DT 29356 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 29356

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29356

Hints and tips by 2Kiwis

BD Rating – Difficulty **Enjoyment ****

Kia ora from Aotearoa.

The last few days have ushered in winter for us. There have been strong southerly winds bringing showers and some heavy rain. There is even a light fall of snow on the ranges to the east of us. This morning however dawned clear and calm and we can expect these conditions to last until the end of the week. Frosts are a real possibility though. Great conditions for our regular walks where we can greet all the wildlife and fellow walkers.

It’s Wednesday so of course it’s Jay supplying all the usual fun. We finished the puzzle in our normal two star time, but it did have a slightly harder feel when we were solving.

Please leave a comment telling us how you got on.

Across

1a     Purists needing education to wear trousers (7)
PEDANTS : Another less formal word for trousers includes ED(ucation).

9a     Steep service charge applied to staff (8)
MACERATE : Start with a staff like the formal one used at the Opening of Parliament, and then a charge applied for delivering a service.

10a     A German trained as manager, for example (7)
ANAGRAM : The whole clue leads us to a device, often used in crosswords, for changing ‘A German’ to ‘manager’.

11a     Degree of penalty skills? (4,4)
FINE ARTS : A financial penalty, and then skills or creative abilities.

12a     Shots subdue son (6)
STILLS : Subdue or make calmer and the abbreviation for son. (These shots are made with a camera).

13a     Innovative thinker once dismissing king not making sense (10)
INCOHERENT : An anagram (innovative) of THIN(k)ER ONCE after the chess notation for king has been removed.

15a     Find missing past record (4)
DISC : Start with an eight letter synonym for find and remove a four letter synonym for past.

16a     Inadmissible act after sailor’s change of direction (5,4)
ABOUT TURN : String together the two letters for an able bodied seaman, a word meaning inadmissible, and then one for an act or performance.

21a     State that’s back in within a month (4)
OMAN : A reverse lurker, hiding in the clue.

22a     Prone to tears, student ruined scary home (10)
LACHRYMOSE : The letter displayed by a student driver and an anagram (ruined) of SCARY HOME.

24a     Tense, being over border (2,4)
ON EDGE : A two letter word for over or relating to and then border or rim.

25a     Remains confused about origin of rock salts (8)
MARINERS : An anagram (confused) of REMAINS contains the first letter of rock. (We spent time in a vain search through our chemistry memories.)

27a     V can be progress, in a way (7)
AGAINST : A verb for progress or attain is enclosed by ‘A’ from the clue and the abbreviation for street.

28a     Generally succeeded finding something to wear (8)
OVERALLS : A 4,3 phrase meaning generally and then the abbreviation for succeeded.

29a     On review, sign it, ideally retaining process of redaction (7)
EDITING : A reversed lurker (on review) hiding in the clue.

Down

2d     Scientist from site oddly imprisoned by a German twice (8)
EINSTEIN : The German word for A or one is written twice to surround the first and third letters of ‘site’.

3d     Innocent answer that provides flavour (8)
ANGELICA : Innocent or like a heavenly being, plus A(nswer).

4d     Short-lived politician suppressed by terrible strain (10)
TRANSITORY : An anagram (terrible) of STRAIN and then a right-wing politician.

5d     Cheers team transport (4)
TAXI : A two letter cheers and then the Roman numerals for a cricket or football team.

6d     Cut energy, being harsh (6)
SEVERE : A synonym for cut and then the physics symbol for energy.

7d     Top cover from hospital broadcast on web (7)
HAIRNET : The abbreviation for hospital, then another word for broadcast and a web.

8d     Poles overwhelmed by divine being’s stupidness (7)
DENSITY : A divine being or god encloses the letters for the geographical poles.

11d     Amusing aspects will include debt (9)
FACETIOUS : Aspects,or even flat areas on a gemstone, enclose the three vowels that indicate a debt.

14d     Tough foes do badly with no time for church (5,2,3)
HOUSE OF GOD : Remove T(ime) from an anagram (badly) of (t)OUGH FOES DO.

17d     New first for one who writes (8)
NOVELIST : A synonym for new and then first written as a number and two letters.

18d     Interrupts what may be wrong in a canal boat? (6,2)
BARGES IN : Split 5,3 we have a canal boat and an indiscretion.

19d     Baffle loud and clumsy oaf (7)
FLUMMOX : The musical symbol for loud, and then a clumsy oaf.

20d     Colour of small runabout on lease? (7)
SCARLET : The abbreviation for small, a runabout or motor vehicle and then lease or offer for hire.

23d     Part of airport where fugitive loses heart? (6)
RUNWAY : Remove the central letter from another word for a fugitive.

26d     Regret accepting Liberal convention (4)
RULE : Another word for regret includes L(iberal).

Our favourite today is 9a.

Quickie pun    litter    +    limp    =    little imp

75 comments on “DT 29356

  1. Jay in very friendly and, as ever, enjoyable form. Thanks to him and the 2Ks

    The wind isn’t quite so cold today and so the walk was more pleasurable – I think this may be the best year ever for reed warblers, especially as there only seem to be a couple of cuckoos around.

  2. Very enjoyable even if the top presented some challenges. Best clue for me was 22a with MiD for 25a.
    My apologies if I caused offence by referring to a puzzle as a R&W, it was just my humble opinion.
    Thx to all
    ***/****

  3. This took me about average time for a Jay but I thought it was an absolute gem.
    ‘A German’ appeared twice but both great clues in different ways. I went through every staff I could possibly think of to apply to ‘rate’ get 9a (which I had then to check), which gave me 5d, my LOI.
    In a strong field of innovative clues podium places go to 27a plus 4 and 8d.
    3/4.5 *
    Many thanks to Jay and to the 2Ks for their excellent works.

  4. I really enjoyed this puzzle, which had the usual quota of excellent Jay clues (**/****). There were too many great clues to mention them all but 10a, 12a and9a were particularly good. Thanks to the Kiwis and to Jay and keep safe and well everyone.

  5. Very enjoyable, just got hung up on 9a never having come across that meaning of the word before.

    Thanks to 2Ks and Jay

  6. A pleasure, as always, to get another Wednesday gem from this setter. So many that came into contention for the favourite slot but 11a particularly appealed so wins my vote.

    Many thanks to Jay and to our 2Ks for the review. Thank you for allowing us to have the sunshine for a while, we need it having just topped the leader-board in a contest we never wanted to take part in.

    1. Yes, I was sorry to read that this morning, Jane, but the contest isn’t over yet. Der Gropenfuhrer has disbanded his pandemic committee and dismissed his administrations overseeing any more, abandoning us oldsters as expendable!

  7. Excellent puzzle today with some good clues, fav was 10a.
    Pretty straightforward so I will give it **/****.
    Thanks to Jay and the 2Ks.

  8. On track for a finish in comfortably under ** time until 12a, which was my last in. Guessing it had to start with s I was reduced to making up words until stumbling on one that made sense.
    Typically enjoyable Jay. Lots of clever clues of which 2d, 10a & 27a were among my favourites.
    Thanks to Jay & to the 2Ks for the review.

    1. Agree with **/**** and very relieved to have spotted the 10a answer straight away having missed it on I think all previous reincarnations!

  9. Lovely puzzle today. Struggled to spell 22a and spent ages trying to arrange the first to words of 10a to mean Manager! Hurrah have got a Tesco delivery for 23 May! Wow! Had a Zoom meeting for the first time last week. Computer too old so had to use iPhone – what a nightmare on such a small device. Could only see one person at a time when they spoke. Anyone got any suggestions? I don’t appear to have a grid icon. Any help much appreciated. Thanks to Jay and the 2Ks.

    1. I got really hung up on 10a also. I knew the answer was anagram but stupidly expected the words in the clue to spell
      anagram, which of course it nearly did. A really doh moment.

        1. A German/Manager but Anagram/A Garman. it puzzled me too for a while until I realised that they only had to be anagrams of each other and not anagrams of anagram too.

    2. To show all Zoom participants click on Gallery View in top left-hand corner of screen.

      1. Unfortunately I haven’t got that option on my phone. Everyone was shouting at me to click on that but it wasn’t there!

  10. Very enjoyable, but despite having a device which does what 9a says, I took a long time to get it. **/****. My clues of the day were 10a and 7d.

  11. Another great puzzle from Jay and as enjoyable as ever. I have to give 10a as my top clue because it threw me completely. I just did not make the connection from the information in the clue. Like others, I went through no end of “staffs” in 9a. Even when I got it, I did not put it in as I have never associated the answer with “steep”. However, the BRB soon showed me I was thinking of the wrong definition.

    Many thanks to Jay for the fun and thanks, also, to the 2Kiwis for the hints.

  12. I too enjoyed today’s offering. 9a last to fall. It took a while to come up with mace at the beginning of the word and I’m still not sure where steep comes into it? Favourite 19d mainly because it’s such an odd word that I don’t come across very often these days.

    1. To macerate means to steep often used in cooking, bit like marinade. You would macerate (soak) dried chickpeas overnight to soften them.

  13. Very enjoyable but over too soon. Tried to fit Angostura into an eight letter space at 3 down. 11 down has all of the vowels in alphabetical order as did 14 down in yesterday’s Toughie. Thanks to Jay for a nice excursion into puzzleland and thanks to the 2Ks for 7 downs trip along memory lane.

  14. For the first time in several weeks I got a good start from going up the downs but then it became a puzzle of two halves with the bottom complete while the top held out for quite a while, completed at a gallop – 2.5*/3.5*.
    11a generated a Hmm.
    Candidates for favourite – 10a, 27a, and 17d – and the winner is 27a.
    Thanks to Jay and the 2Ks.

  15. Needed your help on 9ac and 21ac. Thanks. The rest fell in quite easily for once, for me. :-)

  16. 2*/4.5*. Light and a lot of fun. Picking a single favourite is not so easy with so many great clues to pick from. If you twist my arm, I’ll settle for 19d as both the answer and the word for “clumsy oaf” forming the main part of the answer are such splendid words.

    Many thanks to the three birds.

  17. Lovely weather today and a pleasure to solve outdoors accompanied with the bird watching , agree with the 2 K’s **/****.
    Not seen the clumsy oaf in print recently-usually preceded by ‘you great big’ in Cheshire!-that’s what my gran used to say!
    Liked 1a, nothing obscure and very entertaining.
    Carried on with the toughie from Gila which I’m sure will be well received

  18. Wonderful Jay puzzle, as always. Certainly now the dean of our fine setters. The surface reads alone are worth the experience, and I particularly enjoyed 19d, 17a, and 10a. Last one in was 12a, which took a bit of twigging. Thanks to the Kiwis and to Jay. ** / ****.5 The Toughie is worth the time today, quite a challenge, but doable.

  19. After a very poor performance from me last week pleased to say l have been able to solve th last 4 puzzles.This was easily the most enjoyable .Thanks to the 3 birds.Best clue for me was 19d as lam so often in that state.

    1. The bonus cryptic 602 on Monday was also user friendly if you need another one.

  20. I agree with almost everything except that I knew about macerating and wonder why there are so many words
    (marinade, marinate, steep etc) for soak. I really liked the degree at 11a and as I said previously I got all hung
    up on 10a. I thought for one gleeful moment that the setter had made a mistake and was spelling ‘anagram’
    as ‘anegram’. Some hope! Thanks to everyone as usual.

  21. Most enjoyable, with help from my South Pacific FlyingFox. Love 10a

  22. As someone who burns toast without any trouble at all, any clue of a culinary nature usually leaves me boggled. Hence I needed 2Ks help for 3d – and also for 9a. I knew the word but lost patience trying to figure it out.
    Great puzzle; thanks to setter and 2Kiwis.

  23. Great puzzle as always on a Wednesday. I’m in the 9a-last-one-in camp and I don’t think I’d ever have got it if I hadn’t used a dictionary. I knew the steep which was required but I couldn’t get marinate out of my mind.

    Favourite is the degree at 11a.

    Many thanks to all the birds.

  24. Another quality puzzle fron Jay, like many others I tried Angustura, bit sorted in the end. We seem to be having a real run of top quality crosswords with hardly any negative comments. I am looking forward to tomorrows crossword, I only hope it doesn’t turn into a stinker.
    Gardening today, grow bags and compost sorted tomatos and cucumbers coming along nicely, I shall be anle to supply neighbours.
    Thanks to the 2Ks anf Jay. Keep smiling everyone, this cannot last for ever.

  25. At first pass the top half was still empty, which was a bit worrying, but then it came together nicely, starting with 22a which jumped out at me. A bit of help from Mrs d who knows about things like 3d. Last one in was 9a because I thought that word meant to cut up finely, not to soak, and had forgotten that use of ‘staff’. Favourite 10a – a superclue!
    Gardeners here are now allowed to garden, so made the use of fine dry weather today. Even got the lawn cut, but still not my hair!
    Thanks to Jay and the 2Ks. Glad I’m not facing winter!

  26. Another enjoyable Jay puzzle. I started in the SW corner, and worked my way up the page. 19d was my favourite. Thanks to Jay and the 2Ks. Must head off into the kitchen to peel the beetroot I’ve just boiled.

    1. Yum yum. I could eat it on its own like apples or on a strong cheddar cheese sandwich with piccalilli. It won’t be long before we are picking it from our veg plot.

  27. Not crossword-related at all, but more of a community service announcement.

    Following on from the discussion about the lack of bread flour last week, while I was making my monthly visit to Herne Bay Boots to collect Mr CS’s blood pressure pills (in these days of lockdown, it counts as a very exciting outing not a duty!), I popped into Morrisons for a few bits and discovered that some sensible person, presumably from their bakery department, has taken pity on us bakers and, in addition to enormous sacks of plain flour, they have decanted both 1 kg of self-raising and bread flour into those brown paper bags with windows they normally use for doughnuts. 1kg of self-raising was only 60p!

    Those of you with a local Morrisons supermarket may wish to take advantage while you can

        1. No olives at the moment JB. The olive trees are just sprouting the buds, which will flower later in May. The first we will see of olives will be mid-Junish, but not ready till November!

          We have 300 litres of EVOO waiting to be shipped to UK … trip was cancelled for Easter.

          Bit of a struggle today, but I had a lot of other things on and didn’t come to the solve until later than normal.

          So thanks to Jay for the puzzle and 2Ks for a little help.

  28. Another great day in crossword land. Sure this must be gentle for a Jay puzzle, as I usually have to struggle with his. Despite having done the weekly dawn visit to our supermarket and thus sleep deprived. Favourite clue was 20d, closely followed by 2d. Held up at 8d as I tried to fit in all four poles. Fourth day in row with agreeable puzzles.
    Off to see if our garden center is open, hopefully to get some summer plants.
    Thanks to Jay and 2Kiwis, especially the walk reports. Makes our stroll round our neighborhood looking at the lakes, birds and turtles seem quite tame.

  29. Nice crossword as usual on a Wednesday ***/*** 😃 Favourites 9 & 22a Thanks to the 2x Ks and to Jay ( just a couple of queries, is 21a a State or a Country? And is 3d used decoratively rather than for flavour or am I being 1a 🤔)

  30. Plain sailing until only 9a & 6d left. Two put-downs later & spending ages trying to parse marinade for 9a suddenly realised 6d was really simple. 9d then followed.
    Remembered 10a as similar clues have flummoxed me before.
    COTD was the aforesaid 9a.
    Thanks to Jay & 2Ks. Pic for 7d brought back memories. Used to be required watching then moved from Oldham to Swindon in late 60s. A work colleague asked if we had milk bottles on the table like they did in Coronation Street. That was the first time I realised it somehow wasn’t done. Ruined Corrie for me. Amazing really it is still going.

  31. All went smoothly for three-quarters of the puzzle but the NE was a different kettle of fish and definitely called for perseverance. Once again I failed to remember the present-day 5d use of cheers. Fav was 27a. Thank you Jay and the 2Kiwis.

  32. I’m putting in an early appearance, for me that is, as I too am on a zoom party this evening. I usually struggle with Jay and was putting my rapid and almost unhindered progress down to not having had any wine (yet) only to find everyone else found this easy too. Hey ho! Really good crossword though, most enjoyable. Favourite was 19d, what a lovely word. Many many thanks to jay and 2K’s.

  33. The usual really good crossword from Jay, and hints and ‘stuff’ from the K’s.
    No major problems today apart from 27a, for some reason.
    I think my favourite was probably 10a but, there again, 22a is a nice word.
    I think that pretty much everything else has been said already so back to the garden – need to water as it doesn’t look as if rain is in the offing any time soon.
    Thanks to Jay and the 2K’s.

    1. Hi Kath. We don’t often see the word offing written down although we hear it regularly. So I looked it up and the definition was ‘the more distant part of the sea in view.‘ Do you really have a sea view from Oxfordshire and is your house named Sea View? I may have too much time on my hands.

  34. I am another one that sailed through until I got to the NE. When the twig dropped on 9a that became my COTD too but 19d ran it close. I remember reading one of Heinlein’s Juvenile SF stories as a child and I first came across the clumsy oaf, who turned out to not be such a clumsy oaf after all. 10a gave me a pause too as I thought, like Daisy, that the setter had made a mistake and spelled anagram wrong!
    Thanks to Jay and 2K’s
    I have a promise from Niece of some fresh Beetroot from her allotment soon – It is so much better than the pickled stuff.

    1. You can get vacuum packed fresh cooked beetroot, sans vinegar, in most supermarkets, organic or standard. It’s simple, easy to use and surprisingly good, and it keeps for a good while in the fridge. Just to keep you going ‘til the harvest.

      1. Yes indeed and I lazily use it for my Mother’s recipe to serve it hot in a béchamel sauce flavoured with horseradish (sauce) – mmm!

  35. ***/***. Very pleasant puzzle which didn’t present any problems until I got to the NE quadrant. Looking back I can’t see why but this took me into *** time. Thanks to Jay and the 2Ks.

  36. I found this one a little trickier than normal from Jay, but as enjoyable as always.
    9a was actually my first one in – over the years of solving crosswords I have seen this one clued quite a few times.
    My last one in was 12a.

    Many thanks to Jay and to the 2Kiwis.

  37. Morning all.
    Still too dark to see outside yet but from the temperature it certainly feels like there could be a white landscape out there.
    Good to read that everyone appreciated and enjoyed this puzzle.
    Cheers.

  38. It’s no secret that Jay’s my fave and nothing has changed. The only one I had a problem with was 9a but it seems I was in good company.
    So much good stuff, I can’t choose a fave, but 22a and 19d both stood out as lovely sounding words.
    Thanks to Jay for the fun and the 2Kiwis for the usual snapshot of their world.
    Today didn’t start out well as Drizly, my booze delivery, had no Famous Grouse, so I got three bottles only of Famous Grouse Ruby Cask, who knows if it’s any different from my preferred tipple. I also got a bott of Monkey Shoulder whisky as I thought the name was fun, who knows that it’s going to taste like.

    1. I’ve not tried the Monkey Shoulder but the Ruby Cask will have a nice colour and a hint of the Port the barrels contained previously.

    2. Oh dear! No Famous Grouse! Nothing else will do as far as I’m concerned for a routine scotch. For special occasions, I love Islay malts such as Lagavulin or Laphroaigh. The peat is in them. 🥃

      1. MOH likes Laphroaig, but I can’t stand the smell. When he drinks it, I have to banish him to the other side of the room. I think it’s called social distancing? Anyway, to me it smells like neat alcohol mixed with the contents of an ash tray. My apologies to all those Islay fans out there!

  39. Lovely crossword today and played a game of association of answers.
    From facetious pedants to mariners against overalls, the crossword was full of possibilities.
    Thanks to Jay for the fun and to our 2kiwis for the review.

  40. A really good puzzle that was a joy to complete:
    2.5*/4.5* favs 13ac 17d

    Thanks to Jay for this superb crossword & 2KWS for review

  41. Many thanks to Jay for this puzzle, and to the 2Kiwis for the excellent hints, which I didn’t need today – either I’m improving, or Jay’s puzzle was more user friendly!
    Keep well, and stay safe, everyone – I had intended to visit the UK again this year for the summer, but the way things are going it may have to wait until next year! 🙃

  42. Omg tried today’s cryptic can’t seem to get started think I’m getting frustrated looking at it can’t seem to understand compilers thought plan
    I’ve only started looking at these crosswords in the last couple of days

    1. Welcome to the blog Paul. Slow down and refer to the blog when you need to. Stick with Big Dave and you will improve.

    2. Welcome to the blog, Paul and I agree with Rumplestiltskin. I joined a few years ago and my solving ability has come on in leaps and bounds. I now finish most of the daily back pagers and one or two Toughies. This would have been impossible before I joined Big Dave. It really is the best blog for DT crosswords there is.

  43. Rumplestiltskin?

    That reminds me … I must try to finish this month’s MPP !

  44. Absolutely excellent crossword. 9a last one in and NE put up a bit more resistance than the rest. 9 10 11a and 7 8 and 19d favourites. Thank you.

  45. 3*/4*…..
    liked 10A ” a German trained as manager, for example (7) “

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