DT 29093 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 29093

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29093

Hints and tips by 2Kiwis

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

Kia ora from Aotearoa.

Our spell of clear frosty weather has taken a break. Rain is forecast for later in the day but we still managed to complete our usual morning beach and estuary walk in the dry.

Jay has given us some more of his scrumptious anagrams today and all the usual Wednesday fun.

Please leave a comment telling us how you got on.

Across

1a     Dependent group of people (10)
CONTINGENT : A double definition. The first is an adjective and the second could be a group of people on an expedition.

6a     Rumoured assistance by head of security (4)
SAID : The first letter of security plus assistance or help. (We’re used to seeing rumoured as a homophone indicator and this caused us some delay.)

10a     Part of leg of Italy going in a touch to the west (5)
TIBIA : To the west here indicates a reversal. Reading from the back, we have ‘A’ from the clue, then the IVR code for Italy and a touch or small amount.

11a     Absurd American after developing crude oil without energy (9)
LUDICROUS : An anagram (developing) of CRUD(e) OIL minus the abbreviation for (e)nergy and, finally, the two letter American.

12a     Oppressive old Roman emperor just lacking protection (7)
ONEROUS : O(ld), then the Roman emperor remembered for fiddling and the central two letters (lacking protection) of ‘just’.

13a     Controversial European cause (7)
EMOTIVE : The abbreviation for European and then cause or reason for an action.

14a     Is orchestra prepared to embrace male musical directors? (12)
CHOIRMASTERS : An anagram (prepared) of IS ORCHESTRA contains m(ale).

18a     A reflection from worried father to thug (12)
AFTERTHOUGHT : An anagram (worried) of FATHER TO THUG.

21a     Loud outcry resulting from outwardly casual affair (7)
CLAMOUR : The first and last letters (outwardly) from ‘casual’ plus a romantic affair.

23a     Sailor taken by stormy coast in Mexican state (7)
TABASCO : An anagram (stormy) of COAST contains the abbreviation for an able-bodied seaman.

24a     Ill-advised Italian arrested by police shortly after one mile (9)
IMPOLITIC : Start with the Roman numeral one and the abbreviation for mile, then the word ‘police’ without its last letter surrounds the abbreviation for Italian.

25a     Detest area with house in the outskirts of Bognor (5)
ABHOR : The abbreviation for area, and then the two letter abbreviation for house is contained by the first and last letters (outskirts) of Bognor.

26a     Such a painting rejected by underfunded universities (4)
NUDE : A reversed lurker, hiding in the clue.

27a     Most of the study except tip of surface is shabby (10)
THREADBARE : The first two letters of ‘the’, then a word for study at university, a synonym for except or exclude and the last letter of surface.

Down

1d     Scam importing excessive material (6)
COTTON : The three letters used for excessive in text-speak are inside a scam or confidence trick.

2d     Caught sailor involved in new plot (6)
NABBED : The same sailor we encountered in 23a is enclosed by N(ew) and a garden plot.

3d     Doctor to hardliner now daydreaming (2,7,5)
IN ANOTHER WORLD : An anagram (doctor) of TO HARDLINER NOW.

4d     Legend reportedly supporting Olympic medals for artisan worker (9)
GOLDSMITH : A homophone for a legend from an ancient culture comes after the Olympic medals given to winners.

5d     Reminder from head of gallery in 26 (5)
NUDGE : The first letter of gallery is inside the answer to 26a.

7d     Is Her Majesty after a cat spray? (8)
ATOMISER : Start with ‘A’ from the clue and a male cat, and then ‘is’ from the clue and Her Majesty’s regnal cypher.

8d     Fail to welcome foreign press and go off in different directions (8)
DISPERSE : Fail or expire surrounds an anagram (foreign) of PRESS.

9d     A vote on the directors generally (6-3-5)
ACROSS-THE-BOARD : ‘A’ from the clue and the mark put on a ballot paper, then the collective name for company directors.

15d     Feature of duty accepting love and pain (9)
MOUSTACHE : A duty or obligation contains the tennis score love, and then pain or discomfort.

16d     Punishment needing official approval (8)
SANCTION : A double definition.

17d     Cornered after son gets beaten (8)
STRAPPED : The abbreviation for son and then cornered or captured.

19d     Condition of cooked ham after a covering of salt (6)
ASTHMA : An anagram (cooked) of HAM after ‘A’ from the clue plus the first and last letters of salt.

20d     Informant‘s impertinence on air (6)
SOURCE : A homophone of impertinence or cheekiness.

22d     Gag from miserable devil after losing wife (5)
RETCH : Remove the abbreviation for wife from the start of a miserable devil or pitiable person.

Today we rather liked the connection that we saw between 23a and 20d. The Quickie pun appealed to us too.

Quickie pun    toupee    +    once    +    weigh    =    to pay one’s way

39 comments on “DT 29093

  1. All very straightforward, luckily for me, because I now have a clear day to watch the cricket.
    My only query is with 27a; how does ‘top’ mean ‘last letter’?

    1a was my last one in and therefore COTD.

    Many thanks to Jay and the 2Ks

    1. It should be ‘tip’ not ‘top’. It’s looks as though there’s a typo in the blog, which I’ll fix.

        1. Ah. I suspect in that case that the on-line puzzles site also had ‘top’ originally (at the time the 2Ks would have downloaded it) but that it was changed on-line by the time I got round to downloading it. ‘Tip’ makes a lot more sense.

  2. It never fails to amaze me that after more than 7 years reading this blog and completing the crossword every day, I can still open the crossword and get only one or two in on first reading.
    Won’t look at the hints yet. 5 or 6 still to do

    1. On Wednesdays it is a good idea to start with the Downs – no idea why but it usually helps

      1. I always start from the bottom of the downs I think you told me that years ago. Maybe I misunderstood the bit about starting from the bottom but I’ve done it ever since.
        😎

        1. A lady called Mary who sadly doesn’t comment as often as she used to always starts with the final clue of the Downs as she believes that this must be the final clue the setter wrote and, after having written all the others, they must be tired and so the final clue won’t be so tricky!

          I start at the top and work my way down

          1. Ah, Mary. I often wonder where she went! I always looked forward to her posts, especially remarking on the weather as I have a friend in Llanybydder and could know what sort of a day she was having!

    2. Don’t be amazed Toni, I’ve been doing these for much longer than that, and there are still days when the setter defeats me. I used to look at the next day’s paper for the results, and try to figure out how the clues led to the answers. So much better since I discovered this blog a few years ago.

  3. Got the long clues first and the rest fell into place. Agree with Malcolm R on 27a.2**/2** for me. Thanks to setter and 2Kiwis,

  4. What a delight for a Wednesday, Jay on the back page (I assume) and a Silvanus Toughie. This one was completed in a random manner, no going up the downs to start this week, at a gallop – **/****.

    A few oldies but goodies and one very recent repeat helped the solving.

    Candidates for favourite – 4d, 9d, and 20d – and the winner is 20d.

    Thanks to Jay and the 2Ks.

  5. A lovely straightforward crossword made more enjoyable by the superb anagrams (**/****). Favourites were 14a, 18a and 3d so thank you Jay for another super puzzle . Thanks to the two Kiwis for the hints. I feel quite envious of your regular beach walks.

  6. Once the long anagrams were sorted everything fell into place without any problems. Especially the lower section which put up little resistance. 7d although a bit of an old chestnut was my favourite.
    Blast! I now have no excuse for not mowing the lawn.
    Thanks to Jay, and to the 2K’s for the review.

  7. Thank goodness the site is back up and running, been missing my ‘blog fix’!

    Another reliably good puzzle from Jay although with a raising of eyebrows over the repeated use of AB for sailor and not being able to justify the last ‘E’ in 27a from the dead tree version which gave ‘top of surface’ rather than ‘tip of surface’.

    Top places here went to 21a plus 9&19d.

    Thanks as always to Jay and to our 2Ks for the blog – enjoy your beach walks whilst the weather is kind.

    1. Jane has said exactly what I was going to say.

      Many thanks to her and to Jay and the 2Ks.

  8. Lovely Weds stuff as usual. I managed without the blog as a cloudflare error stopped me accessing the blog. Thanks to the Kiwis for the parsing of a few and a reminder to stock up on seasoning (23a 20d) a dash of same in a Bloody Mary and a sprig of Basil is my drink of choice for watching the tennis.
    Thanks to Jay too.

  9. The usual enjoyment provided by Jay. Not too challenging but good fun. Stupidly putting in ‘ridiculus’ (sic) for the 11a anagram caused some confusion for a while–ridiculous! . Not sure I can pick out an absolute favourite today. I’m not an anagram lover also, but that’s just me.

  10. **/****. Another Wednesday pearler. Great anagrams to get the ball rolling. 23a made a quick return if memory serves me right. Thanks to Jay and the 2Ks. Our daily beach walk was very wet but as they say there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad dress choices.

  11. Another great Wednesday puzzle.
    I did not realise the site had been down, but that explained the few posts about an hour ago.
    Thanks all

  12. An enjoyable puzzle although the top left corner had me stumped for a long time. My brain must be addled today! Favourite for me was 15d.

    Thank you to everyone involved.

  13. As John Bee observes it’s quite good when the site fails to materialise, because one has to work that bit harder. Great puzzle, thanks Kiwis and Jay.

  14. Feeling quite pleased to report back page and toughie both completed. Unfortunately with the site being down, unable to report till now. Ta to all.

  15. Top half went in quite smoothly, but needed the hints for the bottom half. Thanks to 2Kiwis and Jay. Not impossible, and most holds up we’re my own fault, I,e, getting stuck on gag being a joke.

  16. Morning all.
    The site was down before we went to bed last night and, on reading the comments, guess that it must have stayed that way much of the time we were sleeping. We pondered long and hard about the ‘top’ in 27a (much of the reason for the 3* rating) but eventually decided that if one thinks of a ladder, stair or hill the end bit could be the top. Yes, a bit of a stretch but It never occurred to us that there could be a typo. Thanks for taking care of it Gazza.
    We’re all rather disappointed with the cricket result. Well done your lot. Now the problem is going to be how to stop the bloody Aussies.
    Cheers.

    1. We wrote the above comment a couple of hours ago but then lost the site again.

  17. Loved this, it’s Jay, innit? He never fails.
    I’ve been watching Wimbledon on and off, always a highlight of my year.
    Such a difference to yesterday.
    Thanks to Jay and the 2Kiwis for the fun,

  18. According to the Telegraph Puzzles website, this was my 100th cryptic crossword puzzle! I know this means I’m still a rookie, but I’ve come a long way since January.

    Had to resort to a thesaurus for 20d, and I let out a groan when I figured it out. Those words are definitely not homophones where I’m from.

    All in all, a great 100th puzzle.

    1. On this side of the pond they would definitely sound the “r”, but it’s a Brit puzzle so the homophone is fine.
      Well done on your 100th!

      1. It’s not fine to the significant proportion of Brits who sound their Rs – however we get used to the fact that most compilers come from the South-East of England where they can’t distinguish between saw and sore.

  19. Frustrated when unable to access site for large part of day but decided to have another go at logging in before retiring to bed and hey presto … success. Overall enough mental stimulus to make for a satisfying exercise with the North getting there first. Have to admit to bunging in 10a and 27a but, thanks to hints, all was later made clear. My Fav for its surface was 14a. Thank you Jay and the 2Kiwis.

  20. This was a great puzzle with the perfect amount of difficulty for me. Thanks to the setter. 20d & 27a faves.

  21. Sorry that due to my “morning after” solving I could not report on Tuesday’s which I thought was superb and solvable despite looking complicated. Very unusual I thought and not (to me) identifiable. I was out most of yesterday and down when I returned. This must have been intermittent but I feared the worst. Happily this morning I romped through yesterday’s. Only one I failed to parse was 8d. This made me wonder whether what seemed (and was) the obvious answer was right. Love the long multiple word clues. Put all of them in first which gave me inroads into the rest of the puzzle. Oddly I did not circle a lot of favourites – probably due to the speed I solved them.

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