Sunday Toughie No 109
by Robyn
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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Robyn has brought us one of his thematic puzzles today and I was amazed that he managed to get them into all the across clues without the down gridfill being full of exceedingly obscure words or even impossible. Only one of the elements was a pastime I have never encountered before (12a) but it rang a bell.
Shakespeare crops up in quite a few places and South American capitals but after the delightful theme 12a and 24d pleased me the most today which did you like?
We have 14a and 14d clues today and I cannot hint at all the thematic elements so
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
8a Dip bagel in starchy food (4)
A dip in a mattress that is overdue for replacement and the letter that looks like a bagel, IMO an inedible substance better suited to hanging wallpaper
10a Shakespeare role, sweet one, seized by returning star (8)
The minty sweet that looks like a bagel, and a reversal of our star that contains the letter that looks like one. The pilot episode of Lewis had a crossword clue from Morse that referred to this character from Hamlet
12a Car lover follows motorists round cliff, occasionally (4,5)
A motorists rescue organisation around occasional letters of cliff followed by a Shakespearean lover
17a Make music artist from America run off (7)
A well-known American artist (who painted his Mama) loses his terminal r for run
22a E.g. Othello, in vessel going west, potters here? (9)
More Shakespeare, The North African origin of a Venetian general with my favourite seagoing vessel around it are reversed (going west in an across clue)
26a Mussolini pinching that man’s small table cover (8)
Mussolini’s title around a contraction of something that man has and an abbreviation of small give us a fancy lace table cover
27a Look around with queen, following willing worker on estate (or any across answer here?) (10)
Ignore the bit in parentheses for the moment and solve the clue on its own. Start with a synonym of look and reverse it (around) add our late queen’s regnal cipher and that follows a synonym of willing to give us an estate-worker. Now check what the parentheses are telling us and admire the skill of Robyn in getting thematic elements within all the across clues without making the gridfill impossibly obscure – only one of the thematic elements was hard to see and I can’t give hints to all but they are mostly indoor activities or ball sports
Down
1d Singer in clubs given a wave (8)
An abbreviation of the suit of clubs, a from the clue and a large crested wave give us a seasonal singer
3d Unfussy consumers of old French wine upset going through customs (9)
An abbreviation of old and some customs or manners around a reversal (upset) of some French wine will eat anything
4d With drinks I notice flavouring of absinthe (7)
A conjunction for with contains (drinks) I from the clue and a synonym of notice. Probably better for laying a trail for hounds rather than drinking but each to his own, I will stick with Laphroaig
5d Liverpool fan, say, put up times for crucial match (5)
The colour by which the Anfield half of Liverpool identify themselves is reversed (put up) followed by mathematical times. No more crucial than other matches but when Liverpool play Everton it becomes much more crucial in the eyes of the fans
6d Amounts of data from alumnus, one clad in skirts (8)
An alumnus from Gordonstoun perhaps clad in the skirts popular in that part of Scotland
16d Chatterbox’s viable plan to ingest second drink (8)
A viable plan ingests an abbreviation of second and a small drink
18d Hide from essayist’s family (8)
The brother and sister essayists who wrote the Tales from Shakespeare and their family define a soft supple hide. I would love a jacket like that…
24d Number six minus nine, divisible by two? (5)
Take the number six as written and subtract a Roman nine, add the property of numbers that are divisible by two for another number
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22a My favourite vessel…
That’s All Folks…
How clever is that and, as SJB says, all achieved without the need for a host of obscurities. How many solvers would have spotted the theme without Robyn’s generous hint? (certainly not I).
A superb puzzle – many thanks to Robyn and SJB.
My top clues were 10a, 15a, 22a, 2d and 18d.
I certainly didn’t spot it until I saw what the brackets contained, and only 12a contained a thematic element new to me
I knew all the themed elements. Does 9a contain two themed elements?
I only spotted the one in the first 5 letters and although the other 5 letters are the prefix to a series of electronic thematic elements I wouldn’t count it as a seperate one
Absolutely brilliant, so satisfying and unbelievably clever, thank you very much Robyn and Mr SJB
Excellent stuff. **/****. Big smile for last one in, 13a. Thanks Robyn and SJB. I’ll have to wait for the full review to see how one thing fits in with the theme, unless it comes to me before that.
Hopefully, it will come before Wednesday week but as I have said only one seemed new to me and I suspect your 19d is probably the same as mine
I have now looked at your intro and it was the same, but I now know what it is but have never heard of it.
Brilliant stuff from Robyn. A pleasure to solve. Surprised you didn’t pick 22a as your fav though John!
Thanks all.
In a theme that covers all the acrosses Kath would have a dicky fit if I favoured them all, but a hint and a music clip indicates it was certainly up there
I had the same thought as SJB – how clever to get all the theme-laden across clues into the grid without obscurities in the down clues :good:
I didn’t spot the theme until prompted by Robyn in 27a, and that duly becomes my clue of the day. Runner-up spots went to 5d and 24d, with special mention to 22a for a reference to our esteemed blogger. The #1 discussion has alerted me to a new game I hadn’t heard of in the first 5 letters of 9a. I had assumed the reference was in the last 5 letters, but did think it was below par compared to the others. Sorry to doubt you, Robyn! I hadn’t heard of the 26a table cover, and could only find a dictionary entry to a type of table (Collins). SJB has reassured me with his own research.
My thanks to Robyn – that was great fun. And thanks to SJB for the hints and illustrations, which even make the 8a food look quite appetising, nothing like how I remember it at school…
I couldn’t find a pic that captured the feelings of nausea that school versions induced. That pic does look more appetising but after the jam and caramelised crust has been eaten the rest would have to go in the bin🤢
It used to be served in my school in Wimbledon with a blob of jam on to and was affectionately known as blood on the mountain. I’m still struggling with bottom LH corner !
At school we had a lad with a false eye – he could pop it out and leave it on his pudding to “keep an eye on it” Does my reply to Devartley @#9 help I doubt you are stuck on 16d you are a right 16d yourself, or if it isn’t that one?
Managed to get through the entire puzzle without spotting the theme and wondered what on earth the bracketed words in 27a were doing there! Given the nudge from our hintsman, I realised that I did know all the pastimes, just hadn’t noticed them……..
Smiled at the nod to SJB in 22a and learned something new in the type of table cover.
Thanks and well done to Robyn and thanks also to SJB.
A decent, enjoyable, and accessible Sunday Toughie, nothing obscure, all fairly clued and extremely clever. I could copy and paste Jane’s entire first paragraph as it applied to me, too. Highlights for me were 3d and 24d.
Thank you to Robyn and SJB
Lovely jubbly. Sheer class from Robyn. I had a slight advantage having read John’s back-page comment to Gazza. 2d&9a were among the first answers in so initially thought the theme was going elsewhere. The table cover & the 9a game were unfamiliar but that was it for the post solve checks. Mr Brydon (as Picaroon in the Graun) has form with this theme having previously hidden examples in reverse (arguably even cleverer) in all the downs. Couldn’t begin to pick a favourite.
Thanks to Robyn & to John
Very late as I didn’t get chance to tackle this till today. I didn’t spot the theme, but now I know what it is I can see all the themes. The theme confirms my answer for 15 ac but It was a bung in, and I still can’t parse it. I was hoping there might be a variation between the dead tree and the electronic version, but as no one has commented to that affect I must be missing something.
The first word is the definition but crew is the past tense of a synonym of the answer you have not a group of celebs
Thanks very much for that. Now I’m kicking myself for not sleeping on it.
Thoroughly enjoyed. Curious to see if anyone else was waylaid by thinking of a different diarist in 18d. A fictional teenage one?
Nice spot, I was probably wearing Adrianskin trousers when writing the review but I really covet the lambskin jacket that Bruce has there
Any chance of a puzzle from yourself in the Sunday Toughie slot?