Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2527 – Hints
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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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, 19th March.
Across
1a Noted mountaineer, perhaps, disoriented after losing head (6)
One of these famous mountaineering people from East Nepal conquered Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary – it’s an anagram of (P)ERHAPS without the P (losing head) that is indicated by disoriented
12a King, one leader of crusades with considerable force (7)
This is an example of an all-in-one (or &lit) clue – string together an abbreviation for a king (not K), crosswordese for one and the initial letter (leader) of C(rusades) and follow them with a word meaning indicating considerable force and you get a King famous for his involvement in the Crusades
17a Rate of inspiration given chance to pause (9,5)
If you split this phrase meaning a chance to pause as (9’1,4) then it could, cryptically, mean the rate of inspiration
27a Girl’s fruit that’s selectively picked (6)
A girl’s name that is also a fruit associated with selective picking
Down
1d Without question, holding leaders of evil conspiracy in custody (8)
A word meaning without question (very familiar to fans of Airplane – the movie!) is placed around (holding) the initial letters of Evil Conspiracy to get a word meaning custody or safe-keeping
20d Euphemism about Test side, initially, in Australian city (6)
A euphemism is defined by Chambers as “a figure of rhetoric by which an unpleasant or offensive thing is described or referred to by a milder term” so you need a word that you might say in polite company, like sugar, instead of something more offensive – then you need to put this around the abbreviation for a Test cricket side from the Caribbean to get a city in Australia
22d Flourish report about learner (5)
A word meaning to flourish, as in to blossom, is derived by putting the report from a supersonic aircraft around L(earner)
If you need further help then please ask and I will see what I can do.
Please don’t put whole or partial answers in your comment, else they may be censored!
A challenging puzzle for me. I thought I would not finish it without help… but I made it!
Not sure I liked 25a. Out into the sunshine for a while :)
liked that one Lizwhiz but not finished yet
Happy mothers day to all ‘site’ mothers :) hope all you men are spoiling the mothers in your life, right done half now back to try again
Have done the 22ds for mum today, Mary! Now enjoying a cold drink and the crossword. I hope you are all getting spoilt rotten!
Not too bad a puzzle for me. Decent level of difficulty for a Sunday. Thanks to BD for explaining the Oz town – not too happy about that!
Very unhappy with 27a – are Pixie, Honeysuckle and Moon-Unit now acceptable as girl’s names?!
Catching up with the weekend puzzles after feeling let down my monday’s offering. Agree with you about 27a, and glad I read your comment (and BD’s explanation) for 20d before starting it! All in all I enjoyed it though.
an stuck on 24a and 11a have all the checking letters but cannot as yet ‘see; it, thanks for the good wished gnomethang, not been spoiled yet :( chines meal later :)
right got 24a, now just 11a to go, how could i have spelt 20d wrong!! dunce
well got a word for 11a, and don’t see how it can be anything else but don’t quite understand it all! OK finished, a tough one for sunday i thought, lets see what other CC members think, nice sunny day again today, how long can it last?
see it now, how easy when you eventually get it, ok, so i’m talking to myself again, what is it they say about that????? :)
We are listening!
oops! :)
Mary,
You would be :-) Some of us were watching the France v Italy game. Allez les bleus!
Me too, Libelulle, at least the last part of it, all on next weekend now :) for France, at least we’re not getting the wooden spoon this year!
A good puzzle today.
Shirley you don’t expect us to buy your explanation for 1d Dave ?
Only have ten written in today and unfortunately they are mostly the ones we gave the hints for! This always happens at the weekends. Does 1d end “ty” or “ly”?
Just got 14a so sorted.
I enjoyed this crossword. Many thanks to Virgilius for the entertainment this morning. Favourite clue was 23a.
Ditto
Don’t think I’ll get today’s finished …
My eldest came over to have lunch with me. He’s 30 and has just been diagnosed with MS. Bit of a shock.
Running uni exams four mornings this week and music to learn … might not be around much, but will try to look in.
Geoff
Your comment had to be moderated because of a slight mis-spelling in your email address.
sorry to hear that Geoff, it must be an awful shock, but a diagnosis is better than not knowing, now you can all deal with what you know and go forward hopefully
Enjoyable puzzle. Got the 14-letter quad out of the way then romped away wth the rest. I
liked 1a, 21a, 24a & 25a nothing wrong with that old spud Lizwhiz1!! Then 2d, 8d, 15d & 20d.
Equinox next Sunday then the clocks go forward the week after and then a week to Easter so perhaps the rotten weather will be a thing of the past at long last!