Sunday Toughie No 207
by Zandio
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
Zandio a bit trickier today (to me) quite a few 16d references, but please don’t mention the war, I had to, but I think I got away with it. John Cleese/Basil Fawlty©
14a and 14d clues today and I have hinted half. I hope you find enough checkers to finish, but I will try and give a nudge if you are struggling – just ask.
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 Company satisfied with one’s rubbish mobile being returned, as special purchase (10,4)
A synonym of satisfied, a Roman one and its plural ‘s, some rubbish and finally an American? mobile phone are reversed (being returned). They follow our usual company.
A special purchase for my coffee area, a hint for 26a too.
13a Combat uniform required in Military Police’s preparation for conflict? (4-2)
A combat synonym, and a military police abbreviation around the letter that uniform suggests.
17a Poor soul requesting pick-me-up, by the way? (5-5)
Too poor to afford a bus or train ticket (who isn’t these days!) This soul uses his thumb to beg for a lift by the roadside.
Maybe Neil Young did this “On the way home” as the album I first thought of would have had to go under a spoiler.
18a Greens targeting drivers here? On the contrary (4,6)
Where do Greens target drivers – Stop the Oil protests? – On the contrary, we want a place where drivers target greens.
22a They’re mighty birds with a new stuffing (6)
A from the clue and n for new are stuffed into some not-so-mighty birds.
27a Disheartened over meeting date where fight took place (9)
A synonym of over (and over) is disheartened, and meets a romantic date.
28a Something that gets under my skin? Huddles – they disrupt a party (8,6)
Grandma Emm always used the northern dialect word spelk, for these painful things under the skin, add these to huddles or collections, and they disrupt a 16d party.
Down
4d Bulletin needs bit of punctuation – not a one-off (10)
A piece of punctuation loses its a and adds something one-off. My particular bugbear is people who qualify this one-off adjective. It either is, or it isn’t – never almost or nearly.
5d
7d Worker who gives rise to loot? (9)
If loot was to rise in a down clue, it would be Kier Starmer’s dad.
Under a spoiler as a bit too obvious and a bit too 16d for the blog.
8d Nick will be married in Paris if up and fit (14)
I spent rather a long time looking for an anagram containing Paris, but failed. Start with a genealogical abbreviation for married, add how a Parisian says if, then reverse it (up in a down clue) and add a synonym of fit.
9d Rocky bridge from Sting EP on piano’s dividing old group (8,6)
EP and P for piano divides Sting, and goes on the second part of an old group of musicians.
14d Incite riots about Jamaican music genre, primarily for sport (3-7)
An anagram (riots) of INCITE, a type of Jamaican music and the primary letter of genre.
16d Vote to restrict CIA, it worked out of government (9)
A vote contains (restricts) an anagram (worked out) of CIA IT
25d Free trade, third reduced by 90 per cent (4)
I am fairly sure that we have some of Zandio’s Roman maths again. A four-letter synonym of trade, that has a Roman numeral in the third position, swaps that letter for the Roman numeral 90% smaller, to give a synonym of free.
I don’t know for sure, but I would bet the mythical pen that if you submit whatever absurddanword or the like suggests, you won’t get in the prize pool.
Compiler
Zandio
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I was never a huge Grateful Dead fan at the time, but I will miss them nevertheless. RIP Bob Weir…
That’s All Folks…
I possibly spent as long pondering over the two missing letters of 25d as I did on the rest of the puzzle, but the denarius finally dropped…
Not as many ticks as usual today – perhaps I was being a bit of a 24d – but I did enjoy 18a, 27a and 4d.
Thanks to Zandio for the puzzle and to SJB for the colourful hints.
Me too with 25d. Went back to it several times before agreeing with SJB’s suggestion. I hadn’t realised there were so many synonyms for ‘free’.
Favourites were the long answers with 9d taking me longer than it should have.
Thanks to Zandio and SJB.
I haven’t counted, but free is probably second only to set for the number of definitions in the BRB
I hope I haven’t led people up the garden path, but Zandio has form for using Roman numerals in that way.
Tricky puzzle. Got there with some help. Learnt a new word for spike!
Confounded by 25 down; I think you are right. I had two other Roman numerals that differed by a factor of 10. No fountain pen ✒️ this week.
There is a Roman date that has one of each numeral written once. Think London, great fire…
Many thanks
MDCLXVI and all that +600
I do enjoy a Zandio puzzle – thanks to him and SJB.
I don’t understand the water bit of 6d but that’s probably because I’ve never boiled the stuff.
There’s no need for an anagram in 9d.
For my podium I’ve selected 18a, 4d and 8d.
Thanks Gazza, I have amended the hint.
I was also wondering about the water in 6d, and will be interested to see what SJB says about that in the full review. There are two links between water and 6d that come to mind, but I can’t manage to understand the wording. Given the mixed responses to 25d, I am hoping I have got that right. I looked at SJB’s list of roman numerals above and that reveals the options which Zandio has kindly set out, and couldn’t think of another word that worked. Perhaps it might not be part of the review, but I would be interested know what the alternatives are if anyone is kind enough to comment! At any rate, mine is not the same as Danword’s answer, which I don’t think a human would even suggest, but apologies if anyone does think it is plausible.
Add me to those flummoxed by those missing 2 letters at 25d – very irritating as I waltzed through the rest of it once slowly out of the stalls. I knew what definition synonym I was looking for but just couldn’t come up with it until my eyes saw Roman numeral in the hint & without then needing to read it the penny immediately dropped – fairly tenuous methinks but maybe that’s sour grapes.
An enjoyable puzzle – liked the long ‘uns but my fav, not surprisingly, was 18a.
Thanks to Zandio & to John – 👍 for the coffee machine & the Keir clip. 4d prompted a listen to (first time in a very long while) the follow up to their terrific eponymously titled debut album – way better than Making Movies which followed it.
Those pesky Roman numerals had me flummoxed for a while, but eventually I remembered he has form for that sort of thing. I didn’t think I could get away with more Mr K after NY but you have nudged me to remember this.
I am pleased with my 26a Grinder
My money was one that tune had you hinted the clue – it’s my pick off the album too.
Ignore that tenuous comment – just queuing to get in to see Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado & getting over the news that the main man will not be performing due to illness & realised my entry was incorrect – the wrong Roman numerals (d’oh)
That is disappointing, both the absence of Thorbjørn and the correct Romans. I wouldnt give up yet though as I am not 100% sure I am right!
Planning how to see Nearly Dan next Saturday and still get home in time to blog #208!
Ignore that tenuous comment – just queuing to get in to see Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado & getting over the news that the main man will not be performing due to illness & realised my entry was incorrect – the wrong Roman numerals (d’oh)
Me too with 25d. I wouldn’t have got it without the Roman numeral hint, so thanks for that. Otherwise a trouble-free solve, with 4d my favourite.
Thanks to Zandio and again to SJB.
This was one of those delightful puzzles that looked almost impossible to start with but gradually unravelled itself. The SE was the last to fall and raised a few smiles. I liked the green drivers and the killjoy. Almost certainly a DNF, as I don’t think I have the right answer for 25d (but at least I’m not alone!).
Many thanks to Zandio and SJB.
Our setter’s Sunday puzzles usually have a bit more sparkle, or perhaps it’s me who’s short of sparkle today!
Currently wading through Margaret Thatcher’s ‘Downing Street years’ so it seems rather appropriate to nominate 28a as my favourite.
Thanks to Zandio and to SJB for the hints and appearances by Sting and Dire Straits.
That seems like a hard read for the new year.
I had to include Mr Sumner, just for you.
Not the most difficult Sunday Toughie we’ve had, though 25d was an issue for me too.
I think your answer is correct, John.
I had an alternative, but to make sense, there needed to be a question mark at the end of the clue.
Even if there was one, my answer was slightly tenuous, so I reckon you are right.
The special purchase in 1a, the pick-me-up request at 17a and the battle venue at 27a were my top three.
My thanks to Zandio and SJB.
Thanks very much for taking the time to solve, hint and discuss. Always appreciated.
On the subject of Latin, I’m going to Latin America this week — Colombia, to be precise. Here’s something enteratining from a Colombian star, Maluma. His video for Medallo City has my favourite beginning of any video, and a lovely ending.
Thanks again and have a great week.
Have a great time, it looks great. A medium roast arabica for my 26a grinder would be nice…
Before you go, have I got my Roman maths right?
Hi SJB, yes you are correct. Assuming one guesses that the 90 per cent could refer to Roman numerals, the only options I can see would be X-I, L-V, C-X, D-L, M-C. It would be interesting to see if there was another pair of words that had the required meanings. I’m pretty sure there isn’t a pair using the existing checking letters. All the best.
Like others, I couldn’t make any headway with 25D which was the only one that stumped me. Even with the hint I still struggled so I had to resort to writing down the combinations and cycling through them – eventually got there (I think)!
Thanks to SJB for the much needed help and Zandio for the challenge.