Toughie 3352 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie 3352

Toughie  No 3352 by Elgar

Hints and Tips by crypticsue

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

Given that this was an Elgar Toughie, I was very surprised when the first five Across clues just wrote themselves in.  It soon became clear that he was just lulling us into a false sense of security as the rest of the crossword was definitely set by the Elgar we know and love.  Great fun to solve, a couple of clues that required muttering to parse and a lecture from Mr CS about 14d.  How else would you want to start a lovely sunny autumnal Friday morning?

Please let us know what you thought

Across

6a           Cracking goods made from gold, when in supply, are bargain buys (2,3,1,4)
GO FOR A SONG Take two lots of the abbreviation for Good (goods plural) and insert (cracking) a two-word phrase meaning made from the heraldic term for gold, a conjunction meaning when and an adverb with many meanings, one of which is supply

8a           Husband’s occupying seat that was close (4)
PHEW The abbreviation for Husband ‘occupying’ a seat in a church

9a           Mr Big having trouble with ear’s waxy secretion (9)
AMBERGRIS An anagram (having trouble) of MR BIG with EARS

11a         Zero-energy long-distance runner (4)
NILE Nothing or zero with the symbol for Energy

12a         Trump’s Number One Supporter (3)
TEE A way of spelling the first letter (number one) of Trump or a golf ball supporter

13a         American cooler aboard boat runs useful device in galley (3-6)
CAN-OPENER An abbreviated North American prison (cooler) is inserted into a light boat propelled by paddles, the result followed with the cricket abbreviation for Runs

16a         For and against Newcastle United FC (4)
TOON  Prepositions meaning for and against combine to give the nickname for Newcastle United FC

17a         Service point left feeding a lord … (7)
AMENITY A reversed (left) point of a fork ‘feeding’ A (from the clue) and an interjection expression surprise (lord)

18a         … leading to blame game (2,3,2)
UP FOR IT An expression meaning leading to blame.  As Gazza says, the definition and solution both mean enthusiastic

20a         Opposed to unlimited prayer, it appears (4)
ANTI  The inside (unlimited) letters of an insect that appears to pray

21a         What paste makes awkward? (9)
SHAMBLING Paste is used to make fake jewellery

23a         Is aware of phoned-in refusals (3)
NOS A homophone (phoned-in) of part of a verb meaning is aware of

24a         Doctor on Tube short of time at stop (4)
WHOA A television doctor and At (from the clue) without (short of) the abbreviation for Time

25a         Conclude slab of clay dried up? (9)
INFERTILE A synonym for conclude and a slab of clay

29a         This top TV actor may receive topping prize (4)
EMMY A television award is found by taking the top letter from a verb meaning to use a type of crowbar

30a         Carelessly made slips: no notice taken, having character flaw? (10)
MISSPELLED An anagram (carelessly) of MadE SLIPS, without the abbreviated notice followed by part of a verb meaning taken or guided

Down

1d           Canapé Romeo’s slipped to date (4)
SOFA Who knew a canape could be a piece of furniture?  An expression meaning to date without (slipped) the letter represented by Romeo in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet

2d           Minute ribbon’s tied around child carrier (4)
WOMB The abbreviation for Minute ‘tied’ in a reversal (around) of a ribbon

3d           Partner cut on the ear (4)
PAIR A homophone (on the ear) of a verb meaning to cut

4d           Great rush for finally leasable houses (7)
TORRENT The final letter of foR ‘housed’ by a two-word way of saying leasable

5d           Utterly tedious drill activity (4-6)
WELL-BORING Without the hyphen, this could be how a teenager, perhaps, might say that something was utterly tedious

7d           With wines, a feeding obsession from the South? (9)
GASTROPUB A reversal (from the south) of an informal name for an obsession into which is inserted some fortified wines.   The first one of these eating places originated in London which, if you lived in the North, could be said to have come from the South

8d           Boxed up cannoli, not ten-a-penny Christmas cakes (9)
PANETTONI Hidden in reverse (boxed up) in cannolI NOT TEN A Penny

10d         The I of “moviegoers” (3)
EGO Hidden in the last word of the clue

13d         Soon to be in picture (6,4)
COMING HOME A phrase meaning soon to be in or the name of a 1978 American romantic war drama film (picture)

14d         S_me _dent_t_es n_w s_ def_ned? (9)
NON-BINARY I won’t give you the full Mr CS lecture but suffice to say that the missing letters are all in positions that are part of a particular system of numeral notation

15d         Invigorated, I am up to eating small portion of Special K (9)
POTASSIUM An anagram (invigorated) of I AM UP ‘eating’ the abbreviation for Small and the first letter (portion) of Special

19d         Unconventional folk enlisted for flying school? (7)
RAFFISH Dashing or flashy – members of that part of the forces relating to flying and the aquatic animals, the collective noun for which is a school

22d         Whole department (3)
LOT A whole amount of something or a French department

26d         3 no longer providing cover for genuine pearls? (4)
ROPE Remove the abbreviation for the solution to 3d from the outside (no longer providing cover) from an adjective meaning real or genuine

27d         Member of famous trouperesting” (4)
IDLE A crossword setter’s most useful member of Monty Python’s Flying Circus (famous troupe) can also be a synonym for not occupied (resting)

28d         Repeatedly endeavoured to protect PM (4)
EDEN Write down the second word of the clue twice (repeatedly) and you should find a 1950s Prime Minister

 

 

13 comments on “Toughie 3352
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  1. Elgar never disappoints – thanks to him and CS.
    I parsed 18a slightly differently having ‘game’ (in the sense of enthusiastic) as the definition.
    The top clues for me were 6a, 29a, 2d and 13d.

  2. I’m feeling very pleased with myself for successfully completing my first Elgar Toughie. So many excellent clues from the master but I thought 14D was very clever. However my favourite has to be 2D.
    Thank you CS for the blog and Elgar for the tussle.
    By the way Sue, 6A is Go for a song (2,3,1,4).

  3. Blimey that was hard. It took me ages to get some sort of foothold in the east, then slow progress through to a conclusion. As always with this setter, there were a few leaps of faith and bung-ins, but it all made sense in the end. 29a was my favourite clue. Off for a lie down now in a darkened room.

    Thanks to Elgar for the mauling and to Sue unravelling the bung-ins.

    I think the answer to 6a needs adjusting.

  4. I’m feeling very pleased with myself for successfully completing my first Elgar Toughie. So many excellent clues from the master but I thought 14D was very clever. However my favourite has to be 2D.
    Thank you CS for the blog and Elgar for the tussle.

  5. 8a, what a relief to have finished! Quite brilliant, and incredibly satisfying to complete. OK, so there were several where I thought “it has to be this, but why?” (6a, 17a, 29a, 13a – never, ever, heard of that film) and I was delighted to add 1d’s piece of furniture to my vocab when checking the BRB, but there were so many great clues.

    Honours for me went to 21a, 14d & 19d, with runner-up 5d.

    Many thanks indeed to Elgar and to CS

    (Congratulations to PJ – the first of many!)

  6. Quite a few write-ins, which I wasn’t expecting, but then I got stuck in the SE corner for a while. Possibly the closest I’ve ever been to having parsed everything. Can anyone confirm this is number 262 from Elgar?

    1. There are no Os or Is which are the digits in the binary number system. Or that’s what I eventually came up with!

      Just finished today too. Defeated by 17a and 30a, the latter making 26, 27 and 28 uncertain. The usual mix of delight and harrumphs for an Elgar.

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