Toughie No 100001 by Elgar
Christmas Streamer
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
This is a marvellous piece of crossword construction by a superbly entertaining setter. As we’ve come to expect there is a smattering of rule bending but we wouldn’t have it any other way, and the rewards are spectacularly good. With so many answers contributing to the message it’s inevitable that a couple of obscurities have crept in, but that didn’t spoil the fun for me.
The message itself takes up no less than 12 grid entries – in order, 20d, 12a, 28a, 15d, 10a, 1a, 17d, 5a, 21a, 30a, 16a and 9a – a mighty achievement and you’ll see how these placings pretty much forced everything else into place. The message forms the first lines of a poem by George R Sims.
My favourite clues are shown in blue – how do they compare with yours? Leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
A Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.
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Toughie No 274 by Elgar
Christmas cracker!
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
Seasonal Greetings from the snowy Calder Valley!
An absolutely stunning festive puzzle from Elgar today, which not only features a special Christmas favourite as the theme but a rattling good set of clues to boot. Only one clue I have a bit of a grumble about but I can see what our setter is aiming at with it. A couple of new words to me as well, but that’s all part of the fun of solving a Toughie. If you are really, really stuck, there’s a big hint at the very end of the puzzle.
As a chum of Elgar’s I am probably a bit biased, but this shows a compiler at the top of his game and why he is often regarded as a “setter’s setter”. I am already looking forward to his next one which may well be lurking around Clued Up tomorrow. Don’t forget that you can have a free trial this week, so do make sure you get the two special puzzles on the site tomorrow. If for any reason you miss them, I am sure one of the nice bods around these parts may oblige!
Leave a comment telling us what you thought of it. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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Toughie No 268 by Elgar
A trip down memory lane
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
A quick look at the CluedUp leaderboard this morning showed that only a handful of people had finished this puzzle, so I immediately had an idea as to the setter! Today’s answers include references to the fifties, sixties and seventies – making it a bit hard for the youngsters among you, but bringing smiles to the faces of the rest of us.
A lot of favourite clues today, the best of which I have highlighted in blue.
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Toughie No 259 by Elgar
All the fun of the pair
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
There’s usually a sense of dread on seeing a clue-set littered with “See x” and numerical references, and a pre-solve reading of these made me fear the worst; I think there were just two answers spotted. As it turned out, this was a fairly relaxing solve, not too difficult and – very strangely – quite muted in terms of Elgar’s usual LOL clues.
As I start the write-up there are a number of clues whose wordplay I only tried to work out after solving, not always with success. Part of Elgar’s unique brilliance is his libertarian playfulness, and he gets away with stuff that other setters probably wouldn’t.
My favourite clues are shown in blue text.
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Toughie No 247 by Elgar
Like for unlike
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Tackling this one at 1am was possibly not a great idea – a bit of a struggle. Finally slotted the last bits, then went back to see what had held me up. Mostly it was instances of implied double meanings and puns whose grammar didn’t seem to stack up, but I suppose when the intention is to raise a few smiles – which, in fairness, they did – the setter deserves to be given some latitude.
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Toughie No 233 by Elgar
More Repeats than UK Gold
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
When I printed this puzzle off from Clued-Up and scanned the clues, my first reaction was that there had been another cock-up at our favourite site. But no, the apparent errors are all deliberate and part of a theme of repetition, duplication and repetition. I had to go out to buy a paper to find out the name of the setter – I had thought that maybe we had a new one, and I was very surprised to find the name of Elgar, not least because he is normally firmly anchored to the Friday slot. It certainly has a different feel to the usual Elgar puzzles, and I suspect that solvers will either love it or hate it with no fence-sitting – I am firmly in the “love it” camp.
As always we welcome your comments – and please give your opinion of the puzzle by clicking on one of the stars at the bottom of the review.
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Toughie No 223
About as Tough as a Toughie can be!
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
Following some recent comments, I would like to reiterate that this blog, like millions of other blogs on the World Wide Web, expresses the personal views of the various contributors. Just as with music, some people love a particular artist and others hate them (I personally can’t stand Elton John or Rap music). Should you disagree with those views, you are more than welcome to comment; I have yet to refuse a comment other than spam, and these are trapped by a filter from Akismet. If you have not yet read the Disclaimer then please do.
Today’s puzzle is a breath of fresh air for those of us that are avid Ximeneans and like our Toughies to be tough but fair. Is it too tough in places? Probably. But then we deserve this kind of challenge from time to time.
Leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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Toughie No 207 by Elgar
The Toughest Toughie yet?
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BD Rating – Difficulty *****+ – Enjoyment ****
I always look forward to a puzzle when I see that Elgar is the setter. This one was extremely tough and maybe, for some of you, too tough. I did manage to complete all but the 20a/23d clues in the printed version but needed trial and error on CluedUp to complete the job. The review will take a little while to prepare (and a gallon of coffee as well!) so I have provided all of the answers in the interim.
Feel free to discuss, via the comments, your views on this puzzle. Unlike a certain other website, (did I say what when multiplied by itself gives 225?) we are happy to take all of your comments, on or off topic, as we regard this as a forum not an academy for the elite. You don’t need a degree in gobbledygook here!
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Toughie No 199 by Elgar
Paradise Lost?
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Regular followers of the blog will know that I am a fully paid-up member of the Elgar fan club. While, in general, I enjoyed the puzzle, I thought that the wordplay on a few of the clues crossed over that elusive line between fair and unfair. I will be very interested to know what you thought, especially if you have a different interpretation of any of the wordplays.
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Toughie No 186 by Elgar
Outrageous Stuff!
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
Unless you know different, as a woman with big teeth used to say on TV, today’s Toughie breaks new ground. I don’t think that crosswords in the DT have had more than one or two cross-referencing clues. Today’s had quite a few and that added to the fun. Obviously you had to solve these to proceed further with other clues.
This was a Toughie to savour and it had everything including some absolutely top-drawer clues. My only tiny grumble was that where answers were linked – like 22, 10 and 23, 2 down, in other publications the complete indications are shown at the first answer. It just confused me a little.
Where to start? Probably with the three letter answers. They are quite good ways to get into the puzzles with quite friendly clues.
What did you think about it? Feel free to comment after the analysis.
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On with the motley and let’s go!
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