Toughie 1947

26 comments on “Toughie 1947”

1. Unusually for me I’ve managed all four Toughies this week. I was particularly amused by 5d ‘kitchen” a name as Dutch says for a percussion section which I;d never heard before. “tent” for a red wine was also new to me. I agree with Dutch again in liking 16d – the clue “transpositively said” is a wonderful alternative for a Spoonerism. I have no alternative parsing for 21d which held me up for some time.

   Thanks to all

   1. There appears to be more tent in crosswords than in any well-known high street off-licence, not that I’ve ever looked in the latter but it is a regular appearer in crosswords

2. A lot more friendly than Myops of old when I seem to recall a dictionary of Scottish words was required on a regular basis.

   with regard to 21d, there are four lots of Ember days in a year, but they aren’t at the end of a month as far as my researches can tell

3. Thanks Dutch for putting me out of my agony. 27a for one

4. Very enjoyable – thanks to Myops and Dutch. I do like the ‘new’ Myops even with the high number of anagrams. Myops used to look in to explain where we’d gone wrong – let’s hope he does so today to reveal the secret of 21d.
   The clues I liked best were 1a, 2d and 7d.

   1. Thank you for the kind comments, undeserved. In Octember I erred. Far from ‘new’ Myops I was reminded of a clue in a puzzle last week: What I do with i? I delayed, being senile (6), The solution was a good Scots word, in Chambers.

      1. Many thanks Myops for dropping in, that is always highly appreciated. Must admit i entered EMBERS without a second thought. The puzzle was carried by the overall quality, rest assured.

         Hope to have more from you soon.

5. Most enjoyable. Although I finished the puzzle I did need some answers explained, notably 27 and 7d. Still, it’s Friday and to get this far is an achievement! Thank you Dutch and Myops.

6. The 4th key after ‘del’ on my keyboard is ‘pg dn’ which didn’t help a bit but led to all manner of confusion over 19d!
   Thanks to The Antiques Roadshow, I did recall 7d – haven’t heard it used in any other sense although it probably is.
   Forgot the Spanish wine – AGAIN – but managed to arrive at the answer after which the penny dropped loudly.

   Still pondering 21d – I like CS’s reference to Ember days but still can’t quite make it work.

   Tops for me were the 1a drunk and the best version of a Spoonerism I’ve ever seen at 16d.

   Thanks to Myops and to Dutch for the blog.

7. Very nice puzzle, although it took quite a while for me to get going. Finished it but didn’t understand all the parsing. Favourites (of course?) were 27a (impenetrable) and 16d. In 21d, I was looking for a reason why “embe” would mean “romance”!!

8. A lovely puzzle from one of my favourite setters. A confident start with 1a going in straight away, but a couple held me up for a while.

   Many thanks to Myops, and to Dutch.

9. 21D…..the last 4 months end in ember making 4 embers. The romance seems superfluous, though that may be just my age.

   1. October ??

   2. Yep, that’s what I thought – then I got an email from gazza reminding me that October doesn’t quite fit the bill….

10. A puzzle of two halves for me. The RHS went in at a good pace, but I slowed down significantly on the left, especially the SW corner. I have never heard of 7d or the tent wine. Needed parsing help for 27A and 19D, and loved 16D. Thanks Myops and Dutch

11. On the whole I enjoyed this very much. Like Expat Chris, the right half went in relatively easily for me, and the left half a lot more slowly. In the end, and very disappointingly, I was left with four that I really did not fully have. I, too, was not familiar with the expression in 7d, nor the term in 19d. I had the idea of Qwerty, but the working of it did not seem to make sense on my keyboard. I had 22a and 27a penciled in the margin, but I had never heard of the 15th century revolt leader (although I had the one leaving French city), nor old English saying needed to make full sense of 27a. At present, my disappointment by far exceeds my sense of accomplishment. My thanks to all.

12. Our biggest hold up (apart from 21d of course) was the phrase in 7d. It is something we had never heard before and we spent ages trying to work out what could possibly fit with the checking letters we had. Diligent Googling eventually found it. Certainly well deserving of the label on the tin for us. A significant challenge and very satisfying to get it sorted.
    Thanks Myops and Dutch.

    1. was new to me too.

       1. On Bargain Hunt any lot in the auction which makes neither a profit nor a loss is said to ‘wipe its face.’ However I doubt if Bargain Hunt (involving two teams of pairs of amateurs trying to gain the larger profit or smaller loss in buying and selling antiques) would be broadcast in New Zealand.

          1. No we don’t recognise that one but Antiques Road Trip is playing here at present and sounds somewhat similar.

             1. Yes – if you look at my comment, that’s where I got it from, although I inadvertently wrote ‘Show’ instead of ‘Trip’.

13. Rather a nice puzzle I feel, with possibly a variation in difficulty in the SW.

    I’d be interested to know why a compiler would appear so infrequently. Anyone?

    Many thanks to all.

    1. maybe he has spent a decade exploring the amazing offerings of our world. Crosswords aren’t everything. but i do like them.

14. A little trouble at the close on 7d and 27ac, but the rest wasn’t that difficult, for a Friday Toughie at least.

15. Yes, it’s very good to have Myops back again, hopefully on a fairly regular basis. Plenty of clever clues here, including 17a, 19d and 27a, which I couldn’t parse properly. Thanks Myops, and Dutch for the blog. Happy New Year to all setters and bloggers.

16. I was really enjoying this until I ran aground on the last few in the SW. Was hoping to find out what I’d missed for 21d, when what I’d actually completely overlooked was the possibility of a mistake.

    Errest caused my eyebrow to raise (quite considerably since they started from the lowered frowny position!). I’d also never heard of the 7d expression, so that was harder than it would have been. Interesting alternative Spooner indication in 16d.

    Thanks to Myops and thanks Dutch for the blog — I like how the 3d illustration works with regards to temperature too.

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