DT 28471 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 28471

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28471

Hints and tips by 2Kiwis

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

 

Kia ora from Aotearoa.
             At present our country is swarming with people wearing red clothing, often travelling in motor-homes and drinking lots of beer. They all seem to be behaving themselves and are very welcome. We even had some turn up at the golf course last week and they were amazed at how accessible and affordable the game is here. We were secretly quite pleased that they had something to celebrate last weekend at ‘The Cake Tin’ in Wellington but there is no doubt about what team we will be supporting in Auckland in a few days.

Enjoy today’s puzzle from Jay, we did. We found it a little trickier than usual.

Please leave a comment telling us how you got on.

Across

1a     Touch millions caught consumed by hatred? (7)
MODICUM : The abbreviation for millions, and then the cricket abbreviation for caught is inside a word meaning hatred or intense dislike.

5a     Look closely at label designed to take you in (7)
EYEBALL : An archaic version of the pronoun ‘you’ is inside an anagram (designed) of LABEL.

9a     Vehicle loaded on board ship showing signs of damage (5)
SCARS : The abbreviation for a steamship surrounds a road vehicle.

10a     Trouble with allowance, love? (9)
ADORATION : A three letter word for trouble and then an allowance or allocation.

11a     Officially sanctioned writer is shamed, lacking pretence (10)
AUTHORISED : A word for a writer, then ‘is’ from the clue and what is left when a synonym for pretence is removed from ‘shamed’.

12a     Courage that’s needed to deal with winter conditions? (4)
GRIT : We are looking for the stuff that is spread on roads in icy conditions.

14a     Stupidly reply ‘What if I take unnecessary risks?’ (4,4,4)
PLAY WITH FIRE : An anagram (stupidly) of REPLY WHAT IF I.

18a     Perhaps London spirit’s limiting a potential tax liability (7,5)
CAPITAL GAINS : What London (or in our case Wellington) is an example of, and then a colourless alcoholic spirit with its ‘S encloses ‘a’ from the clue.

21a     Vessels unloading the first crop (4)
OATS : Remove the first letter from vessels used on water.

22a     Form of transport of patissier, accepting he’s no different (10)
BONESHAKER : The English equivalent of a patissier surrounds an anagram (different) of HE’S NO.

25a     Saved ladies having gone astray, welcoming charity (4,5)
LAID ASIDE : A synonym for charity or assistance is inside an anagram (having gone astray) of LADIES.

26a     Source of industrial ooze covering lake house (5)
IGLOO: The first letter of industrial and then ooze or sticky gunk encloses the abbreviation for lake.

27a     Stylish but frustrating? (7)
DASHING : A double definition. The synonym for frustrating usually has the word ‘hopes’ following it.

28a     Down is way back for such cruel people (7)
SADISTS : Down or emotionally depressed, then ‘is’ from the clue and the reversal of a way or thoroughfare.

Down

1d     Lose roadkill seen in two parts (6)
MISLAY : We need to split roadkill into two words and find synonyms for each. The road is an important motorway and then a four letter synonym for kill.

2d     Sketches from a newspaper stocked by doctor’s (6)
DRAFTS : ‘A’ from the clue and the pink newspaper are inside the abbreviation for doctor with its ‘s.

3d    Adjustments made to last scouse dishes (10)
CASSOULETS : An anagram (adjustments made) of LAST SCOUSE.

4d     US city area crossed by motorway twice (5)
MIAMI : The motorway we met in 1d appears twice here, separated by the abbreviation for area.

5d     Expert set up to keep Tories spinning unusual items (9)
ESOTERICA : An expert, (or the one in cards), is reversed and surrounds an anagram (spinning) of TORIES.

6d      Times? European, and impetuous for the most part (4)
ERAS : The abbreviation for European, then a word for impetuous or foolhardy loses its last letter.

7d     A police squad getting tipple down, an ugly shower (4,4)
ACID RAIN : ‘A’ from the clue and a police squad responsible for solving crimes are followed by a word for which ‘tipple down’ is an informal expression. (This use of ‘tipple down’ is something we had not encountered before).

8d     Stretch student with English afterwards (8)
LENGTHEN : The one letter used for a student or learner, then the three letter abbreviation for English and a word for afterwards.

13d     Eastern city editor may be impressed (10)
SHANGHAIED : Impressed here has the meaning of forced against one’s will. A city in China and the abbreviation for editor.

15d     Shouting about inside of bowl becoming discoloured (9)
YELLOWING : A synonym for shouting encloses the central two letters of bowl.

16d     Trained fish in group with backing of French (8)
SCHOOLED : A group of fish and then the reversal of the French word for ‘of’.

17d     Flight destination (8)
UPSTAIRS : A cryptic definition for where a series of treads and risers might take you.

19d     Heads needing to hear of rows (6)
SKULLS : A homophone of a word meaning propels a boat with oars.

20d     Soldiers love to be involved in raising game (6)
TROOPS : The tennis score love is inside the reversal (raising in a down clue) of a word for a game, or games generally.

23d     Pots for producers of beer (not British) (5)
EWERS : Remove the two letter abbreviation for British from the start of producers of beer.

24d     Two and six regularly used to get you a bed that’s dry (4)
WADI : Alternate letters from the first three words of the clue.

The mental picture of Mary Berry on a bicycle that came to mind with 22a makes this our favourite today.

Quickie pun      key    +    sand    +    hell    =     kiss and tell

55 comments on “DT 28471

  1. Great puzzle today which i just got on with. I could not see the oh so obvious charity in 25ac. Dim or what? The quickie pun took a bit of muttering to solve. All in all a good start to the day. by the way Colin and Carol I have told all the lads I know who are touring NZ to call in on you both. Its a good job i didn’t know your address. Ta to all concerned.

  2. I thought this was excellent; a little tricky in places, but a thoroughly enjoyable solve.
    Many thanks to Jay, and to 2Kiwis.

  3. Quite a struggle today but achieved with great help from the kiwis, sad to say my husband does not support your view in Auckland in a few days time. Many thanks to the setter and the kiwis

  4. A fun run with just a bit of a challenge. Last in was 10a in spite of it being a chestnut as presumably is 17d. Is 13d really impressed? Tried to use pro in 5d. Fav 22a. It was an obvious solution but I failed to properly identify ooze/gunk in 26a. Thank you Jay and the 2Kiwis – the decider on Saturday between you and us is an exciting prospect. 🤞

    1. Surely away wins count double. Therefore New Zealand can only square the series if they win on Saturday

    2. Small variations on 17d appeared four times on the back page between 2006 and 2009, and then he vanished until today. I wonder if we’ll see him again before too long.

      10a is a popular answer (14 appearances since 2002), but I’m seeing only two previous clues similar to today, in 2007 and 2011. Perhaps that construction has been popular in other series of puzzles.

  5. I had to use 3 clues , so definitely trickier than usual .
    15d is what has happened to the doors in my house , so I’m thinking of painting them a creamish colour this time instead of white.
    I liked 22a, 23d, and 16d . Thanks to Colin and Carol and Jay.

  6. This required some head scratching and some electronic assistance when I had brain shut-down in the SE, but very enjoyable nevertheless – 2.5*/3*.

    Candidates for favourite – 18a, 16d, and 23d – and the winner is 23d.

    Thanks to Jay and the 2 Kiwis.

  7. 3*/5*. Our usual dose of Wednesday brilliance, with a few tricky bits needing a bit of teasing out. It was quite tricky also to pick a favourite from such a good selection, but I’ll agree with Senf and settle for 23a.

    Many thanks to Jay and to the 2Ks especially for explaining “tipple down” in 7d which was new to me and which I couldn’t find either in a variety of dictionaries (including my BRB) or using Google.

    1. We did a similar search for ‘tipple down’ when we could not see it in BRB and found it in the on-line Oxford dictionary. It seems to have a similar meaning to the word we put together with some German friends many years ago. That was “daungapissin” but that is just a guess at the spelling.

  8. Great puzzle, tricky but fair, and a struggle for me also – 1d was my favourite…..

  9. Surely the expression referred to in 7d is .
    Had a bit of a panic to start with as nothing was coming to mind. The anagram at 14a got me started then it gradually came together albeit slowly. I agree that it is def a 3* for difficulty but with some clever clues in 28a, 22a and my favourite 13d.
    Apart from 7d, very enjoyable if tough.
    Thx to all.

  10. What a great puzzle from Jay , so many good clues ; although not mentioned by anyone else I really enjoyed 17d . ***/**** Thanks 2K’s . Let’s hope Saturday morning is just as enjoyable . Rooaaarrrr !!!!

    1. Trouble is, NZ will probably play with 15 men this time.
      Very sorry that Cav is out of the Tour though, Sagan was hard done by IMHO

      1. Sorry hoofit , didn’t see your reply .My answer : they might need 16 !! The Lions are a tour de force (not france) Yes , quelle domage !!

  11. Trickiest solve for a while, for a change slowed up as I progressed , no ramming speed here.
    Agree with the 2 Kiwis on a ***/****.
    Took a while to parse 1d,was trying to think of another word for roadkill until the penny dropped, and needed the checking letters for 1a.
    Many excellent clues, favourite 22a, last in was 14a, as I failed to notice it was an anagram, seems a long time since 24d has appeared in the crossword.
    Thanks to jay and the 2K’s

  12. I thoroughly enjoyed this. Favorites are 18A, 22A and 13D. Thanks Jay and the two Ks.

    Something going in New Zealand, is there?

  13. Thanks to Jay for another great puzzle, and to the 2 Kiwis for the review and hints. I was on the right wavelength until I got to 17d, where the curse of the dreaded double definition dragged me down. I knew that it was to do with a staircase, and that it wasn’t “landing”, but I still couldn’t get it. Favourite was 26a. Was 3 */3* for me.

  14. Happy flying ant day. :wacko:

    The usual Wednesday wizardry, for which thanks to Jay.

    Thanks to the Kiwis 2 for the review.

  15. Quite a challenge today but eventually everything fell into place. I have often heard people say it is tipping it down but never tipple down. You learn something new every day in puzzle land.

  16. I struggled initially, on my first pass through I only got 4d and 10a, then 16d, 17d and I was away.

    No obscure words, just very fair and enjoyable.

    I’ll be there watching the Lions and All Blacks on Saturday morning, can’t wait – if the Lions can cut out the stupid penalties (particulaly by Mako Vunipola!) then they’ve got a chance – I think the betting currently have the All Blacks favourites by 12 points!

  17. I found the bottom decidedly more tricky than the top, but got there in the end with a few peeks in the thesaurus. “Tipple down” was new to me and it’s not in my BRB, but the answer couldn’t be anything else. I didn’t know the dry bed, but it was gettable from the word play. Runner-up for honours today is 5d, with 26a in the top spot. Thanks to Jay for the entertainment and to the 2Ks for the hints and illustrations.

    1. From Wictionary (admittedly, not the most reliable source but mildly interesting):

      tipping it down
      English
      Verb
      tipping it down

      (Britain, idiomatic) Raining heavily.
      It’s tipping it down out there, so if you must go out, take your umbrella and please drive carefully.

  18. Wonderful clues on the clues as usual! But for 6D do you really mean the first letter of the synonym for impetuous? I thought the last letter might be the one to leave off. Good luck with the scan Dave, my wife had both sides done earlier this year and is fine now.

    1. Welcome to the blog, Shedman.
      You’re right about 6d – it’s just a typo by 2Kiwis and they’ll probably fix it when they wake up.

    2. Welcome from us too Shedman.
      Thanks for pointing out our error in 6d which is now corrected. Proof reader on the mat once again.

  19. Had to check the explanations for 19d (last one in) as I must admit to a bung in here.
    Apart from that, the solve progressed evenly from to top to bottom.
    Ticked 22a too even though a bonesherry did cross my mind at one point
    Thanks to Jay and to 2kiwis.

  20. This was the trickiest for a long time. I started finding that I had looked in the thesaurus too many times, then was down to the gizmo. I don’t mind the gizmo for a couple of answers but I had too many unsolved, so I resorted to the hints.
    Natch, I solved 4d right off. My Fave was 22a, with 13d and 19d close behind.
    Thanks to Jay, I’ll be better next time, and to 2Kiwis for helping me out in the end.

  21. The trickiest Jay puzzle for some time I thought, but once completed it was difficulty to see why. Not for the first time, the lack of anagrams probably increased the difficulty factor.

    I agree with Mr K that the bottom took longer to unravel than the top, and was surprised he left “two and six” without a comment, as it’s so “last century”!

    My top two were 14a and 24d.

    Thanks to Mr. Mutch and the 2Ks, whilst you have well-behaved red-shirted swarms, we have swarms of less well-behaved flying ants instead, first spotted whilst I watered the garden last night.

    1. “two and six” is so last century that I missed it :) I’m assuming it’s a contraction of two shillings and sixpence? That rings a bell, although it’s a very faint one because I was quite young when New Zealand went decimal. I was so focussed on trying to understand the answer to that clue that I didn’t really consider the surface. I suppose that if it had been necessary to actually understand the phrase to find the answer then I may well have complained that it was discouraging younger solvers.

      No ants up here at 35,000 feet.

      1. Yes, 12 and 1/2 pence in today’s currency, I suspect it’s a long, long time since a bed for the night was that cheap!

        Have a good ant-free flight.

  22. 2nd day on the trot I have been fooled by ‘flight’!! Must be old-age…

  23. A lovely crossword as usual.
    I was very slow to get going – I blame it on frizzled brain having been gardening all morning and it’s hot here.
    I missed the ‘lacking pretence’ bit of 11a and, like MP, couldn’t find the ‘charity’ in 23a – dim, and too hot.
    It feels funny to see clues like 12a and the answer to 26a in the middle of summer although I don’t know why.
    I liked 14 and 26a and 7d (despite the ‘tipple down’ which I’d never heard of either) and 17d. My favourite was 1d.
    Thanks to Jay and to the 2K’s.
    No flying ants here, yet – hate them. I remember riding at speed across a common in Worcestershire and going straight into hundreds of them – they were everywhere, inside clothes, up the nose, in the eyes and mouth. Yuk.

  24. I found this much easier than yesterday, apart from the SE corner where I needed a couple of hints.
    Thanks all

  25. My 5 year old friend Jacob to his Mum yesterday – I’m sooooo hot my eyes are sweating. Lovely Wednesday offering thanks to Jay and 2Kiwis, unlike last week managed to stagger through with only small 1a of help. Favourite had to be 17d because I thought landing then realised error of my ways.

  26. Very satisfying. Thanks Jay. Trouble only with 17d and three in the SE 19 and 20d and 22a. Had a break – picked up and got 22a without assistance. I was on the right lines but stupidly did not think of baker for patisserie. As soon as I got it I got the two downers straightaway with the checkers. Left with 17d and as soon as I got the BRB off the shelf I thought of it without needing the assistance. I suddenly remember another comment saying “always caught out with this sort of flight”. I did not even have the crossword in front of me but once I had the flight the first letter was a given. So needed no help but grateful to the 2Ks. I missed the goo for some reason and also checked my answer for 27d as convinced it was wrong when I could not get 17d. Was anyone else like me looking for the name of a place which was also a synonym for flight? The ones I have circled as favourites are all across clues 1, 10 and 11. So good to have the time at the moment to complete on the right day!

    1. A boulanger is a baker of bread. A patissier is someone who makes and sells cakes and desserts in a patisserie, or a pastry cook in a restaurant so no complaints from me about 22a – just difficult to solve.

  27. Trickier than usual, but as enjoyable as ever. I was slightly unsure about 25a, 5a & 7d which is unusual for one of my favourite setters.
    I liked pretty much all of the other clues but 28a wins by a whisker.
    Many thanks to Jay and to 2Ks for the review.

    PS No flying ants near Box Hill yet; but even worse, on Sunday we will be overrun with lycra-clad cyclists and unable to escape because Surrey will be closed. Fab.

  28. Morning all.
    The discussion about two and six above has reminded us that next Monday, 10th July is the 50th anniversary of New Zealand changing to decimal currency. 2/6 or half a crown was the largest NZ coin in circulation in pre-decimal days and was withdrawn at the change as a similar sized coin worth twice as much at 50 cents, was introduced. 1967 was a very auspicious year as it was when the BDs and also the 2Ks got married.
    A fine frosty morning about to dawn here. We don’t envy you the flying ants, the red-shirts are much more benign infestation.
    Cheers

    1. Incidentally the pic for 24d is another one from our trip to Oz. It was taken at Simpson’s Gap, just out of Alice Springs.

  29. Yep, as has been said several times; definitely somewhat trickier than usual. A good puzzle with some very good clues. 19 and 20d were prime examples and the latter is my fave.
    2.5/3.5* overall.
    Thanks to Jay, and to the 2K’s for their review.

  30. The bottom half was definitely a struggle, but I got there in the end, and then kicked myself when everything looked so obvious. ;-) An enjoyable challenge. Last in 22ac, which took forever even after I worked out what a patissier is.

  31. Quite a test, but l got home well within 2* time. Although 1d was my favourite clue, the picture of one of my all-time favourite meals accompanying the hint for 3d above gets the prize for provoking a Pavlovian reaction! Thanks to Jay and the 2Ks. In the nicest possible way, l hope the latter enjoy the 3rd Test slightly less than me! And if Jack Nowell was to come on and score the winning try, this part of the world would positively erupt…

  32. Just couldn’t seem to get a handle on this one today, the answers I got I wasn’t sure enough to always pen in, and some I got, e.g. 14a I got without (stupidly) even realizing it was an anagram. Either my head was elsewhere or I was on another wavelength. Relieved to see the *** difficulty rating.

    Re recent comments about lack of knowledge of relatively recent past, read in today’s DT that an awful lot of Brits don’t know/recall the Winter of Discontent. Oh I do, sitting in a dark kitchen with two children with the radiators rapidly cooling down and no hope of dinner any time soon…

  33. 3/4. Tougher than usual but very enjoyable. Favourites were 5, 22a & 13d. Thanks to Jay and the 2Ks.

  34. We’re late in after completing a very enjoyable puzzle. We seem to be always late these days. Too much work!
    Thanks to Jay and the 2K’s.

  35. Liked it a lot but agree that it was more of a head-scratcher than usual. 22a did it for me. Thanks to J & the Ks. 2*/4*

  36. I thought this one was excellent. More challenging than the usual Wednesday puzzle, great cluing and very enjoyable. I’ve heard the expression “it’s tippling down” or “it’s tippling it down” many times. 3*/4*.

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