Sunday Toughie 247
by Silvanus
Hints & Tips by Sloop John Bee
The sixth Sunday Toughie from Silvanus was a pleasure to solve, but I am going to have to rush this blog a bit as I am going to the Ilkley Literary Festival to a talk about a crossword-related crime mystery that Smylers mentioned on Monday
I will add nudges and comments afterwards
Here we go…
Across
9a Sign of mostly heavy drinker overindulging (9)
A sign of things to come. An overindulgent drinker follows most of a synonym of heavy
That a picture of a beer belly is credited to a photographer named Porter tickles me
11a Note cost to house extremely unconvincing asylum seeker (7)
A note on the usual tonic scale and a cost that has housed the extreme letters of unconvincing
12a Chat with politician protecting city’s old street feature (3,4)
An informal natter and a politician go around (protecting) an abbreviated American city
20a
21a What pricy car hire service may do for commercial listings (4,5)
To hire out a luxury car, or the listings of returns from commercial property
24a Diet of mine after vacation visiting revolutionary country (7)
A council or parliament from reversing a landlocked West African country around what remains of mine when vacated
28a Top policeman finally pursuing one involved in murder? (5)
One of the members of a collective noun known as a Murder of, and the final letter of policeman
An apt image, as I did get up early to allow me and Mama Bee to go to the Ilkley Literary Festival event promoted by Smylers in his Monday Blog
Down
1d Newsman’s focus on that girl’s dad, skilled mountaineer (6)
The letter at the focus of newsman, a female possessive and an informal dad
3d Discovered pain is back playing rugby (4)
A sharp pain loses its covering letters
5d Tedious experience meeting Gulf state interpreter (8)
A tedious experience and a Gulf state combine to be a new-to-me term for an interpreter or guide in Eastern countries
6d Broadcaster’s bound to cover opening of remarkable building (10)
A satellite broadcaster (and the plural’ess), To bound like a spring lamb around the opening letter of remarkable
14d Around noon, Cornish tourist catches count in London Tube station (10)
A Cornish dialect word for an ant (Which they use to refer to tourists) into which we have caught n for noon and to count or rely on
16d Delay entering ground hellish for club, Hibernian (10)
A three-letter delay enters an anagram (ground) of hellish
17d Falls out of Renault car at a corner heading north (8)
A lurker (out of) that is reversed (heading north) between the (indicators)
23d Broadcast reported rowing crew obtaining drug (6)
Homophones (broadcast) of reported and a rowing crew
27d Artist using uplifting yellow medium to capture island (4)
Heraldic yellow or gold, and abbreviations of medium and island are reversed (uplifting in a down clue). I have seen his art in Barcelona; vibrant yellows, blues and reds are features of his works
Compiler
Silvanus
Discussions yesterday sent me down an ELO rabbit hole; this one seems most apt for the end of the blog
That’s All Folks…
One of the best things about solving cryptic crosswords is when the dictionary confirms an unknown word actually exists, thereby proving parsing was correct.
The plant in 29a, the interpreter in 5d and the Irish club at 16d all needed checking, but I knew the Cornish tourist, which helped with 14d.
Lots of amusement to go with the obscurities, I liked the heavy drinker in 9a, 19a’s wipes, one involved in murder at 28a and the back playing rugby in 3d.
I’ll have to go with 17d as COTD though, for its less common definition, fun factor and super surface read.
A nice mix of clues, this was a pleasure to solve.
My thanks to Silvanus and SJB.
The clue for 27d spilled onto a second page of printout so just had to be solved first. My first attempt required that the NME (New Musical Express) was printed on yellowish pages – which until the 1990’s was not far from reality! Solving 29a put me back on course…
A most enjoyable puzzle from Silvanus with lots of nice surfaces, including a couple of excellent, well-disguised lurkers! The surface of 4d brought a broad smile and is in my Down favourites, the others being 2 and 16 (I did have to check my spelling!). Across favourites were 13, 17 and 28. The dictionary was also required for 5d, which was a word I recalled but I needed to confirm the meaning.
My thanks to Silvanus and to SJB – that’s an interesting choice of definition meaning for 24a…
I went with the council definition as Silvanus had capitalised Diet, but it may just be because it was the first word of the clue. Your dietary requirements are equally valid
A top quality puzzle from Silvanus that’s probably marginally gentler than his Friday back-pager – thanks to him and SJB.
I knew the Hibernian club but didn’t know how to spell it so that needed verification.
The clues I liked best were 17a, 3d, 4d and 17d.
Great clueing from Silvanus, with elegant misdirection.
Masterful hinting as ever from busy SJB.
A bit of Ludwig meets Thursday Murder Club in the book review
14d puts me off going there…
Thanks to setter and hinter and all
Never come across this word. Worse than grockle