silent.

5d Luxury space grabbed by abominable couple (8)
OPULENCE: a printer’s space is contained in an anagram (abominable) of COUPLE.

6d Superstar Penny possibly taking company south (4)
ICON: what a penny is an example of with the abbreviation for company moved down.

7d Bird hoax up on fake nest: air as infotainment? (13)
DOCUMENTARIES: splice together a flightless bird and a verb to hoax. Now reverse that and add an anagram (fake) of NEST AIR.

9d Safety feature sanctioned in force occupying region (5,8)
SMOKE DETECTOR: a Russian doll clue. An informal verb meaning sanctioned or nodded through goes inside the abbreviation for our largest police force and all that is inserted in a synonym of region.

14d That lot over in pub extremely early; that’s rich! (2,3,5)
IN THE MONEY: an informal word for ‘that lot’ and the cricket abbreviation for over go inside a type of pub. Finish with the outer letters of early.

16d Beat mad Uri at Kyiv Piano School finally (8)
OUTRIVAL: an anagram (mad) of URI AT [Kyi]V [pian]O [schoo]L.

17d One of three catching fish on east edge of high wood? (4,4)
TREE LINE: a word (new to me) meaning triplet contains a slippery fish. Finish with the abbreviation for east.

19d Worthless chatter about pack of travellers (6)
BUMBAG: an adjective meaning worthless or despicable and the reversal of an informal verb to chatter at length.

20d Nipper king’s brought up? (6)
PRINCE: cryptic definition (although in most cases it would be a nanny who did the bringing up?). Something that nips with the abbreviation for king moved up to the top – very clever! Thanks to Zat Naclair for pointing out the wordplay.

22d Make fast journey in vehicle bypassing centre (4)
MOOR: a verb to journey by road without its central letter.

The clues that I liked best were 18a, 1d, 19d and 22d with my favourite (now that the wordplay has been pointed out) being 20d. Which one(s) cut the mustard for you?

 

27 comments on “Toughie 3379”

  1. Always a treat to see a fresh face. Even though he’s in the FT and Indy (and the Tel, apparently) he’s certainly new here. Some lovely touches and real smarts. 10a, 13a and 1d get my vote. Many thanks to Karla and Gazza.

  2. I thought this was very difficult but very entertaining. I didn’t manage to complete all of it and needed to consult Gazza for a couple at the end.
    Many thanks to Karla and to Gazza.

    1. Liked 20d – an all-in-one cryptic and also a synonym for nipper with the final letter (R for king) brought up in the word.

      1. Thanks for that. I missed the wordplay which makes it a very clever clue. I’ll update the hint.

  3. I found Karla every bit as formidable opponent as George Smiley found his/her namesake – did manage to complete eventually but only with the aid of 3 letter reveals, numerous presses of the check facility, a couple of corrections en route + then needing the review to explain a couple of the whys. Maybe a wavelength issue since it was only 13a unheard of, though 24a also needed a check. Having felt quite chuffed solving Prime’s puzzle yesterday it was back to a realisation that these type of Toughies are really above my pay grade. Hey ho still fun trying. 1,9&22d my podium picks.
    Thanks Karla & to Gazza.

  4. White flag raised. I found this largely incomprehensible – almost a case of DNS rather than DNF.

    Respect to anyone who solves this.

    Retires to lick wounds …

  5. Strewth. I had to check several times that it’s not Friday today. Gazza, I’m impressed that you say the puzzle contained a minimum of GK. For me (some occasionally quite obscure) GK was required for fully one-third of the clues, amongst which both the gemstone and triplet were new words to me. Surely 10a should be colliding, not collision, given the clue is crashing? And from the number of bumbags one sees being used around town and shopping centres, and by cyclists and walkers, I think “pack of travellers” is about as loose a definition as it gets.

    Very satisfying to complete, given how tough it was, but it felt rather unsporting and if this is the sort of style one expects from an EV, I shall continue to steer clear of them – life’s too short, too busy, and there are plenty of other cryptics available.

    Thank you setter, but this was not for me, and thanks also to Gazza for the blog, the excellent cartoons, and for explaining 17d.

  6. Thanks for your respect, Rabbit Dave. I tackled this in two or three mini sessions around lunchtime. RHS went in first, with the LHS following once the old brain had warmed up. Very enjoyable solve today. Thanks Karla and Gazza.

  7. When Mr CS comes in from the greenhouse, I will have to tell him that what I said at breakfast was wrong, as I said that I found this to be a proper Friday Toughie and I was sure Mustafa G would disagree with me.

    I’d agree with Jezza that this was very difficult but entertaining at the same time.

    Welcome to Toughieland Karla and thanks to you and Gazza

    1. A broad smile at that one, CS! That was right up there with Elgar and possibly even Osmosis for me.

  8. I found this to be very tough with a lot of checking of my answers to ensure they were indeed correct. It felt more like a Friday to me.
    Several very clever clues with 20D doing it for me.
    Many thanks Gazza, no matter how hard, you always make these puzzles such fun. Best laugh for me was the cartoon for 9D.
    Thanks to Karla for the struggle.

  9. At this rate I hate to think what tomorrow will bring. This was tough on a par with the last 2 and great fun, with the RHS being the practice zone before any progress could be made on the left. Lots of excellent clues but I’ve edited down to these:- 18a [I liked the kid away] 21a [neat, good surface] 14d [clever wordplay] 16d [terrific anagram] and 19d [last in, pack of travellers!].
    Thanks to Karla and to Gazza for the blog.

  10. Jeepers, much of this was beyond me – RHS not too bad but LHS a very different story and I needed Gazza’s help on far too many occasions. From the ones I completed unaided, I selected 7&8a plus 14d for the podium.

    Thanks to Karla, whom I may not venture near in the future, and many thanks to Gazza for the help, review and excellent cartoons which cheered me up no end.

  11. I would like to welcome Karla to the Toughie setters’ club. November 21 is a good day to make one’s debut as six years ago today it was me! Good luck with all your future Toughies.

  12. Hello everyone. Thank you to Gazza for the excellent blog (great cartoons). And thank you for all who have commented and welcomed me to the Toughie series. I look forward to setting more puzzles for you.

    There is a Nina related to my pseudonym for those who are familiar with John Le Carre’s work, although it is perhaps appropriately ‘scrambled’. I will reveal it later this evening if no one has spotted it by then.

  15. A truly superb debut by Karla, aka Leonidas and Wire, of whom we’ll hopefully see a lot more. It’s not often (nay, it’s very rare) for a setter to comment online on another setter’s work, but this was a joy of a puzzle, with seamless surface readings throughout and cryptic parsings that are as a grammatically air-tight as a mallard’s fundament 🦆😏. Well done Karla 👏🏻, and mine’s a pint (nay, three) of Virtuous the next time we meet 😉.

  16. Completed in two sessions, but goodness me, that was tough. I’m going for a lie down now!
    The SW corner was the last to fall and took much longer than it should have done.
    I thought this was a puzzle of the very highest order with plenty of clever wordplay and original thinking.
    So many candidates for COD, but I’ll probably run with 20d which is very clever indeed.
    Congratulations, Karla. That was brilliant.
    Thanks also to Gazza. Rather you than me on blogging that one!

Comments are closed.