Toughie 259

Toughie No 259 by Elgar

All the fun of the pair

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

There’s usually a sense of dread on seeing a clue-set littered with “See x” and numerical references, and a pre-solve reading of these made me fear the worst; I think there were just two answers spotted. As it turned out, this was a fairly relaxing solve, not too difficult and – very strangely – quite muted in terms of Elgar’s usual LOL clues.

As I start the write-up there are a number of clues whose wordplay I only tried to work out after solving, not always with success. Part of Elgar’s unique brilliance is his libertarian playfulness, and he gets away with stuff that other setters probably wouldn’t.

My favourite clues are shown in blue text.

Across

4a Colonisation’s home for animals and fish (8)
{SETTLING} A gentle start. “Colonisation” is the definition, the answer made up of the name of a badger’s burrow, plus the name of a fish (like ide, this one has only ever been caught from the banks of the river Crossword).

8a Avoiding dad’s circumspection liking chocolate decoration (6)
{ROCOCO} Highly unusual use of “circumspection” here to suggest something placed around something else. “Liking chocolate” could be PRO COCOA, but we have to “avoid” a short word for “dad” which is on the perimeter.

9a Slade restricted me, and I make my point (8)
{FLETCHER} A double definition, where Slade is the name of a prison and a person making a point refers to someone who makes arrows.

ARVE Error: need id and provider

10a Animal in volcano chap from Warsaw’s got back (8)
{ANTELOPE} This is a container and reversal clue. Inside the name of a volcano (in Sicily) is the nationality of someone from e.g. Warsaw – then all of this has to be reversed.

11a See 3d

12a It should make everything clear about showy adornments (8)
{REFINERY} “About” in a clue can be confusing as it can mean several things; an anagram, a reversal, a container, or any one of C, CA or RE. It’s this last one we want here, followed by “adornments” in the sense of showy clothing.

13a Char’s doing this hip connection (8)
{INFUSING} Tricky little charade where none of the components mean quite what they appear to. The “char” bit I’m not sure of; it refers to tea, but my Chambers only has it as meaning “tea” rather than someone actually making it. “Hip” means trendy/fashionable, and “connection” should be read as “the connecting/melding of something”.

16a Travel ID (4,4)
{CALL SIGN} Clever (if slightly oblique) little cryptic definition which has nothing to do with passports but everything to do with individual letters as used by e.g. aircraft pilots.

19a In Rising Sun, late, one’s offensive (8)
{UPSETTER} “In rising” leads to UP, followed by a word which suggests what the sun might be called as it sets (as opposed to a riser).

21a Posed outside back-street in France for artist (6)
{SEURAT} The French artist in question was at the forefront of Neo-impressionism and the clue paints a nice picture too. “Posed” is SAT, and this is placed around a reversal of the French version of “street”. “Back-street” is a typical Hendersonian liberty with grammar, but we wouldn’t have him any other way.

23a Serbia, no other ranks (8)
{BARONIES} A straightforward anagram of SERBIA NO, using the occasionally disputed anagram indicator “other”.

24a This is one way to go to school — what a shame to have to accept it (4,4)
{WORD GAME} Even with all the cross-checking letters in place I really struggled with this, and it was only after a frantic dictionary rummage that I found GAM, which is a collective noun for a group (school) of whales. In front of this is an abbreviation for “road” (way), and place these inside WOE (what a shame). “To have to accept it” is the slightly off-kilter container indicator.

25a & 15d Forced out of Kent naked, claim fare home to the Lakes (6,4,4)
{KENDAL MINT CAKE} An anagram of (“forced out of” – nice!) KENT NAKED CLAIM leads to the brilliant definition “fare home to the Lakes” which we have to read as “fare (type of food) which is home to (has its home in) the Lake District”.

26a Dignitary in service long ago (8)
{MAYORESS} After finally deciding “in” had to be a container indicator, it still took a few moments to work out that a word for “long ago” (as in, days of —) had to be placed inside a word for a church service. I’d started by thinking it was “dignitary” inside “service” = “long ago”.

Down

1d & 5d Partying drunk of eighteen wants to visit theatre (2,5,3,5)
{GO UNDER THE KNIFE} Anagram (partying) of DRUNK OF EIGHTEEN. The definition is “to visit theatre” in the hospital sense. At first I wondered what “wants” was doing, but it sort of works when you read it as the anagram being the “requirement” (want) of the answer.

2d Novelist recalling Ronaldo, for one, in diary (4,5)
{GORE VIDAL} Really liked this one. While noted for his scoring ability, Cristiano Ronaldo is also an infamous practitioner of gamesmanship – OK, he’s A DIVER. Put this inside a word for a diary/record of events and reverse (recall) all of this to find the novelist. Great clue, although I’m betting Elgar originally tried to put the reversal of DIVER in GOAL. “Novelist recalling Ronaldo as goalkeeper?”

3d & 11a Oriental’s one on his own, twisting in gathering of Rolling Stones (2,4,2,4)
{NO MORE NO LESS} Very tricky wordplay here. Oriental = E, and “one on his own” is a LONER. Put these two into what, according to the saying, a rolling stone gathers, and you get the answer… except, as far as I can see, there’s no definition in the clue?

4d Survival, assembling 6 and 18? (6,2,7)
{SAFETY IN NUMBERS} The definition “survival, assembling” is really imaginative – it refers to people being/feeling safer in a large group. The 6 and 18 bits hint at two types of anaesthetic, to tie in with a cryptic reading of “something which numbs”.

5d See 1d

6d & 22d Waves out of the pub to the station? (5,5)
{LOCAL RADIO} This one is hard to categorise as there’s a crossover of identical meanings. “Waves out of the pub” is referring to radio waves that might emanate from a pub (LOCAL). The more common definition is given in “station” (i.e. radio station).

7d Comedy actor otherwise engaged by Walkabout Inn? (7)
{NIELSEN} “Otherwise” is ELSE, which is placed inside an anagram of “Inn”. I like the “walkabout” anagram indicator.

ARVE Error: need id and provider

14d Number 10 (with tiny variation) during function (5-4)
{SIXTY-NINE} Big smile moment as it brought back memories from earlier this year when Elgar showed me his “Sexy… innit?” clue. This far cleaner interpretation reduces the answer to the less specific “number”. Wordplay consists of X (10) and an anagram of TINY, inside a word for a mathematical function.

15d See 25a

17d Moaned about a medical condition (7)
{ADENOMA} For a less-than-common word answer Elgar kindly gives us a straightforward anagram of MOANED plus the letter A.

18d & 20a Sleepy agent remains after this widespread time off (7,6)
{GENERAL STRIKE} Ouch! This is one of those clues where you can only understand the wordplay by using the answer. We’re playing with the word SLEEPY – there’s something you can do to it so that what you’re left with is just SPY (agent). What you have to do is strike out the name of a general (LEE).

20d See 18d

22d See 6d

As usual, Elgar adds the unexpected to the mix – especially in the case of 4dn and 18/20dn. You spend ages trying to work out what he’s playing at, and really kick yourself when you spot it.

Until next week, then… or, if you buy tomorrow’s Independent, I”ll see you there!