Sunday Toughie 82 (Hints)

Sunday Toughie No 82 by Robyn

Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee

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Oh my God! Robyn gave me a grilling last night but I learned a lot about Theologians, Foreign words in English, Caribbean Islands and their cricketers so all in all a very satisfying solve.

I have hinted half of 16a and 14d clues but as ever some quite tricky clues hit the cutting room floor – if you require a bit of a nudge just ask and I will try and oblige, although if you look closely you may find a few bonus hints scattered here and there

Here we go…

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.

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. Don’t forget the Mine of useful information that Big Dave and his son Richard so meticulously prepared for us.

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 Sombre colour on covers of manifesto (6)
The covering letters of manifesto and a pale red colour

 

I never saw a man who looked
With such a wistful eye
Upon that little tent of blue
Which prisoners call the sky,
And at every drifting cloud that went
With sails of silver by.

Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!

12a Manx cat in Southampton or a tropical island (5,5)
An informal cat loses its last letter (Manx therefore tailless) and goes in the nickname for the Southampton football team. One of a dual-island nation in the Caribbean

13a Telegraph‘s Robyn right to appear among Telegraph compilers (4)
A pronoun that Robyn might use in mentioning himself, and R for right appear among a collective pronoun that other Telegraph compilers use to refer to the group. Interestingly the solution is also the pseudonym of another setter who cut his teeth in Rookie Corner and the NTSPP, who I hope to meet again at Elgar’s Birthday Bash in October – see the link in the events column >>> if you are interested it is a good weekend

15a One female, extremely flash, dons big slip in exciting scene (11)
The letter that looks like one, an abbreviation of female and the extreme letters of flash go in a big slip or stupid mistake to be the ending line of an episode of a serial, etc that leaves one in suspense

18a Asking to hide loot plundered in criminal activity (11)
To smuggle or deal in illicit alcohol or illegally made recordings from a synonym of asking or pleading and an anagram of loot

24a A lord now paralytic in cafe or restaurant, say (4,4)
Cafe and restaurant are definitions by examples for “terms” that have been “borrowed” from another language, paralytic is an anagram indicator and that leaves the first three “terms” as the fodder

Kenneth Williams uses plenty of 24a’s on the late lamented Parkinson show

25a Digit at the end or start of twenty one point one, oddly (6)
The start of Twenty, a printer’s abbreviation of a space of one point and the odd letters of one. The very end of ones lower digits

27a Perhaps mind Rover model after sports car model (3-3)
To model for an artist follows some sports lessons and an early model of Ford car. To mind or look after Rover, here is an example of the  common name of an animal kept for companionship

Down

1d Soldier’s arm troubles nursed by one doctor with love, then another (5,4)
Some troubles in (nursed) one bachelor of medicine, the letter that love represents, then another bachelor of medicine to follow. The popular name for a hand-held “armament” that soldiers can throw at the enemy

3d Like e.g. Thomas Cook plc — it’s ace! (9)
Some devious capitalisation here, not the traveller who first created “package” holidays, Thomas is the saint who doubted that Jesus had risen from the dead, Cook is the anagram indicator and PLC IT’S ACE is the fodder, like e.g. indicates that we want another term for the Doubting of Thomas shown by Caravaggio here

7d Charlie and Erica’s baby Rowan, perhaps (7)
A right Charlie and another word for the ericaceous heather plant are also a very young Rowan tree

11d Detective pursuing swine after cheating in football pools may have these (6,6)
Cheating in football by simulating a bad tackle, and a male swine pursued by a detective sergeant

16d Hippo’s notable and grand island on banks of Nile (9)
I have never heard of this theologian or the region of which he was a notable bishop and Saint, but he was deducible from plenty of checkers and a synonym of grand or serious, the abbreviation of island and the banks of the N(il)E

20d Page clad in uniform sees the latest info (7)
The romantic occasions when you “see” a significant other follows uniform as a code word in international radio communication and an abbreviation of page

21d    ñ

23d Small adornment for head or neck (4)
S for small and the adornment you may wear to conceal baldness, to “neck” a deep draught of beer or other alcoholic drink

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A cracking version of a great song;

That’s All Folks