Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Hello everyone. I hope you're enjoying the Christmas break.

Please can anyone help with two clues in Times Jumbo 1709? I have answers for both, but don't fully understand the parsing.

30a: Hoover, say, around current carpeting made heat-resistant (11)

The answer looks like FIREPROOFED (made heat-resistant). Current is I, and carpeting (in the sense of "telling-off") is REPROOF - which leaves FED round the outside. Please can someone explain what this has to do with Hoover?

25d: What bores behind Democrat were told again (7)

The answer looks like REHEARD: EH (what) inside REAR (behind) followed by D (Democrat). But what in the clue means REHEARD? It isn't the same as WERE TOLD AGAIN.

All help gratefully received!

John Edgar Hoover (FBI head , so a Fed)

Thank you Jono!

In the second one what is EH, expressing failure to catch something in REAR + D

Sorry, I misread the post. One of the meanings of to hear in Chambers is to be informed, so I think "were told again" is an acceptable definition of "reheard"

Thanks Quisling. I've never come across that definition.

Your parsing agreed with mine, quisling.

I'm struggling to parse:

Following the compass thus makes pupils slip up? WESTWARDS

If you read SLIP UP "westwards" you get PUPILS.
Quite a nice clue!

Thanks for the very swift response chrise. A cracking clue indeed!