DT 30173 (Hints) – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
View closed comments 

DT 30173 (Hints)

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30173 (Hints)

The Saturday Crossword Club (hosted by crypticsue)

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

Another freezing cold day here in East Kent which seemed to make everything I had to do this morning quite a bit slower and that was before I had to try and find the crossword, the newspaper version being hidden behind an excessive number of advertisements for a particular perfume.

Although it took a while to get going, once I’d realised the crossword was very likely to be a pangram, it didn’t take that long to finish. It has been difficult to pick which clues to hint but quite a few of the ones I’ve omitted are anagrams or lurkers

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.

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    Kick policeman, you will pay for it (4,3,4)
A verb meaning to kick and a London slang term for the police

10a    Go to pieces after being dismissed in disturbance (8)
A simple way of saying go to pieces goes after a cricket-related adjective meaning dismissed

13a    Crazy unknown has some (4)
A mathematical unknown and another word for some

21a    Close follower of stock movements (6)
Someone whose occupation is to follow cattle on the move

24a    Beast having its pride (7)
A cryptic definition of a member of a pride

26a    Face athlete leading contestant (11)
A synonym for face and an athlete

Down

1d    Resort in front in chaos (7)
I haven’t heard mention of this Essex seaside town in years – an anagram (in chaos) of IN FRONT

2d    See lower crossing place (6)
This diocese (see) got its name from a crossing place for cattle (lower)

5d    Inside celebrated having exceedingly bad reputation (8)
A simple way of saying inside and a synonym for celebrated

9d    Wickedly fast delivery person? (5,6)
A cryptic definition of a fast cricketer making ‘deliveries’

20d    Button‘s issue after info on the radio (6)
A male child (issue) goes after a homophone (on the radio) of a slang word for information

23d    Attention-seeker seen in Bishop’s Stortford (4)
An interjection used to attract attention can be seen in the last two words of the clue

Could new readers please read the Welcome post and the FAQ before posting comments or asking questions about the site.

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!

Please read these instructions carefully – they are not subject to debate or discussion. Offending comments may be redacted or, in extreme cases, deleted. In all cases the administrator’s decision is final.

If you don’t understand, or don’t wish to comply with, the conventions for commenting on weekend prize puzzles then save yourself (and me) a lot of trouble and don’t leave a comment.


The Quick Crossword pun: OPEN + AWL + OURS = OPEN ALL HOURS

60 comments on “DT 30173 (Hints)

  1. I finished this in good time unaided. I had to check that it was a Saturday Prize Puzzle because my electronic version behaved like a weekday and let me confirm whether I was correct or not. It would have filled in the whole thing if I had asked it to but what is the point of that? Apparently our dead tree version which David reads is still in London. Bought a new Flash mop – absolute rubbish, don’t waste your money. Thanks to the setter and CS – freezing here too but both front and back door open to try and dry the very unsatisfactory Flashed floors!

  2. Another cock up at Telegraph Towers. As Manders says digital users denied the opportunity to submit their entry should they wish to do so. All over & confirmed correct in just over * time but enjoyed it for the short time it lasted. Nicely clued though I couldn’t see a great deal cryptic with 24a. Liked all 4 of the long ‘uns & particularly 1a, which along with 2&3d are my podium.
    Thanks to the setter & CS

  3. Hi there, as I do the crosswords online I’m never sure when the Christmas giant one is in the paper. Any ideas when it is published please, or have I missed it. Thanks in advance.

  4. What a shambles! The distributor didn’t deliver the Main and Sport sections of the Telegraph to my newsagent today which, as far as I am concerned, are the two most important bits. Hence, I tried but failed to access the back-pager online. All eleven crossword hyperlinks and all the archive crossword links on the Telegraph website simply bring up today’s Quickie. Unbelievable.

    I then moved on to the app on my smartphone and at least the correct puzzle was available there, although I loathe solving it electronically. Give me pen and paper any day.

    Fortunately, the puzzle itself was light and fun – 2*/4*. Given that it is a pangram, the setter is likely to be Cephas. Many thanks to him and to CS.

    1. I managed to track down a whole paper at our local Post Office stores. They always seem to succeed when Sainsbury’s only has the ‘inside bits’, The old puzzles site was working well when I used it to create the template for today’s hints post.

  5. All over very quickly.
    Can always do with a confidence booster.
    Many a smile eg 1a and 9d.
    Many thanks to the setter and to CS.

  6. I do the weekenders on my kindle HDX. You can’t submit today’s puzzle to Amazon either. According to them it was ‘all correct’! I’ve done this for 20+ years & never had a win so I’m not overly concerned!

  7. A very pleasant if not particularly taxing romp through crosswordland this cold morning. 1a was one of my first entries and remained my favourite throughout the solve. Great fun.

    My thanks to, presumably Cephas, and CS.

  8. I could just put ‘ditto’ under the comment from YS. 1a wins the gold by a mile.

    Thanks to Cephas and to CS for the hints & pics.

  9. Presumably enough people are still buying today’s front page scent (yuck IMHO) to warrant the advertising cost. Just right level of application required for this fun enigma. NW was last to come on board. Joint Favs 1a and 20d (once I had ceased thinking around a pantomime!). See for 2d would seem to be rather broad. Thank you Cephas and CS

  10. Smugly, no problems with the ‘old’ puzzles web site at 6:00pm last night (I hope it’s still that way tonight) or the solving of this enjoyable pangram so my five bob is on this being a Cephas production.

    Candidates for favourite – 7a, 14a, 26a, and 17d – and the winner is 14a.

    Thanks to Cephas and CS – what exactly do you mean by ‘freezing cold’?

  11. My newsagent blamed the train strike and I had to collect the paper from the shop at 10-30. Cheered up by a straightforward puzzle. Bit like putting back the clocks again!

  12. Pleasant and not too difficult solution today delayed by my better half’s early morning supermarket visit. The first of several over the next few days I fear!

    1d reminded me of the old joke about the sign at an East Coast port – “Harwich for the Continent”, to which some wag had added beneath “(1 down) for the incontinent”.

  13. Being the proud possessor of a Telegraph Pen, I don’t click the [Submit] button in the hope someone else has a greater chance of winning one, so the presentation in the digital version as a non-Prize Crossword wasn’t an issue for me.

    1. I’ve been submitting for nearly 40 years (not every Saturday) and have never won anything. If it weren’t for folk, such as yourself Atilla, saying they have won I would consider the Telegraph pen a myth.

        1. Amazingly I have won twice in the last month 😂 -winning both the Saturday and the Sunday crossword….. coming a mere 35 years after my previous Sunday Telegraph win.

            1. Now I always submit by email – with a photo of the crossword. I still like completing the paper version.
              Although 35 years ago it was sent by post 😁

              1. Yep, that’s how I do it. Oh well, maybe all my submissions have been wrong for 40 years. 😳😄

                1. Haha surely not.
                  Goodness knows how much I’ve spent on Telegraphs over the last 35+ years just to win the pens ….. and the prestige of your name in the paper 😁

  14. A slightly trickier Saturday for me. The bottomfilled itself ok but took time for the pennies to drop in the north. The resort at 1d in particular. Thanks to CS and Cephas.
    Hurtling through Ilkley on the way to get a nice bit o’ Wensleydale to go with the Betty’s Christmas cake.

    1. Perhaps you could wear a ‘bee in your bonnet’ then if our paths crossed in Ilkley/Harrogate/Betty’s I could accost and say hello. Splendid puzzle today – thank you Cephas and CS.

  15. Found this Saturday puzzle a good start to what looks like to be a cold and wet/snowy weekend here. Considering it is a Saturday, (Friday night for me), and a pangram … I’m gonna put a tenner on the setter being Cephas.
    2*/4* for me

    Favourites include 1a, 16a, 18a, 2d, 19d & 23d with co-winners again today of 1a & 2d
    A few made me smile like 1a, 18a, 17d & 23d

    Thanks to Cephas and C

  16. A very pleasant Saturday solve with only 15d requiring some digging about to confirm. 1a a great start to the puzzle

  17. Excellent puzzle, shame I can’t submit it for the prize drawer! My favs were 1a and 20d, both smiler.
    Is this a plot to get readers to subscribe to the puzzles website?
    Poor show DT.
    Thx to the setter and for the hints (not needed today).
    */****

  18. I’m becoming increasingly disillusioned with The Telegraph’s puzzle offerings. Members of the old puzzles subscription have lost the weekly and monthly additional prize puzzles. The weekly puzzles newsletter seems to have stopped without warning and its prize puzzle disappeared in the final few issues. No information I could find about any of this other than a load of advertising for the new puzzles subscription. Maybe the lack of today’s puzzle being noted as a prize puzzle in the app means it’s no longer a prize puzzle, in line with recent downward slope. In summary, fewer prize puzzles and no customer service.

    1. I have been a subscriber to the DT puzzles site for over 10 years.

      The DT should have had the common decency to inform all subscribers of the forthcoming changes and politely ask them if they wished to continue with their subscription.

      All we hear is “how wonderful the new site is” – personally I think it has some blatant weaknesses that should have been obvious before it was released. Who tested it ?

    2. Today’s crossword is definitely a Prize Puzzle. The Puzzles Editor is looking into the problem which has caused some of the electronic versions of this crossword to behave as if they were a weekday puzzle and make it possible to reveal and check solutions.

      The Newsletter is still going but it isn’t as ‘newsy’ as it was originally.

      1. Thank crypticsue. I entered by email, but didn’t get the usual automated response, which added more grist to my mill. I would snail mail it but it’d be a waste of a stamp unless the submission date is extended to next February!

    3. The newsletter is still going but is not a patch on its former incarnation. In fact, I stopped reading it when the clue competition finished.

      1. Totally agree with you, Steve, about the newsletter!

        Thanks to Cephas and CS for today’s workout.

      2. Ditto. The clue writing bit was the most interesting part of it & checking to see if you’d got yet another honourable mention

      3. Haven’t seen one in weeks Steve. Maybe I unsubscribed in a fit of pique and promptly forgot next time I slept (getting to be that age now)!

  19. Held up mainly by spilling tea all over the crossword, so had to dry it out on the radiator before continuing. Last in was 15d. Favourite was 1a. Thanks to Cephas and CS.

  20. Late on parade today because of going to get the Christmas Tree, putting it up and decorating it. Always done on the Saturday before Christmas so I didn’t get to the puzzle until after lunch.

    A most satisfying puzzle to solve with just the right amount of lateral and straightforward thinking required. 1a set the tone with a huge grin appearing followed by a shudder as I recalled some of the 9d’s I have faced. I am finally beginning to remember the version of “see” found in 2d. No favourites today – just enjoyed it.

    Many thanks to the setter for the fun and to CS for the hints.The first thing I do with massive adverts for perfume around the paper is screw them up and throw them in the bin. The one thing that does get to me is when I struggle to separate two pages only to find a two page advert waiting.

    Back to mud in The Marches so hopes of a White Christmas have faded.

      1. Looks very cosy and inviting. If our old dog was still with us he would be so close to that fire he would be singeing his fur.

  21. Solved quickly like gangbusters until ‘Buttons’ showed up at 20d and I just took a wild stab there. Only then did I realise the setter must be Cephas because the puzzle was another of his pangrams. Why do I always discover a pangram only at the very end? 2d is my favourite today, with 1a and 15d fleshing out the podium. Thanks to CS and Cephas. **/***

  22. A gentle romp for a prize puzzle I thought. Only hold up was 15d that needed some ehelp to confirm. Thanks to my wonderful local shop I still get the paper delivered each day. Only used the online version during lockdown but it never felt as satisfying as the pen and paper version.
    Thanks to Cephas for the fun and CS for the review

  23. Wotta lotta fun, I loved it. It didn’t take long for the penny to drop that it was a pangram which was a huge help. I was missing a couple of letters, revisited my answers and found one incorrect, bingo, that solved one missing letter, so the other had to be in my only unsolved clue, a quick google confirmed that. Like Angellov, I spent altogether too long searching for a pantomime. I also think BD ought to update his cricket mine to include 9d, took ages to get that. I’ll go with the flow and put 1a at the top of the pops.
    Thank you Cephas, much appreciated, and to CS for braving the cold to give us the hints and pics.

  24. Looks like they have solved the app/website issue as I successfully submitted my entry just now (website). It wouldn’t let me check whether it was correct… but apart from a few head scratchers fairly straightforward. As to the newsletter, I keep trying unsubscribing and resubscribing but it never appears in my inbox.

    1. You can submit your puzzles – always there is the screen shot option and attach to email.

      Sorry I have been off the grid for ages!

  25. 2*/4*…..
    liked 5D “Inside celebrated having exceedingly bad reputation (8)”….perhaps there could be a comma after “inside”…
    no main section DT today so resorted to the electronic version….I might win a pen !

  26. Nice quick solve – except for 20d! Got the word but not the connection to Button. My wife fortunately has more general knowledge than I do so to her surprise was able to enlighten me.

  27. They’ve done it again on the digital version of the Sunday prize crossword!!
    Very fruztrating

  28. Just finished the Sunday “Prize crossword” too, but cannot submit it. Grrrrr!

    Happy Christmas to all

Comments are closed.