DT 28418

71 comments on “DT 28418”

1. I found most of this puzzle straightforward but got bogged down in the SE corner which took me a while to sort out and took me into my 3* time

   Thanks to Falcon and RayT ***/****

2. All the telltale signs that it is a RayT puzzle were there and all the fun we expect from his puzzles was there too. We agree that the clever lurker in 10a deserves the vote for best clue. As usual we checked the clue word count — nothing longer than eight words.
   Thanks RayT and Falcon.

3. Quite straight forward with 19 & 20 trickiest **/***. Falcon was up early or late in Ottawa

   1. Welcome to the blog.

      Checking to see whether you were ‘new’ or not, I note that we have a number of other commenters called ‘Reggie’ so unless you are one of them with a new email address, you may wish to change your alias to avoid confusion

   2. Hi Reggie,

      Welcome to the blog or welcome back to the blog, as the case may be.

      The answer is that I was up late. It is 7:00 pm Wednesday evening here in Ottawa when the puzzle is posted to the Telegraph Puzzles website at midnight in the UK.

4. 2*/4*. It’s been a long while coming, but a Ray T puzzle is always worth the wait. This was an exceptionally enjoyable puzzle and like JonP I found most of it very straightforward with only 19a, 30a & 20d slowing me down. Nice to see the classically correct plural used in 22a.
   

   I’ll go along with Falcon’s selection of contenders for favourite (10a, 3a, 8d, 11d) with 10a taking top place.

   Many thanks to Ray T and to Falcon.

5. Always good to have recourse to hints nice and early. Thank you Falcon for that and to RayT for the entertaining puzzle. I’m with JonP and RD in having found SE corner most taxing. I needed help with 28a, 30a and 5d. Missed lurker in 11d. 10a definitely Fav.

6. Most of this was a R&W but like some others got bogged down in the SE corner, my top award goes ton30A with 10A a close second. Many thanks to the setter & to Falcon for a nice early review.

7. A very satisfying solve today sitting in the bar at overlooking Studland Bay. The two lurkers were amongst the last three in. 10ac would still be hidden if I hadn’t read Falcons blog. Last nights Dylan show was perfection plus. I am so looking forwards to tonight’s concert. We have nothing to do and all day to do it in. Dinner at The Guildhall in Poole tonight. Thanks to all.

8. Very enjoyable. Many thanks to RayT, and to Falcon for the review.

9. A first class crossword. Just perfect – I have triple-ticked 10a and after reading the blogs above it seems unanimous. 17a and 4d got double-ticks. Done during a luxurious lie-in with a cup of English tea (loose leaves, of course).
   Looking at this pesky weather I hope it improves for Kath’s cleaned ‘sitooterie’ – and our messy one.
   Oops.. almost forgot thank you RayT for a v g offering and Falcon.
   Oops2… ***/****

10. Probably on the gentle side, but a very enjoyable Ray T. Took a long time to see the lurkers, and enjoyed the humour in 15a. Thanks to Mr T, and to Falcon.

11. Best solve of the week so far, tricky SE corner- liked 28a, went for a **/**** on completion.
    Excellent cluing throughout 24a was very original and appreciated the intertwining lurkers.
    Noted Falcon’s parsing of 12a which didn’t work for me.

    1. I did not find this sense of the word “being” in British dictionaries.

       According to the American Heritage Dictionary:

       being conj. Chiefly Southern US, Upper Southern US, & New England Because; since. Often used with as or that.

       Usage Note: Being that is sometimes used as a synonym for considering that or seeing that to introduce a clause, as in Being that it’s a holiday, I let the kids sleep late. While this construction has seen widespread use in American regional English, the Usage Panel does not much care for it in more standard contexts.

       1. Thanks, I’ll remember for future use.

       2. I have recollections of being used as a synonym for part of the 12a answer and that was my assumption when solving the clue. Being is also listed in the Small Red Book entry for the part of the answer.

    2. I have no problem at all with being = since. In my experience, it’s always been in fairly common usage in the UK.

12. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, the sea is sparkling and Mr. T is on the back page. What more could one ask for!
    Delightful puzzle – my only problem came with justifying the complete parsing of 12a and finding the ‘part’ in 19a.

    Liked all the ones that others have singled out for mention and would definitely give the nod to 10a.

    Devotions to Mr. T and thanks to Falcon for the blog. I’m sure that Kath will forgive you for ‘pinching’ Mr.T if she is rewarded by some rain falling in the Oxford area today!

13. I agree that the well-disguised lurker at 10a deserves special mention. Good to have a Ray T puzzle to solve, as they are generally well clued and good fun to solve. This was no exception, and was extremely enjoyable. A couple of clues in the SW corner held me up, but overall this was 2.5*/4* for me.

    Many thanks to Ray for a top crossword and to Falcon for his hints.

14. Tough, but fair and fun!

15. Very enjoyable puzzle, not too easy but a good challenge. 19a & 20d were the last ones in. Favourite has to be 30a. 2*/3.5* Many thanks to Ray T and Falcon.

16. How lovely to have Ray T back – I’ve missed his Thursdays – the usual good crossword that we, most of us anyway, expect from him.
    I caught the 10a lurker quite easily, for once, but missed the other one until I’d got almost alternate letters in.
    I agree with others who found the bottom right corner the trickiest.
    So many good clues makes picking out any in particular jolly difficult but here goes anyway 13 and 27a and 5, 14 and 18d (very topical with all the politics that are going on at the moment). My favourite (and last) was 30a.
    With thanks to Falcon and thanks and welcome back to Ray T.
    Rain doesn’t look likely here today – perhaps Falcon could send some of his in this direction.

17. Ray T in somewhat benevolent mood and very enjoyable for it I think.

    Liked the lurkers esp 10a. Like others this is COTD but my LOI, 30a, ran it close.

    Thanks to Ray T for the pleasure and Falcon for the review. Will follow the Stanley Cup interestedly & good luck tonight.

18. Excellent puzzle. 2.5*/4* for me. Took me ages to fathom out 30a even though I had all the letters. 10a was clever as others have pointed out, but I think I liked 19a best.

19. Most enjoyable and finished without using hints but I did use my spelling machine! I got 10a before I saw the lurker because I’d been reading about it yesterday but V clever to get the answer in clue. Funny how your brain works, couldn’t even get started yesterday!

20. Good stuff, very enjoyable. Strange to see 27a pop up again… 30a favourite. **/****
    Many thanks to Mr T and to Falcon for the review.
    PS Wish the page would stop skipping up to the ads..?

21. I liked 10a.
    With thanks to Ray T and Falcon.

22. Almost gave up trying solving this puzzle till I spotted the lurker for 10a – how clever! Somehow answers began to fall off my pencil after that. Enjoyed it very much. 3*/4*. Was foxed by 30a to start with as I was looking for a synonym of purchasers, then the penny dropped. Another very clever clue. Ready to go for a long walk in the hills with Fifi who has adapted to her new surroundings with remarkable ease. Many thanks to setter and to Falcon for the review – needed to parse quite a few of my answers.

23. I found today extremely challenging and needed quite a bit of help from falcon. I tried so hard to get rust somewhere in 10 across! Thank you Ray for a great struggle, worse even than trying to extract roots from a bone dry garden.

    1. Oh – don’t even talk about trying to get roots out of a completely bone dry garden – I sympathise with you.

       1. Luckily we have had a fair amount of rain in London over the last few days. The only downside is that my mower is kaput and the grass is growing like mad

          1. I don’t remember the last time we saw rain here but my lawn mower is working well – unfortunately it’s not needed as the grass has stopped growing, as have the weeds and everything else in the garden – I might cry

             1. Come on Kath a few tears isn’t going to solve the problem! 😂

                We have had one night’s rain in I don’t know how many weeks. We now use the water we were using to wash the dogs to water the garden. Great decision I made to have a water meter!

24. 1.5*/3* for me, completed at, almost, a gallop. Thankfully, not too demanding as I have managed to come down with flu this week and eye/brain coordination has been a little off.

    Favourite 10a, partly because of Ray T’s skill in creating a phrase for it to lurk in, and partly for the photo of Parliament Hill.

    Thanks to Ray T and Falcon (I am not watching much, but definitely keeping track of the Senators (and the Oilers)).

25. Got it finished but needed the hints to exp,win 4d, 27a, 19a and 21d.
    Not sure I am much nearer understanding Ray T crosswords but I am at least managing to complete them albeit only getting half of many clues.
    Thx to all

26. Good afternoon everybody.

    An increasingly tricky puzzle that saw me fail on 28 and 30a.

    ****/****

27. Finished without recourse to hints. I have never heard of the Scottish chimney though I lived and worked in Scotland for four years along time ago. Thanks to Falcon and he setter for an enjoyable crossword.

    1. “Long may your lum reek”?

28. Hi Falcon I hope you win tonight v The Rangers as I am on the West Coast of Canada, a very nice crossword which I enjoyed.

29. Initially I thought this was going to be a struggle, but slowly it took shape and turned into a very enjoyable time.
    I agree that Ray-T was maybe easing us back in after his absence, but I for one was quite pleased about that!!
    4d – Needed hint to parse
    10a – Great lurker, not a word I knew, but once a few checkers were there, it was obvious
    21a – Originally had BUM as the first three letters, and even tried to see if there was such a definition of the word in the dictionary. LOL!! What a plum! The penny dropped a couple of minutes later, at least I have added an additional word to my vocabulary as the chimney bit was not a word I had come across.
    Many thanks to Ray-T for the puzzle and Falcon for the hints and blog.

    1. Excellent.
       As Merusa said earlier:
       “Long may your bum reek”.

30. Started well and then ground to a halt. Needed Falcon’s hints to continue. Never heard of the chimney term in 21a. Shouldn’t 25d be inventing rather than invention? Not my best day.

    1. Present participles of verbs (such as inventing, flying, and lying) can also serve as either nouns (in which case they are known as gerunds) or adjectives. Thus the adjective ‘flying’ (airborne) can have the initial “F” removed to form the gerund ‘lying’ which is equivalent to the noun “invention”.

       1. I couldn’t have put it better myself!

          RayT

          1. Mr T,
             Thank you for today’s pleasure. You have been missed even by those you have given permanently furrowed brows!

       2. You what ? Pardon me, I guess my GCE in English was not enough or sadly forgotten, probably the latter. 🙁

31. Well, blow me, I finished this RayT! And found it enjoyable. I did need the hints to know why 19a was what it was.
    Fave was 7d, mainly ‘cos it’s got four legs, but 10a and 30a came close behind.
    Thanks to RayT and to Falcon for his hints.
    Also, thanks to Framboise for the new pic of Fifi, she’s growing up a beauty.

32. Apologies for going off-track here but is someone going to be blogging today’s Toughie? I’ve got two clues left unsolved and it’s driving me mad!

    1. Maybe 4d is too hard?

       1. Funny how you guessed which would be one of them!

    2. I just checked to see if it was on its way as if not I was going to bash something out, but I am assured by BD that it is nearly ready.

    3. I was wondering that, too. Is 1a the other one you have left? It’s a very neat clue – when the penny drops

    4. All I can say here is, “Lucky old you” to all of those of you who had the time to a) have a try at the Toughie and b) realise that there was no review.
       I’m worn out – the ‘sitooterie’ is now so clean that we could all eat our suppers off it and the grass is cut.
       Supper and wine are waiting – so glad that other half did cooking because if it had been left to me it would have been toast and scrambled egg.
       Might have a go at today’s Toughie tomorrow – also still have the Micawber from yesterday.

33. By the way, almost forgot, happy Star Wars day to everyone

34. Evening all. Many thanks to Falcon for the review and to all for your comments. All much appreciated.

    RayT

    1. Great to have you back, Mr. T. Hope you enjoyed your time off?

    2. Thank you Maestro.oj

35. Edging into *** difficulty territory, with the SE corner last to fall, 30ac hanging on until the very last. Lovely, smooth surface readings, and some suitably cryptic wordplay = one satisfied customer.

36. I made it just under 2* time (but then my time allowances may be more generous than those used by others) and rather enjoyed it, so 3.5* for that. 30a was my favourite. Thanks to Ray T, and Falcon. My big sister seems to be having better weather than you over in Cottage Country. No doubt you’ll get some soon.

37. I knew it was a Ray T started so nicely but could not complete without half a dozen hints 😬 Back to normal then on a Thursday 😒 ****/*** Favourite 21a Thanks to Falcon for much needed help and of course to Ray T

38. Enjoyed as ever.

    It seemed right at the time, but since reading the review I haven’t really been able to see since as being being.

    Thanks to Falcon and to RayT.

39. It was clearly Mr T, so I braced myself for the usual bout of teeth-gnashing that he brings me, but not a bit of it. It seemed – bar a couple of typical stinkers chucked in – as if it was a gentle Monday. Nothing to dislike, no tortured definitions and the best lurker we’ve had for ages in 10a, my highlight. So thanks Ray and lang mae yer lum reek. Thanks too to Falcon for taking time out from the world’s most violent sport to offer his (unneeded tonight) guidance. 2*/3*
    For those interested, The Times Style Guide – an essential assistant – is available (or very shortly will be available) from Amazon

40. Today’s Quick Crossword pun – can someone explain the conventions of this ? – I always thought (wrongly it now seems) that all the words across the top line
    formed the pun, and struggled today to add in the third word. The first two made a good pun, and I got it, but scratched my head trying to add the third.

    When the pun runs over two lines they usually italicise them, but no “clue” how to only use some of the top line. Many thanks, Almo

    1. Hi Almo,
       The convention is that the Quickie pun is formed from the first two across answers in the puzzle. Where three (or more) of the answers form part of the pun, all the clues involved are in italics – at least in the paper version.
       Be warned – someone at ‘head office’ occasionally forgets to use the italics!

       1. Jane – thank you so much for this – I’ve been doing these for more years than I can remember, and somehow was unaware of what you’ve told me.

          Thanks again, Almo

41. Brilliantly clued and just on the right wavelength for me. I did not know the Scottish chimney 21a but of the two alternatives this was the more likely. Thought 19a was what it had to be – but could not parse it for some reason. Last in by far, as most of them jumped out at me, was 30a. I was just about to look at the hints when the answer flashed in front of my eyes. Thanks Ray T, Falcon and all. Another nice day here in E Midlands (hope that does not jinx it).

42. Thanks to Ray T and to Falcon for the review and hints. A super puzzle from Ray T, well worth the wait. Took me a while, I had to really think about a lot of clues. Last in was 19a, my favourite was 10a. Was 3*/4* for me.

43. Although on the mild side for a Ray T, this was excellent (as usual from him). He always makes that extra effort, with almost every clue, to make it just that little bit more cryptic/mysterious and to try and thwart you – which is just what I want from these puzzles. Good value for money, this – you rarely get an elementary/R+W clue from this setter – unlike the Mon-Wed and Saturday offerings, which often contain too many for my liking. 2.5*/4*.

44. most enjoyable
    ***/****

45. 10 across. Learned a new word today!

46. Back to the 4 month old crosswords today. It will be interesting in January to see if I remember the puzzles I did in “real time” this week.

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