Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2513 – Hints
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
This was harder than the average Sunday Prize puzzle but as enjoyable as ever. Some of the wordplay was a bit tricky, which tipped the difficulty from three to four stars in my book.
Sorry I’m a bit late today, but it took the whole of the morning to recover from yesterday’s session in London. There were too many people there to name all of them, but from a Telegraph perspective Elgar, MynoT and Notabilis were present and I was particularly pleased to meet, for the first time, Derek Harrison from The Crossword Centre – see the link in the sidebar.
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.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 11th December.
Across
1a Gym equipment one left out finally for swimmer (6)
Take this piece of gym equipment and leave out one of the “L”s (one left out) to get a freshwater fish of the carp family with beard-like appendages at its mouth
5a Insult on Wellington’s part is blow for fighting man (8)
A tricky charade is comprised of a three-letter word for an insult preceded by part of a wellington boot to give an upward short-arm blow from a boxer
11a Medleys with verve, for example, turned into potential book (8)
These medleys are constructed by another tricky clue in which a word meaning verve is followed by crosswordland’s usual abbreviation for “for example” reversed (turned) all inside a manuscript (potential book)
24a Costume worn by female relative, one in Daisy’s family (8)
Take a costume, or outfit, follow it by a word meaning worn, in the sense of showing effects of wear, and precede it with a female relative (abbreviated) to get a flower of the daisy family
Down
2d Pointed article about rising in intellectual circles (8)
This is an interesting clue in which a straightforward charade – pointed, as in pointed a gun at a target, the indefinite article and a two-letter abbreviation of a word meaning about (nor RE this time!!) – is all reversed (rising – yes, this is a down clue) to get these intellectual circles
5d Thing in use is dud, awfully mediocre (15)
The setter has given you an obvious anagram (awfully) of THING IN USE IS DUD to give you the key answer – a sure sign that he has recognised that this puzzle is harder than usual
8d With new organisation, there’s about a hundred staff (8)
A lot simpler than it looks at first sight – an anagram (with new organisation – one of the longest anagram indicators I can remember) of THERE’S is placed around (about) A and the Roman numeral for a hundred to get the staff of, for example, a school
19d E.g. attacking castles simultaneously, in support of monarch (7)
A chess term for attacking two opposing pieces simultaneously (for example two castles), which means that the opponent can only move one of them to safety, is a charade of words meaning “in support of” and “monarch”
It was more difficult than usual to select the troublesome clues today, so if you need further help then please ask and I will see what I can do. I look forward to see Peter’s review this coming Friday.
Please don’t put whole or partial answers in your comment, else they may be censored!
Welcome back to the land of the sober! I don’t envy you trying to solve this after a long session on Saturday. I agree that this was quite a challenge – some of the clues would not have been out of place in a Toughie. As always with Jed’s puzzles, the clues were fair, polished in terms of surface reading and there were almost too many to choose a favourite again this week but 22a was a particular gem. It was a joy to solve.
In terms of the difficulty of the puzzles that are published in the DT I have often wondered if the level at which they are set is in the gift of the setter for the day or whether the crossword editor issues guidance to toughen things up or to ease back a little?
Many thanks for the hints and thanks to Jed for a truly enjoyable Sunday treat.
Thoroughly enjoyed this crossword. 4d made me smile. 19a was clever, too.
By the way the Sunday General Knowledge (890) was the second pangram this weekend.
Found this very tricky today but finally, with a peek at a few hints above, finished except for the bottom left corner. Can’t get 18d,23a or 25a – although I have made guesses at the two across clues. 22a and 19d were fun. Looking forward to Peter’s review on Friday.
I’ll have a go!
23a Fortunate outcome for survivor from craft, say (8)
Here the fortunate outcome for a surviving relative really does involve a fortune, although the craft that it sounds like (say) is only occasionally seen in the sky these days
25a Facilitating ending, but not beginning (6)
One of those that you either see or you don’t – a word meaning facilitating is created by dropping the first letter (but not beginning) of a word meaning ending, as in stopping
18d One relation that produces negative reaction (8)
A charade of a word that is often substituted for one (but not I this time) and a relation in the sense of a particular way of telling a story gives this word meaning a negative reaction
Thanks Dave – I had 23a but didn’t really understand … now I see (often forget the ‘say’ bit of the clue) Have to think about the other two. Happy Monday!
Struggled with alot of left side all day. Eventually got there – I think – but had to try possible words and then decipher the clues. Grateful again for a big easy anagram – 5D. Enjoyed 14A and 4D.
That just about stretched every one of my grey cells.
An excellent crossword and a standard to be maintained on a Sunday please.
In general the level over the past week has been more than good and is to be commended.
Great crossword with plenty to make one think.
23a was last to go in and probably my favourite.