Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2592 (Hints)
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide 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.
Could new readers please read the Welcome post before asking questions about the site.
Most of the terms used in these hints are explained in the Glossary and examples are available by clicking on the entry under “See also”.
A full review of this puzzle will be published after the closing date for submissions.
Across
7a Strict librarian, perhaps, used to suppress reports (8)
A word that could describe a librarian who was strict about customers being quiet is actually a device used to suppress the reports of, for example, a gun
10a Number of left-wingers put down one by one (6)
The number that is, or used to be, worn on the back of a left-winger on the football pitch is represented in Arabic numerals as one by one
12a Degrees, for example, by which statements can be nuanced (14)
University degrees are an example of these – and they can be used to nuance or refine statements
28a Bird giving fruit to brood (8)
This bird is a charade of a fruit (3) and a word meaning to brood or incubate
Down
1d Is going to leave (4)
A verb meaning is going to, at some time in the future, also means to leave worldly goods to someone
5d Repeatedly bear ridicule (4-4)
… this fictional bear was created by A. A. Milne
13d Quietly leaving pub, exit midst evidence of debt found everywhere (10)
Start by dropping the P (piano / quietly leaving) from (P)UB and then put a word meaning to exit inside those debts scribbled on pieces of paper to get a word meaning found every where – reminds me of a restaurant in Glasgow called the __________ Chip!
14d A kind of war, circa 1650 (5)
This kind of war between citizens of the same state is derived from C(irca) followed by the Roman numerals for 1, 6 and 50
26d A white pawn (4)
A German white wine can also mean to pawn or pledge
If you need further help then please ask and I will see what I can do.
As this is a Prize crossword, please don’t put whole or partial answers or alternative clues in your comment, else they may be censored!
Today it’s Happy Birthday to Vic Damone (83)
A very gentle challenge from Virgilius today. Some nice clues in the mix including 14d (I am always fond of a clue with the ‘numberals’), the clever 26d and my favourite 24d. Thanks to Virgilius and BD too.
Great crossword.Started to think I was going to get nowhere until I got to the bottom half- then it all came together! Loved 5d and 10a. Thanks to Virgilus for cheering up a grey day! Luckily did not need BD today!
Much easier than the quickie or the GK in my mind but I do have difficultiesI with the multiple choices in quickies these days. Some very obscure words in the GK but thanks to Vigillus for a satisfying Cryptic today
Weather fine in the NE. Come on London …get your act together for the tennis.
PS Thanks to BD even if not needed today.
Lots of clues I really liked today especially 11a and 26d, not sure I liked 1d or 24d, sorry to disagree with you Sue but I didn’t like 14d vecause 1650 could be looking for anything! NDCL is the correct roman numeration here? I see what has been done but don’t like it, also liked 7a, fifty fity for me today stared off well then realy slowed down, though, eventually finished without the hints, thanks Dave
Weather report, rain, rain and more rain!! outlook depressing!
Could someone explain 10a to me please, I understand the number bit and put down one by one but where do the left-wingers come in???
BD has explained this in his hint.
Sorry all hadn’t read the hints, really should do that first!
Raining here too, Mary. BD has explained 10a in the hints – I didn’t understand the “left wingers” either.
Thanks for sympathetic comment a couple of nights ago – didn’t get round to crossword yesterday or I would have replied to you then.
The correct numberals are the last four letters of the answer. The first letter is the usual crossword abbreviation for about.
Hi Sue yes I see that but how are we to know we are looking for that particular way of expressing 1650 i.e. 1.6.50 it could be 16.50 we were looking for then it wouldn’t work, or 165.0 etc do you see what I mean???
eg 16, 50 would be xvil
Mary, part of the cryptic element is figuring out how to split the numerals. I would have written out some permutations were I not to have seen it quickly.
Really thought that I was going to get nowhere with this one having only managed two of the across clues but the downs went in more quickly and got me going. I got terribly snarled up in the top left hand corner and didn’t understand how the “left wingers” got into 10a until I read the hint. 6d, for some reason took me a long time as I thought that the definition was going to be harmful. I didn’t think that it was very clear from the clue which kind of spelling to do for 22d but getting 28a sorted that one out for me. Really liked 7a and 2, 3 (even though I tried for a while to make it “dean”) 14, and 24d. Best of all, for me anyway, 5d being a huge fan of his!
With thanks to Virgilius and to Big Dave. I STILL can’t do the beastly little four letter 15a – any help from anyone would be great.
15a a sign of the zodiac is represented by this animal. There is a rugby team called the British *****
Thanks – whyever didn’t I get that?!
actually last one in for me too Kath! Hope things are a little brighter for you I know the weathers not just about to venture out for essentials!
Because it is a ‘Beastly Little Four Letter Word!”
So it is – and it certainly was for me!
A very good puzzle that, again for a Sunday, was over too quickly. I am almost certain that I can say “There is no theme in this crossword” next Friday but I am going to check again!.
The lovely word at 13d and the delightful Semi &Lit at 24d were stand out favourites. Thanks to Virgilius and to BD
Nearly finished – a lot quicker than anticipated on first read through! – but WHY CAN’T I GET 3d??????????? Help please. 11a also, but 3d would help me with that one. Otherwise all done. Thanks to BD whom I needed for 5d – couldn’t get beyond “josh-josh” which made no sense at all!!
3d is a shortened form of address for someone who holds a chair in a department
11a – think about tennis
11a went straight in for me from the charade. I then stared at it for a good 20 seconds before I understood it! A super surface reading makes it more difficult. Its one of those clues that you can throw in from the wordplay without really appreciating how well it was put together.
3d Academic not fully supporting head of faculty (4)
The sly definition is actually the frst three words, i.e. a short form of an academic title. The crypic wordplay is a word for ‘for/in favour of’ and the head of Faculty.
Thank you Kath and gnomethang – all is now clear. My hang up was trying to put the head of faculty first in the word, not last! And for 11a I was stuck on it ending in the rather more common “worker”, ie *n*. Must get my thinking even more “lateral”. Finished – now what do I do with the rest of this very wet and miserable day??
BD (or anyone else who can tell me if I am doing something stupid)
The comments still sit in the “leave a reply” box after I’ve posted them even though they come up in the comments – sorry, that sounds a bit garbled – hope that someone knows what I mean!
Kath, I have seen this happen – I’ll look now to see if it still occirs in Firefox. I know that yesterday it was doing it on my iPhone (which is actually more of a bind). In any case, the engine that runs the site is a WordPress production and out of Dave’s hands.
… and long may it stay that way! Using WordPress saves huge amounts of effort.
Thanks all – don’t understand the technicalities but it seems that it’s “THEM” rather than ME doing something dim,wrong or downright stupid which has been known to happen!
I do know what you mean – I suspect that it’s a problem with WordPress. Give it a few days and it will probably be sorted out.
Having just checked this does not occur in the latest Firefox 4.0.1. I am pretty sure that it did so when the change was first implemented. The WordPress engine drivers are probably tweaking things as we speak and all will be well with Internet Explorer until Microsoft recode it.
Edit! – It DOES stay there until you reply to a different thread!
I’m using Firefox 4.0.1 and it happens to me.
Yeah – i was being stupid!. It happens whenever!
It’s a very intermittent problem. Sometimes the comment stays, sometimes it goes and sometimes it’s even there when you shut down your computer and come back later.
Yes that’s right Sue as you can see from this, I have just switched computer back on and comment is still there i.e. eg 16, 50 would be xvil
My comments had gone – it’s just really weird – but that’s modern technology for you.
Lovely fun crossword today, many thanks Virgilius. Hard to pick a favourite there are so many clues I really enjoyed 7a 5d and 13d stand out for me. Addicted 11a think tennis, 3d Can’t think of a clue!! Over to B.D. for that, and thankyou for the hints luckily not needed today
Softer fare from Virgilius this weekend.
My favourites : 1a, 9a (like phoning in Italy), 11a, 25a, 5d, 8d, 14d, 21d & 26d.
Weather here in The Var is magnificent. Two more weeks of it then back to NL.
lucky you Derek, it is horrible here
Just put up 5 baskets of bizzie lizzies in the pouring rain, such fun
That should be 8 not 5
Whether it’s 5 or 8 it’s quite a few and they really don’t take kindly to wet and windy weather do they? Good luck!
Enjoyed this puzzle today. Favourite was 14d which i thought was very clever. Nobody above seems to have noticed the significance of the date. Also liked 7 15 16 20 27 and 28. I must make my weekly gripe about the position of the crossword on a Sunday – what a daft place to put it.
exactly – the Battle of Dunbar!
Lovely challenge from Virgilius today, for which many thanks. Personally, I found it slightly trickier than recent weeks but there was nothing that a bit of lateral thinking did not resolve.
5d……… All I could think was “Yogi Yogi”……
And that was the only one I couldn’t get……… Arg……