Sunday Toughie No 83
by Zandio
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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A pleasant Sunday Toughie that went smoothly until I got to the SW corner. I am going to have to be brief as I am going to the Malton Food Festival with Mama Bee this afternoon. I may be missing something in 3d and would welcome any input on parsing. (see todays PDM in the hint)
I think this is an ideal crossword to introduce the Toughie to newbies and I hope you enjoy it.
14a and 14d clues today and I have hinted half – no time for lots of pics and tunes but I will pop back when Mama Bee permits
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. Dont 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 Bear on show gobbling very loudly with energy (6)
The musical notation for very loudly and an abbreviation for energy go in a show or performance
10a Where we may see spinning globe — space (8)
A place for spinning or similar entertaining gyrations from the shape of a globe and a space for living in
15a Way to get a Merc? It’s naughty but nice (8,5)
A reverse anagram, therefore the anagram indicator becomes the first part of your answer. What you have to do to A MERC to make it the subject of a very old advertising campaign
22a In turning over mussel, cat nets some octopus (8)
In turning over is the indicator that you require. When in doubt… approximately 1/8th of an octopus
24a Paper ‘at is required in Poplar? (8)
Poplar and the dropped aitch suggest the suburb of London but Poplar? is an example of of the large perennial woody plant we need. ‘at is is inserted within for the written composition we require
26a They sit glued to the road — ignoring them could spell doom! … (4-4)
An all in one for the useful reflectors that help with lane control
27a … this makes drivers go and sulk over getting stuck in both directions (6)
The sulks and the letter that a cricket scorer uses for an over, goes between (in) both right and left directions
Down
1d Contestant taking a bow? (6)
A contestant in an Olympic sport that uses a bow
3d Where locals are invited in uniform? (9,6)
I got this from checkers as a place where locals can meet, but the rest of the wordplay eludes me
Stop Press – massive penny drop, the letter that uniform represents is precisely in the “middle” of the first word of the answer
6d This official’s brief usually just as politically correct (6,9)
This official when brief shares that abbreviation with politically correct
11d Marx, say, about to make lethal point (7)
Not Karl but one of the comedy Brothers that share the name, with a preposition for about
16d Schmaltzy tune from Dr Spooner? This shouldn’t be hard (4,5)
The schmaltzy tune you need to Spoonerise has an aroma of milk curds coagulated by rennet, The result should be a comfortable place to sit
17d Mary Jane cycling with a jerk, being positive (8)
Mary Jane is a noun for Marijuana, the plant from which it is extracted cycles one letter followed by a from the clue and a convulsive muscle contraction
23d Bit of land one will’s delivered in hearing (4)
A homophone (delivered in hearing) of how one would say one will is a bit of land surrounded by water
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8d…
That’s All Folks!
Two Zandio puzzles in three days, you won’t find any complaints here.
Very enjoyable with quite a few smiles.
1a got us off to a good start, I liked the topicality of 26a, 24a was clever as were 27a plus 3&21d. The Spoonerism was very funny but my favourite has to be 15a. Good stuff
Many thanks to Zandio and John.
Very enjoyable puzzle – thanks to Zandio and SJB.
Amongst the many clues that I ticked I’ll mention 25a, 3d, 6d and 17d.
Hello, compiler here. Thanks very much for taking the trouble to solve, analyse and discuss. Always appreciated. In case it’s of interest, Chris Lancaster, the Telegraph Crossword Editor, chose 13a, 18a and 16d for his “particularly liked” list. So another vote for the Spoonerism. :)
Thank you, I enjoyed the Spoonerism too and always a pleasure to hear from setters or Mr Ed
I am still struggling with it. About halfway there or maybe a bit more! Thank you Zandio for stretching me – I wish you had not said it was easy SJB!
Alongside a pathetic ignorance about sporting references I now find I don’t know much about recreational drugs. I was trying to work in a pair of shoes! I’m getting on, but should really go and make the bed. What the heck. It is Bank Holiday Monday.
I hope your BH is going better than mine, my car has just died and left me at the mercy of the AA. I think I said it went smoothly until the SW. I don’t know about shoes, are Mary Jane’s shoes? Or is it that Hemp is used to make espadrilles?
As usual hopelessly late to getting round to this. I actually opened the puzzle on the old site on Sun evening & promptly fell asleep so my solve time is over 47hrs. In reality can’t recall flying through a Sun Toughie quite as quickly as this one & even a tad faster than his Friday back-pager. Very enjoyable – the Spoonerism my clear fav & pleased to spot the wordplay at 3d as always seem to miss that sort of device.
Thanks Zandio & to John for the review & REM song
I too was pleased to spot what was going on with 3d. The penny dropped just as I hit publish. I am as stiff as a board as it has been a while since I was a regular cycle commuter, a very nice Roonerspism too
Reckon it’s 20 years since I’ve been on a bike – probably need stabilisers & certainly some functioning muscles