Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28922
Hints and tips by Deep Threat
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Good morning from South Staffs this chilly winter’s day.
A reasonably gentle Giovanni this morning, I thought, though no doubt there will be contrary views expressed by some.
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
8a A lot of hands up, in an attitude of feigned superiority (2,4,4,5)
ON ONE’S HIGH HORSE – ‘Hands’ here are a unit of measurement relating to equines. If one were sitting on one of these that required a lot of hands to measure it, one could be …
9a A bit of information shortly to be returned (3)
TAD – Remove the final letter from a word for pieces of information, then reverse the result.
10a My request to be remembered for something in the flower garden (6-2-3)
FORGET-ME-NOT – This flower name contains an explicit request to remember me.
11a In pair there’s always one who foots the bill (5)
PAYER – an abbreviation for ‘pair’ wrapped around a poetic word for ‘always’
12a Leaving before Christmas maybe, when holidays are cheaper? (9)
OFFSEASON – A three-letter word for ‘leaving’, as in “I’m —” followed by a period of the year of which Christmastime may be an example.
15a First course? Do taste (7)
SOUPÇON – A typical first course at dinner followed by ‘do’ or ‘cheat’. Add a cedilla to get a French word for a smidgen or taste.
17a Attractive girl bored us unfortunately (7)
ROSEBUD – Anagram (unfortunately) of BORED US.
19a Publicity officer has to print a template (9)
PROTOTYPE – Put together an acronym for a publicity officer, TO (from the clue) and another word for ‘print’ or the stuff used to create a printed page.
20a Woman is falling over something in the kitchen? (5)
SIEVE – Put together the name of the first woman in the Bible and IS (from the clue), then reverse the result.
21a Islander takes precaution moving across river (6,5)
PUERTO RICAN – Anagram (moving) of PRECAUTION wrapped around River.
24a Winter complaint making one unhappy (3)
SAD – Double definition, the first being a three-letter acronym for a depressive illness caused by lack of exposure to bright light.
25a One is one (8,7)
PERSONAL PRONOUN – … and so is he or she!
Down
1d Question asked of performer in form of greeting? (3,2,3,2)
HOW DO YOU DO – A ritual form of words when meeting someone, which could be literally an enquiry of someone performing an action as to the method of performance.
2d Drug in paper wrapping in jacket (6)
REEFER – Double definition: a cigarette containing marijuana; or a jacket worn at sea.
3d Wine from Somerset town available? No (10)
CHARDONNAY – Put together a town in Somerset, a short word for ‘available’(perhaps relating to the menu in a restaurant), and a rather archaic or regional word for ‘no’, to get a white wine grape named for the area of Burgundy where it was first grown.
4d Look of love and joy, no end (4)
OGLE – The letter which looks like a love score at tennis followed by another word for joy or happiness with its last letter removed (no end).
5d Slows down after cold alcoholic drink (8)
CHAMPERS – Cold followed by ‘slows down’ or ‘obstructs’, giving an informal term for a variety of sparkling wine.
6d What I did to flee country (4)
IRAN – Split this Middle Eastern country (1,3) to get ‘what I did to flee’.
7d Church officer to have a go at carrying cross (6)
SEXTON – A phrase (3,2) meaning ‘have a go at’ wrapped around a cross-shaped letter.
8d Work at end of month for far-flung organisation (7)
OCTOPUS – An abbreviation for one of the months of the year followed by the Latin word for a (musical) work.
13d Fierce apes on the rampage? There’s a way to avoid danger (4,6)
FIRE ESCAPE – Anagram (on the rampage) of FIERCE APES.
14d Telling of story overseen by editor — result is ruin (10)
SUBVERSION – A member of an editorial team responsible for making copy fit the available space, followed by a telling of a story (there may be others from different points of view).
16d Introduction of someone new in shop, one into fashion (2-6)
CO-OPTION – Start wit the short name of a shop run by and for the members of a mutual organisation, then add a French word for ‘fashion’ or ‘style’ with the roman numeral for one inserted into it.
18d Doctor meeting various needs in German city (7)
DRESDEN – An abbreviation for ‘Doctor’ followed by an anagram (various) of NEEDS.
19d Humourless little dogs — see them on computer screens (3-3)
POP-UPS – An adjective (usually followed by ‘-faced’) for ‘humourless’ followed by some young dogs.
20d Forward boy with inner purpose (4,2)
SEND ON – another word for a boy or male child, wrapped around an aim or purpose.
22d Not all learners will show merit (4)
EARN – Hidden inside the third word of the clue.
23d Genuine bit of Brazilian money (4)
REAL – Double definition, the second being the standard monetary unit of Brazil.
The Quick Crossword pun MAINE + ROWED = MAIN ROAD
I’m not going to be contrary but just say thanks to Giovanni and DT
At first reading this looked quite difficult, but I got started it all went in quite smoothly. A lovely puzzle as usual from the Don. I especially liked 15a, 25a, 3d, 5d, 14d and 19d, in no particular order.
Plenty of booze and food but not a lot of time to enjoy it. Ta to all. See you on Monday. play nicely children.
Good fun and not too difficult I thought. 8a particularly appealed, as did 21 and 25a. Not too much GK this week, which will please some regulars.
Thanks to The Don and DT.
A nice way to end the working week. Not too difficult with some good clues involved. I liked 25a so that is my favourite.
Thanks to Giovanni, and to DT for the review.
2* / 1*. Nothing more to say. Thanks to the setter and to DT.
Nearer *** than ** for me.
Struggled with 15a, 8d and 26d until pennies noisily dropped.
Very enjoyable.
Many thanks, Giovanni and DT for the review.
My comments exactly
I’m with RayS in that my initial impression was that no way would I complete this but softly, softly catchee monkey and all was well with this DG sparkler which was lots of fun to solve. Never heard of an 8d organisation. Really liked surfaces of 19a and 19d. Thank you Giovanni and DT.
A nice pleasant work out for the grey matter today.Thanks to DT and Giovanni.Just one little query,why was the “e” left off the Quickie pun? I’m a MCFC fan BTW!!
I think you will find the E was left off because this discussion forum does not encourage dirty language.
A very gentle end to the work week with plenty of enjoyment completed at a gallop – **/****.
Candidates for favourite – 8a, 25a, and 3d – the last one probably comes out on top.
Thanks to Giovanni and DT.
Completed comfortably on the train as opposed to yesterday. No real problems although last to crack was 21a as not spotted the anagram. Did not parse 11a. Favourites 8 19 20 and 25a.
Enjoyed this a lot. 8a my favourite. Puzzled for hours with 16d as had it starting with an S! Silly me.
Slow start but as soon as the 2 big answers were slotted in everything flowed . Favourites 15A & 19D .
Thanks to everyone .
HELP! Have computer problems, all my apps have disappeared and I have no idea how to get them back. Would someone email me today’s crossword until I can get someone to fix this for me? Ironically, IT Godson just left this morning to return to Jamaica, why me Oh Lord?
You’ve got mail.
Thanks!
Reboot – if that doesn’t work do a system restore to a day or two back.
I turned it off and restarted an hour later but no luck. I don’t know how to restore, can you tell me how? Or do I have to get an IT.
It’s important as I do my banking as well and can’t pay my bills!
Sorry, I’m not the slightest bit techy. Rebooting is about my limit. I then resort to calling my laptop names and threatening it with a watery demise in the pool…
25a was my favourite too. Most enjoyable puzzle. Thanks G and DT.
Well, I did like the ‘po pups’ today. Have a good weekend all.
***/***. Not as straightforward for me as some thought. Liked 25a which I got with very few checkers but gave me a good toehold in that quadrant. 21a also a very neat clue. Thanks to Giovanni and DT.
Quite a light touch from the Don today and a few welcome touches of humour.
Top three here were 8&15a plus 19d.
Thanks to DG and to DT for the blog. Enjoyed the reminder of West Side Story.
Although we solved it without much delay, 3d is the type of clue we like the least. To expect any solvers outside the UK to have heard of a small town of about 11,000 people in Somerset is pushing things a bit in our opinion. That one aside we did enjoy the rest of the puzzle with 25a giving the biggest smile.
Thanks Giovanni and DT.
I had never heard of Chard either. But I am expected to know obscure ports around the world like Rio. Never heard of it outside crosswordland.
I really liked this one a lot after a disastrous start to the day.
I didn’t have any problems here, difficult to choose a fave, though must give a shout out to 8a and 15a, I just liked them.
Thanks to Giovanni and to Deep Threat, without whom I would have been deprived of this fun solve.
P.S. I have a brand new iPad, works like greased lightning – love it.
A really enjoyable puzzle with just the right level of challenge. Thanks to Deep Threat for the musical clue!
Well I guess I am contrary (as Mr BL will readily agree) and didn’t find this particularly gentle. But with Deep Threat’s hints I got there in the end, although I still don’t understand how 16d = the definition. But it was a good brain workout, so thanks to DT and Giovanni.
BL, 16d:
co-opt
[ˌkəʊˈɒpt]
VERB
appoint to membership of a committee or other body by invitation of the existing members.
“the committee may co-opt additional members for special purposes”
synonyms:
appoint · nominate · depute · delegate · select · choose · pick · decide on · settle on · elect · name · identify · assign · allot · co-opt · ordain · induct · plump for
This was fairly mild for a G puzzle, it didn’t quite feel like one of his somehow. For me, it was about average difficulty and certainly enjoyable enough. 2.5* / 3*
Only just got round to doing this one so rather late to comment.
I usually have trouble with Friday crosswords but there wasn’t too much of that with this one.
Nothing particularly obscure ie religious or musical references which I always battle with.
I didn’t know the 8d organisation and will probably have forgotten about it by the time it comes up next.
My favourite was either 8 or 25a (specially once I realised that ‘cardinal number’ didn’t have enough letters)
With thanks to Giovanni and to DT.
2*/4*…..
liked 8A ( a lot of hands up, in an attitude of feigned superiority ) and 13D ( fierce apes on the rampage? There’s a way to avoid danger ).