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DT 26204

by Gazza  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26204

Hints and tips by Gazza

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***

The absence of Clued Up this morning meant that I had to go out to get a paper and type in the clues (so apologies for any transcription errors). It also means that I’ve been unable to verify my answers, so you may find that I’ve got the whole thing totally wrong!
I thought that today’s Giovanni was a strange mixture of very simple clues (especially 23d) and some answers (13a, 14d and 18d) that I’d never heard of. The four 3-letter clues in the middle all have fully-checked letters so that it’s possible to get an answer without looking at the clue at all!
Your comments are as always very welcome, and may I take the opportunity to wish all our readers a very enjoyable holiday weekend.

Across Clues

1a  Study what’s been written for one forced into service (9)
{CONSCRIPT} – a charade of a verb meaning to study attentively and something that has been written down gives someone who has been drafted into the armed services without the option.

9a  Engineers attending electrical unit refuse to work? (6)
{REVOLT} – the usual abbreviation for the Royal Engineers is followed by the SI unit of electromotive force to get a verb meaning to rebel against something, one possibility (hence the question mark) being the demands of one’s employer.

10a  Stride around shopping centre and chat (5,4)
{SMALL TALK} – put a verb meaning to stride in a stiff or angry manner around a North American shopping centre to get idle chat about nothing very important.

11a  Traveller in space given oxygen to regain consciousness (4,2)
{COME TO} – put the chemical symbol for oxygen after a celestial object (mainly consisting of ice and dust) which travels through space to get a phrasal verb meaning to recover consciousness.

12a  Get rid of priest and friend – put outside home (9)
{ELIMINATE} – the definition is get rid of. Start with an Old Testament priest and add a synonym for friend with IN (at home) inside.

13a  One’s charged – legal proceedings twisted at outset (6)
{CATION} – legal proceedings are an action – twist the first two (at outset) letters around to get a word meaning a positively-charged ion.

17a  Drink obtainable in the bar (only odd characters here) (3)
{TEA} – the wordplay has been spelt out very explicitly here! We want the odd letters only of “the bar”.

19a  A domestic nit you found funny in TV series maybe (9,6)
{SITUATION COMEDY} – an anagram (found funny) of A DOMESTIC NIT YOU produces a TV programme or series, like this very funny one for example:
ARVE Error: need id and provider

20a  Army against Eastern terrorist organisation (3)
{ETA} – put the abbreviation of the Territorial Army after (against) E(astern) to get the acronym of Euzkadi ta Azkatasuna (“Basque homeland and liberty”).

21a  Soldiers very good when there’s threat (6)
{MENACE} – a charade of soldiers (other ranks) and an informal adjective meaning very good produces a synonym for a threat or danger.

25a  Giving prize to weird gran for unusual display (9)
{REWARDING} – an anagram (unusual display) of WEIRD GRAN.

26a  Former archbishop’s place of worship (6)
{TEMPLE} – double definition, the first referring to the surname of the man who was Archbishop of York (1929-42) and of Canterbury (1942-44).

27a  Like fighters possibly making Doris yell (9)
{SOLDIERLY} – an anagram (possibly making) of DORIS YELL.

28a  One will have a letter wanting money (6)
{TENANT} – cryptic definition of someone who pays rent to a landlord (letter).

29a  Medical work is strain with depression coming early (9)
{DENTISTRY} – put IS and a verb meaning to make an effort (strain) after (coming early) a depression to get a branch of medical work that concentrates on the mouth area.

Down Clues

2d  Brassy stuff that could make for rum loo (6)
{ORMOLU} – a gold-coloured alloy of copper, zinc and tin that is used for making ornaments is an anagram (could make) of RUM LOO.

3d  Dancer given honour in the course of commercial event (6)
{SALOME} – the name of an early lap dancer whose reward was the head of John the Baptist is constructed by putting OM (Order of Merit, honour) inside an event in the world of retail.

4d  Sailor’s rank (6)
{RATING} – double definition.

5d  Push a particular twin, but in contrast …? You must be joking! (4,3,5,3)
{PULL THE OTHER ONE} – a phrase meaning you must be joking starts with the opposite of push. Very amusing!

6d  Last month’s speaker, a person of ornamentation (9)
{DECORATOR} – the last month of the year is DEC(ember) – add a public speaker to get someone who will prettify your home.

7d  Thus this writer requires paper on occasion (9)
{SOMETIMES} – the definition is on occasion – start with SO (thus) and add a pronoun identifying the person speaking (this writer) and the title of a newspaper.

8d  Lawyers attending sporting events not to be seen by everyone (9)
{ATTORNEYS} – attending is AT, then we want the sort of sporting events where you might have seen jousting, but without the U (i.e. the film certificate allowing universal access).

14d  Sort of line you could find in tasty poem (9)
{ASYMPTOTE} – an anagram (you could find in) of TASTY POEM produces a word (new to me) that means a sort of line (usually straight) that continually approaches a curve but never meets it.

15d  Satisfaction at lunchtime with workers given rest finally (9)
{ATONEMENT} – the assumption is that people lunch at 1 p.m. – add a synonym for workers (contrasted with management) and the last letter (finally) of resT.

16d  Virile fellow upset copper – row ensuing (9)
{MASCULINE} – the definition is virile. Start with a man’s name (think of the fireman) which has to be reversed (upset) and followed by the chemical symbol for copper and a synonym for row or file.

17d  Bond releases maiden from the enemy (3)
{TIE} – the proverbial enemy is time. Remove the abbreviation for a maiden over in cricket.

18d  Two articles in a literary collection (3)
{ANA} – stitch together two indefinite articles (there are only two in English, so that’s not difficult) to get an obscure word meaning a collection of anecdotes or sayings (by or about someone).

22d  Actress presents poet with set of books (6)
{BARDOT} – the name of the actress who was the object of many male adolescent fantasies when I was growing up is formed from a synonym for poet followed by OT (Old Testament, set of books).

23d  They aren’t taking away snakes (6)
{ADDERS} – yes, well I don’t think any hint will be necessary for this one. It’s not Christmas cracker time is it?

24d  Fury about lake – when it lacks fish for him? (6)
{ANGLER} – put a synonym for fury around L(ake).

The clues I liked today included 7d, 15d and 22d, but my favourite is 5d. What do you think? Leave us a comment!

[Here is the official pdf – kindly provided by Phil McNeill, the Telegraph Puzzles Editor – DT 26204.  BD]

69 comments on “DT 26204”

  1. Happy Easter Gazza, afraid haven’t got access to crossword as yet today, but needless to say if there were words you hadn’t heard of, I definitely won’t have! well done in getting the blog up so early, despite ‘clued downs’ attempts to sabotage you! It really is too bad, anyway will read through your clues in the meanwhile (not the answers) :)

        1. I too have sent a complaint – very frustrating! Still not fighting fit so have to wait for my husband to bring in a paper & won’t be able to get going until this afternoon. Resisting checking the blog!!

          1. Have just sent my complaint in, had to get on bike a peddle to the newsagents…every cloud

  3. The lack of Clued Up at this time is frustrating, we were looking forward to the crossword, with a day off and all that!

  4. Was this a Giovanni puzzle ?? It didn’t really do it for me today. Maybe the frustration with cluedup, and the walk to the petrol station to buy the paper didn’t help!
    If I had a favourite clue, it would be 22d (I too fancied her when I was younger!)

      1. Seemed like a Saturday puzzle with 3 toughie exceptions as per Gazza’s review. The Quickie today was a
        pangram, a trademark of the Saturday setter. Is this a switch of setters by the editor with his own attempt
        to give us clues to solve as to the identity of the setter?

      1. Mary
        As Gazza says above, there are some very easy clues in this puzzle. Apart from 14d, I did not find much to think about. Not necessarily easy, I just clicked on the setter’s wavelength.

  5. I suppose it’s on days like today that I’m thankful for my quarterly subscription to the out-moded paper version of the DT. Anyway, the puzzle is a reasonable challenge for a day off, if not hugely inspirational. Thanks for the help with 13a Gazza – not a word that sprang to mind.

  6. I enjoyed this puzzel esp 22d 23d and 24d which all made me laugh. Never heard of 13a. Happy Easter to all from sunny Cornwall.

  7. After last Friday’s astonishing success, I only got about halfway with this one. Yes, 5d was tops.

  9. Unusually easy crossword from Giovanni this week, I can’t even say I have a favourite clue. Sorry Giovanni, even the Maestro has off days. Nice picture of B.B. though Gazza.

      1. Mary
        At the bottom of the blog, just under Gazza’s comment “The clues I liked today included 7d, 15d and 22d, but my favourite is 5d. What do you think? Leave us a comment!”, then click on DT 26204.

  11. Struggled a bit today. Never heard of 13a, 14d and 18d – all a bit abstruse.

    Gazza, can you explain how Landlord and Letter are connected in 28a

    1. Collywobbles
      A landlord is someone who lets (rents out) a property, so – a letter.

  12. Thanks for the pdf Dave, unfortunately I went for a paper before it came on, never mind, nice to use a pen again.
    There were one or two clues that had me beat today with words new to me.
    13a,14d
    Not as good as normal Fridays

  13. Very frustrating for Expat CluedUp members. The Telegraph costs a whopping 3.30 euros in Spain, so I won’t be making the 25 km round trip to get a copy. I will, however, send a complaint, as suggested.

  14. Magic once again ! Whoever got the answer Ethanol on Thursday deserves the Nobel prize,
    I had bitten the pencil to a stub.

  15. At work today and still have SW corner to do. Lovely pic of Miss B above. Smashing.

  16. All done. 14d and 13a new ones for me but worked out. Still like the picture of 22d BD. More of the same please.

  17. Thanks Gazza.
    The one’s I struggled with were 12a, 3d, 22d and 29a.
    Considering I didn’t have my mother-in-law to help today, I was quite happy with this performance!
    mark

  18. Feeling a bit thick because I can find the pdf and the are no telegraph’s left in Norfolk, is there a better clue than at the end of the post?

    1. Hi chris – welcome to the blog.
      The link is at the bottom of the review, just above the “stars”, before the comments start.

  20. Got it – Thanks

    What’s the betting that they can fix it over the bank holiday weekend – better be up good and early to get a paper tomorrow!

  21. Have a good Easter all!
    I’ve just got off a very wet golf course and had 4 to do then but came straight here.
    Thanks for the review gazza, looks like we are getting wet tomorrow!

  22. Got off to a goodish start this morning but frustratingly had to put on hold whilst losing will to live trying to access car insurance for 18yr old newly qualified driver son!!! Anyone want to buy a nice house!!!!

    1. Hmm – I remember it well! – thankfully mine are all over 25 now & two have their own cars. Hope you managed to sort something out…. without selling the house! Did you ever get back to the crossword? I found it quite tricky today but maybe still a bit under par.

  23. Followed the link to the PDF but all I got was a black screen! In any case, I think the Telegraph Cryptic’s quality has deteriorated recently but it’s so frustrating when clueless CluedUp keeps timing out all day!

  24. Hmmm, interesting one today, as Gazza said a real mixture. Finished top and bottom right but bottom left is a complete mystery. I would love to know where Giovanni finds such a word as Asymptote. Apart from bottom left, a good puzzle, pity about that corner which rather spoiled it for me.

    2. I remembered asymptote from school maths.

      We finished bar one. Could not see 28a.

      29a is misleading – dentistry is not medical.

  25. Hello. A very frustrated Telegraph Puzzles Editor here.

    We suffered a massive server crash today on CluedUp. Many apologies to all subscribers. The site is now up and running. It’s a long time since we had a similar crash — in fact even in the bumpy early days I don’t think we had one this bad. We are taking steps to try to ensure it does not happen again!

    Best wishes and humble apologies
    Phil

    1. Hmm, you could feed the hamsters…. The site might be back up but its so slooooooow.

    3. Looking on the positive side, my backlog of so-called saved games that were actually unplayable games has now been cleared!

      1. BD,
        Spot on, you are right :-) Great that means I can get to finish Toughie No. 14 which has been sat in my saved games section for over a year, but remained inacessible.

    5. Hi Phil shouldn’t there be an apology on the clued up site not all clued up users use this site??

  26. Thanks Dave for the pdf (didn’t go out in the rain to get a paper) and thanks Gazza for the review.

    Got stuck on two – 13a and had to look up 9d in anagram solver and then the dictionary to find out what it was. Peter did well remembering that – well done to you – far too long ago for me to remember..

    Happy Easter everyone – will go and buy a paper tomorrow just in case…..

  27. Peter – 28a – a letter is someone who leases. The person who is leased to is the answer.

  28. Got far more of these than usual (just under half lol) – 5d and 29 across were favourite. Usually, Friday’s is impenetrable for me.

    1. Sorry – forgot to put “favourite” in the last post. Please print a copy, cut it out and stick “favourite” into the end of the first sentence. Many thanks and hope you have a good Easter, and thanks to Gazza for the hints.

  29. Big thanks for the pdf. Not so keen on this type of grid where each corner feels like a mini crossword. Got most in the end but had to come for help with the SW corner and 13a – never heard of that, or 14d! Liked 5d, 15d &12a. Let’s hope Clued up is all good for the weekend :-)

  30. thanks to Dave, Gazza and Libelulle for their help today, especially Dave for providing the crossword at least we can rely on this site :)

  31. Not Giovanni’s usual fare!
    I liked 26a, 27a & 29a. 3d, 5d, 8d, 14d & 22d.
    The only word new to me was18d.

    Nora – the DT costs €3.20 (Mon – Fri) in most of Europe and €4.30 on Saturday.
    What does it cost in GB folks?

    I wish you all a Happy Easter!

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