DT 30422

109 comments on “DT 30422”

1. Pleasantly tougher than yesterday, ah… but the week progresses, so not surprised.
   Took a while to get a toehold, and for once the bottom half seemed easier that the top.
   Thought we were missing an ‘e’ in 14a, but on reflection it was my misreading all along. Favourite today was the tricky little 5a. Great crossword.

2. No problems with this delightful puzzle, last in was 20d. Too many good clues to name a favourite, but 1a raised a smile. Thanks to all

   1. Not a reply but a comment, 4 down in the quickie has two possible answers.

3. No real hold ups and no real favourites.

   Thanks to Colin and today’s setter.

4. My rating is 2*/4.5* for a very enjoyable not too taxing puzzle. The LOL 12a was my favourite.

   Many thanks to the setter and to the 2Ks.

5. A very light but nonetheless generally enjoyable puzzle, rather let down by having not just 8 anagrams – more than a quarter of the clues – but there being 5 in a row, which would have drawn adverse comment had this puzzle appeared in Rookie Corner.

   On the other hand, good surfaces and ticks littered my print-out, with Hon Mentions winnowed to 14a, 2d & 17d.

   <1* / 2.5*

   Many thanks to the setter, and to the 2Ks – I hope we get some good frosts too by the end of this month!

6. Not relevant to the crossword (sorry setter and 2Ks) but if you are one of the people who can’t access the ‘old’ Telegraph Puzzles site, can you please comment here. I’m in touch with the Editor but he hasn’t got a problem with the site on any of his devices, whereas I (and others yesterday) can’t access it from any site, so I’d like to give him an idea of how many of us are affected by the problem.

   1. FWIW CS, no problem accessing the old (and still best!) site this morning using Firefox (v118, with lots of privacy functions enabled), Edge or Opera (with a VPN), using a laptop running Windows 11 22H2. The link I use for the old site is: https://www.puzzles.telegraph.co.uk/

   2. The old site is all over the place for me too. I have to enter the URL for the home page each day and navigate from there. I used to work in IT and haven’t a clue what they have done after years without a problem.

      Please don’t let them close the old site as I like to work from a full page print.

   3. No problem for me with Google Chrome on my lap top and with Firefox on my Android phone.

   4. On Firefox (Windows 10) I get a momentary flash of the home page then the screen goes white. Trying again gets it to work.
      On Chrome (Windows 10) I get the same problem consistently and re-trying doesn’t solve the problem. On one attempt my antivirus software reported ‘We’ve safely aborted connection on push-signals.online because it was infected with URL:Blacklist

      1. No problems as usual with my preferred option – the old site – using chrome on windows 11

   5. Using Safari on a MacBook Air – the home page opens fine but click on a puzzle and it comes up with a blank page. After a closing that page and clicking again a couple of time, it will eventually open the puzzle. It’s been like this for a couple of mornings now. Thanks for chasing this Sue.

   6. I can access the new site but today’s cryptic will not open either on desktop or mobile. I cannot even find the old site.

   7. I can’t get in either. Ii went to the live chat and was told there’s a technical issue with the old site (to which my subscription is linked). They are aware of the problem and working on it.

   8. No problem accessing via Safari on my ipad

   9. No, I can’t get the old (best) site either, a pain because the new site doesn’t print out centrally on the page.

   10. Still having problems this morning with both Chrome and Internet Explorer on my W10 PC. But I have a question: what is this “new site”? The only one I know is puzzles.telegraph.co.uk.

       1. Never mind! Found the new site and was able to complete this delighful offering with no electonic assistance, so **/**** for me (unlike yesterday’s disaster!). Now off to work at the golf course here in sunny South Carolina – ain’t retirement grand!

          1. Where do you play in South Carolina? Have had many great trips to Myrtle Beach – love the Dye Course, Tidewater & Caledonia Golf & Fish Club is one of my favourite courses.

             1. I work at Legends in Myrtle Beach 2 or 3 days a week – off of 501 opposite the outlets

   11. Hello after many months lurking we want to say what a brilliant site this is. Thank you all.
       We are having problems with the old puzzles site and really hope it’s not being phased out. Hope your campaign means the site will remain.
       Brigill

       1. Welcome to the blog, Gillian.
          Now that you’ve de-lurked I hope you’ll become regular commenters.

   12. Am popping in to say I have just got onto the old site and printed off today’s puzzles without any problem… that was until I tried to log off! The screen went white. Am using Firefox with Windows 11. Very strange indeed.
       Now to enjoy those printed puzzles!

   13. I managed to get the old site working but I had to reload/refresh the page a couple of times. My mum however, in West Kelowna was unable to get it to load even with refreshes of the page

   14. We had the same problem. We can get it on Safari but not Firefox or Chrome. Thanks for pointing this out so we know it’s not us. Love the blog but don’t comment as someone has usually already expressed my thoughts.

       1. You’ve changed your alias – both your name and the old alias will work in future

   15. I had problems for two days on chrome but today was perfect, not even a hesitation. I hope we get to keep the old site, the print is too small on the new one and I can’t read it.

       1. Hear, hear!

   16. Couldn’t access the old site at all yesterday. Cleared cookies, rebooted, tried to come at it from multiple directions – with no success.

       Great puzzle today – thanks to setter and Kiwis.

       1. Old site is now working for me.

   17. I get an almost subliminal flash of the old site then nothing. Very disappointing.

   18. Haven’t had any trouble using Chrome on my PC to print off the Cryptic, but I like doing the Quickie on line using Amazon’s Silk browser on their Kindle(?) tablet, and that’s been up and down a lot. Actually working now, hooray!

   19. Thanks for your work on this issue, much appreciated. I had similar problems as some i.e. a quick flash of the page and then failure to load yesterday and again at 05.00 this morning. No issues by my return at 15.00 this afternoon. Thanks again

   20. My problem seems a bit different, the old site works fine on laptop and android, but on the Telegraph website I am unable to access the new site (i get an invitation to subscribe) but when I choose one of the subscriptions it says I already have a subscription but won’t log me in? However if i use the new puzzles app on my phone it logs me in ok but the new puzzles site on laptop or chrome on android goes into the same subscription log in failure

   21. For a couple of days on Safari on iPad it would flicker, but not open. I waited and tried a couple more times and then it worked. Today it worked at first try. Thanks for looking into this. Relieved that it is not disappearing just yet.

7. An enjoyable challenge on a dreich autumn day.

   Was not too fond of 20d but the other clues were nicely challenging. Spent too long trying to use the initial letter of church in 12a.

   Favourites include another vote for 1a, 28a and me too for 5d.

   Thanks to the setter and the 2Kiwis.

8. Solid.

   A couple of new words for me in the shape of 2d and 15d. But, as always with these fabby compilers, easily solvable because of the excellent clue constructions. 2d is an outstanding word which I will try to use at every given opportunity.

   Talking of ‘try to use’….I occasionally wrote or said ‘try and use’ until a friend, a few years ago, pulled me up on it. It’s a classic banana skin which I hear people slip on a lot.

   My podium is 14a, as it’s a rare situation because it would normally be the male fish, 22a and 28a.

   Many thanks to Le Touquet and the midweek master.

   2*/4*

   1. Oh Tom where would we be without you to educate us.
      Sorry couldn’t resist it😁

      1. Good shout, Deej.

   2. Attending a ‘grammar’ school, which was founded in 1392, during the 1960’s when grammar was not taught, I remember my English teacher pointing out the ‘try to use’, not ‘try and use’ error. I’ve tried to use ‘to’ ever since, thanks for the reminder.
      This site is wonderful, I’ve been a lurker for a couple of years, when I finish the puzzle (and even if I don’t) I look forward to everyone’s comments. Thank you all.

      

      1. Welcome to the blog, Rache.
         Now that you’ve de-lurked I hope that you’ll become a regular commenter.

      2. Nice to meet you Rache and welcome to this fantabulous community of cruciverbalists.

         Doing an online search, the only school that opened in 1392, which is not when Columbus sailed the ocean blue, is Penistone, a most unfortunate name that must have been the ‘butt’ of so many jokes.

         That’s a tremendous picture. Pray tell where it is as it’s certainly not Barnsley? (I’m hoping you haven’t signed off for the day)

         I love your grammarless grammar comment, btw.

   3. It all depends on how many ships you see sailing high above their lading line.

9. An enjoyable puzzle – thanks to the setter and 2Ks.
   I was going to comment unfavourably on the five consecutive anagrams but I see that Mustafa G has already done so.
   The clues making my podium were 11a, 21a and 25a.

10. The ‘old’ web site ‘behaved’ long enough to be able to print a copy of today’s back pager (and before my printer ran out of ink) before ‘blanking’ on me again. A good ‘guess the setter’ Wednesday challenge – 2.5*/3.5*

    Candidates for favourite – 1a, 11a, 14a, 1d, and 3d – and the winner is 11a.

    Thanks to the setter and the 2Kiwis.

    1. Please will the DT retain the ‘old’ web site.

       1. I am assured by CL that the old site is not being decommissioned.

          Try clearing the cache and cookies and, thanks to some work done at DT Towers, you should be able to access the old site again

          1. What do you do if you don’t know what “cache” and “cookies” are?

             1. Hi Merusa, if you are using Chrome in Windows click on the 3 dots (RHS), select More Tools, then Clear Browsing Data. You will given a selection of cached items to clear.

                All browsers have such options. For Safari on iPad, iPhone go to Settings and find Safari. Among the options you will find Clear History and Website Data.

                I enjoyed the crossword and am sorry as usual that I comment rarely, but it is a busy time in the olives and I am trying to catch up after 18 months of health issues.

                Thanks to 2Ks and compiler.

                1. How nice to see you pop in – I do hope that all is well for both of you at the moment and that the next olive harvest is a successful one.

                   1. Hi Jane, yes all well with me. Olives look in very good shape at the moment. I hope to have them done by the end of October.

                2. Yes, nice to see you again. I’ll try, you guarantee that this tiny brain won’t be able to screw it up?

                3. I’ve done it and the iPad still works … fingers crawsed!! Aren’t I clever.
                   I hope the health problems have been solved, keep well.

             2. I thought the cache was the secret stash of cookies

          2. Thanks CS

11. Sterling Wednesday fare.
    Steadily completed except for
    Last in 15 and 20d.
    Loud Duh moments as the
    Pennies eventually dropped.
    Many thanks to the
    Setter and the 2Kiwis.

    1. I found today’s hard to get started. If last two days were ** then this surely is a ***. 14a was my favorite and cotd

12. Very enjoyable gentle fun.
    5a came up very recently, I think I preferred today’s version and I also liked 5d and the “cleverly” concealed anagram at 8d but runaway favourite and a great phrase was 18a.
    Many thanks to the setter and the Ks.

13. Does any kind soul please have a printable pdf of the puzzle for today ?

    I cannot access the site since yesterday via Chrome, Firefox, or IE. I have given up trying for today.

    1. You have mail.

       1. Cheers Gazza!

       2. Me too, please!

          1. You have mail.

          2. Thanks!

14. Another generally straightforward yet most enjoyable puzzle where the anagrams and lurkers provided a solid intro into the grid. 14a was my top clue this morning.

    My thanks to our setter and the 2Ks.

    I have had issues with the Telegraph puzzles site too, normally accessing it on the iPad version; I can get in, but then I get the wheel of death when I click on a puzzle. I have tried dumping the app and redownloading but to no avail.

15. All seemed to have enjoyed this straitforward puzzle Wednesday Puzzle and I concur;
    Favourite was 18a followed by the 14a charade.
    Last in was 20d, the leaves were confirmed by my Chambers.
    Going for a **/****

16. Two hesitations here – one over the use of 2d which had to be dragged from the cobwebs and the other over 20d which was the last to fall.
    Top three for humour were 1,11&26a with a mention for 21a although I did wonder whether our setter was poking fun at the fair sex by the inclusion of the exclamation mark!

    Thanks to our setter and to our 2Ks for the review – hope you get the election results that you favour. I think it could be a case of choosing the lesser of two evils when it comes to our turn!

    1. 20d last for me too

    2. Couldn’t agree with you more about elections, Jane.
       In Scotland we have the choice of the lesser of four evils….five if you count the greens.

       Not sure if we’re allowed to say this on this site, but there, I have anyway.

    3. Ha Jane. I am so glad you brought that up – I thought, am I brave enough to wave a feminist flag in protest at the exclamation mark? Cheeky man (I assume). I also wondered whether 2d might be a candidate for Terence but if he enjoys a glass of ale he probably is au fait with it. And 20d was also my last one in.

       1. Girl power rules!

17. A very enjoyable guzzle for me today.

    I had to, as I always do, check the spelling of 3d. At my advanced age I doubt I will ever remember it now.
    Also had to check the meaning of 2d….I suspect it may make Terence’s LIST. It certainly gets my vote to be included.

    Needed help to parse 23d….was , as presumably was intended, misdirected by “one French” . Clever.

    Favourite 14a.

    Thanks to the setter and to the 2Kiwis.

    Dreich is exactly the right description of the day here (DaveP at No7). No sign of it clearing either.

    1. Hmm…does this work for you, OM?

       Bureau is ‘UAE rub’ backwards, i.e the wrong way.

       Do the ‘UAE rub’ their people up the wrong way with their BUREAUcracy? No they don’t as they get things done in two sheikhs.

       Wey hey!

       1. There’s no end to your talents, Tom. I bet you even play the Qatar.
          Do you get these jokes for nothing or Dubai them?
          Arabs aren’t sycophants you know. But some are indeed Yemen.

          1. You’re just as bad … or should I say good!

             1. It’s a very fine line.

                The UAE’s capital is Abu Dhabi: Do you think ‘EMMA RATES’ the Flintstones? I Abu Dhabi do.

                Yemen’s is Sana’a: ‘Yeah’-men never say ‘Nah’

                Qatar’s is Dohar: Fraulein Maria strummed on her Qatar…”Dohar deer, a female deer.”

                Nothing will ever touch this musical and it’s not up for discussion.

                End of.

                1. I had to Riyadh those jokes at least twice to get them 😉

                   1. I had to Riyadh an essay (SA)

                      Oh, that’ll do.

                      I think we need to create a separate blog for our Tommy Cooper/Tim Vine efforts as there’s only so much the people here can take.

                      Going forward, AB, we’re allowed one a day. We need to choose them wisely.

                      1. I won’t be around for a bit now so you can have my share Tom

                         1. Don’t encourage me!

                2. TDS

                   i think a recent study has shown that people in the emirates don’t much care for the flintstones but those living in Abu Dhabi dooooo

                   1. We love it, Banksie! 🤜👍👏

                   2. This will work nicely for the capital of the UAE for any Gooners out there…

                      Abou Diaby used to play at The Emirates.

18. Hard to get started. Loved 14a so my cotd.

19. Pleasantly interesting in the number of partial and complete anagrams which oiled this solve and which I found just ** and definitely excellent at ****. A high quality week so far. No particular favourites as uniformly well composed. Thanks to the 2K’s and our illustrious setter.

20. 15d and 20d were last in for me too. I had never heard of that type of leaf but decided it couldn’t be anything else from the structure of the clue. I echo the comments above about the way the clues are built: it makes solving them an absolute joy.
    2d takes me back to working in a pub in St Ives, Cambridgeshire when we had to keep track of it.
    1a and 28a were my favourites.
    Many thanks to the setter and for the hints.

21. Thanks to Colin Kiwi for the hints, not needed again but always read. average difficulty for me. Quite a lot of chestnuts today but I don’t like it too hard anyway. Liked 14a. loi 13d. No oddities.
    Methinks this week so far is fairly easy.

22. *** I managed to get the old site working but I had to reload/refresh the page a couple of times. My mum however, in West Kelowna was unable to get it to load even with refreshes of the page ***

    A nice puzzle for the mid-week. Quite approachable and some nice clues with logical parsing for my mind today.

    1.5*/4* for me.

    Favourites include 1a, 11a, 14a, 18a & 17d — with winner 18a … by a hair over 11a

    Thanks to setter and the 2k’s for hints/blog

23. I found today’s guzzle much friendly than yesterday’s and particularly enjoyed sll the great anagrams of which 14a was the best. The cryptic definition at 11a was another hreat ckue, as was the lego clue at 18a. Having read about all the problems with the DTwebsite, I’m glad we have the dead tree version delivered daily. It’s a pity that a website, which is supposed to make things easy is such a pain in everyone’s neck. About time the DTVsorted it out. Thanks to the Kiwis forthe hints and to the compiler for s very pleasant puzzle.

24. Lovely guzzle, thoroughly enjoyed it except for the cheeky exclamation mark ❗️ and 20d for which I had to do a reveal – bladed leaves being buried deep in old biology lessons I guess. There were some very clever clues, I liked 13,12&27a and 2,8&16d. I think the favourite is 8d. Or perhaps 27a. Many thanks to Messrs Setter & Kiwis – glorious sunshine here in South Cambridgeshire. PS I had trouble downloading Agent B’s Rookie puzzle – but liked what I could find. I don’t do the online puzzle site, I like it on paper.

    1. Gazza might be able to email you a copy to print out. Thanks for having a go though 😊

    2. I only realised what 20d could be after I thought of *****s of grass which are probably familiar to most of us.

25. Good afternoon
    Reading some of the above comments, I feel relieved that I’m a subscriber to the dead tree version of the Telegraph; I’m a complete technophobe and only know what I do know thanks to my wife, and my bairns (oh DAAAD, give it here Dad – look, THAT’S how you do it! Duhhh!!)
    And so to the crozzie: took a little while to get going, but I made it. Some nifty witticisms and misdirection which made for an enjoyable solve.
    Many thanks to our compiler and to 2Ks.

    1. When anything goes wrong on the computer I always say to George we need a seven year old child! You are lucky to have one, they just seem to absorb IT so easily.

26. I use the dead tree version so no problems
    2d and 20d were new to me
    COTD 1a

27. I was dead on wavelength today, only using a dictionary to be sure 2d and 15d exist. I also got 20d wrong, but I was sure it was, I just bunged in an answer in desperation. There were some good stuff here, loved 11a, 12a, 14a and 18a, stick a pin in to choose a fave.
    Thank you setter for the fun, and the 2Kiwis for the hints and pics.

28. Pleasant offering today with only a couple of sticking points. I thought 5a was very weak and 20d also not up to the standard of the other excellent clues.
    Thx to all
    **/***

29. 1/3. Enjoyable while it lasted but made easier by the number of anagrams. No stand out favourite. Thanks to the setter and the 2Ks.

30. I got going quite quickly and thought I was on a roll – but that stopped and then it changed and became very slow.
    The two “stoppers” that got everyone (2d and 20d) got me too.
    Lots of good clues including 14 and 18a and 1 and 5d. My favourite was 13d.
    Thanks to whoever set today’s crossword and to the 2K’s for the hints.

31. Always think I am Mrs. Average in most things. So it seems with crosswords, as my views on the exclamation mark today, new words and last clues in seem to tie in with most of the other contributors. Thanks to all . Enjoyed the ride.

32. Morning all.
    We breathed a huge sigh of relief when we eventually managed to put this together. Not only were we 4-5 hours later than usual and tired after a day of unaccustomed work, but we had to find a way of downloading the clues from the ‘NEW’ website that we could use to write the hints.
    Luckily the puzzle went together smoothly for us but suspect that a degree in Botany and years of working in the wine making industry were both helpful with the clues that many are reporting as sticking points.
    Thanks setter for the puzzle.
    Cheers.

    1. We are all so grateful for your guidance from the other side of the world!

33. I completed the top half of the puzzle quite quickly except for 2d. Realised it could be a lurker but hadn’t heard of the word or seen it in print until today. I held back on few in the second half until they gelled. 20d eluded me altogether and had to refer to the hints in the end. Many thanks to the setter for an enjoyable challenge and to the 2K’s.

34. A solid guzzle though didn’t think it hit the heights of recent Wednesdays. Wonder who the setter is. No real problems though 2d a new word on me. Top 2 – 11&18a.
    Thanks to the setter & to the 2Ks

35. Nice crossword well clued and very doable. Still struggling with the toughie I’ll return to it in a minute. 18a is one of those phrases that I have no idea where it comes from, a bit like run like the clappers. Hard to pick a favourite but I’ll go with 1a. Thanks to the setter and 2 K’s.

36. Enjoyable puzzle, favourite 14a today, top half flew in but lower half was slow. Resorted to going through the alphabet for 20d, and like others had to check 2d lurker was a word. Other than that dictionary check finished unaided today, but took a bit longer than the last few Wednesdays.

37. I found this trickier than recent Wednesdays and needed a hint or two. I did not know the term in 2d. I liked the multiword clues.

    Many thanks to the setter and to the 2 Kiwis.

38. 2*/4* …
    Liked 1A … “What stomach may do …..”

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