Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27706
Hints and tips by Deep Threat
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Good morning from South Staffs on a cold and frosty morning.
It took me little while to get going on today’s Giovanni, but I picked up speed after the first few clues fell into place, finishing just into *** time.
In the hints below, the definitions are underlined. The answers are hidden under the ‘Click here!’ buttons, so don’t click if you don’t want to see them.
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
1a Anger’s hidden by Jerry’s adversary, see, without excitement (10)
TIRESOMELY – Put another word for anger, plus the ‘s from the clue, inside Jerry’s cartoon adversary, and add the usual Episcopal see.
6a Country protected by formal institution (4)
MALI – An African country is hidden in (protected by) the clue.
9a Adviser continued to want leader of empire restricted (10)
CONSULTANT – A shortened form of ‘continued’ with the ruler of the Ottoman empire inside it.
10a Ruler of grim empire, backward-looking (4)
EMIR – Hidden in (of) the clue in reverse (backward-looking).
12a Drinks given special trade promotion, first to last (4)
ALES – Take a special trade promotion, traditionally held in January, but now often seen all year round, and move the first letter to the end, to get something sure to be consumed at the Cruciverbalists’ Convention next week.
13a Engineers, fellows this person’s put in fighting units (9)
REGIMENTS – The initials of a some military engineers, followed by another word for fellows with another way of saying ‘This person is’ inside it.
15a Dwindle as favourite with little energy facing defeat (5,3)
PETER OUT – Put together a favourite animal or child, an abbreviation for energy and a heavy defeat in battle.
16a Peer endlessly into Cornish river with pretty plants? (6)
FLORAL – Remove the last letter from a peer’s title, and put the result inside a Cornish river.
18a Fish crossing river or ditch (6)
TRENCH – River inside a fresh-water fish.
20a I will be in this set filling in crosswords (8)
ALPHABET – Two cryptic definitions of a set of symbols.
23a Lover no longer one to chide, that’s clear (9)
EXONERATE – Put together the usual former lover, ONE (from the clue) and another word for chide.
24a Bird in vessel on lake (4)
LARK – The abbreviation for Lake followed by a vessel which was said to contain two of these birds (plus every other sort of living creature).
26a Woman from Dublin maybe that’s ditched husband (4)
IRIS – Remove the H (ditch husband) from a description of a native of Dublin to get this woman’s name.
27a Wild beast may be seen here in the distance, one going in a flash (6,4)
SAFARI PARK – Take a word meaning ‘in the distance’, add the Roman numeral for one, and put the result inside an electrical flash.
28a Group from north sitting in silence (4)
GANG – North inside a verb meaning to silence.
29a Strange fee negotiated for uncommitted participants (4,6)
FREE AGENTS – Anagram (negotiated) of STRANGE FEE.
Down
1d Not cross for a moment (4)
TICK – The opposite of a cross when teacher is marking your homework.
2d Cluster of hair girl fixed with net (7)
RINGLET – Anagram (fixed) of GIRL and NET.
3d One of a couple in court to suppress noise? (6,6)
SQUASH RACKET – The court is a sports arena, and there would be four of these if a doubles match was being played. Or synonyms of ‘suppress’ and ‘noise’.
4d Disorderly lot going round hill on American vehicle (5,3)
MOTOR BUS – A disorderly crowd wrapped around a hill in the West Country, followed by an abbreviation for one one of the countries in North America.
WHAT is this that roareth thus?
- Can it be a Motor Bus?
- Yes, the smell and hideous hum
- Indicat Motorem Bum!
- Implet in the Corn and High
- Terror me Motoris Bi:
- Bo Motori clamitabo
- Ne Motore caedar a Bo–
- Dative be or Ablative
- So thou only let us live:
- Whither shall thy victims flee?
- Spare us, spare us, Motor Be!
- Thus I sang; and still and still anigh
- Came in hordes Motores Bi,
- Et complebat omne forum
- Copia Motorum Borum.
- How shall wretches live like us
- Cincti Bis Motoribus?
- Domine, defende nos
- Contra hos Motores Bos!
A.D. Godley
5d Row securing a good amount of editorial matter (6)
LINAGE – Put A (from the clue) and Good inside a row or series, to get a technical term in the newspaper industry.
7d A solitary type, male engaged as hospital worker no more (7)
ALMONER – A (from the clue) and a person who doesn’t like company with Male inside it, giving a hospital post which existed before Social Services departments were set up.
8d Tories rule in unsettled fashion, lacking clear purpose (10)
IRRESOLUTE – Anagram (in unsettled fashion) of TORIES RULE.
11d One taking this one won’t gain much ground (12)
SMALLHOLDING – Cryptic definition of a little agricultural set-up.
14d Celebrate outside club, jabbering (10)
SPUTTERING – A verb meaning to celebrate or praise someone, wrapped around a golf club.
17d A right troublesome goddess gets cut off (8)
ALIENATE – Put together A (from the clue), a legal right to retain property until a bill is settled, and the Greek goddess of mischief.
19d The personification of love at home admitting love is dying away (7)
EROSION – Another Greek god, the one whose name is wrongly attributed to the statue in Piccadilly Circus, followed by a word for ‘at home’ with the letter which looks like a love score at tennis inside it.
21d Pub gets to profit from special deal (7)
BARGAIN – A synonym of ‘pub’ followed by a synonym of ‘profit’.
22d Fair prohibition restricts extremist characters beginning to agitate (6)
BAZAAR – Put the letters at opposite ends of the 20a and the first letter of Agitate inside a prohibition.
25d More than one runner misses out, lacking power (4)
SKIS – The runners needed for a winter sport. Remove the P(ower) from a word which means ‘misses out’, as a truant misses out on school, for example.
The Quick Crossword pun CORE + PORE + ASIAN = CORPORATION
2*/2*. Ever the optimist, I hoped that last week’s excellent crossword might have proved to have been a turning point for Fridays. My heart sank today immediately I saw the large number of wordy clues, and my fears were confirmed when I started with 1a, which for me epitomises this uninspiring puzzle. 1a also includes the words “without excitement”, which accurately sums up my feelings.
Thanks to the setter and to DT.
The reverse of yesterday. South went in with no problems but North took a bit more sorting. An altogether pleasant exercise – thank you Giovanni and indeed DT. Liked 11d. Missed the country hiding in 6a – d’oh! I suppose 3d is cleverly devious. **/***.
For once Rabbit Dave isn’t the usual accurate predictor of my own experience – I found a number of enjoyable aha moments after staring at some clues for a while – these include 20a (I will be in this),27a (wild beast..), 3d (one of a couple in court), 22d (fair prohibition… took me a while to get the extremist characters). In 11d I wasted some time looking for an anagram of “won’t gain much” (ground). I also quite liked 23a (lover no longer..) and 2d (cluster of hair… although I found “cluster” a strange choice of word, even “bit” would have given a smoother surface)
Thanks Giovanni and Deep Threat
Got off to a good start but slowed down appreciably towards the end. 4&5d were bung-ins as I’m not familiar with the US vehicle name or the ‘technical term’. 17d was a ‘has to be’ ending as I didn’t know the goddess (have looked her up now!).
Not very happy with the definition at 19d – ‘wearing away’ seems better?
Plenty of ‘goodies’ – favourite would have come from 9a,1 or 3d until I finally got 27a, which really made me laugh out loud.
3*/3* for me.
Many thanks to Giovanni and to DT for the review – particularly the reminder of Sam Cooke and the 4d verse!
yes, I like wearing away.
I completely agree about 19d
Thank you DG, I enjoyed that and had to laugh at 15a,27a and 3d. Good fun. And – no new words ! Thanks DT for your review, hints and poetry.
Own goal problems in top left by putting gulp in for 12a – plug reversed I thought! Ho hum. Sorted out eventually with some help thanks. Otherwise a bit of an uninspired plod for me, sorry.
Welcome to the blog, Nuidler.
Unlike DT I made fairly swift progress before slowing up right at the end. I made it much worse for myself by clinging on to IMP as the likely opening for 11d for far too long and this took me into 3* time.
The second half of the day will be much more exciting – we are collecting our new puppy this afternoon!
What a lot of fun you have to look forward to. What type of puppy?
Labradoodle. A first for us, we’ve had three labs but never the doodle bit.
Should be fun; after nearly 30 years of canine companions (up to four at one point) the last couple of months have been eerily quiet.
Lovely. A friend of mine has one and she reckons she gets all the devotion of a lab. without the necessity of de-tangling the hoover every couple of weeks!
Will be retiring soon and thinking of a labradoodle as a friend got one a few months ago and loves it ,apart from some indiscipline issues -going to ‘lessons’ ! Another friend went to India last week and put the dog in Kennels, when he came back the dog- was generally mopey and ignored him, so he took him to a vet who said the dog was depressed and anxious and gave him(the dog) antidepressants and a pick me up-he soon perked up! – I kid you not.
How lovely! Girl, boy, colour, name? Need all the details – not sure we’ll ever be brave enough again. I still can’t talk about Annie without
Black and fluffy, called Polly and gorgeous!
I know what you mean about Annie, we lost three in as many years and it breaks your heart every time. I said never again but that didn’t last very long.
She sounds really lovely – I hope you have a lot of fun with her. We haven’t yet got beyond the never again stage.
Sadie is the first only child I’ve had, so when one goes, there is someone who needs your attention. When Rufus died, I was so inconsolable and I thought it wasn’t fair to Georgie, then along came Sadie. It’s a good thing Sadie happened as Georgie died soon after from cancer, only aged eight. They all tear my heart apart but i can’t do without them.
I don’t ever want to do this kind of heart tearing apart again – it’s not having a dog I miss – it’s her. She was so amazing . . .
Nelson, Mr Wu Mrs Stitch and latterly Thabo are all sat at the Dog and bowl pub, having a great time and moaning about how I never fed them enough, dragged them out on wet and cold mornings and evenings blah woof blah woof. We only look after them for a short while until they go to the great kennel elsewhere
This has been one of my worst weeks for crosswords ever.
I found this one really difficult – probably nearer 4* and 3* for enjoyment.
Started off really well – got lots of the across answers, including the two hidden ones, and then ground to a halt.
Complete standstill, for ages – eventually had most of the top half done but little else – oh dear. Did get there in the end but it has taken me ages. My excuse is the low anagram count.
Having said all that I thought there were some good clues – 6 and 20a and 3 and 14d. My favourite was 27a.
With thanks to Giovanni and to Deep Threat – I’d forgotten all about the Sam Cooke.
You are much better than I am at cryptics, so I don’t suppose it’s much consolation, but the last three days have been very difficult for us and in order to get started we’ve had to look at one or two hints and then continue from there. I really don’t like doing that, but needs must.
I cannot believe I am reading this, Kaths do not have worst weeks ever. Super bloggers may have mediocre day occasionally so have a
from me
Well said Hilary. And a
for you.
If I had to tell off a goddess I wouldn’t normally rate Ate. You learn something (or 2 things) every day.
Agree with Rabbit Dave re ‘wordy’ clues 1A was a perfect example of such a ‘convolution’, i always think them to be the anathema to an enjoyable crossword, don’t think much about shortened forms either , as in 9A , as they hint of ‘setter desperation’ for me.
Thought we were in for a pangram for a while but no, it’s missing J, V and W. Shame I likes a pangram.
Nothing wrong with the clues but we found them all a bit flat so it’s **/** from us.
Thanks to Giovanni and DT.
I have to agree with you Beaver, I don’t enjoy convoluted clues either. I’m just not very good at unravelling them. Anyway, thank you to the Friday setter and to DT.
***/***. First pass was not good but once I got going in the northern half it pretty much fell into place. A number of aha moments which made it very enjoyable. Thanks to the setter and DT for the review. I was woken at 4.30 this morning by my new grandson so what better than a cup of tea and a good crossword to start the day.
For 13a I had the right answer but couldn’t parse it. I had ‘fellows’ as ‘men’. Doh! Thanks for the breakdown of the clue.
Make that two of us!
Three!
Me too – four!
Had a similar problem. The engineers bit was straightforward, but then I thought “men” for fellows. Then I tried “imen” for “this person’s put in fighting” ie anag of mine. That left G&T which I thought was a good idea, so I went and had one.
Is it beer o’clock? Fantastic. Except I’m in a car park in Darlington.
Love it!!
***/***
Nice way to end the week. I agree with Jane et al re: the surface reading of 19d.
Lots of nice moments with 5d and 27a making me smile with my favourite being 11d.
Many thanks to the Don and to DT for a lovely blog and the brilliant words of A D Godley.
I hope everyone has a lovely weekend. I shall be tackling the A66 again later and having attempted to tackle the Toughie, Pinot Noir o’clock cannot come soon enough.
I quite enjoyed this. While I agree I’m not over keen on the much maligned 1a, it is always a morale boost when I get one straight away giving me the starter letters to 5 others, so Giovanni is hereby forgiven. (He’s allowed the odd hiccup when he comes up with 27a which for me is a masterpiece.) I’m not sure why 11d had two “one”s and I didn’t like 14d as a synonym for jabbering, if I’m being picky, but that’s probably just me! Many thanks to DT and the Don.
Thanks to Giovanni and to Deep Threat for the review and hints. Completely impossible for me. Needed 6 hints and 4 lookups to finish. Was 4*/1* for me. I wouldn’t have got 3d in a million years, even though I play the game three times a week
2*/3* for me, and l should really go for 27a as favourite. However, because l was born on one l’ll give my vote out of sheer sentiment to 27d. Thanks to Giovanni, and to DT for the review.
Found this quite tricky in parts (whats new?) But managed without hints today. Agree with DT ***/*** as I thought there were some nice clues in the mid section and of course 27a.(certainly needed that one to do 22d)
(so I’ll have to tackle the toughie). Dont expect to complete it on my own though.
Golf course still too icy to play
Overtaxed…There’s no place like Nome.
In Nome they play the ‘Bering Sea Ice Golf Classic’!
Coloured balls, tees made out of shotgun shells, obscure rules about polar bears.
Hardest of the week for me. Needed 3 or 4 hints to finish. Having said that, once ‘seen’ the answers were all reasonable I thought. A good puzzle.
Was on the point of giving up early on but persisted and right glad I am that I did as it turned out to be very enjoyable. Not the easiest Giovanni and would perhaps take issue with the clueing on 24a, surely the L(ake) is on the vessel rather than vice versa. But no mind, some excellent clues inc 12a and 27a (spent ages here tryng to get Masai Mara into the answer!).
Thx to all
Just one small point. Despite much digging I can’t find anywhere anything that equates Rate to Chide as in 23a. Am I missing something here?
Chambers:
rate (2)
To scold, chide, reprove
The BRB has, as its second entry for “rate”: to scold, to chide; to reprove.
Re. 24a – In a down clue A on B means that A precedes (i.e. sits on top of) B, but in an across clue A on B means that A follows (is added on to) B. However, not all setters follow this convention in across clues (Giovanni always does, as far as I am aware) – so it can be confusing.
Thanks for the explanation, gazza!
Not confusing at all?
(Reminds me of Sir Humphrey Appleby giving advice to Jim Hacker -PM)
With some help from the supertoy I got there then I looked at blog. Being very strict with myself no peeping until I am absolutely sure I cannot do anymore. Must be a natural optimist because despite others complaining about various things I am always a happy little old lady just to have finished. Too many favourites today but 27a did come high on the list.
Thanks as always to Giovanni and DT
Really struggled with this one, but with a lot of electronic help managed to finish it.
Thanks very much to Deep Threat for showing me how the clues worked.
I am determined to get better but it is taking me a long time!
OK Ora Meringue I really have to ask – how did you come up with your ‘name’? I’m tempted to think it might be an anagram but so far have failed to come up with anything that sounds remotely likely.
Rogue Marine?
Ooooh – who’s a smartie pants! I hadn’t got that far – I’d thought of Norman but not enough N’s – thought of Una because we have one – couldn’t get any further.
Wonder if anyone else can come up with anything . . . Prolixic perhaps – he’s pretty good at this kind of thing.
That might not be a good idea Kath as it may lead to ‘More argue in’.
Another smartie pants – I’m all for a bit of ‘More argue in’ – makes it all the more fun!
I think that we have to hope that he or she tells us where his or her name comes from.
Rita Ora the singer wore a dress described as a meringue at the Elle Style Awards about a year ago.
http://images.sugarscape.com/userfiles/image/AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAFEB2014/Lucy/Week3/190214-weirdest.jpg
Click on the link or paste it in to your search engine to see a photo of her.
The name could come from a joke told by an old Scottish comedian (deceased and I can’t remember his name). Best imagined in a thick Glaswegian accent (if you can)! It goes something like this.
A man walks into a bakery and says, “Hey Jimmy, is that a doughnut OR A MA RANG?” (Translation; or am I wrong)
To which the guy behind the counter replies, “Naw, yer right pal, it’s a doughnut”
In thick Glaswegian OR A MA RANG would sound like ORA MERINGUE.
That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.
Slow going but I struggled through, 17d was the last one in and it was a ‘bungitin’ because it was the only half sensible answer that fitted. Thanks for the explanation the Greek goddess was a new one to me!
**note to self – print of a list of Greek (& Roman) Gods and Goddesses and keep it close at hand**
Onward and upward – it was -7 degrees this morning when I was scraping the car – brrrrr!
Found the top half tough going and even though I played squash for years I failed to find it ,despite having” racket” in place. It was my last in and I think my patience had been tested for longer than normal by Ia , 15a and sputtering,(stuttering more like) so had to look at DT’s answer Thank you. Still enjoyed bits of it but can’t think of any stand outs
****/ * Tend to agree with Kath on this one.
Definitely nearly a 4* difficulty from me today (find me a crossword that hasn’t been this week – do hope that the marble count isn’t dropping off) but I did give it more than 1* for enjoyment. I thought there were some good clues but, as is usual on a Friday, I missed a glimmer of humour.
There have been some very good puzzles this month and today’s as far as I’m concerned was probably the most absorbing for a long time. I’m a huge fan of the Don’s, so his puzzles rarely disappoint. Due to having other things to do today I needed to take three more bites at it in order to complete the solve. The first read through yielded only seven answers and the remainder was finished as and when a little time allowed a ‘sit and think’. Thanks to the Don for a really enjoyable puzzle – loved many of the four letter answers and 17 down. 20 across was another favourite too.
Sort of enjoyed this puzzle, but had a few gripes. My dictionary has 11d as two words. Thanks to DT and the setter.
But Chambers has it as one word, and that’s what counts so far as Telegraph crosswords are concerned.
I should have known that! I must buy myself a copy of Chambers.
I enjoyed today’s offering but I have to admit to being beaten by 27a… even with the checking letters (bar the ‘k’). Talk about D’oh! I mean, there aren’t many 6 letter words ending in i but I had decided I was looking for an animal so that was me done for…
Never mind; I’ll nominate 27a as my favourite clue and move on swiftly.
Thanks to the Don and DT for the revue.
Struggled today because of other commitments but finished it eventually. We liked 15a. Thanks to Giovanni? & Deep Threat.
It’s always Giovanni on Fridays. If you go to the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) which is right up at the top you’ll find it.
Lots of people start off one of their first comments by asking how we know who the setter is – have a look at the FAQ and all will become clear.
Not sure about your other commitments but I thought today’s was tricky enough without anything else going on.
What is there to say about such a well constructed crossword.
Pure pleasure to solve.
I never use pencils and notice only one correction on my grid: For 5d I wrote Tirage which means print run in French. Thought the row was a TIER with AG until I realised that it should be TIRE which is definitely not a row. 1a and 9a gave me the checking letters as I didn’t know the word.
Apart from that it’s a sans fautes.
Thanks to Giovanni for that and to DT for the review which I always read whether needed or not. The same goes with the blog of course.
Not too bad for a Friday in terms of difficulty (even the “made up ” words eg 7d were correct) although I can’t say I would ever use that therm for a synonym of chide in 22a – not that it could have been anything else. Favourite was 11d. Nicely deceptive! Least favourite was 20a – tenuous at best. Thanks to all of this weeks setters for an enjoyable series of work-outs.
And my typing should have given me “week’s”. Sorry Mr Apostrophe, and curse the keypad!
Surprisingly, I found this an absolute doddle and finished before the last train out of London Bridge reached my station. It was a read and write and finished in 1* time. Loved 20a and 22d. 3* for delight