Sunday Toughie 28 (Hints)

Sunday Toughie No 28 by Zandio

Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee

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A definite Toughie today with a lot of the parsings following the solutions by a country mile. My usual dilemma is restricting the hints to about half, as there are tricky bits to most of them. There are not many pure anagrams but I have left the lurkers unhinted, save that they are both reversed.
Anyway, here we go with an evenly split 14/28 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 the village elders have been exercising the 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 One’s pencilled in as reserve to go by second vessel (10)
S for second and a small sea-going vessel are followed by reserve in the sense of securing a table at a restaurant perhaps.

10a Opposed to party faction’s twisted solutions (9)
A synonym of opposed to, crosswordland’s usual party and a reversal of a faction make up these solutions to a poisoning perhaps.

12a Pine props put down by old man, wiggly things (5-4-4)
To pine as in yearn for and the props that keep your bum from the floor, go after your old man.

15a Out of a black tower (6)
A from the clue, B for black and a synonym of tower over.

21a When prices jump or vault, it’s said makers will be twitchy and tense (7,6)
A homophone of a vault underneath your floor, an anagram of makers and t for tense. When vendors get the upper hand.

24a Goat fruitcake? It could be edible (9)
What goats do to get your attention and a slightly crazy fruitcake, I wouldn’t, but many do eat them.

27a The old retiring teacher sadly consuming cold dish (3-7)
An archaic spelling of the is reversed, followed by an anagram of teacher with a c for cold.

Down

1d Heard cracks when cycling and turned round (4)
A synonym of cracks or witticisms cycles the last letter to the beginning to become a synonym of turned around.

3d Revolutionary sadder about eating the same English food (7,6)
Two copies of one of our usual revolutionaries ( Revolutionary… the same) contain an anagram of sadder followed by E for English.
I have just been eating a very tasty welsh example of this foodstuff from the Hafod Dairy.

7d Botched data read upside down, oddly lacking style (3,4)
Reverse the first three words (read upside down in a down clue) and remove the odd letters. (oddly lacking)

11d Maybe setter’s tight after time off — it’s a mess (4,9)
We are not seeking Zandio here but Maybe setter implies that setter is an example of the animal we seek. Followed by some time off work and a synonym of tight, for a right mess.

13d Sense head will go on strike — there’s much swearing here (7,3)
A singular of your senses, a headland and to strike with a fist combine. To swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

16d Jumbo seen in show with an act that’s often repeated (8)
A show or performance, an from the clue and a facial mannerism that is often repeated.

23d Leader’s talent’s giving second half priority (4)
Practical skills or talents reverse the last two letters to the front for a leader of the Russian empire.

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