DT 29228 (Hints) – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 29228 (Hints)

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29228 (Hints)
The Saturday Crossword Club – Hosted by Senf

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A very good morning from Winnipeg!  Don’t be alarmed, you have not ‘lost’ a day, it really is Saturday.  Big Dave is on his way to London (with The George as his final destination) so I am enjoying a day in The Saturday Crossword Club and I will be in my usual Sunday ‘slot’ tomorrow.

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.

Don’t forget to follow BD’s instructions in red at the bottom of the hints!

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 Vote to get extra large notice dismantled (2-8)
A crickety extra, the single letter for large, and an anagram (dismantled) of NOTICE.

9a Flying squad character joins prison guards, not taking sides (7)
A synonym of character (as in demeanour) followed by (joins) a slang term for prison guards both with the first and last letters removed (not taking sides).

12a Pedantic phoney’s love dismissed by the Queen (13)
A 12 letter adjective that can describe someone who is phoney with its contained single letter which love represents in racquet games replaced (dismissed) by HM’s regnal cypher.

14a Away from home, time to wear dead crumpled old hat (8)
A single word for away from home, followed by the single letter for time inserted into (to wear) an anagram (crumpled) of DEAD.

19a Sleazy club founder gets attack from on high (4-4)
A single word for a sleazy club followed by a synonym of founder (as in perform badly).

21a Like one who scoffs when folk get heated? (13)
An adjective that describes what it illustrated below.

25a Revered figure, royal, almost due to go walkabout (3,4)
An anagram (to go walkabout) of ROYAL DUe with the last letter removed (almost).

27a Bed one rises to go to (4,6)
Not a bed for sleeping in, well maybe it is, but one as illustrated.

Down

1d Eating bit of chicken? (4)
That part of its body that a chicken eats with.

3d Continental marriage? It’s hard to get out of it! (8,5)
An international organization the leaving of which is part of what Thursday is all about.

5d One gawps, regarding learner driver with turn coming up (5)
The two letter abbreviation for regarding, the single letter for learner (driver), and a synonym of turn all reversed (coming up).

11d Kitty used by a merchant wandering round eastern region for customers? (9,4)
The pet referred to as Kitty placed before (used by) an anagram (wandering) of A MERCHANT containing (round) the single letter for eastern.

13d Literature that’s lost the plot? (3-7)
The classification of books that do not have plots.

16d Belt one aristo’s got on (3,2,3)
A three letter synonym of belt (not as something used in clothing), the single letter for one, and a slang synonym of aristo.

20d Gold and green veg and other food grown here (7)
The heraldic term for gold and the edible leafstalk of a variety of white beet (straight out of the BRB).

23d Caught Romeo escaping from relation in blue (4))
The crickety abbreviation for caught and a synonym of relation (as in a story) with the letter represented by Romeo in the phonetic alphabet removed.

The Crossword Club is now open.


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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: QUEUE+WEIGHT=KUWAIT


75 comments on “DT 29228 (Hints)

  1. Good luck to all those taking part in the Times Championship today, especially our very own Crypticsue.
    Thanks to Senf for standing in as hints provider.
    I think that the first 3 letters of 1a are an ‘extra’. The definition of 9a is just the first two words of the clue and ‘not taking sides’ just applies to the prison guards.

    1. 9ac … I think the definition should be ‘flying squad’. A synonym for character followed by a term for prison guards sripped of first and las letters.

      Needed some hints in the SE corner so thanks Senf and to the setter.

    2. I found this quite challenging in part but as soon as brain juices were mobilised, things settled into place. Thank you for the review and for the interesting contributions.

  2. A struggle for me today and only satisfaction was the achievement of finishing . Last in was 1D as it seemed too obvious and needed the hint for verification that the answer was ok .

    Thanks Senf and to the Setter .

  3. 3*/1*. I found this a tale of two halves in terms of difficulty with the top half going in quite smoothly but the bottom half proving to be a real struggle. I’m sorry to say I didn’t enjoy it and I imagine BD is relieved to have had a reason not to review this one. Thanks to Senf for standing in.

    1. I thought BD censured the Saturday puzzles because they ere too easy? I think he would have relished this one.

  4. I’m afraid I found this one far too difficult.
    My first pass yielded 3 answers, then , stare as I might no more.
    The hints were a great help, but I still needed a lot of electronic help to get the rest.
    I hope some folks enjoy this one, but the only pleasure I got from it was, like KFB, getting the thing done.
    Not a great start to my Saturday.

    Many thanks to Senf.

  5. Unfortunately, the I found this puzzle so impenetrable that I had to give up, having failed to solve more than a handful of clues apart from filling in the SW corner. Rating *****/-. A bit of a stinker overall. Thanks to Senf and to the compiler (some folk are sure to enjoy it!)

    1. I finally managed to fill in the grid, after a bit of a struggle, with the aid of the hints. Thanks Senf.

  6. I don’t know, this must be a case of getting the Crosswords in the wrong envelope! 🤨

    To me the Saturday Crosswords are usually the easiest of the week but this one was pretty tough, far too tough for me! 😳

    1. My first thought on completion was that whoever set this makes John Halpern (Dada) seem like Roger Squires (the retired Rufus).

  7. Struggled at first but then it became clearer. I agree that the clues at the bottom were tougher.
    Tickled by 21a

  8. This was certainly quite demanding but very well worth the effort required. South was tougher than the North. Don’t like the trend to use cheers as in a 4d context and not too keen on 27a (bed?) or 23d. Needed prompting for 1d, 3d and 16d, all of which then vied for Fav with topical 3d just prevailing. Thank you Mysteron and the indefatigable Senf.

  9. A bit tough for me too. A few overstretched synonyms in my opinion and unparsed answers left me unsure until the hints and I even had to investigoogle a couple of unhinted clues. 7d and 8d my faves if only because I solved and parsed them unaided.
    Good luck to Sue and enjoy the booze up too.
    Thanks to Senf and setter. See you again tomorrow

  10. Nice and tough.
    For me, **** and a bit for difficulty.
    Many thanks to the setter and to Senf for the colourfully illustrated hints.

  11. Yes, quite a struggle, esp the SE corner….not somehow to my taste as some clues seemed more contrived than clever…

  12. It’s obviously Toughie Saturday – that one put up quite a fight!
    Favourite was 3d – how very true.

    Thanks to our setter and well done to Senf – BD chose his day off extremely well!

    1. Two of us advised BD yesterday that, for the sake of his blood pressure, he should avoid this puzzle at all costs!

  13. Some very amusing cryptic definitions … depends on one’s sense of humour, of course?

    The best Saturday Prize Puzzle for quite some time. More, please!

  14. I found this a struggle and not enjoyable as a result. I managed to finish it but had far too many bung- ins for it to be satisfying. The only clue I kind of liked was 7d but, on the whole, not a very enjoyable solve.

    Thanks to Senf for the excellent hints, which I needed and found very helpful.

  15. I too found this very difficult and only finished with a lot of help. Even so, there were some answers
    I still couldn’t relate to the clue. The Saturday crossword used to be relatively easy and a pleasure
    to do. Could we please return to those days, else I will have to give it a miss.

  16. An absolute stinker, for me a waste of newsprint! DT crossword dept obviously dont want to check too many answers.
    *****/minus ** for enjoyment

  17. Yes, the bottom half was a real struggle. The top half was a little sticky, but doable. I almost gave up but went back to the puzzle after lunch and finished it off, just about. Perhaps too much of a slog to truly enjoy it, but I did like 21a which shone like a beacon.

    Thanks setter and Senf and have fun at The George all those who are going.

  18. Agree with others that this was quite tough going, but I liked some of the clues 21D being favourite. A 4*\4* for me. Not sure if 13D is a hmm or just clever. Likewise with 12A, either hmm, or suspect, or clever. Either way brightened up my day, having just spent £40 on patio cleaner liquid and broom that has left the patio no different. Time to fork out for a pressure washer, I am assuming 130 bar will be enough pressure to do the job?
    Thanks as usual to Senf and setter

    1. If it is algae or moss is your problem just buy a mega box of washing powder. It must be biological. Sprinkle it over and then wait for the rain to do the rest. Result! I’ve done it. And the crossword today
      Alison

  19. Whew, that was a cracker. I will admit I needed a couple of hints to get me through. There were also a couple of bung-ins (12a & 19a) that I needed help in parsing.

    COTD has to be 3d with 1d a close second.

    Many thanks to the setter and Senf.

  20. I found three quarters of this fairly easy. Struggled with SE. Especially 25a. However that did enable me to get 23d. This colour is part of the C Magenta and Yellow colours that make up black in printing and should not be confused with Red, Green and Blue which make white. So I was thrown for quite a while. Needed help to fathom 22a and 11d. Liked 13d.

  21. *****/*. Like many others not a lot to like about this puzzle. Thanks to Senf for tackling the hints.

  22. Giving up, don’t have time to waste fighting with this one. I know I am in trouble when I can’t solve even after looking at some of the hints, especially if they make my brain hurt. One for the smarter folks today.

  23. Went quite swimmingly until the the NE corner. Took ages to get 1d – glad for confirmation via the hint. Favorite 21a.

  24. Way too cerebral for me today. I’m glad to see, for once, that I’m with the majority.
    I also thought it was a very strange puzzle, I felt I was on an alternate planet.
    Oh well, Dada tomorrow, hope he isn’t wearing his fiendish hat!

  25. Difficult, though I managed to get there in the end unaided. I found it tricky to get on the right wavelength, but I found it much easier than yesterday.
    Saturday seems a bit hit and miss, this had a feel of Paul from the Guardian about it, the cluing was really neat and the use of ‘relation’ in 23d straight out of the Paul textbook.
    Thanks all.

  26. I share the trend today and still left with spaces in 17a and 4d, despite Senf’s effort in helping us ! Thanks for that, I certainly couldn’t have done it!
    The bottom end was hard going, especially without 13d even after Senf’s hint, but the penny dropped.
    I will insert the last letters but they not be correct !

  27. I enjoyed this puzzle, although I entirely agree with those who have said it seems way out of place. For me, the difficulty level was of the standard of a hard Friday Toughie. I think there may an error in the spelling of one of the words in the clue for 4D, but cannot say more about that here without spoiling.

  28. Much too difficult for me,but. With help from the blog was able to finish.There were some very amusing parts that made the exercise well worthwhile and l hope I can take some of the learning points forward. Thankyou for all the help.

  29. I hope that everyone in London and later at the George is having fun and that CS has done well.
    Like most of you I found this really difficult – unlike most of you I really enjoyed it – I think!
    This setter, whoever he or she may be, has a great sense of humour and how much one enjoyed the crossword depends on whether or not one has the same sense of humour.
    I am, as so often, in complete agreement with stanXYZ.
    There weren’t many anagrams which, at least for me, increased the difficulty.
    I’m not sure that I’ve managed to get to the bottom of why 12a is what it has to be, even with the hint.
    Lots of clues/answers that made me laugh today – 17 and 21a and 3 and 5d. My favourite, and last, was 1d.
    With thanks to the setter and to Senf – well done to you, not only for sorting all this out but for doing two days running.

    1. Thanks Kath – but as only half of the clues need to be solved to do the hints, it’s like doing one complete puzzle over two days!

    2. I think you have to solve the clue first before you can see the humour of it. I failed with so many, alas, I never saw the humour.

  30. I finished today’s puzzle well before the blog became ‘active’ and having read all the comments here so far this evening I’m struggling to believe that I’ve been solving the same crossword puzzle. Apart from entering completely the wrong four letter word as part of 27 across and making things more difficult for myself than was necessary, I thought it was a superb uncomplicated puzzle, especially so as it is a prize crossword. Some weeks ago BD gave me a mild rebuke for suggesting one particular Saturday puzzle was Toughie-like – this one in my view was no where near as difficult the one I commented upon that day. My thanks to both setter and Senf – I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.

  31. My thanks to Senf for unravelling this puzzle. My thanks to the setter for not making it too difficult for Senf. It was an àaaaaagggggghhhhhh puzzle.

  32. As a suspect is allowed to say when being interviewed by the Police – “No comment”.

  33. Thank you to everyone for their good luck wishes – sadly it was, for me, sixth time unlucky, as there were some sneaky clues which held me up and led me to ignore the ‘don’t enter the solution unless you understand the clue’ in some last minute panic. I haven’t got a free place for next year but may pay to enter again one more time, particularly as it will be the 50th anniversary of the Times Crossword Championships.

  34. 10 clues solved and have now given up. This one not in the slightest enjoyable and can’t for the life of us understand the reasoning behind many of the answers!

  35. Have an answer for 23d which fits with 25a and 27a but do not understand the reasoning even with the hints. Otherwise difficult at first but with a little electronic help – CleverDic – went smoothly.

    1. The hint looks good to me. Take letters 2-4 of your answer and insert R(omeo) – if you don’t have a word meaning a relation, i.e. something that is being related, then think again.

  36. Only just got round to this – pretty standard I thought. Normal time, no hold-ups (and I don’t mean I wasn’t wearing stockings – but that doesn’t mean that I was, either)
    Thanks to setter and Senf, commiserations to CS

  37. Ugh! Could not get into the setters way of thinking. Unpleasant struggle – thanks for the hints tho! What a relief to find I’m not alone in my opinion

  38. Wow, that made me work hard! After I had completed I was a little bit surprised that it had been so tricky. I thought it was excellent. 3d was my top clue.
    Why a Prize Crossword has to be a doddle as some are saying, I’ll never know.
    Thanks to the setter, and to Senf for the hints.

  39. First time commenting, though I’ve followed this blog since I started doing the DT Saturday cryptic when recovering from surgery a couple of years ago.
    I’m always behind most of you, as I never start the crossword until at least Monday, and usually need more than one session to complete it. I agree this one was difficult (for me, anyway!): I didn’t consult the hints except for confirmation, but I did have to resort to Crossword Solver several times! (And I’m still not sure about the logic of 4d…..)
    But thanks for all the comments – I feel I have learned a lot through this website :)

    1. Welcome to the blog, BusyBee.
      Now that you’ve de-lurked I hope that we’ll hear from you regularly. Don’t worry if your comment is later than most – someone will always read it.

  40. Getting very depressed about this one. Next 3 weeks building up as refuse to give up. 8d a real struggle!!!😒

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