DT 28564 (Hints) – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 28564 (Hints)

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28564 (Hints)

Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club

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As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, an assortment of clues, including some of the more difficult ones, have been selected and hints provided for them.

Most of the terms used in these hints are explained in the Glossary and examples are available by clicking on the entry under “See also”. Where the hint describes a construct as “usual” this means that more help can be found in The Usual Suspects, which gives a number of the elements commonly used in the wordplay. Another useful page is Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing, which features words with meanings that are not always immediately obvious.

A full review of this puzzle will be published after the closing date for submissions.

Some hints follow.

Across

1a    Support initiation for priest with endless money — he gets a cheap holiday (10)
A four-letter verb meaning to support followed by P(riest) and a colloquial word for money without its final letter (endless)

11a    Drug case arousing memories (9)
One of our usual drugs is followed by a grammatical case

13a    Dish served in Edinburgh, hot and rather bewitching? (7)
A typical Scottish dish (served in Edinburgh) is followed by H(ot)

14a    Splashing out no penny, miser makes profitable business (5-7)
A not-so-obvious anagram (splashing out) of NO PENNY MISER

23a    Lack of practice in support for responsible person (7)
A four-letter word meaning lack of practice inside the support for a golf ball

25a    Spring flower‘s spike to keep bulb free of bees? (5)
A spike or extreme end around [b]UL[b] without (free of) the Bs (bees)

26a    ‘Rag Trade’ not traditional fashion (4)
Easier than it looks – drop TRAD(itional), as in Trad Jazz, from the first two words in the clue

27a    One’s business is taking a dive (10)
A cryptic definition of the former occupation of Son of BD and ShropshireLad, when they were in the Navy

Down

1d    Suit live issue (6)
A two-letter verb meaning to live followed by a verb meaning to issue or emerge

3d    Sort of racehorse show with gun dog (5-2-7)
A phrasal verb meaning to show (5,2) followed by a gun dog

4d    Miserable poet’s always left absorbed in board game (9)
The three-letter poetic word for always and L(eft) inside a board game

7d    Books comprising treason, start to finish (8)
These books are derived by moving the initial letter of a word meaning treason to the end (start to finish) – the fact that the answer is plural should help with working out the first letter of the word for treason

8d    God beset by prayer for large number (8)
A four-letter Scandinavian god inside a four-letter prayer

9d    Lawyers win and resist source of cheap goods (7,7)
A three-letter word for a group of lawyers followed by a verb meaning to win or achieve and a verb meaning to resist

17d    US President nearly a century ago keeping old poster (8)
The surname of a US president who died while in office nearly a century ago around (keeping) O(ld)

19d    Knight under scarf is hot (6)
… hot in the sense of obtained dishonestly

22d    Oriental poem with sound of excited talk as lovebirds do (5)
This Japanese poem sounds like an adjective meaning excited and a verb meaning to talk as lovebirds do

The Crossword Club is now open.

On Wednesday I picked up my new specs, so now I can see properly.  I was told before the first operation that it was easy and painless – and so it turned out.  My world is now a clearer, brighter place.


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As this is a Prize crossword, please don’t put any ANSWERS, whether WHOLE, PARTIAL or INCORRECT, or any ALTERNATIVE CLUES in your comment. If in doubt, leave it out!

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The Quick Crossword pun: teary+ennui=Thierry Henry


77 comments on “DT 28564 (Hints)

  1. Got there in the end. Tricky. NW last to fall. Needed the anagrams and lurker to get moving. All good clues. I liked the “business dive” for its cheeky simplicity.
    3/3

  2. That was a tough cookie for me; I haven’t worked that hard on a Saturday for ages!
    8d was my favourite simply because I love the sound of the word. Overall…3/3.5*
    Thanks to the setter, and to BD for the hints.

  3. 3/4. I found this quite a tough challenge particularly in the NW corner but very enjoyable with some interesting constructions and definitions to tussle with (or, should I say, with which to tussle?)

    Could this be a Mister Ron composition?

    My ticked clues were 11a, 13a, 26a, 3d, 4d, 8d & 9d.

    Many thanks to the setter and to BD.

        1. Trying to decide whether your :wink: means that you know who is today’s compiler or that you know when the next Mister Ron will appear. Willing to elucidate?

  4. Hi still struggling a bit with todays puzzle but with BD’s help I am getting there. I think you have given the treasonable word in your hint or is that another one I am struggling with?

      1. Not at all – I hadn’t noticed until you pointed it out. I don’t often sit at the computer, but I had just finished setting up today’s excellent NTSPP puzzle from Snape – only a few minutes and it will be published.

  5. A thoroughly enjoyable puzzle today.3.5/4.5 for me. I needed the help of the clue for 22d, a word I hadn’t come across before.

      1. Yes, that thought occurred to me too, Dave, and thank you for your explanation for 7d because, whilst I’d put in the correct answer, I couldn’t understand why. I’m expecting our teams to serve up a feast of football at Wembley tomorrow – I very much doubt that the Reds will park the bus…

  6. Apropos comments regarding the issues raised yesterday concerning browsers on tablets and flash player.
    I use the Puffin browser on my Android tablet. With the predictive text turned off, it works perfectly. You don’t have to install Flash Player on the tablet as the Flash Player plugin is part of the browser. All you need to do is enable Flash Player in the browser settings and it works like a dream.
    I will be amazed if it is not available on Ipads.
    Give it a go.

  7. I really liked the lion and tiger.

    Kitty will have a field day with 1d! That made me laugh!

    many thanks setter and BD

  8. Good to be entertained and tested a bit more than usual on a Saturday. NE corner held out the longest but in retrospect I can’t see why. 22d filed for possible future reference. Favs 11a and 13a. Thank you Mysteron and BD – glad you are now seeing distinctly. If it was cataract surgery I have had the same enlightening experience.

  9. It’s comforting when others report the trickiness of this crossword. I too took longer than normal to complete it so I wasn’t just having a bad day. A very enjoyable challenge. 26a was my last in and as BD says “it’s easier than it looks” so why did it take so long to see it? 25a appealed – simple but clever.

  10. Not sure about this one, it took some time to get going but then it appeared to be over too quickly with completion at a gallop – /.

    Favourite – 8d, my LOI, although 3d came close.

    Thanks to the setter and BD.

          1. Answer: no, it doesn’t :sad:

            I typed (without spaces) “& # 4 2” ; followed by 1.5 * / 3.5 *

            1. Which leads (I think) to the easier to remember solution of typing 1.5 * / 3.5 * with spaces!

          2. I am somewhat mystified by this as it seems to slightly random. With the advantage(?) of time zones, I prepare my comments in MS Word, on the laptop I have been using for a number of years, and copy and paste when the blog is open, when I wake up.

            1. They are all talking about putting star ratings in their comments as they don’t appear to be working properly for them.

              Blogging and putting * in is a whole different thing

              1. Yes, but I think Senf is also talking about star ratings in comments. It’s useful information: if asterisks in pasted text also get changed then it shows that it is WordPress — not any browser or device — which is altering the code. I tested BD’s method above for inputting asterisks and it works. That is, typing * will input a *.

                  1. Just thought I’d give it a whirl – ***** seem to be working OK for me, is that because I’m using a laptop?

                    1. I don’t believe this strange behaviour has anything to do with the computer or the browser. It seems to be coming from WordPress, the software that creates the blog.

                      Typing multiple asterisks not enclosing text or numbers, as you did, works as expected: *********

                      Inserting a space after the first asterisk, as RD discovered, also renders properly and is probably the easiest workaround: 2* /1* (space between * and /). It also works to put a space before the second asterisk 2*/1 *, but that looks a bit odd.

                      [What appears to be happening is that when WordPress builds the page that we see in our browsers, in some cases it is replacing *text* by <em>text</em> which makes a browser render text in italics with no asterisks. I don’t know why that has suddenly started happening.]

        1. Hi BD
          Do you have a WIBNI list (Wouldn’t It Be Nice If)?
          Now that WordPress is messing up your * rating system, could you consider a more formal method of collecting this important information, like a drop-down box on the comment page. This could produce data for an average rating from all bloggers.

          I notice many comments award ½ points, so maybe a scale of 1-10 would be better

          Tony MacDonnell

  11. I, too, found this at the trickier end of the setting spectrum for a Saturday but enjoyed it all the more as a result. 11a just pipped 13a as my favourite although there were several viable alternatives for the top spot. Let’s see if the asterisks work today – 3/4.

    Thanks to the setter and BD.

  12. A cut above the usual Saturday fare and very enjoyable, finished well before lights-out last night!

    I went to West Ham v Brighton last night, it was a shambles – West Ham are in a mess, not a good way to start the weekend.

  13. I got there in the end. I needed BD to help with a few and had a delay working through some grammar lessons long forgotten for 11a. I liked 15d and 19a brought back memories of learning to do cryptic clues many moons ago. My mum had lists of anagrams and the ones for orchestra and similar were top of that list. Thanks to BD and the setter.

  14. I enjoyed solving this and it did not take me an unconscionable amount of time either though it was not straightforward. Several clues appealed to me. 3d and 9d were both good and useful but I willaward top spot to 7d.

  15. Ah – think I must have been doing a different puzzle. This was a complete R&W for me – literally a case of read each clue and immediately fill in the answer. In fact, I even commented to a friend that one of our Rookies could easily have come up with more of a challenge! It just goes to show how that wavelength ‘thing’ comes into play – tomorrow could be a completely different story.

    25a got the clue of the day award from me.

    Thanks to Mr Saturday Ron and to BD for the club.

    PS I can’t recommend Snape’s NTSPP highly enough – do give it a whirl.
    PPS I’m so pleased to hear your good news, BD. Hope you’ll still recognise us all come January!

  16. Thanks to the setter and to Big Dave for the hints. A very entertaining puzzle, but quite tricky in places. I couldn’t finish the NE corner. Needed the hints for 13a&7&8d. I thought 1,25,27a&19d were all very good, but my favourite was 3d. The ✳ aren’t working for me, so I’ll try and rate it using the previous symbol. Was 3 ✳ /4 ✳ for me.

  17. Found this one quite tough with some good clues and some I find difficult to parse; hence 11a and 26a last in. Lurker in 21a foxed me for a while. Favourite probably 8d.
    Thanks to setter and BD for the hints.

  18. Another “off the wavelength” solve for me today, but a thoroughly enjoyable one nevertheless. This one took me into 4 star time but it really shouldn’t have as the completed grid, on reflection, was well within my capabilities to process far more efficiently than I actually managed to. I’ll blame it on insufficient sleep…

    Thanks to BD and setter 4/4

  19. This one definitely started at a sprint and ended with a hike. I needed the hints for 26a. DOH!

    Many thanks to the setter and BD.

    Addition I have just completed the Quickie pun, OUCH!

  20. Given up with this one with about 3/4 done. Very tough, so much so that I can’t even understand the hints! Last two days have not b,even good for me.😒

  21. Found this a bit chewier than usual, but in the way I like. I can’t imagine what Dutch could possibly mean about 1d but I did mark that one with a smiley, as well as 25a and 19d. Favourite, though, has to be my cousins lurking in 24a.

    Happy Caturday all, with a special “yay!” for BD with his clearer, brighter world.

  22. I didn’t have too much trouble but the ones that held me up were, with the benefit of hindsight, some of the easier clues.
    I think I’m a bit dim today – why did 23a take me so long to untangle, and 4d?
    I liked 1 and 25a and 3 and 22d. My favourite was 13a.
    Thanks to whoever set this one and to BD.

  23. I really, really enjoyed this, started at a smart trot, then I got stalled for ages. I had to use electronic help for three or so as a last resort.
    I liked lots here, the lurker stood out, but fave is 3d.
    Thanks to setter and to BD. Isn’t that cataract thing brilliant? I couldn’t believe how bright everything was afterwards.

    1. I’ve had one eye done and the other still has an, as yet not ready to be removed, cataract – so I see everything bright with one eye and slightly yellowy with the other

      1. My doc wouldn’t do just one at a time, so I had to wait for some time for them to be “ready”. I was so myopic, he said I would come back and shoot him if he only did one. Now I’m fighting glaucoma, old age!

        1. Mine was done as part of an operation on my retina. They were thinking they’d do the other one but as I’m used to monovision (I’ve had a “reading” contact lens in my right eye for years) I’ve been left to wait.

          1. Before the surgery, my glass lens were like Coke-bottle bottoms, so after the surgery there was such a difference in my eyes, I was in danger of falling, particularly going up and down stairs. That is why they decided to wait.

        2. Both my eyes were successfully operated on although second cataract wasn’t ready to be done until 10 years after the first but now, like you Merusa, I am contending with glaucoma and aggro of daily eye drops – anno domini! 👁👁

          1. I’ve already had two surgeries and it’s still not under control in my right eye. I can only drive locally now, I daren’t go on the motorways, so inconvenient.

            1. Husband had both eyes done, 2 weeks apart, at Bascom Palmer, in Miami, 4 years ago and was and is thrilled with the result, particularly that he could then see true colors and drive at night. Our optometrist has high praise for the job done. Hope you get good results soon.

              1. I know, when you have the cataract surgery done it’s as if you’ve entered a different world. I couldn’t stop just looking at everything.

    2. Thanks for all the kind thoughts. My hospital won’t do both at the same time in case there is a problem. The trouble is that after the first operation I had to go to the back of a very long queue, firstly for the assessment and then the operation itself. My second operation was scheduled for late October, early November but I offered to take a cancellation at short notice, which is what happened. Someone didn’t turn up, I was phoned at 9:15 to be at the hospital by 10:30 – shorter notice than I had expected! It was all over by 12:15.

  24. I must have my contrary hat on today, as I found this very solvable and not as difficult as yesterday when I struggled and everyone seemed to find it easy. Obviously evidence of the wavelength thing. However I am certain of my 2d and 12a answers, but they don’t gel with each other. Clearly one of them, I think 12a is wrong. Waiting for a duh moment.

  25. I found the SE corner to be extremely difficult – the scarf was the last one I thought of, have a weak spot regarding cryptic definitions, and struggled with 23ac. The rest was for the most part pretty straightforward, and thoroughly enjoyable.

  26. Well it wasn’t easy .
    I don’t 23a quite works.
    I liked 3d and 1a.
    Thanks to BD and the setter.

  27. As with most recent Saturdays I had a very hesitant start but once the first one went in the rest followed steadily (and enjoyably).
    Many thanks to BD and the setter.

  28. Tricky.
    I needed a couple of nudges from the internet to get home.
    Three tricky days on the trot.
    Thank all.

  29. An amusing but rather gentle puzzle: 1/3.5. I enjoyed 8d and 11a. Thanks to the setter, and to BD.

  30. Good for you BD, I was lucky enough to have my eyes done three weeks apart about three and a half years ago, it seemed miraculous at the time everything looked sparkly bright. Have had few days away from crosswords but returned refreshed today, this was a delight from start to finish but still tuned in to check things out. No particular favourite but I like the sound of 11a. Thanks to BD and setter.

  31. Would some kind person please give me a steer in the direction of 12a and 2d? I’m pretty sure what the answers are but I don’t know why! Many thanks.

    1. 12a Important church priest, one I overlooked (7)
      Drop (overlooked) one I (of two) from a word for a priest

      2d Concerned about criminal organisation (6)
      The two-letter Latin abbreviation for about followed by a criminal organisation

    2. 12a – definition is ‘important’. Take a 7 letter word for a church priest and then follow the instructions given by the last three words of the clue. Check your answer in the BRB if it sounds unfamiliar!
      2d – definition is ‘concerned’. You need a 2 letter abb for ‘about’ and follow it with a description of a criminal organisation.

          1. It’s equally nice to know that I seem to have found the correct way to give hints on prize days without getting sent to the naughty corner!

      1. Thanks BD – half term holiday visitors delayed my response- but it was the fact that I had the last two letters of 11a incorrect (and I wasn’t happy with my parsing of that clue!). Once corrected, your hint (I already had the correct God) made perfect sense!
        Job done and I can now send it in
        Thanks again to you and the setter and hope the op works well for you…

  32. Not the kind of crossword I could solve over a cup of tea either.
    Had less than half before I had to go to work and only came back to it a little while ago.
    Finished this wonderful crossword full of great definitions and wordplay.
    13 a made me laugh.
    Thanks to the setter and to BD for the Saturday Club.

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