Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2514 – Hints
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Today the Morton-Foley Memorial Rugby Match will be played at the Upton Rugby Ground in Upton-upon-Severn between Upton Veterans and Severn Vale Barbarians. Kick-off is at 2.30pm and there will be a raffle with some excellent prizes, all of which have been kindly donated, including a boxing glove signed by Joe Calzaghe, items signed by Mark Foster, a signed and framed print celebrating Graham Hick’s 100 centuries, rugby shirts signed by the Saracens and Wasps teams and four tickets to any Worcester Rugby home game. There will also be a pig roast, just in case you get hungry. All proceeds go to St Richards Hospice, Worcester (see link in the sidebar). If you live nearby then please come along.
While today’s puzzle was a bit on the easy side, it still provided the same level of enjoyment as ever. Just as well, as I have a busy day today!
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 clues and provide hints for them.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 18th December.
Across
1a Person who formulated law for King Edward, say (6)
This well-known law is attributed to a person who is also associated with potatoes
12a Kept an eye on some bowling leading to a wicket (7)
Several series of six deliveries are followed by A and the abbreviation for a Wicket to get a word meaning kept an eye on – one for the cricket lovers!
27a State most points at least twice after short time (9)
The name of this US state contains three of the four points of the compass, each at least twice, and all of them are after the short form of Time – and you need this answer to help with
Down
1d Some cream is sour in this state (8)
Remember that Sunsetter is the master when it comes to hiding the answer inside the clue!
6d Poet animated head of American family (5)
This one is for fans of The Simpsons!
9d In troubled state, courage that’ll stop one getting cold feet (3,5,6)
This is a charade of a phrase meaning a troubled state followed by a word meaning courage, and it all leads to something to keep your feet warm in bed
24d Stout or light beer’s moved right into the middle (5)
A word meaning stout can be created by moving the R(ight) from the end to the middle of a type of light beer (not my favourite tipple, I prefer the real thing!)
If you need further help then please ask and I will see what I can do.
For Helen, who wrote to me on Monday, I tried to reply but the address I received was invalid so here are your answers:
20a Liking sculptor’s first piece in gallery (5)
A word meaning liking, in the sense of preference, is formed from the initial letter of sculptor (sculptor’s first piece) inside a well-known gallery
17d Okay, or better than okay (4,4)
This one is a bit more tricky. The definition is okay as an interjection, and if you take okay as being fit and then precede it with an adjective that makes it better than okay then you will be there. The extra checking letter that you get from 20a should make it obvious
Please don’t put whole or partial answers in your comment, else they may be censored!
Some of today’s raffle prizes, and a rare photo of Mrs BD (on the right).
Update:
The total raised was over £2100!
Hi Dave – a nice one for us CC members again today – it is very encouraging to get puzzles like this, i don’t feel quite as clueless!! however there were still a few i got stuck on and without your help would not have got one across, although i have strong Irish roots and was thinking on the lines of potatos i just could not see it!!! favourite clue 4a hope Liverpool do better against Arsenal today :) Have a lovely afternoon
I’m with Mary on this one – 1a was last to go in and probably one of the weaker clues in an enjoyable puzzle.
3d was probably my favourite followed by 14a and 6d.
Have a great day BD, I’m a bit too far away to attend.
Sorry your team lost, Mary, but you can guess that I am very pleased with the result!
blog is really quiet today, either everyones gone to the match with BD or you’re all out Christmas shopping and taking advantage of the unusually dry weather
Raining in Coventry Mary, but presume all Liverpool suporters will be at the match or various places of worship praying for a win!, me I will just hope!.
I will watch with my eyes closed and fingers crossed:) sorry about your weather, here today it has been blue skies and winter sunshine
Ooop’s!
ditto
Another nice puzzle from Jed today. Doing this over the first cup of coffee of the day it took a while for the brain to get into gear. Good quality clues but relatively straightforward after last week’s puzzle. Many thanks to Jed for our treat
Thankyou for the hint to one across which baffled me…..not thinking of root crops!
Struggled with this one – plain sailing until a tricky 2×2 set of 4, 13, 6, 8D – these took me longer than the rest of the puzzle – 6D was first to fall and a classic “kick-self” moment.
Agreed, and I said D’OH! When I got 6d as well!.
I got the lower half first then found a path into the top right before finding a root into the top left via 2d!
Fun stuff!
Mostly made rapid progress apart from top right for some reason. Had to leave and come back later to complete – I think. Still not sure why I have 13a.
13a is charade of a word relating to a horse racing track and another word meaning ‘not in calibration’
I got them all but didn’t know why/how the solutions for for 4a and 7d fit the clues exactly until I Googled them!
Working happily through this a day late. I’ve now found all but 2d and 14a. Any hints welcome :-)
Franny
2d. Shoots messengers (7)
People who work on film sets (where films are shot).
14a. One emperor turned back follower of another (5)
Reverse an emperor (Russian, say) to get a follower of Haile Selassie,
Oh, of course! Now I have 2d, but as for 14a I couldn’t seem to get away from Rome. Many thanks, Gazza :-)
Hi
This was all fine except for two which we just could not get. Please help us. I forgot to bring the crossword to work with me today so cannot remember the exact clues but they were in the right hand corner – something about friendliness increasing worldwide and the other one was something about exiting a field. Our search in crossword solver came up with ‘diehards’ and ‘pirates’ which just don’t seem right…
Thank you
How pleasant to be able to offer help instead of always asking for it. The two words I think you are looking for are:
– a word meaning friendliness, but also something global that we are all worrying about.
– a way of saying to come out, second syllable meaning a tied score.
Hope this helps:-)
Thanks very much Franny.
And thanks from me as well Franny – do you want a job sometime?!