Toughie No 3336 by Elgar
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *****+ – Enjoyment ****
You expect Elgar to set a very difficult Toughie but this one took itself to the next level – it took me much longer than usual to solve and, as for parsing and explaining some of the clues….
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought
Across
1a/10a Nothing received, switching to auto: neither heard? (2,3,3,3,3,3,5)
IN ONE EAR AND OUT THE OTHER Not one or not any inserted into an anagram (switching) of TO AUTO NEITHER HEARD
9a Pass act to comply with fish avoidance (2,2)
GO BY I’ve spent a lot of time looking in the BRB but apart from the fish being a four-letter word, I think I can justify the other three definitions. See the discussion @ comment 1
10a See 1 Across
11a After which it may be said to stop mother (4)
WHEN An adverb meaning after which can also be used as an instruction to stop someone using a teapot to fill your cup
14a Rough 25s could constitute refusal (7)
EARFULS Rough or scolding 25ds could be an anagram (constitute) of REFUSAL
16a Pine front projector? (7)
LONGBOW A verb meaning to pine and the front (of a ship, perhaps)
17a From rear, see whether king faces Islamic chief (5)
KALIF The chess abbreviation for King ‘faces’ or goes in front of a reversal (from behind) of an archaic interjection meaning see or look, the result followed by a simple way of saying ‘whether’
18a The speed of the sea bird (4)
KNOT Nautical mile per hour (speed of the sea) or a shore bird
19a Eastern county’s forgotten by nature (4)
ESSE An Eastern county without (forgotten) the letter used in measurements and multiplication sums to mean by
20a Venetian city house with a university resident (5)
PADUA A slang name for a house and A (from the clue) with the abbreviation for University inserted (resident)
22a As you are unlimited athletically, adopt pole vault (7)
OSSUARY An anagram (athletically) of the ‘unlimited’ letters of aS YOU ARe into which is inserted (adopt) the abbreviation for the South pole
23a Four after Jay in Great Gatsby intro maybe continue (7)
PROLONG How the American author F Scott Fitzgerald would spell the word for the introduction to The Great Gatsby, into which is inserted the letter that comes four letters after Jay
24a Who’s in position to catch the batsman cutting (4)
SLIP A cricketer placed next to the wicket keeper or a cutting
28a/30a Reinforcing offbeat old logo ban, have fancy poster for Camra founder (2,4,4,1,4,7)
GO DOWN LIKE A LEAD BALLOON Have or possess, be attracted to (fancy) and an abbreviated poster for beer (CAMRA being the Campaign for Real XXX) all inserted (reinforcing) an anagram (offbeat) of OLD LOGO BAN
29a Who brings Victory near landing-stage in sound (4)
NIKE The Greek Goddess of Victory – homophones (in sound) of a synonym for near and a landing-stage
30a See 28 Across
Down
2d Reason she’s left me, so there’s this (4)
NOUS Reason or common sense – if she’s left me, there would be XX XX
3d Mark lipogrammatic dictum, possibly, such as for this? (4)
NOTE A piece of writing (dictum) without a particular letter (lipogrammatic) in this case revealed by splitting the solution (mark) 3,1
4d The writer and his team revolutionised style of Roquefort or pecorino? (3-4)
EWE-MILK A reversal (revolutionised) of how the writer would refer to himself and then his team more generally, followed by a type or kind (style)
5d Judges seen to signal her upcoming remorse (4)
RUTH This Book of the Old Testament comes after (upcoming) the Book of Judges
6d So many airlifted rations lacking oxygen gas (2,3,2)
NO END OF A reversal (airlifted) of some rations without one of the chemical symbols for Oxygen and a type of gas
7d/8d Jockey got why folk don’t see me bet, I think (2,3,4,2,2,9)
TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE An anagram (jockey) of GOT WHY FOLK DON@T SEE ME BET
8d See 7 Down
12d/13d Badly bonked head on screen in guest house accommodation: fixes picture (8,3,11)
BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS An anagram (badly) of BONKED and the ‘head’ on Screen inserted into an abbreviated way of referring to guest house accommodation, the result followed by a synonym for fixes (with an adhesive perhaps)
13d See 12 Down
15d Like to have a bit of a kip and something to eat (5)
SATAY For example (like) into which is inserted a bit (100th ) of a Kip (the monetary unit of Laos)
16d Happy in drink, with a cigarette on the go (3,2)
LIT UP Happily drunk or with a cigarette on the go
20d Suggest theatre job in writing (7)
PROPOSE An abbreviated theatre ‘job’ inserted into a passage of writing
21d Country people breaking into song (7)
ARMENIA Some people ‘breaking into’ a song
25d Signal the fourth tier from base (4)
WORD A reversal of a way of referring to the fourth tier from the bottom
26d POW’s last unpropitious deed (4)
WILL The last letter of poW and a synonym for unpropitious
27d On old line I set up close to Cairo, look around for one construction tool (4)
LEGO A reversal of an abbreviated old railway line on (in a Down solution) the abbreviation for old. OR a reversal (up) of a verb meaning to set followed by the ‘close’ to CairO. OR an archaic word meaning to look going around the abbreviation meaning for example (for one)
Phew!! This took some time and even with a full grid I needed to expend more brain cells to work out some of the parsing. Thanks to Elgar for the contest and to CS for the review.
I agree that the fish in 9a doesn’t match the enumeration and neither does the ‘fifth’ definition because the avoidance is usually spelled 2-2.
It took me some time to realise that the 20d theatre job didn’t involve props.
The clues which I liked best were 11a, 19a, 23a, 3d and 6d.
Is 9a yet another example of Elgar being cut more slack than other setters? I don’t mind any more now I’m used to his ways but there it is.
Is there any chance that fish can be a verb – to search, trawl through, pass on.? I can’t see that Elgar would make a mistake.
Dunno about that, even if fish were a verb it still doesn’t fit the answer. I’m not saying Elgar is cut slack “cos he makes mistakes. Far from it – he’s much too good for that. He is cut slack when he tries it on/bends the rules.
I saw 9 across as a quadruple, pass / act to comply with / [type of] fish / avoidance. As long as the enumeration is correct for definition 1, it’s not an issue for it not to apply to e.g. the fish (4). Really tough challenge and I could not see 7/8 for a long time, but wow, what a clue.
Six stars indeed Sue. When trying to get to grips with this I realised that Elgar’s usual multi-word clues are actually a help in solving his puzzles. The trouble here is there are only 4 of ’em and the little ones include the real stinkers. I managed to get the NW and the middle sorted, then the NE, but the other 2 corners were no go areas for quite a while. At least they all parsed, eventually – albeit with a few struggles [17a is Yoda-esque in the extreme].
Faves were 11a [surprised not to remember having seen this done before] 12/13d [which parses brilliantly] and 15d [don’t forget what “a bit of a kip” is].
Thanks to Elgar and CS – your parsing and explaining are fine by me.
I have to say i often look at Elgars puzzles knowing they are well above my pay grade…I managed 2 today and then marvel at how CS unravels the answers. I’m happier with a clue that when the penny drops, you know you have the answer. But hats off to you guys that tackle these.
Very impressed with CS and Gazza getting it all. In places it was mind boggling. The obvious long anagrams, including the inserts, certainly helped, slowly, fill in many others. As always with Elgar, there were a couple of gimmes. The rest took a long time, especially parsing bung-ins.
Example: 22a – never heard of. Use of almost hidden parts of the clue, like “La” and “Lo” in the same crossword?
Overall I found this to be the hardest Elgar for ages. Thanks to he and to CS ( if I may say so, a very worthy successor to Richard).
I found this remarkably straightforward for an Elgar puzzle, until I was left with 28 & 30a which took as long as the rest until I resorted to the hints. Just couldn’t untangle the anagram letters to go with the rest of it, so thanks for sorting that out for me CS. 16a and 29a my favourites if only for their Roman and Greek origin. All the clues are admirable, but 17a is cotd for me because of it’s unusual spelling! I’m getting much more relaxed about Elgar’s puzzles, without having to take more than a day to crack them… Or not!
Thanks Elgar as well
Just one slip up for me, although the parsing was on several occasions beyond me.
Got ‘knot’ quickly thinking my brain might buffer and some other answers would occur .
Sadly didn’t.
Have mostly completed Elgar in the past-perhaps he needs help !
Welcome to the blog
Sorry for late comment, but it is an Elgar… Thought this one would be another of those judged to be easy except by me, so pleasantly surprised to see the difficulty rating. 27d – I parsed this as ‘on old’, ‘line I’, ‘set up close to Cairo’ …
Many thanks to Crypticsue for help with a few clues and parsings and to Elgar for an enjoyable puzzle.