Toughie No 3704 by Elgar
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
Recent Toughies from Elgar have been themed about notable dates and events so I did do a little bit of investigation yesterday to see if today was significant for anything other than our lovely granddaughter Lucie’s eighth birthday. However, this time we have a theme relating to the solution to 16a. There were quite a few ‘friendly’ clues – I was particularly pleased that the clue that went onto a second page didn’t need to be written out on the first sheet as it could be solved on first reading. There were also the usual Elgar ‘how does that work’ clues, two of which took a lot of muttering to parse
Please let us know what you thought
Across
9a She once omitted to start from here (5)
HENCE The first two words of the clue without their first letters (omitted to start)
10a Scottish broadcaster’s vote for reporter no. 1 on the cards (6,3)
KELLY’S EYE A traditional bingo call for the number one – a TV presenter (broadcaster) and a homophone (for reporter) of how she, coming from Scotland, would say a vote for something
11a 550 more inserted to the right (7)
DEXTRAL Insert more (than the usual) between the Roman numerals for 500 and 50
12a Warring 16 Across (7)
MARTIAL This adjective meaning of or relating to war could, if you follow the instructions in the solution to 16a, be the name of a post-WWII European recovery programme
13a We hear someone operating on the lighter side? (5)
BHAJI This Indian side dish sounds like (we hear) a person working on a flat-bottomed boat operating on rivers and canals (lighter)
14a After restructuring, model boss came out (9)
BLOSSOMED An anagram (after restructuring) of MODEL BOSS
16a Proposal agreed together, 1 26 or 6 24 Down? (6,4,1,4)
SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN An indication that if you merge the solutions to 1 26 or 6 24 Down, they are examples of schemes or methods for accomplishing a purpose
19a Elegant jumper we switched after run out (9)
ROSEWATER An adjective meaning superfine (elegant). Take a jumper and switch the positions of the letters WE and then put the result after the cricket abbreviation for Run Out
21a Slightly taken aback, one has broken bone (5)
TIBIA The Roman numeral for one inserted into (has broken) a reversal (taken aback) of a phrase meaning slightly
23a Cask beer 16 Across (7)
DRAUGHT A homophone of this cask beer could be linked to the solution to 16a
25a He wrote at length to Leroy wanting way to oust our beloved queen (7)
TOLSTOY TO LerOY (from the clue) where an abbreviated street ‘ousts’ the regnal cipher of our late beloved Queen
27a Was manager making withdrawal helping account? (9)
NARRATION A reversal (making withdrawal) of a simple way of saying was manager, followed by a helping or fixed allowance
28a Empty container to which fish will be brought? (5)
CREEL The outside (empty) letters of ContaineR and a type of fish
Down
1d Got rid of garden gear here? (4)
SHED A surface reading which makes sense even though there are two parts to the clue – one a verb meaning to get rid of and the other somewhere to store garden gear
2d #11 put through as deficiency (6)
ANOXIA Elgar often does something sneaky with letters. Here one meaning of the hash symbol and the Roman numeral for eleven are inserted between (put through) two As
3d Film English naturalist on cycle in thoroughfare (4,6)
REAR WINDOW The abbreviation for English and the name of one of our most famous naturalists, the latter having the first letter cycled to the end of the word, the result then inserted into a thoroughfare
4d Old round-the-world vehicle, with internal scratching of key, fixed by hunk (6)
SKYLAB Scratch or remove the middle letter of KeY and insert it into (fixed by) a large piece of something (hunk)
5d 1970s British export KLM moved with cargo (4,4)
GLAM ROCK An anagram (moved) of KLM with CARGO
6d Expert treating material from the ground on Yard’s case (4)
DYER A reversal (from the ground in a Down solution) of the usual two-letter on (the subject of) and the ‘case’ of YarD
7d Bent metal tip in this condition not fitting (5,3)
PETIT MAL A mild form of epilepsy without convulsions is an anagram (bent) of METAL TIP
8d Deadly perennial vocal exchange in song about Tyneside? (10)
BELLADONNA Take a type of song about the (abbreviated) area of England where Tyneside is situated 6, 2, 2, and exchange the vowel in second place in the song with that of the abbreviation
13d Essential for participation – and what brought victory – in the Jockeys’ Championship? (10)
BESTRIDING The most important or powerful (essential for participation) could, if split, 4,6, tell us the reason for victory in the Jockeys’ Championship
15d Know-all navigator’s last yarn aboard fishing vessel (5,5)
SMART ALECK The last letter of navigatoR and a yarn or story inserted into (aboard) a fishing vessel
17d Parcel handler beginning to take affectation to another level (8)
UPSTAIRS The initials by which a parcel delivery company is known, the ‘beginning’ of Take and an assumed or affected manger (affectation)
18d Allowed to go ahead, one and three in a group act freely (3,2,3)
LET IT RIP The Roman numeral for one and three of a kind, where the synonym for allowed goes ahead or before the rest
20d Lecture audience’s size … (6)
RATING A long serious speech, especially a telling-off, or the proportion of viewers or listeners who are deemed to have watched or listened to a particular programme
22d … an improvement, I’ll wager (6)
BETTER Double definition
24d Pulse? Good sign (4)
GRAM The abbreviation for Good and one of the animals that is a Sign of the Zodiac
26d Periodically you’ll get something to celebrate (4)
YULE The odd (periodically) letters of YoUlL gEt
Lovely puzzle and I managed nearly all on my own so that’s a red letter day for me on an Elgar puzzle. I did this first today so I think it helped warm my brain up for the standard cryptic.
I still ended up with about six clues I just could not crack and had to come here for help.
Loved the linked clues as well – my clue of the day is the film at 3d
Elgar provided one or two more gimmes than usual but the rest of the clues were at his usual level of toughness. Thanks to him for the enjoyable challenge and to CS for the review.
I liked 10a, 2d and 17d with my favourite being 13d.
A good mix of gimmes and proper Elgar stinkers but the only one that made me smile was 19a when the penny dropped on the jumper bit. I thought 8d was clever but 16a seemed a bit forced and I’m not sure about 18d – surely the 3 of a kind word is a plural – or at least it was when I used to play poker badly. Another “Elgar only” clue?
Thanks to Elgar and CSue.
The word following the one can be defined as a group of three notes taking the time of two
The penny has finally dropped. I stand corrected.
Started off fairly quickly, got stuck for a while, then cracked on at a good pace to finish.
2d and 7d were the only ones unknown to me, so despite the usual complexity in the parsing of a few clues, I can’t complain too much.
I liked the bingo call at 10a, the side in 13a, the elegant 19a, and the writer in 25a, though 3d’s naturalist cycling was best of all. I agree with halcyon regarding the last letter in 18d which doesn’t work for me either, though there were several unexpected bung-ins to compensate.
My thanks to CS and Elgar.
Start with one. Add a term for a group of three then move a term for allowed from the end to the beginning.
Quick start & finish but a fair amount of head scratching in the middle. 13a and 28a were my favourites. Thanks to Elgar and CS.
There’s always something very satisfying about finishing an Elgar puzzle. I enjoyed the challenge and only needed Sue’s hints for some of the parsings.
Thanks to Elgar for an enjoyable tussle and Cryptic Sue for the hints.
Needed the hints for the last couple and a Google for part of the bingo phrase. Everyone knows 88, but my best guess of “kilroy eye” wasn’t it
Thanks
Elgar at his brilliant best with this one. For once the linked clues helped, and a few hunches turned out to match checkers when they emerged and then took me to the parsings. (Lighter, Cask beer). 13a and 16a with its associated homophones get my prize. And just to add to the general bizarreness, this took me significantly less time to solve than the back-pager. Makes no real sense, as viewed objectively, this was much the harder puzzle.
Thanks to Elgar for a cracking puzzle and to CS for fine-polishing a couple of the parsings.