Toughie 2700

31 comments on “Toughie 2700”

1. Very enjoyable – thanks to Sparks and CS. I did notice the ‘something going on’ in the corners.

   I ended up in the SE corner where the two 4-letter answers held out for some time.

   I’m a bit surprised that the ‘naughty bits’ survived the editorial blue pencil but that certainly made me laugh. I imagine that Sir Herbert Gussett will be penning a strong letter to the editor.

   There are some cracking clues here – my nominations for the podium are 9a, 23a and 2d.

2. Re “The naughty bits”, that may have survived the blue pencil but the potential crypticising of 10a minus the slang for prisoner certainly wouldn’t have done.

   1. R.A.T. — For perhaps a nanosecond, no more, that risqué-beyond-the-pale wordplay reared its very naughty head

3. Aha! I just found the ‘something going on’ in those four clues, so I did manage to salvage some pride from this terrific Toughie, which I only halfway finished. Those four 4-letter clues all defeated me (and I still don’t know what those three letters suggesting VIP stand for), as did 14a and others. But I loved 23a, naturally, and lots more. Thanks to CS for helping me fill in so many blanks, and many thanks to Sparks for the challenge.

   1. The 3 letters are “nob”

      1. Backwards

4. Well that was a real battle – a Toughie in every sense. I did not know the word indicating a grandparent but the flower was gettable after much thought. 23a was my clear favourite from a great selection of potential winners.

   My thanks to Sparks for the mind-stretching and to CS.

   1. I had Nera (backwards in grandparent) as flower (river) which is in Italy. Ruined the SE for ages.

5. I was quite happy getting as far as I did with this Friday Toughie but when I ground to a halt a halt was where I stayed. It mattered not how many times I returned to the puzzle or how I separated the clues word for word. Those last few would not give up their secrets. Thanks to Sparks for the scrap and thanks to Crypticsue who rescues me from a permanent stay in moderation on an almost daily basis. Bless her little cotton socks

6. A real***** star toughie today, Sparks was wearing Elgar’s boots!
   A combined solve with Mrs B, I wanted to go out tonight .Like Gazza I noticed something was afoot in the corners as we were finishing off the NW quadrant, last in was 1a -I have seen the officer with an apostrophe as a five letter word*** ‘** but not a four letter word ,no doubt it will be correct.
   8d was a new bird-presumably American.
   Hard to pick a favourite, going for the beautiful 21a.
   Thanks Sparks for the enjoyment and Crypticsue for the picks

   1. It wasn’t!

   2. The enumeration here is as per the Times wherein, e.g., HORS D’OEUVRES would be (4,8). With my solving hat one, the non-indication of internal apostrophes catches me out almost every time.

7. Three-quarters of this fell without recourse to external assistance. Struggled with the remaining few in both the NW and SE and needed to reveal letters – and in one case read a CS hint – to get moving and then finish / confirm my answers. Up until the point where I ground to a halt I had been enjoying the puzzle, but the final struggle did rather take the edge off, although I freely grant that in retrospect it’s entirely fair.

   Had never heard of 1a without an apostrophe or more commonly a ‘u’ and would be interested to know whether the dead tree version included the apostrophe … I suspect not! 8d, 24a were solvable from the clues but had never heard of the bird or the adjectival grandparent. If there’s something going on in 1a/1d and 16d/17d then I’m either reading too much into the above comments, or too innocent and naive(!), or too knackered, to see it.

   Certainly 5* for difficulty in my view.

   Many thanks to Sparks and CS.

   1. Starting with 1d, read the solutions mentioned in order and you should spot something

8. I stymied 24a by realising there was an obscure Italian river reversed in grandparent. My first in was my last out.
   Is the bird in 8d related to the nightjar? Just earlier in the day? The picture looks pretty similar.
   10a and 16d were sailing a bit close to the wind weren’t they!

   1. A bit more Grauniad than DT or Times, I think!

   2. Apparently it’s another name for the nightjar

      1. Variants like that always seem unnecessarily gratuitous to me, we all know it’s a Nightjar

         1. I’ve certainly never heard anyone refer to it as an 8d although I vaguely remember the term from a novel I read many moons ago.

9. The brick wall appeared with 8 left, so resorted to hints. Two of my comments above have appeared in the wrong place for some reason. Have asked for deletions but that seems to have made it worse! Sorry about that. Got further than normal on a Friday toughie, so I’m happy enough. CS, shouldn’t your 1a hint mention the VIP should be reversed?
   Thanks for your hints anyway, most helpful.
   Thanks Sparks as well

   1. It does now

10. Enjoyed the 75% I managed before hitting the brick wall, after that it all rather fell apart and left me feeling a bit disgruntled. I did think that 23a was quite clever despite the slightly odd surface read and my top two were the fairly simple 21a & 4d.

    Thanks to Sparks (hi to Sparky) and to CS for the review.

    1. Sparky says ‘hi’ in return, though a tad more grumpily as he’s now maturing into a miniature Victor Meldrew, bless him!

       

11. I have been doing the cryptic for a year or so and occasionally look at the toughie, usually to give up after only getting a few, so just wanted to say thanks to Miffypops for putting a comment on the cryptic blog that today’s toughie was 80% straightforward forward, as that spurned me on to give it a go and so far I have done half, unaided, so I am well pleased, and not given up yet.

    1. Oops, just noticed that Huntsman said it first, apologies.

12. 1a eventually defeated us. Settled for BOSS but could not justify it.
    A very clever puzzle and we enjoyed the solve.
    Thanks Sparks and CS.

13. Many thanks to CrypticSue for a fine blog and to others for overwhelmingly positive comments. Glad you all enjoyed it

14. 20 clues went in pretty quickly hence my user friendly comment on the cryptic site. I assumed the other 8 were just me being a bit slow until I read MP’s reply. Had another go at them last thing with no progress so revealed the 5 absent checkers & got a further 4. Even after reading the hints to the 4 remaining I only got a further 2 & revealed the answers to both 24&26a though ought to have twigged the right kind of stick. I have never seen 1a spelt that way, the bird & the cocktail were unfamiliar, 14a was a new word for me & wouldn’t have got 26a in a year of Sundays.
    A proper Toughie it certainly turned out to be & very enjoyable too. 23a my clear favourite but also really liked 3&9a.
    Thanks Sparks & CS for deciphering it all.

    1. I gave up with about five to go

15. Some of the clues didn’t quite fit. E.g. Angel fish aren’t sharks.

    1. Welcome to the blog

       Chambers Dictionary says “Angelfish – a type of shark (genus Squatina) with large wing-like pectoral fins” before it goes on to define the type of fish with the same name

Comments are closed.