DT 28491 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 28491

 

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28491

Hints and tips by Deep Threat

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BD Rating – Difficulty **Enjoyment ***

Good morning from South Staffs, where we have a bright start to the day but the threat of rain later.

Some fairly easy anagrams gave me an entry into today’s Giovanni, and there was nothing too obscure in the rest of the puzzle, so ** difficulty for me.

In the hints below, the definitions are underlined. The answers are hidden under the ANSWER buttons, so don’t click if you don’t want to see them.

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. 

Across

1a           Accept a token in new deal (4,2)
TAKE ON – Anagram (in new deal) of A TOKEN.

4a           Little reptile exploits flowering plants (8)
CROCUSES – The shortened form of the name of a large reptile, followed by a verb meaning ‘exploits’.

Image result for crocuses

9a           Make reference, as man getting audibly vulgar (6)
ALLUDE – A man’s name (Jolson or Capone, perhaps) followed by a homophone of a word for ‘vulgar’.

10a         Always you must keep on — not just some of you! (8)
EVERYONE – Another word for always, followed by an archaic form of ‘you’ wrapped around ON (from the clue).

11a         As Soviet official, I’m cross, am mad (9)
COMMISSAR – Anagram (mad) of I’M CROSS AM.

13a         Excellent department led by ace (5)
ADEPT – The symbol found on an ace in a pack of cards followed by an abbreviation for ‘department’.

14a         A live gent’s let loose, a gospel preacher (13)
TELEVANGELIST – Anagram (loose) of A LIVE GENT’S LET, giving us a preacher who uses broadcast media to spread his message.

17a         Doctor on visit — severe and a bit too touchy? (13)
OVERSENSITIVE – Anagram (doctor) of ON VISIT SEVERE.

21a         Cardinal providing article about Religious Education (5)
THREE – This is a cardinal number. Put the definite article around the abbreviation for Religious Education.

23a         Bitterness showing by those with aspiration heading off, quick movers (9)
GALLOPERS – Another word for bitterness or bile, followed by people who have aspirations, minus their first letter.

Image result for gallopers

24a         Have a hand in genuine action to cancel debt? (8)
REMITTAL – Wrap a word for ‘genuine’ around a slang word for hand.

25a         One form of music and another making comeback with time (6)
GARAGE – The answer is described in the BRB as ‘a type of unsophisticated rock music’. To get to the answer, reverse (making comeback) a three-letter word for another variety of music, a highly syncopated one of black American origin, then add a period of time. I know nothing, and care less, about the type of music in the answer, so here’s a piece from the wordplay:

ARVE Error: need id and provider

26a         Rat in dry zone here shedding skin (8)
DESERTER – A very dry area of the planet followed by (h)ER(e).

27a         1 Across funny old comedian (6)
KEATON – Anagram (funny) of the answer to 1a.

ARVE Error: need id and provider

Down

1d           Time young birds may be found in straw etc (6)
THATCH – An abbreviation for Time, followed by a collection of young birds from the same brood.

2d           Tricky mile trek including middle of bog? A shorter distance (9)
KILOMETRE – Anagram (tricky) of MILE TREK wrapped around the middle letter of bOg. The shorter distance definition relates back to the ‘mile’ at the beginning of the clue, making this a sort of all-in-one.

3d           What was paid off long ago in coppers? (3,4)
OLD BILL – A slang term for the police, which could also be a long-settled account.

5d           Girl given payment in beastly home, brought up to be respectful (11)
REVERENTIAL – Put together a girl’s name (perhaps the one in the Garden of Eden) and a payment for accommodation. Then reverse (brought up) a wild beast’s home, and wrap it around the result.

6d           Business of transporting stuff — hard to get out of old African capital (7)
CARTAGE – Remove the Hard from an old North African city, one which fought Rome in the Punic Wars and was eventually destroyed by the Romans.

7d           Number in double figures to achieve success (5)
SCORE – Double definition, I suppose, though the first is rather vague. The second is the sort of success a footballer achieves by putting the ball into the goal.

8d           Attend match, say, in which muscle is evident (8)
SPECTATE – Another word for ‘say’ wrapped around a shortened form of a chest muscle.

12d         Economy good with people showing a redeeming quality (6,5)
SAVING GRACE – Put together the act of making economies, Good, and a people or ethnic division.

15d         Alien gent, frightfully lacking in refinement (9)
INELEGANT – Anagram (frightfully) of ALIEN GENT.

16d         Harry and Edward tinkered about (8)
POTTERED – Put together the surname of Harry the boy wizard and a short form of Edward.

18d         The female subsequently lacking a sanctuary (7)
SHELTER – The pronoun for ‘the female’, followed by ‘subsequently’ or ‘not sooner’ with the A removed.

19d         One thus tardy is to get set apart from others (7)
ISOLATE – Split the answer (1,2,4) you get ‘one’, ‘thus’ and ‘tardy’.

20d         Oriental dropping off at the front gets behind (6)
ASTERN – Remove the first letter from a word for ‘oriental’ and you get a nautical term for ‘behind’,

22d         Frolics of old politicians undermining Speaker ultimately (5)
ROMPS – The last letter of SpeakeR followed by Old and the usual crossword politicians.


The Quick Crossword pun ANNA + GRAMMES = ANAGRAMS

38 comments on “DT 28491

  1. Found this easier than Thursday’s. Favourite was 27a being the last word and an anagram of 1a the first word in itself an anagram. */*** for me. Thanks to Giovanni and DT. The Quickie I found much harder.

  2. 3*/2.5*. Fairly straightforward for three quarters but, for the second day running, the NE put up quite a fight taking me up to my 3* time. Also fairly enjoyable but I’ve docked half-a-star for the awful Americanism which is the answer to 14a.

    Many thanks to Giovanni and to DT.

  3. No problems beyond taking far too long to ‘see’ 8d.
    Like RD, I cringed over 14a and my feelings about the 25a music are on a par with those expressed by DT!

    12a takes the honours.

    Thanks to DG and to DT for the review.

    1. Ditto to you and RD on 14a.

      I think 25a derives from young people, who would like to be famous musicians, being made to practice in the garage by their parents – presumably, so that they annoy the neighbours more than said parents.

      But, there is no 12a to be given the honours.

    2. Isn’t “gospel preacher” itself an Americanism, or do they exist in the UK now? I saw 14a as one Americanism clueing another.

      Regarding 25a, there’s the original 25a that DT and Senf explained, but it also describes several music genres from this century. Wikipedia covers UK garage, speed garage, 2-step garage, and future garage and some others. I mention all this because I was amused at Giovanni’s inversion of music that my grandparents liked to get something that appeals to those several generations younger. And perhaps Giovanni is a fan of one of those or of Garage House

  4. I wasn’t a singular 23a completing this, but I did manage it at a medium canter. A very enjoyable puzzle to finish the work week – 2*/3.5*.

    Two candidates for favourite – 3d and 19d – and the winner is 3d.

    Thanks to Giovanni and DT.

  5. Going to agree with DT today with a **/***, too many anagrams for my liking, especially long ones which I find tedious. Apart from this some excellent charades and cryptic definitions to warrant a three star enjoyment factor.
    Favourite 16d, great surface, 23a a close second.
    .

  6. Managed today & yesterday without too much trouble so getting back to somewhere near normal (whatever that is) perhaps.
    Nothing contentious nor too deep.
    Thanks to Giovanni & DT.
    Think I’ll give the Open Seniors golf at Royal Porthcawl a miss again today.

      1. Thanks M.
        Getting there but it seems one step forward & nearly one step back again.
        It took yesterday’s Ray T to put me back on track! Shows I’m an oddball I guess.
        Biggles, who cheers up every day thankfully, sends regards to Sadie

  7. Difficult to choose between 3 and 16d as my COTD, but I will go for 3d. 23a gets an honourable mention too. Certainly not too difficult, nothing obscure, a ghastly word at 14a, but still enjoyable, so 2*/3* from me overall.

    Thanks to The Don and DT.

  8. Nice Friday fare from Giovanni as usual TVM **/*** 😃 Plenty of favourites perhaps 21 a & 25 a are the best 🤔 Thanks to DT especially for the humorous video clip 😜 Thought the Quicky pun very apposite for today’s crossword as there were quite a few 😏

  9. Completed in an average **/*** time for me. (Unlike yesterday, when I was still head scratching as they rang the Last Orders bell. I think I finished it in ******* time.)

    I agree that long anagrams can be a bit of a pain, unless you use an electronic aid. Is that cheating?

    COTD 25a, with only three vowels for checkers, it was last in.

    Many thanks to Giovanni and DT.

      1. Something I used to take great pleasure in ringing after a long evening working in our local pub, especially on a Friday when the landlady and I were often the only two sober people in the building.

  10. Thanks Giovanni and DT for a gentle work-out today. Needed help with 14a – Quickie 1a are in any case not my favourite thing. 25a new one on me but appreciated DT’s musical hint for that and indeed 27a which eventually became my Fav.

  11. With lots of helpful anagrams this benign puzzle did not pose too much of a challenge but on the plus sideI will add 6d to my ever increasing collection of words that I may never come across but for the crossword.

    to my growing collection of words

  12. As usual It took a bit of time to get on the same wavelength as Giovanni but managed everything until the last three in the NE corner when I had to go to DT’s hints for help. Looking back I’m not totally sure why. COTD has to be 3d which brought a smile. A ****/** for me, with thanks to Giovanni and DT.

  13. An anagramfest – the only one that gave me any trouble was 25a – I had ‘rap’ in my mind and couldn’t get rid of it – I’m not all that up in music of the modern ‘idiot’ and am quite happy about that!

    A very enjoyable puzzle with no real nastys!

  14. First time here and quite new to cryptic crosswords – thank you for the amazing help!

  15. I loved today’s crossword. The first time I did all but one clue (13a) without help!
    14a is a new one on me
    Great link between 1a and 27a
    Very kind of you to put up Scott J as well
    A lovely touch Many thanks.

  16. What a deference a day makes!
    I’d never heard of the music in 25a, I had to google it, sounds dreadful.
    I don’t like the word in 14a, nor the people themselves, Americanism or not.
    I liked 12d and 16d, I loved the 12d movie.
    Thanks to Giovanni and Deep Threat, confidence is quite restored!

    1. Looks as though we have the answer to what Brian thought of the Mr. T – comment 18!
      I really thought he’d been won over………

      1. I thought so! I thought I was getting onto his wavelength, but not so I suppose. I found it really, really difficult. and everyone found it so easy! I just can’t twist my brain to Ray’s way of thinking.

  17. A somewhat easier challenge than usual for a Friday. No real problems encountered so 2/3* overall with 17a being me fave as I didn’t spot the relevancy of ‘doctor’ for ages.
    Thanks to the Don and to DT for his review.

  18. Nice Giovanni but I needed the anagrams to get started. Lots of typical Giovanni clues which provide you with all you need. For me **/***
    Thx to all
    PS I refrained from commenting on yesterday’s offering on the principle if you can’t find ANYTHING good to say, say nothing.

  19. Our last one in was 25a where we got stuck on RAP being one of the music types. Eventually the penny dropped. Nice puzzle.
    Thanks Giovanni and DT.

  20. About ** for difficulty, and most enjoyable. Last in 25ac which I should have seen much earlier…

  21. Hard work for me, but then everything’s a struggle just now. Made it without help, but struggled with a few. Ta to DT and the Don

    1. Poor you – are you still in hospital?
      So glad that you’ve been able to continue to pop in – we always watch out for your posts.

    2. Here’s hoping you’re soon fit and well and able to return home. Being in hospital is not exactly a joyful experience, let’s hope yore soon better.

  22. Got a bit delayed by writing “the bill” in 3d and only saw the light when solving 27a.
    Apart from that it was plain sailing for a Giovanni.
    Can’t believe it’s already Saturday. Haven’t finished last week’s Paul in the Graun and the next weekly prize is online in a few minutes.
    Thanks to the Don and to DT.
    Read that you were sorry not to come down to visit last time you and Mrs even deeper threat were in France.
    It’s only “Partie remise” I hope.
    Really look forward to seing you both again.

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