Sunday Toughie No 167
by Beam
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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I have come down with some sort of lurgy over the weekend and am not feeling my best. There seem to be quite a few chestnuts today but maybe I am just a grumpy bugger today
A generous 16a and 16d clues today and I have hinted half.
I will try and pop in if my mewling and puking allow
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 Solitude of large singles circling bars (10)
An Abbreviation of large, crickety singles as scored individually around a synonym of bars
11a China, undecorated, round gold centre’s exterior (9)
A synonym of undecorated around a heraldic gold and the exterior letters of centre
12a Mineral location contains brown iron finally (8)
A mineral (that is an ore of tin I think) from a location around a shade of brown and the last letter of iron
19a They commanded amounts of money, say (7)
A homophone (say) of amounts of money follow to have commanded. The whole is that which is commanded for the release of a hostage
21a Chasten Gardai holding back police search (7)
A reverse lurker (holding back)
24a Return of blasted slugs! (8)
The return of slugs blasted from a gun when they hit something at an inopportune angle
27a One can time railway route (9)
A Roman one, our usual alternative to can, a rather long time period and a railway abbreviation
30a Hamlet possibly finding closure (10)
A double definition
Down
2d Nearly personal about togs, occasionally negligee (9)
A synonym of nearly and personally possessing around occasional letters of togs
4d Rushing shot, clip top of goal (7)
I was going with just a top off a synonym of paper clippings, but I have changed my mind and gone with a shot of whisky, a means of clipping stuff together and the topmost letter of goal, before I rush down to the shops
5d The French offend America turning funny (7)
One of the French definite articles, to offend or sin and the two letter American are all reversed
8d Devote energy cracking criminal’s case (10)
Plural criminals an energy abbreviation and a large case or carton
9d Supporting bone in cropped top undergarment (8)
When you have the right top (the point of intersection of lines or the point opposite the base of a figure) you crop the last letter and add it to an undergarment
14d Pulling back trigger, unloaded, stopping recoil (10)
A synonym of recoil contains (stopping) what remains of trigger when its contents have been unloaded
20d Top expert beneath waves (7)
A synonym of expert beneath waves used for sport
21d Crack and denounce exercise (7)
A synonym of denounce and some physical training
Compiler
Beam
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Completed before midday for once. Started off a a good pace but was quickly slowed down by some of the chewier clues. Fell into a few traps along the way including 18d, my last one in.
Many clever clues including my favourite today, 15a.
Thanks to the setter and get well soon, SJB.
A few chestnuts, for sure (15a, 17a, 24a, etc), but I enjoyed them all. And he hasn’t used 24a since 2012, so it has been a fair while! Still good. Many thanks to Beam and Sloop. Get well soon..
Sorry to hear you’re under the weather, John, there seems to be a lot of it about.
Some fine surfaces in today’s toughie with SW holding out the longest.
I particularly liked the humorous 24a, the composite 27a and the lurker in 18a.
Thanks to Beam and to SJB for battling on. Hope you feel better soon, mate.
Over too quickly really, but very enjoyable nonetheless. The East-end misdirection in 18d got me for a bit. 15a my favourite. Sounds like a tipple may be wise SJB, purely medicinal of course. Get well soon. And thanks to Beam
Super puzzle over the cheese and biscuits, archetypal Beam. Honours to the wonderful 19a, 24a and 21d.
Many thanks to RT and SJB – hope you feel better soon.
Always a pleasure to tackle a Mr T/Beam puzzle, such a shame that our reviewer is under the weather and doubtless unable to fully appreciate it.
From the plethora of ticked clues, I selected 19&27a plus 8d for the medals.
Devotions to Mr T/Beam and thanks to SJB for the hints – get well soon.
Like DaveP I also started off at a good pace but the last few played hard to get. Deciding what ‘top’ had been ‘cropped’ took me much longer than it should have done (although the definition was plain). I was fixated on finding something perhaps beginning with ‘O’ and then cropping both ends. 19a was my last one in, and when I did come up with the answer I still could not see how ‘They’ contributed to the clue – other than to mislead me! However, those were a couple of minor setbacks in a very entertaining crossword, with ticks for 15a, 27a, 28a, 8d, 16d and 21d; but my favourite (having not seen the 2012 version!) was 24a.
Many thanks to Beam and to SJB. The clip of “Pipeline” sent me wandering down memory lane and I had to listen to versions by both The Ventures and The Chantays before deciding it was the latter, original version enjoyed by my much younger self.
Sorry folks, I picked up something on Thursday,fought it Friday and Saturday but it caught up with me last night. I took myself back to bed and the old Starve a Fever thing seems to be working. It definitely marred my appreciation of the puzzle and I should be fighting fit again soon
Reasonably gentle & good fun to solve. Both 12&22a solved from the wordplay – completely unfamiliar with the former & had forgotten what the latter was. Otherwise pretty straightforward. Nice to see Tom Courtenay pictured at 1a – a fine performance in Tony Richardson’s 🎥. Sillitoe adapted the screenplay from his own short story as he also did for Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Remember going through a phase of devouring all those Angry Young Men novels & watching the films. Ticks for 11,19,24&27a plus 8,14,18&21d.
Thanks to RayT/Beam & to John – hope that you’re on the mend soon. I’m laid up too, high as kite on Naproxen & Tramadol, with a poorly back which is especially frustrating as the weather is perfect for ⛳️.
What a treat, another Beam toughie! Lots of great clues but as we wed at Gretna Green, 15a is my pick of the day (hope that’s not too close to the naughty step!?).
Thanks to Ray T for another excellent puzzle and SJB for the blog. Hope you and Huntsman are up and about soon.