Sunday Toughie 181 (Review)

Sunday Toughie No 181 by Light

Review by Sloop John Bee

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This puzzle was published on the 13th July 2025 

Across

1a          Faith and Richard catching cheat at last, Mark a victim of this? (10,5)
CONFIDENCE TRICK: Of the three given names in this clue only Richard is really a person’s name, and then as an informal shortening RICK. He follows a synonym of faith or trust CONFIDENCE, and the last letter of cheat T. Mark is a derogatory term for someone gullible enough to fall victim to this CONFIDENCE TRICK.

9a          Vault tracks with European in pursuit (7)
ARCHERY: A vaulted roof ARCH, and the tracks that trains run on RY, around E for European. A pursuit that is the national sport of Bhutan: ARCHERY.

10a       E.g. entertaining at home, extremely thoughtful? Good (7)
SAINTLY: A synonym of e.g. SAY, contains (entertaining) a usual at home IN, and the extreme letters of thoughtful TL.

11a       Neglected patch in Spooner’s brown robe (5,4)
GHOST TOWN: Browning bread TOAST, in a robe GOWN, is given the Spooner treatment.

12a       Short clue faced by you once: “Beast from the East?” (4)
YETI: A clue as to the likely performance of a racehorse TIP, is shortened TI; it follows (faced by) an old form of you YE.

13a       Produce another cake without topping, a reason for moving mince pies to one side (6)
REMAKE: The movement of your “mince pies” that indicates you are dreaming R.E.M., followed by what remains of cAKE without its topping.

15a       Beetle on drape (8)
OVERHANG: Synonyms of on OVER, and drape HANG, together make one of beetle like a furrowed brow.

18a       Feature of Christmas from Long Island I will miss (4,4)
PINE TREE: The island is the most westerly of the Inner Hebrides TIREE. It misses its ‘i’ and follows a synonym of ‘long’ PINE.

19a       Sports presenter losing heart, becoming continuity announcer? (6)
LINKER: A sports presenter without his well-paid job at the BBC LINEKER, loses his central letter. I write this review before the result is published, but I hope you didn’t believe Danword and the like, who suggest TICKER as the answer.

22a       Guys in Costa finish off coffees (4)
RIBS: Not the Costa where coffee can be bought, but costa is a medical term related to the “cage” that protects your lungs and heart RIB, plus the last letter of coffees S. Guys, teases or RIBS. Danword and the like made another howler here, suggesting for some unknown reason, that ROBS is the answer.

23a       Very hip, playing Steely Dan’s latest cuts (9)
INTENSELY: Our usual hip IN, an anagram (playing) of STEELY that the latest letter of Dan  N, cuts into.

26a       Old routine news chief demanded and received (7)
EXACTED: Old or former EX, a routine or performance ACT, and an abbreviated news chief ED. EXACTED, demanded and received revenge perhaps.

27a       Eccentric character in Greece a sect converts (7)
NUTCASE: The thirteenth character of the Greek alphabet NU and an anagram (converts) of A SECT.

28a       Universal consensus is wrong about prisoner being out (15)
UNCONSCIOUSNESS: An anagram (wrong) of CONSENSUS IS, the film classification Universal U, and our usual prisoner CON.

 

Down

1d         Saddle king’s horse (7)
CHARGER: To saddle with a debt CHARGE, and a Latin King R for Rex.

2d         Chip and PIN ultimately a chore on leaving (5)
NACHO: The ultimate letter of PIN N, and what remains of A CHOre, after our usual on or about RE,has left.

3d         One lair, with fox cub climbing on it, is uninteresting (9)
IDENTIKIT: A Roman one I, a lair DEN, a reversal (climbing) of a fox cub KIT becomes TIK,  and IT from the clue. An informal term for formulaic and uninteresting, derived from the device for building a composite portrait.

4d         Rising astronomy teacher covers the beginning of a term (6)
ETYMON: The true origin of a word or term, is a reverse (rising) lurker (covers) hidden in the astroNOMY TEacher.

5d         Seducer caught when American banker turned up (8)
CASANOVA: A cricket scorers caught C, a synonym of when AS, a usual American A, and a reversal (turned up) of a river (banker)AVON becomes NOVA. Many rivers share this name, as it is derived from the Welsh generic term for river Afon, but  the River Avon in the South-West of England is probably the best known and translates as River River.

6d         Spare can husband fills (4)
THIN: Another type of can TIN, houses H for husband.

7d         Ignorant, eat and drink carelessly around hospital (2,3,4)
IN THE DARK: An anagram (carelessly) of EAT DRINK and H for hospital.

8d         Knocking out illicit gin okay? (7)
KAYOING: A slang term, that is an extension of the letters of an abbreviation to knock out K.O., is an anagram (illicit) of GIN OKAY.

14d       Two shakes new French chef bringing in time for summit (4,5)
MONT BLANC: Two shakes as a short period of time MO, N for new, T for time and a well-known French chef Raymond BLANC.

16d       Again lights sway – it’s the start of engineers’ drills (9)
REIGNITES: Sway or sphere of influence REIGN, and IT’S from the clue into which the start of engineer E, drills in.

17d       When struggling, I drop price, putting out advertising once in a while (8)
PERIODIC: An anagram (when struggling) of I DROP PRICE, but pull out the advertising press release PR, first.

18d       Perhaps three at St Andrews rendezvous snubbed upstart (7)
PARVENU: The shorter holes at St Andrews, where three is the norm or standard score PAR, and a place of rendezvous VENUe, that has been shortened (snubbed)

20d       Lyricists working with ABBA? (7)
RHYMERS: An &lit of those who write lyrics where homophones correspond in a scheme ABBA (that is, where the first and fourth lines, and the second and third lines sound alike)

21d       Commotion round drunk (6)
STINKO: A malodorous commotion STINK, and the round letter O. STINKO an informal synonym of drunk.

24d       Remove earwax, occasionally syringe emptied (5)
ERASE: Remove occasional letters of earwax E R A , and add what remains of syringe when emptied SE.

25d       College closed between terms for police investigation (4)
ETON: Split 1,2,1 Those letters enclosed between the terminal letters of police investigation. E-TO-N

 

Compiler

Light

 

That’s all Folks…