DT 28222 (Hints) – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 28222 (Hints)

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28222 (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

2a    Unofficially it’s where the song that went on too long ended (3,3,6)
A weak cryptic definition of where an overlong song might finish

9a    Enjoy sage also (8)
A charade of four-letter verb meaning to enjoy and a four-letter adjective meaning sage or clever

12a    Strike leader is a shark (10)
A charade of a six-letter verb meaning to strike with a heavy tool and a leader or chief

13a    Going west, is able to cut through Brynner’s Folly (6)
A three-letter verb meaning is able inside actor Brynner’s first name all reversed (going west in an across clue)

17a    Sitting room? (6)
Another cryptic definition of – this time it’s of a room in which a model (sitter) could pose for an artist

 

18a    Frisk a few seen as game for a laugh? (10)
This charade, which consists of verb meaning to frisk or caper and a word meaning a few, gives an adjective meaning game for a laugh or playful

24a    Show goodwill to be right when devil’s around (8)
BE from the clue followed by a devil around R(ight)

26a    Kind of benefit one gets from not working? (12)
Another weak cryptic definition – this time it’s the kind of benefit paid to those who are not working

Down

1d    Airman crashes in harbour (6)
An anagram (crashes) of AIRMAN

3d    A number in quartet show preference (6)
The A from the clue and a Roman numeral inside the number that make up a quartet

4d    Te break! (4-4,7)
The proportion that TE is of the second part of the (4-4) followed by a break gives an all-in-one clue to which the setter has added an exclamation mark to indicate that he thinks it is very clever – do you agree? or did you just suck your teeth like I did as the whole clue does not provide a proper definition

6d    Cringe, seeing cowcatcher missing Dolly perhaps (5)
Drop what might be a dolly in cricket from the third word in the clue

7d    Collected information to look through again (8)
This collected information could, if split (2-6), mean to look through again

14d    Novel on flop hospital department that trades in organs (9)
It’s charade time again – a three-letter words meaning novel, to flop and our usual hospital department gives a shop that sells “organs” or daily publications

16d    Not a hard way to get customers? (4,4)
Our final cryptic definition – this time it’s a way of getting customers by using mildly persuasive tactics

22d    Loud duck with spirit in marketplace (5)
The musical notation for loud followed by the letter that looks like a score of zero in cricket and an alcoholic spirit

The Crossword Club is now open.


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The Quick Crossword pun: knead+full+lea=needfully


64 comments on “DT 28222 (Hints)

  1. Probably one of the easiest Saturday puzzles for some time. 26a was just so obvious, I didn’t put it in till last. I just couldn’t find anything cryptic about it at all – other than the “?” at the end of the clue. Quite liked 4d and 6d. Thanks to setter and BD for the write up.

  2. This one, for me, was generally very easy/elementary but quite enjoyable to solve. 4d was a clever clue (at first I thought the te was a typo for tea) and 21d was funny and risqué – a la Ray T. I also liked 14d. In view of the answer, shouldn’t collected in the 7d clue read “collect”? But overall, surely way too simple for a prize crossword? 1*/2.5*

      1. Yes, you’re right, but I just thought that collect would fit better since the answer and wordplay mostly are both also in the present tense (if that’s the right way to describe it).

          1. Yes, of course collected is right if you read the whole of the definition as a noun in a normal cryptic clue (which I now know it is). But I got my thought processes in a twist and originally felt that collect was correct (because I wrongly thought that it was a double-definition with a slight mistake in it). As in: Collect information to look through again. Sorry for the confusion!

            1. In fact, looking at it again, couldn’t it be a double definition as it is – Collected information to look through again ?

                1. Surely the answer is a noun (first part of clue) and second part of clue is a verb. There’s nothing wrong with the clue – just takes a bit of working out!

                2. Thank you BD. In my assumed/proposed double definition (above), the first definition is nounal (as in the actual clue) but the second definition probably won’t work because according to my 1998 BRB the answer would have to be hyphenated (as opposed to the hypothetical 2-6 split in the hint). But if in the past 18 years of meantime it has been de-hyphenated, then it would work as a d.d. Hope you can follow that – there’s more to this one than meets the eye!

          2. CS. I still maintain the clue would be slightly improved with a verbal definition – for the reasons given above and below, because it is simply a person preference and for two other very subtle reasons that you may not have noticed. That is my reasoned opinion and I remain unmoved – irrespective of any bold text that may be brandished to persuade me otherwise.

    1. I think either works. I would agree there is a small gain in aesthetic value in using the present tense of the verb

  3. 1*/2.5*. A gentle but pleasant return to crosswordland on what feels a very chilly morning back in London after a lovely week in Tenerife.

    Many thanks to Mr Ron and to BD.

  4. Perhaps I’m just in a really good frame of mind this morning or maybe I simply enjoy an easier crossword. Either way, I thought this was good fun!
    I did have a go at making two non-existent anagrams at 18a & 14d and the 6d cricket reference passed me by. I thought of a ‘dolly’ as an attractive girl, therefore something of a ‘*****’. Worked for me!

    A crowded podium – 2,9,11,18,21&25a plus 4&20d all crammed on there.

    Many thanks to Mr. Ron and salutations to BD.

    1. Yes, the first words of those two clues had me juggling letters in the air. They all fell to the floor….

  5. I really liked 13a (Brynner’s Folly), 17a (sitting room), 21a (gain for female with sex appeal) and especially 14d (novel on flop hospital…)

    However some other clues I thought were weak, including 2a and 26a. And one answer component is used in 2 clues.

    I haven’t made my mind up about 4d (te break). If te is a word (it would be nice, I think, to have real words) I can only think of the note, in which case the surface means little – but I guess the surface is meant to suggest ‘tea break’ – hm.

    Many thanks setter and BD

    1. re hint for 4d – the exclamation mark is probably just intended to suggest something weird is going on – but I have heard (and taken on board) a general warning to setters to be careful with exclamation marks, because they do come over as suggesting “isn’t this clever (!)”

      a question mark might have been more humble

        1. I totally agree with that observation and it was something which my mentor – I wrote on sport for various newspapers on an honorarium basis – instilled into me at an early stage. It wasn’t that clever anyway… And I concur with your comment below as well, neveracrossword. By the way, he’d have told me off for starting a sentence with a conjunction but the tabloids now do it all the time.

                1. I was looking for a musical answer for 4d but when I grasped it I did think it was a clever clue. To me the first “word” of the clue gives the first two words of the answer and the second word of the clue is a synonym for the second word of the answer.

  6. Hurrah!
    I don’t care if many think this one too easy I am pleased to have finished it in what was for me quick time.

    Thanks to the setter and to Big Dave!

    And no, those exclamation marks do not mean I think I am clever….heaven forfend.

  7. Very enjoyable, and, for me, this must be the easiest puzzle of the week. Favourite 4d – I started thinking it was something to do with the musical scale but I discovered my spelling was off, and I am not sure I really understand the use of ! and ? in clues. Is there some guidance somewhere?

    1.5*/3*** – thanks to the setter and BD.

  8. 1.5*/3* and like others, over too quickly. I was going to give another star for enjoyment but I don’t think I can since I finished in quick time. That takes nothing away from some of the clues, which were clever and fun to solve, particularly 13 and 17 across and 14 down. I won’t dwell on 4 down as others have already made my point.

    Thanks to the Saturday setter and BD. Another pleasant but chilly day in the Marches.

  9. Lots of read and writes. Funny but I needed all crossing letters before I got 26a. */***
    No hints needed today😊
    Thanks all

  10. I completed this rather swiftly which means it must be an easy one. Enjoyable for me because it made me feel clever. Lots of read and write clues, I thought 26a was so easy that I had to check a few of the letters before I wrote it in.

    My favourites were 2a, 4d and 14d. The last one in was 24a which had me stuck for ages, though looking back I can’t see why.

  11. What an enjoyable puzzle again on a Saturday. Many thanks to the setter and to BD for the hints.Now off to the Rugby – big match

  12. Golly bongs (where have I heard that before?), that was easy peasy but enjoyable. I never mind an easy puzzle, makes me feel that I do have a brain.
    I agree that 4d would have been better with a ? instead of !, but I still thought it was clever and is my fave. There were many others I liked, fun puzzle.
    Thanks to setter and to BD for the hints, I don’t think many will need them today.

    1. I totally agree Merusa – great feeling for a novice like me to do a puzzle without having to rush for the hints! A real tonic. And I’ve just unexpectedly won a bargain on e-bay. Cant complain!

  13. Finished over breakfast so must be easier than usual today. Held up as I had the wrong last word for 2a, but then 6d was so clear, even for a non cricket person, so that put back on track.

  14. I did my best to handicap myself with a Friday night visit to the local pub, but this still didn’t present any problems. I’ll try an extra pint next week.

  15. Very enjoyable and greatly enjoying the comments and different views so far. Thanks setter and BD. Definite favourite 14d, followed by 13a and more controversially 4d. Last one in was 24a.

  16. Quite a swift finish for a Saturday, though I did find that it got harder as I moved south and then SE. Lots to like, no complaints. :-)

  17. Very enjoyable with some very clever clues. 4d was my favourite. Thanks to all. The rain arrived on schedule and is making up for months of sunshine.

  18. Sorry…For the hard of thinking…Why in 21a is Pro = Female??
    I finished 3/4’s of this before breakfast, with a view to leaving myself a few for this evening, then a combination of feeling knackered after an afternoon refereeing, feeling sh**te with a bad cold meant that my brain had gone AWOL, which is embarrassing for such a straight-forward puzzle. I have had to resort to Midsomer Murders as it’s all my brain can cope with this evening.
    Needed a hint for the Brynner clue, I still can’t spot a reversal….
    That will teach me.
    Thanks to BD and Mr.Ron for the entertainment.

      1. Thanks Jane, it’s a Saturday as Sue has just reminded me so I’ll have to leave it.
        I guess I shall have to wait a couple of weeks for an explanation.

        1. Only until Friday at 9 am. I’m sure if you revisit each part of the clue carefully you’ll work it out before then

    1. You should also take care not to include part solutions (which I’ve now removed) in your comments

  19. Not a lot of head scratching with this one. Just as well. I’ve been out in the fresh air all day and can hardly believe how cold I’ve got. Autumn has certainly arrived. Thank you BD for the review, and thank you setter for a crossword which hasn’t frozen my brain when it was cold enough already. A quick but enjoyable solve.

  20. Thanks to the setter and to Big Dave for the hints. I found most of this easy. However, I ground to a halt with about 8 answers unsolved. I think my solving skills have gone on a 4d. I needed the hints for 24a,7d, and electronic help for 20d. Favourite was 4d. Was 3*/2* for me.

  21. I’m sorry but the word Dolly only means two things to me, Parton and Sheep, ok perhaps that’s three things.

  22. Also, that’s a very weird looking fish in the hints, I can’t look at it without seeing it with a very long pointed nose.

  23. It seems that cricketing terms are often puzzling for many as the game is rarely seen on TV these days. There were some odd clues today as BD eluded to…but I admit to a hint on my last one 24a, thanks BD. A bit late as eventful weekend making hay whilst sun shines! Looks back to normal next week!

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