DT 29033 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 29033

by 2Kiwis  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29033

Hints and tips by 2Kiwis

BD Rating – Difficulty ***– Enjoyment ****

Kia ora from Aotearoa.

Easter being late this year has caused all sorts of disruptions for people’s work, school and holiday plans. Anzac Day, which is a holiday here, also gets into the mix and both it and Easter fall into the school holidays for the end of the first term. Lots of people have taken the opportunity to get away for a pre-winter break. Road congestion has been rife for the last week. We had family members visiting us for a few days but they have returned home now.
 The four multi-word answers around the perimeter of the grid are key to how long this Jay puzzle takes. It did take us a little while to get 1a so have put the difficulty stars at three this week.

Please leave a comment telling us how you got on.

Across

1a     A dose of honesty about such a difficult time (3,2,5,4)
ONE OF THOSE DAYS : An anagram (about) of A DOSE OF HONESTY.

9a     Submitted after European vote, being vulnerable (7)
EXPOSED : The abbreviation for European, the mark you put on a ballot paper to show your preference and then submitted or asked a question.

10a     Asian currency in Ghana if exchanged (7)
AFGHANI : An anagram (exchanged) of GHANA IF.

11a     Spoil stuff on the way back (3)
MAR : Reverse a word meaning stuff or push forcefully .

12a     Red fan’s life changed as cause of linguistic confusion (5,6)
FALSE FRIEND : An anagram (changed) of RED FANS LIFE.  (This expression is new to us.)

14a     Call on positive response from Russia is brave (6)
DARING : The Russian word for yes (positive response) and then call on the telephone.

15a     Set to work heads of tax office after rejecting study routine (6,2)
TURNED TO : The initial letters of tax and office follow the reversal of a study or reading-room and a routine that one can get stuck in.

17a     Tech company pressure that is producing such order (5-3)
APPLE-PIE : The tech company associated with Steve Jobs, the abbreviation for pressure and the two letters from Latin signifying ‘that is’.

19a     Panama perhaps will welcome one American interruption (6)
HIATUS : What a Panama is an example of includes the Roman numeral one and then the two letter American.

22a     Bicycles from one’s hotel pinched by Mary Berry types (11)
BONESHAKERS : The word ‘one’s’ from the clue and the abbreviation for hotel are inside what Mary Berry and also Paul Hollywood are examples of.

23a     Discharge a churchgoer? (3)
ARC : ‘A’ from the clue and then a Roman Catholic.

24a     East of Scotland river is a trickle (7)
DRIBBLE : The last letter (east) of Scotland and a river that arises in Yorkshire and flows west to the Irish Sea.

26a     Chelsea’s wingers will employ a mainly malicious game (7)
CANASTA : The first and last letters (wingers) of Chelsea surround ‘A’ from the clue and a word meaning malicious or vindictive without its last letter.

27a     Understanding the web, let out to deal with problem (5,3,6)
GRASP THE NETTLE : The first word is a synonym for understanding, then another name for the web you access on your device and an anagram (out) of LET.

Down

1d     No way should one grieve here? (4,2,4,4)
OVER MY DEAD BODY : The wordplay points to the speaker’s answer to a question about where potential mourners should grieve.

2d     King penguin? (7)
EMPEROR : A double definition.

3d     Suspicious for the most part, identifies this dish (4,7)
FISH FINGERS : A word meaning suspicious or dubious loses its last letter and then ‘identifies digitally’.

4d     Draw together in confusion, with leader gone for hotel (6)
HUDDLE : A substitution clue. Remove the first letter from a word for confusion and replace with H(otel).

5d     Surveillance due to small gate receipts away from home (5-3)
STAKE-OUT : The abbreviation for small, plus a word for income from admission charges (gate receipts), and then not at home.

6d     Follow, seeing daughter turn up (3)
DOG : The abbreviation for daughter and then the reversal (up) of turn or opportunity to play.

7d     You must have a tear for the 5th of April! (4-3)
YEAR-END : An obsolete word for ‘you’, ‘A’ from the clue and then tear or rip. (For us in New Zealand the equivalent day is  31st March.)

8d     A fruitless pursuit, so each goes off seething at first? (4-5,5)
WILD-GOOSE CHASE : Start with a synonym for seething and then an anagram (off) of SO EACH GOES.

13d     Military survey with no argument against revival of culture (11)
RENAISSANCE : A word for ‘argument against’ that is the opposite of ‘pro’ is removed from inside a military survey.

16d      Fibre Formula 1 regret (8)
FILAMENT : The letter and number used for Formula 1 and then regret or mourn.

18d     This will carry girl from musical adopted by pair (7)
PANNIER : The orphan girl from a musical is inside the abbreviation for pair.

20d    Broadcast ignores millions in such a van (7)
TRANSIT : Remove the abbreviation for millions from broadcast or send forth.

21d     Second copper intercepts payment for fodder (6)
FESCUE : S(econd) and the chemical symbol for copper are inside a payment for professional services.

25d     Use transport that’s almost bankrupt (3)
BUS : Remove the last letter from an informal word for bankrupt.

22a is our favourite today, we’re big fans of Bake-off.

Quickie pun     thumb    +    oust    +    rap    =    The Mousetrap

39 comments on “DT 29033”

  1. A nice and friendly Jay today – well I thought so anyway – thanks to him and the 2Ks

  2. This was quite a serious challenge (***/****) and the long clues took a long time to work out. There were also some obscure answers , which made me dust out the fluff, which has accumulated at the back of my brain since university days(21d and 12a). Favourites were 19 and 22a and1d. Thanks to the two Kiwis and Jay.

  3. I too, took a time to finally finish this one. The four outsiders did not come easily for me and I didn’t know the phrase at 12a. Definitely in ***/**** range.

    Many thanks to Jay and the 2Ks.

  4. 3.5*/4*. Tougher than usual for a Wednesday but still very enjoyable.

    I can’t recall having heard the answer to 12a before and (I think) 21d is a new word for me, but both were readily derivable from the wordplay and checkers.

    22a was my favourite, but all the long clues round the edge came into contention.

    Many thanks to all three birds.

    1. Rather than say exactly the say thing, I will just piggyback your comments as I agree entirely with your view.

      Thanks all.

  5. Joint favourites 1D & 22A . New to me 12A & 21D .
    Enjoyable .
    Thanks to our NZ friends for help and news also to Jay for keeping us out of mischief for a while .

  6. A slightly more tricky Jay for me and starting with downs in either direction did not work – 2.5*/3.5*.

    I knew 21a as a type of grass popular for the ‘rough’ on golf courses.

    Favourite – 19a.

    Thanks to Jay and the 2Ks.

  7. Enjoyed doing battle with this but did need to call up assistance for 15a, 5d and 21d (presume it would have been too easy to have ‘rescue’ there)! Fav was 27a when the penny finally dropped. Thank you Jay and the 2Kiwis.

  8. This was as hard a back pager as I can remember for some time, it took me quite a while to get any kind of foothold. None of the long perimeter clues were obvious but each produced a smile when the penny did drop. Funnily enough 12a was my first one in, 13d being my last. I thought 3d was a clever clue but don’t associate it with a dish, which to me is more than one item of food.
    Favourite clue was 27a with 19a and 4d on the podium.

    Many thanks to Jay and the 2Ks for their excellent work.

    1. For what it’s worth via Mr. Google/”Cook’s Info” I learn that “a dish is a prepared item of food completely ready to be served and eaten”.

  9. Bit of a curates egg for me. Diagonally from bottom left to top right all above quite straightforward but the other half definitely a bit trickier. No less enjoyable to all that.
    Mrs B says thx for the phrases which are always her favourites and which she always solves before me!
    Thx to all
    ***/****

  11. Re: 12a — If you have ever taken French, you would be familiar with “Le rendez=vous des faux amis” — those words that look like English but mean something very different in French.

    2. Welcome from us too US Nan.
      12a was new to us but we got pointed in the right direction by a memory of ‘false relation’ in a musical sense. It was not a big step from there to get the right answer.

  12. I think I must have been on Jay’s wavelength today because it went in rather steadily and well within my personal target time. I liked al the long outside clues. Also 17a and 22a with 21d taking my top spot.

  14. The only problem I had was putting 1d into 1a by mistake.I wish I hadn’t used a red pen today. It all became rather messy. Following the correction, it all went in fairly quickly, with lots to like with the exception of 3d. Many thanks setter and 2Ks.

  15. Trickier than usual for a Wednesday which was a surprise. I think I must be getting soft…. A good challenge therefore which I had to work at to complete. The long outside clues were my favourites. Oh, and 12a was a new definition for me too.
    Thanks to Jay, and to the the Kiwis for their review.

  17. This one took me a bit longer to solve than many of late, but good to have a bit more to ponder over, whilst the thunder rumbles by. 12a is a new expression to add to my mental list of phrases.
    I have to admit to liking all four of the fourteen letter answers, but 22a is probably my COTD. As RD says, ‘thanks to all three birds’. Good fun.

  18. Well, I suppose I have to be different and say I found this quite friendly!
    I like long clues which are phrases, so the four long ‘uns were right up my strasse. The last time I heard 27a was from my Dad, at least 50 years ago.
    I have looked in every thesaurus and I cannot find 23a to mean discharge. Also, 12a was completely new to me, so the anagram was a huge help there.
    I cannot choose a fave, I’d have Kath breathing fire and brimstone.
    Thanks to Jay for this delightful puzzle, and to the 2Kiwis for the hints and tips.

  19. ***/****. Started with a bang and finished with a whimper. It took me a while to unravel some of these clues and some had meanings I didn’t recognize, like 21d which I know but from a golfing context rather than fodder. My favourites were 17&22a&3d (despite the stretched definition of dish). Thanks to Jay and the 2Ks.

  22. Thanks to Jay and to the 2 Kiwis for the review and hints. Another superb puzzle from Jay, most enjoyable from start to finish. I struggled with long clues, except for 8d. So I had to get the checkers in before they fell. (The long clues, I mean). Last in was 21d,which I’d never heard of, but the wordplay lead me to the answer. I liked 22a, but my favourite was 23a. Was 3*/4* for me.

  23. Terrific puzzle but could not get 27a and as I had to go to my volunteer job at the NT looked at the hint. Don’t think I would have got that without it.So thanks. I am a subscriber to the DT and download the puzzle onto my Kindle Fire. However I cannot find the Toughie in this version. Has anyone any ideas? Thanks to all.

    2. We understand that the normal DT subscription does not give access to the Toughie. It needs a subscription to the Puzzles site to get it online. This is a relatively inexpensive sub and well worth it in our opinion.
      Cheers.

  24. :phew: I thought that was about as tricky as Jay ever is – perhaps the scarcity of anagrams had something to do with it, for me anyway.
    I hardly had any answers in after reading all the clues through once – the long ones round the outside took ages to get – 27a was my last.
    I thought it was hugely enjoyable and, again, wonder how Jay can keep turning out these brilliant crosswords.
    Too many good ones to pick out any in particular – oh, maybe I will – 22 and 26a and 8 and 13d and, out of loyalty to our collie, my favourite was 18d.
    Thanks to Jay and to the 2K’s.

  25. I think we can all be guilty of trying to guess at multi-word answers before working properly through the wordplay but I found 1a proved stubbornly resistant to that lazy way of working – serves me right!
    I didn’t know 12a but was OK with the other tricky one, 21d, simply because I remember it making a previous appearance in crosswordland.

    An enjoyable solve with just one bit of nit-picking to report – a King and a 2d are two distinct species of Penguin and that rather bothered me.

    Plenty of contenders for the podium but I think the Quickie pun just had the edge for me.

    Thanks to Jay and to our 2Ks for the blog.

    1. Yes you’re right about the penguins Jane.
      In one of those freaky coincidences that crop up, last night we happened to come across and watched an old Attenborough programme about King penguins on South Georgia Island.

  26. I thought this was very tricky too. Much harder than normal on a Wednesday. 15a defeated me, I worked out the answer from the wordplay, but could not for the life of me see how it equalled the definition.
    Thanks all.

  27. A real Jay head scratcher for me today that ended up being a 3 visit effort,,, 3.5*/4.5*
    Some of the long clues were particularly stubborn & took some solving.
    However what a cracker of a puzzle & Jay at his finest.
    Many thanks to all 3 of fine plumage 🦉

  28. Morning all.
    It is Anzac Day here. We have the radio on and have just been listening to a very moving Dawn Service from Wellington.

    One interesting thing that we found out from this puzzle was that the end of UK tax year is 5th April. This prompted us to look for why this should be. The history of it is absolutely fascinating and relates to the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in the 16th century. Amazing the little gems of trivia that solving cryptics can lead to. Worth a Google if you’re interested.

    Looks like we got the difficulty stars about right for most people.
    Cheers.

    1. I think 1752 was a more significant year in moving the start/end dates of our tax year – it’s worth Googling the British/US calendar for September 1752.

  29. For the first time since 1st January, when (due to a foolishly-made New Year’s Resolution) I started doing the DT cryptic crossword, I nearly gave up. I simply wasn’t on the right wavelength. But, thanks to the hints, I got there, muttering “oh, of course” under my breath. So many clever clues, but a bit too clever for me today. It’s quite a relief that others found it a challenge too, otherwise I’d be sitting in the corner with my dunce’s cap on.

  30. Late again. 12a I would have thought is of common usage and not unusual, most of mine are genuine. Re 23a the answer is readily available on Google if you type in the answer + discharge like I did. Difficult but doable. Favourites were the 4 outside ones. Thanks to Jay and 2 K’s for hosting the blog.

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