Sunday Toughie No 151
by proXimal
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
Problems printing last night have delayed this a bit but I liked the trademark proXimalisms and the Star Trek references.
We have 14a and 14d clues and I have hinted half and a few bonus pics. I hope you find the checkers to get over the line
Got to go and keep the shopaholic Mama Bee happy but I will be back by the time this is published.
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 From Spooner, hear Kirk’s mate flattened chicken (10)
A synonym of to hear and Captain James Tiberius Kirk’s Vulcan friend, are treated by The Reverend Spooner, by removing the spine and flattening a chicken
10a Gent upset with this meteorological event might be remonstrating (9)
The ™ compound anagram (this) A meteorological event and gent can be anagrammed to become remonstrating
12a Cyclist, one distributing cards, is shrewd trader (7-6)
A cyclist defined by the circular objects of his mode of transport and the chap who distributes cards in a card game do business trading cars
14a One hundred staff around plot farming area (8)
A staff or pole is reversed around a plot or scheme and follows a Roman hundred
19a Spies must accept service with right rules (8)
A group of American spies around a ceremonial service and r for right
20a Doctor squeezing down head of spot with stickiness hit the roof (4,4,5)
Captain James Tiberius Kirk’s favourite doctor contains a synonym of down or sad, the head of spot and some stickiness – he hits the roof here
26a
27a Speedy promoters working pitch regularly (10)
My first guess wasn’t speedy enough by a factor of about 5 times the speed of sound. This slowed down the bottom corner. Intensive or excessive promoters, a synonym of working and alternate letters of pitch
Down
2d One pointing to yellow climbing plant (9)
A reversal (climbing in a down clue) of to from the clue and heraldic yellow follow a pointer
3d Abandonments from vessel on ocean still at sea (13)
A slightly different compound/partial anagram™ (at sea) of a synonym of a vessel that goes before (on) an anagram of ocean still
8d Clean up some time with relative restraining one dog (10)
A reversal (up) of to clean, a main division of geological time and an older female relative that restrains the letter that looks like one. My own elderly female relative wouldn’t countenance such familiarity, insisting on the full Grandmother or at a push Grandma – She also wouldn’t countenance such a silly looking dog
11d Reportedly noted Pittsburgh team players grabbing attention (5-8)
Homophone/nyms (reportedly) of noted or observed and the nickname of the Pittsburgh American Football team
13d Dashing scout striking out on hike (10)
Scout without out goes on a hike. The dashing that fighter pilots did during the Battle of Britain
and the hiking that Mabel does here (Olive appears later but she is an elderly dog now and that is a big day out – Glas Tulaichean, Carn an Righ and Beinn iuatharn Mhòr.)
16d Anticipated revolutionary of note imprisoning king (9)
A reversal of of from the clue, a synonym of “of note” around (imprisoning) an abbreviated King
21d Dined on sandwiches made of grain (5)
On goes around (sandwiches) a synonym of dined. Made of a grain that according to Samuel Johnson is
“A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people”
23d 
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.
Hi SJB, just one question. How did you know that it was proXimal today?
I don’t have the paper, I’m just a subscriber to the puzzles website. It used to show the compiler’s name if you pressed the print option, alas no more!
ps. I am very pleased with myself that I have solved two of today’s “proXimalisms” … 1a & 10a.
The compiler’s name is shown beneath the puzzle on the screen but, for reasons inexplicable, you can’t scroll down to see it. What I have to do on my laptop is temporarily decrease the size of screen text (from 150 to 125 in my case) when it magically appears.
I suppose it is all part of the “improvements” to printing
I suggested to someone asking this question on Friday to look at the print options as you do. On My Android it is still at the bottom of the box when you select print but on the website via a pc or iPad I found it when i scrolled to the bottom of the clues.
So the appearance of Beam last week didn’t herald a total change in the Sunday Toughie rota. Thanks to proXimal for this one and to SJB for the hints.
My last parsing was for 26a where I took a long time (too long) to twig that Battleships wasn’t falsely-capitalised.
My ticks went to 12a, 13d and 16d.
We never used to play Battleships like that when I was at School. Our version involved “shooting” at each other by flicking a pencil stroke, pressing on the eraser until the pencil shot out towards the target
The picture for 12a may be a bit obscure for those that don’t get minor British TV programmes.
I hope even Robyn makes occasional appearances here as he has provided me with much fun over the last (almost) three years
Gloriously gentle from proXimal today. But all his usual tricks: a toothsome Spooner to start and a cracking compound anagram. 20a tickled me and 13d reads beautifully. Etc. Many thanks to proXimal and Sloop.
Your new avatar looks almost Terry Gilliamesque?
Ha, indeed! I love him too.
A spelling mistake in your email (yahoi) sent you to moderation and caused your new avatar to disappear
Fat fingers yet again. Oops, sorry about that. I meant to add it’s a great old painting by Karl Korab that was featured on an early cover of The Magus. So, a mash-mash of favourite things.
Filled the grid and groaned my way through the proXimalisms but I could do with a nudge for the parsing of 26a if you would be so kind, SJB.
Spell out the seventh row and first column of the Battleships Grid pictured for the synonym of missing
Ho hum – I was desperately trying to think of names of various battleships – thank you!
Thought I was onto a winner when 1a fell so easily but our setter had several tricks left up his sleeve and I needed a nudge from our reviewer to accept my answer for 26a – easy when you know how! I also needed to get Mr G to confirm the name of the Pittsburg team but that finished up as being one of my favourite clues along with the vessel abandonments.
Thanks to proXimal for the challenge and to SJB for the hints.
You are excused not knowing about Battleships – a very schoolboyish pastime I am sure.
I do find it hard to curtail hints to half or less as the Sunday Toughie has quite a high proportion of tricky constructions that probably need a hint
To be fair, I do remember it from schooldays but we used to call it Battleships & Cruisers which might have pointed me in the right direction – no guarantees though!
Annoyingly beaten by the why at 26a & may not have twigged it this side of Christmas but for our reviewer’s reply to Jane. Can’t recall ever having played the game though do remember Nessa destroying Stacey’s 🚢s in the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special. Found the rest of it surprisingly gentle for a proXimal production & reckon his Friday back-pager the more difficult of the two puzzles. Lovely Spoonerism to start & another one for Trekkies later on too at 20a, which was probably my pick of a strong set of clues. Podium spots for 11&16d.
Thanks to proXimal & to John – thought I’d seen all of AC’s wonderful posts with the dogs but must have missed that one.
Forgot to say John – Robyn has a good prize puzzle in the Graun yesterday
I’ll check it out I love Robyn’s puzzles
Not surprised you hadn’t seen the AC before. It only came out yesterday, and I found a pretty flimsy excuse to put it in the blog. Those Munroes are more than a gentle hike
You ain’t kidding – Olive got off lightly
I finally completed my first Toughie, albeit with a fair amount of electronic help. I managed just over half the clues on my own, which is a lot better than my usual one or two if I’m lucky. Have been getting a lot better at the regular DT cryptic too, managing to complete those unaided about 80% of the time. I would celebrate with a G&T, but it’s only 1pm here in the USA. Maybe later…
Thanks to the setter and hinter!
Congrats on your first toughie – remember it is always 5 O’clock somewhere😉🥂
So was Beam’s puzzle a one-off? We shall have to wait and see…
proXimal came back on duty with his usual flair and trademark clueing. Favourites this week were 20a (a bit weird, but it amused me!), 7d and 21d. The ‘cooking liquid’ was new to me, and I only recalled the ‘dog’ when I had unravelled most of the wordplay – ‘son’ as the relative just didn’t sound right, but it sounded near enough to excite the required brain cell.
Many thanks to proXimal, and to SJB. To Gaspode at #6 – don’t hold back on such a celebration, the sun is usually over the yardarm by about 11am…!