Toughie 3307

17 comments on “Toughie 3307”

1. Thank you Django — it’s always a delight to see your name as the day’s Toughie setter, especially on a day when I know the backpager will be beyond me. This was a fun and steady solve.†

   I think my favourite is 8d’d half-day with the misleading definition. I also liked 28a (“Key player Charles”), 24d (“broke up”), 1d (“sauce”), and 25d — the latter for being one of those clues where the wordplay seemed to be indicating an unlikely combination of letters, but following their instructions without thinking about it makes an answer suddenly appear.

   Thank you to Gazza for clarifying some parsings, particularly 6d where I was wondering how ‘sooth’ could be a synonym of ‘discharge’.

   † And, incidentally, took me significantly less time than Monday’s backpager — but that’s more a comment on my struggles with that puzzle, not a claim I sped through this one. I mention it just because there are comments from time to time about puzzles’ difficulties, as though every solver finds the same things easier and harder, so I think it’s worth occasionally pointing out examples which show the opposite.

2. I totally agree with Gazza about Django’s evolution. I do slightly miss his old maverick clues but this was super-sharp and buckets of fun. Very smooth indeed. 11a is magnificent, dripping with smarts. 28a’s another corker. I was oddly disappointed to discover that Descartes actually suffered from pneumonia, not 14d, and I did initially grumble about 16d in that while one might gnash, grind or grit teeth, I’ve never heard of anyone g***ing them. But, of course, it’s in Chambers, so what do I know? Clearly not much. Many thanks to Django for yet another corker and to Gazza, the man of a thousand cartoons. Marvellous.

3. An enjoyable challenge which although I completed, I had difficulty parsing, so thank you Gazza for shining the light on 11 and 15A and 6D.
   My favourite was 28A.
   I agree with you Smilers about how we each fare with the different puzzles. Sometimes we get straight onto the setter’s wavelength and sometimes we don’t, which determines our perceived level of difficulty. I appreciate the effort each setter makes to give us enjoyment and our bloggers’ enlightenment.
   Many thanks to Gazza and Django.

4. Just right for a Thursday and enjoyable too

   Many thanks to Django and Gazza

5. I enjoyed this as always with a Django compilation. Pretty straightforward as toughies go. Favourite was 22d. Thanks to Django and Gazza.

6. No specific fav but as always with Mr Gorman a very enjoyable solve & not overly demanding either. 25a was new to me & needed Mr G’s ok but an otherwise problem free completion. Podium places for 11&26a plus 21d. His Fed puzzle in the Graun is a good deal wordier than this & much more like his earlier ones in the Toughie slot.
   Thanks to D&G

7. I enjoyed this puzzle – I would not have plugged it in the comments on the back-page blog otherwise – but as Toughies go, Django has certainly given us better, indeed I was quite surprised to see that it was one of his. Most of it would not have been out of place in an early-week back-page slot, and while the clues were surprisingly concise I think some surface readings suffered in the pruning process. I had a few “hummmm” moments against three clues, feeling that pick-a-man’s-name “key player Charles” required quite specialist and (sadly) now rather dated knowledge, that “possibly” in 3d was unnecessary (he is a prince, no possibly about it, whether or not the title is used) and ‘condition’ in 14d is about as loose a definition as one can get – fortunately the instructions were clear!

   OTOH 19a was inspired, both in surface read and answer, while my other podium places go to the smooth-as-silk 5a and 7d: three superb clues.

   Many thanks to Django and Gazza

   1. Re your humming, I agree that the Charles in question won’t be known to all, but that’s the case with many words encountered in crossword clues and solutions. He’s definitely part of general knowledge, and maybe some solvers today enjoyed learning about his music for the first time? (And maybe there are others learning Descartes’ first name?) Apart from anything else, it was possible to solve the clue without initially twigging who Charles was; I got the answer from the rest of it and some crossing letters, then went “Oh, that Charles!” afterwards.

      Anyway, let’s a have a bit of this:

      3d has the “possibly” because Prince doesn’t define every Archie; there also exist people of that name who aren’t princes. And with 14d you’re being a little unfair in saying “fortunately” the instructions were clear, as though that happened by chance: presumably the instructions were intentionally clear, and it was because of those that a vaguer definition was selected. ‘Here’s a general category of thing, with the solution being one of them’ seems like a pretty common type of crossword definition, for instance colours and countries; it didn’t seem unusual to me.

   2. Thanks for the recommendation MG. I struggled with yesterday’s Silvanus (a DNF) production but completed and enjoyed this toughie. Just needed Gazza’s help with one or two parsings.
      Thanks to Django and Gazza.

8. I am normally “puzzled out” by the time I have done my Thursday blog, but I saw some of the comments on this Toughie and decided to give it a go. I’m very glad I did.
   Lovely puzzle and sufficiently challenging for a Toughie.
   More of the same, please, Django.
   Thank you Gazza. Rather you than me on this one!

9. Just going back to Gazza’s point about “essentially” in 19d. I’d love to know what others think about this. We’re very used to seeing initially/finally etc applied to a string of words, not necessarily just one. It seems fair to me and, obviously, “essentially repeatedly” or the like would be unthinkable. I’m curious though. Is there a consensus here?

   1. I take your point about initially/finally but I can’t remember ‘essentially’ being applied to more than one word. I think there’s an argument for essentially when applied to ‘sees cAptain’ to lead to the letter A.

      1. That is a very good point. Yes, it could indeed. I’m torn. Not sure what I think really!

      2. I think that’s a good argument which works for a hyphenated pair of words, or maybe a pair connected in another way (by inverted commas, possibly?) but not for two entirely separate words, as in this clue.

   2. It didn’t worry me and I thought it entirely fair and a familiar instruction, certainly one I’ve experienced elsewhere, and here too, I’m sure. Often seen with other ‘pick a letter’ instructions, so why not with ‘essentially’?

10. It took us ages to twig the prince in 3d and then a couple of other sticking points in what we thought was another good fun puzzle.
    Thanks Django and Gazza.

11. Witty and clever. Thanks, Django.

Comments are closed.