Sunday Toughie No 203
by Zandio
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
A rather gentle toughie from Zandio, I thought, but YMMV.
14a and 14d clues today and I have hinted at half. I hope you find the checkers to finish this. As ever I am unable to hint all of this prize puzzle, but I will try and give a nudge or two if I can.
Here We Go…
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 be back just after the closing date with the full blog. 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 not so 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 Force in uniform, wearing female garb? (6)
The letter that uniform represents wearing a (usually) female-specific item of clothing.
10a Dawn’s twisted jokes going round university (5)
A reversal of jokes (that are indicated by italics in the Quick Crossword), around the abbreviation of university. I was expecting two words or at least a hyphen, but the BRB goes with (5) and just occasionally —‘–
14a Checking out without paying? (6-8)
What you may do when planning, but not when following through on purchases.
17a People rarely call in these places now (9,5)
Nowadays, rarely used for their original purpose, the rise of the mobile has turned most of these into defibrillators, libraries or similar local amenities.
21a Fly-by-night sort, husband yet to return – will it hold water? (7)
A mammal that flies by night, the abbreviation of husband and a reversal (to return) of a conjunction that can swap with yet.
26a There’s only one way to depart from these exact conclusions (4,4)
Synonyms of exact and conclusions are routes from which there is only one way in or out.
27a Street in Rome, I start to drive out of it (6)
An abbreviated street, what a Roman I indicates, and the start to drive.
Down
2d Phone dodgy seller set aside (4-5)
To phone someone and a seller of dodgy or stolen goods.
6d Improvised trip inspired by New York-style jazz music of the 1990s (7)
New York-style jazz of the 1940s containing an anagram (improvised) of TRIP, becomes a style of music of the 1990s
1940s jazz or 1990s or … both!
8d What optician flogs on radio spots (6)
A homophone (on radio) of what an optician “flogs”
9d Two articles about bad-tempered management everywhere (6,3,5)
Two articles (indefinite and definite)around a synonym of bad-tempered, and the group of senior management.
19d Howl over web item increasing gun danger? (7)
The howl of a wolf, a crickety over and the WWW. An item that increases the length and danger of a gun
20d Old rocker supporting Swedish group half-heartedly slowed down (6)
Either Bjorn or Benny is removed from the Swedish group, followed by an old rocker.
22d Body part coming from revolutionary artificial intelligence section (5)
Artificial Intelligence (not Anagram Indicator TDS!) and a small section are reversed (revolutionary)
Compiler
Zandio
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Not sure what to put here. You could just follow a YT rabbit hole down anything shown above (particularly Benny), but I will go with this 50th anniversary celebration…
That’s All Folks…
Like the other crossword today, this was surprisingly lightweight and took roughly the same time to complete.
I enjoyed the improvised trip in 6d though the other trip at 27a was like, far out, man.
Peace and love to Zandio and SJB.
“I like bananas, because they’ve got no bones” is certainly one of my favourite lyrics
All fairly straightforward, and at the same time very enjoyable.
Many thanks to SJB and to Zandio ( I derived a lot more entertainment from this than the Friday back-pager).
A busy Friday kept me from Zandio then but from comments I think this seemed a tad easier.
Good tip, thank you. It never occurred to me to think of I as one!
Wrong place…should have gone in the next comment down! Sorry.
The usual san serif font that appears on the blog makes it hard to tell the difference between I the character and I the Roman numeral. I changed to Times New Roman for the I in the blog, but your local settings might not have picked it up. I don’t know how to change fonts in comments though.
Too complicated for me! I is often Iodine, no 53 I think
Top knowledge; it is 53. I bet you sing along with Tom Lehrer
Well that was a lot of fun! I liked the four long ones but especially 14 and 17a. Slightly held up in the southeast until a I spotted the hidden clue. A couple of parsings eluded me, so thanks for explaining 27a, the other will have to wait for the full review.
Thanks to Zandio for the Sunday fun and SJB for the hints and tips.
In my experience a knowledge of Roman numerals is key to many puzzles from Zandio
Fairly gentle as our blogger says but extremely entertaining – thanks to Zandio and SJB.
I liked 23a, 27a, 5d and 9d – my favourite was 14a.
14a at this time of year always seems to involve more spending than checking.
Nice puzzle. I liked the two animals, and the four long ‘uns.
Great work SJB and Zandio
A favourite joke involving a dodgy homophone is;
What is the difference between a 12a and a Bison?…
“You can’t wash your hands in a 12a”
Groan 😩
Possibly the least tough Toughie I’ve encountered, but great fun. Particularly liked the travelling urbanite. The parsing of 27A eluded me so I was glad to see the hint for that. Thanks to Zandio and SJB.
I always admire Zandio’s work. It seems effortless. Favourite 14a
Thanks Zandio and SloopJB.
PS. I assume other users of the puzzles app are getting fed up learning about Tom Marvolo Riddle every time they open it? Arrgghhhh…..!
Absolutely! I didn’t want to learn that nugget of info the first time, let alone the hundredth!
Marginally better than knowing Britney Spears religious inclination though.
Och, you’re not alone. It drives me up the wall, as it does Huntsman. And others, I imagine. A bit of variety would be nice, wouldn’t it? I guess the reason why Axl Rose is so-called is a tad fruity for the Tel, but could I suggest Carol Drinkwater = Network Railcard, just for a change? PS … lovely puzzle. Ta lots to Zandio and Sloop.
Good-day Rupert, Sooty, Biffo, Yogi! Wow! Around us is tree-house spread! (2,3,2,4,2,3,5,5,5,4,2,1,3,8) (Copyright NYDK and Elgar)
Perhaps
I found this far easier and much more enjoyable than either Saturday’s or Sunday’s cryptics. Thanks to the setter and SJB for the hints.
I am still trying to resist Senf’s hints for today’s cryptic so would agree with you there.
Sunday Toughies from this setter seem to invariably be more straightforward than his back-pagers – not that I’m complaining!
My top spots today went to 14&17a along with 2&9d.
Plenty of urbanites don’t have access to the 24a mode of transport but setters always manage to forget that!
Thanks to Zandio and to SJB for the hints.
The last time I had access to that mode of transport I had to get a cake, a wheelchair and Mama Bee from King’s X to Paddington!
As has been said, gentle and enjoyable – indeed much preferred this to the backpager.
Many thanks to Zandio and to Sloop, especially for The Verve – I never tire of that piece and think it’s one of those relative rarities that gets better with the passing decades.
So many to choose from in that genre, I am glad I picked a favourite.
Hello all, compiler here. Thanks very much for taking the time to solve, hint and discuss.
Thank you, Serendipity, for saying it seems effortless. Far, far from it! That comment (and SJB’s musical choice) reminded me of when I was ‘fortunate’ enough to watch Abba at work with their band in Polar Studios in Stockholm in 1977. They played the same eight bars over and over for hours until I felt like screaming. It took a huge amount of work to make something that seemed to flow naturally. Not that I would compare myself to the genius of Bjorn and Benny (which is certainly not how we described them in the NME back than, haha).
I seem to recall that they were often mocked in public as cheesy popmongers, but secretly admired (at least by me)
Thanks for the puzzle and for popping in.
A great puzzle so huge thanks to Zandio for giving my second prize Toughie solve. The first answer I had for 5d was not quite long to fill all the squares and I couldn’t work out what the ending should be. It arrived when I solved 23a. So many good clues that it’s difficult to choose a favourite but I will go for 14a as COTT because I thought it a concise clue with a good surface.
Once again, my thanks to Zandio for a fun solve and another chance at The Mythical. Thank you, Sloops for the hints and I will own up to having owned Abba’s Greatest Hits but it was for my wife and daughter, really. 😏
Don’t be ashamed of liking ABBA, they were (and are) a favourite of mine, even if the naysayers at NME and the like, liked to knock them at the time.
On a par with the weekend’s prize puzzles for difficulty with no hints required. Having failed miserably to get to grips with Elgar on Friday, the weekend has renewed confidence in my own ability; (until the next stinker)!
Plenty of amusing clues with 14a, 21a, 27a, 19d as favourites, but best of all is 17a
Thanks to Zandio for the entertainment and SJB for his input.
A couple of long cryptic all-in-ones across the middle got me off to a flying start too
Having struggled with both Donny’s & Dada’s prize offerings this weekend I was somewhat relieved to waltz through this one. Yes it was very gentle but hugely entertaining from the off & like Jezza I much preferred it to Friday’s considerably stiffer challenge. I liked all of the long ‘uns, the non Man City (for a change) rallying cry plus the drug driving but I’ll award podium places to 1,6&19d.
Many thanks to Zandio (& for popping in as per) & to John – had quite forgotten that Man track & guess you’ll not be surprised that I would have struggled to resist posting the opening track on Moondance. Enjoyed Neil McCormick’s piece on the making of WYWH & agree with his view that it’s their masterpiece – haven’t listened to the release yet though.
Moondance crops on my playlist often so I too could have gone that way, but at least you have to listen to Man before the hint drops out.
I was going to post Donald Sutherland and his negative ways for 4a but a rather straightforward anagram sent it to the floor
A comfortable solve this morning – no second mug of tea required. The only sticking point was parsing 27a – if the font of my printout was different it would not have caused such trouble, but the penny didn’t take too long to drop. An early solve, maybe, but a late post as my grand-daughter’s primary school were involved in a delightful carol service during the day. Zandio has an elegant way with clue surfaces which makes it difficult to single out favourites, but I have gone for 14, 23 & 24 in the across clues and 1, 6 & 19 in the down clues (with apologies to all the other clues).
My thanks to Zandio and to SJB – it’s been a long time since I heard that Tom Lehrer ditty!