Toughie 3485 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie 3485

by ALP  

Toughie No 3485 by Weatherman
Hints and tips by ALP

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

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

Tis a rare Tuesday treat to be gifted a Weatherman – he’s back with a sharp but light touch. Nowt spooky here, just frothy fun. All yours.

Across

1a Dirty coal, a recurrent source of energy (7,7)
NUCLEAR REACTOR: COALARECURRENT, dirty.

8a Clergyman rejected extremely strange part of the Bible (5)
VERSE: Clergyman/vicar rejected/reversed + S[trang]E.

9a Advanced compound for a heavenly body (8)
ASTEROID: Abbreviation for “advanced” + compound (drug).

11a It’s left a cracking souvenir (9)
REMAINDER: ‘A’ cracks/goes inside souvenir/keepsake.

12a Constant refusal to collect a set of keys (5)
PIANO: (Mathematical) constant + (a) refusal contains/collects ‘A’.

13a Poor writer initially hires a retired barrister (4)
HACK: H[ires] + ‘A’ + silk/barrister, reversed/retired.

14a Liveliness after king visits London? (8)
ALACRITY: After/in the fashion of + an abbreviation for “king” inside/visiting what London is by example.

17a Start off inebriated, having a run (8)
LADDERED: A jocular synonym for “inebriated”, minus its first letter.

19a Wanting diamonds, impostor married woman in Bavaria (4)
FRAU: Impostor/charlatan, minus the usual “diamonds”.

23a Trump’s typist earns flipping nothing (5)
STENO: Earns/makes, reversed/flipping + the usual “nothing”.

24a Strong drink stirs impulse as wench occasionally seen (6,3)
TRIPLE SEC: Alternate (occasionally seen) letters, starting from the ‘T’ in “stirs”.

25a Notice issue’s missing European supplement (8)
ADDITION: The usual “notice” + issue/publication, minus the usual “European”.

26a Inspirational woman‘s books are making a comeback (5)
ERATO: (Biblical) books + ‘ARE’, reversed/making a comeback.

27a Police on trains unexpectedly responsible for other people’s children (2,4,8)
IN LOCO PARENTIS: POLICEONTRAINS, unexpectedly. Lovely spot.

Down

1d Cardinal heading north to guard destroyed shelter, in spite of everything (12)
NEVERTHELESS: Cardinal (number) reversed/heading north contains/guards SHELTER, destroyed.

2d I’m not sure, is the setter breaching copyrights in China? (7)
CERAMIC: The usual “I’m not sure” (not “um”) + how Weatherman might say “is the setter” breaches/goes inside the repeated abbreviation for “copyright”.

3d What might bat yield, flying after echo? (6)
EYELID: YIELD, flying, after Nato’s “echo”. Nice misdirect.

4d Country artist receives stick (6)
RWANDA: The usual artist contains/receives (magic) stick.

5d Hospital department urgently needs head to leave altogether (8)
ENTIRELY: One of the usual “hospital department”s + urgently/desperately, minus the first letter.

6d This protects you from vehicle at speed (8)
CARAPACE: Vehicle + at speed/swiftly.

7d Almost miss out, having restricted capital for Japanese art (7)
ORIGAMI: Miss out/exclude, minus its last letter (almost), contains/restricts (Latvian) capital.

10d Scoop up glory after shaking die (3,4,5)
POP YOUR CLOGS: SCOOPUPGLORY, shaking.

15d Turning, in part, to minor Egyptian chief (8)
GERONIMO: Lurker, hidden in the fourth, fifth and sixth words.

16d No charge for this one, run it around (8)
NEUTRINO: ONERUNITAROUND, around.

18d One evicted from lodge in outskirts of Dickensian city (7)
DRESDEN: (to) lodge/live, minus the usual “one? inside D[resde]N.

20d Get to work again on figure to ensnare Romeo (7)
RESTART: On/concerning + figure/date, containing/ensnaring the usual “Romeo”.

21d The sixth revolutionary Queen hit from the Eighties (6)
VIENNA: The sixth/six, plus (very old) queen, reversed/revolutionary. Appealing surface. First single I ever bought, this!

22d Run church do (6)
FLEECE: (to) run/escape + the usual “church”.

Six anagrams, a fair few reversals/deletions and one lurker made for a breezy solve. Charming surfaces throughout. 17a tickled me but two super-smooth anagrams – 1a and 27a – stood out. How did you get on?

19 comments on “Toughie 3485”

  1. Great puzzle. My ticks went to 12a, 10d and 18d.

    Thanks to Weatherman & ALP.

  2. A very gentle puzzle to start the toughie week, but lots of enjoyment.
    The only pause for thought was to justify the first three letters of 14a.
    Favourite clue, for the smile it produced, 17a.

    Many thanks to Weatherman and to ALP.

  4. Enjoyable but very gentle indeed – this wouldn’t have been out of place as a midweek back-pager. Thanks to Weatherman and ALP.
    It’s a bit disappointing that all four of the long peripheral clues are anagrams.
    The clues I liked best were 17a, 26a and 22d.

  6. This was very light but great fun with 26a my favourite.

    Very oddly, the BRB doesn’t list “direly”, needed in 5d, as a valid word.

    Many thanks to Weatherman for a great puzzle (including the all-important American indicator in 23a!) and thanks too to ALP.

  7. A gentle start to the Toughie week but 1D very enjoyable with lots to like. Joint favourites were 12A and 3D.
    Many thanks as always to ALP for the blog and to Weatherman for the enjoyment.

  8. One or two head scratchers in there but I got them in the end. A nice start to the week. Hard to pick a favourite but I’ll go with 10d. Thanks to Weatherman and ALP.

  9. Light & fluffy just as the pastry atop a good steak & ale should be. I hope a good number of those insufficiently challenged by the Prof’s puzzle venture here because it was very enjoyable & certainly no more difficult than yesterday’s back-pager. I liked the misleading craps game surface at 10d & the Latin that even I knew at 27a but I’ll plump for 3,15&18d in no particular order as my podium picks.
    Thanks to Weatherman & to ALP – lost a little bet that you’d pick Anton Karas & his zither over Midge.

  10. A gentle Tuesday Toughie – no complaints here! Top clue for me was 27a with a mention for Trump’s poor typist.

    Thanks to Weatherman and to ALP for the review.

  11. The friendliest Toughie for some time.
    The smoothly worded 21d was my COTD, followed by the amusing 17a, which nicely summed up the madness of the participants I saw live on the iPlayer yesterday, sprinting downhill in pursuit of a Double Gloucester.
    Thanks to Weatherman and ALP.

  12. A good bunch of well-crafted clues just right for the start of the week’s toughies and a good bunch of tunes ditto. What’s not to like?
    Fave clues were 11a, 2d and 3d.
    Thanks to Weatherman and ALP. If Shane Smith &co is how “country” sounds these days I might become a fan.

  13. Thanks to commenters and lurking solvers, and of course to ALP for the blog. I can confirm there are a few trickier puzzles in the works!

  15. A lot to like about this, thank you, Weatherman. I don’t have a problem with a gentle start to the Toughie week, especially when the clues are as good as this. 12a, 17a and 21d get my rosettes. Thanks ALP for the blog.

  16. As said earlier, a gentle start to the toughie but lots of fun. It took a while for the penny to drop on the German city’s parsing.
    Thanks to Weatherman and ALP

  17. A lovely puzzle, and a great alternative for those of us who often struggle with Tuesday backpagers. Thank you to the Bananaman villain, especially for the Egyptian chief (15d) and the Queen hit (21d), and to ALP for the blog generally and explaining 14a’s ‘after’ in particular.

  18. 1*/4* …
    liked 27A “Police on trains unexpectedly responsible for other people’s children (2,4,8)”

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