DT 28441 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 28441

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28441

Hints and tips by 2Kiwis

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***Enjoyment ****

 

Kia ora from Aotearoa.
           This time next week we will be on our way to Australia so there will be someone else doing the Wednesday Hints and Tips for the next three weeks. The main purpose of our holiday in Oz is to do a trip on The Ghan. This is the railway journey from Adelaide in South Australia, through Alice Springs to Darwin in the tropical far north. The journey takes 3 days and after this we will be exploring the national parks near Darwin. We’re really looking forward to the experience.
We found Jay a bit trickier than usual today so it took us right to the top of our three star diffculty rating.

Please leave a comment telling us how you got on.

Across
1a     Avoid women after scheme losing millions in error (6)
ESCHEW : An anagram (in error) of SCHEmE loses its abbreviation for millions and is followed by the abbreviation for women.

5a     Lives with mother — getting cleaner at first offers appeal (8)
CHARISMA : Start with (at first) a cleaning lady, then a two letter word for lives or exists and an informal word for mother.

9a     Reward thoughtfulness (13)
CONSIDERATION : A double definition.

10a     Threatening, as most of wine is rejected (8)
SINISTER : A flavoured Greek wine loses its last letter, then IS from the clue. All of this is reversed.

11a     Watch tool move to and fro (6)
SEESAW : Watch or observe and then a cutting tool.

12a     The first person doing swirls in colour (6)
INDIGO : A first person singular pronoun and then an anagram (swirls) of DOING.

14a     Announced theologian to cover English and Irish county (8)
DECLARED : The abbreviation for a Doctor of Divinity surrounds the abbreviation for English and a West Coast Irish county.

16a     Daily construction for the millennium anticipating endless criticism (8)
DOMESTIC : The structure built at Greenwich for the millenium, and then a word for criticism loses its last letter.

19a     Lower profit by being linked with that woman (6)
NETHER : The profit that is left after costs and tax are paid, and then a personal pronoun for that woman.

21a     16 turning in during dinner, for example (6)
MENIAL : The answer for 16a is the definition. The word IN is reversed and is enclosed in what dinner can be an example of.

23a     Dry humour and energy in crowd (8)
WITHERED : A three letter word for humour or cleverness, then the abbreviation for energy is inside a crowd possibly of cattle.

25a     Revolutionary Iran, or ancient religious belief (13)
REINCARNATION : An anagram (revolutionary) of IRAN OR ANCIENT.

26a     The king worried before Germany is given an honour (8)
KNIGHTED : The IVR code for Germany follows an anagram (worried ) of THE KING.

27a     If touched, this may sting or irritate (6)
NETTLE : Double definition.

Down

2d     Part of orchestra once it’s formed (7)
SECTION : An anagram (formed) of ONCE ITS. (Bet we’re not the only people who tried to put ‘strings’ in there).

3d     Language used by Spanish Indians (5)
HINDI : A lurker hiding in the last two words of the clue.

4d     Hesitate to be seen around Ascot clumsily wearing this (9)
WAISTCOAT :  “This” is an item of clothing indicated by “wearing”. An anagram (clumsily) of ASCOT is inside a word meaning hesitate or delay.

5d     Got over being freed of blame (7)
CLEARED : Double definition. Got over could be used to describe the success of a hurdler.

6d     Accumulate a source of material when head of state (5)
AMASS : Four separate little pieces make up this answer. ‘A’ from the clue, the first letter of material, a synonym for when and the first letter of state.

7d     I can rave, touring East as traveller (9)
ITINERANT : ‘I’ from the clue then a can that could contain baked beans, the abbreviation for East and a synonym for rave.

8d     Authority one’s given crew on engagement? (7)
MANDATE : Crew or supply staff for, then an engagement or amorous appointment.

13d     Confess, supporting number one and making a list (9)
ITEMISING : Confess or own up under duress comes after (supporting in a down clue) a number or performance and the Roman numeral one.

15d     Restrict arguments against rail transport (9)
CONSTRAIN : A word meaning arguments against and the sort of transport we will be using soon.

17d     Go too far in possibly maiden race? (7)
OVERRUN : A maiden is one of the possible types of this series of six balls, and then a race or canter.

18d     Say scaredy-cat shrank back (7)
COWERED : A homophone of a word for a scaredy-cat.

20d     Unchanging scene latterly with seabird on a lake (7)
ETERNAL : The last letter (latterly) of scene, then a four letter seabird, ‘A’ from the clue and the abbreviation for lake.

22d     Permitted army officer to shelter here in France (5)
LICIT : The French word meaning here is inside a junior army officer.

24d     Live way out across end of suburbs (5)
EXIST : The sign that indicates a means of egress contains the last letter of suburbs.

We liked the 16a 21a combination today.

Quickie pun     thumb     +    arch    +    air    =     The March Hare

53 comments on “DT 28441

  1. Your travels sound wonderful – but the question we all want answering (having watched the news this morning) is did you see the spectacular Southern Lights??

    As for the crossword, I started off thinking it was extra tricky – it was a ‘start on the RH side’ but it turned out to be an average Jay solve

    Thanks to the 2Ks and the J

    1. No we didn’t see the Southern Lights Sue. Our guess is that very few people did as they are very rarely seen this far north. One had to be at exactly the right spot at the right time. Surprised they got a mention on your news as we had to search to find a media mention and pictures of the event here.

      1. Their appearance was also shown on Canadian TV news and they looked very impressive.

  2. I didn’t find this too difficult – perhaps because I did it in 2 sittings. An enjoyable challenge. Thank you Jay and 2Ks. Have a good time in Oz.

  3. Enjoyed this, but over a bit too quickly. Took a while to see the cricketing reference in 17d. The Guardian looks quite reasonable today, though. Thanks to all, and enjoy the trip 2Ks.

  4. A bit of a slog in places with many lego clues which are always a bit unwieldy so not a great deal of enjoyment to be gleaned. Made heavy weather of the NE corner by slapping in Coexists in 5a, riding a coach and horses through my golden rule of slap-in-by-all-means-but-verify-the-wordplay-before-moving-on. Got there with 23a a possible favourite but still not sure of the wordplay of 13d.
    **/**
    I see now that is was Jay so thank you. Have a wonderful train ride 2Ks.

  5. 4*/4*. Another in a long line of very enjoyable Wednesday puzzles but I did find this one more difficult than usual with a handful of clues pushing my time up to 4*. I’ll echo the 2Ks’ choice of the 16a/21a combo as my favourite(s) today.

    Many thanks to Jay; and also to the 2Ks with my best wishes for a very enjoyable trip.

  6. Very enjoyable, required a little bit of head scratching, but completed at a canter – **/***.

    Standout favourite – 19a – what a delightful word.

    Thanks to Jay and the 2Ks – enjoy your ‘time off,’ travelling on ‘The Gan’ is on my bucket list, but my plan would be to break the journey at Alice Springs for a ‘side trip’ to Uluru.

  7. Now I did enjoy today’s puzzle , excellent cluing and a **/**** for me.
    Liked 16a and the link with 21a , three cleaners today including 5a-must be a record.
    10a was clever.
    Thanks setter and 2K’S- nice to see Baldric again !

  8. Found this quite entertaining got a bit hung up on two but aft the usual headscratching I managed to solve them, last on in 22d.
    No Favourites today as all entertaining.
    Thanks to the 2kiwis and to Jay.

  9. A few pauses for thought in this one. Took a while to determine the definition in 23a and to stop looking for a musical instrument in the anagram fodder of 2d. Also tried to make 7d an anagram of the first three words of the clue plus ‘E’.
    Had a spell of cricket blindness over the parsing of 17d – no surprise there!

    The cleaning ladies were probably my favourites.

    Thanks to Jay and to 2Ks. Have a wonderful holiday – we’ll miss you!

    1. Me too, with 7d. I was sure I’d made an error with the acrosses and spent waaaay too much time going over those.

    2. We did the same with 7d. An anagram (touring) of I CAN RAVE with an E to finish. It looked a certainty!

      1. Yeah … me too

        But then I often do this and I think the setters do it deliberately to make us work a bit harder. All the more satisfying (usually) when light dawns! (In my case usually because I get a steer from crossing letters)

  10. Fairly easy for me. I actually quite like Lego clues. However I still can’t parse 13d. Maybe on a second look I might grudgingly concede that it might be acceptable but it jars. Weather here in deepest Gloucestershire is cool and overcast. We are going to Buscot house as it is now open. A rare event. let’s hope it clears up a bit.
    Thanks to the 2ks and the setter.
    PS having solved these back pagers for some years now, I still have no idea who the setters are.

    1. Me neither Bob – setter id is one of those mysteries of crosswordland the secret of which has not yet been revealed to me

      we too are in Gloucestershire – just sitting eating lunch watching the crows demolish my bird feeders

      1. Hi Aunty Marge (and Don),
        If you scroll up to the top of the blog and then click on FAQ (frequently asked questions) you can find out the names of all the setters we know of plus some photos of same. There’s a lot of other interesting ‘stuff’ in there as well!

  11. Jay in slightly more tricky mode but still great fun to solve. The ‘cleaner’ clues were good, but I liked 1a best just because I like the word. 2/4* overall.
    Thanks to Jay, and to the travelers for the review. Have a great time.

  12. 3*/4* from me for this very enjoyable Jay puzzle. I particularly liked the anagram at 25a. Jay always seems to have a good clue mix, and today was no exception, so thanks very much to him and to the 2Ks for their overview.

  13. Very enjoyable puzzle – with some entertaining clues. I particularly liked 16a, 14a and 24d

    Thanks to the ‘mystery to me’ setter and to 2K – though on this occasion ( I must be getting better at this) I had no need to resort to the clues (plenty of other times when i do however)

  14. Right on wavelength as is usual for me with Jay. Nice to see 5a again, spent too long looking for a lurker at 2d, then missed the one at 3d!
    Good fun puzzle. Thanks to Jay and to 2ks for the review, the trip sounds great.

  15. Right on wavelength for me too and exceedingly satisfying to solve. Felt I had to work at some of them, but exceedingly satisfying. 7d was clever as it had me trying to do an anagram of first three words plus E. Enjoyed 5a as like the word. Did most and was left with 4 or 5 which I then got straightaway when I looked again. The two related clues were the last ones in for me. It would have helped if I could parse 16a which was the only one I could not parse. Thanks Jay and to 2Ks in particular for the parsing of 16a. For any still en route to a full grid I recommend persevereence. You will feel good when finished.

  16. Very enjoyable crossword. Quite a few clever clues. 3*/5* for me. I needed the hint to parse 6d. I like the 16a/21a pairing. 19a was my favourite.

  17. Another enjoyable puzzle from Jay, tricky though.
    I liked lots, fave was 23a.
    Thanks to Jay and to the 2Kiwis for the hints. Enjoy the Oz trip, I’m green with envy!

  18. Not a classic Jay puzzle today by any means, but even his average efforts are always a pleasure to solve.

    Our favourite crossword cleaner was on duty for the second day in succession I noticed, having a very busy week thus far. My favourite clue was 4d, with 24d close behind.

    Many thanks to Mr.Mutch and the 2Ks, hope that you have a great time in Australia.

  19. Fine crossword. Thanks to Jay. Excellent blog Thank you to the two Kiwis. Watch out for crocodiles around Darwin. They eat most of the visitors who dare to go there. You need to stay safe to play host to the Lions tourists I have sent your way with promises of your legendary hospitality. Thanks in advance for looking after them

  20. A good workout for the grey cells today and I am very pleased to complete the puzzle without recourse to external help. Wish the 2Ks a great holiday in Oz.

  21. Strangely enough I found this far easier than yesterdays offering almost a r&w. There were a couple I couldn’t fully parse but the answers were obvious (16a and 18d).
    Odd how different people’s minds work when it come to crosswords (and many other things)!
    Thx to all

    1. Been a long time since it was called the Millennium Done, been the O2 for ages!

  22. Thanks for all the holiday wishes. Its about time we started thinking about packing. Mid-winter in Melbourne where we start off is a totally different world to tropical Darwin so we have to cover all options with clothing. The last time I (Colin) was in outback Oz was in 1965 when I was 21. Imagine things, apart from the landscape, have changed a bit since then.
    Enjoy what is left of your Wednesday while we get started on our Thursday.
    Cheers.

  23. An enjoyable solve, about * for difficulty, with a little tussle at the close with 10ac, 16ac and 18d. The latter I never did manage to parse, to my eternal shame.Thanks for the blog, otherwise I might have been here a lot longer trying to work that one out.

  24. I’m limiting myself to only one puzzle a day at the moment (today’s choice had to be Silvanus in the Indy) and it seems a bit rude to comment on puzzle threads without saying anything about the puzzle itself.

    Still I have read the review and can see that it’s the usual Jay quality. Thanks to him and to the 2Kiwis for the usual quality blogging – I hope you have a wonderful holiday.

    P.S. MP’s mention of crocs prompted me to share with you this warning sign:

    1. Thank you very much for choosing my puzzle as your Wednesday work-out, Kitty!

      1. Not at all, Silvanus! I’d have mentioned it here earlier but was kept busy in the real world. Even though I was being particularly stupid this morning I still managed to greatly enjoy it.

  25. Even after solving the crossword in record time , then putting in the checkers for the quickie pun, then solving all of the quickie, it still took me another pint of Exmore Gold to get the pun. You regulars say doh!, I am not so polite and have a “you b” moment.

  26. Slowly catching up.
    Thought I was solving a Giovanni. Never realised it was Jay until I read the blog.
    Need a holiday too.
    Thanks to Jay and to 2ks.
    Have a great train journey.

  27. I struggled with this tonight. I wanted to put revealed into 14a and surely 8d began with men? Thank you setter. Thanks too 2ks, and enjoy The Ghan. Some friends of mine were on it a few weeks ago and had a wonderful time. The only disappointment was not seeing a single kangaroo.

  28. Found this a bit of a struggle again & needed help for 16a – can’t really say why when I saw the answer. Forgot “dome” I guess. 16a was COTD even though it beat me.
    Thanks to setter & 2K.
    Remember reading in the Guinness book of Records (the first edition green with a gold harp as I recall – wish I still had that!) & the longest straight stretch of railway being across the Nullabor plain & the Ghan. I envy you the journey – enjoy.

  29. Have been out all day but before leaving had fun solving this quite quickly over breakfast together with the Quickie (great pun!) as per Tonto McTavish, but my effort was only accompanied by a couple of cups of coffee rather than anything stronger! Eventually my Fav was 11a where I had been trying for a word for a tool reading both ways. Thank you Jay and to the 2 Kiwis plus bon voyage to, and a happy time in, Oz – “see” you soon.

  30. Great stuff from Jay that slipped together like a well-buttered Lego set. I’ll plump for 7d as favourite for the clever misdirection that had more than me seeking a non-existent anagram. Thanks to Jay and the Ks. I’m sure you’ll have a great trip. 1*/4*

  31. Very late for a typically excellent puzzle from Jay.
    I could not parse 10a for the life of me, so many thanks for the usual set of excellent hints. The drink in question is absolutely ghastly.
    The homophone at 18d was favourite.
    Thanks to all.

  32. Absolutely too hard for me this one, but such a brilliant experience to find your careful clues, leading the solver forward gently , not just printing the answer!
    Will be thinking of you in Oz and wishing you a wonderful time.
    Thank you so much

  33. This one was excellent and well worthy of a comment – much better than the usual Mon – Wed offerings on the back page. 23a was my favourite of many good clues. 3.5*/4*.

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