DT 28150 (Hints) – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 28150 (Hints)

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28150 (Hints)

Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club

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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.

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”. Where the hint describes a construct as “usual” this means that more help can be found in The Usual Suspects, which gives a number of the elements commonly used in the wordplay. Another useful page is Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing, which features words with meanings that are not always immediately obvious.

A full review of this puzzle will be published after the closing date for submissions.

Some hints follow.

Across

1a    Cautious about Italian making donation (7)
An adjective meaning cautious around IT(alian)

10a    Dress at home (7)
A form of clothing (dress) typically that worn by a monk followed by AT from the clue

11a    Heather’s put by tip for something to eat (8)
Our usual heather preceded by a rubbish tip

15a    Medic returns a harmonious conclusion? (4)
The reversal (returns) of a colloquial word for word for a medic followed by the A from the clue

16a    It shows the cost of getting taken for a ride (9)
… in a cab

24a    Renegade let out shaking noise (6)
A renegade or deserter followed by an anagram (out) of LET

27a    Speech could be flat (7)
This speech could also be a flat, or any other type of dwelling

28a    Hindrance of course (8)
This hindrance can be a great help to the inexperienced on the golf course or a racecourse

29a    Caught New York student heading west — he had knocked off illegally (7)
C(aught), the abbreviation for N(ew) (York) and the letter that represents a student all reversed (heading west in an across clue) followed by the shortened form of “he had” gives a verb meaning knocked off or put to death illegally

Down

2d    Principal part of building where nuts should fit in? (8)
Forget the definition and concentrate on combining a school principal with a part of a building

3d    Artist wearing plaster that protects from cats and dogs (8)
Our usual artist followed by a two-letter word meaning wearing and a verb meaning to plaster

4d    Established supporting vehicles one should leave immobile (10)
A word meaning established or permanent preceded by some passenger vehicles without (should leave) I (one)

5d    Gold must come next to be dandy (4)
The chemical symbol for gold preceded by (come next to) BE from the clue

6d    Kind of economic policy in the red, turning green? (4-2)
What do red and green traffic lights indicate?

11d    Place of fantasy — fear grips chap getting left inside (9)
A word meaning fear around (grips) a chap who is around (getting … inside) L(eft)

14d    Pop festival in June (7,3)
A cryptic definition of a time to give presents to “pop”

18d    Mix company drinks before City rises (8)
CO(mpany) followed by some alcoholic drinks and the reversal (rises) of the postcode of the City of London

19d    Diplomat gets cheers rising and falling — revolutionary (7)
The reversal (rising) of a two-letter word meaning cheers followed by the same word and our usual Argentinian revolutionary

26d    Partially consumed a mild cheese (4)
Hidden (partially) inside the clue

The Crossword Club is now open.   The end of the month comes around quickly, so I’m off to the Village Café and Market – back around lunchtime.


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The Quick Crossword pun: knows+chord+raw=no-score draw


50 comments on “DT 28150 (Hints)

  1. Normal Saturday service is resumed! A lot more gentle than the previous two weeks. Less of a challenge though. Quite liked 14d.

  2. I’ve never rated difficulty as 1* before so either I’m getting better or this one was as easy as they come. That said I experienced a hiccup at 3d by entering a noun and not a verb for ‘plaster’ leaving me stumped at 15a. Thanks Big Dave for hints and a great blog.

    1. C. 3d: It might be worth mentioning that, as you and BD have already pointed out, the second half of the answer is a verb (as in to apply the plaster). But it could equally be a noun, as in what exists physically after it has dried. I hope this isn’t regarded as an alternative clue – it’s just an observation about a nuance regarding what’s already been revealed in the hint.

      1. I did think about this when writing the hint but Chambers Thesaurus only lists the verb. I don’t think many would use the noun as a direct synonym.

        1. Yes, you’re right. I’ve been thinking more about this and although it can work as a noun within a statement or sentence (I won’t give an example because it might compromise the rules re prize crosswords), it doesn’t really work when taken in isolation as a direct synonym/definition (but it does as a verb). Thank you for the advice.

  3. Much more fun than some Prize offerings. Thanks Mysteron and indeed BD although i did manage on my Jack Jones with just a bit of help over 21a in which I wrongly repeated Santa’s cry so making 18d a problem. Fav 28a. ***/***.

  4. What a delightful puzzle! And it was on the back page of the paper too. 2d and 14d made me smile but my favourite has to be 23d and I liked the Quick Crossword pun as well. The only downside this morning has been the heavy rain but every cloud has a silver lining and, as I can’t do what I want to do in the garden, I shall just have to watch three games of football instead…

      1. Hi Mary! 46-6! What’s even more galling is that England are in the process of whitewashing Australia… I think we’ll have too much firepower for Northern Ireland and Aaron Ramsey’s having an outstanding tournament.

    1. 14D was a brilliant clue that I fell into the trap of thinking pop was an anagram indicator. My defence is I live in Oz and the celebration in question is in a different month.

  5. 2*/3*. This made a very enjoyable but not too taxing start to the day, with 14d my favourite. The sun is shining and I may actually get to play cricket today.

    Many thanks to Mr Ron and to BD.

  6. Thanks for hints Dave though I didn’t need them today :-) … Is it me or have all this weeks puzzles been on the slightly easier side? A nice gentlish week , requiring not too much perservation to ease back into cryptic crossword land!!!!

    1. Hi Mary, and welcome back. Are you going to be a regular again? Nice if you were. I was going to post that this week has been the easiest on record but you’ve beat me to it!

  7. What a very nice crossword – I really enjoyed it and several made me laugh.
    I did this one in dribs and drabs due to the weather – we’re getting ten minutes of hot sun, then about the same of clouds and then the same again of torrential rain – very frustrating.
    I thought it was quite straightforward although a few at the end held me up – there’s always something.
    For some reason I didn’t see 10a or 5d for ages and had 21a wrong for a little while.
    I also had 28a wrong to begin with – wrong kind of course.
    At least I now know what I am – I’m a loose woman, and a great one too!
    I liked 27 and 29a and 23d. My favourite was 14d.
    With thanks to today’s Mr Ron and to BD.

    1. PS – Now it’s thundering, dammit! :sad:
      Oh well, that’s a good excuse to have a go at the Alchemi NTSPP. It seems as if it’s a long time since we’ve had one of his.

    2. I, too, had the wrong course at 28a for far too long.
      You’d better sort your weather out before Monday!

      1. As long as I don’t decide to go to Wimbledon, things should be OK. Everything I plan seems to affect the weather – the church fete this afternoon was abandoned due to torrential rain and flooded field. Now got to decide what to do with all the honey we potted up to sell there.

        1. Oh, CS, you are really having bad luck with the weather. When I lived in England, June was about the only month we felt we could rely on for sunshine.

      2. I’ll do my best with the weather for Monday – as long as we keep CS away from Wimbledon, or perhaps even the whole of SE London, we should be fine. :unsure:

  8. Well done England. Great rugby match. Must go and make lunch for the troops. I’ll have to call in later.

  9. Quite pleasant but so many with the same construction in 12a, 7d, 8d and 17d.
    14d favourite as well.
    Thanks to the setter and to BD for the blog.

  10. I think 14 down will be many people’s favourite today. A cracking clue in a fairly gentle crossword. Nothing too obscure or unreasonable, just a good, honest puzzle. Many thanks to Mr Ron and of course to BD.

    Forced inside now by some of those pesky heavy showers.

  11. Very enjoyable and very reasonable clues. I quite like partial anagrams – where we’re directed to remove parts of the fodder. Held up for a while due to entering 21a too quickly and had to rethink once I saw 18d couldn’t agree with my previous entry. No particular favourites but rewarding nonetheless. Thanks to the setter and BD for the hints.

  12. Yes, a fairly easy Saturday puzzle, but there were some that held me up, like the wrong course in 28a.
    Fave was 14d, but I thought 11a, 15a and 8d were pretty good too.
    Thanks to setter and to DT for the hints.

  13. I thought almost too easy for a ‘prize’ – until the bottom left hand corner; stuck for ages, had to resort to Chambers word search, and then this site for an explanation of 19d. 23 made me laugh!

  14. Yes, most enjoyable. Just the right level of difficulty for solving while listening to the football, talking to my brother on the phone, exchanging texts with Jan, who’s watching the footie in a Kraków bar. 22a and 14d breast the tape together in the favourite stakes. Ta to BD and the setter 2*/3*

  15. Great fun. Just short of 2* time, but some lovely clues – mainly in the SW corner. I liked 10a, 19d and 28a, but my favourite was 23d (and I have the best one there is!). Thanks to setter and BD.

  16. The explanation for 29a could be used as an explanation for the word ‘convoluted’ – apart from that it was ok!

    That’s New Zealand v Wales and Australia v England at Rugby and Switzerland v Poland in the Euro’s – now it’s Wales v Northern Ireland – and later on it’s Croatia v Portugal – I’m like a pig in the proverbial!

    My better half has gone to Lakeside with her friends and the Credit Cards – it could be expensive!

  17. Like most others, I thought this was fairly gentle. I was just about to give up on 10a, putting the wrong emphasis on ‘in’, when I suddenly saw it so was pleased. I agree with Jean-Luc about some of the cluing but 1.5/3.

  18. Yeah…another back pager! And a great puzzle to boot. Wrong answer for 28a (was thinking of a children’s sports day) held me up a bit. I disagree with your parsing of 14a…I think the clue is more accurate than that, it’s actually quite clever but I can’t say more for fear of the naughty corner! 😱. Fabulous today. I really enjoyed the range of different clues. There was something for everyone today. Thanks to the setter and Big Dave. (who my spellchecker tried to change to “Dance”!!!)

  19. An enjoyable puzzle, but I was left feeling very unclever when I had to seek help for such as 19d, 27a and 28a. Got stuck on the South East corner with those annoying last few clues when all seemed to be going swimmingly… then brick wall time. But all grist to the mill and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. Thanks to the setter and BD for the hints.

  20. Unbelievable. Able to have lunch in the garden at long last! What a great set of puzzles this week, and this was no exception. Possibly thought that it was meant for last week because of one of the clues. A new word for me was ‘niblings’ . I shall commit that to memory if I escape the naughty corner. Really liked 8d and 23d. Thank you BD and setter.

    1. You must have been in Florence…
      The U.K. Has been awful all spring & Summer so far….

  21. The usual Saturday enjoyment interspersed between various games of rugby (sorry Australia). Many thanks to BD for the hints, used occasionally, and to the Saturday setter

    1. Apologising to the Aussies – you must be mad – they’re the worst losers going – it was a great match made all the better by beating the usually gloating Aussies – life is sweet!

      :good:

  22. Thanks to the setter and to Big Dave for the hints. A quite straightforward, but enjoyable puzzle except for 10a, would never have thought of that in a million years. Favourite was 14d, very loud penny drop moment. Was 2*/3* for me. When does Summer start :-(

  23. Now, I found this a little more difficult than par, perhaps because I ended up with five or six clues dotted round the grid that each fell with some difficulty. Or perhaps the shock of seeing Wales make their way through to the quarter finals in Euro 16 has simply frazzled the brain cells for the moment. :-)

  24. I found the last few took some thinking. Last in being 10a. Liked 11a and 14d which I did watching Adele at Glastonbury so had to laugh when penny dropped. Half a botle of wine doesn’t help I guess. Thanks all.

  25. I don’t normally comment on any of the weekend reviews / hints / NTSPP etc – but I have to say that the prize puzzle today was brilliant. Not had so much fun in a long time. :good:

  26. My last was 10a -like many others it seems!
    I have to admit I needed the hint for that one…thx BD.
    I did most of it whilst travelling up M5 & M6 -Mrs driving..completed Sunday at home again.Missed Aussie rugby match how.ever so not all good. M5 still has 13 miles of one set of roadworks -when will it end ……?

  27. Lovely crossword.
    Late today as Saturday was spent hacking my way around 36 holes for the club gold medal. Any advice on how to putt would be very well received!!
    Hard to pick out a favourite, I will give it to 28a as mine is increasing!!!
    Work tomorrow!!!

  28. I did this one on Sat aft. Quite easy, as normal for a Saturday Prize, but fairly enjoyable. 1.5*/2*

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