Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3261 (Hints)
Hints and tips by Senf
A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg where I had to extract my Winter coat from the back of the wardrobe for Thursday and Friday when we had high temperatures of zero degrees with snow!
For me, and I stress for me, Dada’s friendliness last week appears to have been an aberration but he has given us only six anagrams (one partial), only one hinted because it’s the last ‘Across,’ four long ‘uns that may or may not help, no lurkers, and no homophones, all in a symmetric 28 clues; with 14 hints ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid, you should be able to get the checkers to enable the solving of the unhinted clues. And, remember, the Naughty Step is OPEN!
Candidates for favourite – 11a, 14a, 24a, 5d, 7d, and 21d.
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 the 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
1a Sport bound to feature in transmission (11)
A four letter synonym of bound inserted into (in) a synonym of (TV?) transmission.
11a Boat, vessel crossing a river (9)
A vessel (which may contain beans) containing (crossing) all of A from the clue and a river that forms most of the boundary between ‘cream first’ or ‘jam first.’
14a Town near Salford in religious book? (6)
The abbreviated form, and it’s in the BRB, of an OT book.
18a Extremely elegant primarily in cap — and tie! (4,4)
A synonym of extremely, according to Chambers Crossword Dictionary, and the first letter (primarily) of Elegant inserted into what a cap is a type of.
23a Massive housing association ultimately with nothing for house (5)
A synonym of massive containing (housing) the last letter (ultimately) of associatioN, and (with) the letter that represents nothing at the end.
24a Two boys, a state (9)
Guess two boys, the illustration should help on the first, and put the A from the clue at the end.
28a Little bits messier then when scattered around (11)
An anagram (when scattered around) of MESSIER THEN.
Down
2d Initially high above — float there? (5)
The first letter (initially) of High and a synonym of above.
4d Totally exposed, portmanteau of male relatives? (6)
A portmanteau (a word into which are packed the sense (and sound) of two words (straight from the BRB)) of two male relatives.
5d Amateur snooker player pockets red, shortly (8)
A perhaps informal term for a snooker player (the BRB is no help on this one) contains (pockets) REd with the last letter deleted (shortly).
7d Transport for a pastor on top of hill somewhere in London (9,4)
A synonym of pastor (somewhat related to sheep) with a possessive S and a form of transport (B for A = A’s B), placed before (on) the first letter (top) of Hill.
17d Opening in fact an inadequate window (8)
The first letter (opening in) of Fact, AN from the clue, and a synonym of inadequate (referring to weight?).
21d Treading the boards, one leg after another? (2,5)
Two legs – the first a crickety side and the second referring to an element of an event.
25d Turkish commander popular — encore! (5)
Our popular Turkish commander and a two letter synonym of popular.
Quick Crossword Pun:
PINBALL + WHIZZ + ERRED = PINBALL WIZARD
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Somewhat cringeworthy, Tony Orlando and Dawn were number one for 4 weeks starting on this day in 1973 and this is from a live performance in Amsterdam in February 1974:
3*/2*. A curate’s egg for me today with a few hmms and 24a sinking into the pits combining two random names in a meaningless surface.
Thanks to the setter and to Senf.
RD you can be relied upon to react where use of first names is concerned as per 24a. I usually agree with you but not really in this case!
Angelov, it’s the surface reading of 24a that I particularly don’t like. The wordplay is three words strung together to make a nonsensical phrase.
RD, (11a) are random rivers OK? Why do you just have a problem with random names?
Franco, I’m not that keen on random rivers but you wouldn’t want me wittering on about them as well as names, would you?
I think there may well be less rivers than names that could lend themselves to a crossword clue. I know it usually takes me much less time to think of a river than a person’s name.
The “fewer” the better!
Oh I love you all!
Oh, hang my head in shame.
More haste, fewer speed!
From a blogger’s, i.e. my, perspective, apart from the obvious, well I thought so, picture hint for the first 24a boy, providing a hint for those that need it for ‘guess a river’ is a lot easier. As well as the potential for a picture hint a geographical hint is easy to derive.
To me, using two names for almost the whole wordplay makes it quite difficult without checkers, particularly as the definition is fairly vague as well. Names are often abbreviated and there are familial versions, which doesn’t seem to happen that much with rivers. I haven’t checked this but it has been commented that the 2000 US census found “5,163 different first names in common use”. Wikipedia offers, for example, six familial versions of Eleanor (although some of them might be given names in their own right nowadays), five of which fit into numerous words. Also compilers seem to restrict themselves to rivers that are well known to people in the UK (e.g. I haven’t seen river used for Lee (East Timor)), whereas all names in common usage (including their variants) seem to be fair game.
Regarding rivers; I wanted to comment at the time but bit my tongue. A very recent puzzle used the dirty brown streak of mud that passes through my home town as part of the clue. As a Sheffield lad born and bred I felt honoured but pitied everyone who had never heard of it. I also agree with the sentiments being expressed about the use of first names.
Definitely trickier than last week but perhaps just a little joyless? I have to agree with RD re 24a. And 22d does seem more reliant on GK than WP – pretty well known, yes, but it didn’t really float my boat. 4d’s just odd. But 16a’s nice, 28a’s a lovely word and 3d made me smile. I did like 21d and 7d’s clever. Thanks to Dada and Senf.
I agree re 4d,
Me too.
Birds of a feather 🙂?!
Me as well, seen the hint but still reckon its dreadful.
The clue that is, not the hint.
I knew what you meant.
Wasn’t sure, but glad you did 😉
I quite enjoyed this one – a few clues seemed a bit different from the norm, like 14a and 4d, which I’m still not sure I completely understand. COTD for me was 26a, LOI 22d. Maybe I should have paid more attention in Eng Lit at school but I have never really embraced the bard. Thanks to Senf and to the setter.
Hard… help; what did Senf mean by his comment about 24 hints?
Your comment went into moderation because you used another different alias which should now work with all the others.
I am not sure where you got ’24 hints’ from. I did write, as I usually do, ‘a symmetric 28 clues; with 14 hints’ or whatever the number of clues and hints is.
I think I would have understood this more if it was in Swahili a language that is completely unknown to me.
Managed two answers then turned to more interesting things like watching the grass grow.
*****/0
Thx for the hints
Your comment went into moderation because of a typo in your e-mail address which I have taken the liberty of correcting.
Kwheri Bwana
Thanks for the laugh Brian, I totally concur, except the grass grows very quickly here.
I found this hard going but managed to complete even though I thought it was beyond me on the first pass.
Liked 26a, 28a (great word) and 11a.
Thanks to Dada and Senf.
Not a barrowload of fun but 12a did amuse. Never heard 14a part of book used. 17d was unparsed by me. Thanks Dada and Senf.
I thought this was pretty good today. A couple that required a little thought, but overall fairly straightforward.
Many thanks to Dada for the enjoyment. 2*/4* for me.
This was chewy and needed some perseverance, but got there in the end.
LOI was 22d where I needed all the checkers and a run round the alphabet before I alighted on a reasonable answer that I was able to confirm.
I don’t really understand 4d, I thought a portmanteau was the putting together of two complete words to make another word, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here, unless I have the wrong answer.
Thanks to Dada and Senf
GJR, I agree that 4d is rather strange, but generally portmanteau words do not comprise two complete words, e.g. brunch, smog, labradoodle.
As I indicated in the 4d hint, my parenthetical comment is straight out of the BRB.
And, to add to RD’s not unreasonable examples, I would offer the dreadful example that we are encouraged not to use by the blog’s ‘Comment Etiquette’ of anagrind.
Thanks RD and Senf, another piece of education for me, much appreciated
I entered 4d because it just had to be but reading these comments I have just fallen in that it is indeed a portmanteau of male relatives. Does that put me on the naughty step – I’d like a piece of cake!
Great to see your posts, DG.
Onwards and upwards.
I’m with RD on the curate’s egg analogy today but there were a few clues that I enjoyed. From those, I gave podium places to 16&28a plus 3&21d.
Thanks to Dada and to Senf for the hints but maybe not the music!
Pleasurable but with not a lot of sparkle – thanks to Dada and Senf.
The clues I liked best were 18a, 7d and 21d.
It was apparent to me early on that I was not going to get far with this one without some e help and a look at the hints. I have now finished but it was a struggle, 22d was a gap in my GK and I did not know 14a. I did enjoy solving many of them, particularly 11a and 28a. Thank goodness there were some anagrams to help.
Many thanks to Dada for the challenge and to Senf for the needed hints.
Quite a mixture today. 22d really activated the memory cells as I did [redacted – alternative clue – it’s a prize puzzle – read the instructions in RED below the hints] for O-level! Took a while to get it, but do like the fruit!I
Hesitated a lot about the ‘extreme’ in 18a, but it had to be, and 17d resisted a lot. But going for 15d as the fave with its nod to Rip Haywire and Dick Tracy.
Many thanks to Dada and to Senf for some helpful clarifications.
Sorry, colour blind!
Hurtling out of the door for luncheon appointment.
Great guzzle – needed Senf’s help.
Thanks to Da-doo-ron-ron and The Man From Manitoba.
On my first pass only managed five solutions but after a time visiting our local shop with gluten free I found every thing fell into place. No it didn’t ; that is something that is said almost everyday so I thought why the hell should I not say it. Pity it can’t be given a minus score. Definitely a crossword set with a sense of preening in front of the mirror.
DD
Best part of the morning was seeing a Little Dipper by the side of Thornton Beck on the way home through Thornton Dale.
I’m interested. Last week, the “Big Dipper” appeared in a puzzle but it was unanimously put down as an Americanism. Now I see the “Little Dipper” appears. Does that mean you have a “Little Dipper” but the “Big Dipper” is the Plough?
I rather think that this is the Little Dipper that Corky was referring to.
Ooops! Didn’t know that one. If you learn something every day, your day has not been wasted!
Hi Corky I was interested to see that you shop for gluten free as I do – I’ve just discovered a totally gluten free bakery in Herne Hill where I do granny duties and I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to get a gf croissant and coffee for breakfast – plus buying fresh bread, cake and bagels. I’m also in agreement with you about the crossword but having just got home and read the hints I’ll have another stab at it. Many thanks to the setter and Senf for wonderful explanations to a really tricky crossword.
You’ve dropped the usual prefix to your name so this needed moderation. Both versions will work from now on.
Certainly trickier than last week. Needed Senf’s help on two to get me over the line which gave me a feeling of relief rather than satisfaction on finishing. As others have said it lacked some of Dada’s usual “sparkle” or maybe it’s just me having an off day. Thanks to Dada and Senf.
Started off sunny in Sandhurst today, so went for a spin on the bike thinking in would be warm enough, wrong!
Anything over about forty, and it got b****y cold, so only did about 20 miles.
As to the puzzle, I didn’t think things could get much harder than Friday, but this one ran it close, still can’t see how 11a and 4d work so will hope the hints have them.
This felt very strange so I’m intrigued to see who the setter might be.
Favourites today are 24a and the very good 23a. Many thanks to our sadist today.
Tricky and not one of those that gave a lot of satisfaction when I finally cracked it (after a brief visit here!)
Thanks to all involved
Late doing this one today. Seemed to lack the usual fun a Dada usually has in his puzzles.
Some strange clueing IMHO
Didn’t really enjoy this one. Maybe it is just me today.
3*/2*
Favourites include 14a, 28a, 6d & 7d
Thanks to Dada & Senf for hints/blog
It was a tricky one indeed but I have finished with a huge query over 8d which of course is not hinted. I am not very au fait with African cities. I havered over 4d but it is a bona fide portmanteau word. Who else went on pangram alert? I had daisies beside 11,13 23&28a and 3,15&22d, but I think 12a is a brilliant clue. Many thanks to the wily setter and to Senf. Sunny here in Cambridge but a biting wind. It is almost exactly a week since I went through the greenhouse. How maddening. My thumb typing is improving but I have to complain that reading the DT makes the bandages filthy, I shall have to ask the butler to iron the paper every morning.
DG do you “get” representation in 8d?
Yes, this was decidedly tricky, but it was doable in the end with some bung ins. I did need ehelp with some, and an anagram solver for 28a; what a lovely word that is. I had to google 14a to see if it was near Salford, but I got the religious book bit. There was a lot of good stuff, 11a, 23a, 24a and 7d were smilers, but fave is 1a ‘cos I enjoy it so much.
Thank you Dada for the fun, and your help with enlightenment much appreciated, Senf.
The self-immolation by that idiot in DC yesterday was a shock! Is that how rabid the movement is now? God help us all.
Had reservations about a few. 14a, 26a (clipper?) and the last three letters in 4d (relative?). Apart from those an OK crossword. Favourite was 3d. Thanks to Dada and Senf.
Remember, as discussed in Comment 9, there are letters ‘deleted’ in the construction of a portmanteau word.
Split your 4d answer (4,2) and add 2 letters in the ‘gap’ for two male relatives.
Oh I’ve got it now. Thanks.
D’oh the second relative (abbreviation) penny has just dropped!
A slow start but to my surprise I finished it….that is if my 4d is right!
COTD is 28a because I like the word
I presume we are all attacking the puzzle rather than doing the London Marathon?
I doubt many of us could manage a marathon JB!
You’re right. I found it exhausting just to watch!
Good afternoon
Pen down after the first attempt at a Sunday crozzie in months! We almost always have company for Sunday dinner, and I’m normally at least two glasses of red down by 4pm! But not today.
Having just read the hints, I have realised that I’ve entered the wrong solution to 17d! D’oh!
COTD: 23a. As my Mam would have said: “Ee! Have you ever?!”
Thank you Dada and Senf
Incidentally, why, when I enter my alias and email address, and tick “save”, are they no longer saved? This wasn’t the case before we had the techie problem with the site a few days ago. Anyone shed any light? Thanks.
There has been a lot of discussion on details not being saved in the last week.
Essentially, while he is ‘searching’ for a permanent ‘fix,’ the only way that Mr K can keep the ‘techie problem’ at bay is to disable automatic saving of personal details. Having to enter personal details every time est une douleur au derrière, mais c’est la vie!
It sounds so much classier in French, doesn’t it?!
Why is French pain “female”…? Maybe they know something
What happened to the Dada I have learned to like and enjoy? This was like going back five years to his nigh on impossible stage. Clearly above my pay grade. Will have to be content at having only 2/3rd done. I can only imagine that Danword was on fire today. So Toughie solvers have a double gift today. I’m off to do something more exciting – again – the ironing. Hats off to Senf for being able to solve and hint this for us.
My ‘A’ Level classic helped.
Loved this ‘a bit askew’ Dada offering.
COTD 24a.
Many thanks and to
Senf.
PS
Only failure – baffled by 4d.
Unfortunately my study of (redacted) for o-level didn’t, so had to look him/it up!
If anyone is in ever visiting lovely Skipton theres an amazing bakery by the bridge selling the cakes named after that town near Salford! Thanks Dada and Senf, agree with comments about 4d but mostly a fun solve
A really enjoyable grid, suitably challenging for a prize puzzle, all eminently fair and gettable with a little bit of patience and head-scratching. Dada returning to form, I felt, rather overdue, even if there were a couple of eyebrow-raising clues. I counted 7 full/partial anagrams, which is pushing it a bit, but some of them were real crackers, so no whinging from me today. Podium places to 7d, 9d, 17d & 28a.
3* / 4*
Thank you Dada and Senf.
Bit late today but I had no real problems with this apart from a couple which kept me guessing, especially 4 and 5d. 7d was the pick of the contenders for top spot. Enjoyable without perhaps hitting the highs we often see on a Sunday.
Thanks to Dada and Senf.
A heartbreaking penalty shootout defeat in the FA Cup semi final after a spirited comeback from 3-O down by my team has put the tin hat on a frustrating 24hrs. A long journey back from Pensacola minus our golf clubs – they’ve had to remain that side of the pond following the non arrival of our van booked to get us & all of our gear to the airport. Fortunately our host could just about cram 3 of us into his car with our other bags so we just about made our connecting flight to Atlanta. I dread to think what the cost of shipping the clubs over will be.
As to the puzzle I agree with Gazza (comment 11) & his 3 picks. Thought yesterday’s prize puzzle, which I completed but didn’t have the chance to comment on, the better of the two.
Thanks to D&S
Unlike Brian I am unable to watch the grass grow because the gardener has just cut it. However thank goodness for snooker on television, which has made a very pleasant day and enabled me to forget about impossible Sunday prize crosswords. Incidentally thanks to Mr. K I am one who does receive their automatic details every day. Thanks to all.
First pass through gave a complete blank but then bit by bit everything fell into place.