Sunday Toughie 22 (Hints)

Sunday Toughie No 22 by Zandio

Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee

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Not the trickiest Sunday Toughie so far but I still had a bit of trouble in the SW. I solved this whilst watching Macca at Glastonbury, who seemed to be having a bit of trouble in the South West too but he got better as the set went on. (Terence said he thought it was good from first to last and he has put a clip up on Senf’s blog so check it out there.) I had a full grid by the time Lauren Laverne had finished the post-gig analysis and I had finished a wee dram. Seven hours of kip and coffee to hand here goes with the hints…

As it is a Prize puzzle I can only hint at a few and hope that will give you the checkers and inspiration to go further. I’ll be back just after the closing date with the full blog. Don’t forget to follow BD’s instructions in RED at the bottom of the hints!

I hope I don’t have to redact any comments but I am new at this and don’t want to rock the boat. If in doubt, I’ll rub it out! I think that sentence is a bit redundant. You have all been so helpful in sorting out prior parsing failures, and I am sure I will need similar help again. Don’t go too far though as Tilsit has been exercising his RED pencil on the Saturday Hints.

Most of the terms used in these hints are explained in the Glossary and examples are available by clicking on the entry under “See also” Where the hint describes a construct as “usual” this means that more help can be found in The Usual Suspects, which gives a number of the elements commonly used in the wordplay. Another useful page is Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing, which features words with meanings that are not always immediately obvious.

A full review of this puzzle will be published after the closing date for submissions. Some hints follow: Remember the site rules and play nicely.

Across

1a European remix of ‘Lust For Life’ (4,2,5)
How a European (Not Dutch like Vincent) may say ‘Lust for Life’

7a Cut in Italy, knight having broken spear died (7)
Start with the IVR code for Italy, end with the genealogical notation for one who has died, and insert the Chess notation for a Knight or Horsey, after it has broken into a verb for spear as in to run through.

8a Take away about one billion and one carrying over five? (7)
Zandio ends with a question mark here which is usually a sign of some stretchiness in the definition. The wordplay is clear though, a mathematical ‘take away’ goes about abbreviations for one and billion. This is a vehicle designed for carrying more than five passengers.

13a Possibly count half a century or ten times that (4)
A rather Noble choice between two Roman numerals that differ by a factor of ten.

21d Rogue male following female (6)
A female bovine and a male child define a rogue builder perhaps?

24a Prepare swimmer to go over river, say, moving like the wind (3,4)
A synonym of prepare, such as Chris Lancaster may prepare Zandio’s crossword and a particularly slimy fish are reversed. How the current of a river estuary can be amplified when it moves in the same direction as the wind.

25a Old retired doctor injecting number giving birth (7)
A beginning or birth, it starts with a doctor around a number this is all reversed (retired) and added to O for old.

26a United second — unlikely destiny if that guy’s involved (11)
Uniting a whole from parts is both the definition and instruction here. Unite an anagram of destiny and an abbreviation for second around a synonym of that guy’s.

Down

1d One takes care rubbish is swept up after New Year (7)
The first day of the New Year and a reversal of some rubbish.

4d Parking after five in the morning seeing Lorelei? (4)
Not going to hint this one, the word play leads easily to the four letters you need, and two checkers makes this easy. Look up Lorelei or sirens if you still need help.

6d Stop using space bar function (7)
A printer’s space that is sufficient to fit in the lower case thirteenth letter of the alphabet, the next word of the clue and a synonym of function.

9d Gold-digging in sierra, discover sovereign buried by mischief-maker (4-7)
The radio code letter that sierra suggests, a mischief maker, a synonym of discover or observe and a sovereign.

12d Champion’s brutal boxing rise (10)
A synonym of brutal goes around the rise that was seen in the background at the Glastonbury Festival last night. There are other hills or rises with this suffix, mainly in the SW and Derbyshire but the one at Glastonbury is certainly topical.

17d Novel character’s name writer used originally in comic sense (7)
Abbreviations of name and writer go in an anagram of sense.

20d Planks right off the top crumble perhaps (6)
The planks that hold your roof up lose the right off the top, for an informal term for the part of the meal that comes post main course.

23d Net fix for boozer? (4)
Another one I wasn’t going to hint but as I struggled with the parsing, I will pass on the help I received. How a synonym of fix as in ‘That is quite a fix we are in’ may be said by someone who is a boozer and therefore slightly inebriated and slurring in his speech.

I have hinted over half of the 14a and 14d clues today, I have left a couple of double definitions, some partial anagrams, a lurker and a palindrome to find.

Several reasons for choosing this piece today, Muse are the southwest’s finest in my opinion and it ties in obliquely with 12d and I am not fond of Iggy Pop as the obvious choice of music to go with 1a

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