Toughie No 3552 by Elgar
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
A mix of the really obvious and the ‘what the heck is he on about now?’ I ended up with a smile on my face so that’ll do nicely. I can’t find a Nina but that doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t one!
Please let us know what you thought
Across
1a Gauge apple-splitting speed? We’ll see (4,4,4)
TIME WILL TELL Gauge the speed of Switzerland’s apple-splitting folk hero
8a Right to go after a Klingon? (5)
ALIEN A legal right goes after A (from the clue)
9a Rocket from Toto, perhaps, unlikely to go up (9)
FIREPROOF A rocket or telling off goes after a leading person in Formula 1 (Tito perhaps)
11a Bye … one farewell leads to another – logic for two parties! (9)
BILATERAL The cricket abbreviation for a Bye, the Roman numeral for one, an informal interjection of farewell and the ‘leads’ to Another and Logic
12a Tubing towards surface, trains (Métro) appearing at set intervals (5)
RISER A vertical pipe can be found at set intervals in tRaInS mEtRo
13a Light given to modern-day soldiers (9)
LANDFORCE A verb meaning to light or come down, a synonym for to and the abbreviation for the Common Era (modern-day)
16a With gap, it wouldn’t be! (5)
WHOLE The abbreviation for With and a gap
18a Dramatist written about in one’s biography (5)
IBSEN Hidden in reverse (written about) in the last two words of the clue
19a Insert line after edits (9)
INTERLEAF An anagram (edits) of LINE AFTER
20a Discharged earth (5)
RIDGE Discharged or removed and an alternative spelling of the Greek goddess or personification of earth
22a Evergreen old Duke Elgar will without delay set off on cycle (9)
SAPODILLA An abbreviation meaning as soon as possible (without delay) and the abbreviations for Old and Duke, and how our setter would say he will, the first letter of the abbreviation being ‘cycled’ to the end
25a I go off rounds in Yemen city hospitals (9)
SANATORIA I (from the clue)and go off or decay inserted into the capital city of Yemen
26a Musician never discussed covers (5)
VERDI ‘Covered’ in the second and third words of the clue
27a Consult A&E? (7,5)
COMPARE NOTES Consider jointly with someone (consult) and what A and E represent in music
Down
1d Some aircraft skip prescribed courses (9)
TRIPLANES Move with a short step or skip and some divisions, on a track perhaps, or prescribed courses
2d He experimented with light Jiffy bag (5)
MONET A short period of time (jiffy) and a verb meaning to bag or secure
3d Fare given out with a taste of wine? (5)
WAFER A reference to the service of Holy Communion – An anagram (given out) of FARE goes after the first letter (a taste) of Wine
4d The most arrogant way is through divination (9)
LORDLIEST An abbreviated road (way) and part of a verb meaning is in a position inserted into (through) of a prize won through divination
5d Classy brace of prizes being put up (3-6)
TOP-DRAWER A reversal (put up) of two (a brace) of prizes
6d Cooperative meetings adult is running out of pride? (5)
LIONS Some cooperative meetings without the abbreviation for Adult and IS (from the clue)
7d Proposes to have train sign erected for one local game (3,9)
BAR BILLIARDS A reversal of travel like a train and a Sign of the Zodiac replace the I (one) in proposes or offers
10d Ritual inversion affecting police uniform? (5,2,5)
FORCE OF HABIT Invert or change the positions of the words in a phrase meaning uniform of police
14d Delicate condition recurring – great pain, but not as bad (9)
FINGERTIP A reversal (recurring) of a conjunction meaning on condition that, followed by an anagram (bad) of GREaT PaIN without the As (Elgar being sneaky again and hoping you won’t notice he’s referring to letters rather than a conjunction or adverb!)
15d Check person on board’s sacking female risk-taker (9)
REINSURER Restrain or control (check) and someone on a board without (sacking) the abbreviation for Female
17d Those commanding such a view from NW8 high-rise? (9)
OVERLORDS A NW8 high-rise would have a view of a test cricket ground
21d You got me through bridgehead unnoticed (5)
DUNNO Hidden in the last two words of the clue
23d Pan freshly filled with uncooked shellfish (5)
PRAWN The middle letter of PaN is replaced (freshly filled) with uncooked
24d Turf out of playing area, upset at recording (5)
DIVOT A reversal (upset) of an informal expression meaning at recording
Perhaps slightly gentler than his usual but still tricky and enjoyable – thanks to Elgar and CS.
The 22a evergreen was new to me but the wordplay was clear.
My last to parse was 9a and I spent ages trying to shoehorn in Dorothy’s dog until Google revealed that Toto Wolff is one of the head honchos in Formula One (FI).
I can’t find the abbreviation for bye (11a) in the BRB or Collins but it is in the ODE.
Ticks from me for 1a, 16a, 3d, 7d and 10d.
Typical Elgar for me, I spent as long trying to parse a few of my answers as I did filling the grid.
Didn’t understand the Toto reference in 9a and was miles away from connecting 20a with a goddess.
On the plus side, the old Duke on his bike at 22a, the four-ale bar distraction in 7d, 14d’s not as bad and the smooth surface of the seafood in 23d, all helped to outweigh my negatives.
My thanks to Elgar and to CS for her enlightenment.
I finished but with a lot of bung-ins, so thanks to Sue for a couple of the explanations. Very clever and devious as always from this setter, but fairly clued once the parsing was complete. Despite all the complex clues, I enjoyed 2d the best.
My thanks to Elgar for the brain-mangling and to Sue for the unravelling.
I don’t always enjoy Elgar’s puzzles but today he was neat and concise with no wandering all over the grid. This was a clever work of art. There was so much to appreciate, I could tick most of them. My top choices were 1,16,27A and 5,10,17D.
Thank you CS for the blog and Elgar for the enjoyment.
Another one ticked off in one go! Thought 1ac and 27ac were both pretty neat! Among others, of course. Thought 23d was slightly unworthy of an Elgar.
Thanks both
Spent yesterday in the sunshine [at last] picking and trampling grapes and eventually turned to this rather mixed bag [as you say Sue]. It took a while to get into but once the penny dropped at 1a [LOL] things speeded up. As often with Elgar the parsing took as long as the solving and I failed to parse 22a [what the devil is “set off” doing in there?] or 20a [please somebody tell me who the goddess is]. 9a took a lot of googling [tried the band, tried the dog…] and I only sorted 14d because he [or somebody else] used the same trick quite recently. Other than 1a only 15d [person on board] made me smile.
Thanks Elgar and CS
After finding 2 lurkers among some easy clues on the first pass I began to wonder if this was really an Elgar puzzle. But it was soon clear that it definitely was an Elgar puzzle ! I needed a bit of help for the unknown plant, and didn’t get a few other parsings. More or less got there in the end though. Thanks.
Can someone explain why ridge is defined as discharged earth? I understand the parsing but not the definition. Also tired myself in a knot bunging in “doctor’s notes” fit 27ac
One of the definitions in the BRB is ‘the earth thrown up by the plough between the furrows’
Perhaps milder than Elgar can be, but that still left me with 9a, 20a and 14d unexplained, so thanks to CS for the enlightenment. The Evergreen was new to me, but work-outable (clear is too much for such a convoluted clue). 1a my clear favourite, and being able to parse 7d and 27a has given me a good feeling to offset the frustration of the bung-ins.
Thanks to Elgar for the challenge.
Very much enjoyed Elgar’s crossword which I always look forward to. The difficulty is less in getting the answer, give or take some research, but in parsing it or parsing it fully which was several more than usual this week. Even with CS’s help, I still can’t see the brace in 5d and the meetings in 6d.
Anyhow, thanks very much to Elgar and to Cryptic Sue for the challenge and looking forward not quite being able to parse the next Elgar.
Had to use the blog to confirm quite a few answers which I couldn’t parse- thanks for all the explanations! Got stuck in the NE corner as I had got ‘APART’ for 16 across (if you insert a gap between the first two letters it reverses the meaning)