Need a bit of help with NYT Strands today? Today's theme -- "Best of the best" -- is rather tricky. In fact, I didn't quite get it until I had every answer on the board!

Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #238, as well as the answers, should it come to that. We'll start off with some clues, before building up to the full answer for Strands #238, so read on if you need a little help.

If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:

Still struggling? The spangram will give you a hint about the connection word. Today, it starts with 'P' and ends with 'R'.

Hi Strands fans. I'm embarrassed to say I didn't quite get the topic of this puzzle until I had every answer on the board. That's despite using no clues and getting the spangram - PERFECTPAIR - straight away.

I imagine you've figured it out, but if not I'll explain at the end. But first, here's how I got there.

After getting the spangram, I assumed it would be positive nouns, hence me getting CLASS first. PARTY, CROP and LITTER were just words I found on the way to completing the bottom half.

The top half followed in much the same way, with me just seeing words and connecting them at random. I started with CREAM, followed by PICK. I then managed to divide the eight remaining letters into HEAD and LIFE.

So what's the connection? The words on the bottom half pair with the answers from the bottom segment to make well-known phrases to describe when something is 'the best'.

That means "CREAM of the CROP", "PICK of the LITTER", "LIFE of the PARTY" and "HEAD of the CLASS". A clever puzzle, but one that was completely over my head until the very end!