DT 28488 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 28488

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28488

Hints and tips by Mr Kitty

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BD Rating  -  Difficulty **/*** Enjoyment ****

 

Hello everyone, and welcome to another Tuesday back-pager.  Today’s puzzle has no real obscurities (at least for those old enough to know Gone with the Wind) and no tricky clue constructions.  Curiously, during the solve it felt a tad more difficult than usual, but after writing the hints I’m finding it hard to see why.  Must be that wavelength thing.  It was still a very enjoyable solve and that, after all, is what really matters.

Kitty, who keeps track of such things, told me earlier that Monday of this week is National Tequila Day.  Today I am blogging from the nation in question, and the time difference means that it is in fact still Monday as I formulate these Tuesday hints and tips.  So, I naturally had to observe the special day by writing the blog with a moderately*-sized Margarita at my side.  I’m not sure if that had any effect on the hints.  I had planned today to revisit the issue of repeated answers after Kitty told me that it came up at the recent Macclesfield Sloggers and Betters event but, having already filled a paragraph of intro and being unsure that math(s) and tequila are compatible, I think I’ll just save that topic for next week.

In the hints below the definitions are underlined and the answers will be revealed by clicking on the buttons.  In some hints hyperlinks provide additional explanation or background.  Clicking on a picture will enlarge it.  Please leave a comment telling us how you got on.

 

Across

1a    and 6: 'Play late,' he's written in error (3,7,4)
THE WINTER’S [TALE]:  Anagram (in error) of LATE HE’S WRITTEN.  The answer is one of many plays created by Shakespeare.  Here is a list of those plays.

6a    See 1 Across
TALE:  See hint for 1a

10a   Enough drink imbibed by politician? Quite the opposite! (5)
AMPLE:  Following the clue’s direction to invert the word play (quite the opposite), the usual abbreviation for a Member of Parliament (politician) is inserted into (imbibed by) an alcoholic drink

11a   Reported cut head in Kent town (9)
SHEERNESS:  Join a homophone (reported) of cut and a synonym of head(land) to get a town in Kent.  Here is Wikipedia’s list of Kentish townsThe answer is also a fabric property.

12a   Dull and terribly annoyed (7)
ANODYNE:  An anagram (terribly) of ANNOYED

13a   Soft game with unknown (7)
SQUASHY:  A racquet game followed by one of the usual letters used in mathematics to stand for an unknown variable.

14a   101 left in outstanding debts, being arrogant (12)
SUPERCILIOUS:  This one is a charade.  We need to assemble an adjective meaning outstanding, 101 in Roman numerals, L(eft), and some informal documents acknowledging debts

18a   A woolly state ... or an embarrassed one? (12)
SHEEPISHNESS:  Interpreted cryptically the answer describes a property possessed by one type of woolly creature.

21a   Space for a gold sovereign? (7)
EMPEROR:  Link together a usual printer’s unit of space, a short word meaning “for a”, and the usual heraldic term for gold.  The answer is also a type of penguin.

23a   A region troubled in time long ago (4,3)
IRON AGE:  An anagram (troubled) of A REGION

24a   Finally felt upset about obituary for old fossil (9)
TRILOBITE:  The last letter (finally) of felT followed by a verb synonym of upset that contains (about) a four-letter abbreviation for obituary.  If the fossil isn’t familiar, you’ll find some details here

25a   Possibly perfect form of language (5)
TENSE:   Non-perfect examples of this form of verbs include past, present, and future

26a   Give a narrative (4)
SAGA:  A synonym of give or droop, followed by A from the clue.

27a   Pay British bank for pedestrian crossing (10)
FOOTBRIDGE:  Concatenate a word meaning pay (the bill), B(ritish), and a synonym of bank or mound

 

Down

1d    Scarlett's place is housing this person's crowns (6)
TIARAS:  Scarlett here is Ms O’Hara of 1939 movie Gone with the Wind, and her place is the plantation where she lives at the start of the film.  The answer is a contraction of “Scarlett’s place is” containing (housing) the single letter pronoun that the setter would use for themselves (this person).

2d    Use 75 per cent of polymers wrongly (6)
EMPLOY:  An anagram (wrongly) of the first 6/8 of (75 percent of) the letters in POLYMErs

3d    Sorry round with bogey pair unravelled (1,3,4,6)
I BEG YOUR PARDON:  An anagram (unravelled) of ROUND BOGEY PAIR

4d    12 and offensive (9)
TASTELESS:  A nice double definition, the first being the bland answer to 12a

5d    Wind section's leader dances (5)
REELS:  A verb meaning wind or turn round, followed by the first letter (…’s leader) of Section

7d    Dislike a particular edition (8)
AVERSION:  A from the clue and a word meaning “particular edition”

8d    Writer tries to encapsulate current time (8)
ESSAYIST:  We’re looking here for a type of writer, not a specific person.  To find it, start with old synonym of tries containing (to encapsulate) the usual physics symbol for electric current.  Then append the physics symbol for time.

9d    Meandering hotel tour bores Mr Fixit? (14)
TROUBLESHOOTER:  An anagram (meandering) of HOTEL TOUR BORES

15d   Sure about working if turning up with depression? (9)
CONFIDENT:  Chain together the usual single-letter Latin abbreviation for about or approximately, a usual word for working or running, the reversal (turning up in a down clue) of IF from the clue, and a depression (in a sheet of metal, perhaps)

16d   Fool embracing famous footballer -- love is dangerous stuff (8)
ASBESTOS:  A usual fool containing (embracing) both a Northern Irish footballer who found fame and celebrity playing for Manchester United in the 1960s & 70s and the usual letter representing love in tennis.  Here are a few quotes from the famous footballer:

17d   Office worker can start to get seductive (8)
TEMPTING:  Assemble a non-permanent office worker, a synonym of can (of food), and the first letter of (start to) Get

19d   Brown little bear eats girl (6)
TANNED:  The first three letters (little) of a common name applied to toy bears contain (eats) a girl’s name

20d   Always in London area? Harsh! (6)
SEVERE:  Place a synonym of always inside (in) the two-letter compass direction that locates the London area within the UK

22d   One might charge money (5)
RHINO:  A double definition.  The money synonym is one I’ve encountered only in cryptic crosswords.  Big Dave has accurately labelled it and its ilk Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

 

Thanks to today’s setter for a fun solve.  Running through the acrosses, I liked the single word anagram in 12a, 13a and 18a both raised a smile, and I was impressed by the efficiency of 26a.  On the downs, I enjoyed unpicking 1d, laughed at 12d, admired how 15d mixed four ingredients to get a smooth surface, enjoyed seeing the answer to 16d emerge from the word play (now, what footballer can go in here to make a real word…?), and was pleasantly surprised by both 19d and 20d.  I was not wild about 22d because you either know it (most likely from a previous crossword) or you don’t.  Which clues topped your list?

 


The Quick Crossword pun:  MILL+KEY+WAY=MILKY WAY



 

114 comments on “DT 28488

  1. Thanks to Mister Ron for a splendid Tuesday puzzle – I’m apparently not the only one to appreciate the inclusion of the apostrophe in the anagram fodder for 1a/6a

    1. I know it’s a bit late to ask (I haven’t been near a computer since Tues am) but can you please tell me what is significant about the apostrophe in 1a/6a? I just can’t fathom out how the surface/clue would work without it – I must be being particularly thick over this nuance.

      1. Hi, JR. Here’s my take on it. As you say, the apostrophe is required in the clue. The cryptic convention, as I understand it, is that punctuation can usually be ignored in a clue and, except for hyphens, it is omitted from the enumeration of the answer. So, if a biography of somebody called Winters was a thing, THE WINTERS TALE would be a perfectly acceptable anagram of the fodder in 1a. That said, I can see that it adds a little extra something to the clue when an apostrophe required in the answer is also found in the anagram fodder.

        CS’ post above presumably refers to somebody else mentioning the apostrophe in their comments on Mister Ron’s reveal of this puzzle on Facebook. My guess is that they are in turn alluding to discussions on some other blog of apostrophes in anagrams, but that’s just a guess.

        1. Mr K. Thank you for answering such a belated question – I do understand your explanation.

  2. 1*/3.5*. I found this straightforward but very enjoyable with commendably brief cluing. 26a was my last one in and favourite.

    Many thanks to Messrs Ron & Kitty.

    1. Agree with rating! For us youngsters a few ‘old’ clues. Some excellent, comical answers – esp 13a and 18a.

  3. I thought it was difficult, ***/***, never heard of 22d as meaning money and needed the hints to know why 21a was correct. Favourite was 13a purely for the correct use of ‘unknown’!
    Thanks to the setter and Mr Kitty

  4. Obtained a false sense of security as I raced through the top half but more application was required at the bottom. Plenty to please anagram enthusiasts. 24a added to my vocabulary and don’t think I have come across 22d before. Overall pleasant enough but IMHO nothing outstanding and no Fav. Thanks Mysteron and Mr. Kitty.

    1. Speaking of things to please anagram enthusiasts, Tilsit recently came up with a cracker for LINFORD CHRISTIE …

  5. I thought it was difficult, ***/***, never heard of 22d as meaning money and needed the hints to know why 21a was correct. Favourite was 13a purely for the correct use of \’unknown\’!
    Thanks to the setter and Mr Kitty

  6. I am with Mr Kitty on this. After finishing this I could not figure out why it seemed somewhat difficult. No outstanding clues but I liked 16a simply because it refers to my favourite footballer and arguably the greatest.

  7. Well into *** difficulty for me and never heard of the slang expression in 22 down

    1. It’s the richest animal in the jungle, rhino from the Greek for money and ceros (sore a..e) meaning piles!

  8. Two excellent puzzles so far this week, put down **/**** on completion.
    Lots of lovely charades like 21a and 15d , liked 1d ,enjoyed the film, thought Ashley was a ‘wet’ .
    Last in was 19d, had trouble with the bear ,thought it must be TD as I had Anne for the girls name till the penny dropped!
    Thanks to Mr Kitty for the pics, especially 1d .Love cats myself , the pic reminds me of a Blue Persion I once had.

  9. Excellent puzzle sooooo much better for me than yesterday’s horror.
    Needed the hints to explain 21a (forgot the printers word for space) and 8d (i for current, new to me).
    Lots of clever clues inc 14a, 24a, 27a and 16d (my fav).
    Lots of super anagrams too that were very sadly missing from yesterday’s offering.
    **/***
    Thx to all

    1. Hi, Brian. I for current is worth remembering because our setters really seem to like it. In fact today is the fourth time since March that I’ve explained it in a Tuesday blog.

      1. As I recall from physics lessons many years ago v = i/r, v = volts, I = current, r = resistance, well that’s how I remember it anyway

  10. Vaguely remembered 22d from previous puzzles – interestingly nobody seems to know how it became a slang word for money.
    4d was my last one in for no good reason – I suppose something had to be!

    Rather liked 7d but the crown was bestowed upon 26a – clever and concise.

    Thanks to Mr. Ron (not prepared to guess and make a fool of myself again this week!). Thanks also to Mr. K – loved the dancing penguins and the wise words under the 15d pic.

    1. Interesting how people haven’t read my comment either ‘yet’ or ‘properly’ ;)

      1. The enumeration is wrong on the telegraph subscribers site on my iPad. It is split over the two clues. I confess I had not seen the clever use of the apostrophe but I have seen the play. I also saw the anagram solution ‘just like that, The word PLAY with the enumeration 3,7,4 is always what it is.

      2. I have read your comment properly – I always read all the comments properly. Do you have inside information?

      3. OK – I’ve read it properly now! He would probably have been my first guess although I’ve become increasingly wary since the occasion when Paul popped up.

        1. Hi, Jane. It’s worth checking Mister Ron’s Facebook page on Tuesdays. Unfortunately when I’m blogging from my current location I’ve already scheduled the blog and gone to sleep when he advertises one of his puzzles there.

          1. That is, of course, assuming that people choose to spend their time on stuff like Facebook.
            Sorry, but I have a life!!

            1. Kath, I feel like a dinosaur! I have a Facebook page but I’ve never posted anything on it. I keep saying I must do so but never get around to it!

              1. Why on earth would you want/need to? I’m a very happy dinosaur!! :smile:
                All the various members of our large family communicate properly – in other words they ring us several times a week and come to visit all the time.
                Up with the dinosaurs, I say! :good:

              2. I created a Facebook account only because it’s necessary to view other Facebook pages (like Mister Ron’s). I’ve never put anything on my own page. As Kath says, there are better ways to spend one’s time.

                1. There will be people who say there are better ways to spend one’s time than commenting on crossword blogs. They don’t get it. I’m reluctant to disparage other ways of spending time, since in those cases it’s probably me who is not getting it.

  11. A fun solve at silly o clock this morning. Greatly helped by five jumpoutatcha anagrams. How I miss the days when I played with the fodder letters for ages. With so many checkers the rest was a bung in. The satisfaction from a completed grid is there but not the sense of graft or achievement. Anyway thanks to Mister Ron. Thanks to Mr Kitty who is most welcome to anything containing any spirit other than Gin. Speaking of which, having mown three lawns and a field, I think I have earned. It should go well with a Kcit toughie and a Fever Tree tonic water

    1. Thanks, MP. One of these days we will drop in for what I’m sure is Long Itchington’s best margarita.

      1. Maybe at The Duck On The Pond. I doubt that the other five pubs would know or care much for margaritas. We consider Lager and lime to be a tough cocktail

  12. A little bit harder than 2 star for me.
    27a is my favourite . Thanks to all concerned.

  13. Good fun.
    Only a couple of vaguely obscure answers.
    I knew the 22d money – we had an MPP some time ago (can’t remember who set it) with lots of slang money in it and then had to add it all up and that was the answer.
    I’ve never heard of the fossil and thought we might be after an old fashioned person – the answer was easier to unravel once I realised we needed a four letter abbreviation rather than a two letter one.
    I liked 26a and 15 and 16d. My favourite was either 18a or 19d because they both made me laugh.
    Thanks to Mister Ron and to Mr K.

  14. Thanks to messers Ron and Kitty. A very enjoyable puzzle really interesting. Some great clues. 18a made me laugh, as did 22d. Liked 8d,but my favourite was 16d. Was 3*/4* for me.

  15. Not as much headscratching as yesterday and more enjoyable from my point of view. I managed to get 22d from the ‘one might charge’ and checking letters, and then the penny dropped over ‘money ‘ which I’d completely forgotten. Many thanks for the review Mr Kitty, especially the penguins. I’ve seen lots of wildlife stuff this week. A neighbour asked me to see her cinefilm of Ding Darling nature reserve on Sanibel Island, Florida. We were there several years ago, but didn’t take any pictures, so it brought back a lot of happy memories. Many thanks setter, I enjoyed today’s offering.

  16. All good and well, not too much to think about. The quickie pun is rather lacklustre, especially since I’m still tickled by Saturday’s.
    Many thanks to Mister Ron and to Mr K – what is going on in the pic @19d?! Don’t want to know…

    1. 19d shows a bodybuilder applying fake tan to hard to reach areas using a paint roller

  17. I had to take two bites at this to finish it, and I still haven’t completed 1d. I don’t like filling in answers that I don’t understand. So I come here for an explanation, and it still isn’t filled in. For those of us aged under 80, could somebody please spell it out? Was her house called Taras? Or am I just being a bit thick today.

    1. Here’s how I see it.

      Scarlett O’Hara’s house in “Gone with the Wind” was called Tara, so “Scarlett’s place is” = Tara’s. That object is containing (housing) I = first person. The ‘s on person is being the link word “is” in the clue construction “word play is definition”

      I have a long way to go to reach 80 and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the film, but I did know the house. No idea how that ever got stored in my memory.

      1. Yesterday’s “Robin” did for me, it helped me unravel “Scarlett”, though I was drawn towards cluedo for a time!

    2. I just bunged it in and moved on – don’t even know (nor care to know) who Scarlett is. :unsure:

  18. Well, I got there in the end, but I found this much harder than yesterday, a wavelength thing no doubt. Like Mr K., I’m not sure what the problem was, just having a dim day, probably.
    I am the first to admit that I was utterly bamboozled by the term for ‘money, that was a new one on me, and also the printer’s “space”, another one to remember.
    Annoyingly, I overlooked the use of “head” in 11a, I have been to the said isle birding many times.
    16d was my favourite, the footballer should be remembered as one of the greats who really could have eclipsed Pele, Maradonna etc., but stopped playing far too young.
    Thanks to misters K and Ron

      1. BD also has a nice explanation under measure in the Usual Suspects. Em = width of an m in 12 point font, etc. But for some reason he has omitted El.

      2. I only know it because I’m old enough to have used an IBM Selectrix typewriter (yes, typewriter) in a job many moons ago.

        1. I used one also, but I learnt to type on a manual machine where the keys were covered, and we typed in rhythm to music. It did make me pretty accurate and I was very speedy which even got me a few jobs and pay raises later. Did you also use a dictaphone?

          1. -I learnt to type in 1952! How well I remember that whatist that covered your hands, typing “a,s,d,f” over and over again! Good thing I was young without arthritis yet, it took some punch to get those keys down. I think it was an Underwood typewriter. No, I didn’t use a dictaphone, thank goodness!

  19. Enjoyable solve in the East Midlands afternoon sun.
    Glad I was made to sit through a certain film as a youngster!

  20. Very enjoyable, but definitely on the tricky side for me.
    I needed my gizmo to get 24a, a new one for me.
    I feel so chuffed that I remembered 22d from a previous puzzle, and I love the pic. I might choose that for fave, but I loved the pic at 1d as well, a toss up between those two.
    Thanks to Mister Ron and to Mr. Kitty for his review and pics, except for 19d.

  21. I enjoyed this puzzle, even 26A where the penny had a bit further to drop than expected. So simple yet…..
    I still have several 24As from geology field trips decades ago. Happy days.
    As I’m a bit new to the argot I’ll ask who is Mister Ron? I suspect he is the unknown setter – as in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons – but could equally be a pseudonym If he’s unknown how do you know he has a facebook page!
    Thanks to all concerned.

    1. Hi, Nigel. The convention here is that Mr Ron is the generic unknown setter named, as you surmised, for Captain Scarlet et al.

      Chris Lancaster aka Samuel has adopted the pseudonym Mister Ron when commenting on the back page. He sometimes posts about his puzzles on his Facebook page.

  22. I found this more difficult than yesterday so ***/*** 😕 24a was a new word for me and spent some time pondering the SW corner 😏 Favourites 26 & 27 a. Thanks to Mr K and to the setter 😁

  23. This was a cracker – just enough stretch and some chuckle bits. Couldn’t get The History Boys out of my mind for 1ac, which slowed me down for a while!
    Can we have Tuesdays every day please?
    ***/**** from me. Thanks to setter and reviewer.

  24. I thought this was an excellent puzzle, although I definitely found it on the harder end of the spectrum. Like some others, I had not met the fossil in 24a (from the photo I hope never to meet one of these creatures alive!), nor the money in 22d. I thought some of the word-play was toughie-worthy, but the plentiful and long anagrams provided lots of helpful checkers. Overall I found it a very enjoyable solve. Many thanks to all.

  25. Somewhat trickier than recent Tuesdays, I found this an enjoyable crossword to solve.
    18a was my fave and 2/3* overall.
    Thanks to the setter, and to Mr K over there for the review.

  26. Give=sag – umm – not one of his best!

    Apart from that I enjoyed it, loads of anagrams, charades, homophones – all the usual suspects – all adding up to a bit of a cracker!

    1. Re give/sag I thought it was OK because of something like:

      The flexible beam exhibits some give under pressure

      The flexible beam exhibits some sag under pressure

      1. Eh – I must admit I’m missing something here – is it a technical/engineering term or something?

        If so, fair enough but otherwise it’s spurious in the extreme!

        1. I thought it was common usage. If something bends or compresses when I push on it, I could say it has a bit of give or it gives a bit.

          The BRB gives ‘to yield to pressure” as a definition of give. If an object is yielding to vertical pressure, one could also call the resulting downward displacement sagging.

  27. Still don’t understand 1d and never heard of 24a. Apart from that, very enjoyable.

    1. Hi, CV. There’s a more detailed explanation of 1d in my reply to comment #17. Does that help?

  28. Thanks for the blog and the comments — although I’m not sure about the picture at 19dn! Still, the cat made up for it.

    Sorry to anybody who had to check Tara. Gone With The Wind has always struck me as being one of those books/films one assumes that everybody knows, much in the same way as one does with Citizen Kane, Shakespeare, The Beatles, and Dickens. Unfortunately assumptions such as this are often proved to be incorrect, which in my view is definitely the fault of the setter, not the solver.

    1. Thanks for popping in, Mister Ron. Don’t be so hard on yourself – the definition for 1d plus the available checkers should have been sufficient for most solvers, even those who haven’t seen/read Gone with the Wind.

    2. I, too, am amazed at the amount of commentators who have never heard of GWTW. “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” has gone down as one of the most famous quotes.

      1. Me too – specially since ‘Gone with the Wind’, ‘Jane Eyre’ and, I think, ‘Forever Amber’ are the three books that it’s said most women have read. Who knows? :unsure:

        1. Oh dear, Jane Eyre! When I read that at school, I fell in love, deeply and soooo romantically with Mr. Rochester. I swooned around for days! Oh, to be 14 again, maybe not.

      2. I have heard of it, but never seen it, Merusa. Agree that it was easy enough to get with the checkers and the definition

      3. The site provides bloggers with data on the number of clicks on each hyperlink in the blog.

        So far there have been 233 clicks on the list of plays by Shakespeare and only 63 on the Wikipedia entry for Gone with the Wind. Therefore The Winter’s Tale is more obscure than GWTW.

        For completeness, the Wikipedia pages on Kentish towns and trilobites have 187 and 151 clicks respectively.

          1. The record for my blogs is a link to the Wikipedia list of Shakespearean fools that got about 700 clicks on the day it appeared and is now up to 938 clicks. Second place on the list, with 434 clicks, is the Wikipedia page on Hobnob biscuits.

            The group of solvers who comment here are clearly only a small fraction of the site’s readership.

          2. I should perhaps add that it didn’t require any diligence at all.

            The site offers us bloggers a web page giving information about clicks on site hyperlinks. The information is not broken down beyond a simple total for each link, so my post was just reading numbers off a table.

    3. I like language, words and wordplay – at which you are undoubtedly an ace, for which I thank you.

      Sorry to be a heathen but I have little interest or knowledge of media so anything to do with books, films TV or supposed celebrities leaves me cold. I am not fond of needing to know details about a fictional character to find a word; doesn’t seem right in a cryptic crossword. Now what on earth does Citizen Kane mean? Is that another film?

      Last film I saw was The Never Ending Story – I was very disappointed; it ended.
      Thanks again Mister Ron.

    4. Thanks for dropping in and thanks for providing us with an excellent puzzle.

      I too am surprised that Tara is being regarded as obscure. But then again, the reactions above suggest that I was also off in my expectations about the pictures. I thought that the desperation shown in 19d made it more amusing than off-putting, and I was expecting more love for the baby rhino. But I’m relieved that at least you still can’t go wrong featuring a cat in a tiara.

      1. Let me make it clear (as you hear so often in DCA today), I thought it was hilariously funny!

    5. But there is no excuse for a solver not bothering to find out when he/she comes across a word or a fact he/she did not know. What is the point of doing a cryptic crossword if one does not bother to try and understand how a clue works. The NE corner took some time for me but I got there in the end. Thanks Mister Ron and Mr Kitty

  29. It seems that our guess for the setter was correct this time. 11a was a bit of a test of our geography knowledge but the wordplay was clear enough to make a stab and then check. Plenty to enjoy and good to be back into our regular solving pattern.
    Thanks Mister Ron and Mr K.

  30. Tricky in places, and not a fan of the use of words 99.9% of us have never seen or heard such as 24a. I’ll have to remember 22d for future use. Otherwise a very enjoyable solve today.

  31. A definite *** for difficulty here, with the north side last to fall. Kent towns aren’t my strongpoint.

    1. If Kent towns are your only non-strongpoint well, all I can say is lucky/clever old you – I have an increasingly long list of things that a Kath can’t do . . .

  32. An enjoyable solve and a tad trickier than the usual Tuesday puzzle. No particular favourite but enjoyable nonetheless.

    Thanks to all involved.

  33. We used to moor our boat at Queenborough just down from Sheerness and we got to know the area quite well. There was a local joke that if the Earth ever needed an enema, Sheerness would be where they would insert it!

    I supppose the same thing can be said for quite a number of places, but Sheerness would definitely fit the bill!

    1. Agree Michael, going to Sheerness always reminded me of that film Deliverance!

  34. It is interesting that there are 90+ comments on this puzzle and only 40+ on Monday’s.

  35. Only did this Wednesday morning, but well worth the wait. Not too difficult, but an absolute delight from start to finish. Sharp, incisive clueing and hugely entertaining. No favourites, as too many to list. 2*/5*.

    Belated thanks to the Tuesday Mr Ron and to MK.

  36. Definately *** difficulty. Has taken 4 lunch breaks, many I had the answer for but had trouble understanding the clue, eg 1 down.

      1. Thank you – I have been lurking for about 2 years now, thought it time to come out of hiding.
        I usually do the Tue puzzle in xxxxxxxxx lunch breaks but this week was tricky, I couldn’t get Anodyne even when I had three letters and knew the other 4 ! Still not too old to learn new words. Rhino for dosh never heard that before.

        1. The convention here is that we don’t mention actual times taken (however long or short they may be) – lunch breaks, cups of tea, pints of beer, can all be used to represent periods of time, but not actual times as explained in Comment Etiquette No 6

        2. Welcome from me too, Fishy Chris. Now that you have de-lurked I hope you’ll keep commenting.

          I’ve only met that rhino (and dosh, I think) in cryptic crosswords. If you haven’t already, it’s worth looking through BD’s list of wolves in sheep’s clothing that’s mentioned in the hint. It lists a few of the more common uncommon words that setters love.

          And well done for sticking with a puzzle for three lunch breaks to get it done. That’s impressive perseverance.

  37. I think the answer to 5 D on 28488 is REELS, to wind is to reel (as in fishing) and reels are dances.
    Didn’t know that reed means wind.

    1. Welcome to the blog – that is the answer that is hidden behind the ‘click here’ button for 5d

    2. I’m not sure what your point is here, but in future please avoid words in capital letters. I’ve changed it this time.

    3. Welcome from me too, B Lemmon.

      I’m afraid that I’m also not sure what you’re saying or asking here. The answer to 5d, hidden under the “Click Here!” button, is REELS and my hint is intended to explain it as you have. So I agree with your first sentence.

      Regarding your second sentence, since a reed instrument (bassoon, oboe, etc.) is a type of wind instrument, it is possible that “wind” could clue “reed” in a cryptic crossword. But that’s not what is happening here.

      Apologies if I have misunderstood what you meant.

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