Toughie No 3752 by Elgar
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
Elgar’s back with his fortnightly attempt to mangle our brains and, while confusing us quite a bit, give us the opportunity to learn several new things along the way
There is definitely a cinematic theme – 24a/18d/13a/16d; 26a and 16d but I would imagine there are more, but Mr CS wants to go to Screwfix so I’ll have to stop looking now!
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought
Across
1a Report from Helsinki River Meadows, wicked Deb’s alma mater? (9,6)
FINISHING SCHOOL Homophones (report) of what you are if you are from Helsinki, a dialect word for river meadows and a synonym for wicked in the sense of excellent
9a Curse analogue reprogramming after power cuts (1,6,2)
A PLAGUE ON An anagram (reprogramming () of ANALOGUE ‘cut’ by the symbol for Power
10a Sleep-inducer resembling Spooner’s Pobble? (5)
LOTUS How the Reverend would refer to Edward Lear’s Pobble, who was lacking in parts of his feet
11a Lay wrong cards, overturning one’s unusual lead with spades (7)
MISDEAL A reversal (overturning) of an abbreviated way of saying I am (one’s) followed by an anagram (unusual) of LEAD and the abbreviation for the card suit of Spades
12a Reinforcing luxury cast iron chains (7)
RIPIENO A welcome luxury inserted into (chains) an anagram (cast) of IRON
13a Person addicted to MDMA (3)
ONE If addicted to MDMA, one might be xx x
14a African orange juice emptied by topless fan over painting? (7)
NAARTJE An Afrikaans word for a small sweet orange like a mandarin – the outside (emptied) letters of JuicE go after a reversal of fAN (from the clue) without its first letter (topless) and a practical skill such as painting
17a I’m thrilled band has cracked No. 1 (7)
WHOOPEE A band has ‘cracked’ an informal or childish word for urinate (no 1)
19a Perennial violence cable television edited out (7)
ASTILBE A perennial flower is obtained from an anagram (out) of cABLE TelevISion once the letters VIOLENCE have been removed (edited)
22a Mad keen on cycling, ultimately (2,5)
AD FINEM Cycle MAD and keen in the sense of sharp
24a Boundaries being pushed by our Toughie solvers (3)
YOU Remove the ‘boundaries’ from bY OUr
25a Small short measure takes nothing out (2,1,4)
IN A DAZE A measure of magnitude without (short) the abbreviation for Small into which is inserted (takes) an originally Spanish word for nothing
26a 1960s dance fan who wants another card? (7)
TWISTER A fan of a particular 1960s dance or a player in a game of pontoon who wants another card
28a In time with Twitter’s successor, punters essentially say “bye” (5)
EXTRA The successor to Twitter and the essential letter of punTers inserted into a period of time
29a “Curious Belgian cracks case of reprisal” – sound familiar? (4,1,4)
RING A BELL An anagram (curious) of BELGIAN ‘cracks’ the outside letters (case) of ReprisaL
30a No man, it’s said, can crew for ketch and schooner? (5,3,7)
SERVE TWO MASTERS crew a ship and a description of ships such as a ketch or a schooner
Down
1d Separate pieces in this great ship, having Joplin & co supported by crewman (15)
FRAGMENTARINESS Great or splendid and an abbreviated ship into which is inserted how one might describe musicians such as Scott Joplin and a sailor (crewman)
2d An inventory missing first and last fruit (5)
NELIS aN (from the clue) missing its first letter and an inventory or catalogue missing its last letter – the fruit is a variety of pear which doesn’t ripen until winter
3d Division prepared to arrest Feds (7)
SEGMENT Prepared or ready ‘arrests’ the informal way we refer to agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Feds)
4d Drifter from pack runs cop out of corrupt police force (3,4)
ICE FLOE The cricket abbreviation for Runs and COP are taken out of an anagram (corrupt) of poLICE ForcE
5d Artillerymen came to accept weird Scots out of love (3,4)
GUN CREW Came to ‘accepting’ a Scots word for weird without the letter representing love
6d Song about rebellious agent in what’s central to plot (7)
CALYPSO The Latin abbreviation for about and a reversed (rebellious) agent inserted into the letters that are ‘central’ to pLOt
7d Showing player ignoring answer in a row (2,3,4)
ON THE SPIN A simple way of saying showing and a tragic actor ignoring the abbreviation for Answer
8d Fail mentally, as did historical curator of the Parthenon? (4,4,7)
LOSE ONES MARBLES The historical curator of the Parthenon could be said to have done this
15d In rubbish truck, inverted drawer (9)
ATTRACTOR In a position followed by a reversal (inverted) of some rubbish and a truck
16d Comedienne losing money in SA undertaking (3)
JOB A comedienne losing the South African money found in her surname
18d Kept in with a donor (3)
HAD Hidden in the last three words of the clue
20d One of the chores, to cut general greenery (7)
LEAFAGE A (one) and a piece of drudgery (chores) ‘cuts’ the surname of the Confederate general in the American Civil War
21d Feature academic on East London Radio? (7)
EYEBROW A homophone of how a Cockney (on East London Radio) might refer to an intellectual (academic)
22d Real name 24 Across heard adopted by a gangster played by Al P? (7)
AUTONYM The letter that sounds like the solution to 24a ‘adopted’ by the gangster aka Scarface played by Al Pacino, his name being treated in the same way as Al Pin the clue
23d If dry, a southern outing once a week (7)
FRIDAYS An anagram (outing) of IF DRY A followed by the abbreviation for Southern
27d Detective leaves Iraola’s men a word of comfort (5)
THERE The name by which Liverpool Football Club are known (Iraola’s men) without the abbreviated Detective Sergeant
The usual alternate Friday mix of a few solutions which needed checking as I’d never heard of ’em and a couple I’d struggled to parse. Happily this was balanced by plenty of ticks against superbly devious clueing.
Like today’s backpager, getting the 15-letter clues early doors was a big help which made this a bit easier to crack than is usual for an Elgar.
Among many highlights were the flower which was unknown to me at 19a, the song in 6d, the comedienne who lost money in 16d and Iraola’s men at 27d.
My thanks to the aforementioned and CS.
Well who’d have thought it, last week I completed my first Friday Toughie and now today, Elgar who has had me quaking in my boots since I started doing the Toughies, has also succumbed. This is all down to the education I have received from the blog and I thank everyone involved.
I lived in RSA some years ago and remembered the orange and the ketch and schooner also fell early on. The checkers were working overtime to tease out the solutions, 2d, 22a, 22d and 12a were new to me, but needed CS’s parsing to completely understand together with a few more. My favourites were 8d, 9a and the curious Belgian is my top spot.
Thank you Elgar and ceesue for the explanation.
A fast “solve” for an Elgar, I found this week. The inverted commas being necessitated by the number of answers not fully parsed without CS’s help. Although, I think 2d might be oNe losing its first letter.
Thanks to setter and solver.
Another one that took longer to parse than to solve. Started well with 1a and 1d and cracked the top half in record time [for Elgar] but the lower half was much less forgiving. I pursued 2 other options for 25a [coma/hole] before twigging the right one and I needed the blog’s help to parse it [the Spanish bit fooled me]. I still don’t see where the second O in 17a comes from unless “No” is doing double duty??
Top clues for me were the neatly-done 6d, the top notch anagram at 23d and Iraola’s men at 27d.
Thanks to Elgar and CSue – parsing that lot before going to Screwfix is quite something.
No is an abbreviation for number as in Number One
In 17a the No1 is WEE not PEE. Does that help?
I didn’t find this particularly easy for an Elgar and there were several terms unknown to me which I needed to verify but I did enjoy the struggle. Thanks to Elgar and CS.
My top clues were 13a, 28a, 30a and 8d.