Toughie No 3560 by Elgar
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
Elgar’s Proper Friday Toughie is a pangram, which may or may not help you finish solving the puzzle. Some nice helpful four-letter solutions together with a few longer ones that did take quite a bit of thought and muttering to parse!
Please let us know what you thought
Across
1a Nobody in France thinks as you spell (4,6)
OPEN SESAME The letter representing nothing or nobody, the French verb for to think and an adjective meaning as you
6a Indian starter’s filling old prophet (4)
AMOS The inside (filling) of an Indian starter or snack
9a Save time – get the book from the Bangles? (3,7)
CUT CORNERS The first word of the solution tells you what to do with the B (book) in Bangles. The second word is a synonym for ANGLES
10a Regular source of PMs the Speaker’s put away (4)
ETON A homophone (the speaker’s) of part of a verb meaning put away gives us the name of a public school attended by several Prime Ministers
12a Rogue waiving his right to take a spin (6)
ROTATE Remove the final R (waiving his Right) from a rogue and insert (to take) A (from the clue)
13a It could be hot there (3,5)
THE OTHER An anagram (could be) of HOT THERE Both the definition and solution are informal terms for sexual relations
15a Staying in case of emergencies, I appointed egg supplier (7,5)
CHINESE GOOSE IN (from the clue), the ‘case’ of EmergencieS and the ‘self’ (I) inserted into a synonym of appointed
18a One of my tricks, not entirely new, during journey with a singer (6,6)
ARIANA GRANDE A (from the clue) and almost all (not entirely) of one of the crossword setter’s tricks and the abbreviation for New inserted into a journey
21a Flirt runs away from foodies’ ball (8)
COQUETTE Take the cricket abbreviation for Runs from a ball of meat, fish or potato, coated in breadcrumbs and friend (foodies’ ball)
22a Tapeworms even harder to see emanating from mouth (6)
TAENIA A homophone (when emanating from mouth) of even smaller (and so harder to see)
24a A leader in victory it hurt to acknowledge (4)
AVOW A (from the clue), the ‘leader’ in Victory and an expression of pain (it hurt)
25a Quarter-pounder probably isn’t well done! (4,3,3)
GOOD FOR YOU What a beefburger isn’t or an expression of praise (well done)
26a Infusion of this northern water will make beer better? (4)
TEES A Northern river that sounds like the two letters you need to insert into BEER to get BETTER
27a Illustrator casually read about puzzle developer (6,4)
EDWARD LEAR An anagram (casually) of READ goes about the surname of the inventor of Wordle
Down
1d Awards title for limo-hire business? (6)
OSCARS Split 2,4 these film industry awards might be a good name for a business hiring out large vehicles (limos)
2d Gradually develop no longer grand property (6)
ESTATE A verb meaning to gradually develop without (no longer) the abbreviation for Grand
3d Clubhouse commandeered by headstrong sorts badly treated (5-7)
SHORT-CHANGED The abbreviation for clubhouse inserted into (commandeered by) an anagram (sorts) of HEADSTRONG
4d Not having a function (4)
SINE A Latin preposition meaning without or one of the six trigonometrical functions of an angle
5d The outcome will surely be bad potato salad (7,3)
MURPHYS LAW A potato and a cabbage salad
7d Fight in support of equality case for strikers (8)
MATCHBOX A verb meaning to fight goes after (in support of in a Down solution) a synonym for equality
8d Various stuff dehydrates in summer heat (8)
SUNDRIES Split 3,5 this would mean dehydrates in summer heat
11d How disgusting, girl getting turned on in bar – she lacks refinement (5,7)
ROUGH DIAMOND An expression of disgust, a reversed (getting turned) girl and ON (from the clue) inserted into a bar
14d I see judge crookedly accepting Grand Old Democrat Order (10)
KNIGHTHOOD Reverse (crookedly) an interjection of acceptance (I see) and a verb meaning to judge believe into which is inserted (accepting) the abbreviation for Grand, the abbreviations for Old and Democrat being added at the end
16d Blocks used as representation save domestic worker time (3,5)
BAR CHART Apart from (save), a domestic worker and the abbreviation for Time
17d “Kiss me, Hardy”? (Question mark about pulling rank) (8)
MISQUOTE An anagram (about) of QUESTIOn Mark without (pulling) the letters RANK. What Nelson apparently actually said on his deathbed was “Kismet, Hardy”
19d What fires beginnings of furious reactions in state of agitation? Me (6)
ENZYME ‘Fire’ or remove the beginnings of Furious Reactions from a state of agitation and then add ME (from the clue)
20d Tuchel’s agreed defence finally subdued American attacker (6)
JAGUAR Thomas Tuchel, the current England football manager, is German and so we need his word of agreement followed by a posture of defence without the final letter (finally subdued)
23d Scandinavian books just about summed up (4)
EDDA A reversal (up) of almost all of a synonym for summed or counted
Good afternoon. I got this down to 4, the SE corner being the problem child. Haven’t used the hints for a long time, but if it takes (redacted – we ask that people don’t mention solving times as everyone’s experience is different) I know I’m beat. 1a and the Prophet share the honours today. Thanks to the setter and CS for the review.
Apologies……
What else do you do on a soggy Lancashire day…..
Very chuffed to have finished a Friday Toughie, first time ever and a full set for the week! I guessed it might be a pangram as I had J X Y & Z fairly early on and that spurred me on. Took ages and some of the parsing eluded me, so will now read the hints.
Thanks to Elgar and Cryptic Sue
Elgar well up to standard today for both trickiness and enjoyment. Thanks to him and CS.
I didn’t know the tapeworms word but luckily the BRB obliged; even then I wasn’t sure of its pronunciation so the homophone could be either ‘tinier’ or ‘teenier’. I don’t suppose it matters much because either works.
Ticks from me for 13a, 25a, 1d, 5d and 19d.
I needed a few pointers from CS to get me over the finishing line, however it was a most enjoyable battle.
13a was my favourite, with ticks also awarded to 26a, 5d, and 11d.
Thanks to Elgar and to CS.
Very tricky but absolutely brilliant. I had never heard of 22a, and missed the homophone indicator, and loved 5d, my favourite. Thankfully it is still persisting down outside so I had little to do but knuckle down and complete this excellent grid. Our setter at his absolute best.
Thanks to Elgar for the brain-mangling, and thanks to Sue for unraveling the clues and putting the answers into plain English.
22a was a new word for me, though I had to confirm pronunciation before I fully understood the clue.
15a and 14d also took an age to parse.
I can just make out the many ticks among the scribbling I needed to solve this.
I’ve narrowed them down to the singer in 18a, the case for strikers in 7d and the superb death bed utterance in 17d.
Similar to Moonraker, this was a cracking way to pass a miserable afternoon in Kent.
My thanks to Elgar and CS.
Took a while but got there in the end, although had to look up the intestinal parasite. Smirk of the day goes to 13a.
Thanks.