Sunday Toughie No 195
by Zandio (With a little help from CL)
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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Here We Go…
Day: 19 October 2025
EV 1717 (Hints)
Enigmatic Variations 1717 (Hints)
In Absentia by Gaston
Hints and tips by Gabriel
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Gaston often seems to have French themes, so you perhaps would have expected Wicksparrow’s recent offering to have been a Gaston oeuvre – though who knows?… Continue reading
ST 3339 (Hints)
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3339 (Hints)
Hints and tips by Senf
A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg where it is cooling down and the red scarf has been very much in evidence. It is getting close to the time when the black coat will have to come out of the closet!
For me, and I stress for me,© much better than last Sunday but not much value for money with only 27 clues. Three longish ones, 7 anagrams (4 partials), 1 lurker reversed, and no homophones; with 14 hints ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid, you should/might be able to get the checkers to enable the solving of the unhinted clues.
If it is some time since you read, or if you have never read the instructions in RED below the hints then please consider doing so before commenting today as my electronic blue pencil is at the ready and the Naughty Step is OPEN!
Hello, compiler here. Thanks very much for taking the time to solve, analyse and discuss.
I hope you might take a look at this weekend’s Sunday Toughie. I was in Yorkshire last month visiting Chris Lancaster, the Telegraph Puzzles Editor, and I had a newly-filled grid which I asked him to print out for me so I could write clues on the train journey home. Chris kindly did, and then immediately started suggesting ideas for clues. The upshot is, there are several clues in the Sunday Toughie that originated with Mr Lancaster. I’m pretty sure one of them will be the favourite clue of the day — an absolute corker (which I can say because it wasn’t my idea). Hope you enjoy it.
Thanks again for the feedback today. Have a great weekend.
14a, 1d, 2d and 19d were fighting it out for my podium, but I am not going to try and guess which clues Zandio is referring to; I enjoyed them all. I would like to have hinted many more, but the convention on prize puzzles limits me to about half hints. Even the Spoonerism missed the cut today (btw it is Russian)
We have 14a and 16d clues today, and I have hinted at half. Several lurkers that may trap the unwary and anagrams, including an &lit anagram, missed the cut, too.