Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3071 (Hints)
Hints and tips by Senf
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A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg, where I have been enjoying reading Chris Lancaster’s book which was received after what must have been a tortuous journey of just over 4 weeks which started in Malmö, Sweden. But, I don’t think Mr Lancaster is giving us any advice on how to solve a Prolixic or Alchemi MPP!
Keep staying safe everyone.
Dada somewhat quirky again this week – I counted seven anagrams (three of which were partials), two lurkers (one reversed), and no homophones – all in a symmetric 26 clues, with 14 hints ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid you should be able to get the checkers to enable the solving of the unhinted clues.
Candidates for favourite – actually nothing really ‘floated my boat’.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, a number of the more difficult clues 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
7a Guns and other weapons, eleven in London (7)
A double definition – the second is a ‘round ball’ team (eleven) in London.
10a Rotten pear smothered in fresh cheese (10)
An anagram (rotten) of PEAR contained by (smothered in) a synonym of (meteorologically) fresh.
12a Joy read novel about protagonist initially in danger (8)
An anagram (novel) of JOY READ containing (about) the first letter (initially) of Protagonist.
15a Modern requirement of a tailor? (7-4)
What a tailor probably requires when preparing material before it can be sewn.
20a Guilty lot in prison, courage not entirely returning (8)
A slang term for prison and a synonym of courage with the last letter removed (not entirely) all reversed (returning).
23a Article men flogged in commercial (10)
An anagram (flogged) of ARTICLE MEN.
26a Old British soldier redeployed to cadre (7)
An anagram (redeployed) of TO CADRE.
Down
1d Make wider street to cut through Scottish mountain (7)
A type of street inserted into (to cut through) the three letter term that is included in the names of Scottish mountains .
4d Ali once requiring extra weapon (8)
The former surname of an American boxer (Ali once) combined with (requiring) a synonym of extra.
5d Nut, noodle and sausage (10)
Not a triple definition! The part of the body that noodle is a slang term for (especially in North America) and an informal term for a sausage.
13d Large fruit — or two? (4,6)
Combine two fruits to create the illustrated third which I don’t think is particularly large but the BRB does.
18d European snail a titlark’s gobbled up (7)
The reverse lurker (gobbled up) found in the rest of the clue – the ‘regular’ lurker is 2d.
21d Heavy, heavy bags ending in storage (6)
A 5 letter synonym of heavy containing (bags) the last letter (ending in) of storagE (to create a 6 letter synonym of heavy).
24d Second parasite (4)
A double definition – the second is illustrated below.
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A one hit wonder this week – Zager and Evans appeared out of nowhere, got to number one on this day in 1969, stayed there for three weeks and disappeared:
A much easier puzzle than some of Dada‘s fiendish challenges. My tablet version had every clue listed twice (although not all were identical in the two versions) so not possible to submit the answer. Very strange.
Very annoying.
Me too, very annoying!
Ditto
Even downloading the app again and edition did not cure the problem
Welcome to the blog Piffle
Chris Lancaster has apologised, and says: “to enter the prize draw, please take a screenshot of your filled grid, and email it to prize.puzzles@telegraph.co.uk”.
Hope that’s useful.
The electronic gremlins seem to have come out to play! On my newspaper edition on my iPad every clue is duplicated except for 3d where one clue is nonsensical and 21d where there are two similar, but different clues. Then to add insult to injury it’s not giving me the option of entering my solution electronically. I hope it’s the DT and not my iPad.
Meanwhile back with the crossword I think 10a is probably my favourite clue. As always thank you to all involved.
Sorry Michael P – you are more concise and/or a better typist than me 😂
Perhaps the second version of 3d was a reference to an earlier crossword. 🤣🤣🤣
Thoroughly enjoyable as always & made all the more so for me by the pleasing absence of the stretched homophone. Probably at the easier end of his spectrum with 5&13d along with 23a among my favourites. I believe the answer to 10a is that for an alternative clue that the setter feels is his favourite of all that he has ever set but dare not repeat it here for fear of exile to the naughty step without either cake or water.
Thanks Dada & Senf for the review.
Ps I see the DT have excelled themselves in the iPad edition – each clue is printed twice so it doesn’t recognise completion & therefore unable to enter the comp & we’re back to the scrolling clues plus still no confirmation of correct/incorrect previous.
Thanks for mentioning the favourite clue, Huntsman. I looked it up, and actually I prefer today’s 10a.
I flagged the iPad issue with Chris Lancaster earlier this morning via the FB page (FWIW).
It beggars belief that there have been some many errors with what should be a simple exercise of publishing the Puzzles pages every day. Differences between clues in the printed and electronic versions; failure to recognise completion (not limited to the Prize Cryptics either, the Codewords today only reported “correct” after I checked for mistakes via Menu, and caused the provided letters to change colour as soon as I entered a character); varying positions for the puzzles; etc. Still today, swiping left to scroll from the Puzzles menu page jitters if you enter it the menu page from the top right icon, but scrolls OK if you scroll to it from the preceding section. A host of other problems too have dogged it in the past. Hopefully the bugs are still being worked out.
I’m glad I do the dead tree version of the Sunday puzzle today. The electronic glitches sound like a nightmare. I found the puzzle pretty straightforward and enjoyable (**/****). I liked the reverse lurker at 18d and 5d made me laugh but my favourite clue was the misleading 10a. Thanks to Senf for the hints and to Dada for another pleasantly quirky puzzle.
1.5*/4*. This was fun and very much at the easier end of Dada’s spectrum, although parsing 20a held me up a little.
10a was my favourite.
Many thanks to Dada and to Senf.
20a my LOI and 10a also my favourite from this fun and enjoyable puzzle. A couple in the SW corner held me up, though I cannot now see why that was the case. Great fun.
Thanks to Dada and Senf.
Enjoyed the puzzle, pity about the electronics. Well we have had a good bug-free run!
**/****
I’m getting a little weary of that particular ‘eleven in London’ but otherwise an enjoyable puzzle. 10a was my favourite as it seems to have been for others – very good and not at all reminiscent of rotten pears!
Thanks to Dada and to Senf for the hints – not surprised that Zager & Evans disappeared after that No.1 and amazed that anyone actually bought it at the time!
Evans died. Denny Zager is still around
In our house the London eleven are know as the much shorter sc*m. Anyone mentioning the longer name must wash their mouth out with carbolic.
Like the other users of the iPad edition I am plagued with double clues and an inability to submit the completed puzzle which today was a delight. I do wonder if the ST is saving money on staff especially those charged with checking as I note that in the Sports section todays ODI is shown at the beginning of the article as being only on Sky and the final line praising the showing of it on the BBC!
As far as the crossword is concerned, I found it a delight with many clever clues particular my favourite 4d. The bottom right corner held me up for a while but having found the answers I am not really sure why.
Thx to all
***/*****
I was breezing through this, heading for a */** time, but the SE held me up, 20a and 21d in particular. I got them in the end, but think that the wording of 21d is very clunky. The clue in the paper is “Heavy, packed bags ending in storage.” I can’t see why the ending in storage should be inserted.
Presumably into a 5 letter synonym of packed. It was my last in & I pondered that too
Mine too. The penny drops when you realise exactly where the ending in storage fits into the solution
Thanks, I couldn’t understand that no matter how hard I tried.
I have modified the hint for 21d (still using the clue as shown on the puzzle web site) to indicate that the ‘object’ is to convert a 5 letter synonym of heavy into a 6 letter synonym of heavy.
It all depends on how the clue is read. It is not ‘heavy bags’ it is ‘heavy’ (pause) ‘bags’. Hope that helps.
Ah! Gotcha now! Thanks.
Same iPad gremlins for me as reported above. Hey ho. Screenshot and emailed instead. Enjoyable challenge. Thanks for review and to the Setter.
Another enjoyable puzzle today. 20a and 2d also my last ones in. I was going to suggest what Little Dave has said above, if you are that desperate to enter the competition take a screen shot and email it in. In any event I am told that hitting the submit button only enters you into the Amazon draw and it does not go to the paper. Thanks to all.
Like others, 10a was my COTD but I also liked 20a along with 5d, which gave me a chuckle. I put the wrong first word in 13d and this held me up a bit until I got the correct checker. The initial answer I put down was quite feasible.
I’m so glad I don’t get the online version given the amount of trouble it causes.
Huge thanks to Dada for the enjoyment and also to Senf for the hints.
I found today’s Dada tougher than most of the previous commenters because I could not solve 10a, which seems to be the consensus favourite, and so I had to settle for two electronic letters. This American needs to brush up on his cheese-o-philia! Otherwise, another enjoyable Sunday treat from Dada. I especially liked 4d, 5d, and 15a. Thanks to Senf for the hints, which I’ll read now, and to Dada. **** / ***
No digital problems on my little Surface Go gizmo, just woolly-headed problems with the solver.
I’ve never seen 10a here in America, so I don’t think it would readily come to mind. It was one of my faves when living in England but I still couldn’t spell it.
The ‘problem’ with the online version is trivial and insignificant and did not detract from my enjoyment of this puzzle. A fine puzzle throughout. Thanks to Dada and Senf
Any chance of a hint for 25a, otherwise a nice workout. 17d is my favourite. Back to 1950’s Perry Mason reruns now.
The party is an abbreviated political party.
Why could I not see that? Ta Senf.
I know it shouldn’t annoy me … but I do wish that commenters could refrain from using the terms “the on-line version” and/or “the iPad version” when referring to the “The Telegraph Edition app”.
I use my iPad when solving the puzzle on-line via puzzles.telegraph.
I think Jepi it’s because there are occasionally differences in the wording of the clues between the puzzles app that you use & the crossword that appears in the on-line version of the newspaper – 21d being an example today (heavy v packed)
I too am confused. I am a DT subscriber and get my printed paper using a voucher. I can also access the whole paper on line in my IPad. The crossword on line is identical so far as I know. There were no gremlins yesterday and the clues were the same. It is shown as a prize puzzle but I believe this is not for the main competition but one funded by Amazon. You can however send in a screenshot to enter the main competition (perhaps print off too but not sure about that). I only found out by chance that this was not an entry to the main competition, which is not made clear. I have not tried the puzzles only subscription which seems to be the one with constant complaints but assume this gives access to the “proper” prize competitions at the weekend.
As I posted the original comment about the double clues in the “iPad Version” aka Telegraph iPad App (which I made merely to see if other people had encountered the same issue or if it was a problem that was only affecting my machine) may I increase the pedantry count by pointing out that the Telegraph iPad App is not “on line”. All the content is downloaded to your tablet and from that point you can use the app without needing a wifi connection which is useful if travelling by train for example given the ropey wifi on most services. Access to the Telegraph Puzzles site is on line and will require a connection.
I can’t even open the puzzles page on my iPad this morning. I see others had some problems this morning, but I can’t even get the page to open up. I tried three different ways without success. Don’t know what happened but the fix seems to have made it worse. If Chris Lancaster sees this, please help.
A very enjoyable puzzle because it was not hard .
I liked 15a and 20a among others.
I thought we commenters decided some time ago that we were sick of 26a.
Thanks to all concerned.
Update, it’s working now. What a relief.
Very nice puzzle to do and like others I am jolly glad I have a real newspaper! A pleasure to finish it on a day when I have failed miserably to find decent dahlias to put into our Dahlia Day competition, the rain has been ruinous. Still, I have delivered two pathetic specimens and collected our two boxes of cream tea and the ladies in the kitchen knew to give us Earl Grey so all is not lost on this funny Bank Holiday. Stay safe and well everyone and thanks to the setter and Senf.
This went in at a steady pace favourites were 10 & 15 across, I spent a long time on 13 down then I had my PDM, as always enjoyable and time well spent.
Thank you to the Setter and Senf for what they do
**/****. Dada at the more benevolent end of the spectrum. 20a was my favourite from a very concise set of clues. Thanks to Dada and Senf.
I too thought that this was at the easier end of Dada’s range….but still needed a tiny bit of help from Senf.
Still, better than many Sundays for me.
Thanks to Dada and to Senf.
Not as quirky as Dada can be, but a couple of clues that required the grey matter to tick over in high gear. **/**** A couple of clues for favourites include 7a, 19a, 1d, 4d & 9d with winner 4d, but all were good.
A nice puzzle for a lazy Sunday morning with another day of bright sun expected for the West Coast of B.C. today, but a cool start at 10C
Thanks to Dada and Senf
Another enjoyable puzzle, and quite pleased that I was able to pull some answers out of the recesses of my brain. 10a sprang right to mind. Only tried it once, awful stuff, smells like sweaty feet. Still not sure about 21d. Had the wrong second fruit for 13d but Senf’s hint set me straight. 12a is a game show over here watched by about 25 million every weeknight. Repeats right now of course because of Covid. Dismayed by the news from the British Library today. Thanks to Dada and Senf.
Yes I don’t know what possessed the British Library to come out with such a diatribe. An establishment such as the BL should be above such advice as bringing down statues. What next burning books they don’t like?
Oh, I like 10a! On toast with a bit of honey, delish!
Two lost posts. I’m not sure why – ah the vagaries of computers!
Excellent, fun solve. Like Bill B. “2 for 1” didn’t bother me I could solve the puzzle & I quickly learned to ignore the duplicates.
Went through it like a dose of syrup of figs, to continue from yesterday, but SW corner took as long as the rest put together. When the penny finally dropped (mm can see mixed metaphor problem there) couldn’t see what the problem was.
COTD 10a, impressive castle in middle of town well worth a visit if you are ever in the area.
Thanks to Dada & Senf for insightful hints.
Not a Bank Holiday weekend up here – wish the weather knew.
Good puzzle marred by the bugs in the iPad version. Come on DT, this is just not acceptable.
“Britain’s Quality Newspaper”
All things are relative
A friendly Dada today with much to enjoy. I had a few problems, forgot how to spell 10a but should have known from the clue. Also, due to dodgy eyes, I read the first word of 4d as “all”, until I brought out my trusty magnifying glass!
I think 10a is fave, but 4d was high on the list, as was 17d.
Thanks to Dada for the fun and Senf for unravelling a few, particularly 21d.
Thanks to Dada and to Senf for the hints. Not as difficult as usual, but still some tricky bits, which made it all the more enjoyable. Needed the hints to parse 20&23a, I got the latter from the checkers, not realising that it was an anagram! Last in was 25a, I was initially convinced that it started with “do”, but I eventually ditched that theory. I liked the misdirection in 10a, and the surface of 9d, and the humour in 4d. But my favourite was 21d, very clever clue. Was 2.5*/4* for me.
Yes, I spent way too much time trying to get “do” as the first letters. The first rule of cryptics, lateral thinking, and I fail every time.
I too was working for a while on ‘do’ for 25a beginning.
And me.
Pleasant solve not too difficult and definitely at the easier end of Dada’s spectrum. Fave clue 10a as I solved most of this while eating toasted sammich of same at the Courtyard Dairy in Settle. It is also probably time to start scouring the hedgerows to 3d the necessary for 8a. Note that another of those coincidences occurred with 2d with the same definition too.
Thanks to Senf and Dada. Lets see if this mountain of cheese I have induces a coronary. Driving through Ilkley I noticed the lovely wild flowers in front of the primary school are beginning to go to seed. Hope the local kids get back to tend their garden soon.
Re 2d, not quite the same but close synonyms at least, John. I was going to make the same point but could have ended up on two naughty stairs for the same comment!
I noticed that when I reviewed yesterdays crossword but thought I got away with it until your eagle eye spotted it
I have just bought a rather nice Glen Scotia double cask whisky which may explain my slightly befuddled state
And on that note I will away to bed before tomorrow’s working day is lost in a hangover
No issues with the website version of the puzzle…. had to use a few of the hints but otherwise fairly easy for a Sunday.
I often find it difficult to get on Dada’s wavelength and that was the case today however all’s well that ends well. Needed help with 4d. 13d are not necessarily large – there are baby ones. I go along with the crowd in selecting 10a as my Fav. Thank you Dada and Senf.
I’m in the “straightforward but pleasant without being absolutely sparkling” camp this evening. I spent longer on 20a and 25a than I should have. As most favourite was 10a. Thanks to Dada and Senf.
Phew, caught up finally, I’m too old for this house renovation lark.
Usual excellence from Dada, though the SE corner posed a few problems.
I read with amusement the comments regarding the Elgar toughie last Friday. It seems the same as ordering the hottest curry in the house then complaining its too hot!
Thanks Senf and Dada.
Spot-on
It could well be the same ones who complain on times that the backpager is too easy! (I don’t keep track of these things).
It is what it is as far as I am concerned, somebody can do it & quite often that somebody isn’t me. If all I had to be concerned about was being to solve a crossword, life would become a doddle.
Quite LROK, much more important things to worry about, my duck-hook for a start.
I enjoyed this, doing it on paper while watching the cricket on free TV this afternoon. It looked like I was going to need a couple of hints to finish, but actually I’d parsed them all fine — I just needed a thesaurus to compensate for my brain’s lack of imagination in thinking up the correct synonyms.
I hadn’t heard of 4d, so having come up with a sequence of letters had to check it actually was a thing. And that’s my favourite, for “Ali once”. Thank you, Dada and Senf.
We went to Yorkshire Sculpture Park this weekend, where a sign said there were 10 bird boxes across the grounds, each bearing a cryptic crossword clue to a type of tree — but we failed to spot any.