DT 30191 (Hints) – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 30191 (Hints)

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30191 (Hints)

The Saturday Crossword Club (hosted by crypticsue)

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One of the few pleasures of getting up early on a dark Saturday morning in winter, in order to continue the practice of going to the supermarket at 8 am, as I have ever since the first lockdown, is that sometimes you are treated to the most spectacular sunrises – it got better than this but the photo opportunity was hidden behind the supermarket – this is the view across the marsh from our garden


The crossword was a fairly typical Saturday Prize Puzzle, with lots of anagrams, hidden words, an old friend or two and some cryptic definitions.

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    One member permitted? That’s understood (8)
The letter representing one, an abbreviated Member of Parliament and an adjective meaning lawful or allowable (permitted)

10a    Clinging? It’s difficult (6)
A property of something clinging is also an informal term for difficult

16a    Professional criminal‘s staff (5)
A professional criminal or a type of staff

20a    Clearly let on the radio (5)
A homophone (on the radio) of a synonym for let or permitted

24a    Sean was mistaken in Abertawe (7)
An anagram (mistaken) of SEAN WAS produces the English name for the city of Abertawe

28a    Exactly like personality, a Frenchman in London area (8)
Personality followed by A (from the clue) and the French abbreviation for man inserted into the postal area of part of London

29a    Bony Lee’s talk disrupted (8)
An anagram (disrupted) of LEES TALK

Down

2d    Provide inducement for friend to acquire books one and five (8)
A friend ‘acquires’ an abbreviation for the books in the first part of the Bible, the number one and the Roman numeral for five

4d    Underground room I see said to be difficult to understand (7)
An underground room and ‘I see’ said out loud

6d    Complain boat is where vehicles should be (3,4)
A verb meaning to complain and a large floating vessel (boat)

7d    Sour recluse is heard (6)
A homophone (is heard) of a strict hermit (recluse)

8d    Retaliation from salesperson, half rich, with Sarah (8)
An informal name for a commercial salesperson, the first half of Rich and a diminutive form of Sarah

23d    Rude Italian leader ignoring Georgia and yours truly (6)
A famous Italian leader without (ignoring) the abbreviation for the US State of Georgia and how our setter might refer to himself (yours truly)

25d    Half-dozen with most of finest sensations experienced (5)
The Roman numeral for six (half-dozen) with most of a synonym for finest produces an informal synonym for sensations experienced or communicated

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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!

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The Quick Crossword pun: AYE + CATCH + INN = EYE-CATCHING

84 comments on “DT 30191 (Hints)

  1. A delight from start to finish although I do have a couple I am not sure about because the parsing eludes me. It felt like an offering from Chalicea but I am usually wrong when trying to spot setters. It took a while for me to see 7d because I pronounce it differently. I nearly fell into the trap at 14a but careful reading of the clue ensured the right answer. My COTD is 4d.

    Many thanks to the setter for the fun. Thank you, Crypticsue for the hints and the lovely sunset.

    Water, water everywhere in The Marches so indoor jobs beckon today. I’ll get the meat in the marinade for tonight’s curry first of all.

      1. Ah yes, sunrise. We are used to beautiful sunsets here so I naturally picked the wrong one. :grin:

  2. 1.5*/3*. I thought this was a light pleasant SPP with no obscurities and no particular favourite.

    Many thanks to the setter and to CS. No chance of a sunrise like that this morning in London, i’m sorry to say.

  3. Light and pleasant sums this up nicely. Like Steve at #1, 4d proved to be my favourite this morning. My thanks to our setter for the fun, and to CS.

    I had to go out early yesterday evening and crossed the Severn at various points around Shrewsbury. It was very depressing to see so much under water, although at least the flood plains were doing their job. No more heavy rain please in the catchment areas.

    1. Had a look at forecast for Llanidloes – source of the Severn – and it looks like 2 weeks of rain there, some heavy………………We get it 24 hours later.

  4. Light relief after yesterday although I did need a nudge with LOI 28a and a quick Wiki to check Aberdawe’s more common identifier over here.

    Thanks CS and I’m happy for your sunrise.

      1. I’ve spent a lot of time in Wales but I never knew that it had two names, one English and one Welsh, I thought they were two different places. How unobservant can one girl be!

  5. Very enjoyable and satisfying though swift. I think I’m right with 7d although I can’t think of the hermit. I just had two holdups. 23d although it became my top favourite once I parsed. Last in was 28a which I could not parse. Think I have it now with CS’s help. No other help needed and other favourites 2 6 and 8d. Thanks setter and CS

  6. A liberal sprinkling of double unches, my five bob is on this being a Cephas production – **/****

    Candidates for favourite – 16a, 20a, 2d, 4d, and 25d – and the winner is 20a.

    Thanks to Cephas, or whoever if I lose my five bob, and CS.

  7. Rightly or wrongly today’s puzzle felt to me very much as if it were the work of Chalcea – easy to understand and a pleasure to solve. My last in was 25d once the penny had dropped and is a candidate for favourite, that said I give my top award to 12a. Thanks to the setter for an enjoyable puzzle and to Crypticsue.

  8. Tough but doable, not so much fun as yesterday but still very enjoyable. My favourites today were 28a and the very clever 6d. Thanks to our setter today!

    1. Let me understand this properly, you thought this trickier and less enjoyable than yesterday? You must enjoy Epsom Salts.

  9. It was with real trepidation that I looked at todays puzzle after the beating my confidence has taken over the past week of failure.
    Thankfully I found this not only within my capabilities but also very enjoyable. So nice to see clever clues that don’t require the level of expertise needed for the recent offerings. If this was Chalicea I am not surprised as I usually find her puzzles excellent.
    Thx to all
    ***/*****

  10. It is my duty to report that 24a has been put forward to the committee for consideration to be included on THE LIST. ‘Abertawe’ has been bailed and is due to appear before the magistrates next week.

    Good crossword; tricky but the checking letters from the ‘easier’ clues gave much help towards solving the tougher ones – 28a was last one in.

    Chelsea aren’t playing today so we are going out tonight without our ‘date night’ being marred by football trauma.

    Thanks to the setter and PC Security (anag)

  11. I don’t get my paper until later so I haven’t done this yet, but there is no guarantee that I will find it ‘easy’, just because some others do! I have been doing the cryptic for about 20 years, and at first could only complete about 3 on my own. It seemed impenetrable.Then I realised that the answers were not going to come to me unaided,so with the help of all manner of support books, etc;and then, bliss, this great site, I have improved so much that I more often don’t need help these days, ( although I find my vocabulary is not as good as it once was!).I find it reassuring when others find it hard, if I do, but try to learn something from the hints. (Thank you, hinters!)It’s rather sad that some people want all the puzzles ‘dumbed down’, because there are the occasional really tough ones like yesterday. Please don’t do that, DT. The pleasure is in the perseverance for a lot of us, I think- if you want an easy solve every day, better to go to another paper, probably, unless you are prepared to stick at it, although I think you will find that the Guardian and Times are equally ‘hard’, more so when you first look at them because you have to get into the ‘rhythm and mindset’ of the setter. It’s supposed to be fun! For me, that’s the getting to the answers, not just a quick solve. Good luck with it!

  12. What a relief after yesterday…..
    My only problem with today’s crossword was 28a which thankfully crypticsue hinted doh!….did someone here not have a tea tray for head-bashing in such circumstances or am I thinking of the man who used to sing Mule Train? (Younger contributors either ignore or google.)

    Thanks to crypticsue and to the setter.

    Back to ‘auld claes and parritch’ (old clothes and porridge) after our lovely trip to Norway. They have a similar saying for going back to work after the holidays….it translates as ‘work shirts and oatcakes’.

  13. Not prepared to risk my five bob today – I’ve lost out too many times!
    Have never heard the Welsh word for 24a used in common parlance, must ask my Welsh friends. Perhaps those from S.Wales are more familiar with it?
    25d was my last one in and my favourite was 6d.

    Thanks to Cephas/Chalicea and to CS for the review and photo – can’t even bear to think about getting to a supermarket for 8am on a Saturday!

    1. After all these years you get used to it – and it is nice to meet up with the same people (who were total strangers before) who’ve been doing exactly the same thing since the start of the pandemic

      1. The pandemic has made us use an online supermarket delivery and the local village shop. The best of both worlds
        Just beaten by 2 in the SW and had to resort to Dan Word. I often wonder who he is as so many clues are answered on his site. Only to be used in a dire emergency like today when we have a long car journey back to Kent ahead of us., otherwise, where’s the fun?

        1. We haven’t had a village shop since the early 1980s – our nearest equivalent is about two and a half miles away

          Almost thirteen years ago, the only site that came up if you put a whole Telegraph cryptic clue into a search engine was the (life-transforming) Big Dave’s Blog!

          1. I suppose village shop is a bit of a misnomer. In Kent it’s a tiny garage Spar and here in Devon the store is about a mile away. We pick up the Sunday Newspaper and then head off for a drive over Dartmoor. The views are to die for . Such a treat.
            Best wishes to Big Dave. His blog is such a lifeline. Where would we be without it?

      2. When I retired I started to go and get the newspaper every morning from the village shop. The same four or five guys were there every day and, from not knowing each other at all, we soon began chatting and having a laugh. We are now known as “The Grumpy Old Gits of Kinnerley”!

        IMG_1093

        1. Oh, that’s not nice! They don’t deserve you. George goes over for the paper to the Co-Op early each morning and
          bumps into the same people, including BS who is a Man Eater. G says, I don’t know why you are so hard on BS – she
          always asks kindly after you. Yes, I reply, that’s cos she is anxious to know when I am likely to drop off my perch so
          that she can get her hands on You.🙄

          1. Slightly better than last year, DG when we were known as “The Naughty Boys of Kinnerley”.

            Keep your eye on that BS! :grin:

  14. I will also use the word light to describe this pleasant puzzle.
    The polar opposite of yesterday’s.
    Luckily in sync with the setter.
    Many a smile eg 6 and 23d.
    So, */4*
    Thanks to the setter and crypticsue, especially for the pleasing illustrations.

  15. That was a relief after yesterday’s offering. 23d my COTD. I am sure 7d correct but cannot see the hermit. I have an answer for 25d but cannot parse it at all. Thanks to the setter and CS for the lovely photo – I am also impressed at an 8am start in the supermarket!

  16. Very pleasant puzzle done with my DT prize winners pen 😀 on a miserably wet day. Had the paper to myself as George has gone to watch Hertford play rugby using my little car (haha) as his does not go for repair until the 19th. I am stranded, but it is not a nice day for an outing. Many thanks to the setter and Cryptic Sue, lovely sky but I suspect it was a warning for shepherds.

  17. A perfect puzzle for a chilly Saturday morning here on the Carolina coast, with temperatures in the 30sF / 2C, but toasty inside here in my cocoon. I especially enjoyed 28a, 15d, & 7d (though not a homophone for me). Thanks to CS and today’s setter, who feels like Chalicea. **/***

    I have finally settled on my Books of the Year (2022), after a season of rather slim pickings: Mick Herron, Bad Actors; Barbata Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead; and (bucking the tide) Ian McEwan, Lessons.

    1. I’d like to add that those three books were indeed the most satisfying, for me, of all the many ‘new’ works published last year–and clearly are outstanding works of fiction, despite the paucity of very strong competition. But the books I really enjoyed the most were all re-reads from the past: McEwan’s Atonement and Amsterdam, and William Boyd’s Any Human Heart. Finally, a concession and an apology: Lessons in Chemistry was much better than I expected it to be, even after the first half left me wondering why it was so popular.

      1. I see Bad Actors is the 8th in the Slough House series. Have you read them all & are they all worth reading? I hugely enjoyed series 1&2 adaptations on Apple TV. Gary Oldman for my money is always excellent & clearly has great fun with Jackson Lamb. BBC 4 are re-showing classic dramas at the moment & I’ve just re-watched Tinker Tailor & reckon if forced to choose I’d give Oldman’s Smiley (Tomas Alfredson’s excellent film) the slight nod over Alec Guinness.

        1. I’ve read all of the Slough House series and thoroughly recommend them.
          Great crossword today. Thankyou all.

        2. Yes, I’ve read all of the ‘Slow Horses’ and loved all eight of them. I’ve not been able, however, to access the TV adaptation, and it frustrates me terribly. Love both Guiness and Oldman as Smiley. Don’t have a favourite…need to see them back-to-back.

    2. Gentleman in Moscow , The Lincoln Highway ,both by Amor Towles , City of Girls, Aperiogon, Island of Missing Trees,
      Island of Sea Women, Never, Still Life.
      Have you read any of them Robert?
      Great reads

      1. I very much enjoyed A Gentleman in Moscow and The Lincoln Highway, and Colum McCann’s Apeirogon is the kind of artistic achievement that defies generic definition; never read anything like it–incredible stuff. Don’t know the other works, Annidrum.

  18. Most enjoyable, thank you compiler. I put “xxxxxx” in at 7d as a rather tenuous homophone for xxxxxxx but realised my mistake when trying to solve 12a. Thank you Sue for hints and pics especially the top one.

  19. This was a nice Saturday puzzle with no weird words,(well maybe one), or stumbling blocks today.
    1.5*/4* for me.

    Favourites include 9a, 10a, 20a, 4d & 5d with winner, as it was last time we had it, 4d

    Laughs today came from 9a, 12a, 6d & 21d

    Thanks to Cephas and CS

  20. Fairly light and very enjoyable in a typically Saturday fare. Oddly for me I started quite slow on the first pass but sped up as the middle section and anagrams got solved. I had no problem with Abertawe having been a Mumbles resident for 2 years! Like Steve C I nearly fell into the trap for 14a but a final parsing confirmed the E, I thought 12a was a great surface and misdirection, and the Italian biscuity leader I always enjoy seeing so gets my COTD :) **/****

    Thanks to the setter and 4d-Sue

    1. Thank you, thank you, your remark about the Italian biscuit gave me a huge penny drop. I couldn’t parse 23d, I thought I had the wrong answer, wotta huge relief!

    1. Thank you, Cephas for a great puzzle. Whenever I think a SPP is set by Chalicea it turns out to be your good self. Next time I think it is Chalicea I will say it’s by you. It will then turn out to actually be Chalicea. :grin:

  21. A relief after the horrors of yesterday. And a word to the newbie above ; we are not asking for the DT cryptic to be dumbed down. We are often told by the more accomplished solvers that the Toughie is relatively easy but on trying it find it as easy as disguising one’s boredom when folks start talking about golf or motor racing. Just that the Toughie is for Toughie crossworders and the cryptic is for those with skills that can begin to make a good fist of Toughies. And I do know the word for crossworders but like many words it can sound a bit pretentious when it is not clearly ironic.

    My thanks to our setter Cephas and CS.

  22. A little late today cecause the paper delivery was very late. An enjoyable and straightforward puzzle today and like others have said, it merited a sigh of relief from me after yesterday’s fugitive from the Toughie page. I liked 1a, 6d, 9a and23d. The onlyweak clue was 28a, which was a bit confusing. Thanks to Cephas and to CS for the hints.

  23. Like JB for groceries, etc. I rely on a combination of online supermarket deliveries and the local (walkable) village shop (sadly now minus postoffice but they do, thank goodness, reliably deliver my DT/ST). Today’s cruciverbal challenge was a let-up after yesterday’s mindbender. Haven’t met indicator in 19d before but am not sure about it. Failed to parse 28a bung-in and 24a Abertawe new one on me. Thank you Cephas and CS.

  24. How delightful, a pleasure from start to finish. I could not parse 23d for love nor money, Wiggler came to my rescue. Loved it all, hard to choose a fave – maybe 23d since it gave me so much trouble.
    Thank you Cephas for the fun, you’re a star, and much appreciation to CrypticSue for unravelling some answers.

  25. Definitely my type of crossword. A pleasure to solve.
    Thank you to Cephas and CS for the hints which were needed to explain 28a.

  26. What fun! Lots of neat clues and no obscurities. I didn’t need to know the alter ego of Abertawe to solve the clue.
    I for one am not sure if I enjoy the simpler strolls in the park like today’s or the wrestling matches such as we get on Fridays. I do know though that I wouldn’t want them them to be all the same. Vive la difference!
    Thanks to the indefatigable CS and Cephas

  27. Thanks to Cephas and to crypticsue for the hints. A very enjoyable puzzle, was quite straightforward until I got to the SW corner. I was beaten by 23d and 28a. Favourite was 2d. Was 3* /3* for me.

  28. A gentle but enjoyable puzzle that should please most. 28a was a bit of a stretch, bunged in then checked here. Thanks to CS and Cephas.

    1. Right London area but in the wrong location?
      No wonder I couldn’t find the personality.

  29. Late to this after a day working at the golf course where only 7 souls were hardy (or daft) enough to brave the wind & rain though it did relent briefly in the afternoon. A nice gentle puzzle which like Steve I thought may be one of Chalicea’s but would have punted Cephas on the basis of past losses. Abertawe unfamiliar so required confirmation but no problems with the 7d homophone. Like others am searching for that so far elusive personality at 28a though haven’t yet bumped into Manders. 23d just pips 4d as my pick of the bunch.
    Thanks to Cephas & CS

  30. Thanks for an enjoyable crossword Cephas, just what was needed today. And thanks to CS too.

  31. A stroll after yesterdays toughie. Faves 4d and 12a. Now doing them online instead of the trusted pen and paper method. Still getting used to the workings of the online system 😂

  32. I had no trouble with 24a, but then I do live there. Generally only Welsh speakers and bilingual signs use the Welsh name. It is in both languages on some motorway signs ( Check Google maps ). Of course, if you don’t know you might think they are two different places. I’m sure there are some people who think we have a hotel chain in Wales called ‘ Gwesty’.

    1. I once, when at work, got an invoice from a company addressed to a Mr Archeb Swyddogol*

      *(Official Order in Welsh!!)

  33. Just finished with some help from elderly, frail and very sleepy mother in law- have been reading the clues out loud, really just to break the silence. It made me jump when after at least an hour, and still with her eyes shut she gave me the (correct)answer to 26A. Thank you Joyce and CS and this forum, don’t often post here but I enjoy ‘lurking’ very much

  34. Defeated by 28a , what a strange word, and didn’t find the rest easy, but an enjoyable tussle over three sessions. Just remember crosswords are only for amusement. Thanks to all.

  35. An enjoyable parsing without any trouble until I got to 23d which, once the penny dropped became my favourite, and 28a which eluded me completely. Many thanks to Cephas and CS.

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