Sunday Toughie 195 (Hints) – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
View closed comments 

Sunday Toughie 195 (Hints)

by Sloop John Bee  

Sunday Toughie No 195


by Zandio (With a little help from CL)

 

Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee

 

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

This was from Zandio on the blog for his Friday backpager. I don’t think today’s Sunday Toughie was quite as tricky as that, but YMMV.
 Zandio

Hello, compiler here. Thanks very much for taking the time to solve, analyse and discuss.
I hope you might take a look at this weekend’s Sunday Toughie. I was in Yorkshire last month visiting Chris Lancaster, the Telegraph Puzzles Editor, and I had a newly-filled grid which I asked him to print out for me so I could write clues on the train journey home. Chris kindly did, and then immediately started suggesting ideas for clues. The upshot is, there are several clues in the Sunday Toughie that originated with Mr Lancaster. I’m pretty sure one of them will be the favourite clue of the day — an absolute corker (which I can say because it wasn’t my idea). Hope you enjoy it.
Thanks again for the feedback today. Have a great weekend.

14a, 1d, 2d and 19d were fighting it out for my podium, but I am not going to try and guess which clues Zandio is referring to; I enjoyed them all. I would like to have hinted many more, but the convention on prize puzzles limits me to about half hints. Even the Spoonerism missed the cut today (btw it is Russian)

We have 14a and 16d clues today, and I have hinted at half. Several lurkers that may trap the unwary and anagrams, including an &lit anagram, missed the cut, too. 

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          Stand-in for substitute? (7)

A double definition &lit. Stand-in and substitute are two words that can be used interchangeably in a given context.

11a       Anecdot? (5,5)

What has happened to the anecdote?

14a       Parking roasting pan out back, batter that man the starter of red snapper (12)

A lot of Lego™ here, start with the map symbol for parking, a roasting temperature, to pan out that is reversed (back), to batter on the knuckles perhaps, the objective male pronoun for that man and finally the starter of red.

Project 2: David Bailey – Studio Photographer (Presentation) – Level 2 UAL – Photography

 

21a       And what have you applied with husband getting cut? (4)

An abbreviated adverb for what have you, and the abbreviation of husband.

22a       Four members per side engaged in combat? (4,6)

To use all four of your “members” in combat.
Kick boxing and mixed martial arts logo vector | Premium Vector

27a       Heard nude group like a nice fire? (7)

A homophone of an informal state of being in the nude and a group.
The Easiest Way to Build a Roaring Fire in Your Fireplace | Lifehacker

28a       King, 21, happy to get extra for English breakfast? (7)

A chess piece and the answer to 21a are joined with a 1a of happy. Not on my breakfast when the condiment favoured in the Houses of Parliament is available.

The very British history of HP sauce | The Spectator

Down

1d         Most learned of gossip going round East Street (6)

A reversal (going round) of an informal to gossip, followed by abbreviations of the last two words. I liked this clue because it allows me to tell an “anecdot-e” about how Professor Roy Bittan got his nickname “Professor” – He was (supposedly) the only member of the East Street Band to get his college degree.

2d         Northern Liberal appearing in feature about who looks down on Londoners? (6)

Abbreviations of the first two words in a reversal (about) of a facial feature. He specifically looks down Whitehall towards his employers, the Admiralty and the Houses of Parliament. 
Nelson's Column - History and Facts | History Hit

3d

7d         Vision of nearly 19, agreed to split up (8)

Almost all of the answer to 19d, split by an affirmative for agreed to.

8d         Public address finally announces game that’s shown both sides of border? (8)

An abbreviation for public address, a final letter and a physical game. It is shown when crossing borders.
Allow up to ten weeks to apply for a British passport - GOV.UK

 

16d       The old woman with face to kiss, on base done with this? (8)

A slightly politically incorrect way to cause an old woman to be kissable. From an informal old woman, the face to kiss, the base letter of logarithms, and a 1a of done.

19d       Top cycling? Not even on the podium! (6)

A nice surface for a cycling fan.

The mountain that occupies this elevated position is Manaslu; it tops out at 26,871 feet. Cycle its elevation one letter for its position in the table of mountains.

20d       Container goods European Commission holds up (6)

The European Commission holds plural good abbreviations, followed by up from the clue.

24d       Try to sit on one that’s for hire (4)

Trying one’s patience with the letter that Romans use for one.

Compiler

Zandio (With a little help from Chris Lancaster)

 

 

Could new readers please read the Welcome Post and the FAQ before posting comments or asking questions about the site.
As this is a Prize crossword, please don’t put any ANSWERS, whether WHOLE, PARTIAL or INCORRECT or any ALTERNATIVE CLUES in your comment.
Please read these instructions carefully – they are not subject to debate or discussion. Offending comments may be redacted or, in extreme cases, deleted. In all cases the administrator’s decision is final.
If you don’t understand, or don’t wish to comply with, the conventions for commenting on weekend prize puzzles then save yourself a lot of trouble and don’t leave a comment

Professor Roy J Bittan certainly gets around. He played on Bat out of Hell and many others, and provided the keyboard on Dire Straits – Making Movies.

That’s All Folks…

49 comments on “Sunday Toughie 195 (Hints)”

  1. Many thanks to Zandio for the enjoyable puzzle and to SJB for the hints.
    My favourite was the “struggle to shift” at 12a.

    2. I have just realised I did not show my appreciation to Chris Lancaster for his input on this puzzle.
      My apologies, and many thanks

  2. I don’t usually attempt the Toughie but after Zandio’s comment on the cryptic blog I felt it would be rude not to. I’m so glad I did with smiles all over the place.
    Top picks for me were 11a, 9a, 22a, 27a and 19d.

    Thanks to Zandio and Chris Lancaster and to SJB for being there should I have needed him.

  3. Pleased to have finished a Zandio toughie. My top three are 5a 9a and my favourite, 11a Anecdot? (I wondered if that was one of Chris’s but I’m rubbish at guessing the setter!). I was indeed one of the unwary trapped by a lurker!
    Thanks to Zandio for the Sunday fun and SJB for the hints

  4. I’d completely forgotten about Zandio’s vignette, so ta lots for the reminder. I’m sure we’d all love to know which ones sprang from CL. The Spooner’s a treat and 2d tickled me. 14’a Lego was fun to untangle, too. Best thanks to Zandio, CL and Sloop. Ustinov, Bruce and cycling? Works for me!

    1. Ustinov was certainly a master of the anecdote, tons of links to him on Parkinson and similar chat shows.

  5. I don’t know which clues were Zandio’s or which were Chris Lancaster’s, but combined together they have produced a very enjoyable puzzle. I had fun unravelling the 6 elements of the 14a wordplay – quite a feat to construct! My favourites, however, were 9, 11 & 18 in the across clues and 2, 13 & 20 in the down clues. I had ticked 2d and 20d and was trying to decide between 15 or 19 for my 3rd down podium place until the penny finally dropped on my LOI, 13d – a perfect example of a clue of its genre.
    Zandio usually posts a comment, so perhaps he will dare to let us know which of our setters has won out on the podium awards :wink:
    Thanks to him, to Chris (for his contribution today and for his diligent work behind the scenes) and, of course, to SJB.

    1. I couldn’t pick a clear winner today, they were all good but 15d is a cracking &lit anagram.

      1. The clear winner was Tadej Pogacar in your clip for 19d! What a brutal ramp up to the finish line, but given that he was in contention toward the end of race the outcome was perhaps inevitable…

        1. The Mur de Huy is beyond my abilities (I wouldn’t finish 19hundredth) maybe I would have done better at the Mur de Ned yesterday.

  6. I am completely stuck on 12a – my last one left. I have been all through the alphabet to no avail. I shall have to do a bit more sideways thinking. Lovely guzzle, thank you so much on a miserable Sunday with no energy and lots of tasks glaring at me reproachfully. I did get off to a cracking start with the brilliant 1a followed by the equally sweet 5a. I also really liked the simplicity of 11a. I wonder if any of those belong to Mr CL? Anyway, enormous thanks to Zandio and SJB. (regards to Mama Bee) I shall go and have a postprandial nap and hope I shall awake with the answer to 12a.

    1. 12a is a contraction for this person in a record of album length. Defined as the struggle to shift with a dodgy lower member.

  7. What a cracking puzzle.
    Ticks all over my page and difficult to pick a last word of 19d, but that clue for me sits at the top of it.
    Also fighting for honours is the Soviet holiday camp at 9a, 12a’s gammy Bermondsey bowl and the old salt on the plinth watching him lurch by from 2d.
    Great fun, thanks to the top three involved here, Zandio, Chris Lancaster and SJB.

    1. I had to look it up as I am not a resident of The Den like yourself, but Bermondsey Bowl is a cracking image linked with a Peckham Prowl or a Millwall Meander perhaps.

      1. There were plenty of top boys exaggerating their strut when I was a kid. We’d copy them and laugh at each other. Made our own fun back in those days, John…

  8. Couldn’t resist doing this after that introduction. Poignant.
    One master visits another…
    Happily, that horrible condition doesn’t harm the cruciverbal mind.
    Clever the way two clues depended on 21a, which took a while to work out. I loved the anecdot !
    Favourite was the “top cycling”. Didn’t realise it was hinted, but Chat GPT :phew: explained it for me, and I admired the hint, Looks like equal fun solving and hinting.
    Big thanks to Z, CL and SJB.

    1. It certainly was a treat to solve this last night, and just as much fun to hint. The hardest part was deciding which ones to leave out

  9. It would certainly be interesting to learn which clues our illustrious editor penned – I do miss his Samuel puzzles. Plenty to enjoy in today’s Toughie although I was disappointed not to get a Commodores clip to accompany 3d. Top clue for me was, unusually, the Spoonerism, and it’s joined on the slightly enlarged podium by 1,2&11a.

    Many thanks to Zandio and Chris for the puzzle and to SJB for the hints.

    1. If you click on the spoiler next to 3d you will find The Commodores. (And I spared you Bruces version)
      It looks like 11a gets the vote from the commentariat today, but definitely a long list of contenders.

  10. Don’t normally do the toughie but Zandio’s comment intrigued me. Glad I did. It was hard but well worth the effort. Loved the 1a stand in and the superb spoonerism at 9a. But COTD has to go to the 11a anecdot!!!! (Hard work stopping the spell checker on that one). Thanks to Zandio, CL and SJB.

  11. Most enjoyable- thanks to the twin setters for this assembly of clever and amusing clues. Not too much head scratching with the top half but needed a few hints to get me going in the bottom half.

    Lots of favourites but 1a and 11a are top for me.

    Have a couple of examples the left hand side illustration for 14a in the cabinet opposite me – must use them more often.

    Thanks to setters and SJB.

      1. I remember him in an ad for a more simple camera made by another manufacturer.

        “I’ve got all your records”

        1. This one; 😉

  12. Great puzzle, thanks. 13d was my last one, never can spot the obvious!
    12a was rather nasty – “this person’s” sent me in the wrong direction for ages.

  13. Hello, compiler here. Thanks very much for taking the time to solve, hint and discuss.
    Chris Lancaster fired off suggestions for four clues, which I used.
    5a: Chris suggested the first part, and in fact Deputy Puzzles Editor Michael Baker (who edited the puzzle) added the second part. I never use false capitals, but it’s such a clever idea that I was happy to have it.
    9a: Chris suggested the Spoonerism. I rarely use Spoonerisms, but Chris likes to use one in every cryptic he writes. This is the “corker” that I thought would be the solvers’ favourite.
    5d: Chris suggested there could be a lurker using “ragu”. I always like to have two lurkers, so I wrote hiddens for this and 10a.
    13d Chris also suggested this could be a lurker, and then came up with a complete clue; hence we have three lurkers.
    Thank you to anyone who would not normally try the Toughie. I think it’s well-known that the Tuesday Toughie is on the easier side. Well, so is the Sunday Toughie, at least when I have the privilege of setting it.

    1. So good to have this feedback :good:
      Wouldn’t it be great to have an instant “reaction” Icon, like they do on WhatsApp?
      Brilliant to have this explanation after a “watershed” hour, to validate people‘s guesses.

    2. By the way, Michael Baker also suggested the first three words of 12a, which improved the clue immensely.

      1. Well I thank him too, without that we would never have learned about the Bermondsey Bowl or Peckham Prowl from Frankiemillwall

    3. Thanks to you all for a great puzzle. I’m not normally a fan of Spoonerisms but that one did make smile. I reckon you got the winner though Zandio with 11a!

    4. Well then, I selected 2 of Chris’s 4 suggestions in my list of favourite clues. That’s a 50% success rate for Chris and so… I declare everyone a winner! A great puzzle all round :smile:

  14. I don’t attempt the Toughie very often but gave this one a go and was glad I did as it was very entertaining. Four of the clues defeated me, three of which SJB hinted which allowed them to fall in place. That only left 13D which came with a bonus hint from Zandio! I have so many bruises from kicking myself when a lurker has been staring me in the face all the time.

    My favourites would be the anecdot and the Spoonerism (unusual to have such a short Spoonerism, I think).

    Thanks for the Sunday entertainment and help from SJB, Zandio and CL. I’ll have to give Tuesday’s Toughie a go.

  16. Didn’t find this anywhere as straightforward as others did & Zandio clearly thinks it was & fell one short, needing the hint for 19d (d’oh). Extremely enjoyable – 5a was my clear fav with podium spots for 11a & 13d & plenty of ticks elsewhere.
    Thanks to all involved & to John

  17. Thank you to Zandio and Chris Lancaster for the entertainment, and Sloop John Bee for making it finishable for me. Lovely to hear news from Chris Lancaster and to get to experience some of his clues.

    So many to like, with my top few being 21a (“what have you”), 27a (“nude group”), 3d (“screen work”), 5d (“something pointed”), and 13d (“steamy”).

Comments are closed.