Sunday Toughie 102 (Hints)

Sunday Toughie No 102

by proXimal

 

Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee

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Thanks to proXimal for a pleasant Toughie today, probably at the easier end of his spectrum but I am maybe just relieved it wasn’t as tough as his Christmas EV
Plenty of homophones and anagrams of various degrees of partiality and A Spoonerism that shouldn’t frighten the livestock either equine or avian

Here we go, Folks…

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 return with the full review blog just after the closing date. 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

4a           Improved film ratings with excellent edition (8)
Two film ratings from the more suitable end of the scale, an informal term for excellent and an abbreviation for edition are improved by letting you turn left at the airplane door

11a        Course of instruction for golf almost completely full (9)
A prefix for for, the letter that golf suggests and almost all of a synonym of completely full

13a       

14a        Argentine leader hosting relation, regular drinkers directly communicating (6-2-6)
Take the most famous Argentine leader and insert (hosting) a young male relation and some regular drinkers

17a        According to Spooner, source of eggs for Roald, novelist (7,7)
The least troublesome Spoonerism for some time, The surname of one novelist and the source of eggs become another novelist when treated by the Reverend Doctor

23a        Cheese pieces with temperature maintained in space by onboard computer (9)
A printers space, the pieces on a chess board and the abbreviation for temperature go before (by) the onboard computer that proved troublesome in 2001: A Space Odyssey

I don’t understand why Planet of the Apes got the Best Makeup Oscar in 1968 – Maybe they thought these apes were real?

24a        Regularly ignored bad talk against South Island (8)
The capitalisation of South Island misleads us towards New Zealand, Ignore alternate letters of bad talk, a term for one who is against something and the abbreviation for south leads us to an imaginary island unless Dubai has built one at the Palm Jumeirah Resort (They have but just as a hotel)

26a        Cursed the Spanish embargo with bananas getting turned back (8)
A Spanish the, an embargo and a synonym of bananas are reversed (getting turned back) to be deserving of being cursed

 

                Down

1d           Difficulties avoiding eastern junks (6)
The difficulties that childhood knees suffer avoid the abbreviation of East to be junked or thrown away

2d           Alien finally invading this galaxy could be Armageddon (9)
Is this a rare central definition? An anagram (alien) of the last word when you have removed the final letter of invading – More likely an extraction anagram &lit

5d           Chaos over in slate mine plastered with mud (11)
A crickety over, to slate or criticise, mine and mud from the clue are anagrammed (plastered)

7d           Awe Romeo out of play receives (5)
An adjective (of a ball perhaps) that is out of play receives the NATO phonetic code letter that Romeo suggests

12d        Car appropriate to carry Republican, one of government office (11)
A small car and to appropriate illegally carries an abbreviation of Republican and the letter that looks like one

16d        Burns, perhaps, under crusted skin’s protective covering (8)
Those childhood knees again, their crusted skin go under the term for a national poet, Rabbie Burns of Scotland in this case

19d        Like agreeable wine (7)
A synonym of agreeable and a type of wine form a similarity or affinity you may like

     

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