Sunday Toughie 138 (Hints) – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
View closed comments 

Sunday Toughie 138 (Hints)

by Sloop John Bee  

Sunday Toughie No 138


by Zandio

 

Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee

 

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

Zandio with a not-too-tuff tuffie today, not much harder than his Friday back pager. I hope I haven’t dropped a catch by changing from Go West and a cricket catch to a more obvious place to go in 3a but I am sure the answer is correct even if my parsing fails

We have 14a and 14d clues today and I have hinted half. If you remember the maxim “when in doubt look for a lurker you should get enough checkers to fill the lights

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

 

1a          Device giving cash back (4)
A synonym of (usually stolen) cash is reversed
Ranking the House of Games Prizes From the Shower Curtain to the Actually Good Ones | Den of Geek

3a          Place to go to catch long boat, simply made for magic (10)
A place to go potty around to long or pine for and a simply made boat
I couldn’t make the crickety catch go after the longing so changed my parsing to the more sensible place to go, but still wanted to include this
But maybe I should go with the cover art for Rum Sodomy and the Lash  the simply made boat that Théodore Géricault painted about the sinking of the Medusa

10a       Cricketer quick between the wickets caught predecessor (10)
A homophone (caught) of a cricketer who is so quick he can amass as many runs as he would score if the ball got to the boundary

14a       Recording that, in short, often follows Abba’s first couple (7,4)
Un-abbreviate the recording medium that alphabetically follows the first two letters of ABBA

23a       Tango legend from Brazil twirls and grinds, making rings (10)
The letter that Tango suggests and a reversal (twirls) of a Brazilian football legend, and a synonym of grinds rings you later
Pelé, the Story in Pictures - The New York Times

24a       Union staff clobber, part of suit (4)
A rather neat quadruple definition

26a       One takes wing as if husband had become Romeo (4)
A conjunction that if suggested replaces H for husband with R for Romeo
Wren Bird Facts | Troglodytes Troglodytes

Down

 

1d          Bunch of characters with singular style, could be Gothic? (8)
An all-in-one or &lit of the style of characters that Gothic is an example of – Comic Sans another

5d        Programme broadcast from Prague, say, with Hungarian composer (9)
A homophones here (broadcast) of the nationality of someone from Prague say, and a Hungarian composer A programme to be ticked off on completion

6d          Sarcastic mixer that’s used to free openings (7,4)
A synonym of sarcastic and a mixer (That IMO it would be sacrilegious to water down a malt whisky with) could  be used to unblock the opening in a sink or drain
Soda siphon; British Soda Syphon Manufacturing Co.; 1900 - 1936; GSM_02221 | eHive
7d          Registers articles, one from the alternative point also missing vowels (6)
Two indefinite articles (one reversed (from the alternative point)) and what remains of also when the vowels are removed

16d       German composer with part to be written up for single (8)
A German composer and a reversal of a dramatic part would be a single male
I couldn’t find a clip from The Last Night of the Proms last night so try this instead

19d       One seen in sierra occasionally must scratch all over (6)
Another &lit. Alternate letters of must scratch and the letter that sierra suggests are all reversed (over) for a plant often seen in the Sierra or similar dry lands

22d       They honk my car swerving scare (5)
An interjection that can replace my! And what remains of scare when car has been swerved

 

Could new readers please read the Welcome Post and the FAQ before posting comments or asking questions about the site.
As this is a Prize crossword, please don’t put any ANSWERS, whether WHOLE, PARTIAL or INCORRECT or any ALTERNATIVE CLUES in your comment.
Please read these instructions carefully – they are not subject to debate or discussion. Offending comments may be redacted or, in extreme cases, deleted. In all cases the administrator’s decision is final.
If you don’t understand, or don’t wish to comply with, the conventions for commenting on weekend prize puzzles then save yourself a lot of trouble and don’t leave a comment

Lots of music today from Classical to  Pop and a couple of clues that hit the cutting room floor suggested some  more here is one for 25a

 

That’s All Folks…

41 comments on “Sunday Toughie 138 (Hints)”

  1. Pretty friendly for Zandio. Quirky and smart, as always. 20d’s “depressing” was sly and 3a’s a lovely construction. 10a’s brilliant, 14a tickled me and 17d is very smooth. Many thanks to Zandio and Sloop. Loved your 1a show reference. Definitely the dartboard for me, please.

    1. You almost got some very heavy music for 1a but prog metal straightaway might have caused a “Schism” in the blog 😉

        1. The things I listen to for the blog, it hit the floor not just because it revealed an answer but my ears couldn’t bring me to post them
          This is much more my kind of thing

          1. ✅
            My comment on the puzzle seems to have vanished. A couple of missed whys took the shine off a wee bit but a swift(ish) grid fill. Lots of ticks & this one had the edge on Friday’s back-pager for me. Thanks to Zandio.
            Thanks for the review & music choices. KT Tunstall does a pretty good cover of the U2 song

  2. Zandio not at his toughest but extremely enjoyable – thanks to him and SJB.
    10a is very neat but ‘Mr Fawkes’ does rather give it away.
    Ticks from me for 3a, 10a, 14a, 24a and 2d.

    1. I did learn that Mr Fawkes more Spanish sounding name was because he fought for them in the Netherlands

  3. Sloop John Bee re 6d and your comment, here in Canada some people actually mix a fine whiskey with 7up, and a fine red wine with 7-up (sacrilege) to both, to me its like putting milk in espresso coffee! no offence to any one is intended.

    1. None taken I agree 100% although Daniel Peake (one of DT’s puzzle editors) likes 7up as he is always downing a 7up at 7d in his cryptic puzzle twitch streams

  4. Relatively gentle challenge from Zandio today, but enjoyable as always. Parsing of 3a was my only hurdle, until I twigged the ‘place to go’ – albeit I won’t be going there! I read ‘to catch’ as a mechanism to link the components together and create a good surface. My across podium had places for 10, 14 & 23; with 4, 12 & 17 on the down podium. Although I enjoyed 12d, I wasn’t so keen on the clue immediately following. Maybe it was just the close proximity of the device used. My thanks to Zandio and to SJB, especially for the eclectic array of music clips! My pick of the bunch is the Hungarian Rhapsody. I’ll come back later to enjoy to the complete performance.

    1. The use of the same device for successive clues disturbed me too, I don’t really understand why scattered about is better but it is
      It took a while before I dropped the catch in 3a and accepted it as the containment indicator for the longing to go into the place to go too

      1. Ah, that’s better for 3a. I just had the first letter as the place to go, which is why I wasn’t going there! The second letter of the place to go was therefore my first letter of the ‘boat, simply made’, which would not necessarily be simply made. All makes good sense now!
        Thanks for setting me straight, SJB.

  5. Some that I liked, some that I didn’t – the story of my life where this setter’s compilations are concerned!
    Ticks went to 22,24&25a plus 2,6&17d.

    Thanks to Zandio and also to SJB for the hints.

  6. Hello, compiler here. Thank you very much for taking the time to solve, analyse and discuss.
    Interesting musical selection, SJB, which I’ll enjoy later. I actually interviewed Abba and watched them recording at Polar Studios in 1978. Sounds great, doesn’t it? The headline was ‘Sheer Hell in Stockholm’ — well, it was the NME.
    Thanks again. All the best.

    1. Thanks for an entertaining puzzle that I enjoyed
      That Abba track is probably one of their lesser known tracks but certainly a favourite here
      I had lots of other music hints lined up it is almost as if the puzzle was compiled by a music journalist 😋

      1. I must admit I don’t remember ‘Eagle’, but I see it was the opening track of ‘Abba — The Album’. So it was released before I met them. I have a copy of that article that I found on the internet a few years ago, and I just had a quick read. It still made me laugh, largely because of the way the NME subeditors poked fun at the writer. But by coincidence in my diatribe I compared the song they were working on to … The Eagles.

  7. I raised an eyebrow at 13a. I see how it works, but the first 5 characters of the clue don’t quite equate to the first letter of the answer.
    It was a good puzzle anyway. 3a and 10a were very clever
    Thanks sjb and zandio

      1. I’d have been happy with “a k” or “1m” or “a gr**d”.
        Just k doesn’t equal £1000. I get it that k = 1000. It’s the £ bit I’m dubious about.
        Been a hard week!

  8. Thoroughly enjoyed this one & for me it gets the nod over Friday’s back-pager. A swift(ish) grid fill but a couple of parsing blips took the shine off somewhat. Had the last 5 letters as the boat simply made, ignored the place to go & couldn’t figure out what to do with the W – what a muppet. The clever 14a wordplay eluded me too. Ticks aplenty in addition to those two – 11,21,23,24&25a plus 2,12,16&17d & liked a number of others also.
    Thanks to Zandio & to John – good music selection. Wasn’t familiar with either the Abba or Ringo track & enjoyed both. Loved the pianist & you can’t beat the organ. KT Tunstall does a good cover of the U2 song

    1. I certainly had struggles with the Lego™ of 3a (hence the Pet Shop Boys) seeing the place to go was right at the back of the last bus

  9. Thoroughly enjoyable except for a nagging doubt with 8 down.
    Does the early become the late or the other way around? (Sorry if that’s extremely vague, keen to avoid the naughty step)!
    Many thanks to Z and SJB

    1. I think the last word in the clue has to be the definition, and therefore the little singer takes the t to replace his h
      It doesn’t quite read the same if the little singer is the definition and the jab loses a t for an h
      You may be right of course but we will both have to wait for the DT to tell us in 10 days time. The old puzzles site would have confirmed if a grid fill was correct
      If Zandio is still reading maybe he could explain

      1. Hi SJB. As far as I can see, in order for ‘little singer’ to be the answer, we would have to read ‘with T avoiding H jab’ as a way of losing T (which seems a stretch) and replacing it with H (a rather longer stretch), and all this in a word we haven’t yet encountered (‘jab’). Jeremy Mutch is a master of the replace-letter clue. I often set out to do one but then revert to something more straightforward. So here it’s just ‘X plus T, avoiding H = Y’. All the best.

  10. This was fun! Thank you to Sloop and early commenters for suggesting it was at the less-tough end of the range. I found Friday’s backpager quite tough, but having managed (and enjoyed!) that, I thought I’d give this a go, and it felt quite similar in difficulty.

    So many fantastic clues making a puzzle full of highlights, of which my favourite was 14a for its novelty and ingenuity. Thank you, Zandio.

    I think I’ve got 8d the right way round, but I’m going to leave it a little before pressing ‘Submit’ to give myself a little longer to ponder. Thank you to SJB for explaining 22d (where I was nowhere with the wordplay) and 19d (where it turns out I’d never bothered to look up what sierra meant, beyond its usual use in cryptic crosswords). There’s a couple of words I haven’t clocked what they’re doing in 15d, so I’ll try to remember to check back in a week and a half.

    For what it’s worth, I parsed 5d slightly differently: I thought the “say” is because Prague is just an example of where someone might be from, with the “with” linking the two components together so the single homophone covers them both.

    1. After my reply to Rusty I have doubts which way round to go I will try and check the right answer before the review
      For 5d I think we need two homophone indicators or we would have a Z in the answer

      1. Your thinking on 8d is what I’d had. One of those terrible leach websites that just give the answers with no explanation has it t’other way round, but I’m just going to presume they’ve got it wrong.

        For 5d, “broadcast” is sufficient to get rid of the Z, surely? ‘Broadcast of ([what being from Prague is an example of] with [Hungarian composer])’. If “say” is a second homophone indicator, it seems a bit clunky to be before the “with”.

        1. 5d I am seeing it your way now say is an example indicator for someone from Prague, add the Hungarian and broadcast the lot
          I’ve stopped consulting the leaches as they made the same mistake on an earlier Zandio

          1. Hi SJB, thanks for pondering this. I know some lists give ‘say’ as a homophone indicator, and I can see how ‘say X’ could be a homophone, but I don’t think ‘X, say’ could be a homophone, although I have seen it offered. The idea here was that the homophone indicator covers both subsidiary answers.

            1. Thanks I see it that way now “say” is an example indicator for the Prague national
              I will amend the hint and my notes for the review

  11. Yeay! I have finished it. I know I am a day later than all you brain boxes but still enormous satisfaction from having wrestled the answers out. Many thanks to Wily Zandio and to SJB for his hints – which did help me in 5d and although I do t fully understand 13a it sounds like one of those corporate speak words. Another pen….

    1. Well done, Daisygirl! I only finished it today as well.

      Is a (mythical) pen the Sunday Toughie prize? I had a look around the Telegraph Puzzles site but couldn’t see where it said. There’s an FAQ with a section which lists the puzzles for which one could potentially win “a prize”, says who can enter and how, but is being very coy about what the actual prize is.

  12. Would not normally comment so late on a puzzle, but seeing as you’re still awake and reading posts, SJB …

    Having done this Sunday Toughie earlier in the day I sat down to the Times Saturday cryptic last evening, which had the clue “Enter password, say, allowing taxi to enter wooden building” (3,5) … and thought gosh, that sounds familiar.

    I thought both were very good clues and did enjoy the coincidence of taxis appearing for these wooden buildings on successive days, much like buses!

Comments are closed.