Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27167
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/**** – Enjoyment ****
As guessed earlier in the week by a number of contributors, today’s setter is Ray T. Two-star difficulty for those who, like me, love his puzzles and four-star for the rest!
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
7a One with raincoat returned, only for undergarment (8)
{CAMISOLE} – I (one) and a three-letter raincoat reversed (returned) and followed by a word meaning only
9a Fall for George Clooney? (6)
{AUTUMN} – for an American, like George Clooney, this season is known as Fall
10a Tan‘s fashionable on women (4)
{WHIP} – an adjective meaning fashionable preceded by W(omen)
11a Upset and tired with lungs bursting (10)
{DISGRUNTLE} – an anagram (bursting) of TIRED with LUNGS
12a Figure Tory leader’s out of order (6)
{STATUE} – drop one of the Ts (Tory leader) from an order or decree
14a Aggressor calculatingly holding back game (8)
{LACROSSE} – hidden (holding) and reversed (back) inside the clue
15a Approve of criminal rogue (6)
{CONCUR} – a charade of a criminal and a rogue
17a Aim tip of arrow point (6)
{ASPIRE} – the initial letter (tip) of Arrow and a tapering point, like those on some churches
20a A large butt seen in motor programme (8)
{CALENDAR} – the A from the clue, L(arge) and a butt or stub, of a cigarette perhaps, inside a motor vehicle
22a Bird found in butcher’s? (6)
{GANDER} – a double definition – the second one is butcher’s hook / look in Cockney rhyming slang
23a Consort with female and grow embracing bird (10)
{FRATERNISE} – F(emale) and a verb meaning to grow or rear around (embracing) a bird
24a Placed return call (4)
{LAID} – the reversal (return) of a verb meaning to call a telephone number
25a Scan book series by Sartre, losing heart (6)
{BROWSE} – B(ook) followed by a series or sequence and SartrE without his inner letters (losing heart)
26a Liberal urges one to change (8)
{GENEROUS} – an anagram (to change) of URGES ONE
Down
1d Sorry state returning after walk (8)
{PATHETIC} – a verb meaning to state reversed (returning) and preceded by (after) a walkway
2d Speech defect getting mouth around sibilant (4)
{LISP} – the mouth or edge of an opening around a sibilant – the wordplay describes the speech defect
3d Gently cook fish fritter without head (6)
{CODDLE} – a fish followed by a verb meaning to fritter time without its initial letter I (without head)
4d Camp stretches out under pole (8)
{BARRACKS} – a verb meaning stretches out, maybe on a mediaeval instrument of torture, preceded by (under in a down clue) a pole or rod
5d Booming and resonant, it exploded (10)
{STENTORIAN} – an anagram (exploded) of RESONANT IT
6d Underwear from arcade in ends of sales (6)
{SMALLS} – a shopping arcade inside the outer letters (ends) of SaleS
8d Exam oddly sneaky, trapping first person without question (6)
{EASILY} – the odd letters of ExAm followed by an adjective meaning sneaky around (trapping) the first person singular pronoun
13d Duff went on list for Hollywood (10)
{TINSELTOWN} – an anagram (duff) of WENT ON LIST
16d Flounder’s easily caught somewhere like this? (8)
{UNDERSEA} – hidden (caught) inside the clue
18d Retired person rues time at work (8)
{EMERITUS} – an anagram (at work) of RUES TIME
19d Wrong group supporting Queen (6)
{ERRING} – a group or circle after (supporting in a down clue) the Queen’s regnal cypher
21d Dawn‘s yellow in character (6)
{AURORA} – dawn, named after its Roman goddess, is derived by putting the heraldic term for yellow inside a character or ambience (thanks Gazza)
22d Good, then scoff up vegetables (6)
{GREENS} – G(ood) followed by a verb meaning to scoff or deride reversed (up in a down clue)
24d Fat boy eating last of sugar (4)
{LARD} – A boy around (eating) the final letter (last) of sugaR
It’s been a good week with Beam, Ray’s alter ego, yesterday and the man himself today.
The Quick crossword pun: (isle} + {beer} + {bark} = {I’ll be back!}
2*/4* for me today.
Many thanks to RayT, and to BD for the review.
I parsed 21d slightly differently with OR(yellow) in AURA(character)
The toughie is quite gentle today as well.
Too late – I’ve changed it already after a prompt from gazza!
I’m going for the middle – ***/****. Many thanks to Ray T for a challenging but hugely enjoyable puzzle, and to BD for the hints and pictures.
21d was my last one in, and I don’t get the yellow bit. My understanding (which the BRB confirms) is that the answer means a rich orange colour, which for me is not “yellow in character” or even as BD cites orangey-yellow!
Too many great clues to select favourites, but 9a made me laugh out loud.
Aha! I’ve just seen the previous comments about 21d. All is now clear. What a wonderfully devious clue.
Funnily enough Aurora Fire marigolds are an orangey-yellow!
But I’d changed it anyway!
I’m one of Ray T’s fans and even managed to complete today’s, without understanding a few clues. Thank you Dave for explaining 12a and 21d. ‘END’ for ‘butt’ in 20 also helped.
Thoroughly enjoyable tussle.
Thanks RayT and BD for the review.
What an absolute joy! 9 & 22a made my day. Very many thanks to RayT and BD.
I’m one of Ray T’s fans and even managed to complete today’s, without understanding a few clues. Thank you Dave for explaining 12a and 21d. End for 20 also helped.
A victim of 21d, had the right answer but couldn’t parse it.
Very clever puzzle which was fun to do.
Thanks BD for the review.
Thanks to RayT for the entertainment.
Feel that we are very spoilt, having RayT puzzles two days in a row. Another enjoyable romp throughout. Commented yesterday that Ray had been a bit more verbose than usual. He made up for it today with only one clue stretching out to eight words. Great fun.
Thanks RayT and BD.
Great crossword and very interesting to solve. 2* for me. Many thanks to RayT and to BD hints, although latter not needed.
Excellent fare today, by no means easy but eminently solvable. Was stuck fir some time on 20A, but sort it out after a lot of thought (and a second cup of coffee). Some nice anagrams, cunningly disguised I thought. Had no problem with 21D and it helped to get 23A.
17A and 22A were really good clues.
How lucky we are – for the second day in a row we’ve had Ray T crosswords AND clear blue sky and warm sun. What could be better?
Being a fan of Ray T (just in case I’ve never said that before) I’d go for 2* difficulty and at least 4* enjoyment.
16d had to be what it was but, for a change with this kind of clue, I needed the hint to explain why. 9a also had to be what it was but it took me an age to see how George Clooney got into it and I was just plain slow with the anagram for 5d – no excuses.
My favourites include 9, 12 and 22a and 6, 13 (once I’d spotted my spelling mistake which made 20a a bit tricky) 21 and 22d.
With thanks to Ray T and BD.
Really enjoyed today’s RT,lots of interesting and diverse clues ,a ***/**** for me,Remembered the Hollywood name from Roger Rabbit,then spotted the anagram! even the hidden words were good and the sun’s shining
Loved it, and finished without hints. Plenty of smiles, particularly for 2D, 3D, 21D and 22A. Living where I do, 9A was all too easy. A **/**** for me, too. Many thanks to Ray T. for the fun and to BD for the review.
Very annoyed with myself for not seeing the hidden clue at 14a. That is Canada’s Official national summer sport. Passed in law no less although I have no idea why that was deemed necessary!
Thank you Ray T for a very good puzzle and thanks to BD for the explanations and hints.
For once I did manage to spot that hidden word. It’s a really horrible vicious game, in my opinion anyway – we had to play it at school in winter on the Worcester race course and when that was under water, which it often was, we had to go running – I hated both SO much!
Can it be more vicious than field hockey?? I played that at school (it was an International school) and it was nasty!
Having never played hockey of any kind I don’t know – really couldn’t compare the two – think I’ll stick to swimming which is wonderful!
Cracking crossword, thanks to RayT and a cracking review, thanks to BD.
I agree with a **/*** rating – got stuck on 20a until I realised its EL not LE in 13d. Good to see her majesty making an appearance, she really is a hard working monarch.
24a & 24d fell straight in. Liked 22d too. Thanks Rat T & BD.
I did exactly the same with LE and EL in 13d and agree that it did very little to help with 20a.
Is Rat T related to Mouse M ?
Well done Ray T, what perfectly balanced crosswords you produce for us, todays little beauty being as good as it gets.
Was 21d the last test for all of us?
Cheers Big D. for all your hard work.
No – 21d was one of my first ones in. But that’s because I played Aurora the Dawn Goddess in a school performance when I was 8 years old in the 1940’s!! ~Some things stay in your subconscious for ever!
21d was one of my first ones too, not that I’ve ever played a goddess of any kind!
patsyann,
I’ll now never forget Aurora, an 8 year old Roman Goddess with a ration book tucked in her satchel!
Thanks to Ray T and to Big Dave for the review and hints. Usual great stuff from Ray T. Found this quite tricky, but got there in the end. I’m on a streak, five completions from Sunday until today, and was one short on Saturday’s. Probably be brought down to Earth tomorrow, as I always struggle with Giovanni plus I’m at the Reading Beer Festival. Really enjoyed today’s offering, was 3*/4* for me, last in 17a. Favourites were 14&20d, the latter made me laugh out loud, 22a and 5&16d. Lovely weather in Central London, managed to go for my third run in 3 days.
Thank you for an enjoyable puzzle Ray T and BD for your review. I needed your explanation of 21d even though I had the answer from the checking letters. Another lovely day in Suffolk.
Enjoyed today’s puzzle even though I got really stuck on the top left.
5d and 6d were very clever.
A three star for difficulty for me due to the top left but four star for enjoyment.
Thx to all concerned.
Just one thing shouldn’t 10a be a plural?
I’m really glad you enjoyed this one. As far as 10a is concerned I think you should read ‘tan’s’ as ‘tan is’ so the definition is ‘tan’. Oh dear – yet again I’m so glad that I don’t do the hints, as I’m sure everyone else is, but hope that helps.
:shock: I must say, I’m impressed Brian
Me too!
Aren’t we lucky – 2 RayTs in one week. Really enjoyed this one as I even got the hidden words first time. So many great clues its difficult to pick one out but 6d just shaded it.
Yes – absolutely dead lucky, and well done to you for spotting the hidden ones – I STILL miss them. I did get the hidden and reversed one today but completely missed 16d.
The Master of the Hidden Clue – RayT or Virgilius? A close run thing!
Whoever does them I miss them – one day I’ll learn but who knows when, or even if . . . !
My complaint with 10a is that, to me, “tan” is to smack on the bottom. To whip is much nastier,
Go back to the Toughie. It is fun and much easier than this!
Thanks Ray T, like everyone else I enjoyed that today. Thanks BD for the hints as I needed the explanations for a couple. Loved9a.
Finished in the end, but getting into **** time. I don’t really enjoy these a lot, so ** here. I think it’s mostly the obscure part-definitions that I dislike – e.g. in the clues today 1d’s “walk”, 4d’s “stretches”, 25a’s “series”, 10a’s “tan” etc etc.
On the plus side, at least there were no clergymen visible today !
I think that Ray T is one of the setters who is definitely an ‘acquired taste’ – his crosswords are a bit different but once you get onto the right wave length he is absolutely wonderful, in my opinion anyway – and lots of others too.
Agree completely. A lovely crossword.
Setter again, with many thanks to BD for the analysis, and to all who contributed an observation.
RayT
9.50PM and none in. A virgin puzzle to hide away and do on holiday in June. Only for in of yesterdays and chance to look at a paper until tuesday. It must be The Long Itchington Beer Festival. One village. Six pubs. Four days.
Try the “toughie”, much more fun!
You’re obviously someone who needs converting. We’ve done a good job on Brian – maybe we need to work on you!
Hi Kath !
I am able to make a fair attempt at a Ray T, (just needing one or two hints) but for some reason I find it tedious.I tried doing lots of back numbers, to see if familiarity would breed appreciation .Afraid not. There are different setters and different tastes, I suppose .Vive la difference ! (french spelling long forgotten ,just read it while pinching your nose).
Also , Brian can be a bit of a backslider, I seem to remember him liking Ray T on occassion.
And have you tried the “toughie” ?
I’m with you Una, although I did enjoy this one today, I am not a convert but now and again I do like some of RayT puzzles
Better late than never, yesterday was such a beautiful day, that after completing the crossword outside, it was too nice to come inside to use the computer! I am a three star on this one Dave, I actually enjoyed it with 2 favourite clues 22 & 24a, I needed your hints this morning to get 11a and had 3d wrong! Now where has that sun gone???