Sunday Toughie 242
by Silvanus
Hints & Tips by Sloop John Bee
Silvanus was here for the Friday backpager, with a great Nina to honour the “Mutch Admired” Jeremy Mutch AKA Jay. I thought we were starting along a tribute to the equally admired Mr Manley AKA 1a, but that is as far as I got with setter spotting. A couple of former PM’s appear but don’t be fooled by the former Chancellor; it isn’t Rachel in 4d
I am finding Silvanus with his Sunday Toughie hat on quite tricky to parse, but that is as it should be with toughies. 7a and 2d in particular, and I have given my best guess in the hints. As a consequence, some other quite tricky constructions have hit the cutting room floor, so I will try and give a nudge if asked
The mental image of George proposing to Daisy at an Elizabethan-themed ball will live in my mind for some time, so 7d gets my COTT
Here we go…
Across
7a Difficulty keeping on the move exposed enemy (7)
A synonym of on the move is exposed by removing the outer letters, it is then kept within a difficult situation
10a Star detailed flipping time period for treatment … (5)
Our local star is detailed and flipped, followed by a geological time period
11a … reminiscent of essentially problematic case (9)
The essential or central letter of problematic and a grammatical case when a person or thing is addressed
15a Before work a police officer gulps large drink (7)
A from the clue and an informal policeman, gulps L for large and goes before an abbreviated musical work
18a Discover dad’s sister when undressed has heavenly body (7)
The relationship that your dad’s sister is to you is undressed; it goes before the heavenly body that is the third rock from our local star
21a Skip using leg splint, on reflection wrongly removed (5)
A leg splint as worn by Forrest Gump perhaps, has a reversal (on reflection) of a wrongly synonym removed
24a Learned name adopted by endlessly brave, fearless person (11)
A synonym of brave that is endless, around learned by studying a book and a name abbreviation
Down
1d Alarms papers raised ahead of PM boarding ship (7)
Some official papers are reversed (raised in a down clue) ahead of a ship abbreviation that contains a former PM
2d Interference in love lives maiden virtually admits (5)
Virtually all of an adjective used in stating a woman’s maiden name contains the letter that love represents and the third-person indicative of be or lives
4d Reeves perhaps succeeded restricting debt, being brutal (7)
The first name of Jim Moir’ comic persona, and abbreviations of debt and succeeded
6d Crazy singer overlooked by current bank (7)
Current or popular followed by the surname of the singer of “Crazy” in 1961 Here performed by the artist who wrote the song, Willie Nelson and others
7d Teacher, you heard, clad in Elizabethan garb married Daisy (11)
A homophone (heard) of you, clad in some Elizabethan garb, (normally worn with a doublet) an abbreviation of married and the family of flora that contains the Daisy.
I hope that George’s past included either a stint at a boarding school and/or wooing Daisy whilst dressed in Elizabethan garb
16d Was slow in ultimately changing England batsman (7)
The surname of an England batsman changes his ultimate letter
21d Needing breather after core of reactor gets stuck (5)
The core of reaCtor and an organ essential for breathing
Compiler
Silvanus
A cover, but IMO a good one
That’s All Folks…
Maybe I was a bit slow on the uptake, but a couple of clues, 7a and 21a, took me as long to parse as filling in the rest of the grid did, but I got there in the end.
The crazy singer at 6d and the strange wedding scenario at 7d were other highlights in a very enjoyable challenge.
My thanks to Silvanus and SJB.
As it should be for a prize Toughie I found this quite chewy.
LOI was 7a.
Top picks for me were 18a, 7d, 3d and 4d.
Thanks to SJB and Silvanus.
An excellent puzzle from the ever-reliable Silvanus – thanks to him and SJB.
There appears to be two valid possibilities for the penultimate letter of 5d – I presume that either will be acceptable at Telegraph Towers from those attempting to win the prize.
I really liked 7a, the slightly risqué 18a and 7d but my clear favourite was the Crazy singer in 6d.
I hadn’t noticed that about 5d, I hope so too. The BRB certainly accepts either so Telegraph Towers should too
Plenty of ticks including 11a, 18a, 3d and 4d ( I actually find his partner more entertaining).
Many thanks to Silvanus for another superb puzzle, and to SJB.
I agree re 4d. His fishing trips with Paul Whitehouse are very easy on the eye, and some of his contributions to Would I Lie to You are hilarious, but Mr Reeve’s art is worth a look at too
Tricky to parse, rewarding to solve and on a par with Fridays difficulty.
Re 5d – I have an s Gazza. But there is an alternative spelling.
18a favourite.
Thanks to Solvanus and SJB
The surface suggested the Dustin Hoffmann Anne Bancroft scene from The Graduate, for 18a, but she wasn’t Dustin’s dad’s sister
Today’s Silvanus puzzle provided a fine accompaniment to my early morning mug of tea. There was nothing obscure about it, and it included some very nice disguises and misdirection. I did need a moment or two to work out ‘on the move’ and ‘maiden virtually’, but my longest pause and a PDM came from deducing an alternative spelling in the 21a wordplay, for which I have never used the double-letter version.
My clear favourite was the 4d allusion to the ‘brutal’ Autumn Budget of 2024, with runners-up being the 6d ‘Crazy singer’ and the highly amusing (albeit as Gazza comments – slightly risqué) surface reading of 18a.
Many thanks to Silvanus for the excellent entertainment, and to SJB for his Hints & Tips.
I think the alternative spelling of the leg splint came up recently, otherwise I would have struggled too.
I fear the current Chancellor will be forced into something similar😒
Healey, perhaps, not popular and occasionally eerie is harsh (7)
Nothing too daunting until I came back to the NW where the parsing of 7a and 2d had me crumpet scratching, but SJB put me out of my misery. The crazy singer, the salad plant and the major’s wife are my picks. A pleasant diversion for a Sunday afternoon.
Many thanks to Silvanus and SJB.
I left the hints for 7a and 2d as they caused a similar amount of scalp wear
Needed these nudges to finally parse 7a and 2d. Tricky.
I liked the construction of 18d. There must be a term for it.
Will dig out Friday, which I missed
Thanks all as ever.
18d is called cycling as you cycle letters from the front to the back, in this case twice AB CDEFG becomes CDEFG AB
Enjoyed that. Bar my last two a pretty gentle Toughie, for which I was grateful as I am exhausted and struggling to stay awake! Took an age to solve & parse 2d & 7a, almost as long as the rest of the puzzle itself.
Many thanks to Sylvanus and Sloop
2d was one of my last to parse too.
I incorrectly assumed that the last letter of the synonym of maiden was a consonant and not a vowel.
1a went in straight away and I thought I was on a roll. However, it has manages to take me a long time to get both guzzles done today. I did a bung in at 21 I think it is right but was not very happy with my parsing. If I can get the blasted picture to adhere, funnily enough we live dressing up and u made a set of Elizabethan clothes for myself and George for a feast at Kings and used several times over the years. This is at the Silver Jubilee. Many thanks to Sylvanus for the brain mangling and to SJB for the hints. Regards to Mamma Bee.
Very nice you two look as well, The Silver Jubilee in ’77 I was 15 and spent most of the street party under the trestle table where the grown ups had stashed the beer
🍺
My first Toughie for a while after a delightful break in Kefalonia, and this was a great way to get back into the groove. Properly difficult, with some awkward parsing, but as elegantly clued as always. My two top clues were 7a and 7d.
My thanks to both SJB and silvanus.
Many thanks to all.
This certainly pushed me to my solving limits and took longer than any backpager all year.
2D and 7A, mentioned by SJB, were my last two in, I was confident of the 2D parsing. For 7A is the exposed word *****? I’m not certain how to parse 8A’s city either – feel like it has ***, ** and ** (about) in it, but can’t get the bricks to quite make sense!
Pody picks – I like 24A’s word, 5D’s major fibs and the suffering 18D.
Thanks to Silvanus and SJB ⭐️
7a thats what I thought
8a The motorists club and the like follow (going on) the two lettered about
Thanks SJB, and for blocking out the bits out, I got carried away 🙂
And I had no idea Willie Nelson wrote Crazy! Great bit of trivia.
A day late to comment but just popped in to say I found the puzzle on the tough side & needed 3 stabs both to finish it off & parse the blighters. Plenty to choose from for a fav the misleading 4d surface gets my vote.
Thanks to silvanus & to John – yes I agree the CAKE cover is a good ‘un.