Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25960 – Hints
Selected hints by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Our Saturday setter shows what can be done, with the best prize puzzle for quite a while. Put the atlas away, and those books of baby names, all you need this week is to sip on a cocktail.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them. Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Thursday, 25th June.
Across
1a Away team falling into this trap? (7)
A charade of away and team leads to a type of trap on the football field that is hard to explain
13a Too much stress arranging reservation without internet (10)
Look for an anagram, but don’t forget to delete the e as in e-mail!
16a Company car? (9)
Three’s a crowd where this car is concerned!
22a Without water swallow single drink (3,7)
Shaken, not stirred
29a Label having no strings attached? (5-2)
… just glue!
Down
2d Polly fragments? (8)
This little Polly:
a |
Sat among the cinders, |
3d Seven days out of date (8)
An out-of-date term for a week
8d Discreet but ill-mannered in non-U boat (7)
Gordon Brown claimed to be this discreet
17d He goes to right in endless full-toned speech (8)
Full-toned in music is RIC(H), insert the opening charade and you have a speech
23d Topless lady hides gold at dawn (6)
It’s an interesting thought that Little Polly’s mother would end up in court in today’s world!
Whew! This one looks tough!
Thank goodness for your hints – they should get me started and hopefully I can make good progress from there.
Now thats more like it
A good grid and crossword in all. 9a is a real bummer in my opinion.
Much more challenging than most weekends of late.
Yippee at long last a crossword that can almost be called a prize one. Can’t help feeling that yours,Libellule’s,and Peteb’s comments sometimes voiced very strongly have had something to do with this outcome, well done all. Hadn’t realised till today that Aurora was the goddess of dawn, thanks for that Dave. Think 6d must be my favourite clue for today.
wow, as a beginner I found today reasonably easy & easier than the rest of the week the one that has got me stumped is 3d, otherwise I actually finished it, hooray.
Mary
The late Hubert Gregg, one of the presenters on Radio 2, used to use it a lot, but the best known usage of 3 down is in Macbeth, Act I, Scene III:
A heath near Forres.
Thunder. Enter the three Witches
First Witch
Where hast thou been, sister?
Second Witch
Killing swine.
Third Witch
Sister, where thou?
First Witch
A sailors wife had chestnuts in her lap,
And munchd, and munchd, and munchd:–
Give me, quoth I:
Aroint thee, witch! the rump-fed ronyon cries.
Her husbands to Aleppo gone, master o the Tiger:
But in a sieve Ill thither sail,
And, like a rat without a tail,
Ill do, Ill do, and Ill do.
Second Witch
Ill give thee a wind.
First Witch
Thourt kind.
Third Witch
And I another.
First Witch
I myself have all the other,
And the very ports they blow,
All the quarters that they know
I the shipmans card.
I will drain him dry as hay:
Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his pent-house lid;
He shall live a man forbid:
Weary sennights nine times nine
Shall he dwindle, peak and pine:
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tost.
Look what I have.
Second Witch
Show me, show me.
First Witch
Here I have a pilots thumb,
Wreckd as homeward he did come.
Drum within
Third Witch
A drum, a drum!
Macbeth doth come.
ALL
The weird sisters, hand in hand,
Posters of the sea and land,
Thus do go about, about:
Thrice to thine and thrice to mine
And thrice again, to make up nine.
Peace! the charms wound up.
One of my favorite pieces of shakespeare, learnt it as a 12 year old schoolboy, never realised sennight was included in it.
thanks for that have never heard the word before, cheers
I think the compilers have taken heed of some comments about the Saturday crossword. I have supported the view that it has become too easy and riddled with names but today’s was much better in my opinion. 16a stumped me – surely the answer should be hyphenated? 3d is a new word for me too. I enjoyed this one – it’s nice to have it still to complete after 9AM (and after my wife’s beautiful poached eggs on toast for breakfast).
Hi, Can you please explain 23d for me please. What has the Aurora got to do with Dawn? Or have I missed something here?
Gethyn
Welcome to the blog.
It’s so easy to forget when writing these reviews that there are some things which are not universally known.
Aurora is the Roman goddess of the dawn, after whom the Aurora Borealis (and the Aurora Australis) is named.
Click here for Wikipedia article on Aurora
For some inexplicable reason, now corrected, I has Eos, the Greek goddess as the Roman goddess as well in The Mine (see menu tabs at the top of the page).
Ahhh great.
But how does gold=ro? I’m assuming here that the topless girl is (L)aura and that she hides ro.
Thanks for a great site by the way. I always need it for those last three or four that I can’t get.
It’s the other “R” !
Or is the French for gold but, strictly speaking, if used in that way there should be a language indicator like “in France” or “in Paris”.
The reason it is allowed without the indicator is that in English it is the heraldic name for gold or yellow.
Liked this one. Thanks for 3d BD. Would never have got it in a month of SUNDAYS!
Thanks Big Dave, great site, just come across it.
I am have a problem with 10a. I know its an anagram but is there an “e” missing. or is it me ??
Hi jezzerl and welcome to the site.
The anagram is ok. What you want is what Chambers calls an “anglicised” spelling of the Italian gentleman.
Thanks for that gazza, got it now.
Tough but fair on the whole but I must admit 5d and 6d have me completely stumped!!
Presumably 6d is some form of anagram of star and something else but what?
Hi Barrie and welcome to the site.
5d. Add A to a common way of spelling girl
6d. It’s not an anagram. The star is the one in our own solar system – follow this with a synonym for prepared.
It’s good to see that this crossword has provoked a lively debate!
I don’t usually bother with Sat. & Sun. but due to a dicky knee had some time to kill while the Grandkids were swimming, enjoyed Sat. apart from 3d. enjoyed Sun. also, are they actually giving us crosswords? I look forward to next weekend to see if they can keep it up!
I am stumped on 11d and 26d I think my head has crashed any hints appreciated!
Thanks in advance
Hi R1kx and welcome to the blog.
For 11d you need a word meaning “coming before” or earlier.
On 26d “mum” is as in “keep mum” (keep quiet).