Sunday Toughie No 92
Hints and Tips by StephenL.
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Hello everyone from the South coast of Devon. No greeting from “up North” today as SJB was on the lash yesterday and didn’t want to produce a review with a banging headache so you’ve got me instead.
Robyn, a setter I have tremendous admiration for provides this weekend’s exercise in lateral thinking with a typically clever puzzle full of his trademark misdirection. I found somewhat more straightforward than his Tuesday offerings I’ve blogged. Great fun as ever though.
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 for what I consider to be the trickier clues follow.
Across
1a The French with money put up a bit of their capital (5,7)
A French definite article, an informal word for money and a verb meaning to put up in the sense of accommodate giving an area of Paris.
9a Legally prevent stimulants and cannabis going around (5)
A two-letter abbreviated way of describing some stimulants and a reversal of an informal word for cannabis. Wordplay got me there.
11a City‘s fabulous delivery men with a case of Rioja for us (5,5)
Start with every young child’s favourite delivery man and replace “us” in the second word with the outside (case of) letters of Rioja… lol.
17a Hunt down and eat foie gras, say, drinking Bordeaux (7)
Place a synonym or common version of foie gras (though it may not be exactly the same) around (drinking) something of which Bordeaux is an example. The wordplay should lead you to this if not the definition.
22a Protection for sportsperson playing home cup tie (10)
Anagram (playing) of the following three words.
25a Like an automatic response from setter tucking into dessert before noon (9)
Insert a first person pronoun (setter) into a meringue style dessert and add the single-letter abbreviation for Noon.
27a Heroic sailor, one pushed back in drink (5,7)
Start with a synonym of heroic or magnificent and add one of a sailor in which the letter representing one is moved to the back one place, giving an alcoholic liquor with an orange flavour.
Down
1d Zonked out in empty London airport (5)
Anagram (zonked) of OUT inside the outer letters of LondoN.
2d Big cheese and better crackers mostly (3,6)
A synonym of better as a verb and an informal synonym of crackers in the sense of mad or whacky minus its last letter. Lol.
4d Showed that lady second-hand clothes (7)
Place a synonym of second-hand around (clothes) a pronoun meaning that lady. Simple but elegant
6d One might dig up old wine then go off climbing (9)
A charade of the usual preposition meaning old or former, some sparking wine and a reversal (climbing) of synonym of go off in the sense of decay. Here’s a cute one
7d Encouragement to set off fires (4,2)
Double definition, the first an instruction or encouragement to start or depart.
17d Work to cut litter, perhaps unwanted ads (3-3)
These annoying little things are an abbreviated work inside some young canines
19d Someone chanting right behind a fan of Newcastle that’s gutted (7)
Start with a preposition that could mean one is a fan or one is interested in something, add the outside letters (gutted) of NewcastlE and the abbreviation for Right. My first instinct was that the wordplay involved “toon” but I don’t think so.
24d Rent in which side of town? (4)
Rent here is in the sense of rip. If we split the solution 1,2,1 (the middle “two” being a conjunction) you’ll see the wordplay.
Thanks Robyn. 2,4&19d get my vote. Which ones were your Sunday winners?
As it’s Sunday here’s a great track with a vaguely related title
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Perfect. Thanks both
A soft landing after yesterday’s Elgar puzzle, but Robyn has still set us (or me, at least) a decent challenge. My initial checkers for 14d led me down the garden path, but the parsing wouldn’t work until the 17a checker put me onto the right track. As 26a isn’t hinted I will have to wait for the full review to see if my interpretation of ‘Dabbler’ finds support. Last one in was 15a, which needed a penny to drop first! I’ve opted for 3 favourites from each orientation – 9, 11 & 25 across, and 4, 6 & 24 down.
My thanks to Robyn, and also to StephenL for coming on as sub for SJB and providing some nicely illustrated hints.
The dabbler is a bird
Ah, of course it is, I was using the wrong abbreviation! FYI – someone who perhaps dabbles in speaking English would be using English as Additional Language (EAL in Collins). Oh well… :wacko:
The Saint less than obvious though
My LOI as I was trying to use the more common abbreviation.
Long tussle today but got there in the end by only looking at the underlining for a couple of hints which focused my thoughts on the answers.
Thanks to Robyn for the challenge and StephenL.
Robyn (as always) provides us with a cracking puzzle – thanks to him and SL.
I’ve too many ticks to list them all, I’ll restrict myself to 1a, 13a, 19a and 4d.
Thanks Stephen, I tackled this when I sobered/woke up but only got about halfway on my own after a brief bit of clock changing and a trip to say adieu to fellow S&Bers waiting for trains in York I took Mama Bee out for tea and scones and returned refreshed to finish the puzzle with your helpful hints, getting the liquor in 27a finally corrected my wrong plural in 16d
Thanks to Robyn too
You’re welcome John, I enjoyed doing it. Hope you had a great time.
Great thanks, I had a good natter with proXimal amongst many others but CL didn’t seem to be there so I was unable to ask if Sunday Toughie 100 due on Christmas Eve was going to be a special in any way, I will email CL to see if we can get an early peek at any Christmas Specials or online only puzzles like last year
Really enjoyed this one despite having a blank moment with the 21/12 combo when an incorrect answer to 17d led me astray – had the right litter but the wrong ‘work’ and couldn’t figure out why the ladies in question would be unwanted – thought that was the whole point of them!
Tops for me were 11,13 & 18a plus 7d.
Thanks to Robyn and to Stephen for stand-in duties – hope SJB is recovering from his partying!
Thought that might have had a bit more time for Stephen’s musical selection today ?
This was a really enjoyable puzzle with so many good clues and most enjoyable parsing. 1A 13A and 19A deserve ticks and my podium goes to 6D. Mrs PJ had a chuckle at 18D.
Many thanks to Stephen and of course to the very smooth Robyn.
Pleasingly straightforward & not a whole lot trickier than his Wed back-pager. As CS says perfect & like Gazza just too many ticks to list ‘em all. If pressed I’ll plump for 11a as fav – hope he doesn’t break any bottles getting them down the chimney.
Thanks to Robyn for 2 top notch puzzles this week & to Stephen for stepping in for John – I’ve been amusing myself of late while laid up compiling a lengthy Spotify playlist of originals & great covers of them. I’d quite forgotten The Kane Gang’s fine cover (on that album) of Respect Yourself by The Staples Singers so have added it to an extensive list
Enjoyed this a lot and filled the grid reasonably quickly for a toughie. LOI was 14 down (not hinted) – the answer was pretty obvious once I had the other letters, but it was not a term I had come across. When I googled it, the only relevant entry was to a crossword blog for an FT crossword in 2014. One of the bloggers there (Muffyword) commented that they had only seen the term once, some years previously, in yet another crossword. An interesting worm hole!
I think the term in 14d (pretty obscure but sympathetically clued) is mainly American. Was probably my least favourite in the grid.
Late on parade as I started this in bed last night and just finished apart from 23d which still eludes me. Very satisfying to almost complete a toughie! I loved 25a but was off on the high seas with 27a even contemplating a mermaid – very clever, thanks for the hint. As ever, homage to Setter and stand in Hinter!
Hi DG.
I hadn’t hinted 23d but will just say that “stopping” is an insertion indicator. Hope that helps.