Big Dave's Crossword Blog

79 responses to “DT 27364”

1. I really liked this, especially 15A, 18A, 9D and 21D. Many thanks to Jay. BD, I didn’t need the hints but thanks for the review, as always, and special thanks for the picture of the robin. I miss English robins!

2. Scchua back in this slot on christmas day, does that mean we can look forward to a brain workout on the big day?
   Back to this one which I found a tad harder tham normal, 17D made me smile 9 D took some solving. Many thanks to the setter & BD for the review.

3. Not straightforward for me. Needed your hints BD – thanks.

4. I found the NE corner tough today which extended my solving time a bit over 3* level, but I agree with BD’s 4* for enjoyment.

   I’ve never heard the expression used for the answer for 25a but it was easy enough to work out from the clue.

   Why does the answer to 18a mean “boatman”? Is it slang of some sort?

   3d was my favourite.

   Many thanks to Jay and to BD

   • Chambers:

     water rat
     noun
     ▶ The popular name of the water vole
     ▶ The American muskrat
     ▶ A pirate
     ▶ A sailor or boatman

     • Thanks for the clarification BD

       • I’ve added an appropriate picture of a “boatman”!

         • 

5. I thought this was a bit trickier than the last few Wednesdays have been but maybe my brain is full of other things. 2*+ for difficulty and 4* for enjoyment.
   I got held up with a few in the top right corner and with 28a. I didn’t know that meaning of 1d.
   I had more trouble with the quick crossword – having put stern for 1a I couldn’t see the pun or do 2 or 3d.
   I liked 4, 11 and 20a and 16d.
   With thanks to Jay and BD.

   • I put stern, too, and failed miserably!

   • I had that well known phrase “slack lustre” for the pun in the quick!

     • Well done!

6. Another smooth puzzle from Jay. This all went in quiet nicely, finishing with my last couple in the top right.
   Thanks to Jay, and to BD for the review.

   Now for Osmosis!

7. Thank you Jay, an enjoyable puzzle, NE corner last in. Thank you for the review BD. I had 6d but appreciated your decoding ! In particular “discovered” meaning take off first and last letters.

   • Same here – have not ‘discovered’ that before.

8. I agree with Kath, bit too tricky for a two star, perhaps a 2.5 or even in parts a 3 (18a & 29a). However, very enjoyable with some nice clues in 20a, 27a 3d and 17d being my personal favs. Took a bit of starting mainly because I filled in 4a with the answer to 1d – don’t ask!
   Thx to Jay for a pleasant puzzle and to BD for the explanations.
   PS BD are you doing all the Blogs at the moment, where’s your small army of helpers?

   • There are a couple of new candidates in the wings, but probably not until the New Year.

9. No real problems this morning although I did get held up in the NE corner for a while (complete brain freeze) – took an extra cup of coffee to get me gong again. I thought 22D felt a bit weak (but that might just be because I was almost sleepwalking – or is that sleepsolving – at the time) but I thoroughly enjoyed 17D.

   Off to see Steeleye Span tonight – they’re doing a concert tour based on Terry Pratchett’s Wintersmith.

   Hope the commuters had better luck folding the paper than I did today (and I’m at home with bits of Telegraph all over the bloody place. Grrrr)

   • I hope you have a great time, its looks to be a lovely little intimate venue. Just right for Christmas.

10. Yes it was a most enjoyable puzzle today for some reason , so agree with the rating . Thanks BD for the ‘boatman’ explanation, like Rabbit Dave it eluded me,and the wind in the willows pic worked on two levels following your revelation-must get a chambers dictionary for Christmas.

11. Nice and tricksy for me. Some clues took a bit more thought and I had to read through more times than usual to finish. Last one in was 8d which stumped me for a while. I have just removed the penultimate kitchen unit. I wish I had not done so!!!!!

12. Took a bit of doing but very enjoyable. Tried all sorts of ways of fitting …..tit into 28 across, but got there in the end. Thank you to the setter & to BD again!! Your efforts are above & beyond the call of duty, & you deserve a really nice Christmas present I think.

    • Hear, hear!

13. I found this very difficult today … probably because I’m still on Australian Time after watching the cricket over the last few days! Jet Lag without leaving my armchair!

    I thought 6d – Incas and 11a – coven were brilliant!

    Thanks to Jay! And, especially, to BD for putting in the long hard hours!

14. Is it just me? I’ve had no problems with the cryptics today or yesterday, but have scarcely been able to get halfway through the quick crosswords on either day. I normally use these just to sharpen my mental teeth for the task ahead. Has some part of my brain gone missing?

    • I too struggled with The Quickie. I always do them both at the same time and usually finish The Quickie way before The Cryptic. Not today though, I am two short 15ac and 2d.

15. I found this decidedly tricky! The left-hand side went in nicely, but quite a few on the right beat me. I would never have solved 25a in a million years so needed the answer. My brain wouldn’t bring up the other meaning of fox, just slow today I suppose. I ALWAYS forget that other doctor in 17d, never been a fan; please, no comments. Thanks to Jay for good puzzle and BD for hints, much needed today.

    • I always forget that doctor too – I’ve never watched it. 25a could be British slang – don’t know – haven’t looked it up as I can’t even find BRB under the muddle of wrapping paper that is all over the kitchen table.

    • Agree. After the 50th bash, I watched some of the old B & W episodes. Just as bad as I remembered as a child. I’ll admit there are some good concepts but spoiled by Auntie trying to make a five-guinea total production budget do for the whole series. Typical.

16. Harder than yesterdays, 4a took the longest to solve but got there in the end. Thank you Jay, for a good work-out. and to BD for his review. **/***

17. 15 ac = lax
    2d = arbitrary

    hope that helps

    • If you had clicked on reply on Miffypops comment, he would have seen your response and I wouldn’t have been confused!

18. Where’s Mary? I hope she hasn’t fallen into a snow drift!

19. I have been reading with pleasure for some time the hints and comments.I found myself quite defeated by the setter on several clues .I wish to extend to Big Dave my sincere thanks for this blog .

    • Welcome Miriam – I hope we’ll hear more from you in the future.

      • Thank you.Now that i have revealed myself ,I shall keep in contact.

    • Hi Miriam. Nice to meet you.

      • Greetings, I read your comments with interest .

    • Welcome from me too. This is the most wonderful blog so I hope you keep reading it and commenting. BD is a star, as are all the other great people who do the hints without fail every day. I do sometimes think back to pre-blog days when I either couldn’t do a clue (or several) or, even more irritating, had an answer that fitted but I didn’t understand why.
      Yet again huge thanks to all.
      Is it my imagination or is the snow getting heavier . . . ?

      • Not yet, but it will!

        • Oh good – how exciting! I love a good blizzard – maybe we won’t be 14 for Christmas after all! Not sure whether to do a or a

      • Thank you, Kath, I am in complete agreement about this blog and I look forward to your daily comments.

20. It’s many years since I heard that term for a crash helmet.
    In my head it goes with the whole mod v rocker era. Plenty of memories there.

    Anyone remember tiger tails you got free from petrol stations?
    Parkas.
    CND patches.
    Backcombing.

    • Put a tiger in your tank … yes, remember that. Was it Shell?

      • Esso…and I remember when it cost 32p a gallon. Am in Kuwait now – they have turned all our petrol money into very fancy buildings. Nice.

      • Mcmillibar – you beat me to it! But I wouldn’t have remembered without googling it.

        I remember petrol being 5 bob a gallon, but I never had a motorbike, or scooter for that matter. Some friends (!) of mine had 750 Nortons and that was quite enough for me…….

        • I had an ancient A35 van in 1966, the year I passed my driving test. I had to fill it up every week – it held four gallons and that cost me just under £1 – I was earning £5 per week. It also used quite a lot of oil – probably more than petrol! I can remember laughing at my Dad when he said that before long petrol would be more than £1 a gallon.

    • Ah, but do you remember the 007 bullet holes that you could stick on your (or Mum’s in my case) windscreen

21. Good Wednesday stuff once again. We remember 17d being in the same place in the grid with a similar clue last week but can’t remember what puzzle it was in. Sure it is coincidence. We have only started doing the quickie since it comes as part of the printout at present and agree that it was trickier than some, and with a worthy pun too.
    Thanks Jay and BD.

    • 17d – Last week? What? You cannot remember who done it? (Apologies for my grammar)

      • Oooh! I have just done a quick search and found where 17d was, but am not allowed to say. How’s that for cryptic.

22. Fairly straightforward solve for me last night. (**/****). 6d was probably my favourite – I love clues with an “oblique direction” (i.e. “discovered”) if that’s what one might call that sort of thing!?

    Another beautiful, sunny and warm (82F) day here in the Caribbean. The only snow I’m going to see is BD’s special effects on this Site

    Thanks to Jay and BD.

    • Where in the Caribbean?

      • I’ll give you a clue:

        “A small Caribbean island found in an exclusive notable location, completely backwards” (5)

        • Does it go with St Kitts?

          • 

          • Correct!

            • Just read this while preparing to send my e card to all of our distributors in the Caribbean. Talking of sunshine I think I need to do some field visits in the New Year….I’ll try & drop in as I’ll be seeing our agent on St Martin.

    • 82 Degrees every day. Boring, where’s the challenge in that?

      • Glorious! It’s 75F here in Miami, not really bad but I prefer something a little warmer. I keep the pool to 95F but it’s chilly coming out.

        • Poor you. It must be awful. Not quite sure what the temp is here at the moment but there is a gale and very heavy rain going on outside at the moment so I wouldn’t mind trying being chilly getting out of a pool in Miami

          • I know I sound like Moaning Minnie, but I just can’t stand the cold. When I lived in UK I just could not bear winters, I think I must have thin blood or something.

            • But what about Christmas? A few years ago my husband went to a meeting in Florida at about this time of year – I went with him for the ride! It was blissfully warm but humid – the main thing that struck me was that palm trees look really silly masquerading as Christmas trees with fairy lights – just not right!

              • It must be really odd for you, but when you’ve spent all you life enjoying Christmas in the tropics, it’s all very normal for us. Santa came by Piper airplane, not sleigh! Having said that, there was something very special about the Christmases I spent in Chalfont St. Peter when I lived in UK, and it even snowed one year. Here we do the turkey and plum pudding thing, lit and paraded round the dinner table, and the crackers with the funny hats.

      • Not “every day” – the summer is much hotter!

        Challenges? Well apart from trying to stay cool, preparing for hurricanes, hoping we don’t have an earthquake, watching the water supply at times of drought, fighting back the “jungle” from coming into the garden, – you’re right, the Tropics are no challenge at all. Mind you there’s no corner shop where you can buy an English newspaper!

23. Great fun with a few tricky bits, many thanks to Jay and BD for a superb review.

24. Loved the puzzle today. **/***. 3d was my fav in line with quite a few others. NE corner was last with me making things hard by writing in BEFIDDLE which was a bit silly and made 8d much harder!
    Can you people in the Caribbean believe that it was 4 degrees last night in Kuwait in the wee small hours. 4 Degrees in the Arabian Gulf!!?
    Thanks to our hero, BD as ever. What is your pub, BD and I call them with my Card and put a Christmas pint on the bar for you?

    • That’s a nice thought but, although I live next door to a pub, I hardly ever go in there.

      

      Mrs BD planted that tree in 1981 to celebrate the Royal Wedding.

      • My goodness! What a splendid idea! The tree has lasted longer than the marriage, I just hope this one lasts … and I think it will, she seems a lovely girl.

      • . . . the pub is the one that we went past every day in the bus to school from Welland to Worcester – what a long time ago.

      • PS – BD. If Mrs BD remembers Sue and Mike King who lived at a big house – Albion Lodge? – on the road from Hanley Swan to Hanley Castle who emigrated to Australia in the mid 80s, I think – I spoke to Mike on the phone last night.

        • Mrs BD does remember Sue King – along with Bunty Arrowsmith and others.

25. Yes – it was quite hard going for me today too but very enjoyable!

    To add insult to injury my IPad decided to start playing up when I was attempting to add my contribution to this – I’ve updated the Software and touch wood….

26. Jeepers , that was hard ! Late on parade today, time of year and all that ! I needed several hints , mostly in the south east. 25a new to me.None the less, thanks to Jay and BD.

27. I enjoyed this one – I thought there were some very witty clues, eg 6d & 18a (didn’t know the word’s ‘boatman’ synonym, I just assumed it was a reference to the water rat in WITW who loves ‘messing about in boats’.)

    24d and 28a were both new words for this solver.

    But ahem, is it just me, or is there something a little odd about the end of the clue to 28a? (‘rodent eating it’).
    Big Dave, you say the ‘eating it’ means the rodent is ‘around’ the letters ‘it’. And that’s exactly how I too would parse it, with some letters of the rodent in front of the ‘it’ and some after.

    But here the rodent (mouse) isn’t ‘around’ the ‘it’ at all, but follows it. So where’s the ‘eating’ in the answer?

    Perhaps I’ve misunderstood something? Can anyone cast any light?

    Btw, I’m no ornithologist, but surely the image beneath the clue is a blue tit, not a titmouse?
    http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/b/bluetit/index.aspx

    The titmouse looks quite different in the info I googled
    https://www.google.com/search?q=titmouse+image&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=ECayUpDBCsixtAbV4YDABg&ved=0CCgQsAQ&biw=1120&bih=638
    *

    • 28a took me ages too. The definition is ‘bird’. The first letter is ‘T’ – the last letter of caugh(T) – then there is a rodent (mouse) and between the T and the mouse there is ‘it’ so the T and the mouse has eaten ‘it’. Or something like that . . .

28. Thanks to Jay and to Big Dave for the review and hints. Totally beyond me, had to look up 12.

29. Thanks Jay for a pleasant puzzle and BD for hints. ***/***. Needed help with 4a (of course tried to use ant!). Having moved south from Suffolk quite recently 3d was my fav too.

30. Returned drenched and dispirited from White Hart Lane after sitting through another woeful performance, and was pleasantly surprised to be able to sit with a warming drink and skip through this one, although I had to check with Chambers that 21d was a word. I particularly liked 27a and 3d. 2* difficulty but 4* enjoyment. Thanks as always to BD for fun-filled explanations – and thanks to the rest of you for your entertaining comments

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