Toughie No 3728 by Elgar
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
Our fortnightly brain-mangling from the master of extreme Toughies – working my way down the Across clues as per usual, on a first read through I didn’t write anything in the grid between 1a and 8a. It was a good job I didn’t have anything else planned for this morning as parsing several of the clues took absolutely ages, although I did learn some new things along the way
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought
Across
1a Unwanted window shopper in centre wants work done (3-2)
POP-UP The centre of shoPper, an informal name for work, and done or finished
4a `Second try, first for Hastings, having relocated penalty after misdemeanour (5,3)
THICK EAR A short period of time (second) and a verb meaning to try (in a court of law perhaps), the first letter of Hastings being relocated from the start of the second word to the first word
10a Arabic country caught cold (7)
CATARRH A homophone (caught) of the name of an Arabic country
11a Fly has difficulty penetrating plantation (7)
PINETUM A difficulty ‘penetrating’ a small but very troublesome Brazilian biting fly My parents used to love visiting this particular plantation at Bedgebury and my niece’s long time boyfriend recently took her there for what she thought was just a walk and turned out to be a proposal of marriage!
12a, 13a and 14a Reformed Beatles featured by retro TV with different number – not at peak (4,5,4)
ONES LEVEL BEST An anagram (reformed) of BEatLES (without the AT – not at) inserted into a reversal (retro) of TV, an adjective meaning other (different) and an abbreviated number
13a See 12 Across
14a See 12 Across
17a Having no greens during June in a country of tree planting (14)
ARBORICULTURAL Relating to a country where tree planting is prevalent but there are no green plants during June The things you learn while trying to parse a cryptic crossword clue!
Edit: I can’t show you my piece of paper where I have all my scribbled parsings, not least because it shows my solving time but I did write (just as Gazza did) a variation on ‘A RURAL’ (a country) containing BORIC which apparently is like boracic (skint, having no greens) and ULT (last month which currently is June!!). I think I was so excited that I had found the definition, I forgot to add the parsing. Spending literally hours on a blog of an Elgar Toughie does terrible things to the poor old brain
19a Who’s here now? Two, they say (7,7)
PRESENT COMPANY An adjective meaning now or in the place in question and what two is said to be in a well-known phrase
22a, 23a and 24a Struggle penning weirdly emotive, gripping article with misplaced faith (4,1,4,2,2)
HAVE A TIME OF IT An anagram (weirdly) of EMOTIVE ‘gripping’ an indefinite article and another anagram (misplaced) of FAITH
23a See 22 Across
24a See 22 Across
27a Scots bank nothing for returning ancient script (6,1)
LINEAR B A reversal (for returning) of a Scottish bank of river or seashore and a synonym for nothing
28a Recent arrival working in the Gateshead area hoovered (7)
NEONATE The usual two-letter working inserted into the abbreviation for the area where Gateshead is situated followed by consumed (hoovered meaning to do so quickly and greedily)
29a Flower Festival on Circle Line (8)
OLEASTER A church festival goes on or after the circle-shaped letter and the abbreviation for Line
30a The climax of the opening race? (5)
EVENT The ‘climax’ of thE and an opening
Down
1d Breast’s favourite bit of chicken cuts, it’s said (8)
PECTORAL The first ‘bit’ of Chicken ‘cuts’ a favourite followed by spoken, not written (it’s said)
2d Prue’s top gastropub finally nails alternative flavoursome vegetable (3,4)
POT HERB The top of Prue and the final letter of gastropuB ‘nails’ alternative
3d, 15d and 25d Row of nautical types some supporter on vessel teases (4,5,4)
PART BRASS RAGS A old nautical expression relating to a disagreement – a portion (some), a supporter of part of the female body, an abbreviated ship, and teases or banters
5d In theatre opening in London, a joint operation (3,11)
HIP REPLACEMENT Following the latest trends (in), an abbreviated type of theatre, the ‘opening’ in London, A (from the clue) and a verb meaning to join
6d, 16d and 26d Warning, when carrying pounds in hit: but money ____ (4,3,2,4)
CAN’T BUY ME LOVE A school slang interjection meaning beware (warning) ‘carrying’ an anagram (hit) of BUY MONEY and the letter representing Pounds Sterling
7d Within these values, everything in text remains (7)
EXTREMA Hidden in the last two words of the clue
8d Transfer joint to cycle (5)
REMIT ‘Cycle’ the last two letters of a type of joint
9d Restaurant employee rips diners off, including current top copper (5,9)
CHIEF CONSTABLE A restaurant employee, rips off or swindle and diners, into which is inserted (including) the symbol for electrical current
15d See 3 Down
16d See 6 Down
18d Lads missing round trip for free mentioned little-known road (2-6)
BY-STREET Some lads missing the round letter and a homophone (mentioned) of a free trip
20d Initiation of reprisals – with the score settled – for one upset? (7)
REVENGE The ‘initiation’ of Reprisals, with the score tied or settled and a reversal (upset) of the abbreviation meaning for one
21d Task for German Dame, periodically receiving her wool allocation cut up (7)
AUFGABE The even (periodically) letters of dAmE ‘receiving’ a reversed (up) and truncated (cut) allocation of wool (I thought of Baa Baa Black Sheep here!)
22d Guy’s going to love the bearer of royal news! (5)
HELLO A man will (Guy’s going to) and a score of love
25d See 3 Down
26d See 6 Down
Took a while to kick off this one, but once I’d found an opening, I was in.
A couple of unknowns in 3, 15 & 25d and 21d, but all in all, not too bad.
A couple of fab four references in there, my picks are the op in 5d – a common occurrence among our community I suspect and the cop in 8d.
My thanks to Elgar and CS.
A lot of work was needed to parse this lot but the struggle was very enjoyable. Thanks to Elgar and CS.
I’ve never heard of the 11a fly.
After an age I parsed 17a as ‘A RURAL’ (a country) containing BORIC which apparently is like boracic (skint, having no greens) and ULT (last month which currently is June!!). I’m not sure how solvers are supposed to get this if they attempt it in a couple of weeks time.
I ticked 1a, 4a and 27a.
Managed to complete more than usual of an Elgar puzzle left with 11a, 29a, 7d, only two letters of 8d left but still can’t get the answer, 21d again 2 letters left and can’t see it.
Some of these were well clued (for me) others I am not up to speed yet.
Will keep persevering
Thanks all
COTD x 2 for 1d and 10a although I did have trouble spelling it.
Well, it was soluble, which I doubted at first. A couple of the long ones were a help but a couple of others were impenetrable. I parsed 17a like Gazza did but failed to see how “boric” related to greens – one learns. Faves were the rip-off chef at 9d and the second try at 4a.
Thanks to Elgar and CSue.
21 down is Aufgabe (truncated bagful in A and E)
Welcome to the blog, Christopher.
What did you think of the puzzle?
The solved grid said that but for some reason the message got lost between my brain and my fingers
Defeated by the last few (11a, 21d and the parsing of 17a). Not my favourite but that’s probably just because I’m grumpy about having got so close. Thanks to Elgar and CS.
A curious crossword for me. I managed to complete it but there were many clues I just couldn’t parse, so thank you (and well done!) to Sue for the explanations. There were a couple of new words/phrases for me.
It’s always enjoyable to complete an Elgar puzzle, so thanks for the challenge.
Talking of new words, logorrhea in yesterday’s toughie was new to me, when blow me did it not turn up in the book I’m reading (Long Way for a Pizza by Brian Mooney).
One of these days I’m going to solve an Elgar Toughie AND understand all of the parsing. But that could increase the time required by another 30% I suspect. For now, I’m happy to have completed the grid correctly.
Thanks to CS for explaining and to Elgar for bringing ever more obscure vocabulary to my attention.
Well filling the grid was easier than Wednesday’s Potoroo, and not much harder than I found yesterday’s Kcit. I didn’t know the sense of 1a, had never heard of the Row, the Fly, the full parsing of 17a beyond the “arural”, the script or the flower. And I don’t like foreign words even if they are clearly flagged. But apart from that, it was good fun and about normal for an Elgar. Solve first, parse eventually, except for several…
Thanks to Elgar for the battering, and once again many thanks and much respect to CS for filling in the many gaps in my understanding.