Sunday Toughie No 181
by Light
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
Not as easy as last week from Beam, not as hard as the last from Light. I had to scratch my crumpet several times and slept on a couple of parsings, but I think I have them now.
14a and 16d clues today and I have hinted half. I hope you get the checkers to finish. I will try and provide a bonus hint if required and connectivity permits.
As you will see, I have been experimenting with spoilers – I hope they work
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 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 Faith and Richard catching cheat at last, Mark a victim of this? (10,5)
Of the three given names in this clue only Richard is really a person’s name, and then as an informal shortening. He follows a synonym of faith or trust and a last letter. Mark is a derogatory term for someone gullible enough to fall for this. Don’t
11a Neglected patch in Spooner’s brown robe (5,4)
Browning bread in a robe is given the Spooner treatment.
for the musical hint.
15a Beetle on drape (8)
Synonyms of on and drape together make one of beetle like a furrowed brow perhaps.
18a Feature of Christmas from Long Island I will miss (4,4)
The island is the most westerly of the Inner Hebrides. It misses its ‘i’ and follows a synonym of ‘long’.
23a Very hip, playing Steely Dan’s latest cuts (9)
Our usual hip, an anagram (playing) of STEELY that the latest letter of Dan cuts into.
Not under a click here as it isn’t a spoiler to the answer.
26a Old routine news chief demanded and received (7)
Old or former, a routine or performance, and an abbreviated news chief, demanded and received revenge, perhaps.
27a Eccentric character in Greece a sect converts (7)
The thirteenth character of the Greek alphabet is the start of the answer, an anagram follows; this classic advert suggests the whole.
Down
1d Saddle king’s horse (7)
To saddle with a debt and a Latin King.
3d One lair, with fox cub climbing on it, is uninteresting (9)
A Roman one, a lair, a reversal (climbing) of a fox cub and it from the clue. An informal term for formulaic and uninteresting, derived from the device for building a composite portrait.
4d Rising astronomy teacher covers the beginning of a term (6)
The true origin of a word or term. It is a reverse (rising) lurker (covers) hidden in the astronomy teacher.
8d
only loosely related to the anagram 8d, but I like it
14d Two shakes new French chef bringing in time for summit (4,5)
Two shakes as a short period of time, n for new, t for time and a well-known French chef
The logo of the eponymous luxury pen maker is derived from a summit view of the six glaciers that surround it.
16d Again lights sway – it’s the start of engineers’ drills (9)
Sway or sphere of influence, and it’s from the clue into which the start of engineer has drilled.
18d Perhaps three at St Andrews rendezvous snubbed upstart (7)
The shorter holes at St Andrews, where three is the norm or standard score, and a place of rendezvous that has been shortened (snubbed)
20d Lyricists working with ABBA? (7)
An &lit of those who write lyrics where homophones correspond in a scheme ABBA (that is, where the first and fourth lines, and the second and third lines sound alike)
I was going to play the lyricist Tim Rice, who worked with Bjorn and Benny on Chess, but I prefer this.
25d College closed between terms for police investigation (4)
Spell out those letters enclosed between the terminal letters of police investigation.
Compiler
Light
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I found this to be fairly challenging and worthy of being a Sunday Toughie.
Not too keen on 15a and 22a, though I may be missing something in my parsing.
I liked the moving mince pies in 13a, the fox on the lair in 3d and the aloof golfers in 18d.
Thanks to Light and SJB.
22a is nothing to do with Costa the coffee place, but it is a doctor’s word for the cage that protects the heart and lungs, pluralised it is guys or teases.
Another example of why not to rely on Danword.
I’ve just looked at what Dan suggests, I am not going to correct him as we might have a better chance at the mythical 🖋️
An interesting comment from Chris Lancaster in the puzzles newsletter, about AI solvers
The good news is that, however omnipotent it may seem, AI has absolutely no place in our crosswords, to which humour, topicality and personality are utterly integral. Whether you’re cracking the PlusWord or the Quick, the Mini or the Cross Atlantic, you can rest assured that you’re pitting your wits against setters who are entirely flesh and blood. As for the Cryptic and Toughie, given the feeble efforts of some “AI crossword solvers” online (which I tried entirely out of curiosity, I promise) I suspect our esteemed (and entirely human) compilers have nothing to worry about for a good while yet. After all, as any Wimbledon winner will tell you, there’s nothing as satisfying as knowing you’ve beaten the best at their own game.
Thanks for the hints SJB. Danword also has a different answer to me for 19a.
Yet more evidence that Danword and the like are useless at solving crosswords
One of the ones I slept on. Beetle is a fairly unusual adjectival synonym of the answer but of course the BRB confirmed it to me this morning
An enjoyable and not too tricky puzzle – thanks to Light and SJB.
My ticks were awarded to 1a, 19a, 22a, 3d and 18d with my favourite being 13a.
Struggling with the parsing of 22a as well (if my answer is correct).
Another thumbs up for 13a.
Sitting in the house on a glorious day unable to choose which tv sport to watch.
Thanks to Light and SJB
I think I have gone a bit overboard with the music clips today, but here is some of Michael Stipes moving mince pies.
My eyes are on the Tour, ears on the cricket and websites on golf, tennis and the blog.
Proper classy. Cracking Spooner, clever use of “beetle” and 20d is hilariously outrageous! Very smart disguise in 9a, and 22a reads so sweetly. Superb. Best thanks to Light and Sloop. Impressive IT spoiler skills there!
I learnt about Bhutanese pursuits with 9a,
I am glad the spoilers worked as I haven’t practised them since I subbed for Deep Threat many Fridays ago.
Not really convinced that I can gel with this setter but I battled through and definitely enjoyed some of the clues. My ticks went to 1,10&27a plus 21d.
Thanks to Light for the Sunday challenge and to SJB for the hints.
I hope you didn’t get Richard rolled by my click here link.
I glanced at this one on and off all day and not one spark of light. But sitting here at almost 3am some light has dawned, and then I turned to SJB for more enlightenment, so now well on the way. I did find the first read through very daunting though. Thanks for the explanation of the logo – I have one of those ( though not as precious as my DT ones!) and had wondered why. I just thought it was for Daisygirl! Might go to bed now, Many thanks to Light and SJB
Sleep is elusive in this weather. I nodded off just on the covers, but the heat has broken and I am going back for another hour under the covers. I hope you finish the crossword tomorrow.
I’m a day later than Daisy. Glanced briefly at this on Sunday evening but too knackered (10hours + outside on the golf course in this heat takes its toll) to do it justice so returned to it this afternoon. Found it a tough nut to crack (far trickier than Sticky today anyway) but got there in the end though with 3 of ‘em unparsed. Needed guidance for the why with the 2nd bit of 18a (must learn those pesky islands but if it ain’t got a distillery on it etc), on the right track with 20d but wouldn’t have explained it as well as the hint & still don’t entirely understand where the interior letters of 25d come from.
Thanks to Light for a very enjoyable Toughie & to John for the blog – love the click here for the musical spoilers. You need to send me an IDIOT proof step by step guide as to how you do it.
Split 25d (1,2,1) and you should see the enclosed collection of letters that come between the last of police and the last of investigation.
I am not sure if WordPress can be idiot proofed, it is different on Android, iPlayer, Kindle and Laptop but I’ll have a think about it and try to explain it in an email
D’oh got it. Ta
I see I’m not the only latecomer to the blog for this Sunday Toughie! I’m finding the summer weekends too busy to find a slot to solve or comment on crosswords – too many sporting distractions on this occasion, plus hosting a BBQ and then clearing up the following day! I put it down to over-indulgence and some enduring weariness that I didn’t enjoy this puzzle as much as usual. Maybe I shouldn’t leave it to the end of the day to solve crosswords! That said, I still have some ticks on my printout: the 11a Spooner, the nicely crafted 22a, and 25a for the best wordplay I have seen for this oft-employed definition/answer. 15a and 4d required a peek at Collins online to confirm my answers, but I’m not sure that my weary brain cells will register this morsel of education.
My thanks to Light – I’ll try to be more alert for your next puzzle! Also, my thanks to SJB for his diligent hints and tips.
They all count, and you still have time to enter for the mythical 🖋️ I agree it was refreshing to see 25d clued a new way.
A belated thank you to commenters and solvers, and to John for the selected hints.
Thanks for popping in, the neglected patch, the spoonerism and the Hebridean island all caught my eye but I liked it all really