Toughie No 3424 by Elgar
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty *****+++ – Enjoyment *****
Had this not been a blogging day, this was the sort of crossword where I would solve as much as I could and then go and do something else while that part of the brain that works away on the crossword without you noticing had a go at working out some of the rest of them, and more than likely repeat the process a couple of times. As it was a blogging day, I had to keep plugging away, as I had to solve and then parse the clues (some of which took quite a bit of muttering), before preparing the Hints ready for publication at 2 o’clock.
I am not entirely sure why one of Elgar’s New Year’s Resolutions for 2025 must have been to make all his crosswords, wherever they appear, even more difficult – they were fiendish enough before – but perhaps someone could have a word and tell him that most people don’t actually keep their New Year Resolutions!
I wrote the above paragraph before I received an email from Gazza asking me whether I’d noticed Elgar’s acrostic confession – look at the first letters of each of the clues. Thanks to Odrum for pointing out that if you look at the grid once you have the last word of the message you should see how many really obvious links to that word there are in the solution.
Please let us know what you thought
Across
1a Yankee sniffs second shot of Michter’s and verifies round (8)
SCHMECKS American (Yankee) slang for tastes or sniffs – the abbreviation for Second, and a synonym for verifies going round the first letter (shot) of Michter’s
6a Oxygen escaping from substandard plane (6)
FLIGHT The chemical symbol for Oxygen ‘escaping’ a preposition meaning from and an adjective meaning substandard
9a Ultimately picked up the pieces? Didn’t bother (4)
PEST The ultimate letters of uP thE pieceS didn’T
10a Roaming craft fair restricting current overhead fluctuations? (3,7)
AIR TRAFFIC An anagram (roaming) of CRAFT FAIR ‘restricting’ the symbol for electrical current
11a Speaking for PA: sorry, I can’t do it (9)
DICTATION The speaking of words for a Personal Assistant to write down and then type out – an anagram (sorry) of I CANT DO IT After a number of years, I developed the ability to take down shorthand without consciously listening to what the person was saying – I wonder if that it was ‘trained’ the part of my brain that now solves crossword clues without me noticing?
12a End of trip on which train crew periodically charge (5)
PRICE The ‘end’ of Trip on the periodic letters of tRaIn CrEw
14a Terrain reduced to powder (6)
GROUND A nice, friendly, double definition
16a Touching banking counter for my money? Withdrawn! (6)
REMOTE Touching or on the subject of ‘banking’ a reversal (counter) of a two-word phrase meaning for my money
19a Emile’s vineyard is culmination of wine holiday (6)
CRUISE A French word (as used by Emile perhaps) word for a vineyard, IS (from the clue) and the ‘culmination’ of winE
20a Rush entering US League, then United let in nine! (6)
INFLUX Having spent an age trying to fit Ivy in as the American league, I eventually got the solution from the definition and checking letters and realised we wanted the abbreviation for the (American) National Football League and the abbreviation for United inserted into (let in) the Roman numeral for nine
22a Heard about place one’s assigned to new arrival (5)
BIRTH A homophone (heard about) of an allotted or assigned place
24a A surprise, that is, about Green Line deposition (9)
OVERTHROW An interjection of surprise goes ‘about’ a green colour, the result followed with a line
27a Samples taken from this Paul scattered in magical brew (10)
POPULATION An anagram (scattered) of PAUL inserted into a magical brew
28a Conflict church dispelled from entrances (4)
ARMS The abbreviation for church removed (dispelled) from part of a verb meaning entrances
29a Like a cracked back injury? (6)
DAMAGE A reversal (back) of the abbreviation meaning for example (like) A (from the clue) and a more formal way of saying crazy (cracked)
30a Exotic polyurethanes making this kind of seal – yours? (8)
ELEPHANT A compound anagram (exotic) POLYURETHANES gives you the word YOURS and a type of seal Don’t you just love the expression on the face of the female of the species?
Down
2d A land unit’s lost reputed good character (6)
CREDIT A unit of land without (lost) the A and an (originally French) adjective meaning reputed
3d Ran into crew members mining rare bones (9)
METATARSI Another way of saying ran into and some sailors (crew members) ‘mining’ an adjective meaning rare in the sense of excellent or extraordinary
4d Ladies who sing refrains trading gold for advance payment (10)
CHANTEUSES Some musical refrains where the heraldic term for gold is traded or swapped for an advance payment
5d Year wasted by so very complex mechanical system (5)
SERVO An anagram (complex) of SO VERy without (wasted) the abbreviation for Year
6d Launch force with anger … (4)
FIRE The symbol for Force and some anger
7d … out of which you may draw no reason (5)
INFER Remove the NO (out of which you may draw) from another word for a 6d
8d Such art is shown off out of salon’s door? (8)
HAIRCUTS An anagram (off) of SUCH ART Is (without) out the ‘door’ of Salon
13d Thesaurus, could it be, supporting poet’s first choice? (10)
PREFERENCE A book of useful information (thesaurus could it be) ‘supporting’ in a Down solution the first letter of Poet
15d Chap from Cardiff maybe spotted item in auditorium (3)
DAI A homophone (in auditorium) of a cube with numbers of spots
17d Order Wham!’s hit – it’s out, tosh (9)
MOUTHWASH Tosh or nonsense – an anagram (order) of WHAMS Hit OUT
18d Nutty vicar and pop share cell that contains a hundred rodents (8)
ARVICOLA The water rat genus of voles. An anagram (nutty) of VICAR and a type of fizzy drink (pop) sharing the ‘cell’ that contains the Roman numeral for one hundred
21d This follows immediately, without a forward space, for general use (6)
COMMON A punctuation mark without the A and an adverb meaning forward
23d Reversing broke a sword guard (5)
TSUBA A reversal of A (from the clue) and an adjective meaning penniless (broke) – a metal plate at the top of a Japanese scabbard, serving and a sword guard
25d Old fault muffles speaker (5)
VOICE The abbreviation for Old ‘muffled’ by an immoral habit (fault)
26d Labour’s reward, with time (4)
WAGE The abbreviation for With and a period of time
The darkened room beckons – but before I go for a long lie down, can I just say, once again, to the Puzzles Team at Telegraph Towers, if you returned the grid size as it was in the good old days, then the clues would all fit on one page, fortunately I noticed today before I wasted nearly a whole second piece of paper
Elgar provides us with quite a struggle as is his wont – thanks to him and CS.
I completed the right-hand side without too many problems but the left was a different kettle of fish, especially the SW corner where there lurked two words I’d never heard of. I was surprised when my attempts to solve 18d and 23d from the wordplay and checkers got the ‘thumbs up’ from the BRB.
Top clues for me were 16a, 7d and 8d with my favourite being 21d.
And the acrostic also hints at the Nina.
As usual loads of bung-ins followed by head scratching to parse.
Thanks to Elgar for not using too many obscure definitions today and to CS for parsing 3 and 4 down
I’m blaming extreme brain fatigue for not noticing the blooming obvious – now you’ve said, the link to the acrostic is really obvious
I didn’t see the Nina. How clever.
I don’t normally get too far with an Elgar in fact I own up to not starting many as the inevitable defeat is depressing. This one I started on line after a bad night and early morning. I filled three quarters of it before the paper arrived and I discovered it was Elgar. Eventually I gave up as usual but was pleased to have got so far. Learnt a couple of new words in the SW corner. To find out his very clever message to us was amazing. Setting the crossword at this level I would have thought was enough but then having to add another dimension of difficulty for his amusement is staggering. Thanks to CS and to Elgar for dumbing down a few clues to encourage me.
Unlike our blogger I found this on the gentle side for Elgar, perhaps because it lacks some of his trademarks [multi word solutions, cross-referenced clues, etc]. But the devious clue constructions are still here to add to the fun. Failed to parse all of 2d [should have checked the last 3 letters in Chambers] My favourites were 4d, 7d and 8d.
Thanks to Elgar and CS.
Got further with this Elgar than I ever have before! Well done me. Admiration to CS in solving and explaining and Elgar for setting such a clever puzzle!
Gosh but that was tough. As Rct notes above, it’s quite something that not content with compiling such a complex challenge, Elgar buries an acrostic in the clues and so many linked clues in the grid. Remarkable.
After the first half-dozen flew in I thought we were in for a gentle Friday, but it was not to be. Relieved to find the three “never heard of” answers (1a, 18d, 23d) confirmed in the dictionary. Spent far too long thinking the US League was “Ivy”, especially with the leading I from Dai. Still don’t understand “to me” in 16a being “my money”.
Super puzzle and thank you for the brain-mangling, Elgar: you win, again! Thanks also to Sue for confirming that/why some of my answers are what they are.
For my money means in my opinion, to me
Thank you Sue, makes sense now
I came tantalisingly close to finishing, again, but got in a mess with the rodent anagram at 18d and ended up inventing a new type of holiday to fit. No complaints though. Should have known the vineyard.
Can anyone explain how the wordplay makes sense in 17d? There seems to be an ‘out’ missing, or ‘out’ is doing double duty somehow?
19d We have to read “hit – it’s out” as hit with the ‘it’ becoming ‘out’.
Thank you, I see how that works now. Clever.
I was oblivious to the theme throughout, as usual. I’m going to have to learn how to spot these things, because this one would really would have helped a lot.
When I saw the rating that CS awarded this, I thought I’d have a quick look, but probably leave it. However, about half of them evenly spread fell in quite quickly. The rest of them took a long while googling and going down blind alleys, but I landed up with 1a, 9a, and 2d impenetrable. Once I’d read the hint for 1a, and then revealed it, 9a fell, then 2d, but I had to check the parsing. All in all pretty pleased with myself. 2d LOI, but favourite has to be 19a closely followed by 30a.
Now I’ve got to understand this Nina and acrostic…
Thanks CS and Elgar
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