Toughie No 3080 by Elgar
Hints and tips by Dutch
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
A steady solve.
Please leave a comment telling us how you did and what you thought. I’m off to go enjoy some beers in the sun and I will be back a bit later on (maybe).
Across
1a Instructions for translating addendum from Brussels dwarf poet’s address (10)
PSEUDOCODE: An abbreviation for addendum, an abbreviation for ‘from Brussels’, one of the dwarfs, and a poem that is normally an addressed to someone or something
6a Live on the first floor of theatre (4)
AREA: A 3-letter verb meaning ‘live’ plus the first letter
10a Try moving centre forward to left wing, say (5)
STATE: Take a 5-letter word meaning try or sample and move the letter that is in the centre postion forward to the left wing
11a Run live broadcast, screening it worldwide (9)
UNIVERSAL: An anagram (broadcast) of RUN LIVE contains (screening) a 2-letter abbreviation meaning “it”
12a Opening of course that cuts it for bowler? (5,3)
FIRST TEE: ‘THAT’ from the clue cutting (the answer) gives you something exemplified by a bowler
13a Sum needed to bribe Torvill and Dean for cryptic appearance (5)
PRICE: Split (2 on 3), the answer could be a cryptic indication for Torvill and Dean
15a Bus route ye’ll tak’ to Scotland? It’s longer in the air (7)
HIGHWAY: According to the song (air), this route to Scotland takes longer
17a I won’t inform on the enemy during the night (7)
SUNDIAL: A cryptic definition, the enemy being time!
18a Marshal’s practice, it is, to coat zip in thulium (7)
TITOISM: IT IS from the clue contains (to coat) the letter that looks like zero, all inside the chemical symbol for thulium
21a Fed turning fish slices, a source of entertainment in court? (7)
GLEEMAN: A (1-3) word for a fed that a reversed (turning) fish enters (slices)
23a Living like a cheetah? (5)
QUICK: An adjective that means alive also describes a cheetah
24a The Roman Occupation‘s given back “with love, da Vinci”? (3,5)
CON AMORE: Reverse hidden ( … ‘s given back). Da Vinci is an Italian indicator
27a Cycling round on outside, I start to correct time lag (2-7)
EX-CONVICT: Take a 6-letter word meaning ’round on outside’ and cycle the last two letters to the front, then add I from the clue, the first letter (start) of correct, and the abbreviation for time
28a Cover for one travelling close to public school (5)
RUGBY: A cover or wrap for one travelling, and a preposition meaning ‘close to’
29a I agree to move the location of summit for national authority (4)
NAME: An expression of assent in which the first letter (summit) of national moves location
30a Again got in freelance crews as lead’s periodically vanishing (10)
REACCESSED: Every second letter ( … periodically vanishing)
Down
1d After a delivery job (4)
POST: Three meanings, the second by mail or courier
2d Elimination of computer records, say, to cover up Academy error (7)
ERASING: A Latin abbreviation meaning ‘say’ goes around (to cover up) a 2-letter Academy and an error or transgression
3d Order 11 to quit Force (5)
DRESS: The abbreviation for 11 is removed from (to quit) a 6-letter word meaning force or pressure
4d 10: number and line (7)
COUNTRY: A word meaning number and the abbreviation for a railway line
5d Not notice dads saving water? Their aim is green (7)
DRIVERS: DADS from the clue but without (not) a word meaning notice contains (saving) a watercourse
7d Barman perhaps somewhat cross, initially (7)
ROSSINI: Hidden (somewhat … )
8d 100 per cent effective of Shakespeare, as anyone can see (3-7)
ALL-TELLING: A 3-letter word suggesting 100% and a word that can mean effective or meaningful give a Shakespearean expression for revealing everything
9d Press one to activate Answer Back (8)
RESPONSE: An anagram (to activate) of PRESS ONE
14d After which to gag quite animated English character (5,5)
WHITE QUEEN: A 4-letter word that can mean ‘after which’ contains (to gag) an anagram (animated) of QUITE plus the abbreviation for English
16d Who rules us all – bar none – with egg beater? (8)
WHISKING: Take a (3,2,4) question meaning ‘who rules us all?’ and remove (bar) the letter that looks like none or zero
19d Tripping t’main switch cuts out this sort of engine (4-3)
TWIN-CAM: An anagram (tripping) of T’MAIN SWITCH but without (cuts out) the letters in THIS
20d A feature adopted by the person who’s setting device (7)
MACHINE: A from the clue plus a facial feature are adopted by a pronoun for “the person who’s setting”
21d Origin’s two 29s for one from below (7)
GENETIC: A reversal (from below) of two 29s and an abbreviation meaning ‘for one’
22d Magicians engrossing one with ultimate in colour illusions (7)
MIRAGES: A 5-letter word for magicians contains (engrossing) the Roman numeral for one plus the last letter (ultimate) in colour
25d Ordering Inspector ____ ale when working restores policeman (5)
MORSE: What do we need to fill the blank so that an anagram (ordering) of INSPECTOR ***** ALE can give (when working) RESTORES POLICEMAN and a sensible clue?
26d Expression of cube plus binary unit
DYAD: A homophone of a gaming cube and a word meaning plus
I enjoyed the quirky 12a and 13a, and my favourite today is 17a. Which clues did you like?
Theme:
Across
1 PSEUDO code; CODENAME with 29ac (10)
6 AREA code (4)
10 STATE code (5)
11 UNIVERSAL code (9)
12 Clue has COURSE code (as in UCAS) (5,3)
13 PRICE code (5)
15 HIGHWAY code (7)
17 DIAL (& 8dn) (l)LING code (7)
18 Clue has ZIP code (7)
21 Clue has SOURCE code (7)
23 QUICK (& 9dn) RESPONSE (i.e. QR) code (5)
24 Clue has DA VINCI Code (3,5)
27 Clue has TIME code (2-7)
28 RUGBY code (5)
29 See 1ac; Clue has NATIONAL code (4)
30 Answer contains ACCESS code (10)
Down
1 POST code (4)
2 Clue has COMPUTER and ERROR code (7)
3 DRESS code (5)
4 COUNTRY code; Clue has NUMBER code (7)
5 Clue has GREEN … (7)
7 Clue has … CROSS code (7)
8 (See 17ac DIAL …) LING code (10)
9 See 23ac; Clue has ANSWER BACK code (8)
14 Clue has CHARACTER code (5,5)
16 Clue has BAR code (8)
19 Clue has SORT code (4-3)
20 MACHINE code (7)
21 GENETIC code (7)
22 Clue has COLOUR code (7)
25 MORSE code (5)
26 Clue has BINARY code (4)
Another relatively accessible Elgar. I was most impressed by 17a and the fiendish 27a but remain to be convinced by either 12a or 13a. In the former case it would help if I had a clue where “that” is meant to be put. I can see a hat but am otherwise befuddled.
Thanks to Elgar and Dutch.
Remove (“cut”) the letter T where it “First” appears to get the bowler.
Agree that 17a is the winner.
And fairly accessible overall, with some gimmes.
Thanks Wahoo. The penny dropped about 10 mins after my original post. I was fixated on cut = insert into, rather than cut = remove.
Gosh, that was tough but got there in the end!
That was hard work – a few ‘bung-ins’ so thank you for the explanations Dutch!
Got there after a bit of a slog across three sessions. Parsing 12a went beyond me, very clever, I’m still not convinced by 13a.
Thanks to Elgar and Dutch.
has anyone noticed anything extra?
A lot of Codes?
well spotted! I have added a list at the end of the blog.
I didn’t notice them until after I’d finished otherwise it might have speeded up a few.
And having now seen your complete list, I didn’t think about looking for more codes in the clues themselves! Brilliant. Thanks Elgar.
And to Dutch for pointing out the rest. Hope yesterday’s beers in the sun were enjoyable!
Wonderful.
Hard to imagine I missed all the Codes, I just thought there was a small but vaguely technical theme.
I think I managed about 80% unaided, then needed help for four, and then got the rest from the checkers. Would have been rather a lot easier if I’d spotted the theme properly.
Thanks.
Thought it was going to be a pangram which slowed me down looking for the missing j and. Z…. Still don’t understand why floor of theatre defines an “area”
But a very fine crossword. Also loved 17ac. Thanks Elgar and Dutch