Toughie No 3528 by Elgar
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
At first read through, this Toughie looked like it wasn’t going to be one of our setter’s most fiendish crosswords. The five-letter solutions were both friendly and helpful. The solutions at the top and left-hand side were obviously anagrams, it was just a case of working them out. I worked my way steadily through and then found two clues where the solution was obvious but the parsing took an age and the assistance of Gazza with one of them.
Please let us know what you thought
Across
1a Evidently swinging, OK with man instead (3,2,7)
AND NO MISTAKE An anagram (swinging) of OK with MAN INSTEAD
9a Legend on the circuit with a higher volume on mic (5)
LAUDA The surname of a legend on the motor racing circuit is a homophone (on mic) of at a higher volume
10a Go on eating a single sausage (9)
PEPPERONI An informal word for vigour or spirit (go) and ON (from the clue) between which is inserted (eating) a preposition meaning for each (a), the Roman numeral for one (single) being added at the end
11a Fish northern champ catches, maybe (9)
PERCHANCE A type of fish and the abbreviation for Northern ‘caught’ by a person of distinguished achievement (champ)
12a Paper that discards its first edition (5)
ISSUE A type of paper without its first letter
13a Hawkeye’s hospital permit cyclically moves feast (9)
HALLOWMAS ‘Cycle’ the letter at the end of the abbreviated name of the hospital where Hawkeye Pierce worked in the TV war comedy set in the South Korean War and insert a synonym for permit. The solution is another name for All Saints Day
16a Continue to yak country (5)
GABON Split 3,2 this African country could be an invitation to continue to chatter
18a Stepped down after Conservative split (5)
CLEFT Stepped down or resigned goes after the abbreviation for Conservative
19a Laden down with jumble from different ages (3,3,3)
OLD AND NEW An anagram (jumble) of LADEN DOWN
20a In Le Chiffre’s case, Bond not even released (5)
LOOSE The code number of James Bond without (not) the EVEN inserted into the ‘case’ of Le chiffrE
22a Flier one drops on capital (9)
PARAQUITO An informal name for a soldier who drops from a plane and the capital of Ecuador
25a Am I in a club with … (9)
AMERICIUM Gazza looked in Mrs Bradford and I have just seen that the Maori war club is in the BRB listed under its alternative spelling. So it is A (from the clue), the war club and I (from the clue) inserted into a preposition meaning with
26a … Californian elements? She’s held back (5)
ELENA Hidden in reverse (held back) in californiAN ELEments
27a Rampant dissatisfaction dropped (12)
UNRESTRAINED Disquiet or discontent (dissatisfaction) and dropped (water from the sky perhaps)
Down
1d Painting porter perhaps carries right away from brawl? (9)
AQUARELLE A type of beer such as porter ‘carries’ an unfriendly contention (brawl) without one of the abbreviations for Right
2d/14d Cuddling up to sweetheart; next, I remove book (5,2,3,4)
DEATH ON THE NILE I am extremely grateful to Gazza for coming to my rescue and explaining that ‘cuddling’ indicates that an interjection meaning remove contains DELE (remove) contains a preposition meaning up to, an informal short form of an endearment (sweetheart), a synonym for next and I (from the clue)
3d Revolutionary for part of plant (5)
ORPIN A reversal (revolutionary) of in favour of (for) followed by an adverb meaning within (part of)
4d Astonished one has top job in Fleet Street? (9)
IMPRESSED Split this synonym for astonished 1’1 5 2 and you should see something a person with a top job in Fleet Street might say
5d/24d Bess quietening her after a fashion, suppressing volume (3,6,5)
THE VIRGIN QUEEN Bess being Queen Elizabeth I. An anagram (after a fashion) of QUIETENING HER into which is inserted (suppressing) the abbreviation for Volume
6d Bans bank having such difficulties? (5)
KNOTS Looking at the first two words of the clue you will note that the second one has a different letter at the end to the first one. This can be described as x xxx x
7d Get free reinterpretation of Schiller and Plato? (4,3,6)
SLIP THE COLLAR An anagram (reinterpretation) of SCHILLER and PLATO My friend’s cairn terrier used to do this when she didn’t want to go any further on one of our longer walks!
8d Type speaker’s recognised by going over narrative (5,3,5)
TIMES NEW ROMAN This explanation uses this type – a word used in measurements and multiplication sums to mean by goes over (in a Down solution) a homophone (speaker’s) of recognised; followed by a narrative tale
14d See 2 Down
15d Most flexible option for replacement of shilling? It’s debatable (4,5)
MOOT POINT An anagram (flexible) of MOsT OPTION where the S (shilling) is ‘replaced’ or omitted
17d Producer of gingili, name understood in Bow (5-4)
BENNI-SEED Ginglli is another name for sesame, as is the solution – The abbreviation for Name and a phrase meaning understood inserted in a verb meaning to bow or curve
21d What poet might write about concert hall (5)
ODEON Something a poet might write and a synonym for about
23d A couple of bars supporting odd steps (5)
RUMBA The first couple of letters in BArs ‘supporting’ slang for odd or strange
24d See 5 Down
I can only give this *** because I finished it!! Never finished an Elgar before. In fact I usually give up in disgust at my ineptitude. I was lucky I started on the East where found some solutions. Then ground my way back to the NW and success. I look forward to his next offering. Perhaps I have given up too early.
Many thanks to Elgar and to CS who enlightened me on my couple of bung in.
Elgar’s given us a few more gimmes than usual but the rest are still pretty tricky – thanks to him and CS.
I parsed 25a as I inside A and MERI (a Maori war-club – thanks to Mrs Bradford) and CUM (with).
Top clues for me were 25a, 6d and 15d.
This should have been one of the gentler Elgars but I bunged in landscape at 1d [well scrape = brawl, minus right leaves scape…].
Moral – if you can’t parse em don’t bung em in. Got there eventually despite inability to parse 2/14d and not spotting the anagram at 1a till right at the end. Not entirely convinced by 6d but I really liked 20a [Bond not even] and thought 15d was devious even for Elgar.
Thanks to him and to CS/Gazza for the explanation of 2/14.
I was within a whisker of finishing this typical Elgar. He is always so consistently clever and devious with his cluing. 6D was definitely out there for me.
Lots to like (and admire)but 9A and 16A pushed my button.
Many thanks CS for what must have been a hard slog, and to Elgar for another amazing piece of work.
Not sure what tempted me to try another Elgar but glad I did because I actually managed to finish it. Not easy with a time of about an hour, and a lot of guess first, try to justify later but got through to the fireworks graphic.
Liked THE VIRGIN QUEEN and LOOSE
Might be the first time I have completed this setter outside of The Times.
Thanks Elgar and CrypticSue
I found this medium today. Several write-ins but also several knots to untangle. Finished again in one go so it can’t have been as fiendish as sometimes Elgar’s are. Thank you both.
Almost did my first Elgar, without help! Except for 3D, which id never heard before!
What a pig’s ear I made of this!
Inserted the solution to 16a in to 12a and didn’t spot my mistake for ages and put a not entirely parsed incorrect answer in 13a, which also held me up.
2&14d was an early bung-in, though I had no idea why, other than it fitted and was a film.
In 6d, I’d have been happier if the first two words in the clue were reversed, and I’m still confused about the last word in 8d.
I don’t like to look at hints until I have a full grid and my stubbornness and mistakes took this one in to extra time.
What can I say, it says ‘Elgar’ on the tin, so I expect obscurities and the odd (for me) loose end.
I look forward to a proper Friday Toughie challenge and this one did not disappoint.
My thanks and respect to Elgar, CS and Gazza.
Cracking puzzle, hugely satisfying overall. Delighted to work out several I’d never heard of (eg 1d, 22a, 11a) but stupidly couldn’t parse another, 17d, and my biffed answer was wrong, so a DNF for me.
Many thanks to Elgar and CS
Mrs Bradford?
Both Mrs Bradford’s Crossword Solvers Dictionary and Bradford’s Crossword Lists are worth buying if you solve a lot of crosswords. Both list the club in this puzzle
Many thanks CS. I TRY to solve a lot of crosswords but getting involved with this site and having started to tackle Toughies a few years back – any hubris has been wiped out. I’m getting better but a combination of Elgar, Gazza and your good self regularly leaves me humbled. I will now order those two books and I will keep on trying. Thank you again.
Ouch! A lot of words I didn’t know coupled with typical Elgar fiendish clueing. Still can’t say I understand 2/14d. I also ended up with PERIquito at 21a. Which is at least a bird, but when Elgar makes us make words up, sometimes the rest of the parsing goes in the bin (see also 2/14d).
Thanks to Elgar for filling a weekend, and to CS for the blog.