ST 2484 – Hints – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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ST 2484 – Hints

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2484 – Hints

Selected Hints by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty **** Enjoyment ****

I don’t always do this crossword, but if today’s is the standard which we can expect every week then I’ll be doing it regularly in future. I think it is excellent, and when selecting which interesting clues to give hints for, my problem was deciding which ones to leave out, rather than which ones to include. As usual a full analysis will appear next Thursday afternoon – in the meantime feel free to leave a comment, but please do not reveal any answers.

I have noticed that the closing date for the Sunday puzzles ha been changed from Thursday to Friday, so the full review will, in future, be published on Friday.  BD

Across Clues

1a  Doctor dictates crucial experimental procedure (4,4)
An anagram (doctor) of “dictates” produces a term for a searching and conclusive appraisal.

10a  Fellows with university providing courses in writing (4)
The sort of courses you need to think of are those you might get in a restaurant.

15a  From Baltimore go North, in area near Washington (6)
Look for a hidden US State which borders the State of Washington (and is nowhere near the nation’s capital!).

16a/14d  TV programme crew is going to show (4,5)
A long-running TV programme is also the name of the flag that a crew raises when their ship is about to leave port.

17a  Took out old hat (5)
Took out (on a romantic assignment) is also a word meaning “old hat”.

18a  How grade might be lowered for nasty person (4)
I love this clue. A student handing in poor work might have his/her grade reduced to a C or even lower!

20a  Resentment voiced in private (6)
“Voiced” indicates a sound-alike of rancour (resentment) which describes a private soldier.

21a  Herb contrary gardener put with flower (8 )
Do you remember the name of the girl in the nursery rhyme (with quite an interesting origin) who was “quite contrary”?

23a  Plane, for example, flying above Britain (12)
An anagram (flying) of “above Britain” describes the sort of word that “plane” is. Other examples are TV, email and phone.

26a  Is repeatedly put in academic stream (4)
The academic stream is the name of the river that flows through Oxford.

Down Clues

2d  Like much work in office of the ministry (8 )
The sort of work that a clerk does also describes a priest, for example.

3d  Vehicle in which one can take flight (6-6)
Flight, as nearly always, means stairs – so you want a type of vehicle that contains a set of stairs.

8d  Supposed I oppose editor (8 )
I oppose is I’M AGIN, a dialect form of “against”.

12d  Thief finally struck wildly at policeman (12)
A word for a thief starts with the final letter of “strucK” which is followed by an anagram (wildly) of “at policeman”.

16d  Marine crustacean exposed, retaining salt (8 )
The chemical name for common salt is sodium chloride, for which the formula is NACL.

19d  Display, so to speak, a kind of horse or cow (8 )
A sound-alike of “air” (display) is followed by a type of heavy powerful horse to get a mainly white breed of cattle, originating from Scotland.

22d  Guy paying court with diamonds, say, and gold (6)
“say” indicates that diamonds is an example of a word that we need – other words which might have been used include hearts or clubs (although the clue would not then have read nearly as well!).

I really enjoyed so many clues, including 21a, 26a, 3d and 8d, but my favourite is 18a.

6 comments on “ST 2484 – Hints

  1. Loved 23a, as it had me stumped for a while , until I added ‘flying’ to my list of anagram indicators. However 26a seemed far too easy for the excellent standard of this crossword!

      1. You are probably right Gazza but if you will excuse the pun I didn’t think it had much ‘depth in it’!

  2. There’s no official statement from the Telegraph, but it seems pretty clear now that the regular Sunday setter has changed. In the past I hardly ever did this puzzle, but now I do so every week.

    Well up to standard this week – 23A is very good, as well as the others mentioned. Surface and cryptic reading brilliantly welded together.

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