DT 26124

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26124

Winding Up or Down the Year

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **

Another gentle wind-down towards year’s end in keeping with the recent run of daily puzzles, which seem to be finding a good level for solvers. I am sure that most of the regulars will find this acceptable. There were a few really nice clues, but a couple of weak ones. These seem again to be the cryptic definitions.

If I have one wish for this particular puzzle in 2010, it’s that our setters will not try to outdo each other by trying to come up with smarter and smarter cryptic definitions. A good cryptic definition will come naturally and push all the right buttons, but I believe that far too many are forced and demonstrate a lack of adventure and thought on the part of the setter.

If you have finished this, and have a little time to spare, try these two challenges from the Guardian of the past two days by Giovanni and Elgar respectively. Both extremely enjoyable!

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2009/12/22/gdn.cryptic.20091229.pdf

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2009/12/22/gdn.cryptic.20091230.pdf

Rant over. Can I take this opportunity to wish you all a happy and challenging New Year and thanks to everyone for their kind comments and messages during 2009. See you next year!

Across

7a    Mind china for someone close (4,4)
{SOUL MATE} A simple word sum to set things off today. A word for mind or spirit, plus in Cockney rhyming slang, china is a shortened version of “china plate” which is a rhyming word for a friend or ally. The whole thing then defines someone close. A bit messy for me, with two of the three definitions being similar.

9a    US general on track, with room to manoeuvre (6)
{LEEWAY} Add a short word for road, or avenue on to the end of famous US general Robert E. This will give you a word meaning room for expression or latitude.

10a    Free turncoat held by US soldiers (6)
{GRATIS} A turncoat is unprincipled and an unprincipled person may be named after which creature? This needs to be placed inside an abbreviation for American soldiers to give you the Latin word for free of charge.

11a    Embarrassed, old woman producing meths drink (3,5)
{RED BIDDY} One you’ve either heard of or not (hopefully not consumed!). Think of the colour of your face if you are embarrassed and add to it a slang name for an old lady. If you are still stuck, try googling Ms Baxter who used to be the ferocious editor of children’s TV show Blue Peter. The drink is commonly made from mixing cheap wine and meths, but it’s also a beer and seems to be a similarly foul concoction.

12a    Turned in by gold broker one’s crossed in New York (8,6)
{BROOKLYN BRIDGE} An anagram (indicated by turned) of IN BY GOLD BROKER gives you a construction found in the Big Apple.

15a    A papal edict? Nonsense (4)
{BULL} Double definition. A word for a papal edict, and the other refers to nonsense “A load of old _____”

17a    Deer curiously circling one duck (5)
{EIDER} An anagram (curiously) of DEER around I (for one) gives you the name of a breed of duck.

19a    Man staff caught out (4)
{ROOK} The man here is not a person, it’s a piece in a well-known board game. In fact, “member of board” might have added value to the clue instead of just “man” which is a little lax to me.

20a    What past master gave at school? (7,7)
{HISTORY LESSONS} This illustrates my point about cryptic definitions. I don’t see how this can lead to anything else other than the solution.

23a    Unhappy on stage, so quit (4,4)
{STEP DOWN} A word sum. Attach a word meaning depressed, or fed up onto a word meaning a piece or a stage or part of something. This will give you a two word phrase meaning to quit or resign.

25a    Ready to drive off, wearing harness (2,4)
{IN GEAR} if you are ready to drive away, your car must be this. As for the other definition, I presume it’s something tied up with hunting.

27a    Compensate for cancelled series (6)
{OFFSET} A word meaning to compensate or balance is the definition required. A word sum comprises the answer if something is cancelled it’s not on, it’s ___ and add to this another word for a series or group.

28a    Fly back wearing new gear supplied by the clothing industry (3,5)
{RAG TRADE} Reverse a word meaning to fly or, when plural, a sport (the two world championships of this sport are on at the moment) and around it place an anagram of GEAR. This will lead you to a phrase referring to the clothing industry, that was also the name of a successful sitcom of the 1960’s.

Down

1d               Take up space in dock (4)
{MOOR}     Reverse a word meaning space, or a part of a house and you’ll get a word meaning dock or land.

2d               Extremely drunk, bishop on top of house (6)
{BLOTTO}   }  On checking my Chambers via iPod  (the joy of gadgets!), this is a word meaning drunk comprising B (Bishop) on top of LOTTO.  However, lotto is another word for bingo, also known as housey-housey.  I can only think that you can shout “lotto” instead of “house” to claim a prize.  However Chambers doesn’t confirm this.

3d               Conflict involving East River (4)
{WEAR}       A word for conflict or fighting needs an E inserted to make the name of a famous river of the North East.

4d               Fifty fish put aboard Greek sailplane (6)
{GLIDER}     One of the favourite fish stocked in Crosswordland’s lake is the IDE,  here it has an L before it to show fifty and the whole is then surrounded by GR for Greek.  This gives you a type of sailplane.

5d               Become more violent and stagger (8)
{BEWILDER}    If you are more violent, could be be said to BE WILDER, and of course put the two words together and you get a word meaning amaze or stagger.

6d               An article from the previous issue? (4-2-4)
{HAND-ME-DOWN}     A cryptic definition for those clothes that other members of your family wore before you.  Bit of a bugger if you were the only lad among girls!

8d               Pardon seaman’s answer (7)
{ABSOLVE}  AB is a stock abbreviation for a sailor, and add to it a word meaning answer, as in a crossword clue.  This will lead you to a word meaning pardon.

13d             Violence in rowdy crowd (5,5)
{ROUGH STUFF}  A phrase meaning violence is made up a word meaning rowdy and one meaning crowd or fill-up.

14d             A tern uncommon in New York (5)
{NODDY}    Apart from being Enid Blyton’s children’s favourite, a noddy is also a member of the tern family, a word meaning “uncommon” or “not even” goes inside NY  (New York).

Which reminds me of the reason why elephants have Big Ears.   Noddy won’t stump up the ransom.  I’ll get my hat.

16d             Least likely place for a bugle call (4,4)
{LAST POST}    A double definition that looks at first like a cryptic definition, synonyms for least likely and place leading to a bugle call.

18d             Whirling dance in centre of Lagos (7)
{REELING}   A few of the definitions and sub-definitions have been a bit close to each other today, and this one is another example.  Whirling is the definition. The  rest is a word sum  a dance (REEL) + IN + G (centre of Lagos).

21d             Old Oscar drinking wine in a European city (6)
{OPORTO}  O O (Old & Oscar in the NATO alphabet) with the name of a wine associated with that town.  Similar to 18d, you could argue the clues are clever, but I feel a bit cheated.

22d             Sweet boy following us around (6)
{SUGARY}   US around means reverse it and get SU and add a boy’s name to it to get a word meaning sweet.

24d             Emperor imprisoned by tribune, Roman (4)
{NERO}       Hidden answer inside  2 by tribune, Roman” is the famous fiddling emperor

26d             Backing a Verdi opera (4)
{AIDA}         Backing can be assistance or help = AID + A gives Verdi’s splendid opera not actually written to celebrate the opening of the Suez canal as  widely known.

So let’s finish on some high notes…….

ARVE Error: need id and provider

Happy New Year!