Sunday Toughie No 136
by proXimal
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
I found this at the tougher end of the spectrum last night but this morning it seems that I wasn’t paying attention to the tenses required. I am still a little puzzled by 7d, is it just referring to a budget hotel chain or am I missing something? I was – see Gazza’s comment and my revised clue
14a and 14d clues today and I have hinted half. I will try if possible to give a nudge for some of the unhinted clues
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
1a As per Spooner, secure magnificent property for the King (9)
How you secure your boots perhaps and a synonym of magnificent, swap initial sounds for the property belonging to the King
10a Son of Scottish ambassador possessing alien weapon (7)
A Scottish Gaelic prefix meaning son of and the abbreviated title of an ambassador that contains our usual film alien
13a Wasn’t distressed? (4,4,4,2)
A fine &lit where I would have been well advised to check the tense before bunging in an initially wrong answer
16a Pampering act with aromatic substance, ceremony scrubbing head (14)
An act or deed, an aromatic culinary substance and a matrimonial ceremony without its initial letter
20a Place that’s unpleasant in sultanate for farmer (9)
An abbreviation of place and a sultanate that contains an exclamation of unpleasantness
24a Insect beginning to train showed the way and scuttled (7)
My eponymous insect, the beginning to train, and a synonym of showed the way… (with short rapid steps)
26a Reportedly munch cabbage lacking colour (9)
Homophones (reportedly) of to munch or feed on pasture and a variety of cabbage. (Those printers of Telegraph Puzzles who want to save ink may think it ironic that this feature may appear in the solution but not yet in the print options)
Down
1d Mike wearing waistcoat gets drink (6)
A quilted sleeveless jacket contains the radio code letter Mike suggests – Gin and Lime juice according to my bartenders guide
5d Small vessel regularly set sail bearing south at sea to return (9)
An abbreviated sea, and alternate letters of set sail, into which are inserted at from the clue and s for south are all reversed (to return) for a small vessel for coffee (several of which were needed to parse this clue)
6d Defenders with worries about club meddlers (8,7)
Worries or consumes about a golfers longest club, follow defenders in various other ballgames
7d Where one might find bar to see comparatively wacky leader? (7)
More coffee please! I think this refers to a chain of budget hotels whose name includes a type of bar that provides food, drink and accommodation. Without said hostelry A comparative of wacky can be found if bar replaces the first three letters of the person of chief rank or office Thanks a lot Gazza, I must be fruitier than a nutcake!
14d Greek character remains imprisoned in centre of Georgian city (9)
The remains of a fire in the central letters of Georgian follows the thirteenth character of the Greek alphabet
18d Unhinted but here is a pretty picture
15d Reform of Post Office, ditching old computers initially, not on course (3-5)
An anagram (reform of) Post Office but ditch the initials of old and computers first – nicely topical nod to the Post Office computer problems caused by the Horizon/Fujitsu software
check out the 23a runners there!
19d Nuts doubled in such dense food and I might get indigestion (6)
proXimal’s trademark compound anagram (nuts) you find the fodder for such dense food by removing IN (twice) and I from indigestion
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Oh My! it is the 1st of September already and although not quite officially Autumn yet it is beginning to feel like it
Very enjoyable – thanks to Mr Non-X and SJB.
For 7d we need to split the answer 3,4 to see where we would find the word ‘bar’ in a comparative meaning more wacky.
Top clues for me were 1a, 13a, 7d and 17d.
Ah I see comparing how he was before he became “wacky” I will try and amend the hint
I had my work cut out with this one, with two large cups of coffee required to see me through! A very enjoyable Toughie from proXimal, with ticks galore. My across list starts with Rev Spooner at 1a then continues with 12a, 13a and 26a; the down list contains 2d, 6d, 17d and 19d plus the excellent 7d, which received my clue of the day accolade after I finally twigged the wordplay!
Many thanks to proXimal and also to SJB. The 15d clip is quite spectacular! I daren’t go 15d anymore as I now find it impossible to get up again after falling over in deep powder, and I don’t think I ever managed more than about half-a-dozen turns before doing so…
I think I will stick to pootling down the red slopes – a run down The Swiss Wall that hadn’t been prepared by the groomers has put me off 15d
We’ve skied in Avoriaz but didn’t venture over the border into Switzerland. Just as well, perhaps, as we might have found ourselves standing at the top of ‘The Swiss Wall’ – and it looks extremely daunting! Possibly similar to ‘Tortin’ in Verbier, with moguls the size of VW Beetles? I did Tortin once. It joined the long list belonging to my ‘never again’ club…
Indeed it was I just skied in one direction until the snow stopped then a desperate turn on top of a mogul and back to the other side. Not fun but I did get down eventually
That certainly strained the old grey matter! Even with a completed grid, I had my work cut out on the parsing front and would never have got 7d without the help from Gazza – my knight in shining armour to the rescue once more!
Top clues for their humour were 13&16a plus 6d.
Thanks to proXimal for the Sunday tester and to SJB for the hints. That ski clip was absolutely unbelievable!
I could do with a bit of pampering too – he must have been very brave to ski into a hole in the ground
A good and challenging crossword over the morning coffee. Fortunately the four long clues were straightforward and gave lots of structural assistance to the rest. Good ‘spot’ by Proximal of the anagram at 3d, though I think it is a film I have managed not to see. Didn’t even notice the compound anagram to end the grid, the definition and checking letters providing the answer with no need to parse, a similar treatment to that meted out to 7d. COTD 26a, which reminded me of too many school meals, and of suppers cooked by both grandmothers. Also on the podium were 16a for the amusement and 11a.
Many thanks to SJB and Proximal
I think a missing t in your alias sent you into moderation – I sympathise with your grandmothers cooking Grandma Bee used to cook cauliflower whole by boiling it for weeks before sprinkling the merest hint of cheese on it. It was so lacking in flavour, colour or texture it probably registered about 5% on the 26a
;)
I far prefer cauliflower raw. Ah well, it will soon be time to put the sprouts on for Christmas…
Thank you for sorting out my missing T
13a was gently magnficent. Nice hom at 26a. And compounds (19d) always float my boat. Many thanks to proXimal and Sloop. But MG … enough talk about Christmas already. Good grief, man! You’re bang on about cauliflower though..
Christmas tins of Quality Street are in supermarkets already!
Re cauli very toothsome in a nice crunchy piccallili
Stuck with much of the NW until I saw the picture for 5d. So the others fell quite quickly. Just left with 7d which I couldn’t parse without the hint. So thanks for that SJB, and the pic for 5d. My late friend Peter Donaldson, who read the news on Radio 4, among other things, always asked for a 5d when offered, but it was usually of Harvey’s Sussex bitter!
Thanks to proXimal of course
Lovely anecdote I can almost hear
“Just a small one”
I bunged in the answer fairly quickly but it took several small vessels before I sorted out all the reversing, inserting and alternating
He also favoured a Merlot, which he pronounced phonetically. His casket was homemade in the form of a wooden Merlot wine box! God bless him.
I hope of course that we never have to listen to it, but he also recorded the Doomsday announcement to be broadcast in time of nuclear war. It was played at his funeral .
It is here if you want a reminder of his voice
Thanks
I can’t miss this opportunity to use that wonderful word, “mellifluous”.
👍indeed like warm honey
What a marvellous voice he had. And he always sounded like a very, very decent cove. He was actually quite the rebel, wasn’t he?
Yes. He insisted on walking everywhere, and refused lifts to the station when anyone passed. Days off walking the south downs from pub to pub. And he pronounced various names and places slightly differently. E.g. Michael Portaloo!
Briiliant!
I’ve been reluctant to tangle with these Sunday Toughies for a while, but after a few craft beers (craaft as they say here in TN), I decided to try it and came up a couple short. Would probably have still been nonplussed had it not have been for the blog. Thanks to SJB and the crafty X-man.
WD
I hope you got 5d in today’s Backpager ,😁
Yipee! Just finally finished it this morning – Sunday night I really thought i was not going
to get more than halfway but constantly going back to it, re-reading your clues SJB and this
morning the last two in 25 and 26 across, jumped out at me. 26 is not a phrase I am
familiar with although I have heard it but what a brilliant clue! My favourite.
Many thanks to ProXimal and to SJB for your clues!
signed – one happy bunny.🐰
Took an absolute age but got there in the end.