ST 2541 – Hints – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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ST 2541 – Hints

by Big Dave  

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2541 – Hints

Hints and tips by Big Dave

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As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I have selected a few of the better clues and provided hints for them.

Don’t forget that you can give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between.

Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 25th June.


Across

1a    Misleading details in plans covering promise of redemption (8)
To get a synonym for misleading you need to put an informal shortening of detailed descriptions of requirements (details in plans) around (covering) a promise of redemption that is usually scribbled on a piece of paper

9a    King and I joining a publisher in social activity (5-3)
Put K(ing) and I after A and the publisher of newspapers to get a social activity indulged in by visitors to, perhaps, the Alps

13a    English writer, going by railway, leaves (8)
… the English writer wrote Brighton Rock

28a    Menacing relative outside home (8)
To get a word meaning menacing, put a female sibling around a word that means you are at home – left-handed people were once regarded as menacing!

Down

2d    Doubly supporting mother, as a matter of politeness (3,5)
A charade of two separate words meaning supporting or in favour of and a shortened form of mother leads to a Latin adverbial expression that means as a matter of politeness – more often encountered hyphenated as an adjective describing a type of invoice

4d    Having a few degrees, and intelligent? Not so, not so! (6)
You might describe this as a double antonym! – read it again as an angle with a lot of degrees or unintelligent / thick

8d    Broadcast airing after six in original state (8)
Put an anagram (broadcast) of AIRING after the Roman numerals for six to get one of the original United States of America – and be careful to actually look at the anagram fodder as there is an eight-letter word that means in an original state that is incorrect (guess how I knew that!)


25d    Gratuitous advice? (4)
Gratuitous advice or gratuities or advice!

If you need further help then please ask and I will see what I can do.

Please don’t put whole or partial answers in your comment, else they may be censored!

25 comments on “ST 2541 – Hints”

  1. All done, but I wish I’d solved it differently. The clues didn’t always solve the need for some (uneducated) guesswork. If I was pushed I’d have to say that 11a was my favourite.

    1. May be able to help out here, Mr Tub. Instead of Peter Biddlecombe’s usual Sunday Review (published Friday Midday) he will be publishing both his and my solving patterns with a little bit of discourse on how we both tackle a puzzle. It might just help in the decision making process.

      1. Thanks for that gnomethang, I shall certainly take a look. I think that the problems I had with it say more about me than the puzzle so will be very interested to see what you both made of it.

  2. Virgilius is now officially my favourite setter of the week. Even though this puzzle was not as tricky as some it was still a delight to solve. Clue of the day for me was 4d but there was a strong field behind it – the &Lit at 16d, 17d, 3d, 1a to name a few.
    Interestingly about the answer to 28a, the left hand was always known as the Devil’s hand and gives us words like gauche in French which means clumsy as opposed to the right hand which gives us Adroit, dexterous and indeed ‘right’ meaning ‘good’.
    Many thanks to Virgilius and BD for the notes.

  3. This was quality from start to finish, another of those I try to make last a long as possible, like a good glass of red, a sip at a time…oops sorry Gnomethang.
    Fav clue 1a and 17d

    1. S’OK! – Had a couple of beers watching the footy on Friday. This abstinence lark ain’t so bad. (How did that sound?. No?, didn’t think so!)

  4. I don’t usually get the Sunday paper but its still winter here E Kent (yesterday apparently the wind chill made it the equivalent of 12 degrees) so I popped out and bought the paper. I too thought this a quality puzzle, quick to solve, my only struggle being with 17d as I latched on to the Italian city bit rather than the saintly lady but I soon put that right. Good job Gnomethang is coming back this week – I don’t think our livers can take much more of this “drinking on behalf of” lark!!

  5. A very pleasing solve though we wouldn’t have completed the NW corner without a hint for 2d – learnt something new there as to the origin of the term!! Wasted time on 12d by joining after to dogs rather than look. Lots of great clues – 3d, 4d, 14d,16d, 13a & 28a to name a few. Thanks Virgilius for an enjoyable puzzle on a very grey and chilly morning :-)

    1. Can I move to your house please. We are promised sun for tomorrow but I am not holding my breath. Am back in winter weight sweatshirts and thinking about swapping the summer duvet back to the winter one.

    2. hot & sunny here today again this is the first chance i’ve had today , just finished crossword

  7. It’s 16 here in Carcassonne, the same as Newcastle, South of France ? more like Scotland, sorry Ecosse. Still the forecast is 22 tomorrow rising to 28 by Wed. There, that’s my Bill Giles bit for the day, throw another log on the fire. Brrrr

    1. It’s sweltering here in Devon. Another week of this and we’ll have a hosepipe ban!

  8. If anyone’s really stuck on 4d and is doing the puzzle the old-fashioned (but best) newspaper way (as opposed to printing it from the web on plain paper), the same solution but with a simpler clue is 23a in the General Knowledge puzzle on the front page of the supplement. Is it a coincidence or planned that more often than not the same word will appear in more than one puzzle on the same day?

  9. I had convinced myself that 17d was Berenice, but couldn’t see why. So when I finally twigged, I looked her up in Wikipedia. Blow me if it isn’t the same person!

  10. Great crossword today. 4d was the last to go in and I smiled when the wordplay dawned. This was the top clue for me from a wide choice of clues. Thanks to Virgilius and to BD for the notes.

  11. Could somebody please clarify 20a?
    I think I have the answer – but am unsure as to how the first part of the clue fits in.
    Thanks in anticipation….

    1. Welcome to the blog KDinny

      20a Stop protecting one who’s happy to be a loser? (6)

      A word meaning to stop, or discourage, is placed around (protecting) I (one) to get a (hopeful) weight-loser

  12. Thank you kind Sir!
    Had it completely wrong:(
    Had taken the loser to mean somebody with debts…..
    Excellent site – thanks again.

  13. Just finished and really enjoyed it. 20a took me a while to get (in fact it was second last to go in) but when the penny dropped I nearly kicked myself. Last to go in was 12a as had put an a instead of an n in the first part of the word – duh – felt stupid when I got it.

    There were some lovely clues but I liked the simplicity of 16d.

    Thanks for the hints Dave as they clarified a couple of points.

  14. Thoroughly enjoyable and actually managed to finish it before reading BD’s hints. Can’t join in your comments because I don’t do it early enough, but getting to know you and appreciate the camaraderie!

    1. Don’t worry Brendam, there is always at least one us checking into the small hours, we few, we happy few. I think Big Dave will tell you this site passed a million hits or something not that long ago. The sun never sets on BD’s crossword Blog.

  15. Most enjoyable! (That means I could DO it!) Did it in two shots, some at breakfast and the rest after my daughters had been to pay homage – but did they buy ME lunch? Did they heck!

    Good fun, thanks to Virgilius and BD, I certainly needed a prod for 1a. Fave is probably 11a.

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