Toughie No 3400 by Elgar
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
It is very damp and foggy outside and Mr CS has taken control of the Christmas jigsaw which allowed me plenty of time to solve, parse and hint this 6d Toughie
Please let us know what you thought
Across
1a Attend opening of two presents to carry out tattoo (4,3,7)
BEAT THE RETREAT A two-word phrase meaning attend, the letter that opens Two and two separate meanings of the word present
10a Nothing orbiting earth star (6,3)
NUMBER ONE Nothing ‘orbiting’ a brown earthy mineral
11a Turn out problem children (5)
ISSUE A nice surface reading for a triple definition clue
12a Expletive-laden part of play filmed on location? (7)
OBSCENE An abbreviation meaning not filmed in a studio (on location) and part of a play
13a Suggestion for contrivance that filters out gun’s smoke in Western? (6)
STOGIE A long expensive cigar can be found in an anagram (for contrivance) of sugGESTIOn once you have ‘filtered out’ the letters GUNS
15a In consultation cover who appears in doctor’s absence? (4)
HYDE A homophone (in consultation) of a verb meaning to cover gives us the alter ego of Robert Louis Stephen’s eponymous doctor
17a The actors will receive no more than this gelding (10)
CASTRATION A group of actors and a fixed allowance
19a Censor seen publicly stripped, then flogged (4-6)
BLUE-PENCIL An anagram (flogged) of the inside (stripped) letters of sEEN PUBLICLy
20a Source of great amusement, shaggy dog story about senior army staff (4)
AGAS A reversal (about) of a long-drawn-out story, sometimes full of amusement like a shaggy dog story
22a Duke of Normandy knight administered with balls (4-2)
ROLL-ON The forename of a Duke of Normandy and the chess abbreviation for knight
23a The first dozen talking about case that contains separate articles (7)
JANUARY A group of dozen people talking about a criminal case into which is inserted (that contains) two separate indefinite articles
26a Not in favour of gossip columns (5)
ANTAE A homophone (gossip) of a word meaning opposed to (not in favour of)
27a Caught guy with trap offering his twopenceworth? (7,2)
CHIMING IN The cricket abbreviation for Caught, a male pronoun (guy), a synonym for with and a type of trap
28a Challengers through one round, the venue for the next? (10,4)
NINETEENTH HOLE Where challengers in a golf match might go to buy their competitors a drink after they have completed one round of the course
Down
2d Going over correspondence, not hear gongs (5)
EMMYS American television awards (gongs) – a reversal (going over) of exact correspondence without (not) a verb meaning to hear a case
3d Turning left chap’s checked what’s happening (3,3)
THE NEW A reversal (turning) of a synonym for left, into which is ‘checked’ the male personal pronoun
4d Bond’s third replacement infiltrates Chinese Empire State concert (10)
HOOTENANNY I am grateful to Gazza for explaining the blooming obvious – I’d looked at the clue and solution for so long I just couldn’t see that, if James Bond is OO7, then his third replacement would be OO TEN which should be inserted between (infiltrates) a Chinese native and the abbreviation for the US Empire State
5d This knot‘s a little more effective (4)
REEF Hidden in a little of the last two words of the clue
6d Ten-second change in wind at most these days (8)
TWIXTMAS swap the abbreviation for Second in a verb meaning to wind with the Roman numeral for ten in a synonym for most– a made-up word for this period of time between Christmas and the New Year
7d Unlikely to be rushed off on a picnic? (4-5)
EASY-GOING This phrase could read as if someone was departing to do something that is child’s play (a picnic)
8d Anybody’s guess why Christmas cracker disappoints? (6,2,6)
THERES NO SAYING What someone might say if their Christmas cracker didn’t contain a piece of paper with a motto on it
9d Too bedraggled to be hating rain (4,3,7)
INTO THE BARGAIN An anagram (bedraggled) of TO BE HATING RAIN
14d High knees, maybe, in cycling club? (5,5)
STRIP JOINT Combine a hallucinatory experience (high) and the parts of the body of which knees are an example and ‘cycle’ the final letter to the front
16d Hose-wearer presumably also had this pair in hand (9)
DOUBLETON A pair of playing cards in a hand could if split 7,2 tell you what else a wearer of hose might be wearing on his top half
18d During after-work beer I made one enemy (8)
OPPONENT Follow some abbreviated work with a quantity of beer, ONE (from the clue) replacing the Roman numeral for one
21d Surrounded by Scots initially, not wanting to beg (6)
INWITH A Scottish word meaning surrounded by is a phrase meaning initially without (not wanting) TO and BEG
24d Set to be assigned a new nurse (5)
ANGEL A verb meaning to set is put under (assigned in a Down solution) A (from the clue) and the abbreviation for New
25d Spotted trouble, picking up cab in Bow (4)
ACNE A homophone (picking up) of how a Cockney living in Bow might pronounce a type of cab
This was a proper tough Toughie that needed two sittings to get across the line. There were the usual fiendish wordplays, but no multiple or joined clues this week. I managed to get the four long’uns in fairly quickly which helped with the overall solve, and one of these, 8d, proved to be my favourite.
Many thanks to Elgar for the brain-mangling, and to Sue.
An excellent last Friday Toughie of the year – thanks to Elgar and CS.
Some of the many ticked clues on my printout are 10a, 12a, 20a, 6d and 21d.
Very enjoyable although 6d had me stumped. I thought 20a was perhaps a triple definition (1,3) being the source of great amusement.
2d was my favourite.
Thanks to Elgar and CS.
Not his toughest, by any means but not his gentlest either. I twigged 1a straight away, which was no help at all but there were enough gimmes to get going. I failed to parse 21d and still can’t see what “at most” is doing in 6d. Google was required, for 22a and [not being a bridge player] to confirm 16d. Not convinced by the “homophone” at 26a. Top clues for me were 17a [lol] 4d [again] 18d [very clever, very Elgar] and 25d [lol yet again].
Thanks to Elgar and to CS for the explanations.
In 6d ‘wind at most’ is TWIST MAX. Swap the X and S.
Obvious when you see it, isn’t it! I was fixated on “mas” for celebrations. Thanx Gazza.
We have a short but welcome and blissfully quiet break for a couple of hours, as our son has taken his three daughters out to see friends.
I have always avoided Elgar’s Toughies in the past, but having met him at the York gathering this year and discovered that he appears to be human like the rest of us, I thought the least I could do was to make full use of the temporary ceasefire at Shabbo Towers and have a go at one of his notoriously difficult puzzles.
I managed to complete it, but there was a lot of head scratching and I failed to parse a couple of them. Thank you CS for your help.
I know our Scottish friends use outwith, so 21d should not have taken as long as it did to unravel. I spent far too long trying to make an anagram work at 28a – a very nicely concealed cryptic definition. 26a was a new word for me, despite being an admirer of classical architecture. Another brilliant surface read.
Like Halcyon, I needed help with the parsing of the devilishly difficult 6d.
Great stuff, Elgar. I shall now go for a lie-down.
Thank you CS.
Tricky as expected and I was glad I didn’t have to parse quite a few.
I had a similar enlightenment when Bond’s successor came to mind but 6d was way beyond me
Thanks to Sue and Elgar
I’m reasonably mangled, threw the towel in, and found I’d actually considered some of the missing solutions without seeing the parsing. 28a favourite, where I will be on Monday afternoon at the delightful Selsey golf course.
Thanks CS for the unraveling, and of course to Elgar
Ground to a halt with 4 to go, but pleasingly they were all words that I’d never heard of (columns, western cigar, Scottish phrase, these days). So thanks for the hints for those, and fun to solve the rest of it.
Is there an Elgar double toughie over Christmas and new year in online puzzles.
Couldn’t find one .
3400 very tough and most enjoyable. Thanks to all.
Sue
Elgar is working on a double Toughie which should hopefully be published on this blog on New year’s Eve, so watch this space
Interestingly, I’m getting comments duplicated. Either in seeing double, or posters have got double tap syndrome!!
😂
Thank you
Elgar is working on a double Toughie which should hopefully be published on this blog on New Year’s Eve, so watch this space
Like Sue, I had been keeping an eye out for an Elgar Double Toughie, but in its apparent absence had a go at this instead. It may only be half the challenge, but enough to be going on with! I was happy to eventually fill the grid after a couple of sessions, although I couldn’t find a reference for my answer to 20a, which was BGAS – which I thought might be an acronym, similar to NCOs. I had BS as the ‘shaggy dog story’ and G A as starting letters. AGAS (thank you, CS) fits the bill for the ‘senior army staff’, of course, but the wordplay for ‘SAGA’ appears quite verbose – perhaps made deliberately so to put people like me off the scent! Anyway, I was very happy to have tripped over just the one hurdle. Early ticks went to 1a, 4d & 9d before it all became too difficult to think about ticking… Favourite PDMs of the many that were needed went to 13a, 15a, 2d, 6d & 21d.
Many thanks to Elgar for the ***** challenge and to CS for the ***** review.