Sunday Toughie No 224
by Beam
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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All the Beam trademarks and a little of the difficulty today. In the unlikely event of needing a hint, I have provided hints for eight of the fourteen across clues and seven of the sixteen down clues.
A sudden opportunity to have solar panels installed means a busy week in the Beehive. I will try to give an extra nudge or two in between trips to the skips and or coffee shop.
A selection of pics and music included may or may not be bonus hints
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 informationĀ 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.Ā Ā
Across
1aĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Unhappy detectives ā criminal incredibly unpunctualĀ (12)
Put together the following bits of Legoā¢, plural detectives of a particular rank, a singular informal criminal, an adverb for incredibly and finally a synonym of unpunctual
9aĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Discharge empty rifle in divisionĀ (9)
Empty rifle of its internal letters and insert what remains in a division or part
10aĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Reportedly fine cutĀ (5)
A homophone (reportedly) of a fine fabric, perhaps may cut the finest wool off a sheep’s back
14aĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Having no trouble in East End?Ā (8)
A nice all-in-one. You should have no trouble with this when you remember the Cockney rhyming slang ātrouble andā¦ā
17aĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Discipline of lives in celibate surroundingsĀ (8)
To live, exist or be, surrounded by a synonym of celibate
24aĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Overcome accepting each penny is mine?Ā (6)
To have overcome or defeated, contains abbreviations of each and penny. The question mark indicates a definition by example
27aĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Slip behind holding lineĀ (9)
Your ābehindā holds an abbreviation
28aĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Nice young lady?Ā (12)
That Nice must be capitalised is neatly hidden by making it the first word of the clue. How you should address a young lady from Nice
Down
1dĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Old rogue damn upset, being upsetĀ (7)
A plural synonym of damn and one of being upset are reversed (upset)
5dĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Dally over ends of intimate frilliesĀ (8)
We are back in the Beamā¢ underwear drawer, to dally over the ends of intimate
16dĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Group practised stocking jam on counterĀ (8)
Group together, To be well practised or skilled, containing a jam, that is reversed (on the counter)
17dĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Country, some say, is distantĀ (6)
A homophone (some say) of a South American country
18dĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Most likely a person’s first ordealĀ (6)
A, the first letter of person and an ordeal is the most likely answer
20dĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā The French sex joke upended weddingĀ (7)
A French definite article, a pronoun used to refer to sex and a joke or play on words are reversed (upended) for an adjective related to wedding
25dĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Memory of sweetheart and brief splitĀ (4)
Beamāsā¢ swEetheart and a shortened (brief) split or cleave with an axe
The obvious musical link will have to go under a spoiler…
Compiler
Beam
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mainly because I was there – 22nd October 1994
I thoroughly enjoyed this offering from Beam. I solved 1a immediately and that is always a confidence booster. Even so, my next solve was the nice young lady at 28a with nothing in between. Fortunately, the downs came to my aid and the solve became a steady one with just a few sticky ones holding up proceedings. My COTT is the lack of trouble in the East End because it provided rather a large falling coin. Brilliant clue.
Thank you, Beam for a most satisfying challenge. Thank you, Sloops for the hints.
Well – I endorse everything Steve said – except that my penny stayed firmly stuck until I read the Yottie’s hint – Doooh!
Back now to the Prize puzzle, which I am finding considerably tougher than this Toughie!
Thanks to Beam and to the Eternal Navigator.
I endorse what you have both said, in-between trips to the tip I am struggling to get to grips with Dada. Beam however was done in a flash just before lights out.
Maybe a wrong envelope day
I forgot to thank you for the Floyd clip, Sloops. What a performance and, to my eternal regret, I never saw them live.
I was fortunate to be in the third row at Earls Court, and I managed to catch one of their second drummers sticks (Gary Wallis then) an old bit of hi- fi where I kept it has just gone to the tip. The stick itself has gone to a sister š
I was sailing along nicely, enjoying a very smooth passage, until running onto some rocks with 14a, 16d and 27a. These required more head-scratching than perhaps they should have done, but there’s rarely a puzzle goes by without feeling the need to kick myself afterward; whether due to the setter’s deception or because it required a smile-inducing PDM. Such a PDM finally arrived for 27a, and 16d quickly followed. The largest falling coin, as Steve put it, was saved for the ‘trouble in East End’ where I had to embark on some alphabet scrolling before the penny eventually dropped. All three of my ‘rocks’ are awarded places on my Across and Down podiums, and are joined by 12a, 15d and 20d.
Many thanks to Beam for providing a delightful, entertaining puzzle; and to SJB for his Hints and Tips.
This was a toughie I could do so most pleased.
Usually have to resort to tips and tricks, today I have come here to check that some of my answers were correct rather than for clues.
28a had the honour of being first in and 16d was last as originally I had another word for group in mind.
Clue of the day was 1d as it brought to mind the old cartoon – which has been included above.
I expect next week will be a return to form when I am lucky to get 50% unaided
Maybe itās because Iām a Londoner š¶ ā¦ but 14a was my favourite today.
Thanks to Beam & SJB.
Was not familiar with the word for 1d, despite being an ardent fan of Wacky Races!
Agree with comments above – maybe will tackle Dada later, as need a bit more challenging of the grey matterā¦
Great hints, as ever. Thanks SJB, bloggers and Beam
I did wonder for a few disbelieving seconds if 1d began with a different letter, then to my great relief, I got to grips with the parsing and corrected myself.
The lack of trouble in 14a, the well-hidden burgler in 22a and predictably given my puerile sense of humour, 27a were my top three.
My thanks to Beam and SJB.
I do love a trip to the dump myself. Something cathartic about it.
Sorry, I haven’t been following this blog for the last couple of years, but return now to ask if nobody has realized that most clues are created by AI these days.
Most, if not all of the setters are known to us and would disagree. AI is still notoriously unable to get the subtleties of cryptic clues. Even the data miners such as Danword or Wordplays are often fooled.
I come across AI in my work and have often asked it to produce a cryptic clue. They are usually nonsensical. Anyway, to suggest our esteemed setters, and I have met some of them, are using AI is somewhat of an insult to their hard work.
You made two contradictory posts 4 months ago about declining standards in crosswords. I’m pretty sure none of the national papers use AI for clues and agree with others that AI isn’t up to the task anyway.
Can you prove that you’re not a robot, Colin?
Started this when I went to bed and finished it off this morning. I had to resort to SJB’s hints to find the deficiency in the East End, but otherwise managed with minimal head scratching. Plenty of ticks including 27a, 9a, 1a and 20d, but COTD for me is the aforementioned 14a which kept me guessing.
Many thanks to Beam and SJB
3*/3*
Well this was certainly a much easier ride than Dada. That said I still managed to make unnecessarily hard work of my last 3 clues in (16d + 24&27a) for whatever reason – seems increasingly to be the case with pretty much any puzzle I tackle of late. As ever with a Beamer lots to like – 9,13,14&17a plus 1d were my pick of the clues.
Thanks to Ray & to John – Iāll overlook the aural affront of the Scissor Sisters cover only because we got Art & Paul, one of Wellerās finest & the real thing – Gilmourās magnificent solo from his Live at Pompeii gig in 2016 remains my fav version of the song though Iāve a soft spot for Van having a go with Rog.