Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Sunday Toughie No 171
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Beam here with quite a friendly Sunday Toughie, all his trademarks are present and I dont think this will trouble solvers too much. I will endeavour to provide a nudge or two if your experience differs
We have 14a and 14d clues and I have hinted half.
Here we go, Folks…
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I gave Gemini (if nothing, I’m loyal – for now) the preamble. And they proposed a promising tactic and one completely wrongheaded observation: “Two Unclued Entries: These are the key! They spell out PRESS RELEASE”. They don’t. The promising tactic: “Tackle the Wordplay-Only Clues: These might be easier to solve initially as they don’t have the extra layer of surplus letters.” Slightly helpful albeit a bit obvious.
A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg where it is truly shorts and tee shirts weather with 22 degrees yesterday, and forecast highs of 28 degrees for today, and 29 degrees tomorrow.
For me, and I stress for me, in his own way, Dada friendlier than NYDK was yesterday! One long ‘un, breaking the ‘anagram rule’ as usual with ten (five partials), I might have lost count, two lurkers, and one homophone all in a somewhat asymmetric 29 clues; with 15 hints ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid, you should be able to get the checkers to enable the solving of the unhinted clues. And, remember, my electronic blue pencil is at the ready and the Naughty Step is OPEN!
Candidates for favourite – 16a, 19a, 1d, 3d, 8d, 17d, and 26d.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, a number of the more difficult clues have been selected and hints provided for them.