DT 29373 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 29373

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29373

Hints and tips by Mr K

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BD Rating  -  Difficulty ** Enjoyment ***

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Tuesday.  I was going to start my intro today with a thought about following the rules, but my brain quickly segued into wondering how many public figures and celebrities come here for help with the Telegraph cryptics.  If any of today's readers fall into that category, we'd all enjoy hearing about your history with crosswords in a comment below.  I found today's crossword to be solid and enjoyable Tuesday fare.  I look forward to reading what you thought of it. 

In the hints below most indicators are italicized, and underlining identifies precise definitions and cryptic definitions.  Clicking on the answer buttons will reveal the answers.  In some hints hyperlinks provide additional explanation or background.  Clicking on a picture will enlarge it or display a bonus illustration.  Please leave a comment telling us how you got on.

 

Across

1a    Suddenly dropping from sky? (3,2,3,4)
OUT OF THE BLUE:  The answer taken literally could mean dropping from (a cloudless) sky. 

9a    One's amusing  letter (9)
CHARACTER:  A synonym of letter is also a an amusing or eccentric person 

10a   Seasonal visitor, hill-dweller in South Africa (5)
SANTA:  An insect that makes hill dwellings is inserted in the abbreviation for South Africa 

11a   Lack of concern with route passing through outskirts of Aylesbury (6)
APATHY:  A route or track is inserted in (passing through) the outer letters of (outskirts) of Aylesbury

12a   Ten hours travelling in one direction (8)
SOUTHERN:  An anagram (travelling) of TEN HOURS 

13a   Perturbation with doctrine in time (6)
DISMAY:  A doctrine is inserted in the length of time separating Telegraph cryptic crosswords.  I was a bit surprised by the definition, but Chambers Thesaurus lists the answer under the entry for perturbation so I suppose it's OK

15a   Ruby, perhaps unexpectedly, gets on with me (8)
GEMSTONE:  An anagram (unexpectedly) of GETS ON ME

18a   Remarkable, refusing to work (8)
STRIKING:  A rather straightforward double definition 

19a   Illegal act on a European peninsula (6)
CRIMEA:  A generic illegal act with A from the clue 

21a   Performances awful it's clear (8)
RECITALS:  An anagram (awful) of IT'S CLEAR 

23a   Conclude ready to cook? (3,3)
PAN OUT:  Whimsically, the answer could describe the state of being ready to cook 

26a   Cut off  silly person (5)
PRUNE:  Double definition.  Cut bits off a plant and an informal name for a silly person 

27a   Unpleasant behaviour as tennis star's beginning to flip (9)
NASTINESS:  Well played, setter.  After staring at this for a while trying to manufacture the answer from the well-known Romanian tennis star, the penny finally dropped - the wordplay is actually an anagram (… to flip) of AS TENNIS S, with the S being star's beginning letter 

28a   Everyone attending event after jumping barrier on racecourse (8,4)
STARTING GATE:  A word meaning the number of people attending a sporting event comes after jumping or making a sudden movement upon being surprised 

 

Down

1d    Where fruit grows, or variety of beet (7)
ORCHARD:  Put together OR from the clue and a variety of beet 

2d    Crown, one stolen by a knave, turned over (5)
TIARA:  The reversal (turned over) of A from the clue joined to a knave or cad with the Roman one inserted (… stolen by …)

3d    Film memory of flamboyant defender (9)
FLASHBACK:  Stick together synonyms for flamboyant and for a football defender 

4d    African shelter on base of plateau (4)
HUTU:  A simple shelter precedes (on, in a down clue) the last letter of (base of) plateau

5d    Far from excited about line taken temporarily (8)
BORROWED:  A word meaning "far from excited" is wrapped about a line or sequence 

6d    Surprising result, winning series (5)
UPSET:  Cement together synonyms of winning and of series 

7d    Where one waits to see North African volcano from below (8)
ANTEROOM:  The reversal (to seefrom below, in a down clue) of the fusion of a North African like Othello and a volcano in Sicily

8d    Snack stuffed in ears! (6)
SARNIE:  An anagram (stuffed) of IN EARS.  (The GIF shows Gordon Ramsay acting in a parody of his show Hell's Kitchen.)

14d   Tidy Christmas tree erected? (6,2)
SPRUCE UP:  Follow a type of tree used as a Christmas tree with a short synonym of erected 

16d   Best people in chant making a lot of noise (9)
SCREAMING:  Best people or the pick of the bunch inserted in chant in a musical fashion 

17d   A joke -- monorail? (3-5)
ONE-LINER:  The answer could also be a cryptic definition of a monorail
--Woke up the other day with a puzzled look on my face. Had fallen asleep on my crossword.
--I know a chap who compiles crosswords and just turned 100. He was sent an anagram from the Queen.
--I didn’t realise that I was addicted to crosswords but when I look back now, all the clues were there.
--I like all sorts of puzzles, like jigsaws and crosswords, but dot to dots are where I draw the line.
--The first rule of Crossword Club is (3,4,4,5,9,4).

18d   Ready to support street band (6)
STRIPE:  Ready to eat comes after (to support, in a down clue) the map abbreviation for street

20d   Player at rest, I gathered (7)
ARTISTE:  An anagram (gathered) of AT REST I 

22d   Lifting action, newspaper? (5)
THEFT:  Split (3,2), the action of lifting or nicking could be a well-known pink newspaper 

24d   Athenian letter, old and great (5)
OMEGA:  The single letter for old is followed by a slang word for great or huge 

25d   Wine, some infanta's tipple (4)
ASTI:  And we have to wait until the very end of the puzzle for today's lurker.  The answer is hidden as some of the remaining words in the clue

 

Thanks to today’s setter for a fun solve.  Top clue for me was 27a, with 5d getting the silver.  Which clues did you like best?  Many locked down readers are visiting the blog these days to read the entertaining comments, so please brighten everyone's day by sharing below your favourite 17d (on any subject at all).

 


The Quick Crossword pun:  BRASS + ZILLION = BRAZILIAN


127 comments on “DT 29373

  1. 1*/3*. One of those puzzles today which shows that it doesn’t have to be tough to be enjoyable. This was fun with 10a my favourite.

    Many thanks to Messrs R & K. I loved the picture of the thief!

    1. P.S. One of my favourite 17ds is from the late, great Bob Monkhouse:
      “They laughed when I said I wanted to be a comedian; they’re not laughing now”.

      1. One of my favourites is from Tim Vine:

        “I got rid of the hoover. Well, it was only gathering dust”.

      2. I liked Tim Vine in the middle of his set pulling a kitchen bin bag from his pocket, watching it intently as it drifts slowly towards the stage, then turning to the audience and, by way of explanation, simply saying the answer to 17d — beautiful and minimal!

  2. 1a went straight in and rather set the pattern for this light and enjoyable puzzle, incorporating a trip around Africa.
    I liked the mildly topical (from the surface read) 5d and 22d in particular. 8d might not be everyone’s cup of tea but it amused me.
    2/3.5*
    Many thanks to the setter and to Mr K for his usual excellent review.

    1. Not so sure on 22d or 8d.

      I get “shoplifting” being theft but linking lifting action to theft is stretching it a bit for me. I guess The FT is clever but I stared blankly at that clue for a good ten mins and was disappointed at the solution.

      As for 8d. Really. Sarnie……… is that actually a word !

  3. All quite straightforward for me, but for some reason it strayed into *** time. There were a few in the bottom half that needed some teasing. I didn’t know the ‘silly person’ in 26a, and 23a was my last in and therefore COTD.

    Many thanks to the setter and Mr K.

    I am not a celebrity, yet. (Until they find the bodies).

      1. Welcome to the blog, Laurie.

        Difficulty ratings are personal and don’t refer to solving times on an absolute scale. Blog policy is not to post individual solving times. Regarding solving times for the population of solvers as a whole, the Telegraph Puzzles Site used to award bonus points for solving back page puzzles in under 45 minutes. My surveys have indicated that’s roughly the median solving time.

  4. A really straightforward but quite enjoyable puzzle (1*/3.5*). I did like some of the clues and found 23a, 28a and 22d particularly good fun. Thanks to Mr K for the review and the flying cat video. The latter was fun but a bit scary. Thanks to the setter too. Stay safe and well everyone.

  5. Most enjoyable ! Finished unaided but got 4d from working out the clue and guessing ….

    Particularly liked 8d and 17d made me smile..

    With thanks to setter and Mr K

  6. Enjoyable and completed well within 2* time. Helped by getting 1a straightaway. Last two in were 26a and 18d. Did think of strand for 18d being st + rand (ready as in money). Favourites 1 23 and 28a and 17 and 22d. Thanks setter and Mr K.

  7. I enjoyed today’s puzzle. 26a is a bit weak. I can’t recall the last time I heard a silly person called a prune! Best not to slate anyone over the corona virus rules unless you’ve stood in the same shoes. As someone currently suffering with it and a husband in hospital with it through no fault of our own (we stuck to the rules religiously, he contracted it there during an earlier stay this month)it is truly horrendous and leaves you incapable of doing much at all. Certainly incapable of looking after other people. On the plus side, thank god for the DT, this blog, the setters and all.

      1. Get well soon both of you. My husband and I are shielding because of his health problems so I sympathise. I’m less concerned with DC than with a neighbour, who has been having extended family gatherings for weeks.

        1. Thank you. There has apparently been a lot of rule flouting on our local beaches too which is pretty reckless and by no stretch of anyone’s imagination, necessary.

    1. From America, where our numbers continue to rise, despite what DoDo in DC said yesterday, let me wish you, Greta, and your husband speedy recoveries. I am making my first foray into the world (in about two hours) since Jan 15 to see the doctor I last saw on that date. Godspeed to all of you. Wear masks! Stay safe!

    2. Wishing you and your husband speedy recoveries, Greta. I hope you will both soon be over the worst as I understand it is a nasty illness.

    3. Oh dear, I’m so sorry. Hope you both get better soon. I am urging the Nuffield to do my knee but at the same time terrified of being in hospital! George has to go into a clinic in Addenbrookes tomorrow and that is fearsome enough. All best wishes

    4. Greta, I am so sorry to hear that. I hope that you and your husband make rapid and full recoveries.

    5. Very, very best wishes for a speedy recovery from me too Greta. Get well soon to both of you

    6. Oh dear, do hope you both get better quickly, and that he is soon home with you. Agree with you that most people, deep down, would do anything to protect their child even though they are currently criticizing someone else for doing just that.

  8. That was good fun with a couple of hiccups in the SW. Fav 22d with 7d a close runner-up. Trendy 8d abbreviated snack does not come readily to mind. Thank you Mysteron and MrK.

    1. I don’t think a sarnie for sandwich is trendy at all. To me it’s an old slang term but may be a regional thing

      1. Agree, my goodness we used to have sarnies (usually bacon ones) before we set sail across the pond in 1982.

  9. Could not get 23a. Easy once I saw the answer, but too late. good crossword. Favourite 10a (easy but fun), 22d and 27a ( like Mr K, I was convinced it was something to do with Ilie Nastase. Clever misleading clue)

  10. As a Southerner, of the CSN&Y stripe, let me thank you, Mr K, for that down-home greeting from the lads this morning.

  11. As a Southerner, of the CSN&Y stripe, let me thank you, Mr K, for that down-home greeting from the lads this morning.

    1. Oops, sorry: I hit the wrong key. I was about to say I really enjoyed today’s puzzle, though I rather galloped through it, Still, an enjoyable romp. I agree with Mr K’s top winner, 27a, but I disliked that scoundrel whose name, as it were, has made it into print again, Silver and Bronze go to 3d and 28a. We don’t call our snacks over here #8s, but I do like the word. Thanks to Mr K and today’s artful setter. * / 3.5***

      1. Why can’t you starve in the desert? …

        Because of all the Sand witch is there 8d :)

        1. Oh that’s funny, John Bee. Thanks for the witching humour; I ‘sarnie-ntly’ liked that.

  12. A straightforward solve but very enjoyable.
    Been a bit busy lately preparing the restaurant in the hope that we will be able to reopen soon.
    Would have preferred if the cat at the Jardin brought back a fish. That pigeon really made a mess.
    Favourite 7d.
    Thanks to the setter and to MrK for the review.

    1. That’s great news about the restaurant, J-L. Hope that you’re able to open soon.

  13. 10a top of my heap this morning from a very straightforward but ultimately enjoyable excursion into crosswordland. A puzzle this comfortable to solve is rarely challenging but it was nevertheless rewarding and fun to complete.

    Thank you to both Misters.

  14. Galloped through this in double quick time until I was left requiring the 1st & 3rd letters of 23a. Umpteen mental trawls through the alphabet later the penny finally dropped but I reckon those 2 letters took longer than the rest of the crossword.
    Very straightforward today but enjoyable enough.
    Thanks to the setter & to Mr K (Southern Man one of the all time great songs)

            1. Definitely. The link that stanXYZ posted above tells you how to use an image of your own as your avatar.

            2. That would make very interesting viewing. :grin:

              To have 2 different avatars would indicate that you have used 2 different email addresses when commenting albeit with the same user name … I think?

    1. “but I reckon those 2 letters took longer than the rest of the crossword“.

      For me too Huntsman!

  15. A very pleasant Tuesday challenge completed at a gallop – **/****.
    Candidates for favourite – 1a, 28a, and 17d – and the winner is 28a.
    Thanks to the setter and Mr K.

  16. Very straightforward puzzle today 10a and 17d my favs **/***
    Thanks to Mr K and the setter.

  17. Straightforward but enjoyable. 27a I needed the hints to parse as I was tied up trying to use the odious Rumanian. Takes COTD for the clever misdirection.
    Over too quickly when I needed an excuse not to get back to painting the outside walls.
    Thanks to setter & Mr K. Liked the one liners. Hopefully the parachuting cat is faked in some way.

    1. Hi, LrOK. Yes, the parachuting cats video was created using computer wizardry that replaced real skydivers with kitties.

  18. Very enjoyable today with just the right amount of head scratching and lightbulb moments. My favourites today are 13a and 27a. We had 23a recently I seem to recall.

    The Quickie pun reminded me of whom Chriscross calls the DoDo in DC. He wondered how large a Brazilian was.

    Grateful thanks to the setter and to Mr. K for the hints and the much loved cats. Especially the parachuting ones.

  19. No great problems apart from missing the anagram indicator in 8d for the slang (yet another) term for a sandwich.
    1a and 28a were my favourites.
    Thx to all
    **/***

  20. An enjoyable puzzle – thanks to setter and Mr K.
    I was another who initially wrote in ‘strand’ for 18d and then had to overwrite it when it turned out that ‘ready’ was less cryptic than I’d thought.
    Top clues for me were 3d and 7d.

  21. Thought this was going to be easy. However. Missed the anagram indicator for 7d. Needed the blog to identify the “ISM” and thought the answer to 23a was in fact to stretch things out rather than conclude. Missed the anagram indicator again in 27a. Did like 22d though. **/**.

  22. Hugely enjoyable (which is what I tend to say when I need little assistance!).
    Frustratingly just couldn’t work out 23a which was left hanging. I caved in and sought Mr K’s help.
    Several of today’s answers could relate to a man who drove his car to Durham and back (via Barnard Castle).
    Hooray for CSNY bonus!
    A one paperweight day in the garden.
    Thanks to the setter and Mr K.

  23. Firstly thanks to all at Big Dave’s website. As relative newcomers to cross-wording we (usually my husband and I work as a team) have found the site invaluable in learning how to solve crosswords and keep going at them. It’s also a great comfort to realise that views on the difficulty of a crossword vary enormously.
    Today we were largely in line with the majority – a very pleasant, not too difficult crossword and a welcome break from Lockdown – although rural Northumberland is probably one of the better places to sit it out .
    Thanks to Mr K, the cats and the setter

    1. Welcome from me as well, Brickrabbit, and thanks for sharing your experience with the puzzle. Glad you liked the cats.

    2. A very warm welcome from me too. It’ll be great to have another rabbit to rabbit to.

  24. Donnybrook is quite benign in the Toughie today. Well, I have managed about a quarter of it so far, which is rare for me.

  25. An enjoyable romp through crosswordland this morning with just 23a holding out on me until the bitter end. Having said that, if the answer to 13a hadn’t been so obvious, I might have struggled with the doctrine.
    Can’t abide the slang term in 8d but I suppose that just because the BRB acknowledges it doesn’t mean that I have to use it!
    Don’t have a problem with the old tennis star but Gordon Ramsay is a totally different kettle of fish………..

    My favourite was the simple 10a – just known as Father Christmas to me.

    Thanks to our setter and to Mr K for another great blog – loved your feline felons!

    1. Hi, Jane. Mr Ramsay is not my cup of tea either, but I couldn’t resist using a clip that fitted the clue’s surface reading so well once I found out that it wasn’t real.

  26. I agree with almost everyone, a nice easy stroll very satisfying with just 23a making me work through the alphabet. What is CSNY am I missing something? Very sad to hear some of our number have the dreaded C19 and glad that the crossword is some small distraction.

    1. Daisy – Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young singing Neil Young’s ‘Southern Man’, featured by Mr K today as a response to 12a.

      1. Doh. I am not terribly au fait with Country & Weston despite having visited Nashville and the Grand Old Oprey. What an experience! Saw that ‘Don’t it make your brown eyes blue’ girl with hair down to her ankles. I was given a 2 week old baby to hold whilst her mother went to the loo. When she came back (as fortunately she did) she told me it was a very important day as it was the baby’s very first visit to the GOO! Was it Crystal Gale or something like that?

          1. Oh yes lovely, thank you. Great memory. When I hear it I think it is great but it doesn’t loom large in my legend as they say.

            1. I love your phrase ‘loom large in my legend’, Daisygirl. I’m going to start using it. Enjoyed your account of the GOO visit. When I was there, staying at their posh and precious and pompous resort centre-cum-opera house, I got lost in the vegetation one night (and I was sober) and had to use my mobile phone to ring one of my students to come dig me out of the labyrinth of greenery. I am not making this up…or mostly not.

        1. Glad you asked that question, Daisygirl, I didn’t have a clue as to what he was talking about!

        2. Hi Daisygirl.
          Love the Weston. Is it a mix of Western and Stetson?
          As for the Grand Old Oprey, are you referring to Oprah Winfrey?

          1. J-L C – I think you should now duck!

            Hope all goes well with the restaurant.

          2. No jean-luc – it is an ‘opera’ house in Nashville, very well known. There have been series on BBC of GOO concerts over the years. The audience has to be seen to be believed!

  27. That was fun, but I did get myself into a bit of a pickle over a couple of clues. I put “post” into the second bit of 28a, giving me problems with 20d and 24d. Thinking about it, a post is not a barrier, so I should have realised it was wrong. 27a was a bung in, as I thought that it had something to do with the tennis player, but couldn’t quite parse the clue. I hadn’t realised that it was an anagram. I thought that the seasonal visitor in 10a had to be a bird, and went scurrying through my Bradford looking at birds, until the penny drop moment of the hill-dweller. Why would I think of the cheery gentleman sporting a white beard and ridiculous bright red clothing when it’s not Christmas? Many thanks to the setter and to Mr Kitty. Loved the CSNY clip.

  28. Late to the starting gate today and just finished in * time so a */**** for me as very nice clues. Having successfully written in 8d and 26a I foolishly couldn’t work out why they should be, so many thanks Mr K for your now embarrassingly obvious explanations.

  29. Really enjoyable, with just the right mix of straightforward and trickier clues. Liked 2d, 7d, 28d. Can’t stand the 8d word. Just lazy, like ‘uni’.
    And while I’m being a Grumpy Old Man, why do newsreaders say the babyish ‘bye-bye’? At least Jeremy Paxman says Goodbye, although I don’t know why he has to say it twice. And why do newsreaders say ‘see you tomorrow’ when they do no such thing (I hope)?

    1. One thing I hate is the newsreaders on some commercial stations such as Classic FM say “That’s the news. You’re all caught up!” I am not caught up in anything!

  30. Nice crossword and a straightforward solve with lots of nice clues 😃 **/*** (not keen on 8d though) 😳 Favourites 10a &15d. Thanks to Mr K and to the Setter

  31. I could not get on the setters wavelength so i found this a grind, still enjoyable though.

  32. Hear, hear to the above comments. I agree this was an amusing and pleasant solve with some clues requiring lateral thought to solve. My COTD, 3d, which gave me a chuckle. I haven’t heard of anyone being called a prune since high school. That was a while ago. Thanks to the setter and as always, Mr K. Loved the thief shot🦇

    1. My favourite use of the word prune is Hagrid’s comment to Mr Dursley in the film ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’. It was “Dry up Dursley you great prune”, said as he bent up the barrel of Dursley’s shotgun.

    2. My name is Angus Prune and
      This is my tune…It goes….
      “I’m sorry, I’ll read that again”.

      After school. Toast and jam. Mug of tea. Carpet. Coal fire.

  33. I could not get on the setters wavelength so i found this a grind, still enjoyable though, a nice way to pass the time .

  34. I noted that both the back page cryptic and toughie were assigned **/***, which is unusual.
    An enjoyable solve with no obscurities or holdups.
    Liked the surface of 19a and 23a which was in another crossword this week-can’t remember which one it was!.
    Thanks for the usual picks-and setter.

  35. another easy(ish) puzzle today but still enjoyable to solve. Like others I spent too long on *A* in 23a I was string or strand or straps in 18d.
    Thanks to Mr K for the blog pics and music. CSNY up my Strasse.
    What do you call a man with a spade on his head? Doug
    What do you call a man withOUT a spade on his head? Douglas

    Sorry I will get my coat :)

      1. With reference to Daisygirl’s comment @15 above

        “I said to the gym instructor: ‘Can you teach me to do the splits?’ He said: ‘How flexible are you?’ I said: ‘I can’t make Tuesdays.'”

  36. Nice stroll in the park.
    Thanks to Mr K
    Was pleased to get a mention in the telegraph crossword email today for my clue in the “just for fun” competition for the word skate.

    1. Hi, Toni. Congratulations on having your clue highlighted by our editor. A few other members of the BD community also got a mention – congrats to Jane, Prolixic, KiwiColin, Gazza, and anyone I’ve overlooked through not knowing their blog name.

  37. Another clever clogs day when all the wags come out, makes for a biggly enjoyable blog – loved it!
    I thought this was so much fun, very friendly for me except when I got to the SW, that took as long as the rest of it. I didn’t know 26a meant nit, I had the wrong answer in 18d, but sorted with Mr. K’s hints.
    So much to like; 27a stood out for the red herring but I think fave is 7d.
    Thanks to our setter for the fun, and to Mr. K for the review and my daily dose of cats – loved the thief.

  38. I enjoyed this puzzle but like others took a while to get the pan out, and also tried to involve the Romanian tennis player. I’ve never heard of prune to describe a silly person either. I think my favourite is 22d for its simplicity – but it took ages for me to land on the answer! My joke is inspired by 10a: Afraid of Santa? You may be claustrophobic.
    And it’s goodnight from me . . . Thanks to the compiler and Mr K.

  39. Really pleasant not over taxing puzzle that was an ideal during coffee solve. 13ac stopped me square so was a bung in, but they all count.
    2*/4*
    Thanks to setter & MrK for review.

  40. A nice Tuesday puzzle to while away the morning. Couple of iffy clues like 26a and 23a was a stretch IMHO. However I really liked 1a, 5d, 8d & 17d …. winner was 8d
    Thanks to setter and Mr K

  41. Enjoyed this puzzle, It’s so pleasing when answers flow in and I’ve had a few days recently like this. As I had a couple of weeks previously when every day was a hard slog, my faith is restored! Enjoyed the surprise of 10a with the Christmas theme continued in 14d. Thank you Mr K and the setter.

  42. This took a little longer than yesterday and I appreciated that. No big problems, however, apart from the first word of 23a which took an age to sort out.

    I liked it all, so many thanks to the setter and Mr. K.

  43. Tricky little one this time I thought it was going to be a write in then revised my opinion, so, left it and picked up again this evening. Success.
    Thanks to Mr K and setter.

  44. Despite reading all the Potter books (ostensibly bought for the grandkids), I didn’t recall prune as a silly person. And my thesaurus didn’t come up with dismay for perturbation either. Other than that I did pretty well on my own. Thanks to setter and Mr K.

  45. Does ones * rating time include the time that one was asleep, as just happened to me? I was two thirds the way through the crossword, and starting to struggle, when I felt the overwhelming desire to nod off, which I did. On waking an hour or so later I simply wrote all the remaining answers in! Was I solving it in my sleep? Enjoyed this though. Favourite was 19a, one of the ones I couldn’t fathom before my nap. Many thanks to the setter and Mr K.

    1. Hi TG, I think you have hit on one of Baldrick’s ”cunning plans”!

      We all know that, after the first scan, if we put the crossword down and return to it later we solve more clues. Your discovery of a sleep means the brain has time to work on the clues even more.

      Well, our iPads and iPhones are always telling to get “a nap” for this that or the other.

      1. I learned to juggle in my sleep! I practiced and practiced and couldn’t get it right, then I woke up one morning and hey presto, I could do it. The instructions on the box said this would happen. It was also a technique I employed when I was a piping designer, presented with some difficult 3 dimensional problem I’d go and make myself a cup of tea and when I got back to my drawing board the answer was staring me in the face.

        1. Just a thought, I wonder if that’s where the phrase “I’ll sleep on it” comes from?

      2. Take ‘a nap’, Steve?! That is wildly and sublimely funny…took me a bit…at 82, synapses fire more slowly. I’ll see if I can find an app to help them fire faster. Thanks for the laugh.

  46. I enjoyed this one. Had to resort to Big Dave for a couple of answers . 5d my favourite

  47. am i alone in having a feeling that we have had a lot of these clues before? i really felt that i had completed this puzzle quite some time ago? or is it that some of the clues are churned out after a certain period of time has passed by? i really found it quite boring and totally lackin g in any eureka moments.

    1. Hello, ivan. I’ll try to research your question, but I need more details. How far back is “before”? Please tell me which crosswords you solve regularly so i know where to look. And what qualifies as a clue having appeared before? (verbatim copy, same deconstruction of the answer, same answer, etc.?).

  48. 2*/3*…..
    liked 10A ” seasonal visitor, hill-dweller in South Africa (5) “

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