DT 26075

32 comments on “DT 26075”

1. Morning BD -nice puzzle for a Monday – looking forward to your explanation of 15d – Why?!! Can’t recall ever coming across the anagram indicator in 16a (but then again, the memory’s not so good these days!)

   1. Nana,
      Soldier is GI placed inside a reversed (overturned) THE by the look of it.

2. I didn’t have my Rufus head on this morning. I always struggle to get into the mindset on Monday so fought for about twice as long as normal.
   1a and 16a were favourites

3. Hiya nanagluggglug – I think 15 d is EIGHT because its “the” overturned (anagram) plus GI an American soldier put together to give an eight as in a rowing boat.

   1. Roger

      If you select “reply” to the comment to which you are replying, your comment will appear under it (like Libellule’s) instead of at the bottom. Up to 10 levels are supported.

      1. A general note – you should select the comment to which your reply relates rather than one of the replies to that comment, like this one!

4. I’m with Gnomethang this morning. I found this a tougher Rufus than usual. It may be that coming back to work after a week off, my train brain was not working. Still an excellent puzzle. 1a and 30a were my favourites. A bonus for Rufus fans this morning is that he also set today’s Guardian cryptic crossword. Unusually, I found his Guardian puzzle easier to complete than the DT. Perhaps they got put in the wrong envelopes!

   1. I’ve just had a run through the Grauniad Online – I agree, I found it much easier than this DT.

5. Ref 1a why can’t he choose a play by Potter or Wilde or Bennett instead of a foreign playwright ? I fear I may be arrested soon for jingoism.
   The crossword itself was of high quality and very enjoyable.

6. Nice, easy start to the week. To be pedantic (again) the title of the Moliere play has the definite article. I didn’t particularly loke the clue for that reason.

7. Enjoyable without being to taxing, I liked 1a and 15d.

8. All fine apart from ‘Bede’ who I’d never heard of. That’s a GCSE education for you, we didn’t cover him in my computing degree.

   1. It seems amazing that the man who arguably made the biggest single contribution to the chronicling of English history should be omitted from the school syllabus. And they can’t even use political correctness as an excuse.

      1. We studied him in passing in History during 1st Year grammar – that was in 1981 so I guess this no longer applies!

9. sorry Dave that comment went in entirely the wrong place – apologies

   …. I’ve moved it down here for you! …

   seems i’m alone so far in not finding this one too easy…..never heard of Bede 19a, or Brio 11a, went all wrong with 7d it? Though I understood 15d and the ref. to a crew of eight, an eight is not a boat – or is it??? be interesting to know what fellow ‘clueless club’ members think today

   1. An eight is used to refer to the boat crewed by this number of people in rowing circles – think of the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.

      Brio is often used in musical notation as “Con Brio” – with vigour (According to Flanders and Swann it is equivalent to mf – ‘German for mit feeling’!). I came across it first in a bawdy limerick..

      On Saturn the sexes are three
      Which is tricky, I think you will see
      To form a con brio
      You must have a trio
      And it even takes two for a pee.

      1. fancy me not knowing that, being a flautist too!! thanks Prolixic

   2. I’m with you Mary – found it pretty tricky today, especially after the two weekenders. Heard of Bede but not Brio(or only as a kiddies train track!) or Naif. Did like 1a, 10a and 30a though…. and thought I was doing so well!

   3. Mary, once I got going everything seemed to fall into place. I did know about an eight as I used to row!

10. Very enjoyable, although I usually dislike too many 4 lettered answers.
    Favourites probably 1a and 16d .. thought the latter was very clever (although easily solved)
    Not keen on 27a, and needed your confirmation ref mean = near!

    1. I always understood ‘near’ as being a synonym of ‘mean, tight, coin-wary’.

       1. It seems you are right, but I had never heard of it used in that context before.

       2. An online Thesaurus gives this adjective:

          4. near – giving or spending with reluctance; “our cheeseparing administration”; “very close (or near) with his money”; “a penny-pinching miserly old man”
          cheeseparing, penny-pinching, skinny, close
          stingy, ungenerous – unwilling to spend; “she practices economy without being stingy”; “an ungenerous response to the appeal for funds”

          So I would go for a Double Definition.

          1. Thanks gnomethang … must remember that for future reference.
             Have just looked in Bradford’s, which also gives this as a synonym in “both directions”!

11. Yes, a fairly easy one to start the week! I was on the wrong track with 14a, looking for a word meaning to cut or slice and to run or escape!!
    Whereas, as Big Dave points out the ‘run’ means to manage. And, initially, I thought 20d was bowl out but’cheat’ and ‘redcoat’ put me right.

12. Another excellent Monday puzzle – a lot of double definitions but very enjoyable ones. My choice for clues of the day are 10a – which I got fairly early on and 30a.

    Took longer than it should have to get 28a so had to do the three 4 letters first!

    Enjoyable day – did Sunday’s this morning and this one this afternoon – nice way to spend the day.

13. Didn’t like it, found it quite tricky. Still I have learned a new word NAIF, had to check it in chambers. Don’t like some of the anagram indicators, far too obscure.

    1. I thought i was the only one that didn’t like it today – cheers Barrie

14. I didnt do too badly today but had to look up a couple – eg the moliere play. I would agree that it was trickier than most Mondays – I would rate it as a Wednesday! Haven’t we had the answer to 13d quite recently – I remember it as an anagram also. Never heard of 11a but easy to work out with crossing letters. I thought it was a good mix of some very easy clues and some very tricky ones. with 1a, 10a 12d and 13d in place it made things easier.
    well done compiler and thanks for the explanations BD. (Only downside was no cricketing clues!)

15. One day there will be a puzzle that Barrie likes.

    As I am asthmatic, I am not holding my breath for that day.,

    1. to be fair Barrie has liked a few, like me he is relatively new to this and still finds many puzzles that more experienced setters find easy, difficult, I find somedays a puzzle is easy to ‘understand’ and other days I am really baffled as to what the setter is looking for and even when I get the answer, albeit with some help, i just do not like it, as we progress in this new world, with the help of people like yourselves, for which we are really grateful, we live in the hope that one day all will become clear

       1. Thank you Mary for your much appreciated support. I get very fed up with those sitting on the top of the mountain looking down in all ways on those of us struggling with the foothills. These things take time and I always thought crosswords puzzles were meant to be a fun way to pass the time, not a qualification for Bletchley Park.

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