Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27456 (Hints)
Big Dave’s Crossword Club
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There’s a new Prize Puzzle available today – why not accept the challenge and solve the mystery?
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, an assortment of clues, including some of the more difficult ones, have been selected and hints provided 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.
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.
Some hints follow:
Across
6a Company’s preferred number one choice? (4,9)
A charade of a company or business and an adjective meaning preferred – I bet Kath won’t have any trouble with this one
8a Estimated the value of grain and paid out (6)
Some cereal grain inside the abbreviation for P(ai)D
10a Prevented clergyman making an appearance (3)
Making an appearance indicates a cunningly concealed answer
12a Sloths, armadillos, etc saying goodbye to paradise? (8)
Split as (4,2-2) this could mean saying goodbye to a garden in paradise
14a Worry about the thing found in an old mattress (7)
A worry or anxiety around THE
20a Sent off, goalie’s run to enter women’s area! (8)
An anagram (sent off) of GOALIE’S into which R(un) is inserted (to enter)
25a Sad beautiful girl on the phone one’s seen in the woods (8)
An adjective meaning sad followed by what sounds like (on the phone) a beautiful girl
27a Regularly goes round disreputable group (6,7)
An anagram (round) of REGULARLY GOES
Down
1d Two allowed personal ornament (8)
A quantity of two, perhaps pheasants, followed by a verb meaning allowed
2d Cricket stroke‘s finished with spin (3,5)
A three-letter word meaning finished followed by a spin or trip in the car – if you know nothing about cricket then my Cricket Terms and Abbreviations page is just what you need!
4d Fruit‘s finished before halfway point of 500 years celebration (6)
This fruit forms the first 6 letters (finished before halfway point) of a thirteen-letter word for a 500 years celebration
7d Aswan Dam? One very much older! (8,5)
This could be a dam or mother from the country where the Aswan Dam is to be found
15d Old woman insultingly labelled a bad speller! (3)
Two definitions – a disparaging term for an old woman and witch (bad speller)
18d Beast devastating tent area (8)
… a member of the 12 across order of mammals
19d Picture made by university amateur going in for initial energy (7)
Start with a university or institution for higher education and insert an A(mateur) in place of the first (initial) occurrence of E(nergy)
22d Hear someone conducting German songs (6)
Sounds like someone conducting or guiding
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The Quick crossword pun: {sing} + {gull} + {tun} = {singleton}
Finished in xxxxxxxxx , a record for me , but not heard of 20 a before
Congratulations on your personal record – I have deleted the actual time as we don’t quote solving times here for fear of discouraging others who might not be so quick.
We discourage publishing times because it can demoralise other solvers and can lead to a “mine’s faster than yours” interchange. Saying that you set a personal record is fine.
How about just one day when we relax that rule?
Just for fun.
I completed almost all in under 2* time but the last couple of clues pushed my overall difficulty closer to 3*. I really enjoyed this today, so 4* for enjoyment.
12a & 20a were new words for me but were solvable from the clues and checking letters.
I marked 6a, 4d, 7d and 15d as particularly good.
6a was my 6a.
Many thanks to Mr. Ron and to BD.
I really enjoyed this – 2* difficulty and 4* for enjoyment.
Contrary to what BD thinks I did have trouble with 6a to begin with.
For me the whole puzzle was divided 9a – I did most of the right hand side (apart from 7d which took ages to see) before I had any answers in the left.
I got into a bit of tizzy when I saw 2d but eventually managed it and was slow to twig why my 4d was right.
I liked 14a (although to begin with I was a bit worried about what could be lurking in an old mattress) and 16a and 7d.
I’m not going to the naughty corner today so as it’s a prize puzzle I’ll stick to the rules and just say that the clue I liked best was 6a.
With thanks to Mr Ron and BD.
Hi Kath
I LOVE your clever comments on 9a and 6a! The compiler seems to have an obsession with 12 acrosses which are repeated in 18d. (I assume I will not get naughty-cornered for that in view of the hint for 18d!)
I battled a bit with 25a until I thought “Hey, we haven’t had an ‘English” clue yet” and then it was easy. (You don’t get these “seen in the woods” here in South Africa!) I think I may have cracked the formula at last: at least one very “English” clue (to baffle us colonials) and a couple of words that no one has ever heard of (12a and 20a).
An enjoyable puzzle!
Like Sue [above], I take great delight in finding that the puzzle is actually on the back page of the paper and, seeing the solutions quickly for 6a, 27a, 6d and 7d, further improved my mood. It’s a long time ago since I last entered the solution for 20a and I’m certain that it was a Telegraph crossword which prompted me to pick up Chambers to check on the meaning – once seen never forgotten!
All done and fairly routine but thanks to BD and the Setter of course. 5d my favourite and 4d last in.
Really enjoyed this puzzle, thanks for the hints, which confirmed some wordplay.
Thanks to the setter.
Prize puzzle printed…more in hope than expectation.
Thank you setter – I was hoping for an untaxing offering. Good fun and a good start to what I am told is an important birthday with a “0” on the end ! We are off to that eye-wateringly expensive restaurant in Cartmell for a family celebration – so might not be around tomorrow ! probably insolvent ! Thanks BD for your hints.
All done & dusted (wish the house was) no problems or issues . Really liked 12A & my 6A was 17D.Many thanks to the setter & BD for the review.
All done in reasonable order, though like others I had to confirm 12a and 20a in the BRB as new words for me. I can hardly wait for the context to arise so I can use them in the same sentence and amaze my friends in the pub later
Some nice wordplay, misdirection and humour here. Many thanks to Mr Ron (?) for another well balanced puzzle and of course BD for the review and blog. I was going to score this as **/*** but because it’s Saturday and the puzzle is where it should be on the back page, that’s got to be worth an extra * hasn’t it?
Cheers all
I don’t normally like these crossword grids which fail to give you the first letter of the another clue. But I managed this one without the aid of the blog. 25a , my last one in, is the favourite. Thank you also for the explanation of 10a! I knew it could only be that answer but failed to see the cryptic reason.
Super puzzle but have to say I thought 10a was just plain evil! Aswan dam was jolly clever too. Thx to all
After two really difficult puzzles, today’s was a delight, and we finished it without assistance from BD. I suspect the people who thought yesterday crossword was a breeze, will find today’s a little on the easy side, but for us it was on our wavelength. So a big thank you to the setter & to BD. A **/**** for us I think.
I came up short today. I didn’t get 12A and just couldn’t see 4D, though it wasn’t difficult. Loved 7D. Thanks to BD for the review and to the setter.
Well, after 3 months of trying these I finally finished one without any electronic help or hints! It took me ages – I was flying back to the UK over the north Atlantic so although the temptation was there to use help etc, I was unable to do so with no internet…Guess I proved to myself that I can (eventually) get there sometimes.
So thanks very much to this most excellent blog that has been immensely helpful over the last few months. Has to be ***/***** simply because it’s my first unaided completion.
Well done, Jon. May it be the first of many unaided completions for you!
Congrats to JonP, and thanks to Messers Ron and Dave for a delightful morning of synaptic exercise.
Mr & Mrs T
Well done to you – a triumph. The first time that I ever finished a crossword was in the Channel tunnel in PBD (Pre -Blog-Days or Pre-Big-Dave – you can take your pick of those two) and it proved to me that I could do it.
Thanks for the encouragement! Jet-lag now for me
My thanks to the setter for this satisfying puzzle, and to BD for the review. 3*/4* for me, and my favourite clue – although not particularly difficult – is 7d.
It is the right week for Cephas to be the setter (according to my calculations) and I have just typed ‘anagram’ seven times in my draft review so I am going to say ‘thank you Cephas’ and BD too.
Thanks to the setter and to Big Dave for the hints. An enjoyable puzzle that I found quite tricky. Needed the hints for 8&11a and 4d. Favourite was 12a. Was 3*/4* for me.
Impossible to choose a personal best liked (difficult to avoid THAT word) with such a selection. I thought 7d excellent and is probably my 6a. I had to delve a long way into memory but I did manage to get 20a, even though it was some time ago. All good fun, so thank you setter and Big Dave for review.
An Enjoyable solve today!
Faves : 12a & 7d.
Very hot today in NL and is only Springtime! What shall we get in August?
Busy following the news re MH370 – a Chinese vessel has detected a ping of the right frequency!
Recently discovered BD’s excellent blog and could not have completed today’s puzzle without some of his hints. Strangely enough solved 7d straight away but 8a and 6a were my last offerings, maybe because English is not my monther tongue! Thank you setter and BD for the review.
Welcome Framboise.
Welcome from me too – I assume you’re French. I have a French sister-in-law who sometimes does the DT cryptic crosswords. I’m always so full of admiration for her when she gets about half the answers – I think anyone who can finish one of these (with or without some hints) in a language that is not their mother tongue is absolutely brilliant.
12a – originally I had this answer ending in ‘x’ but it must obviously end in ‘x’ – the ‘goodbye’ bit in the clue completely passed me by – thanks to the blog!
You are correct but I have had to X out the letters in the ” ” as it goes against the ‘rules’
Thanks as always to BD for the hints without which I would still be looking at a fairly blank grid
20a came floating out if nowhere but needed BRB to verify 12a which was a new word for me
Not on the setters wavelength today but I have finished … Hurrah!
A very nice saturday evening treat ! I can’t pick a favourite.Husband helped with 2d, in confirming what I thought it was , that it is in fact a cricketing term. I didn’t want to go to BD’s helpful lists of cricketing terms , because I wouldn’t be able to resist looking at the rest of the hints.Although ,eventually I looked at 12a. For some one who studied zoology I feel a right dunce. Thanks cephas (I’ll take CS’ word on this), and BD for the blog which in my opinion doubles the enjoyment (and halves the time?).
Crosswords are supposed to improve spelling and I think mine has, unless all of you are too polite to point out terrible errors.
How do you work out the wordplay in 3D.
Welcome to the blog Robert.
3d Twisted Romeo being ditched developed gradually (7)
Start with a verb meaning twisted and remove (being ditched) the initial letter for which the word Romeo is used in radio communications.
Well, this was hard for me and grateful for BD help! Finally completed. Is it just me or are compilers becoming more obtuse??!