Sunday Toughie No 238
by Beam
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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Beam with his 24th and 25th Sunday Toughie, has sandwiched Hudson’s first. Lots of Beam trademarks, including no anagrams, so I hope you find the checkers to finish today
A generous 16a and 16d clues, and I have hinted at half. I will try and nudge if any tricky clues haven’t survived the cutting room
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. Someone else will 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. Â
AcrossÂ
1a Renegade jerk after the woman’s sweetheart (7)Â
A female pronoun and Beam’s™ heart of sweet with a jerk following on after
9a Divers cut through a line (7)Â
To cut through, a from the clue and the abbreviation of line. Divers is archaic and literary
Geoff Yeadon (one of the potholers here) used to teach pottery at my school. He also took groups of us caving (without the dangerous diving bit)
11a Amount’s first cut accepting small payment (9)Â
The first letter of amount and to cut like you may open a boil accepts a synonym of smallÂ
15a Country individuals found in country (9)Â
Individuals or singles, when inserted into a country, become another
Regretably topical, but Beam wrote this long before yesterday’s news
19a Fur is extravagant with Queen (5)Â
Beam’s™ regnal cipher follows an acronym for extravagant
23a Second time with clue (9)Â
A slight hint or clue follows abbreviations of time and with
26a Grand posh recipe gutted gourmet (7)Â
A film on a grand scale perhaps, a posh abbreviation and what remains of recipe when guttedÂ
28a Experts of, we hear, tea plants? (7)Â
The letter we hear when tea is spoken and a plant of the daisy family
DownÂ
1d Manage opening of hopeless Telegraph group (7)Â
An opening letter, a pronoun for those who work, set or blog and solve crosswords for the Telegraph and a group or collection of musicians
6d Increase of belief taking detailed view (9)Â
A belief contains most of a view or place of actionÂ
8d Material rise of very big cheese (7)Â
A reversal (rise of in a down clue) of very big and a crumbly white cheese
14d Ness attack trailing Untouchables’ last patsy (9)Â
A ness or headland and a (2,2) attack follow untouchables last – nice surface!
16d Cut improved relations involving border loss (9)Â
A French improvement in strained relations is cut, and it contains a borderÂ
18d Dodgy base electrified about American (7)Â
The base letter and electrified or having current flowing contain a usual American – dodgy?
20d Honour clan around outskirts of Uist (7)Â
A clan around the outskirts of UistÂ
Tenacious D would have had to go behind a spoiler; this is a much more apt song honouring the descendants of Goraidh, a clan from Uist
23d Possibly watch bank concealing money’s source (5)Â
A bank placed one above another containing the source letter of moneyÂ
CompilerÂ
BeamÂ
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Senf brought a rather nice collaboration between Mark Knopfler and Chet Atkins – I will add another collaboration of Mr K and James Taylor
The biggest challenge to my GK today came from SJB’s illustration to accompany 23a. Yet again, I’ve learned something new. Just shows how much I still have to learn…
No ’17d’ today as I have an excess of candidates on my tick list! 9, 17, 23 & 28 Across got my vote; as well as 7, 8, 16 & the aforementioned 17 in the Downs. Favourite PDM came from the parsing of 2d.
My thanks to Beam for the customary elegant and entertaining puzzle and to SJB for the thoughtfully illustrated hints. I’m looking forward to watching / listening to the five clips now…
I am sure there was an episode of Morse or Lewis that featured that pub and the group of writers, but i couldn’t recall which one. Excellent surfaces as per from Beam, especially the clan from Uist and Eliot Ness and the Untouchables. 18d seemed a bit “dodgy” to me
I was quite happy with 18d, possibly because I enjoy the ‘Paul’ puzzles in the Grauniad and have become immune to “dodgy” synonyms – all part of the fun!
BTW – my favourite SJB clip was the one featuring MK & JT
For me this was on a similar level as Dada’s back-pager for difficulty. As usual with Beam everything was clear and succinct. My podium comprises 2d, (Tesla’s are getting everywhere), the second time at 23a and, just because I can’t resist it, the platforms at 17d.
Many thanks to Beam and SJB
I am hoping that Senf or Falcon will explain the relevance of the reverse of the 1954 $5 dollar bill
The scene on the rear are of waterfalls in the Yukon named for the furry mustelid.
My only delay in this gentle and enjoyable puzzle was with 13a, where there was an initial confusion in the parsing between a noun or a present or a past verb tense.
Top three in reverse order, 14d 23a and 9a.
Many thanks to Beam and to SJB.
The first word of 13a caused me similar doubts, but the last one cleared the mind.
Maybe dished or dispensed would have helped
This was very similar in difficulty to the RayT backpagers. Possibly the GK was a tad more obscure. Great fun all the same. 9a was new to me but the word play was clear. At 15a I almost wrote in the other country within a country solution before reading the clue.
27a and 8d favourites today.
Thanks to Beam and SJB
I had sufficient checkers in by the time I got to the country
I found this considerably easier than Dada today. If you do precisely what you’re told, the answer jumps out at you, even if the resulting answer seems a stretch.
I liked 11 across and 16 down in particular.
Thanks to Mr Beam and the Yottie.
The mental image of a boil cut open spoiled my breakfast, but soon mended when I remembered the Yorkshire Fettle in the back of the fridge
Thanks SJB for clearing up 11a. I parsed “Amount’s first cut” as being the amount you have in the bank with the first letter cut off, but the ‘s worried me. Your version makes much more sense.
Great early evening fun with 5a my last to fall and the peerless 14d my favourite by a distance. Typically brief and superb clues all round.
My thanks to both Beam and SJB.
This was a very accessible Sunday Toughie I thought managed to complete fairly quickly until held up by two final clues. 18d because although I had the right word I wasn’t convinced. And 5a which was my last in just eluded me.
Favour today was 23a although I am not a fan of single letters in solutions the whole was greater than the parts.
Thanks all
“bar” the clues you mentioned😉, I had a very similar experience
Have been in Pembroke last week with very poor internet so have most of last weeks toughies still to do!!
good luck with Donnybrook & Luxor
I had actually finished this by lunchtime but then DDT arrived in her snazzy red sports car with the two dogs and
all was pout aside for a couple of hours. I found this very fair, except that I wavered over the plural at 17d but the Big Red Book tells me it is acceptable. And at 13a I used the wrong tense as I discovered when I solved 14d so I had to use some typ-ex. As I cannot access the hints on my phone for some bizarre reason and could not be bothered to come in to the computer I solved it unaided but nevertheless a big thankyou to SJB for being there, and thanks to Beam for the brain mangling.
The last word of 13a was the key for me to get the right tense. At least you got a mention in 28a
Glad it wasn’t just me with brain fog at 2d. The answer was pretty obvious but I always seem to forget the two letter abbreviation for that type of motor – found the intersecting 9a a tricky parse also but straightforward enough elsewhere. As ever an enjoyable Beamer with lots to like – 10,17,23&28a + 6,14&16d the picks for me. 14d my standout fav – I wagered/lost a mental fiver that our reviewer would illustrate the hint with the film’s iconic pram/shoot out sequence at Chicago Union Station (De Palma’s homage to Eisenstein’s famous Odessa Steps scene in Battleship Potemkin, his 1925 propaganda film).
Thanks to Ray & to John – ta for Dixie. Sad that they’re all gone now with Garth’s passing last year. You can make arguments for Don H, Karen C & Phil C but for me Levon the best drummer who sang.
As ever, I can’t disagree about LH and I wish I had thought of the “epic” Costner scene. The surface of 14d was a real belter.
The pic for 23d is of the Snoopy award awarded to Omega for the “accurate measurement” of the crucial burn that returned Apollo XIII safely to Earth, another fine film I couldn’t find a clip of.