Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2532 – Hints
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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A few hints to get you started!
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 on Friday, 23rd April.
Across
1a Head of company searching for hostile takeover (8)
Start with C (head of company) and add a phrase that means searching to get hostile takeover, perhaps by the Normans in 1066!
13a Handle a thousand pounds, pinching none (8)
A handle, in the sense of an alias, is derived by putting the Roman numeral for a thousand and a slang term for pound(s), as in money, around O (none)
23a Studying students as part of society (7,5)
That part of society that traditionally supports the Labour party!
… and a chance to listen to one of my favourite tracks from Marianne Faithfull’s Broken English album – this is a live version
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28a Vehicle hemmed in by coach – and car, too (8)
An unpowered vehicle is hidden in the clue
Down
2d Show what can be OK when abbreviated (8)
A stage and screen musical named after a US state which has the abbreviation OK
17d Clever person packed underwear (8)
My favourite clue today! – this clever person could be split up as (3,2,3) to get a packaged item of ladies underwear
25d Get ready for country music legend (4)
Money on the one hand or the man in black on the other!
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!
Found this very hard!!!! Nearly gave up after only completeing 4 clues…but after finding the burrowing rodent… everything followed. Not sure my mind is quite on this clue setters wavelength!
I think if you polled all setters asking them to name their favourites, Virgilius would be in the top three.
I had the opposite experience to Lizwhiz1 in terms of difficulty. I found that this was easier than many of Virgilius’s puzzles but still great fun and wonderfully clued. Many thanks to our Sunday Supremo for an entertaining crossword.
I’ve spent 3 hours on this crossword. It’s a beast! Only halfway there but answers are going in now and again. Been looking forward to the blog – but I had all the answers for the clues with hints except 17d. Couldn’t get *****iac out my head!
I always do hints for the first and last across and down clues plus two or three others.
I normally need all the help I can get! It’s always appreciated :)
Well, this took me a long time to solve but I did smack my head a few times for being a bit dull!
Another ace Sunday puzzle
I thought that 11a was a great Cryptic Definition.
I am , however, struggling with the wordplay for 13a – I realise that the definition is a synonym of ‘handle’ but cannot see the reason why.
Was my hint no use?
If you have the answer then look up the last six letters – it’s a slang word for a pound or pounds!
You know what?.
I didn’t even see it!. Many Thanks!.
Been eagerly awaiting some hints but they are all to clues I already had. Its probably obvious but I cannot make headway with 21a
Favourites for me were 17 down, 19a and 19d
21a: “Good teacher’s witty remark about dreadful liars”
The definition is Good teacher. The wordplay needs a word for witty remark “a bon ***” around an anagram (dreadful) of liars.
Phew got it so have now finished…thanks for the hint Prolixic!
Great puzzle, very hard, some brilliant deception. Favourite 2 down, but many others to admire also.
This one certainly did not disappoint! I found this a real challenge after the comparatively gentler Rufus puzzle this morning, but immensely satisfying. Favourites 1a, 20a, and 17d. Thanks to Virgilius for rejuvenating the grey cells after an over-indulgent weekend!
An excellent puzzle!
Many good clues
I liked 9a, 13a, 15a, 23a 26a & 27a. 2d, 3d, 7d, 12d but i agree 17d was the very best.
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