Toughie No 3408 by Elgar
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty *****+ – Enjoyment *****
Elgar was definitely wearing his recently re-sharpened hob-nailed boots when he set this Toughie. I had only written in two solutions after my first read through and it took quite a long time to achieve a full grid, even after realising that we were probably solving a pangram
We are not supposed to reveal our solving times but I do wish I could tell you how long it took, once I’d finished solving, to parse quite a few of the clues, plus checking in the dictionary etc, in order to prepare the Hints and Tips. I would imagine the sound made when the penny dropped as to how 13a worked could be heard across the land!
Please let us know what you thought
Across
1a Volume of food bagged by man social worker has shot in back (6,4)
RECIPE BOOK A abbreviated photograph (shot) inserted into one of crosswordland’s social workers, the result then reversed (back) and inserted into (bagged by) a chess man
6a Book Max S’s famous opponent? (4)
JOEL The Book of an Old Testament prophet – the opponent of the boxer Max Schmelling in 1936 and 1938, treated in the same way as Max S is in the clue
10a Injury from dropping shield (5)
FENCE A synonym for injury or affront without (dropping) the preposition meaning from
11a Emperor’s first rather direct order (4,5)
EYES RIGHT The first letter of Emperor and a sarcastic way of saying rather
12a Turnover figure recorded for The Crown? (7)
CAPSIZE Split this verb meaning to overturn 3,4 and you might get the measurement needed for a crown
13a Big club result: fix is denied (7)
ARSENAL Very sneaky stuff – a verb meaning to result and another meaning to fix with a small spike, both of them without the letter I (denied Is)
14a Petition stays refined and puts in request for a rise (2,10)
BE UPSTANDING A verb meaning to petition into which is inserted (stays) an anagram (refined) of AND PUTS IN
18a Window only 75% of the specified weight? (12)
QUARTERLIGHT If something only weighs 75% of the specified weight, how might you refer to the missing 25%?
21a Patient beginning to vomit through wearing a cap (7)
INVALID The ‘beginning’ to Vomit inserted (through) a phrase meaning wearing a cap or top cover
23a He wrote casually off with line on top of second page (7)
KIPLING A slang (casually) word meaning sleeping (off) where the abbreviation for Line replaces the second appearance of the abbreviation for Page
24a Crazed ego fed with too much Italian food (9)
MANICOTTI A synonym for crazed and the letter representing ego into which is inserted the abbreviation way of saying over the top (too much)
25a Very musical, Ireland’s overture – when it begins (5)
ASSAI A musical term meaning very – A conjunction meaning when and the abbreviation for sexual attraction (it) goes before (begins) the first letter (overture) of Ireland
26a People other than me sleep on street (4)
REST A double definition – both words coming from the usual ‘on the subject of’ and the abbreviation for street
27a What’s recognised by IO2U note in gym? (6,4)
OXYGEN DEBT The chemical symbol for oxygen is in a note of sums owed – the depletion of the body’s reserves of oxygen after strenuous exercise, in the gym perhaps
Down
1d Lunch? Departmental head misses starter … (6)
REFECT A verb meaning to take a meal (lunch?) An official placed in authority over others without (misses) the first letter (starter)
2d … a snack at reception might do (6)
CANAPE A synonym for might in the sense of could and a verb meaning to imitate (do)
3d Thwarting set in advance is trademark Trump (9-5)
PRESIDENT-ELECT Choose beforehand (set in advance) is ‘thwarting’ or stopping a trademark
4d I’m scared to open device that signals apiculturist (9)
BEEKEEPER An interjection denoting fright (I’m scared’ inserted into (to open) a signalling device
5d Symbol of some resistance, nothing very big (5)
OMEGA The symbol used for the SI unit of electrical resistance – the letter used to mean nothing and a slang word meaning very big
7d Material long suppressed by newspaper? (8)
ORGANDIE An informal word meaning longing for going after (suppressed by in a Down solution) a means of communicating information (eg a newspaper)
8d Learner blocks weird cousin making an entrance exam (6,2)
LITTLE GO A preliminary examination for Oxford University – The abbreviation for Learner and some building blocks into which is inserted the Addams Family’s weird cousin
9d Professional who must have faith in Nick (6,8)
PRISON CHAPLAIN A cryptic definition of a clergyman (or woman) providing religious instruction in a place of confinement (nick)
15d Alien after Romulus, perhaps no longer after Flash (9)
TWINKLING A Star Trek alien without the last two letters goes after what Romulus was to his brother Remus
16d Twister entitled man to reach round gentleman’s bottom (8)
SQUIRMER An entitled man reaches round a title prefixed to a man’s name
17d New kids on the block expected a beautiful woman (8)
PARVENUS An expected value and the Roman goddess of beauty
19d Having heading removed in question paper (6)
TISSUE Remove the first letter (heading) from a two-word phrase meaning in question
20d A spirit intolerant of OAPs (6)
AGEIST A (from the clue) and a spirit
22d Admitting case for endoscopist, treat by cleansing (5)
DETOX A verb meaning to treat ‘admitting’ the outside letters (case) of EndoscopisT, the result followed by the letter used in multiplication sums to mean by
I completed it in 4* time for me but only because I “bunged in” 13a, 8d and 16d because they looked right and the online checker confirmed they were correct. Having seen the hints i don’t think I would ever have worked out the first two and I’m still struggling with 16d even with the hint!
Thanks to Elgar for the challenge and to CS for the elucidation.
For 16d you need to put a 2-letter man’s title around the final letter (bottom) of a gentleman.
..and the penny finally drops. My entitled man was your gentleman and it was of course the other way round. Thanks.
At first I thought this was one of his real stinkers and for a while I only had 11 and 9, but it seemed to get easier as it went on and there were enough gimmes in the lower half to get a grip. It was the parsing that took the time and a fair bit of Googling was needed for the weird cousin in 8d. Completely failed to figure out 13a which is very clever – as is 16d.
Thanks to Elgar and CS.
Very tough – thanks to Elgar for the very enjoyable challenge and to CS for the review.
I ended up with most of the grid filled in but blanks in the NW corner and, for once, the pangram helped when I realised that my missing F must be lurking in that area.
The clues I liked best were 1a, 25a, 15d and 22d with my favourite being 9d.
Anyone who found the backpager tough will most certainly have made very heavy weather of this one. It was Elgar almost at his most impenetrable, with some desperately sneaky clueing and great imagination. I hadn’t parsed 13a so thanks to Sue for that one. Naturally I missed the pangram, and I’m not sure it would necessarily have helped me anyway, but I survived the challenge and enjoyed getting over the line. Favourite for me was 9d, which I was sure for a while had to be something to do with devil worshipping.
Many thanks to both Elgar and Sue.
I think I’ll leave these to the pros. My first ever toughie was on Tuesday (completed), followed by Wednesday (also completed). Yesterday I managed to fill in around half before giving up. Today six correct answers was the best I could do. Yes, I was able to follow along using the hints (thanks crypticsue) but I’m not sure I want to devote the time involved in learning to solve puzzles at this level. There are just too many obscurities and convolutions in the clues for my brain to handle. Ah well, back to the daily!
Got within 5 of finishing and then defeated mostly by GK.
Re: TheFatContoller’s comment above. After the first pass through, I tend to treat an Elgar puzzle as a sort of obfuscated Quick Crossword. I.e., I look for a possible definition in the clue and try to solve that, since the wordplay can be very hard to unravel. Once you’ve tried a few, you’d get used to Elgar’s style, so it’s easier to recognise the definitions and make more progress. On the other hand, if you don’t know that a LITTLE GO is a type of exam, then you’re probably just stuck as I was.
Thanks Outnumbered, I didn’t think to try that approach, maybe I’ll not give up after all? Like any other activity one hopes to get better with practice. 🤞