Sunday Toughie No 150
by Beam
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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Well that was a surprise! Beam has shone over my Saturday night/Sunday morning. Once I got over the surprise it went smoothly. All the usual 20d’s are there (Average 5.3 words per clue, sweetheart and a queen) I am sure there are other Beam trademarks but my experience of Beam is somewhat limited as his toughies usually fall on my busy work days
14a and 16d clues and I have hinted just under half – a bonus nudge may be available if you are still stuck
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 Sad record playing, accordingly slow (12)
A record on a turntable perhaps, a synonym of playing and a phrase for being accordingly slow
9a China got richer, occasionally in open (9)
Occasional letters of two words after the definition ”in”serted into a synonym of open
11a Old bag of bones (6)
An adjective of or relating to bones, from an abbreviation of old and an informal bagging or theft
18a Still name insect after beetle family (8)
The abbreviation of name and an insect go after a family of about 1200 species of beetles named for their large and distinctive mandibles
19a Gutted Conservative negates useless count (6)
Gut the following three words to see the count that Joseph and Mary travelled to Bethlehem for. Is this a Christmassy clue?
27a Stern is stable circling round island (9)
Is stable or of sound mind circles a round or go and the abbreviation of island, for an adjective for grave, gloomy, phlegmatic (or poisoned by lead!)
28a Brilliant ancestry of ancient people? (12)
An ancient people of South America and a noun for our derivation from ancestors
Down
1d Look cursorily, look over degree certificate (7)
To look cursorily in a book perhaps and an archaic interjection to behold goes before the letters you are entitled to use if you have a higher arts degree
3d Speech holding up record for campaign (9)
A formal speech contains a reversal (holding up) a record larger than a single but smaller than an album
6d Temperature suitable, say, for stock (5)
A homophone (say) of a suitable synonym follows T for temperature
7d Unpredictable changes of silver in metamorphoses (8)
The chemical symbol for silver in a synonym of metamorphoses
8d Infinite divinity restrains Church hypocrisy (6)
I had a bit of a pause here to understand why the divine being was shortened. If you split the first word in-finite it can mean that which is not finite or full allowing us to drop the last letter of the divine being and restrain the abbreviation of the Church of England within
14d Notorious criminal executed in abandoned fort (8)
An informal criminal and a synonym of executed (a computer program perhaps) inserted it to what remains of fort when abandoned
16d Sign is outside the man’s storehouse (9)
An astrological sign around a contraction of the man’s gives us a storehouse of knowledge especially of words and their synonyms and antonyms
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I took 6d as involving a synonym not a homophone?
Following which 23a took my top spot just ahead of 16d.
Thanks Beam and SJB.
I think it is a (part) homophone
I saw the homophone indicator (say) and didn’t dwell on it much longer
Thanks for the review SJB. On reading Wahoo’s comment I wondered whether I had the right answer, so I checked Danword and my answer is not the same as the one it gives. But the Danword answer would be the T with just a synonym rather than using a homonym like Wahoo suggests. My answer is as you say the T with a homonym of a synonym for suitable.
I have just checked danword, and I think they are wrong.
I think we can agree that T for temperature is the first letter and stock is the definition leaving “suitable say for” as the wordplay to get the last four letters.
Temperature’s suitable for humble food (5) would be a clue that would solve as the answer danword suggests.
Temperature suitable, say, for stock (5) however has “, say,” and I am much happier to take that as a homophone/nym “right?” 😉
The old puzzles website would have confirmed if the grid was filled correctly, but I guess we will have to wait until a week on Wednesday to find out for sure but I think I am “rite” on this one
Thanks SJB. 🙂
What a treat to see Mr T wearing his Beam hat on a Sunday. He did give me pause for thought with the stable stern and the divinity that almost wasn’t, but perhaps I was too busy laughing at the full tummy which took my star prize.
Devotions as usual to Mr T/Beam and thanks to SJB for the hints.
The stern bit held me up too, I was convinced an anagram was involved, 23a unfortunately hit the cutting room floor and comments about Rabbie Burns, a wee dram and neeps and tatties along with it
It was a real surprise to see Beam’s name on the Toughie today. I wonder whether that signals the arrival of a new team of Sunday Toughie setters or whether one of the old trio will be back next week.
Thanks to Beam for the puzzle and SJB for the hints.
Ticks from me awarded to 11a, 12a and 6d with the gold medal going to 23a.
I hope we are not having a sea change of Sunday Toughie setters. I have gotten used to them all. Maybe Robyn is getting a few Sundays off to make room for his Monday offerings
A bit slow to twig a couple of the synonyms but unlike the Dada puzzle I’m confident it’s a correct submission. Enjoyable, as ever with a Beamer, and after the plethora of anagrams in t’other one none here balances the books. 27a was my last in after pegging the wordplay but can’t say it would be the first definition synonym to spring to mind. Another vote for 23a as pick of the clues.
Thanks to Ray & John – great music clips & quite a statement re Roy B & the Telecaster. Danny Gatton would certainly be the pick of many
I had to use the 16d to find the 27a stern, not finding it on my first pass with the definition I did find it when I checked the answer I had for the definition. That was when I found out more about lead poisoning than I need to know
Thanks for the clip – yet more tunes to add to my commuting playlist
I submitted my comment directly after Wahoo, but then we had a woke power cut so it never went! Turned out someone had reported an insignificant twig on some low insulated cables, so the disconnected 260+ homes. 260+ homes then had odd Sunday lunches. After a couple of hours the message said sorry but no panic, power back on. I have to say that UK power networks were over and above what you might expect re communication by text. So full marks to them.
Re my abandoned blog, I would just say thanks to all, and 18d loi, favourite 9a with 23 and 27a close runners up
Power grid are pretty good, I have Mama Bee registered as a vulnerable customer and they do communicate things very well, especially as they are upgrading the Nation Grid in our area at the moment. I hope your Sunday lunch wasn’t too badly affected
Leaving a solar powered emergency light, I went to the pub for a customary couple of pints, where the texts from ukpn started arriving. My war department is also registered as vulnerable, and I was home PDQ expecting to cook on the open fire. Nothing like a wok. Luckily the power was back on, and I was late! Can’t win….!
Is there a way to post without having to fill in all the id fields every time? I check the boxes but it seems I have to do it every time. Here we go again.., stand by
Some people (daisy I think amongst others) have said the problem appears to have gone – maybe clearing cookies and cache will give you a clean start
I’ll try it. Don’t hold your breath!
Interesting puzzle. Enjoyed 23 Across.
Can someone pls explain to a novice why 25d couldnt be clued “ Endless work for boss “?
Thanks SJB: thanks Beam.
I am no expert on the grammar of crossword clues and your version would work for me, I think the way Beam has worded it (with just two more letters) makes it clearer that it is the synonym of work that loses its end. At an average if just 5.3 words per clue I am sure Beam wouldn’t waste one unnecessarily
If I was as succinct as Beam I would have said “is improves the surface”
I think it could be. Same result either way
Monday Night Toughie again, but this one kept me awake for quite a while. I eventually went to sleep with one unsolved at 8d, which came to me in a waking moment at 4am! The trick was to think about the construction and not the definition synonym, which I would never have considered. I did like the construction, and for me the role of ‘Infinite’ was to imply ‘Never ending’… Despite the unusual synonym, I chose 8d as a favourite, alongside 5d and 18d. On the across side, ticks went to 1a, 23a and 28a. There were some more unusual synonyms which caused me to think twice – ‘stock’, ‘metamorphoses’, ‘Notorious’ and ‘storehouse’, but that’s often the way with crosswords and their wily setters!!
My thanks to Beam, and to SJB.
It took me a moment to to make the leap from infinite to in-finite as well
A Sunday Toughie newbie here, I’m used to tussling with the Times Cryptic, so the way some of the clues were constructed was unfamiliar. Having completed it, I see that some clues were deceptively simple.
Welcome to the Sunday Toughie,
When the Sunday Toughie started almost 3 years ago I think most of us here felt the same way but eventually you get used to their ways. I found this puzzle a bit of a gear change as Beam is new in this slot. Stick with us and you will soon be trotting them off at will