Toughie 3232 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie 3232

by Dutch  

Toughie No 3232 by Elgar

Hints and tips by Dutch

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

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

In a rush, at GP’s most of morning …

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.

Across

1a    Still cracking a number of the middle bones? (7,3)
MEDICAL MAN: A word meaning still or peaceful goes inside a 6-letter ‘number of the middle’

9a    Is this buzzer now loud? (4)
WASP: If it is now loud, then previously it (3,1)

10a    Wheels away rubbish bags (5,5)
CARGO PANTS: A 3-letter set of wheels, a short word meaning ‘away’ or scram, and a word for rubbish

11a    Come to evaluate trophy for auditor (4,2)
WAKE UP: A homophone (for auditor) of words meaning ‘evaluate trophy’

12a    Old boy given time security guards dock (7)
BOBTAIL: The abbreviations for old boy and time is contained by (guards) a word for security for the accused

15a    He leaves the new rep without a function (7)
TANGENT: HE leaves THE, then the abbreviation for new has around it (without) a 5-letter agent

16a    Dark radio piece (5)
NIGHT: A homophone (radio) of a chess piece

17a    Dig, perhaps (4)
LIKE: Two definitions, the first informal

18a    Getting this right would make the Tories understand (4)
TRUE: ‘The Tories’ plus the answer gives an 8-letter word meaning ‘understand

19a    Person with a kit for repairing
pipe (5)
SEWER: Two meanings, the first a repairer of clothes and possibly cryptic with two interpretations of kit

21a    Badly in need of a holiday
briefing (3-4)
RUN-DOWN: Two meanings, the fist meaning exhausted

22a    It picks up sound when edge is taken, caught behind (7)
EARDRUM: Take a 5-letter word meaning caught or understood plus a 4-letter word for behind, then remove the first and last edge

24a    Stove’s missing a supply pipe? I’ll come out (6)
GASMAN: A 3-letter stove (plus the ‘S) missing the first A and a 4-leetr supply line missing the I (I’ll come out)

27a    Deal one makes put an end to hunger (6,4)
ANSWER: To put an end to plus to hunger gives you a tree

28a    A tragic heroine, I died in Carmen? (4)
AIDA: I plus the abbreviation for died goes inside some roadside Car men

29a    Departing founders of band call it what? Yadda Yadda Yadda (3,3,4)
AND ALL THAT: Remove first letters (departing founders) from 4 words in the clue

Down

2d    Take commercial: a blast from the past? (4)
EGAD: An abbreviation that could mean take or say plus a 2-letter commercial

3d    Assimilate 17 5 a 18 25! (6)
INGEST: Split (2,4) the answer describes 17 5 a 18 25!

4d    Endlessly striving for better pain relief (7)
ASPIRIN: an 8-letter word for ‘striving for better’ without the last letter (endlessly)

5d    I’ll be collecting unloaded auction lots (4)
MANY: A possessive pronoun (not quite sure why it translates to I’ll be) containing (collecting) ‘auction’ without the central letters (unloaded)

6d    With numbers short, 3 sandwiches = a picnic! (2,5)
NO SWEAT: The abbreviation for with is sandwiched between an abbreviated form (short) of numbers and another word for 3d

7d    Who’s bringing the staff a nutmeg tree? (4-6)
MACE-BEARER: A nutmeg tree would grow which spice?

8d    Saw the Grand Master post each hour (10)
ANSWER: THE plus the abbreviations for grand and master follow (post) a (1,3) phrase for each and the abbreviation for hour

12d    Flipping shrew let on about dress material (10)
BALBRIGGAN: The reversal (flipping) of a 3-letter shrew and a 4-letter word for let on or tell goes about a word meaning to dress

13d    Man on board so ill takes small dose of aperient salt (6,4)
BAKING SODA: A man on a chess board + SO from the clue goes inside a 3-letter word for ill or evil plus the first letter (a small dose) of aperient. Some think the answer is an aperient salt

14d    Cloth product‘s trade name (5)
LINEN: A 4-letter trade or business and the abbreviation for name

15d    A few present resistance further north … (5)
THREE: A word meaning present or attending with the abbreviation for resistance moved up a space

19d    … as news got around a city (7)
SWANSEA: An anagram (got around) of AS NEWS plus A from the clue

20d    Fanatic spoke for boxing clubs (7)
RADICAL: A word for spoke includes (for boxing) the abbreviation for clubs

23d    Erase marks from ruler? (6)
DESPOT: Split (2,4) this could mean ‘erase marks from’

25d    A limit to well-founded rumour (4)
WORD: Split (1,2,1) we see either end of’well-founded’

26d    Woman named herein (4)
ANNA: Hidden

Which was your favourite?

12 comments on “Toughie 3232”

  1. The usual brain-mangling from Elgar that all made sense in the end. I thought I wasn’t going to get anywhere with it, but a bit of brain food at lunch time got everything working again and I completed it in fairly good time. As always, trying to pick a winner is difficult, but that honour falls to 10a. Very neat.

    My thanks to Elgar for the mental gymnastics, and to Dutch.

  2. The lower NW would have been a lot easier had I not got fixed on ‘echo’ being the likely answer for 2d, because try as I might I could not get the first part of 10a to work with it then starting -h! Losing the echo made the rest fall into place. In 12a I’d not come across the answer being used as a verb, transitive or otherwise; I could not parse 22a and still wonder why one edge in the clue results in two edges being removed in the answer. With 12d I wanted ‘barrathean’ to mean “about dress material” but fortunately gave up on that idea! Still no idea as to how 18a works despite Dutch’s explanation: I’d figured that one added true to something but could not work out how doing so then related to the definition.

    Notwithstanding all that I thought it a slightly more benign Elgar than usual, if still 5* for difficulty in my books, and very satisfying to solve. Podium for me to 28a, 29a, & 23d.

    Many thanks to Elgar & Dutch

    2. Hi MG,

      I tend to agree about the single edge in 22a but it helps the crickety surface.

  3. Quite friendly in places for Elgar, e.g. the four linked central clues which gave good entry to others.
    7d, 10a and 28a were penny drop moments. As always for me and Elgar, have to read each word in the clue carefully.

    Thanks Elgar and Dutch.

  4. Fairly accessible for Elgar today, though still.the battle to parse it all.

    Dutch… for 5d I think it implies the idiom “Well I’ll Be…!” meaning “Oh MY..! ”

    And 3d, when all clues are read together is actually a homophone “.. is spoken ‘in jest’.. Very clever.

    Thanks Elgar and Dutch (hope it’s nothing too serious at the GP 😬)

  5. Back again – must be Elgar. I think my fastest ever Elgar solve, but I still have to give it 5* for difficulty because (as ever) there were some I couldn’t parse. Viz 18a (thank you so much to Wahoo for the clarification above), 22a, which I really should have got, and 24a, which I don’t think I ever would have. So, as ever, many thanks to Dutch for his extraordinary cleverness and to Elgar for being Elgar and giving me another serious workout.

  6. We finished it but had to Onelook for Balbriggan. A slight fault on two of the reveals when instead of Apophthegm and Scotch Pine it comes up with “Answer”!! We finished an Elgar at one sitting! Can’t believe it.

  7. We’ve been network-free for most of the past 2 days but BT seem now to have fixed it [fingers crossed]. It’s late but still worth a look to see if others thought Elgar is becoming a bit of a softie [all relative of course]. Finished this & parsed it all in 4* time [tho needlessly concerned that the = in 6 might’ve more significance]. Faves were 9, 18 and 28a.
    Thanks to Elgar and Dutch.

  8. I got to within two and a half answers before needing to resort to help to complete. With some setters, an unknown word is not too much of an impediment as you can rely on being able to decode the wordplay. Not the case here for me with the unknown fabric, but I had decoded half of the saw…

    Great stuff, and satisfying to get as far as I did. Thanks.

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