Toughie 3106 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie 3106

by crypticsue  

Toughie No 3106 by Musaeus

Hints and Tips by crypticsue

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

I found this to be  a difficult mid-week Toughie with quite a lot of ‘that’s the solution but why?’ and the less said about the time it took me to see what was going on in 22d, the better

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought

Across

1a    Batting edge? Shut up (6)
INSIDE A cricket term meaning batting and an edge

4a    I keep an eye on old boy who’s waiting for someone? (8)
OBSERVER An abbreviated Old Boy and someone who is waiting for someone

9a    Rave over a spire that’s been restored (6)
PRAISE An anagram (that’s been restored) of A SPIRE

10a    Gather I dropped catch — outrageous (8)
INFERNAL To learn or gather and an informal word for catch without (dropped) the I

11a    Corp truly goes bad like this! (9)
CORRUPTLY An anagram (goes bad) of CORP TRULY

13a    Perhaps Russian can nearly quaff a gallon (5)
GULAG Can being a slang word for a prison – almost all of a synonym for quaff or drink in large amounts, A (from the clue) and the abbreviation for Gallon

14a    Trouble with bread and jam? (13)
EMBARRASSMENT Difficulties with money (bread) matters or a difficult situation (jam)

17a    Where to see posts round sort of motor (8,5)
BULLETIN BOARD A piece of ammunition (round) and a motor within the hull of a ship

21a    Put your Sunday best on for returning boxer (3,2)
TOG UP Dress up in one’s best clothes – a preposition meaning on in the sense of closed followed by a reversal (returning) of an abbreviated slang name for a boxer

23a    It’s run via updated software for protection (9)
ANTIVIRUS An anagram (updated) of ITS RUN VIA

24a    A natural oil being refined near a part of Turkey (8)
ANATOLIA A (from the clue), an abbreviation for natural, an anagram (refined) of OIL and A (from the clue)

25a    Class fool, otherwise term for clot (6)
ASSORT A fool, a conjunction meaning otherwise and the term or final letter of cloT

26a    Settle over bit of change being cheap (8)
TUPPENNY A reversal (over) of a verb meaning to settle or lay down and a small piece of change

27a    Pride, perhaps, turning on a complete dandy (6)
ADONIS A reversal (turning) of a moral offence (pride perhaps) goes after A (from the clue) and a verb meaning to complete or finish

Down

1d    International agreement accepting mass repercussions? (6)
IMPACT The abbreviation for International and an agreement between which is inserted (accepting) the abbreviation for Mass

2d    Shaft George e.g. and have your say clearly (9)
STAIRWELL An abbreviated person of exceptional virtue or kindness (George being an example of one such person) and a two-word expression meaning to have your say clearly

3d    Trouble in the underworld? Ruffian mostly rises (7)
DISTURB The underworld followed by a reversal (rises) of almost all of a ruffian

5d    Born free, baby in turn could be ____? (5,6)
BUNNY RABBIT The abbreviation for Born and an anagram (free) of BABY IN TURN

6d    European male vociferously advocates for issues (7)
EMERGES The abbreviations for European and Male and a homophone (vociferously) of a synonym for advocates or advises strongly

7d    Record wine borders on likely to be stacked up (5)
VINYL Some wine and the reversed (to be stacked up) borders of LikelY

8d    Sideline, for example, filling report (8)
RELEGATE The abbreviation meaning for example inserted into (filling) a verb meaning to report or give an account of

12d    In no time art transformed boundary (11)
TERMINATION An anagram (transformed) of IN NO TIME ART

15d    Duck below this? (9)
EIDERDOWN A type of duck and a preposition meaning below

16d    Summary of Jack’s pamphlet (8)
ABSTRACT An abbreviated sailor’s and a pamphlet

18d    Scout learning under former leader of patrol (7)
EXPLORE Some learning goes under (in a Down solution) the usual ‘former’ and the ‘leader’ of Patrol

19d    Deliberate promo on Plautus’ force that’s central to comedies (7)
ADVISED An abbreviated advertisement (promo), the Latin word for force and the ‘central’ letters of comEDies – Plautus was a Roman poet of the Old Latin Period

20d    One in America models for Status Quo? (2,2,2)
AS IT IS The abbreviation for America and a simple way of saying models for into which is inserted I (one)

22d    Get what literally gives pain from corn? (5)
GRASP To get from pain to a word for corn in general,  you literally use the first two letters of that word AS instead of the first letter of Pain

25 comments on “Toughie 3106”

  1. I really enjoyed this puzzle, going straight on with it at lunchtime after the backpager, but was somewhat surprised to see your rating, Sue – a fairly quick solve though there was indeed a certain amount of “ok, but why”, as you said. Still not entirely sure about 22d: your explanation certainly parses the answer, and was how I interpreted it, but surely the answer “gives corn from pain”? I thought the clue oddly expressed, but it’s probably just me! For me the pick of the bunch were 17a, 2d & 6d but numerous others vied for the podium.

    2* / 3.5*

    Many thanks to Museaus and to CS

      1. Not sure whether you’re agreeing or disagreeing, Wahoo, but the way I read your post is that “xx” instead of/as “x” would give you “corn from pain”, while “x” instead of/as “xx” would give you “pain from corn”.

        1. I agree it’s confusing! So now everyone has looked at it, does it work if it said “Figure out, How do you make the word pain, literally speaking, out of the word grain, answer: by treating the GR AS P.

  2. Musaeus seems to have a rather idiosyncratic style. Nothing wrong with that [eg every other Friday] but sometimes it works better than others. I really liked the Russian can at 13a and Jack’s pamphlet at 16d but was rather underwhelmed by 14a and what seemed to be rather a lot of anagrams. I, too, was unsure about 22d but on reflection think it works OK once you think of a corn as pain in the foot.
    Thanks to Musaeus and to CS for the blog.

  3. Found some of this quite a bit odd e.g 10a and 14a. But liked the two prisons and the motor. Overall a mixed bag I guess for a ***/**.

  4. Managed a full grid completion in only a fractionally longer time than the back-pager but only with a couple of definition bung ins. Got them all sorted bar 17a & 22d & I’m afraid I’m still none the wiser after reading the hints. Sorry if I’m being thick but the brain isn’t in gear for whatever reason today – took a while to realise quaff was a gulp & not a glug & initially thought bread & jam = an ************* of riches for that penny dropped. I see the wordplay but have a feeling I may be missing something at 15d too. No real favs but enjoyed the puzzle.
    Thanks to Musaeus & to Cs

  5. All was fine until 22d: I still don’t see the connection despite Sue’s hint and other comments. The Russian can redeemed the puzzle for me, as did George at 2d. Perhaps too much reverse engineering needed from many clues to be truly enjoyable.

    Thanks to Musaeus and Sue.

  6. A bit of a mixed bag but some enjoyable clues – thanks to Musaeus and CS.
    My ticks went to 13a, 17a and 2d.
    I think that in 21a ‘on’ is part of the definition with the first two letters of the answer being a synonym of ‘for’.

  8. I think Halcyon summed this up perfectly by calling it ‘idiosyncratic’!
    Not a style that particularly appeals to me but each to their own.
    Ticks here went to 4&13a plus 20d.

    Thanks to Musaeus and most definitely to CS for doing all the hard work on the parsing front.

  9. I’ve found all of this weeks Toughies (especially Sunday’s) difficult. In the case of Robyn that’s to be expected as he operates in a space too distant from my vocabulary. Today was definitely idiosyncratic. The first three across clues were all “write ins” which I cant recall in any Toughie before – and is a great rarity for me even with back page puzzles. But then it slowed significantly! From the vocabulary point of view it was only the Plutus force that was unknown (Both the poet and the latin force). I managed to complete it all although 14a was just a guess but a confident one given the length of the word.

    Thanks to Musaeus for the puzzle and CS for explaining 14a

  11. Not one for me I’m afraid. 14a didn’t work for me on any level, much the same as 21a, 26a and 22d. Wasn’t overly keen on 27a either. Oh well you can’t please everyone. Thanks to Musaeus anyway and CS. I tried to post earlier but got the banner ‘this site. has been suspended’. What was that all about, probably quite innocent but quite aggressive wording.

    1. Mr K did post earlier today to say that the site wouldn’t be available while it was moved from the original BD site to the new one

      1. Even so, the banner was aggressive and final. I felt it was the end of the world as we know it!

  12. I too had a quick start but soon bogged down with parsing trouble and would never have seen 22d in a month of Sunday Toughies. Thanks to Musaeus and CS

  13. We too struggled with 22d and still not convinced that it is a fair clue. It was a good thing that 3 of its 5 letters were checked ones. The rest went together smoothly enough giving a pleasant solve.
    Thanks Musaeus and CS.

  14. I realised after a while that it was probably quite innocent but it was the stark and aggressive wording of the banner that shocked me. Maybe I’m too sensitive. I don’t see myself like that.

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