Sunday Toughie No 165
by Light
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
I had a feeling we might be seeing Light today as he debuted a Wednesday Toughie that went down well, This seems a very similar standard of difficulty to me but as I am not obliged to give stars to prize puzzles I will just hope you find it as pleasant as I did.
I am still in the dark as to who Light is and with some light speculation about Richard Osman apart I guess I will have to remain curious.
14a and 14d clues and I have hinted half, I will try and provide a bonus nudge if asked.
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 Error in play that’s an allegory for an alligator? (11)
Named for the character in a Sheridan play (The Rivals) she frequently misspeaks (to comic effect) by using words which do not have the meaning that she intends but which sound similar to words that do. the noun for misspeaking words like allegory for alligator is the answer we seek here
8a Backsliding hack is gone after hour’s shift (6,3)
To hack a branch from a tree reversed (backsliding), is from the clue and a synonym of gone after the abbreviation of hour
13a Eagle-eyed Robin runs away, not at home with Batman, say (9)
Robin loses a cricket scorers runs and a synonym of at home, what remains is added to an orderly assigned to serve a British military officer
22a Supporters of helpless maid, Cinders (7)
A maid without help and the cinders of a recently extinguished fire are supporters of an organisation by joining them
23a Cry over dream, somewhat cowardly (9)
A sudden loud cry, a cricket scorers over and a dream or desire give us a somewhat cowardly hue
24a Good to avoid singer at sea – this one? (5)
Good to avoid is an instruction to remove a letter from singer, and at sea is an anagram indicator. A sea nymph (part woman and part bird) supposed to lure sailors to destruction on the rocks where the nymphs lived “Odysseus ordered his crew to plug their ears so they would not hear the fatal song”
25a Shelf Wolf Hall? (11)
Who wrote Wolf Hall? Split 6,5 and you have the author and the work
Down
1d Very drunk son on island beginning to notice a grave mistake (6,3)
A slang term for very drunk, and abbreviations of son and island, and the beginning of notice
3d Sausage spatter every second from corn oil (9)
Spatter as a verb and every second letter from corn oil
5d One of us reported hotel drink (7)
Homophones (reported) of a hotel and an alcoholic “fruit” based drink that may be served there
9d Gold medallist could be me or Adam (5,6)
I am going to call this a triple definition
15d Jazz producer? (5,4)
Where the cross between Royal Gala and Braeburn “fruits” grow. The original cross was produced in 1985 on “plants” at Goddard Lane, Havelock North, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand.
17d Persist in talking about Lazarenko’s last dart (7)
To persist in talking annoyingly around the last letter of the dart player Cliff Lazarenko – Light must be a big fan of arrows to remember this chap. I know Richard Osman is a big darts fan – R Osman – Osram – Light ?
20d Soft membrane defensive lumpfish protects (5)
Protects is a lurker indicator and soft membrane is the definition – A membranous covering attached to the immature fruiting body of certain mushrooms
Compiler
Light
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An enjoyable middle difficulty Toughie
Thanks to the Mystery Setter and SJB
If the oracle that is CS doesn’t know I guess Light will remain in the dark for some time
Most enjoyable.
Completed without having to wait for SJB’s hints for once. Whether my answers are correct is another matter. 🤔
Favourites 13a and 25a.
Thanks to the setter and SJB.
13a certainly brought to mind one of my favourite bits of Only Fools and Horses, as you can see from the pic I used
Hadn’t previously heard of that particular term for ‘very drunk’ nor the slang record – why would anyone decide to lengthen an abbreviation in that manner?
A few dubious surface reads but a reasonable Sunday challenge. No particular favourite to mention.
Thanks to Light – whoever he may be, and thanks also to SJB for the hints.
😳The chap who considers you his nemesis did lampoon those who use words to name letters
Whoever Light is he or she has got the Toughie difficulty spot on and given us a very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to the setter and SJB.
I didn’t know the 1d ‘very drunk’ but with the checkers it could be nothing else and the BRB confirmed.
I liked 1a, 11a and 16a with my favourite being 25a.
I did like 16a too but that definition was tricky to spot until I noticed the ❓
The word for drunk is very much Geordie slang so right in my wheelhouse
Lovely. Pretty gentle but very smartly done. Ticks all over the shop, including 8a, 24a, 25a, 15d and 17d. Lovely definitions (2d, etc) too. Though if anyone I know were to spell 18a like this in real life I’d never speak to them again! Many thanks to Light and Sloop.
I have just remembered Twmbarlwm uses Ell for his middle initial on twitter, maybe he is Light (only kidding – he would have claimed it by now
I should have included this
Isn’t a light a square on a crossword grid?
Of course, Big Dave’s has been putting the words to lights for 16 years. Are you saying our setter is a square?
Didn’t Osman make light bulbs years ago?
I think that was Osram – and it would be Pointless of me to claim that I was being serious in suggesting Richard as the man behind Light
😂😂
Lovely puzzle, just about right for a Sunday Toughie and a bonus point for the memory of big Cliff on the oche.
25a and 15d made me smile too.
Thanks to Light and John.
Seems like everyone likes 25a, and while I admire the clue for 15d the fruit itself was better before all the hybrids eliminated the old varieties. A Pearmain be they Orange or Blenheim are rarely seen anymore replaced by bland tasteless Golden (un)delicious
You display an impressive knowledge of the Eden fruit, John. I’m a common or garden one-a-day Gala man myself.
Cox’s orange pippins are still available and they taste good enough to ignore the fact that the skin would be better employed sanding furniture
I remember the Beauty of Bath in the garden in my childhood, had to be eaten straight away – but nectar!
Haven’t yet finished 3/4 done and so far in love with 25a! Just popped in for some hints SJB – would never have guessed 18a. Interesting if Richard O was involved!
Richard O, was just a bit of a legpull on my part, as you will see further down the comments. He is just about to publish his latest Thursday Murder Club novel that will probably vie with the 25a for bestseller status
I preferred this to Light’s previous offering. I liked 15d, but 25a has my vote for cotd. 18a didn’t float my boat, a bit naff I thought.
6d astronomer turned up at my pre-prep school in the late 50s, when he lived near East Grinstead. He drew two circles on the blackboard, a smaller one over the larger… We all thought this must be moons or something. Then he added ears, whiskers and a tail! Much laughter. My brother stayed in touch with him for the rest of his life, often corresponded, and visited him at his home in Selsey, and was given all his sheet music just before he passed on.
A very special person to have known.
What a nice anecdote about 6d, whilst The Sky at Night is still good with Chris and Maggie, Sir P will always be the one for me, especially for the 1969 moon landings where my bedtime was forgotten about for such a historical event (I was seven!)
I watched that, on colour TV which I hadn’t seen much before, in Heidelberg at the American base, where my father had taken me to practice real spoken German. We rowed up the river Neckar, and visited Der große Fass in the Scloß Heidelberg among other touristy things. As clear as day, even though nearly 60 years ago. We also walked up the Drachenfels, I’d have preferred the funicular railway which was available, but walking reminded Dad of living near Darjeeling in the Himalayas apparently!!
Thanks to Light, and SJB of course I shall now transfer the completed dead tree grid to the pad thing, and submit it!
That sounds a faff, Jules. Easier to take a picture of it on your mobile and submit it via email.
Too old for that methinks!
According to perplexity.ai
“The real name of the Telegraph crossword setter Light is Geoff Lewis Oxley. Geoff sets crosswords for The Telegraph Toughie under the pseudonym Firefly, which is another “light” creator. His initials GLO (from Geoff Lewis Oxley) led to his school nickname “Glow-worm,” which inspired his choice of light-related pseudonyms for crossword setting.”
Lifted from this site (No.42):
https://www.crosswordunclued.com/2011/06/fascinating-facts-about-setters.html
Blimey
Well found out!
A fine piece of sleuthing indeed, worthy of Colin Dexter or Inspector Morse
I’m not convinced. The article listed by Uncle G doesn’t actually say that Light is Geoff Oxley and I’d be surprised if the Telegraph allowed a setter to use two different pseudonyms.
Also, I’ve reviewed lots of Firefly’s Toughies and Light’s style seems different.
I can’t remember doing a Firefly myself, but I too noticed that the ai piece didn’t directly say that Firefly and Light were the same.
I don’t suppose it matters really but we have had fun speculating and if Light wants to hide his light under a bushel so be it. It was, as Sue said, just right for the Sunday Toughie slot
Thanks Gazza, I should have picked up on that. My excuse is that I was watching the snooker final whilst posting the above!
I put your point to the ai. This was its reply:
“You are correct. The search results do not confirm that Geoff Lewis Oxley is the real name of the Telegraph crossword setter Light. The information provided earlier was inaccurate.
The search results mention Geoff Oxley (GLO) and his pseudonyms Glow-worm and Firefly for various publications, but they do not specifically mention the pseudonym “Light” for the Telegraph. While Geoff Oxley does use light-related pseudonyms, there is no direct confirmation that he is the setter known as “Light” for the Telegraph crossword.
I apologize for the error in the previous response. Based on the available information, we cannot definitively state who the real person behind the Telegraph crossword setter Light is.”
That’s impressive! I thought I’d see if ChatGPT would arrive at the same answer – it failed. But it did seem to know all about CS. It said…
In a review by crypticsue on Big Dave’s Crossword Blog, it was noted that Light’s puzzle was “just right for a Wednesday and most enjoyable too,” with one clue earning special commendation.
Unusually for me (possibly a first for me) I’ve finished a Toughie on the day of publication! This one was a joy to work through.
I hadn’t heard of the term for drunk in 1D, I hadn’t heard of that particular jazz in 15D, and I hadn’t come across the spelling of 18A. But as the clues were all so fairly constructed, I was able to arrive at the answers.
That only leaves 7A for which I’m confident of the answer, but the parsing of the first half of the clue is lost on me.
Thanks to Light and SJB.
Welcome,
I am sure that you have the right answer to 7a as well. The instrument that is like a xylophone has resonator tubes then you should check the usual suspects for which medic abbreviation needs to leave
With a bit of trial and error I got there, thanks. Another word I hadn’t heard of!
I shall no doubt be told that it is in various dictionaries but I personally do not consider the answer to 18a to be a proper English word.
It is in the BRB as informal slang or a phonetic representation, but like ALP above at comment#5 I wouldn’t use it myself
Coming to the party rather late, but wanted to record thanks to Light for another wonderful and amusing puzzle – and to SJB for blogging it, of course!
COTD 25a, further honours to 13a and 15d. Thought 24a had a great surface – interesting choice of music, SJB, and I was bewitched by this version a very, very long time ago – hope it doesn’t fall foul of the rools, but I don’t know how to blur the image as MrK does it!
That version was on my list for a while but I went with the Tim Buckley one on a coin flip. Another vote for 25a too
What an interesting post! Loved the anecdotes. Finished apart from 7a which even mr. Google cannot help me with. Anyway, glad to have got so far – many thanks to Light & Bee. Let there Bee Light.
See my comment to Jon at #10, once you remove the right medic from the xylophone like instrument the opera singers first name appears
(7d is an anagram of a Virginia Woolf novel)
Light proving to be a terrific addition to the Toughie setter roster. Enjoyed this one every bit as much as his midweek puzzle though found it a tad trickier in places. 13a the pick for me & nice to see 3 literary long ‘uns round the outside. Add me to those who’ve not come across 18a spelt like that before.
Thanks 5o Light & to John – went to see an interesting gig last night at The Stables in Wavendon: Reg Meuross Quartet doing Fire & Dust telling the life of Woody Guthrie, which I reckon might be up your street.
RMQ sounds interesting and yes Woodie Guthrie is a bit of a folk hero, I can catch Reg in Sheffield and will give it a go
I enjoyed this crossword on Sunday evening (except maybe 18a), but hadn’t found a few quiet minutes to post since then – where does time go when in retirement, and how did I ever fit a working day into my schedule?
Seeing the Beatles reference drew me to 18a as my first clue in, which then evoked a McEnroe-like reaction; but having seen ‘deejay’ so many times in crosswords I just pencilled it in and went with it. The ‘Very drunk’ and ‘Soft membrane’ were also novelties, but didn’t evoke the same reaction…
I also picked out 25a as a favourite, joined by 12 & 13 on the across podium and 2, 5 & 9 on the down podium.
My thanks to Light for a fun crossword, 18a notwithstanding, and to SJB for the entertaining hints and illustrations, especially the clever choice of ‘Gold medallist’ to accompany the 9d hint :-)
Good steady solve.