Sunday Toughie No 201
by Light
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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A Light(ish) Toughie from Light, that took longer to blog than solve. A slightly uneven 14a and 16d clues today, and I have hinted at half. I hope you find the checkers to solve this fine puzzle. I will try and give a nudge or two if I can, but I am off to see Mumford & Sons tonight, so responses may be a bit late.
The featured image of the Matt Cartoon wouldn’t post where it belonged (as a hint to 1a) so I have left it there.
Mama Bee is nagging to go out for coffee so I will schedule this and talk to you later…
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!
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 It’s impossible to say why bank queue isn’t moving? (6,2,7)
The bank queue wouldn’t be able to move if the people behind the counter weren’t working.
9a Fool signor, amusing hosts (9)
A lurker (hosts)
12a Latitude Festival’s ending with electronic energy and style (6)
The last letter of festival, abbreviations of electronic and energy and a synonym of style.
19a Passage out of old Squeeze hit husband’s missing (4)
A synonym of one’s former “old squeeze” and what is left of hit after the husband has gone missing.
23a Actress Thurman eating a great deal of cheese somewhere in Italy (6)
The forename of the actress contains most of a French cheese. (One for Stone Waller or those a little NW of Gargano.)
24a Endlessly austere after brief taste of Buddhist scriptures? (7)
A sharp taste is shortened by losing one end, it goes after a synonym of austere that has lost both ends. Of is an important part of the definition as you want the adjective.
29a Medicine from jar next to blunt needle (5,5,5)
A synonym of blunt and the pointed nature of a needle, next to a surprising jar. The “medicine” prescribed by Margaret Thatcher for the discipline-focused regime in detention centres.
Down
1d Craft parts and story of Where the Buffalo Roam, reportedly (10)
Homophone time (reportedly). A story and Where the Buffalo Roam. This craft flies.
4d Name of bird probing log (8)
The shortened form of of and a bird that can be taught to mimic human speech are probing into a log or written record.
Can you do the splits?
5d Contest at Le Golf National: you succeeded and upset Els (6)
How a national who calls Golf “Le Golf” may say you (informally), the genealogical abbreviation of succeeded and a reversal (upset) of Ernie Els
13d A dodgy tip with score at 16:9? (6,5)
An anagram of A from the clue and TIP with SCORE AT. 16:9 – a widescreen format where the width is 16 units for every 9 units of height.
17d Idiot greeting drug king, one who supplies gear (8)
An idiot, an informal greeting, the abbreviation of the drug Ecstasy and a Latin King.
22d Graduate stops spending money in North African citadel area (6)
An arts graduate in some “real” money.
Obvious link, so Spoilered.
25d It’s among soaring waders I birdwatch (4)
A lurker (it’s among) that is reversed (soaring in a down clue)
27d Language from mid-on when boundary struck (3)
Strike off the boundary letters and you should be left with an international auxiliary language created in 1907 as a reform of Esperanto.
Compiler
Light
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I agree with SJB’s ‘Light(ish)’ rating; but I’m content with that as we have some sunny weather today and I need to be outside enjoying it. I did have to research who Mr. Lamar was, and had to confirm the spelling of the 4d bird – a variant of a variant? Parsing 5d was a 5d until I realised I had read the ‘l’ in Els as a capital ‘i’ and not a lower case ‘L’. [That makes no sense at all in some fonts!] That’s the problem with blindly parsing on the fly instead of reading, and appreciating, the surface of the clue! Lesson learned. I also wasted a bit of time trying to work a homophone of ‘prairie’ into 1d. Favourites today were the short but sweet 7d, the almost as short 10a and the not so short 1a. Fortunately, I did read the surface of 23a, which gave rise to a broad smile.
My thanks to Light for the puzzle and to SJB for the hints.
Sunny here too. Maybe not quite barbie weather but toss another 28a on for me.
Light being uncharacteristically gentle but enjoyable – thanks to him and SJB.
I too needed to Google Kendick Lamar though I suspected I knew what he did from the checkers I had.
Ticks from me for 1a, 10a, 5d and 22d.
And I suspect you won’t be surprised that I didn’t play any of his “music” if that is the right term for it, especially as I think it is usually spelled with a silent C***
Can’t disagree, this was a light toughie.
Pleasing to solve though, I’ve ticked the endlessness in 24a and the medicine in 29a.
My thanks to Light and SJB.
I was quite particular about of being part of the definition for 24a but just noticed I should have included out in the definition of 19a too.
Enjoyable puzzle. I see what you mean about explaining some of the clues. Still working on 24a… Even 19a was a bit convoluted. I liked the lurker
I’d never heard of that three letter language. Even Google Translate doesn’t support this. Makes me think of the Dodo
There IS a website http://www.glosbe.com that can an do limited translation of some words and short phrases.
DANKO to SJB AND Light
At first glance I thought it might be a Japanese dialect. I couldn’t find it in Google translate either or you might have got the hint in 27d.
Well, I must be a bit of a 9a today as I found that really tough! Stared at it over breakfast with not a clue coming to mind but it slowly revealed itself, starting with 9a. More a sense of phew, got there in the end than real enjoyment. Just one of those days, I guess.
Thanks to Light for the workout and SJB for the hints (needed!).
Fortunately, the recent spate of delayed availability of the puzzles didn’t affect me last night, but sorting out the whys and wherefores took a bit more thought this morning. Diff’rent Strokes for Diff’rent folks, I am sure the tables will turn soon and the needle will return to the start of the record.
(Last immediate response as I have a Lally of Lamb to roast and eat, then a trip to Leeds to see Mumford & Sons
Hope you enjoyed the concert? It’s been a long time since I listened to Del Amitri!
Polished off Dada’s puzzle in good time, so maybe my brain was in a paper bag this morning. It was a good puzzle from Light, just me being dim (as Kath would say).
Concert was great, support band surprisingly so, beer was overpriced – £9.25 for god awful lager, getting out of the car park afterwards a nightmare but on the whole a delight.
15a… On my 24th birthday, the most recent of which has just passed 50 years since, our local landlord at the Blacksmith’s Arms, Adversane kindly presented me with a bottle of this, because he never sold any of it. Well it got drunk, and I wasn’t much good for a couple of days afterwards!
Good crossword, hope you enjoyed mumford and sons SJB. Nice one Light!
I refer the honourable lady to the answer above, but I did enjoy the concert. I have little knowledge of the liquer, but I suspect it is like Ouzo a bit of an acquired taste and repeats on you when you think the hangover is abating.
Honourable lady??!
Sorry I was catching up on the response to Rachel’s budget and copied the wrong bit of parliament chatter. “I refer the honourable… to the answer I gave some moments ago is a stock response to opening questions at PMQ’s
I had too many things to do yesterday, and little time for puzzles, so I kept this for today.
I didn’t know the 27d language, so I had to confirm my answer.
I liked the “old Squeeze” at 19a and the “of Buddhist scriptures” at 24a.
Many thanks to Light and to SJB.
19a was a good one to showcase Difford and Tilbrook’s talents, I could also have included some Sting for 24a as he is a renowned exponent🍆 but we had some of him for 12a
Knew the weather was going to be rotten today so kept this by to keep me entertained while watching the snooker from York. I’m with Moonraker in not finding it particularly Light(ish) & can’t really claim an unaided finish as I needed Mr G to confirm/14d a few unfamiliarities en route to a grid fill (16:9, the language, the liqueur & dexter). Enjoyed the 5d nevertheless. Liked the long ‘uns top & bottom but I’ll pick 11&12a + 17d for podium spots.
Thanks to T & to John – Bill Nelson is a criminally underrated player with terrific tone. If perchance you’re not familiar check out Bill Nelson & The Gentlemen Rocketeers Live at Metropolis Studios from 2011 – here’s Adventures off it
I’ll check that out- Sunsburst Finish was required listening to anyone near Wakefield at the time and Red Noise were always worth a listen.
Belated thanks to all, and to SJB for the hints.