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…
Continue reading “Sunday Toughie 30 (Hints)”
Sunday Toughie No 26 by proXimal
Review by Sloop John Bee
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This puzzle was published on the 24th of July 2022
Continue reading “Sunday Toughie 26”
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…
Continue reading “Sunday Toughie 26 (Hints)”
Sunday Toughie No 23 by proXimal
Review by Sloop John Bee
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This puzzle was published on the 3rd of July 2022
Continue reading “Sunday Toughie 23”
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…
Continue reading “Sunday Toughie 23 (Hints)”
Sunday Toughie No 20 by proXimal
Review by Sloop John Bee
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This puzzle was published on the 12th of June 2022
This was a tricky little devil that took me a lot longer to solve than the previous proXimal I blogged for the holidaying Deep Threat (Two days earlier #30,010). It is impressive how the other SJB (Steven J Bartlett) can pitch his puzzles with just the right level of difficulty between his back page and toughie puzzles. I believe I get one more go in DT’s blogging chair on the 1st of July, I wonder who I will get then.
Continue reading “Sunday Toughie 20”
Sunday Toughie No 20 by proXimal
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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After Friday’s relatively easy X less pangram, I was expecting a sterner test today, and boy did I get it. This took at least 3 times longer than Friday’s proXimal most of it spent staring at answers and reverse parsing them. I admit that the first word of 9a remains unparsed. I can explain the head part, but is he a twin or just a bad chef. Over to your good selves to help out. Anyway, this blog isn’t going to write itself so here goes…
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Sunday Toughie No 17 by proXimal
Review by Sloop John Bee
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This puzzle was published on the 22nd of May 2022
Across
7a Protective covering around slate unit (8)
CARAPACE: We start with one of crossword lands usuals, around as an approximation CA for Circa, add the slating you may receive across the knuckles perhaps RAP, and a playing card that represents a unit ACE.… Continue reading
Sunday Toughie No 17 by proXimal
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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This was a real tricky one for me. I was able to have a blog at another of the Sunday Toughie setters (Zandio) in a Friday back page guise and although it was quite tricky I managed it in half the time that this proXimal Toughie took.… Continue reading
Sunday Toughie No 15 by proXimal
Review by Sloop John Bee
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This puzzle was published on the 8th of May 2022
Continue reading “Sunday Toughie 15”