Toughie 2047

21 comments on “Toughie 2047”

1. Definitely a puzzle of two halves – the top half went in with no great problems but the bottom half (especially the SE corner) was a different matter requiring much sucking of pen and use of the BRB (especially to verify 15d and 20d).
   I thought it slightly odd that the grunting creature appeared twice in the NE corner and the purring one twice in the SW.
   Thanks to Osmosis and Bufo.
   Top clues for me were 1a, 11a and 8d.

2. Splendid offering from Osmosis and I was really disappointed to fall at the last fence courtesy of the Indian restaurant and the Italian driver. I seem to recall that we’ve met the latter before, the old grey matter obviously didn’t absorb it! As for the Indian – I didn’t know either the ‘soul’ or the item on the menu.
   A couple of other things I had to check with the BRB but the wordplay had led me to the answer.

   Not to worry, I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and gave top billing to 1a & 8d with several others hard on their heels.

   Many thanks to Osmosis and to Dutch – particularly for the explanations of my two sticking points.

3. I thought this was a wonderfully constructed puzzle. Progress was mighty slow, but steady – until the very end. I had not heard of the ancient time in 15d, but the anagram ingredients and checkers made it accessible. However, like Jane, I fell at 24d and 20d. Again, like her, I had heard of neither the soul nor the menu item in 20d, and the checkers weren’t enough to lead me to the answer. In retrospect, I think I should have been able to unravel (the clever) 24d. This was yet another case of my missing a potential pangram – and perhaps if I had noticed, it may just have made the difference. I did enjoy this, but I was left disappointed in being so close, but not able to finish it. Many thanks to all.

4. I had wild guesses, inspired guesses, threw letters up randomly into the air to be caught by my electronic dictionary and to my surprise completed this all but 20d. Parsing most of them was impossible, especially 28a so I am overcome with admiration for Dutch’s ability to do so.
   A thank you to him and Osmosis

5. Having a no-brain-day or something. I cheated on, *cough*, a number of these. For me this was this setter with his sting at (or near) maximum strength.

   Very clever stuff though. My favourites were among the ones which I got more readily (but not for that reason): 1a, 3d and 7d.

   Thanks Osmosis and Dutch.

6. I surprised myself by only having to seek electronic help on 4D and 20D, and wait for the blog for the 24D solution and parsing. Thanks Osmosis and Dutch.

7. Failed on 20d and 28a.
   Spent the week in pangram overdose and didn’t even notice this one.
   Thanks to Osmosis and to Dutch.

8. Thanks to all. Unknown, or more likely forgotten: curry, dog and poets did for me. Lovely puzzle and super hints.
   Thanks again.
   M.

9. This was one occasion when the puzzle being a pangram was of real assistance for us. Our last one was 20d. We worked out that we were one letter short for the pangram, so assuming that it was in this answer we went searching. BRB was no help as the answer is not listed in our 12th Edition. ( Wonder if it is in 13th Ed.) A further on-line search did eventually track it down for us and find that it closely relates to Balti which we blogged in a Jay puzzle recently.
   The GK for 14a (we’d heard of the FC but had no idea where it is based) and the 25a captain both taxed us somewhat, as did sorting out the wordplay for 17d and 22a.
   Definitely a challenge for us and very satisfying to get it all sorted.
   Thanks Osmosis and Dutch.

   1. I can confirm that 20d is in the 13th edition of the BRB (which is where I found it this morning).

      1. Trouble is, if like me you didn’t know the ‘soul’ you had no starting point to work from!

         1. Indeed, I failed on that one and only in the “friday night after work crossword club, aka beer o’clock club ” did I discover they all knew the soul but I didn’t. Many thanks to Dutch and Osmosis

10. Funny how the mind works.
    Was ** for me ( apart from 4d..?).
    Whereas a ** last week I took ages to finish.
    Don’t get what a panagram is though? ‘

    1. When the completed grid contains at least one of each of the 26 letters of the alphabet we call it a pangram. Yesterday’s Toughie was a double pangram (i.e. there were at least two instances of each letter present).

    2. Re pangram check Big Daves faq here

       FAQ

       4d if something is sort of it might be (-ish) within the abbreviation RI (Religious instruction ) religious class

11. Good fun and I agree with Gazza – top half went in fairly quickly – but the bottom half proved to be less accommodating. I was left with 2 clues to answer (20 & 24d) when I had 2 light bulb moments – remembering Dennis Wheatley’s ‘The Ka of Gifford Hilary’ helped for 20d and from somewhere deep inside what can be called my brain – 20d was answered but checked in BRB.

    Thanks to Osmosis and Dutch.

12. I hadn’t come across “Ka” meaning “soul” before (20d), but a Google search for “Kara” led to the discovery of the Swedish soul artist Jasmine Kara – a happy coincidence I presume.

    1. Welcome to the blog Scrunge

       1. Thanks! I’ve been a lurker for a while but I hope to post more from now on. Thanks for the excellent website.

13. Totally failed in SW and didn’t know the Indian dish in 20d.

    Thanks to all and the reminder of what a pangram is!

14. Hi ALL, this for me was pretty terrible. Got stuck with 10a due to the following: 4d, sort of = ilk, I thought, and to me RI is nowadays RE, which led to the poet RILKE. The r from 1a was already there, I had not done 11a, (nor was I likely to!), so 10a was going to be impossible, especially as for some stupid reason I had missed the obvious cricket link.

    I too was surprised at the “pig” mention in two touching clues.

    Loved 13d, especially as swmbo was listening to it at the time!

    Used no dictionaries etc so, 12a was lucky, 20d impossible, 24d likewise, the apostrophe in 28a threw me completely. Even without it, I doubt I’d have got it. As for 2d, I never knew this word to mean sharpness, was thinking of “acuity” but could not get it to parse.

    This was a tough toughie, for me, a “learner driver” of toughies, but was pleased with what I got.

Comments are closed.