Toughie 3120 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
View closed comments 

Toughie 3120

by Dutch  

Toughie No 3120 by Elgar

Hints and tips by Dutch

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****

Another great Friday Toughie

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought

Across

1a    Boff one receives from draught horse (6-5)

SUCKER-PUNCH: A word for ‘One receives from draught’ (as in pulling in air or liquid) and a kind of horse. Actually, a draught horse, so we can treat draught as a free hint

10a    It’s rumoured railway will be screening First-Class (5)

RITZY: A homophone (rumoured) of IT’S is covered by (will be screening) the abbreviation for railway

11a     Trouble in store after a second 7? (9)

ASSERTION: An anagram (trouble, imperative) comes after A from the clue and the abbreviation for second

12a     Back a pill taken by a single mum? No (9)

NULLIPARA: A reversal (back) of A PILL from the clue inside (taken by) A from the clue and a single score in cricket

13a     Being pulled when cycling round won’t (2,3)

IN TOW: The letter that is a round plus WON’T from the clue when cycling the first two letters to the back

14a     Poor result for a number of counties (6)

ULSTER: An anagram (poor) of RESULT

16a     Triumphantly raise bowl of cereal? (8)

BRANDISH: Split (4,4), we have a bowl of cereal

18a    Having accepted a grand, conservative will crack (8)

CLEAVAGE: The abbreviation for conservative and a verb meaning to will or bequeath contains (having accepted) A from the clue and the abbreviation for grand

20a    Result in the end a six rather than a four? (6)

UPSHOT: A good cricket hit that may result in a six rather than a four

23a    Rodney’s shout of exasperation after initially missing a sitter? (5)

MODEL: Sitcom Rodney’s (1,3) cry of desperation comes after the first letter (initially) of missing

24a:    Bluff, outspoken schoolgirl? (9)

MISINFORM: A homophone (outspoken) of a (4,2,4) girl at school

26a     Is this area of North London unco_v_n_ional? (3,6)

NEW BARNET: Split (3,3,1,1,1), we have a description of the last word in the clue

27a    Person with a pack knocked back beer with spirit chaser (5)

AKELA: A reversal (knocked back) of another word for beer and an old Egyptian spirit

28a     Hardly polite utterance when refusing single black bespoke suits (3,1,3,2,2)

NOT A BIT OF IT: A (2,2) polite utterance when refusing, then the abbreviation for black and a (2,3) phrase meaning bespoke covers (suits) the letter that looks like one (single)

Down

1d    Going up to bar, angrily having left bungled tribunal (5)

UNTIL: An anagram (angrily) of BAR is omitted from (having left) an anagram (bungled) of TRIBUNAL

3d     Growing up, Branwell’s sister starts to enjoy kiwi fruit (3,4)

KEY LIME: A reversal (growing up) of one of Branwell’s famous sisters plus the first letters (starts) to enjoy & kiwi

4d    Actor who promoted Star Wars on a rearing horse (6)

RAEGAN: Ah, not the movies! A short word meaning on, A from the clue, and the reversal (rearing) of a horse

5d    Parking in superior way takes affectation to another level (8)

UPSTAIRS: The abbreviation for parking goes in between an abbreviation for posh or upper-class and an abbreviation for a way or road, then another word for affectation

6d    Scarfe’s vehicle, also Larson’s Far Side (7)

CARTOON: A vehicle (hidden in Scarfe), another word for also, and the final letter (far side) of Larson

7d    To set an example, we make firm declaration (13)

PRONOUNCEMENT: A word that is exemplified by ‘WE’, and a word meaning ‘to make firm’

8d    Actress prescribed food full of flavour (8)

DIETRICH: A prescribed food regime and a word meaning ‘full of flavour’

9d    You getting it OK with a new man? Vigorously (4,4,1,4)

KNOW WHAT I MEAN: An anagram (vigorously) of OK WITH A NEW MAN

15d    Departs new post, sadly accepting cutback (4-4)

STEP-DOWN: An anagram (sadly) of NEW POST accepting the abbreviation for departs

17d    Abnormal cultivation of an image? One’s foremost in this (8)

EGOMANIA: An anagram (abnormal cultivation) of AN IMAGE contains the foremost letter in ‘one’

19d    Where you would be lucky to find four leaves (-er, no!) climbing conical hill (7)

VOLCANO: A reversal (climbing) of a (2,1,6) place ‘where you would be lucky to find four leaves’ but without (no) final -er

21d Flier for milkmen: bring-a-bottle party? (7)

PINTADO: An informal word for a bottle of milk and a party

22d    It’s sloppy, cuffing drunk thug in East London? (6)

TSOTSI: An anagram (sloppy) of IT’S contains (cuffing) a drunk. East London being a city in South Africa

25d    “No” – abbreviation for number – left round marks (5)

OBELI: The element with chemical symbol No, but without (left) the 3-letter abbreviation for number around it.

May favourite today is the Gary Larson clue – I’m a big fan. Which clues did you like?

13 comments on “Toughie 3120”

  1. If I finished it and am the first to comment, it must be a bit easier than the usual Elgar Friday Toughie!
    6d definitely the best!
    Thanks to Elgar and Dutch!

  2. Yes Paul. It must be easier than normal as I finished it too. Many sittings, a few bung ins, but Dutch clarified things.
    Many thanks to Elgar and Dutch

  3. The first Elgar I’ve managed to do. Phew. Initially over the moon to see Dutch’s ***** difficulty rating, then slightly deflated when Paul and Charlie deemed it easier than normal. This was quite tough enough for me! Lots of fun. 6d was indeed excellent but 28a made my head hurt. Thanks to all.

  4. I can’t make up my mind if I like or dislike Elgar puzzles – they are rather like a curate’s egg. I really like the difficult clues when there is no general knowledge involved but get into a mess when clues such as 3d and 6d involve specific GK. 6d can be said not to actually need knowledge of Scarfe & Larson but it is most off-putting and I hate such clues.
    I progressed by staring at a blank grid for quite a while. Then I got a few of the easier ones which quickly yielded three of the long answers along the side. The lower two thirds could then be steadily completed. Finally it took a while to sort out 1a along with the down clues stemming from 1a not helped by 3d being unknown and 6d obscure. I have never heard of boff used in the sense here – I’ve only heard it used as slang for boffin which caused great confusion
    My favourite clue is 4d – I made hard work of it and laughed when I realized what Star wars meant.

    Thanks to Elgar for a difficult puzzle – I hope 9d is not part of his everyday vocabulary as its one of the most irritating in everyday speech. And thanks of course to Dutch

  5. I found the top half fairly easy, but struggled in the bottom half. As usual with JH’s puzzles, there were several clues where I got the solution but couldn’t parse it.

  6. Super puzzle. How to rate it? Well, it’s an Elgar, so by definition it’s Tough, capital T Tough. OTOH it was some way off a typical Elgar Toughie, I thought. Maybe if an Elgar Toughie starts at 5* out of 5*, and sometimes reaches a 7* or 8*, then this stays at 5*. Ah well, whatev’s. Wonderful puzzle, with so many laugh out loud moments, groans at the bad puns, and clangingly-loud PDMs.

    Larson’s cartoons are truly inspired, and I’d put him alongside the Telegraph’s Matt as being joint “GOATs” of the cartooning world.

    My podium places go to 26a and 7d, with the outstanding 23a COTD and possibly COTW or COTM.

    Many thanks to Elgar, and to Dutch for explaining 28a & 25d – I had both right, but while I was almost there on parsing the former I was nowhere near on the latter!

    1. Matt is another super hero. His humour is superb, as he generally combines two unrelated elements to create a joke, a classic technique and he masters it.

      1. Absolutely, re Matt. Shame he doesn’t set crosswords too as I suspect he’d be brilliant at that as well!

  7. I found this most enjoyable, with a smaller than usual number of unparsed bung-ins, so feeling very smug. Great fun as always, and a great challenge for what is now a dreary evening in Worcester, where the cricket finished early. On that subject, any of the clues relating to the great game were good enough to be my favourite, after the easy winner, 6d.

    My thanks to Elgar and Dutch.

  8. Another 4* Elgar – lovely – but several I couldn’t parse – 12d & 20d [I hate cricket clues] but also 28a [thanks Dutch, what a stupendous clue] and 25d [ditto, as an ex chemist I really should have spotted that]. Super fun, More like this please Maestro.
    Ta to both.

  10. Great fun. Lots of empty staring then they slowly go in. Elgar somehow seems to always give you a chance when you thought there were none. Loved 21 and 27. Thanks to both.

  11. Catching up post holiday, I thought this was excellent. I could make a fair guess of the obscure GK answers from the cryptic parts, which made it easier than usual and much more enjoyable.

    Thanks to Elgar and Dutch (although your hints not needed for a change).

Comments are closed.