Toughie 3200 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie 3200

by Dutch  

Toughie No 3200 by Elgar

Hints and tips by Dutch

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

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

This seemed to flow quite nicely, although it still took me 5* time

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought

Across

1 Comfort the distressed Icarus? Certainly not! (6)

SOLACE: Icarus was not the answer split (3,3)

4 Cover for sword woun_’s healing crust? (8)

SCABBARD: Split (4,3,1), the answer describes “woun_’s healing crust”

10 Trump laughs at this vibrating noise on Gold (5)

HUMOR: An American spelling. A vibrating noise and the heraldic colour gold

11 Producer of implant: kissing it moves saint … (9)

OCULARIST: An adjective meaning kissing plus IT from the clue, with the abbreviation for saint moved to the right

12 … minute implants activated in case of cognitive defect (7)

AMNESIC: The abbreviation for minute goes inside (implants) an anagram (activated) of IN CASE

13 Backing instrument handled by Joe the Growler? (7)

ICEBERG: Reversal (backing) of a medieval instrument inside (handled by) an American soldier

14 Status attained by correspondence course? (14)

POSTMASTERSHIP: A cryptic definition playing on status/correspondence

17 Silly exploit precipitated by Basil? (7-7)

FEATHER-BRAINED: A 4-letter exploited, then a word for precipitated following a type of plant exemplified by Basil

21 Very much like bilingual people? (7)

DIGLOTS: Split (3,4) the answer means very much like

23 Extremely supple, as those adding to roll do the splits (7)

LITHEST: THE from the clue splits what those adding to a roll do

24 A maiden confirms joints are joints in craft centre (9)

AMIDSHIPS: A from the clue, the cricket abbreviation for maiden, then a (3,4) phrase that means confirms or identifies some specific joints (are joints)

25 Plant machinery primarily cored fruit (5)

MAPLE: The first letter (primarily) of machinery plus aa 5-letter fruit without the central letter (cored)

26 Resistance group to the east of a certain county (8)

SOMERSET: The abbreviation for resistance and a 3-letter group go to the right (east) of a word meaning ‘a certain’

27 Stuff a little cough syrup shifted (6)

CYPRUS: The first letter (a little) of cough plus an anagram (shifted) of SYRUP

Down

1 “Quick shots” shouted up, having had too much fruit brandy? (8)

SCHNAPPS: How one might say quick shots as in photographs when under the influence

2 Elgar’s devilish clues will entertain, as will Firefly (9)

LUMINESCE: A 4-letter possessive pronoun implying Elgar’s is surrounded by (will entertain) an anagram (devilish) of clues

3 Edged with colour is a short baptismal robe (7)

CHRISOM: IS from the clue is surrounded (edged) by a word for colour, missing the final A (a short)

5 Crime Club rival’s novel student’s nicked from our bag (14)

CRUCIVERBALISM: An anagram (novel) of CRIME CLUB RIVALS which the abbreviation for student driver has been removed (nicked from)

6 Not have brown ales on shelf – the front of it’s unsupported (7)

BRALESS: BR(own) without (not) a word meaning ‘have’, ALES from the clue, then the first letter (front) of shelf

7 Privately preferred track here (5)

ASIDE: Split (1-4), we have a description of where to find the preferred track

8 Party for one enjoying escalating senior years (6)

DOTAGE: A 2-letter party, then a reversal (escalating) of an abbreviation meaning ‘for one’ and a preposition that can mean enjoying or attending

9 Its home is New Road, where its scorer bats (14)

WORECESTERSHIRE: A cricket clue: an anagram (bats) of WHERE ITS SCORER

15 A host of drinkers celebrate secret bottles (9)

INNKEEPER: A word meaning secret contains (bottles) a word that can mean celebrate

16 Cycling north, I perhaps fool press chief (8)

EDITRESS: A reversal (north) of I from the clue plus a type of dish exemplified by fool, then cycled with the bottom 3 letters moved to the top

18 Right lining for person employing pocket (7)

TROUSER: The abbreviation for right goes inside a word meaning for (as in a postal address), plus a word meaning ‘person employing’

19 On the rise, Brooklyn Mutual Banks after a fall? (7)

AUTUMNY: Reverse hidden (on the rise, … banks)

20 So maybe Bow Church did soft targets? (6)

ADMASS: Split (2,4), the answer is perhaps what a cockney church did

22 One source of unlikely tales about memorising bar noise (5)

GRIMM: An anagram (about) of MEMORISING without (bar) the letters in NOISE

Lots of clever clues – I particularly enjoyed 1d,2d,6d, and 15d. Which were your favourites?

18 comments on “Toughie 3200”

  1. Yes, I took 5* time but found this less insanely difficult than some of his recent offerings. Indeed, I managed to parse them all without help, which I think might be a first. Lots of smiles, especially 2d and 17a, and of course I professionally admire 20d, though I must say I had never come across that word before. Many thanks and much admiration as always to Dutch and Elgar. And happy new year to all.

  2. I’ve been brought down to size yet again by this demon setter. I only managed 5 from the whole puzzle. I feel an absolute failure. Thankyou Dutch for the illumination and congratulations to Elgar the master for destroying me.

  3. Crikey. That was a challenge but undeniably brilliant. Fridays are indeed a strange and foreign land. I managed to solve it but not without a great deal of effort and I certainly didn’t parse it all correctly. Even the “simpler” clues (5d,17a) were fiendishly clever and read beautifully. It certainly makes me want to come back for more – when I have a day to spare! Many thanks to Elgar, and Dutch, for some much-needed parsing explanation.

  4. Slow to start but getting a couple of the big ones speeded things up. Then took as long again to do the parsings and I still failed to see 16d, which is obvious enough in retrospect. A top notch Elgar with some very clever clues – most noteworthy are 1a, 4a and 6d – but what is “up” doing in the otherwise straightforward 1d?
    Thanks to Elgar and Dutch.

  5. Well I got there in the end with a handful of unparsed bung-ins, (thanks Dutch), and not a little head-scratching. I found this one particularly brutal, unlike my co-commenter at #1, and I remain in awe of both Elgar and Dutch for their knowledge and brainpower. My favourite has to be 9d, as we are members there and we can see the ground from where we are staying this weekend.

    Thanks to both Elgar, for the brain-mangling, and Dutch for some unravelling.

  7. I understand that this is the toughie section, and arguably Friday should be the toughest of all. But there must come a point when Elgar’s obscure offerings are only relevant to a tiny minority of elite puzzlers. The proof is in the number of comments: single figures here but nearly 100 for the challenging but accessible back-pager.

  8. Started this morning and took a break to solve the SPP. A couple of bung ins but that’s often the way with Elgar. 2d gets my vote.

    Thanks to Dutch and Elgar.

  9. I seem to be faring worse on Elgar puzzles these days. Managed just over half before resorting to hints. Just too many obscure words to get enough of a grip to complete it…

    Thanks

  11. Needed the hints to finish the SE corner.
    Found it quite accessible despite my failure to complete.
    The usual great constructions were a pleasure to untangle.
    Thanks to Elgar and to Dutch.

  12. Another tussle with the fiendish JH Friday Toughie. Made sense of them all in the end. I love the brain work out of these puzzles – the clues in the name! I feel that ‘age has not wearied me’ as long as I can still compete. It will be a sad day when I can no longer win through. I don’t understand why people moan about these tough puzzles, There are plenty of other more straightforward examples around so surely there is room for Elgar and his ‘devilish clues’ for those of us who enjoy the fight. There are many setters whose puzzles I wouldn’t look at because they are not challenging for me – a lifelong solver brought up by parents who solved crosswords daily. Elgar’s style is definitely very different to most other setters. Long may he continue! But then I am a bit biased!

  13. Super tough puzzle.

    Suggestion. I sometimes want to double check 1 answer to a puzzle. Scrolling down I am confronted by numerous pictorial “solves”. I know these break things up, but maybe restrict to one or two per blog? Thank you for all the help.

  14. I know I’m very late with this one, but can anyone explain 27ac? The way I’m looking at it is that ‘cyprus’ must be a synonym for ‘stuff’ or maybe a kind of cloth, but I can’t find any reference to either.

    1. Hi BB
      You’re right with the cloth synonym, Stuff is a generic Victorian term for woven fabric
      Cyprus
      noun obsolete A thin, transparent stuff, the same as, or corresponding to, crape. It was either white or black, the latter being most common, and used for mourning.

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