Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27076
Hints and tips by scchua
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Enjoyable crossword today, about a 2-2.5* for difficulty and 3* for enjoyment. Thanks to setter.
P.S. If you still find the mechanics of the hints a mystery, you should read the following, which should help in understanding.
Definitions are underlined in the clues (in blue).
Words in blue are lifted from the clues.
Italicised words are instructions for constructing the answer. Parentheses following these enclose the indicators from the clues. Eg. Reversal of(up, in a down clue).
[xxx;yyy] denotes that a synonym for xxx and yyy is required.
{
} are used to give the order of construction. Eg. Reversal of(up, in a down clue) AB + C is different from Reversal of(up, in a down clue) {AB + C}.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
Across
1 Odd drink sent back causes uproar (6)
{RUMPUS} : [odd;peculiar] + reversal of(sent back) [to drink, in small quantities, as from a spoon or cup].
5 Undergo suspension during church alteration (6)
{CHANGE} : [to undergo suspension;to be subjected to capital punishment, say] contained in(during) abbrev. for the Church of England.
10 Expression of denial surrounding a church’s food from abroad (5)
{NACHO} : [expression of denial;nyet] containing(surrounding) {A + abbrev. for “church”}.
11 Car from queue running over tailless rodent on island (9)
{LIMOUSINE} : [a queue, literally what it looks like, especially a long one] containing(running over) {[a rodent in the house – doesn’t rhyme with cat though] minus its last letter(tailless) + abbrev. for “island”}.
12 Gets used to airs after a time (7)
{ATTUNES} : [musical airs] placed after(after) { A + abbrev. for “time”}.
Answer: Adjusts to;harmonises with.
13 Mostly natter about otherwise capital area (7)
{CHELSEA} : [natter;informal conversation] minus
its last letter(mostly) containing(about) [otherwise; used when giving an ultimatum;used to introduce an alternative].
Answer: A fashionable area in London.
14 A fog covering river, and the effect of freezing means a ceasefire (9)
{ARMISTICE} : {A + [a fog;a cloud-like haze, especially seen in the mornings] containing(covering) abbrev. for “river”} plus( ) [what you have after freezing a liquid or gas].
17 Cute working partnership without kids (5)
{DINKY} : Double defn: 1st: Daintily cute; and 2nd: Acronym to describe two working people sharing a household with no kids involved for the moment. A term, like yuppie/yuppy originating in the 80’s boom, and all but forgotten as what it describes has become more prevalent. A jocular antonym is SITCOM.
18 Makes money from sweets (5)
{MINTS} : Double defn: 1st: Makes or fabricates money, especially coins; and 2nd: Sweets often touted as breath-fresheners.
19 Composure required, but drags on if suffering (9)
{SANGFROID} : Anagram of(suffering) DRAGS ON IF.
Answer: Composure;what you have when you keep your cool. From literal French for “cold blood”.
21 Forbid access — bit of hair not in place! (4,3)
{LOCK OUT} : [a bit;strand;curl of hair] + [not in].
23 Disgusted with horse’s accommodation on ship (4,3)
{SICK BAY} : [disgusted with;extremely tired of] + [a horse of a certain colour].
Answer: A hospital or dispensary, especially on a ship.
25 Vessel from small island carrying post (9)
{CAPILLARY} : [a small low island of sand and coral, especially in the Caribbean] containing(carrying) [a post;a column].
Answer: A minute blood vessel.
26 Trio around new opening (5)
{INTRO} : Anagram of(working) TRIO containing(around) abbrev. for “new”.
Answer: Short for the opening;preliminary part of a piece of music, writing or suchlike.
27 Put off cricketer‘s transport with runners (6)
{SLEDGE} : Double defn: 1st: To put off;distract an match opponent, especially a batsman in cricket, by baiting him/her, eg. with insults. More prevalent in football now?
28 Batsman gets duck — fellow takes name (6)
{OPENER} : [A letter that looks like zero; a duck;no runs scored in cricket] + [a fellow;an equal] containing(takes) abbrev. for “name”.
Answer: One of the two starting batsmen.
Down
2 Rough share given to international organisation (5)
{UNCUT} : [a share of the proceeds or even loot] placed below(given to) [abbrev. for the international organisation].
Answer: Eg. of diamonds.
3 Go on press trips to get forecasts (9)
{PROGNOSES} : Anagram of(trips) GO ON PRESS.
Answer: Eg. What your doctor might tell you, more or less.
4 People with briefs — kind found on board ship (5)
{SILKS} : [a kind;a type;a sort, of similar things] contained in(found on board) abbrev. for a steamship.
Answer: Plural of an informal term for a King’s/Queen’s Counsel; one of whom might say to another, “Have you gone through her briefs?”
5 Arrive cold and thin, and admit error (4,5)
{COME CLEAN} : [arrive;go to where you are] + abbrev. for “cold” plus(and) [thin;without fat, and sometimes mean as well].
6 A delightful sort of accent (5)
{ACUTE} : A + [delightful;appealing;charming].
Answer: A mark in written French indicating vowel quality.
7 Player’s sliding scale? (9)
{GLISSANDO} : Cryptic defn: Reference to a musician on a string instrument, making a smooth slide from one note to another, up or down the musical scale.
8 Capital invested in bank? A racket! (6)
{ANKARA} : Hidden in(invested in) “bank? A racket “. Nice surface.
Answer: A capital city somewhat between Europe and Asia.
9 What’s left by supporter? A country with no heart (6)
{LEGACY} : [a supporter, of your upper body] + A + “country” minus its inner letters(with no heart).
Answer: … and that which is inherited.
15 ‘City knocked out in Cup’ — Mail (9)
{MUNICIPAL} : Anagram of(knocked out) IN CUP’ — MAIL.
Answer: Of or relating to a city.
16 Poor Titania’s on Ecstasy and unable to get enough (9)
{INSATIATE} : Anagram of(poor) TITANIA’S placed above(on) abbrev. for the drug Ecstasy.
Answer: Adjective for being unable to get enough;unappeasable.
17 Copper getting fellow in to replace loss of temperature — it’s not working properly (9)
{DEFECTIVE} : [a policeman; slang for which is “copper”;an investigator] + [abbrev. for a fellow;a member of any of various learned societies] replacing(in to replace loss of) abbrev. for “temperature”.
18 Hostility from African country clubs witnessed by European (6)
{MALICE} : An African country + abbrev. for “clubs” in bridge notation plus(witnessed by) abbrev. for “European”.
20 Right-wing turns up to support doctor with housing problem (3,3)
{DRY ROT} : Reversal of(turns up) [short for the description of a right-winger in the British political mainstream) placed below(to support) abbrev. for a doctor.
22 Looked and searched the internet with the first couple going missing (5)
{OGLED} : [searched the internet with a certain search engine] minus(… going missing) the first couple of letters.
23 Suppose son has love for authority! (3-2)
{SAY-SO} : [suppose;for instance;for the sake of argument] + abbrev. for “son” plus(has) [the letter that looks like 0;zero;a love score in tennis].
Answer: As in “On whose authority did you do this?”
24 Lost heat after start of brief swim (5)
{BATHE} : Anagram of(lost) HEAT placed below(after, in a down clue) initial letter of(start of) “brief”.
The Quick crossword pun: {boat} + {eyes} = {bow ties}
Really enjoyed this, nicely clued, with some good misdirection. Got completely bogged down bottom right until penny dropped on 17d when it all fell in.
Thanks for the review needed to confirm and amplify some wordplay .
Thanks to the setter for an enjoyable start to another wise dull, cold and miserable day.
The last one in for me today was 17a; I must admit I have never heard the acronym before. I could not see past DANDY with the checking letters.
Other than that, 2.5*/3.5* for me today.
Thanks to Jay, and to scchua.
Thank you Jay – if it was you ! Really enjoyed that and managed to finish it as well ! A lot of clever clues: particularly liked 4d and 17d. Thank you Scchua for your review.
Hello – I am back. Thank you so much to all of you for your lovely messages which I have just read now that I am allowed back upright and able to get back to reading – you don’t realise how much you read in your daily life until they say you can’t. I now have to wait for the air bubble in my eye to subside (it is a bit like looking through a window smeared with Vaseline at the moment) so that we can see if the macular hole repair has worked. One upside is that I have a replacement lens which means that my shortsightedness in my left eye should be no more.
I have missed all the lovely banter on the blog (yes even Brian’s moans) and will be looking at the screen on and off in small sessions from now on.
Suexx
Oh… the puzzles… right that’s what we are supposed to talk about here :D
Today’s puzzle was both enjoyable and straightforward. Thank you to Jay for an entertaining start to a day in in the snow and to scchua for the hints.
The Toughie is putting up a fight but that might just be me.
Good to hear from you again – best wishes for your continued recovery !
Welcome back Sue. Hope the final nod won’t be long now.
Glad to hear you are recovering well. As for the toughie, I have just finished it and I found it very very hard today.
Oh it’s so good to see you’re back CS! And very best wishes for a full and effective recovery. The replacement lens sounds brilliant (but the journey to get it can’t have been much fun). Haven’t dared try a Toughie yet, but am working up to it…
Welcome back CS – glad to hear you’re on the mend
Good to “hear” from you Sue. Like you I found Jays offering today enjoyable, as for toughie i’m grappling in the NE but not given up yet! No snow here today but bitterly cold
I’ll just go along with what everyone else has said. :smile: I found today’s crossword really difficult.
Me too.
Stuck on my last 3, on the right side, but I refuse to look at the hints and will continue to persavate.
:)
Welcome back glad you are getting better.
Welcome back, Dear Lady :-)
Welcome back and hope for a full recovery. It had sounded like you we’re having cataract surgery but this was major, major stuff. Good luck
Welcome back and really glad it went well.
Welome back Sue, i hope your recovery continues apace.
Delighted to see you’re on the mend
I’ve been away and so hadn’t heard of your eye problem. How awful for you, but I’m glad it is being sorted out and wish you a full recovery soon.
:-)
May have achieved maximum thickness with this because I found it a struggle particularly the right hand side .Thoroughly enjoyable though and 3.5 / 4 * for me .
Last two in 9 d and 17a despite 9a being so easy to parse (hindsight) .
Beautiful sunny but snow covered day in N Yorks (-5C at moment)
Good to hear from CS
Thanks yet again .
Very enjoyable and fun puzzle today. 25A held me up for quite a while even with checking letters – I so wanted to put POLE in that I convinced myself that it couldn’t be anything else. Putting the paper down for 5 minutes while I tootled off to make another coffee soon brought me back to my senses (and it wasn’t the coffee that did it, I spotted the answer before taking a sip)
Got stuck for ages by wasting time trying to think of a Batsman’s name for 28a (don’t know many!). Last one in was 23d. I don’t understand the reason why 17a is the answer it is. I’d worked out the word correctly, but can’t work out why (in spite of kind hints). Many thanks to setter for some intriguing clues, and to Scchua for much needed help. :-)
The acronym stands for “dual income no kids yet” if that helps Poppy
That’s really helpful, Andy. It’s not a phrase I’ve come across before so I’ll stop beating myself up…! Many thanks.
If it helps, I got the answer but then didn’t understand the acronym in the hint!
Apparently SITCOM is Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage.
Thanks, Steve, for that as well – another phrase for me to learn. I’d made an anagram of ‘kin’ to represent the kids, so just guessed the other two letters to fit with the clue (although I’d not thought of it in conjunction with ‘cute’ before). So now I get the acronym too, thanks, which meant nothing to me before. What differing ways to arrive at the same conclusion!
I seem to be a bit out on my own here. I found this really difficult – managed to fall into every single trap that was set for us. Very enjoyable – probably 4* for both.
17a and 9d took ages – if I’d been able to do one of them I’d have got the other. 27a – I KNEW there was a word but couldn’t think of it for a long time – it’s one of the ones that I’ve learnt here. I was looking for a particular city for 15d. Slow to get 17d. All in all this has taken a while.
Favourites include 17 and 25a and 17d.
With thanks to Jay and scchua.
Still well below freezing here.
No, you’re not alone today Kath – I got really snarled up in the NE corner (I suppose having crescendo for 7d didn’t help) so had to have a peek at scchua’s explanation to get me going again. Thanks to scchua for the review and setter for an enjoyable puzzle.
btw – welcome back cryptic sue – hope everything progresses well
Def not alone, I gave up in disgust after about a 1/4. Mind you not sure whats more cryptic, the puzzle or Scchas clues!
Scchua’s clues are definitely more cryptic.
Most definitely not on your own Kath. I found it quite a struggle. Thanks to Scchua for the hints. Welcome back to CS.
Hi Kath, I found it really difficult too, but enjoyable.
Me too.
it’s always really nice to have company. I just HATE being ‘Billy no mates’!
Enjoyed it more than yesterday and about the same difficulty so **/****.last one in 17a, did’nt realise it was a double definition-thanks Scchua, i had the wordplay as being working ie DIY,in parternership, ie together with ,an acronym for ‘no kids ie NK , to give the definition, ie a word meaning cute- sounds plausible to me!.Apart from this, fine all round.
Glad you’re back, CS may your recovery be swift, all good wishes. I’m with Kath on this, quite hard and not much fun.Don’t know why because there are some very good clues, 17D for instance but overall I didn’t like it, however my thanks to Jay and Scchua
thanks to Jay and sschua for an enjoyable crossword and entertaining review.
Tough one for me today. Completely missed the hidden word at 8d and knew I wouldn’t get 28a due to lack of cricket knowledge. In retrospect though I should have been able to work it out. Got 27a in spite of the cricket because I knew the other definition. Thanks for the explanation there scchua.
19a reminded me of a joke my mother enjoyed telling. “Voila l’Anglais avec son sangfroid habituel” translated as “There goes the Englishman with his usual bloody cold”!
Thanks again to scchua and the setter.
I expect he was related to the English woman about whom a scholar of French reportedly said “Elle a des idees au desous de sa gare”
:)
27a is one that I learnt here. It’s supposed to be an insult that is so bad that it’s likely to upset the batter. An example is, and again, don’t blame me, I heard it first here.
Why are you so fat?
Because every time I sleep with your wife she gives me a biscuit.
No, not batter – that’s pancakes or Yorkshire pud – meant batsman. Oh dear!! And I only think I heard it here!
Best one I heard (and I’ve heard a few) was Merv Hughes having a go at Ian Botham :
Merv : How’s your wife and my kids?
Botham : wife’s fine, kids still retarded
And another involved Viv Richards. he’s let three balls go past him and the bowler came down the field and said to him
‘Its red, about 4 inches across and weighs half a pound’
Viv put the next ball out of the Taunton ground and into the river Tone and strolled down the pith to the bowler and said ‘You know what it looks like, you go and find it’.
I’m afraid i found today’s puzzle neither straightforward or enjoyable. Simple as that.
Sorry forgot my manners in my disgust at this puzzle. Welcome back Sue, I am very pleased that the procedure went well. I will be joining you soon as I have to have a cataract removed, not looking forward to it.
Brian, fear not. Over in five minutes and no pain involved. All you’ll feel is tepid water trickling into your eye. Next day, when you remove the patch, you will be able to see the hairs on a wasp.
Thanks Schua for your help and to setter; apart from never having heard of 17a, in that context, very enjoyable.
Best wishes CS, I hope all ends up well.
A nice little wrestle today. Much better than Mondays and Tuesdays crosswords. Loved the picture hints for 22 and 24 across. One for the girls and one for the boys. Well done Scchua
Thanks Miffypops, have always believed in equal opportunity …..(where possible, that is :-) )
Have to say I found this quite straight forward. I thought the ‘Quickie’ was tougher!
Maybe refreshed from a couple of days break due to a man up a telephone pole disconnecting my telephone line and, therefore broadband, and then re-connecting me with a different phone number and no broadband, for no apparent reason. I have to say it was a subcontractor, and subsequently BT Openreach got me back with the minimum of fuss.
It seems that BT are so beset with problems at the moment, they employ subcontracting firms to connect new lines (with disastrous consequences), thereby creating yet more work for BT who then have to go round patching things up on top of their already overloaded workload. It’s times like these when you realiaze how dependent we now are on the internet.
The D-I-N-K-Y expression was a new one on me, but it seemed the only approriate answer.
The BT thing happened to me a while back. The engineer was actually in a hole three doors away when my internet died, I went out and told him that he’d cut me off and he told me that it wasn’t his problem and I’d have to report it. By the time I’d got through to BT he’d buggered off and it took another 4 days to get it fixed.
A word to the wise – I was asked if I’d like to route my house calls through my mobile, we decided to go ahead with this as my mother was Box Office for a local kids drama group and we needed a phone. Found out afterwards that if we hadn’t gone down this route, we’d have got £50 per day in compensation.
We changed to Orange the following week, if we get any problems, we call up Orange and get a BT engineer the following day.
Whoops, sorry, not Orange – they’re now Everything Everywhere or something – makes my mobile look like its from Yorkshire now, always has EE at the top.
I, also, found 17a and 27a mind boggling, but went ahead and put them in anyway. After all, what else would go in there and they did have some relevance to the clues. We seem to live with acronyms now, just learn to live with it.
Pleasant puzzle today.
Faves :11a, 17a, 27a, 7d, 16d & 23d.
scchua – re 10a – I see you cite Russian!
Tomorrow is the last day of my current year.
Derek, Happy Birthday – tomorrow or the day after!
10a – I do not understand why scchua has cited the Russian in his hint? Я не понимаю!
Thank you for the birthday greetings Franco.
I do not have a Russian keyboard but I understood the last three words of your text.
I spent a very memorable trip in Russia with my late wife and a group of Dutch people many years ago and as I was the only member with some knowledge of the language I was very popular – happy days!
Happy birthday from me too, I dont know any Russian, sorry, pravda.
Thank you Una for the greetings.
In Russian Pravda means Truth.
I was hoping you would translate Franco’s ramarks ! but even if you mistranslated ,we would never know.
“I do not understand”
Thanks to Google translate (which could be where Franco got it from in the first place).
Derek, congratulations in advance for your big nine-o, and enjoy your day!
And Franco, “…why…?”. Just a bit of blogger’s licence, that’s all, taking a leaf out of the setters’ books, sometimes injecting a bit of French or German or Italian or Spanish into their puzzles. And I thought that nyet, like non and nein, was quite well-known among non-Russian speakers.
Yes, Happy Birthday whenever, Derek! :-)
Thank you Franny!
My birthday anniversary is Friday and my my son-in-law, daughter and family are taking me out to Alphen a/d Rijn for dinner to celebrate my entry to my ninetieth year!
They look after me here in NL!
At the moment, we have a winter wonderland with snow and sunshine!
Thanks to Jay and scchua for the review and hints. Would disagree about the difficulty level, I needed 5 hints to finish. Found the whole puzzle very difficult. Never heard of 17a in that context, but I should have got some of the others. Still an enjoyable tussle. favourites were 22&24d. Was 4*/3* for me. A bit nippy to say the least even on the heat island, but still got out for a run! Might look at the Toughie from behind the sofa :-) I like Ray T, but his alter ego Beam with no anagrams fills me with dread. I’ll be happy to solve one clue!
As a member of the ski generation, I’ve never seen or heard 17a before.
Many thanks scchua for the excellent review and pictures, which have sparked a little life into this flu-ridden body and thanks to all for your comments
Great of you to drop in, Jay, despite your bug. I’m always unsure whether to thank “the setter” or “Jay”, and, to spare me the embarrassment just in case I’ve got the wrong number, I take the safer route.
Get well soon Jay – I had 4 days off before Christmas with same – proper flat on the back stuff!. Thanks also to you for a fun and quickish puzzle and to Scchua for the review. No complaints here!
Papershop shut at station and then when I got a copy of the DT bumped into an old colleague so did not get time to pore over it on the commute in. First in was 19a last in 23d which frankly did not work for me. Otherwise entertaining and hassle-free. Thanks to the Setter.
Not forgetting “THINKERs”: Two Healthy Incomes, No Kids, Early Retirement.
Not much chance of this in the current economic climate! Many thanks to setter and solver for an enjoyable 30 minute mental workout.
I found this quite tough but enjoyable today. Needed a lot of help but did manage to finish. So thanks to the setter and scchua. A propos of the final photos, for a while I wondered if the muscular young man didn’t have multiple buttocks — but then realised they were his leg! :-o
I haven’t been called a DINKY in 24 years, my eldest being 23.Despite time spent brainstorming, thinking outside the box,looking up thesaurus,I only unravelled little more than half.Furious that I didn’t get mints, probably because I dont like them. Even with Gazza’s hints I think 28 a was a terrible clue. Definately a*** for me.thanks to setter and Gazza
Thanks are due to scchua, not to me.
Oops, sorrry sschua, and thank you.
Fielding in the slips, Raman Subba Row missed a snicked ball by an Australian batsman which went for 4. Apologising to the bowler for the misfield:
Subba Row: “sorry Fred (Truman, the bowler) , should have kept my legs together”.
Truman: “yes, so should your mother”.
Bowler Shane Warne to wicketkeeper, on trying to get overweight Sri Lankan batsman to play a forward stroke.
Wicketkeeper: “bowl him a cheese roll on a good length, that should do it!”