Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29011
Hints and tips by Deep Threat
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Good morning from South Staffs on a beautifully sunny spring day.
I found no particular problems with today’s Giovanni, and completed it in ** time.
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 Activists making gain excitedly embraced by people in tents (11)
CAMPAIGNERS – Anagram (excitedly) of GAIN, inserted into some people who spend their holidays in tents (or caravans or motorhomes).
7a Concise treaty (7)
COMPACT – Double definition, the first an adjective, the second a noun.
8a Changed, being dull, given a time inside (7)
MUTATED – A (from the clue) and Time, with another word for dull colours wrapped around them.
10a Flow of water unfortunate, river infiltrating club (8)
MILLRACE – Another word for unfortunate or bad (luck) and an abbreviation for River, with a ceremonial club wrapped around them.
11a Little dogs outside home? They may be very pretty (3-3)
PIN-UPS – Some juvenile dogs wrapped around ‘(at) home’.
13a One who entertains a lot of people (4)
HOST – Double definition: the man in charge of a party; or the crowds who may come to the party.
14a I half-read a little, sadly lacking education? (10)
ILLITERATE – Anagram (sadly) of I RE(ad) (half-read) A LITTLE.
16a Agent has a share in process of putting things right again (10)
REPARATION – Put together a shortened form of the word for an agent or commercial traveller, A (from the clue) and a share (of food, perhaps).
18a Second letter to the Corinthians (4)
BETA – Cryptic definition of the second letter of the Greek alphabet.
21a Offer to look after Her Majesty (6)
TENDER – Another word for ‘look after’ followed by the Queen’s regnal cipher.
22a Mushroom — I will have it dunked in milky drink! (8)
SHIITAKE – A frothed-up milky drink wrapped around I (from the clue) and IT (from the clue), giving us a Japanese mushroom.
24a Fault admitted by the German fellow lacking direction (7)
DRIFTER – A geological fault (there’s a very large one in Kenya), with one of the forms of the German definite article wrapped around it.
25a Usefulness or uselessness with leader absent? (7)
UTILITY – Another word for usefulness which, with a leading F becomes a word for uselessness.
26a Big bird in Donegal flying with glee (6,5)
GOLDEN EAGLE – Anagram (flying) of DONEGAL and GLEE.
Down
1d Copper not entirely cross with you and me — a fluffy wet type? (7)
CUMULUS – Put together the chemical symbol for copper, a crossbred animal with its last letter removed (not entirely), and a pronoun for ‘you and me’. The answer is something seen overhead.
2d Characters inside home agreed to be miserly (6)
MEAGRE – Hidden in the clue.
3d Like some lorries lacking rear piece, say (10)
ARTICULATE – Remove the final letter (lacking rear piece) from a word which describes lorries which have a tractor unit and a trailer.
4d Lark, partridge, pheasant …? (4)
GAME – Triple definition. The first one is not a bird. The second and third are frequently shot, so are both examples of the answer.
5d Needed hospital facility, wasn’t well (8)
ENTAILED – The hospital department where otorhinolaryngologists practise, followed by ‘wasn’t well’.
6d End of week with tot being given a fruit (7)
SATSUMA – Put together an abbreviated form of the last day of the week (or first of the weekend), a verb meaning ‘to tot (up)’, and A (from the clue).
7d A politician in church preached, becoming oily (11)
CAMPHORATED – Start by putting together A (from the clue) and one of the usual politicians. Wrap an abbreviation for ‘church’ around the result, then add a synonym of ‘preached’ or ‘gave a public speech’.
9d Leader’s type to writhe in anguish (11)
DESPERATELY – Anagram (to writhe) of LEADER’S TYPE.
12d Very good having miss to entertain you in ship’s compartment (5,5)
PILOT HOUSE – Another word for ‘very good’ or ‘holy’, followed by a verb for ‘miss’ or ‘have go astray’ wrapped around an archaic form of ‘you’ (singular) now found mainly in ‘church language’ or some dialect forms. The answer is an alternative name for the place from which a ship is controlled.
15d Eastern relation going potty (8)
ORIENTAL – Anagram (going potty) of RELATION.
17d Out of breath decorating? Not I! (7)
PANTING – Remove the first I from a word for ‘decorating’ often seen grouped with ‘decorating’.
19d Look at dictator submerged in river (7)
EXAMINE – A river in Devon wrapped around the former dictator of Uganda.
20d Greeting given to ruler on a walk (6)
HIKING – Split this (2,4) and you could have a somewhat informal greeting for a monarch.
23d What’s served up in their breakfast? Cheese (4)
BRIE – Hidden in reverse (served up) in the clue.
The Quick Crossword pun LIT + HUR + ALLEY = LITERALLY
1.5*/3*. A light and enjoyable puzzle to end the week.
Many thanks to Giovanni and to DT.
I worked my way rapidly through this puzzle until I came to the SE corner, wbich held me up a bit. It was12d, which I left and came back to after a cup of tea, which took me ages, as I had never heard of one. Also 22a was spelt in an unfamiliar way, though the dictionary has it as a viable alternative spelling. Apart from that, thanks to Giovanni for an enjoyable puzzle and to DT for the hint in 12d, which helped me to parse it. Favourites were 1a and 19d.
Never heard of a cup of tea? How very odd.
The watercourse, the mushroom and the cloud held me up after an easy run through. The anagram at 26 across is too close in sound to the fodder and therefore blindingly obvious. I like anagrams like NIGHT and THING where they sound nothing like each other and are therefore harder to solve. Remember. Honour thy Father and thy Mother but especialy honour thy Mother. Every day not just this Sunday. Play nicely children and a very special guest blogger will be with you all on Monday
Enjoyed today’s puzzle north west corner struggled with until the penny dropped for 7d. But while 12d was obvious with the checkers still struggle to parse it.
Thanks to Setter and hinter.
A lovely puzzle from the dependable G. Not his most difficult, for sure, but with nice clues giving much enjoyment. 23d: notice how the setter has contrived to split the reckul between 2 lines of text, making it much harder to spot – a nice touch! The clues were mostly very good and I’ve ticked 11a, 1d, 7d and17d. 2.5* / 3.5*
As always Giovanni, without doubt my Fav setter, has given us a delightful weekend assignment. Appreciated help to fully parse 12d and I would question ‘wet’ being a feature of 1d. Took a while to recall the character duplication in 22a. 18a is my short and sweet Fav. Many thanks DG and DT.
A gentle Giovanni to finish the work week completed at a fast gallop – 1.5*/3.5*.
Candidates for favourite – 18a, 3d, and 7d – and the winner is 18a.
Thanks to DG and DT.
For me this lacked a tiny bit of zest but was still quite enjoyable. Have to admit 10a and 12d completely eluded me, never heard of either. I’ve always associated 1d with fluffy and dry, not wet but I liked the clue.
I also liked 25a, which I thought was clever and 20d.
3*/2*
Thanks to Giovanni and DT for the hints and explanations.
A lightweight end to the week */***. Favourite 25a.
Enjoyable and pretty straightforward fare from Giovanni this sunny morning. Even the relative obscurities were very gettable due to good wordplay and clueing. 18a was my favourite ahead of the rekrul at 23d.
My thanks to The Don and DT.
Enjoyable puzzle although I got off to a slow start. I’d never heard of 10a, and I still don’t understand the derivation of 12d even with the explanation. Those notwithstanding, it was fun, especially the laugh-out-loud 20d.
Thank you to Giovanni and DT.
12d didn’t work for me either Debbie. Perhaps I’m just being thick but I tried to get pious (very good) and lose (miss) into the solution but that requires two uses of the letter s when obviously there’s only one in the solution.
I didn’t work for me either Debbie, perhaps I’m just being thick but I tried to get pious (very good) and lose (miss) into the solution but obviously there’s only one letter s when two are needed ?
Very good is just PI, so it’s PI + LOSE (miss) containing the old word for ‘you’.
Very nice while it lasted. The Toughie is wreaking terrible revenge on me today!
**/***. Bit of a mixed bag for me. Liked 18&25a but my bung in at 12d, which was correct, couldn’t parse it in a month of Sundays. Thanks to Giovanni and DT for the explanation.
Yesterday we had Ray T being kind and today it’s Giovanni’s turn! Again a nice crossword while it lasted. 20d was my favourite; just the thought of saying it amuses me.
Thanks to Giovanni, and to DT for the review.
I think it’s the abbreviation of pious (ie pi) plus lose with thou being synonymous with you. It was the thou that I couldn’t see.
Most went in very smoothly except the less familiar words. 10a was somewhere in the back of my brain. I knew the mushroom had a funny spelling but had to check I was right. Second word of 12d obvious but not the first. Could only think of A1 for very good and thought the ‘u’ came from the clue. Never dreamt of the old ‘you’. Nearest I got was ‘ye’. I was also looking for a female ‘miss’. Did get the answer by process of elimation but thanks DT for the parsing. Thanks Giovanni. Favourites 10 and 11a. Glad to finish without aids in ** time despite the stragglers.
Really enjoyed this, no problems at all, only having to check the spelling of 22a as I didn’t know where to put the extra “i”. I also needed DT’s hint to unravel 24a, which was a bung in but knew had to be right.
My fave was 18a, but 20d is worthy of mention for its giggle worthiness.
Thanks to Giovanni and to DT for his tips and pics.
Just returned from a very pleasant lunch in Oxford, where we were able to sit outside on a roof terrace and overlook all the spires. This crossword didn’t take as long as yesterday, but I was held up slightly at 11a where I thought of every type of little dog in the book before I realised that it was the baby version that I needed. 11a was my favourite clue. Many thanks Giovanni and DT.
No entry accepted yesterday or yet today perhaps being in Madeira is an issue .
Edit – hooray
A pleasant solve that all went together smoothly for us.
Thanks Giovanni and DT.
Very pleasant & straightforward job from Giovanni today.
1.5*/3.5* 12d held me for a while, I liked 7d& 16ac.
Thanks to Giovanni & Deep Threat.
And bringing up the rear as usual after everyone has packed up and gone to bed. I’ve finally finished it! Needed help to parse 12d, never heard of 22a though I have now, no particular grumps, no particular favourites. Perhaps 10a as no-one realises how powerful these things are. The one in my local watermill is quite small, as its the first one on the river, and it produces 9 hp and 2800 foot pounds of torque! Whilst using 750 gallons/minute. Given the an average petrol engine produces about 100 hp and about 120 foot pounds of torque that’s phenomenal. This is obviously only of interest to engineers or seekers of useless knowledge who are up at silly o’clock. I’ve put the dogs out now and I’m off to bed. Night night.
Way behind everyone else having had no access to the site for two days.
Thought this was an enjoyable end of the week puzzle from DG and 18a took my gold medal.
Thanks to DG and to DT for the blog – think I can just about remember the actions to ‘John Brown’ from Brownie days!
3*/4*…
liked 17D ( Out of breath decorating? Not I!).