Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29370
Hints and tips by Deep Threat
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Good morning from South Staffs, with an overcast and breezy start to the day.
Some clever cluing in today’s puzzle, but also one or two which didn’t really work for me, so that untangling them took me into *** time. Ishall be interest to hear what others make of it.
In the hints below, the definitions are underlined. The answers are hidden under the ANSWER buttons, so don’t click if you don’t want to see them.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.
Across
1a Go off to get married in ceremony (4)
POMP – ‘Go off’, like a bursting balloon, wrapped around Married.
3a Blunder, tucking into regional cheese after the Spanish fruity wine? (10)
ELDERBERRY – Start with a Spanish definite article, then add an English regional cheese from the Midlands wrapped around another word for ‘blunder’, and we get a hedgerow fruit which can be made into wine.
9a Some food’s outside (4)
RIND – Cryptic definition of the inedible outer part of some foods.
10a Make too few runs, maybe creating stress (10)
UNDERSCORE – This way of stressing or emphasising something (as this blog does to identify the definition part of the clues) could also be descriptive of a batsman not getting enough runs.
11a Rotten decorator for cakes in general? (7)
OFFICER – Another word for ‘rotten’ followed by someone decorating cakes, gives us a general, or colonel, or captain…
13a Fought the French — dust’s settling around (7)
TUSSLED – Anagram (settling) of DUST’S, wrapped around a French definite article.
14a Fall for something old wives claim, talking butterfly (11)
SWALLOWTAIL – To ‘fall for’ or ‘be taken in by’, followed by a homophone (talking) of the sort of claim often attributed to old wives.
18a Not admitted into church, as lacking foundation (11)
UNCONFIRMED – This word for something with no supporting evidence could also describe someone who has not undergone the ceremony making them a full member of the (Anglican) church.
21a Design of paper or magazine cutting I twice rejected (7)
ORIGAMI – Put together OR (from the clue), and two examples of I (from the clue) (I twice) with the reverse (rejected) of a short form of ‘magazine’ placed between them. Second time this week for this one.
22a What health inspector seeks in hospital, eyeing rubbish (7)
HYGIENE – An abbreviation for Hospital followed by an anagram (rubbish) of EYEING.
23a Italian artist‘s belt — coil it for sculpting (10)
BOTTICELLI – Anagram (for sculpting) of BELT COIL IT.
24a Something for the home that’s welcome if retiring (2-2)
HI-FI – A short word of greeting, followed by the reverse (retiring) of IF (from the clue).
25a With Frenchman backing US soldier, chorus is electrifying (10)
ENERGISING – Put together the reverse (backing) of a French name (Descartes, or the café proprietor in Allo Allo, for example), the usual US soldier, and another verb for ‘chorus’.
26a Paste menu’s logo evenly over displays (4)
GLUE – Alternate letters of mEnU’s LoGo, reversed.
Down
1d Marine creature with compact power or elegance (8)
PORPOISE – Put together an abbreviation for Power, OR (from the clue), and another word for ‘elegance’.
2d Won a farm for conversion and boat (3-2-3)
MAN-OF-WAR – Anagram (for conversion) of WON A FARM. I suspect naval people would call this a ship, not a boat, unless the term can be applied to submarines.
4d Solitary type of bank worker on the phone? (5)
LONER – A homophone (on the phone) of what someone performing a particular banking function might be.
5d Possible outcome of reading English with OK tutor (9)
EYESTRAIN – Put together English, another way of saying ‘OK’, and a verb for ‘tutor’ or ‘teach’.
6d Number one footballer being transferred? (11)
BESTSELLING – Start with the surname of a former Northern Ireland and Manchester United footballer of enormous talent, then add a word which can mean ‘being transferred’, perhaps at an auction where a lot which has reached its reserve price could be described as this. I have to say I don’t care much for this clue. The answer, though the BRB has it as one word, could well be split (4-7), and the second part of the wordplay would sit better with ‘transferring’ rather then ‘being transferred’.
7d Character keeps climbing to ferret about (6)
ROOTLE – The character or part someone might play on stage, wrapped around the reverse (climbing) of TO (from the clue).
8d Bond returns and admits defeat (6)
YIELDS – Double definition, the first being the income received from Government bonds.
12d Devious computing (11)
CALCULATING – Double definition, the first being a metaphorical use.
15d Idiosyncrasy in variety of cakes wins (9)
WACKINESS – Anagram (variety of) of CAKES WINS.
16d Royal crimper, I also cut equally high and low (8)
IMPERIAL – Hidden in the clue.
17d Admitted to a seedy club, that chap’s 26 (8)
ADHESIVE – A (from the clue) and a seedy nightclub, wrapped round the short pronoun form of ‘that chap is’, giving us something which is also the answer to 26a.
19d Repair shoe‘s lump underfoot? (6)
COBBLE – Double definition, the second being one of the lumps of stome used to pave a type of road or path.
20d Part of body being stroked occasionally (3,3)
BIG TOE – Alternate letters (occasionally) of BeInG sTrOkEd.
22d Unveiled, she lent beauty to mythology (5)
HELEN – Remove the outer letters (unveiled) from (s)HE LEN(t), to get the mythological beauty whose face was said to have launched a thousand ships.
The Quick Crossword pun RUE + PERT + BARE = RUPERT BEAR
Real workout today that was a bit trickier than 3* for me. Loved 6d, brilliant clue.
Very enjoyable if needed a little electronic help.
Has anyone else on an iPad noticed a sudden change in font, very disconcerting?
****/****
Thx to all
I couldn’t agree more, Brian.
6d is truly superb.
Yes! It’s incredible how quickly we get used to things such as fonts.
2.5*/3*. This was accessible and generally enjoyable although I agree with DT’s comment about 6d, which was definitely a bit dodgy.
9a was my last one in and probably my favourite.
Many thanks to the setter (Zandio perhaps?) and to DT.
I needed extensive electronic help to solve this, but enjoyed it nonetheless. Favourite clue 11a and 23a. ****/*** rating for me. Thanks to setter and Deep Threat.
Not my cup of tea today, but accept that others may thoroughly enjoy it. Still, it filled in time so thanks to the setter and to DT.
No particular difficulty. Most of the clues were very good. In particular 3a, 14a and 12d. 9a is weak. It didn’t really work for me. Off the top of my head, I can only think of cheese and lemons as food with a rind which is stretching the “some” part of the clue. I worked out the ” why” of 5d in the same way as our reviewer and was interested to see if he came up with a better explanation. “Yes” = “ok” is not quite there for me. Enjoyable enough. Thanks to all.
Bacon?
Not my cup of tea either (***/*). The clues were rather contrived and I agree with DT that some of them (6d) didn’t work. In 25a. the noun chorus is supposed to be synonymous with a verb, which doesn’t answer for me. I was just glad to get to the end of this one, although there were a few bung-ins (all correct ). Thanks to DT for the explanations and to the setter. I’m sure a lot of people will enjoy this puzzle. Stay safe and well everyone.
‘Chorus’ can be a verb as well.
Agree with you Chris re 25a. I’ve never heard chorus as a verb. Would have been better clued with “chant” maybe.
For me, a very good end to a good week of back pagers. There’s a couple that I haven’t quite parsed fully but I’m not going to look at the hints just yet!
I did like the 26a/17d combination and thought 10a was very good too along with 5d, but I could mention quite a few more.
3/4*
Many thanks to the setter and to DT for the entertainment.
Bit of a struggle this although got there in the end in **** time with a ** enjoyment factor as a bit too much like hard work. 7d was inevitable but I have never heard that word before: I am more of a pootle man.
I’d go for pootle as well!
We have plenty of time at the moment to pootle, perhaps having a tootle at the same time.
Yes no rootling going on here …
Rootle and pootle mean different things to me – the first meaning a hunt around for something, or ferret, and the second just fiddling around doing nothing in particular.
With you here, Kath.
What about footle?
Then there is tootle!
Just in case anyone is wondering, to tootle is to walk as in “to tootle along to the shop”.
Ah, that’ll be what brainless millionaires do on your average Saturday afternoon at Stamford Bridge, Gazza, whilst others with a negative IQ pay to watch them pretend to be mortally wounded because somebody nearly touched them. Seems to me that any time a tiny embryonic brain starts to form in their heads, it is promptly emptied onto the pitch via a nostril
I am indebted to Kath for finally unravelling my rootle tootle quandary. There’ll be no more rootling in the dictionary so I’m now going to tootle off for a cup of cocoa and an early night.
Phew!
🤣🤣🤣🤣
For me the difficulty came somewhere between Wednesday and Thursday. A Little longer than ** but not ***. As usual I was held up by the four letter answers – 1 and 9a being my last two in. When I finished I was amazed to find I had made no errors. I wasn’t sure that 7d was a proper word but risked it and found it was correct. Favourites 10 14 and 18a and 5 and 9d. Difficult for me to choose between them but it was 5d that gave me a real “doh” moment. Thanks Deep Threat – I’ve yet to check if all my parsing is correct but shall do so as we are never too old to learn. Thanks to setter too – I’ve no complaints
A few clues we didn’t like, in line with comments above, but many more that we liked: much better than yesterday, thank you setter and DT. ***/***
Sorry to read that some have not enjoyed this one – I thought it was most enjoyable with a refreshingly ‘different’ feel to it.
Plenty of ticks on my paper but I’ll single out the fauna in 14a & 1d along with 7d which is a lovely descriptive word.
Many thanks to our setter and to DT for the review and the clip of Flanders & Swann.
Lots of cinghiale (wild boar) rootling under the olives here👀
I too enjoyed this crossword. 7dn held me up for a long while – I had the word but parsing it was another matter.
Thanks setter and DT.
I thought it just right for a Friday – like Jane I picked 7d as it is such a splendid word
Thanks to the setter and to DT
Fings ain’t wot they used to be on Fridays in the absence of The Don but this was a pleasant enough substitution. SE was last to yield. Took a while to abandon thinking around James B for 8d. I agree that food in 9a is rather broad. 3a on its own is not a wine but merely describes a wine. Hurrah for a snippet of Flanders & Swann. My Fav chuckle was 20d. Thank you to whomever was setter and DT.
I have no qualms with this puzzle today and going for a **/***.
6d was a tad clumsy but raised a smile, I used to see the genius most weeks in the 60,s at Old Trafford- went on my motor bike- loved the floodlit games, I recall a game against Real Madrid with Di Steffano and Puscas- I think the score was 2-2 ?
My favourite was Denis the king of the Stretford end-the best timer of heading the ball that I ever saw, must mention the power of bobby.s shooting from 30plus yards.
Anyway I digress-liked 7d, and the quickie pun,the toughie awaits.
He would have been 74 today.
I liked it and contrary to some thought 6d and 25a were great clues. “Chacun à son goût” to quote Prince Orlofsky. Thanks to DT and today’s setter.
Pleasantly enjoyable, somewhat spoiled by 6d, completed at a gallop – 2.5*/3.5*.
Candidates for favourite – 3a, 5d, and 17d – and the winner is 17d.
Thanks to the setter and DT.
Agreed fairly easy with some enjoyable clues. Really liked 5d 7d and several others. Needed the explanation for 8d. The last time I sold any shares was 30 years ago when I ditched BT at their highest ever price. Thanks both
**/****
What a contrast to my poor effort yesterday. I thoroughly enjoyed this one giving, as it did, the right amount of head scratching and lightbulb moments. As I parsed 5d, the answer gradually revealed itself rather like some Quickie puns do. This is my COTD but others worth a mention are 3a, 11a, 25a and 17d.
Was I the only one who put something different for 24a? Same letters except for the first. Flanders and Swann would know the correct answer but would never had heard of the one I thought it was.
Many thanks to the setter and DT.
SC – my first thought (possibly for other bloggers too) for 24a was the more modern term but I couldn’t parse welcome.
It’s another example of my bunging an answer in without properly parsing the clue. A habit I really must get out of.
🙂
Guilty!
Same here! Couldn’t parse it. And now I know why. Or wi.
Neat reply! 👍
I really enjoyed this one, I suppose I was lucky to get on setters wavelength quite quickly. Favourites 11a and 6d plus 18a. It is quite subjective to like or dislike a crossword. I have found over the years that I have never really disliked a crossword, even my categorised “stinkers” have entertainment value. At least during this time our brains are getting some exercise.
I was taking the dogs for a run on Bodmin Moor location classified not a person about.
I hope everybody is keeping safe and well, not to much cabin fever setting in.
Thanks to DT for excellent hints and setter.
Took a bit to get to 10a and a start (keep saying my technique is a all wrong) but then things fell steadily. Enjoyable and absorbing enough to keep out thoughts of Biggles taking me for my morning walk in rain / hail.
Not familiar with 7d but my ignorance is now corrected.
Origami is obviously the “trending” word in crosswordland 3 times now in a week or so.
I thought 9a my LOI would be an old chestnut but as RD has picked it out perhaps not. Elegantly simple tempting complicated thoughts that weren’t needed.
Thanks to setter & DT
Am preparing a visit to Inverness for essential supplies – can I manage a 70 mile round trip in one day?
I quite liked it too, especially the alternating letters clues, both forward and in reverse.
Although 3a was obvious, it took me ages to “see” the cheese and the blunder……….
Thanks for the Flanders and Swann clip DT, although I can’t help thinking how out of date that is – WiFi rather trickier to clue though. Reminds me of the following comedy sketch
Thank you, Bluebird, that clip definitely had me laughing.
Yes, very funny and thanks for sharing it. I recognise the sales technique and next time it happens to me I must remember the image of the lettuce leaf – it will make it easier to resist!
Lurker breaks cover. Greetings all.
Welcome to the blog
So what did you think of the crossword?
I put in 1d first thing this morning then kinda kept looking at the other clues for a while – took the dog for our walk/run which seemed to clear the fog. I liked 7d, an interesting word and 6d had me thinking of George B… as the number one footballer at first glance 😉.
Nice Friday puzzle ***/****
Thx to setter and DT
Another back page struggle today but got there in the end with 1a, 1d & 9a causing a major hold up. Was unfamiliar with both 7d & 14a but gettable from the wordplay & requiring confirmation. Share DT’s reservation about 6d but that aside I thought this pretty enjoyable & not quite sure why I made such hard work of it. No real favourites today although quite liked the 17d & 26a link.
With thanks to the setter & DT
Like Jane, I thought that this most enjoyable puzzle had a different, refreshing flair to it–a kind of saucy wit that seemed unique to this setter. Clues like 20d and 17d/26a, for example. My last two in (18a/5d) struck me as ‘something new, aha’! Finished in good time and thought that 5d was the COTD, with 20d and 17d/26a fleshing out the podium. Is this a new setter to Friday cryptics, I wonder? Many thanks to Deep Threat (whose concern over 6d I agree with) and today’s kinky setter. ** / ****
I liked this. Thank you to the setter, and to Deep Threat, whose hints I used a few of.
I only knew 2d from CrypticSue’s hint in yesterday’s Toughie — handy timing!
My top few included 10a (a relief to see it was the nice sort of stress!) and 12d’s devious computing. My favourite was 8d (‘Bond returns’), which made me laugh out loud when I worked it out.
Currently I’m based in a child’s attic bedroom. Every half hour or so I’m popping my head out the roof window to see what the queue’s like at the household waste recycling centre (“tip”) round the corner, trying to work out the best moment to go.
Nice gravatar.
Sassy puzzle no? Great fun though.
Welcome to the blog
Welcome to the blog.
Is your avatar inspired by the Steely Dan song ?
What a change from yesterday, from barely completing half to near full house today, needed help with 7d, new word for me but not to Mrs 2P, and annoyed I missed the lurker at 16d.
COTD 8d
Thanks to the setter and DT
Now THAT is a great alias !!
Another day, another puzzle. Thoroughly enjoyed this one because I could work steadily through, enjoying all the clever clues.
7d. was what the pathologist was always doing to the bodies in Endeavour.
My favourites were 1d and the simple joy of 22d.
Thanks to the setter and to DT for illumination of the more obscure.
This one took me quite some time, but I did finally complete it alone and unaided and understood the parsings…so hurrah for me!
Some difference from yesterday!
Thanks to the setter and to DT for his excellent review.
Stay home/stay alert wherever you are.
Another nice puzzle I just don’t know how you setters for in doing it! I was held up by 1a and 9a which didn’t really work for me. I really liked 14a and 8d which was a clever misdirection Another week over and I see Monday is a bank holiday. So? Can’t see that is going to make a lot of difference to many folk. Anyway, all of us will just keep on puzzling, won’t we?
Last in 7d. Had some trouble parsing, but all ok now. On to the toughie!
Unusually for me it took ages to get on the famous wavelength, but once tuned in it was relatively straightforward. I am in the camp which did not particularly like 6d, but the excellent lurker at 16d and 7d redeemed the puzzle. Thanks to our Friday setter for the challenge and to DT.
A pleasant solve today I thought. Like others I considered 24a for some time and didn’t like either option of Wi-fi or hi-fi: not sure about hi for welcome. My favourite answer is 15d – I just like the sound of the word. Thank you to the compiler and DT.
Hello, compiler here. Thanks very much for the comments on this sunny Friday. It was interesting to see that some commenters liked 6d while others thought it dodgy. I wonder if the solvers who treated the wordplay as a single unit (perhaps mentally adding a price, as in “footballer being transferred for £20m”) liked it, whereas the solvers who broke the wordplay into two bits didn’t like it? (Or is it still dodgy?) On another subject, during the lockdown I’ve started compiling Toughies again, after having managed a handful many months ago. Chris Lancaster has kindly scheduled one quite soon, so I hope some solvers may enjoy that. Thanks again, and thanks to Deep Threat for taking the time to analyse it.
Thank you for calling in. 6d has certainly attracted interest!
I liked 6dn once penny dropped. Also 5dn and 19dn. Thought 9ac a bit vague … no certainty from the clue that the answer was correct although probably it had to be.
Thanks Zandio – you are new to me and I will look out for the Toughie although these days I have little time to tackle more than one a day. After mid-June when grass stops growing I will ramp up again😎
Thank you for popping in, Zandio. I see that RD had you ‘banged to rights’!
I’ll look out for your Toughie – what name will that appear under – I assume that you won’t be using your ‘real’ name.
Always very much appreciated when the setter pops by. Thanks again for a top notch puzzle.
Re 6d…I wonder if the ones who weren’t keen are the purists and the ones who liked it those willing to give the setter some artistic licence? Just a thought!
I really enjoyed this crossword which I thought was perfect for a Friday. A bit of licence is fair game imo esp if it’s a gettable answer – which this was with nearly all consonant checkers.
Thank you for popping in to see us.
I am sure you knew well before reading the foregoing that you can please some of the people etc,.
Take 9a Stonewaller crirical whereas RD thought it probably his favourite so who knows.
6d – United would never have transferred GB when he was worth anything anyway. Thank you for reminding me of the pleasures of seeing him play.
I wasn’t being critical. I simply commented that it wasn’t really possible to provethe answer from the clue!
Sorry to have misunderstood SW.
I guess that’s the problem with short words, either the clue makes them blindingly obvious, cue claims of too easy, or there could be alternatives that the checkers determine..
I find it very frustrating when I have a 4 letter word with all the checkers & I can’t solve it.
Thank you for taking the time to comment, Zandio. As others have said it is greatly appreciated when compilers make an appearance. I thoroughly enjoyed your offering today as I pointed out in #18. I will look out for your Toughie but if my attempt at Elgar’s today is anything to go by, I won’t get far.
Thank you for calling in, Zandio – not that many setters do so and it’s always really appreciated by ‘us lot’ here.
Found this puzzle for the most part to be ** until the NE corner. Needed a couple of electronic hints for that area and then the rest fell into place. In the end I rate this ***/****
Favourite clues were 9a, 11a, 18a &19d and winner is 18a
Thanks to setter and DT for the hints.
Thanks to the setter and to Deep Threat for the review and hints. I enjoyed this one very much, some to make you think. I liked the surface of 7d, but my favourite was 20d. Last in was 9a. Was 3*/3 * for me.
Was ages before first answer went in, and never really did get on wavelength, rather a strange puzzle. Thanks to Deep Threat’s picture hints I got going again. Really did not like 6d. Beings sports challenged, I actually did know the footballer at the start of 6d. Having never seen that as one word I was reluctant to pen it in. Wonder why the setter didn’t mark it as 4,7 rather than 11 letters, would have made life easier. Thought 1a rather odd too. Think I am just too tired today to give it my best.
Hello BusyLizzie. Compiler here. Thanks for the feedback. The Telegraph uses Chambers Dictionary as its crossword bible, even when it may not seem logical (like 6d). As it happens, Collins agrees with Chambers in having no hyphen — but if Collins differed, the Telegraph would go with Chambers. The compiler might prefer 4-7 but we have to play by the rules. Hope that helps.
Add me to the fan club.
Liked the humour in the clues.
Hard to choose a favourite between the Health inspector, the part of body being stroked, the rotten decorator or Bond returns.
Thanks to Zandio and to DT.
I found this quite difficult but got there in the end.
Re 2d, a man-of-war is very definitely a ship. Boats are what you get into when a ship sinks. As the Blog rightly says, submarines are also classified as boats.
***/****. Really enjoyable challenge. My favourites were 1,5,6,7d and 14a. I’ve given it three stars for difficulty because it took me a long time to parse 1d (don’t know why in retrospect) and therefore held me up with 1,9&11a. Thanks to the setter for a quality puzzle and DT for the review.
Another fine puzzle in what to me has been a fine run all week.Some excellent cluing and a small number where the letter went in before being able to fully parse.Certainly Best was the best player l ever saw live and good to be reminded of him.l wonder if rootle is the same as furtle.I have certainly done some of that in places that might have been better left alone.Thanks to all.
Didn’t particularly enjoy this. Not my wavelength. Found some clues rather contrived. Or maybe it was just me off-form.
I found this difficult ****/*** 😳 Possibly my fault when in a “eureka” moment I put sea horse in for 1d 😬 Favourites were 3 & 14a Thanks to DT and to the Setter (who I think is new to me 🤔)
I was in the enjoyable camp but this house has been a drama scene since I got up, starting with Phoebe Cat bringing in a bluejay, and I haven’t been able to appreciate it fully. I had to resort to the hints at the end as I must get going on other stuff. My dogwalker is a rescuer so my bird is on his way to relocation after a rest to overcome the shock. I hope things improve.
I liked lots, the lovely word at 15d, our butterfly at 14a, liked 5d too, and the beautiful lady at 22d.
Thanks to Zandio and to Deep Threat for the fun.
A likeable puzzle for me. I was amused by the 17d and 26a connection and pleased that I spotted 14a so quickly, so that’s my favourite clue. Lovely lurkers too. I love a good lurker! Had to turn to electronic aids for the NE corner though including 6d. Thank you DT and to the setter.
Well, what a lot of comments to read and what a lot of very different opinions on the crossword.
Do I have an opinion on or an opinion of?
The trouble with commenting fairly late is that there are so many previous ones to read that I run out of the energy to write one and, anyway, it’s all been said already.
I was in the “I enjoyed this and found it quite tricky in places” camp.
I ran into trouble in the bottom right corner but got there eventually.
I really liked 1 and 14a and 5 and 7d and probably lots of others too but need to stop now as I’m being hassled by my family.
With thanks to Zandio and too DT.
Kath, I would say that, as a guide, “opinion on” is used for a general subject and “opinion of” for something specific. By way of examples: “opinion on green issues” or “opinion of this puzzle”. However there are bound to be some situations where there are grey areas.
It helps if you put the penultimate across answer in the correct place.
Plenty to enjoy so a pleasant solve for us. appreciated the talking butterfly in 14a.
Thanks Zandio and DT.
Ugh. Not my day today. Needed a lot of help and frustrated as I think I should really have managed to work out a few more by myself. Things I have learnt:
– A New cheese (although I managed to guess it because we have a bottle of the 3D drink in the booze cupboard which remains untouched despite the second month Of lockdown)
– it’s not wise to try to finish a crossword in the bath with a blunt pencil
Thanks setter and hint master!
Excellent crossword today. A real challenge, but a fair one. DT’s rating of *** bang on with me.
Thanks to setter for the challenge also.
“Rootle”. If not invented by the illustrious Phil Harding – whilst trowelling amongst Roman tesserae, it was certainly brought into regular use by him.
I had only three in yesterday before bed and was going to give up. This morning, though, finished the lot (with 24a wrong) but could not parse 7d. My favourite was 8d once I’d worked it out. Thanks to DT and Zandio for your thoughts, When compilers contribute, it makes being part of this community even more satisfying 😊.
I’m new to this blog but not to crosswords. Really pleased to have found it. So much better than just looking up answers. Found this one enjoyable and a bit easier than Thursday’s. I’m in the pro 6d camp, but 19d didn’t really work for me.
Welcome to the blog
Very straightforward apart from 6d and 7d. Got Best but didn’t relate being transferred to selling. I thought the question mark was implying something other than a footballer. Haven’t heard the word rootle and it wasn’t in my Chambers dictionary.
agree with janet, quite straightforward with nothing untoward.
rootle is in my chambers dictionary but not in the chambers thesaurus.
i have power thesaurus on my iphone. i downloaded it free, some years ago and it is extremely thorough, although i didn’t need it for this crossword which i thought was a bit dull.