DT 30177

49 comments on “DT 30177”

1. As MrK says a fine offering at **/**** for me. I enjoyed the construction of 25a but my COTD is 16d for its clever misdirection. Not too many anagrams but enough to oil the wheels. Thanks to MrK and to RayT.

2. For me Ray T at his best even though he was flirting with his Beam alter ego at times.
   My winners are 15&22a plus 6&19d with top spot going to the cleverly constructed and well disguised 2d.
   Max thanks to Misters T&K and season’s greetings to both.

   I can highly recommend today’s Silvanus Toughie which is both a lot of seasonal fun and not overly difficult.

3. About as good as it gets, with a delightfully entertaining, top-to-bottom solve for me from Mr Smooth. As Mr K says, very hard to pick winners in this cornucopia of blessings, but 25a, 15a, & 4d immediately struck my fancy. Best of the season and thanks for all of your terrific blogs and pictures, Mr K! And with many happy returns of Mr T in the new year, I hope, my best wishes to you for your holidays and thanks for a great year of puzzles. **/*****

4. My abilities are deteriorating as the week progresses and I found this hard. Once again, I needed far too many hints for it to be enjoyable. I managed about two thirds unaided but no amount of putting down and picking up helped with the rest.

   Thanks to Ray T for the thrashing. Many thanks to Mr. K. for the hints and pusskit and a very Merry Christmas. BTW, Mr. K. there are five letters in the third word of the pun.

   As for the pun itself, I thought it a cracker.

   Waiting for seafood to be delivered from Whitby. Fingers crossed that strikes will not get in the way but, if they do, loosing a few shellfish is nothing compared to what others have to go through.

   1. Thanks, Steve, pun now corrected. Not sure what happened there.

5. Top drawer Ray T & a real pleasure from start to finish. My quickest back page solve of the week & lovely to tune into his wavelength from the off. No surprise perhaps that the surface of 25a easily my favourite though I had ticks against all of Stephen’s picks & not a dud in there.
   Thanks to Ray T for all his puzzles over the year & to Mr K for his always entertaining reviews.
   Ps cracking Toughie today & mercifully a delightful contrast to yesterday’s assault course.

6. I know there will be one of our company who will be very pleased today – a Ray T back pager and a Silvanus Toughie!

   A most enjoyable Ray T – 2.5*/4.5*

   Candidates for favourite – 19a, 7d, and 14d – and the winner is 19a.

   Thanks to Ray T and MrK.

   1. Yes indeed, my dream team of setters and bloggers!

7. I really enjoyed this solve though found it heavy going in some places due, in part, it seemed to me, to a great many of the checking letters being vowels.( Perhaps I’m just making excuses for my own incompetency!) The satisfaction in finishing with only one clue needing electronic help was worth it. I especially liked 15a, 17a, 2d, 4d and my favourite 6d. Thanks to RayT and Mr K

8. A couple of tricky moments here owing to a desire for ‘alter’ to feature in 10a and missing the lurker in 17d. Fortunately spotted the error of my ways before it became a huge problem.
   Hard as ever to play favourites where Ray T is concerned but my double ticks went to 15,21&22a along with 2&16d.

   Devotions and many thanks to Mr T for this and all his puzzles throughout the year and a round of applause for Mr K for his reviews, felines and the outstanding work he’s done to ensure that our beloved crossword site keeps running smoothly.

   1. Hear, hear!

      1. Ditto!

   2. Thank you all, that is much appreciated.

9. Well I really enjoyed solving that, and I have never been able to say that before for a Ray T. Thank you to him and Mr K. 3d bugs clue brought an extra smile.

10. 2*/4.5*. A superb puzzle where every clue, except perhaps 9a, is a potential podium candidate. If you twist my arm, I’ll go for 10a as my favourite.

    A great review to accompany a great crossword and the prospect of a Silvanus Toughie to follow. Crossword heaven.

    Many thanks to RayT and to Mr K.

11. All in bar two without the hints which for me is a result!
    Thanks to Ray T for a cracking challenge and to Mr K for the hints.

12. An excellent puzzle with plenty of smiles.
    I struggled a bit at first with the definition element of 20d, otherwise everything went in fairly smoothly.
    Being a rugby person, 10a gets COTD from me.
    Thanks to Ray T. Many thanks also to Mr K for the blog and for taking over the management of this wonderful forum.
    Season’s greetings to all.

13. A very enjoyable puzzle! My enjoy mistake was to enter recalls for 13a, however I soon spotted the error of my ways.

    Many thanks to RayT, and to MrK; best wishes to you both for the holiday period.

    1. No idea how I managed to produce that rather strange sentence…. obviously should read My only mistake… I blame it on the lunchtime beer in the Spanish sunshine. We had 23c in Valencia this afternoon.

14. An excellent puzzle from Ray T (what else would you expect!). Fine clues, a decent challenge and a very pleasing solve. I have ticked quite a few but will mention 2 clues which are both really good but quite different. 2d: a tricky/quite difficult clue that needed a fair bit of cogitation. 10a. A very pleasing but mild/straightforward clue. 3*/4.5*.

    *Mr K, I have 2 questions please if you have the time (doesn’t matter if not):

    1. When I post a comment, does it appear for everyone else to see immediately or only after the 5 minute period given for editing, etc.

    2. Is the watch at 20d supposed to be representing a car speedo: 0-320 Kph?

    Cheers!

    1. Hello, Jose.
       1. The comment appears on the blog and goes out in email to subscribers as soon as you press “Post Comment”. You then have five minutes to edit the version appearing in the blog.
       2. Yes. Note the BMW M at the top of the dial. Mine is electronically limited to 250 kph, but some other models are not.

       1. Thank you. Don’t know why my first reply here went into moderation?

          1. … because the first element of your email address didn’t match your usual address.

15. Just don’t seem to get on with this setter despite all the accolades . Compare and contrast with excellent Silvanus ” Toughie ” today – so much easier [ ha ha ! yet again ] but the answers so much more amusing . ***/** for me , but **/****for Silvanus.

    1. With you all the way. Ray T is crossword marmite.

16. That was a relief after yesterday’s battle. Top went in first. 25a took some fathoming as did the parsing for 16a due to concentrating on wrong kind of profession (perhaps I wasn’t alone in that) and penny took while to drop for 1d launch synonym standing on its own. Thank you Messrs. T and T for many entertaining cruciverbal challenges including today’s and very best of Season’s Greetings to you both.

17. Challenging but enjoyable for me today. I started well and tailed off until I need the hints to finish… 3d definitely my COTD once I worked it out!

    TY to RayT and MrK

18. Thoroughly enjoyable.
    25a truly brilliant.
    For 19a got stuck on epistle until a resounding crash from that penny.
    This popped me into 2*.
    Thanks RayT and Mr K.

19. Typical Ray T where life is too short to try to unpick his consulted and weird wordplay. Just find the definition and ignore the rest. That will help to maintain one’s sanity.
    Thx to all
    ***/***

20. RayT today, so natch I struggled. I did quite well until I got to the SW, I almost gave in and went for the hints when I revisited 13a where I had “recalls”, with ehelp I found the right answer and things just fell into place after that. I confess I had a few bung ins, thanks to Mr. K for unravelling those, eg 17a. Fave was 19a, where I again gave thanks to Big Dave’s Mine of Information! I feel quite chuffed that I finished this.
    Does anyone have any updates on our leader, Big Dave? It would be nice to know how he is.
    Thanks to RayT, even for the scrambled brain, and much appreciation to Mr. K, wishing you both a very Merry Christmas.

21. Late in the day for me but happy to add my thanks and congratulations to Ray T to the others already offered. This was a first rate puzzle with the outstanding 25a a simple choice as COTD.

    Thank you, too, to Mr K for this and all his other blogs during the course of the year.

22. Super puzzle, light and swift for a Thursday, a generous and much enjoyed early Christmas present from Mr T.

    2* / 4.5*

    Many thanks to Ray T and to Mr K, with thanks for the past year and season’s greetings to you both.

23. Another tough one today with RayT
    3*/3* for me.

    Ended up as a DNF as there were three clues I had no idea of the answer.

    Favourites in what I did manage were 1a, 22a & 7d with winner 1a

    Thanks to RayT and Mr K

24. Ray T is always a challenge for me but I managed three quarters on my own before seeking help from Mr K. So I am feeling very pleased with myself. Of the clues I solved 19a was my favourite with 22a, 6 and 19d getting honourable mentions. The best clue I think was 25a which Mr K explained very well but it had me beaten all the way.

    Season’s greetings to Mr K and the cats and kittens and to Ray T with thanks for a year of entertainment and enjoyment except for today’s pun which is awful.

25. Lovely puzzle but amazingly found the Toughie easier than this . Thanks to all and lovely kitty pics!

26. Well that was quite a workout for me. I needed far too much help and had to resort to a few hints. However, if had more confidence in my ability and entered several clues which I hesitated over I would have completed it much sooner than now! We live and learn! Many thanks to Ray T and Mr K (also for the cat/kitty photos). Wishing you both the season’s greetings.

27. Nice crossword 😃 Favourites 13 & 17 a Thanks to Mr K and to the Compiler

28. I looked at the crossword and decided I was on a winner today – it was fine until I looked at the bottom half!
    Can’t remember who (Jezza in Spain?) but I had the same problem – 13a calls – which seemed sensible to me anyway.
    That’s it from me for today.
    Thanks to Ray T for all his wonderful crosswords and thanks to Mr K for the hints.

    1. Yes Kath it was me. Recalls made perfect sense to me too. The only problem was it didn’t fit the down clues!

29. Possibly my brain was mangled from having tackled a Nimrod from my stock of puzzles, but I found this rather tougher than usual for a RayT backpager, although as entertaining as always. I didn’t help matters by not questioning my original answer for 13a where, like Jezza and Kath, I’d gone with CALLS for the rings. The real answer works much better of course. 15a was my last in.

    Many thanks to RayT and Mr K for their respective contributions to my enjoyment.

    All the best of seasonal wishes to you all.

    1. How lovely to see you.
       Have a great Xmas.

       1. You too, Jean-Luc. Joyeux Noel.

30. Another superb crossword from Rayt, dare I say it, at the easier end of his spectrum. The last time I said that I struggled mightily on his next. Lots to like and hard to pick a favourite but I’ll go with 14d. Thanks to rayt and Mr. K.

31. Have we heard from Chriscross lately? I do hope that she is well and I wish her a Merry Christmas.

    1. She popped in yesterday. Please go back and read it, she’s had a few problems. She did thank you for your concern.

       1. Thanks, Merusa. I will.

          1. I’ll try to update some of this tomorrow, Merusa, and let others know about Jim and ChrisCross’s circumstances. Glad I thought to see if anyone had heard.

32. Really late, cannot sleep so a cup of hot chocolate and a McVities digestive and a beautiful RayT crossword at 2am. Absolute favourite was the letter to the Corinthians with the China one close behind. Many thanks RayT and also toMr K although I do not consider a picture of an earwig to be a stand in for a cat. Tapping the picture just enlarged the earwig. Not good. I shall blame you if I now have a nightmare. Many thanks to you both for your entertainment throughout the year.

33. 4*/4*…
    liked 24D “Abandon church and die losing soul (4)”

Comments are closed.