Sunday Toughie No 143
by Robyn
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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A very friendly Toughie today, I started at **** and had it finished before midnight, Oops better redact myself as we don’t approve of solving times as it may deter new solvers who may be dipping a toe in Toughiedom for the first time.
14a and 14d clues today and I have restricted hints to 13 to enable me to offer a bonus hint to the first to ask
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 Harsh dismissal of personnel after strong drinks when tense (5,6)
A bit of Lego™ to start. An abbreviation of the personnel dept goes after another word for strong drinks, followed by a conditional for when and an abbreviation of tense
11a Banking million in business, notice where waste goes (9)
Abbreviations of business and millions go before a notice or promotional leaflet
16a Workers using iron, carbon and different elements (8)
It could be a simple anagram but I am going to call it an &lit as the alloy produced by these workers is made from Iron, Carbon and other elements such as Chromium and Vanadium
(From Sheffield – 16a city)
18a Drivers installing energy-saving fan in plant (4,4)
A fan contains an abbreviation of energy and is installed in a drivers “club”
20a Son writing entertaining article with terms from Robert Burns (6)
An archaic usage of terms would be limits or boundaries, The indefinite article and the boundaries of Robert go into some abbreviated writing. They follow the abbreviation of son. Burns like the blisters on my ankles caused by walking through a patch of poison ivy or similar the other day
24a Modelled best clothing line, showing heavenly body? (9)
Modelled for an artist and the very best that contains the letter that looks like a line
28a Sweet food, out to lunch? Student tucked into mine (6,5)
A mine contains the letter that student drivers must display, it follows an informal word for mad or “out to lunch”
Down
2d Novelist, upset after opening letter, is a monster (5)
Take a novelist and reverse all but the opening letter and a many-headed monster is revealed
5d Seaside town‘s scandal involving horny males? (8)
A suffix attached to scandals since Richard “Tricky Dicky” Nixon’s days follows some horned male ovines
9d Fearsome person is inclined to bag contents of best stall (4,4,5)
A fearsome person likened to a fire-breathing monster and is inclined or leans, contains the contents of best
15d I commend you who supply merchandise at first (4,4)
I had a couple of choices to fit into this one but I am fairly sure that supply is an anagram indicator here. A “supple” rendition of who follows the merchandise
I commend this “programme” especially when it hints 17d too
19d Permit hugging right behind church organs (7)
A permit to travel contains r for right and an abbreviation of church
25d Doubly nice, hosting ancient tribe (5)
A clever sort of lurker that is not immediately apparent, the ancient tribe is not seen until you double nice. Nice clue Robyn!
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Very autumnal here and the clocks change next Sunday!
That’s All Folks…
Just the right level for me. Thought 20a very clever, but other clues stood out, 16a, 28a, but 9d my favourite.
Thanks to Robyn and of course SJB
I agree with the cleverness of 20 a but I am still wincing at the blisters mentioned in the hint
Gentle as SJB says but a first-class puzzle. Thanks to Robyn and SJB.
I have loads of ticks including 12a, 23a, 24a, 3d and 9d.
9d gets a lot of ticks from others too and probably my favourite (a)s well
Really enjoyed this one. Thanks Robyn.
Last to parse was 18A.
Faves were 9D, 25D and 21D (always enjoy the Spoonerisms).
18a took a while here and it was only when Aaron’s start dropped that I saw the drivers club
Really enjoyed the puzzle as per with all of this setter’s productions. Found it a fair bit harder (predictably) than John & Gazza evidently did & certainly a step up from the back-page prize. Liked the peripheral long uns but I’ll go for 23a & 25d as y top two.
Thanks to Robyn & John – great Pointless clip & lovely to hear Joe & Justin, all of which help me to get over the disappointment of not getting lyrical complexity of the Tra La La song at 28a & to tease us with the pic of ‘em too.
Telstar was yet to be launched on my birth in June 62 but I suppose I should have played The Tornados original from later that year, but any excuse for a bit of The Shadows cover and Hank Marvin’s guitar.
Our contemporaries probably wish to forget The Tra-la-la song and it gave a bit too much away
My comment was tongue in cheek as I’m sure you knew but having said that I will admit to looking at it on You Tube – loved the show as a kid
Very gentle, very charming. 5d’s horny males was a smart touch and I salute 2d. 3d and 9d were both sharp and 22d really tickled me. I do think 16a’s “carbon” was unnecessarily unkind, though. Many thanks to Robyn and Sloop. Lovely spot of JC there.
16a was almost unhinted as a simple anagram with the last word as the fodder but the all-in-one nature appealed to me
Very late popping in but I did find some goodies here and an anagram that completely passed me by! Top list from me is 1a plus 5,6,17&22d.
Thanks to Robyn and to SJB for the hints.
Too late for me, I slipped into the Land of Nod just before your comment.
22d is another of too many faves for Kath here too
And I am even later Jane, just completed it at breakfast. No yoga today as our Indian yoga teacher has gone on a Scottish dancing week!!! In her sari? Anyway, I got halfway through last night but needed SJB this morning for some confirmation. Many thanks to Robyn and SJB. 16a very smart.
A sari doesn’t sound very practical for Scottish Dancing unless she wants the hem trimmed by a bit of sword-dancing!
16a is very neat indeed
Tough but fairly clued.
I’ve been doing battle with this puzzle since Sunday, slowly chipping away at a clue here and there until 20A became my LOI today. I got the answer but couldn’t fully parse it so I’m glad you hinted that one. I wasn’t aware of that use of “terms”, I shall have to remember that.
I still can’t parse the last word in 9D though. The word I have doesn’t seem to mean “leans”. Maybe I have the wrong word.
By the way, SJB, after your recommendation last week I invested in the app version of the BRB and it’s worth every penny! Thanks to you and to Robyn.
If you scroll down your new BRB app to the 2nd definition of the word you need you should find this;
****
intransitive verb
To incline, slope
(of a ship) to lean on one side
Ah ha! I gave up scrolling when I got to the list of phrases. Thanks again.
Telstar was the first 45rpm I ever bought, but it was the Tornados version. I was also a big fan of the Shadows at the time and still enjoy listening to their music. Anyway, on to the puzzle…
A belated post for a puzzle I enjoyed solving earlier this week. I found myself ticking most of the down clues as I went and would be happy to nominate all of them as favourites, plus 24a from the other direction. I particularly liked the unusual device in 3d, and thoroughly enjoyed the Spoonerism.
Many thanks to Robyn for the fun, and to SJB for his hints and clips. Justin Hayward’s ‘Forever Autumn’ is another favourite. I went to see The War of the Worlds live at the O2 in 2012, with Liam Neeson voicing ‘The Journalist’ – it was an excellent production.
I was barely a month old when Telstar was launched and not yet six months when The Tornados did it, but any excuse for some Hank Marvin. I did wonder if the Spoonerism was an unindicted American word but apparently not