Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26062 – Hints
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
As Saturday Prize puzzles go, this one is about the same difficulty as you have come to expect. What is different is that there are none of those names – boys, girls, obscure places, they have all been given a rest this week. OK there is a name involved in the wordplay, but that’s all. I am not too happy with the anagram indicator, or rather the lack of an anagram indicator, in one clue but the rest of the puzzle is an excellent introduction to cryptic crosswords.
By the way, the only palindrome on view today is the number of the puzzle – a missed opportunity?
Don’t forget that you can give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them. A full review of this puzzle by Tilsit will be published at 12.00 on Thursday, 22nd October.
Across
1a Carbon copy for head (4)
The chemical symbol for Carbon is followed by a word meaning to copy to get a headland
11a Gareth, go inside with the continental grotesque figure (8)
Start with a shortened form of Gareth, put go inside and follow this with the French definite article and you get a grotesque figure projecting from a roof-gutter and acting as a rainwater spout
17a Reported poet, one working in hospital (8)
A word that sounds like the surname of the poet who wrote The Shropshire Lad describes a recent graduate in medicine holding a junior resident post in a hospital
21a Remove cattle from Ulster (6)
A word meaning to illegally remove cattle is an anagram of ULSTER – “from” just doesn’t work as an anagram indicator; how easy it would have been to say something like “from a troubled Ulster”!
Down
1d Protection of original work, imitation being correct (9)
Here a word meaning the protection of original work is a charade of an imitation and being correct
3d Use printing machine with feeling? (5-4)
… without looking at the keys
13d Jet-propelled weapon? (6,3)
… which is better known in the UK as a water pistol
18d Meantime not starting arranging performance (7)
Arranging tells you that an anagram of (M)EANTIME will give you a performance at the theatre that sounds as if it ought to be in the morning but is usually in the afternoon
The Saturday Crossword Club will open at 10.00 am (after Sounds of the Sixties on BBC Radio 2). Membership is free and open to all. Feel free to leave comments or ask questions before that time.
Please don’t put whole or partial answers in your comment, else they may be censored!
If you missed Later… with Jools Holland last night, then you missed Seasick Steve – but you can make up for that here:
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Another one for the weekend drivers. A Morris Minor of a puzzle giving a gentle ride and some good scenery but not going to get the pulse racing.
By the way, you have broken your own rule an put the answer in 21a! In terms of an anagram indicator I generally read it as X (derived) from Y, which in my convoluted logic makes some sense. Not the greatest anagram indicator I agree.
Was 8a really a cryptic clue?
Thanks for the blog.
Prolixic. Corrected. Thanks.
That’s what can happen at 3.00 am!
Enjoyable but not taxing. I like Prolixic’s analogy of the puzzle being like a Morris Minor which, if I’m not mistaken, made its debut in 1948 – the year I made mine…
another easy workout for a saturday it seems to be coming the norm for the prize crosswrod to be easier than the rest of the week, only one i am not sure about 25a let rip.
13d had me thinking for a while until i got the rest of the acrosses never heard it called that before
just hope tomorrows offering is a bit more challenging
25a is simply a double definition – to let a room or a rip in a piece of material
13d answer was a bit naughty I thought, it started me off on my high horse about foreign words and phrases. Is it just being lazy about thinking up a better clue ?
Agreed BD … it would have been an excellent opportunity to play with e.g. “never odd or even” answers, in line with the puzzle number! :smile:
A mixture of gimmees plus a few more difficult clues, I particularly liked 6d and 13d, although the latter was a new term for me. (S)
I withdrew a section giving examples of palindromes and semordnilaps (words which make other words when reversed like part and trap) from the Crossword Guide, and have yet to add them to The Mine.
lovely crossword :) never heard a water pistol called that before
favourite clue 6d … least favourite 17a
by the way incase i haven’t said before :) this is a great site
Mary – I was brought up in Canada and that’s what we called them but I have lived over here so long that I didn’t get it until I put in 13a.
Really enjoyed this one – largely because I could do it!! Two most tricky 17a and 13d (silly name for a water pistol!)
Good puzzle – easily completed for once!! Didn’t much like 13d as I think its a made-up name. I think I’ll call myself GrumpyGlugglug from now on!
Pleased with myself today. Managed it all in good time with the exception of 1a. Managed it with your help. Thank you. Needless to say I enjoyed it, because I found it realtively straight forward
I thought 7d. was an elegant clue and 22a. witty, but far toooooo easy, im not normally on this site till ive given up on monday !
A somewhat belated welcome to the blog Raz
Once again the easiest of the week by a margin. Little to tax and overall disappointing. Yesterday’s was far superior. I can now go and take the children to see “Up” in the knowledge that the Prize Crossword has been successfully tackled barely out of mental first gear. I quite liked 6d but otherwise forgettable.
Felt a bit let down, was expecting a palindrome. 7d scuppered me and im not sure if ive got 25a correct. Bythaway thanks to Gazza for replying to my query about toughie 235, couldnt reply as my laptop is getting slower everyday. Now im off to the pub. Cheers :smile:
Think of the middle of an apple and go from there for 7d
Hope you enjoyed your visit to the pub, perhaps that is what your laptop needs too!
Being a relative newcomer to cryptic crosswords I liked this one, but it seemed a little too easy!
That was fun but mainly because I beat my own time on doing it, Liked 6d as my clue of the day.
So much easier than yesterday. All the answers just seemed to flow except 13d which eluded me for a little while.
Me too until I got the poet.
I bet a lot of you thought the poet’s name was spelt the same way as the answer!
Now that’s an eletist remark, rather than a Shropshire Lad drumed into me at school etc I must admit I tend to associate the name with the raspy voiced actor whose name does match the answer.
Actually got this one done comparatively quickly for me. Was a bit stuck on 11a until I realised that 3 down could end in something I associate with binder, rather than the form of tobacco I had.
Lovely:-) Though I ripped (****?) through it almost too fast. If all the week’s puzzles were this straightforward most of you would probably be bored, but I’d feel very intelligent.
A couple of tiny quibbles. In 20d, surely ‘falsehoods’ should be singular, and 25a seems to have a confusion of tenses. It took me a moment to realise 21a was an anagram and I didn’t much like 23a. Is there such a term? 13d took me back to my childhood in the US, and the clue that amused me most was 18a.
20d could conceivably considered as a plural noun (the habit of telling falsehoods), but I agree it’s not brilliant.
25a If you consider rip as a noun then it’s ok.
23a is in Chambers
13a – is that what I think it is from the first word of the clue – if so what is the relevance of the second word ? Thanks.
The second part, signalled by “say”, is a homophone (sounds like the answer)
dont worry the penny just dropped gawd elp us
:( Far too easy…
Must be me, thought this was the most difficult Saturday for ages. The left side – easy, the right tricky esp that totally stupid definition of a water pistol, had to resort to google for that one. Some very clever clues though, loved 15a and 3d!
I am still uncertain as to the answer 25a. I have two options one beginning with R and the other with V anybody help??
Welcome to the blog Trevor
Did you read the hint I gave in comment #3?
I have now, I think I have the answer. I am new to the daily telegraph crossword. This is an essential site to gain the basics of the crossword. Thanks
It’s great to see so many newcomers to the DT crossword challenge. Although I have been doing it for years it still presents lots of challenges -I have found this week’s examples particularly tough save today’s.
Good Evening,
Stuck on 6 across and 6 down. I’m not so clever as all the other bloggers!
Some hints please.
Thanks.
Good evening to you Marlie
6a Writer’s cut (4)
This is a double definition. The writer is a derogatory term for a journalist and the other definition is to cut with rough blows
6d All of us in a hurry? (5,4)
All of us means you, me and everybody else in the world – get that bit and the hurry reference becomes obvious
agree it was easy, but this suited me today as only had short time between chores! 3a made me smile with a hint of shoulder shake – unusual for me!! Thanks for blog
Thanks for that, got them now..
Is it a different compiler on Saturday? It seems to be easier than the Monday to Friday crosswords.
It’s a bit like pushing a morris minor uphill, in the rain. I still have seven clues to solve but I’ll get there. Worry not.
Ha ha. I finished it! All it needed was my undivided attention for a little while.
The Cuban still has me stuck !
Welcome to the blog Ray
10a I speak ill of Cuban perhaps (8)
This is a charade of “I” and “to speak ill of” in the sense of to say something about someone that could result in legal action (libel being the written equivalent) – the Cuban is merely an example of the answer; it could have been a native of any one of thousands of different places (hence the “perhaps” in the clue).