Sunday Toughie No 32 by Zandio
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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My quickest ever Sunday Toughie last night, but still a couple of parsings that followed on a later bus. Although I got to bed early last night a little bit too much Laphroaig, printer issues and Mama Bee’s requirements have put me behind a little.
We have an evenly balanced 28 clues today and I have hints for seven across and seven down clues. I have not hinted the lurkers but they are all down clues and reversed and the shortest is reversed and alternate letters.
Here we go…
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Sunday Toughie No 31 by Robyn
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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I understand that my silence on recent matters has caused some speculation, but nothing more should be read into it than the fact that I have a full-time job and an elderly mother with Alzheimer’s and cataracts to look after most of the time.
At the time of writing the puzzles website hasn’t updated the list of Sunday Toughie Setters but, I am expecting a Robyn today. I hope the dead tree arrives early enough on a Bank Holiday Sunday when my paperboy is spending all his earnings on a ticket to the Leeds Festival, that I can faintly hear 4 miles away. Update – the dead tree has arrived and I can confirm we have a Robyn.
Here we go with the hints for an uneven 16a 13d clues just over half are hinted.
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Sunday Toughie No 30 by proXimal
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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I am definitely finding proXimal the trickiest of the Sunday Toughie triumvirate, and today was a devil to parse in places, but if you closely follow the wordplay it can be done. We get a generous 30 clues today split 14a and 16d.
I have hinted a bit more than half, but as ever will be tolerant of some help from the commentariat.
I had to sleep on a couple of these as the parsings arrived long after the grid was filled and last night’s tincture of choice was wearing off.
This morning’s coffee is an Ethiopian Rocko Mountain, with tasting notes of peach, strawberry and dark chocolate. At least two cups of which were required to stimulate the brain cells this morning.
Here goes with the hints…
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Sunday Toughie No 29 by Zandio
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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Zandio was the first to do successive Sunday Toughies (#8 and #9) and here he is again with #28 and #29. what’s the betting that I get Zandio on Friday when I stand in for Deep Threat again?
Not the trickiest Sunday Toughie ever tackled but still a good workout for the brain. I see that it is the free-to-access puzzle today, so a few more people should be able to have a go. I do wish the powers that be at the DT get the Sunday Toughie available on the app as that would also boost the audience for these fine puzzles.
Anyway here we go with an evenly split 14a and 14d clues half hinted.
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Sunday Toughie No 28 by Zandio
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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A definite Toughie today with a lot of the parsings following the solutions by a country mile. My usual dilemma is restricting the hints to about half, as there are tricky bits to most of them. There are not many pure anagrams but I have left the lurkers unhinted, save that they are both reversed.
Anyway, here we go with an evenly split 14/28 hints.
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Sunday Toughie No 27 by Robyn
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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The crossword wasn’t too difficult by Sunday Toughie standards, As I was awaiting the midnight publication of today’s toughie I fell asleep with a wee 8d at hand. I awoke with a start and made a meal of dealing with network and printer problems into the small hours. Thankfully when I was able to access the puzzle it wasn’t too difficult, either that or my crossword skills have come on leaps and bounds over the last 27 weeks.
I may have detected a slight theme as I have quite a few answers with a Sci-Fi / Space theme but I may have been led astray by the Twitter meme that today is the actual birthdate of George Jetson.
Anyway here we go with an evenly split 14a/14d clues, exactly half of which I have hinted.
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Sunday Toughie No 26 by proXimal
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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A slightly more benevolent proXimal today, the top half almost rattled off the keyboard but the bottom half slowed things up a bit. I have hinted at exactly half of an evenly balanced 14a/14d clues. I hope we don’t have any late changes today as I haven’t quite recovered from the shenanigans over last week’s lurker that wasn’t.
Nocturnal refreshment was from the Black Sheep Brewery and the Bruichladdich distillery, this morning I am still drinking the slightly too dark Brazilian coffee I referred to last week.
Here goes with the hints…
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Sunday Toughie No 25 by Zandio
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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Welcome to the Silver Jubilee of Sunday Toughie puzzles. Twenty Nine clues today split 16a/13d, most of them tripped off my stylus with an appropriate Sunday Toughieness, but two have foxed me greatly, more of which later when I have decided if they need hinting. Last night’s refreshment came courtesy of the fine distillers at Bruichladdich, this morning I am drinking a Brazilian blend that came with my new espresso machine. It is a tad too darkly roasted for me but you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth and I will be drinking it for a while. Anyway here goes with Sunday Toughie 25.
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Sunday Toughie No 24 by Robyn
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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Not as brain mangling as some Sunday Toughies but still a definite toughie. I may have not got some of my parsings 100% but somewhat distracted by Mama Bee’s first cataract op. Refreshment last night was Staropramen and Laphroaig, this morning it is Guatemalan Red de Mujeres, organic coffee with notes of raspberry, toasted almonds and toffee.
Here goes with 15 of 30 clues hinted, I hope you find enough checkers to help you.
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Sunday Toughie No 23 by proXimal
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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I stared at a virtually empty grid for ages until the pennies started to drop, but that was a real toughie. On the grounds of difficulty, I am struggling to leave any unhinted but here we go. I will try and toss in a bonus pic hints but as most of Sunday so far has been spent wrestling with this I may be brief. This won’t get the baby bathed so here we go…
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