DT 26612 (Hints) – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 26612 (Hints)

by Big Dave  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26612 (Hints)

Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club

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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

1a           For punishment has priest confined regular communicant? (3,3)
Start with an adjective meaning  for or relating to punishment and insert P(riest) to get a friend with whom you exchange letters, but may never actually meet

9a           Exotic fruit makes two servings of pud (6)
This exotic fruit, which is the same three letters repeated, is easy to guess from the checking letters, but did you know that each half of it can also be called a pud?

10a         Blade and what it could leave round one Cambridge college (8)
… this Cambridge is the one in Massachusetts!

14a         Contemptible type clubs youngsters without least bit of remorse — one may be sent down here (8,6)
Combine a contemptible person (4), some golf clubs (5) and some young animals (4) and put them all around (without) the initial letter (least bit of) Remorse to get a London prison where a criminal may be sent down to serve a sentence

27a         Singular cat with offensive air (6)
A charade of S(ingular) and a slang word for a cat gives an adjective describing offensive or polluted air

Down

1d           Remove heart of trendy Docklands area (6)
As a Londoner this was the first one that I entered, although I suspect others might struggle.  Take a word meaning trendy or fashionable and remove U from the centre (heart) to get an area in London’s Docklands which is home to the new Billingsgate Market

3d           Get up mother with Seventies style, a mixture of elements (7)
Reverse a short word for a mother, a Seventies style of Rock music and A (from the clue) to get a mixture of elements

15d         Scramble into group rejecting old surroundings (9)
An anagram (scramble) of INTO GROUP gives a verb meaning rejecting old surroundings and moving to new ones

22d         Beg to get freed finally in prison (5)
A verb meaning to beg or scrounge is created by putting the final letter of freeD inside another word for a prison made from bars

The Crossword Club is now open.  Feel free to leave comments.

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

The Quick crossword pun: {Haifa} + {looting} = {highfalutin}

53 comments on “DT 26612 (Hints)”

  1. Got it all but needed the hint to fully understand 1a, made sense when I stopped trying to get PR into the answer :-)
    Nice start to the w/e, thx to the setter and BD for the hint.

  2. I found this puzzle a little difficult to begin with but it soon fell into place

  3. Good puzzle, needed a bit of thought, but nothing stupidly obscure. Just right IMO. And no, I didn’t know about the ‘pud’ in 9a, but got it from the checking letters. (This fruit featured the other day, I think). Liked 6d and 25a. Thanks to BD and the setter.

    1. 25a American taken in by wet left-winger (6)

      Put A(merican) inside (taken in by) an adjective meaning wet to get a (Chinese) left-winger

    2. Hope I don’t get my knuckles rapped for this. Put ‘A’ for american in another word for damp.

  5. A proper Saturday morning ‘thinker’ this one – well it was for me anyway. Very enjoyable, thank you Mysteron. Thanks to BD too for the hints – and for explaining the significance of pud in 9a.

  7. There were certainly a couple that I had to think about in order to finish and overall an enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to BD and to the setter.

  8. Very good puzzle. I didn’t know about the “pud” in 9a either but looked it up and there it was! Also didn’t know 1d but it had to be what it was. 10a took me a while to understand too. I liked 10 and 27a and 2, 3 and 16d. Thanks to the setter and to Big Dave. Have a good weekend everyone. :smile:

  9. Excellent puzzle so thanks to the setter and BD.
    Did this one last night after getting home from The Animals concert. They were fantastic. Eric Burdon may be grey haired, wrinkly and a bit portly but otherwise looks pretty much the same as when I last saw him – sometime around 1970! He’s 70 years old but the voice is still there and yes, they did play ‘There is a house . . . ‘.

    1. I totally agree with your comments, Pommers, and I can recall seeing the Animals in the late ’60s [without Alan Price] when it was that warm in the venue that the condensation was visibly running down the walls. Incidentally, I was lent a copy of Jon Nesbo’s ‘The Snowman’ which I started to read yesterday and on the opening lefthand page there is a map of the inner streets of Oslo…

      1. The theatre in San Javier is an open air amphitheatre so no condensation, just a nice cooling breeze! Saw John Mayall and the Bluebreakers there a couple of years ago and Chicago last week.

  10. What a relief – a puzzle which I could finally finish this week. Most went in really quickly with about four head scratchers at the end. Favorite clue Was 2d. Thanks to the setter and to BD even though I only needed the explanations and not the hints – yippee. Enjoy the weekend (weather in Barclonas is unusually cold and wet for July – hope it’s better where you are).

  11. That was an enjoyable Saturday puzzle – thanks to mysteron and thanks to BD for hints (used for explanation of 9a as others did).

    Got stuck on 25a for a while but came through in the end.

    Have a good weekend everyone

  12. A few to think about today. 1a/1d last two in, as it took me a while to work out what the clues were getting at. For 15d, I kept wanting to make an anagram of ‘into group’ without the o(old), then I realised I was one letter short!
    Favourite clues 2d, and 15d.
    Thanks to setter, and to BD.

        1. +1 to that!
          Not a bit of London I’ve ever heard of.
          Started in the middle, and finished at the corners. Nice even paced puzzle.
          I initially had a popular breakfast cereal for 13a!
          21a a new word for me, but worked it out and looked it up and there it was.
          17a a beautifully simple clue.

    2. I also wanted to make 15d an anagram of something without the (o) old and then the light dawned.

  13. Enjoyed the puzzle. Fave clue 10a once I’d exhausted UK Cambridge colleges!
    7d is my last one. Have an answer but can’t see why. Pointer please?

    1. Welcome to the blog Moosey

      7d Leave to set climbing rose (3,2)

      start with leave (2) and then a word meaning set is reversed (clinbing) to give a phrasal verb meaning rose.

        1. Got stuck on that as well. I went straight through every clue bar that one, and like you kne the answer but couldn’t work out why. doh!

  14. I can highly recommend today’s NTSPP and if you’ve done that there’s a nice Paul in the Guardian.

  15. Once I twigged that 13a wasn’t ALPEN, 6d and 8d went in to finish things off.

  16. This was alright, but I really don’t like clues like 1d. It seems the Telegraph Crosswordland is very London-based.

    I’ll have 17a for a favourite.

    Thanks to the Setter and to BD.

    Nick

  17. Quite liked today but perhaps completed it a bit too quickly for it to be classic! I liked 11a, 23a and 24a.
    Had to look up 21a.

  18. Hi everyone , unfortunately couldn’t print crossword today my printer has now packed up!! the ‘forces’ are against me this week, or we’ve got gremlins! mouse, printer, keyboard, microwave, electric shaver have all packed up this week, still at least the sun is shining, may see you all tomorrow, if not, next week, have a great weekend all :-)

    1. Hi Mary
      It really does sound like Gremlins to me!!!!
      Having a great weekend so far. The Animals last night, cricket, F1 (Lewis did brill today!) and also MotoGP!
      What more could an ageing rocker/petrolhead cricket fan ask for?

        1. In the kitchen ironing bedding from the apartment. I did offer to help but she claims I don’t do it properly!

          2. She doesn’t seem to have been around much lately at all – how much ironing has she got to get through??

            1. She’s dieting (very successfully so far – lost about 2 stone since Xmas) and has found a forum of dieters! She seems to spend most of her computer time swapping recipes and congrats/commiserations with other dieters. She still does the crossword with me over lunch but doesn’t seem to post – nothing to do with weight loss on this site!
              It’s going to cost me a fortune in new clothes!

  19. I looked at this at 00:24 and thought crumbs – but that was undoubtedly the wine clouding my judgment! When it came to the cold light of day it all went in without too much difficulty. Many thanks to our Mysteron and to BD for the coverage.

  20. Managed nearly all the clues today.!! Getting my husband to join in too!! Only needed a little help –the prison one foxed us. What shall I do tomorrow morning now I’ve completed it today? Thx again

    1. Try the Sunday Telegraph puzzle (which is more often than not the best puzzle of the week) ?

  21. Started crosswords at beginning of M4 in Wales. Finished by Swindon so what to do for last 30 miles? PS I’m not driving!

  22. Managed most but not all of today’s without help :-)

    Top right hand got me for a while because l swapped the first and last letters of 13a and that threw me for a while.

  23. Have been at Lord’s all day so a pleasant way to solve the puzzle. I came home having missed 25a being convinced it was a bird of some sort! DOH! All done now. 14a was my favourite and 19d was very apt for my surroundings. Thanks for the review.

  24. Bit strange to be leaving a reply to myself.

    REALISED in my subconscious, sometime during the night, that my explanation was somewhat misleading.

    Basically mixed up the first two and last two and the only good letter was the one in the middle. Bottom line is l made a hash of probably one of the easier clues.

    Didn’t make the winged connection on 25a Little Dave, that would have confused this little brain even more.

    With you on 14a being a good one, l like 23a also for some reason this tickled me.

    Least favourite was 17a

  26. Thanks to Big Dave & the setter for an enjoyable puzzle. I had to use the hint for 14 across, and am still 2 answers short. Favourites were 17 and 23a.

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