DT 26697 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 26697

by Libellule  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26697

Hints and tips by Libellule

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

What a difference the extra hour makes. I did the crossword in nice bright sunshine this morning. Nowhere near as good as last weeks, but still relatively enjoyable all the same. Favourite clue 28a.

You can highlight the space between the curly brackets if you want to reveal the answer.

Across

1. Substitute for Peter McLean (11)
{REPLACEMENT} – An anagram of PETER MCLEAN. (Who’s he?)

9. Don’t miss what is said to be a slogan (9)
{CATCHWORD} – A well-known word or phrase could describe you understanding somebody saying something. Gazza had an alternative answer to this, which I think is just as good.

10. Nothing disturbed bees like being overweight (5)
{OBESE} – O (nothing) and an anagram (disturbed) of BEES.

11. The significance of what you bring in (6)
{IMPORT} – Double definition, a word that means to signify or be significant also means to bring in something from a foreign country.

12. Go for gold, in anticipation (8)
{PROSPECT} – Another double definition, to explore for mineral deposits or something expected, a possibility.

13. A young crab? (6)
{NIPPER} – Please don’t tell me you have never seen this one before.

15. Fashion creation producing feedback (8)
{REACTION} – An anagram (fashion) of CREATION.

18. It plays without music (8)
{FOUNTAIN} – A decorative structure from which a stream of water issues.

19. He gives notice, having to work when others are playing (6)
{CRITIC} – A professional judge of art, music, literature, etc.

21. Acts as a superintendent abroad, we hear (8)
{OVERSEES} – A sounds like clue (we hear). To act as a supervisor for example sounds like being situated in a foreign country.

23. Wood and metal container on the beach (6)
{ASHORE} – A tree of the genus Fraxinus, plus a three letter word for a naturally occurring mineral is a word that means on land or on the beach.

26. Enter into an American business contract with ancient city (5)
{INCUR} – A word that means to acquire or come into can be constructed from the abbreviation for incorporated and a well known crossword city of ancient Sumer.

27. He won’t take steps to maintain silence (3-6)
{TAP-DANCER} – This particular person uses their shoes to sound out a rhythm – so if they were not making any movements, then all would be quiet. If you see what I mean.

28. Outdo? (6,5)
{GARDEN PARTY} – The Queen has these events during the summer.

Down

1. Disturbance in court, perhaps (7)
{RUCTION} – An anagram (perhaps) of IN COURT.

2. Erect a palindrome (3,2)
{PUT UP} – A phrase that means to erect or build reads the same when reversed. This clue reminds me of another recent Rufus clue (DT 26685 Mon October 17th 2011 – A palindrome immortalised (7)). It does seem strange to have a palindrome explicitly pointed out in a cryptic crossword.

3. Those that do will presumably have a mortgage, though it’s horrid (9)
{ABHORRENT} – A word that means disgusting, loathsome, or repellent could if split (5,4) be someone who does not like paying money to a landlord.

4. Tender put up for capital statue (4)
{EROS} – Reverse a word that means painful to the touch to get a famous statue in Piccadilly Circus.

5. Maybe Ned does right to get confirmed (8)
{ENDORSED} – An anagram (maybe) of NED DOES and R (right).

6. U.S. sweetheart gets whistles (5)
{TOOTS} – A slang American term for darling or sweetheart could also be the sounds of horns or whistles.

7. He can’t love, fake and betray (5,2)
{CHEAT ON} – An anagram (fake) of HE CANT and O (love) produces a phrase that means to be unfaithful in marriage.

8. Abandoned ship (8)
{DERELICT} – A word that means run down or dilapidated is also a ship abandoned at sea.

14. Girl showing caution (8)
{PRUDENCE} – A girls name that also means caution, discretion or circumspection.

16. Dishonest dealer (4-5)
{CARD-SHARP} – A person who makes a living by cheating at poker for example.

17. Man on board who shows the way (8)
{DIRECTOR} – A person on the board of a company could also be someone who supervises and leads.

18. She’s quite happy to show her bloomers! (7)
{FLORIST} – She would be even happier to sell you some flowers too.

20. Many in good time plainly seen (7)
{CLEARLY} – CL (the Roman numerals for one hundred and fifty – many) and a word that means before the expected or usual time produces another word that means distinctly or plainly seen.

22. On the mat, she almost gives gesture of indifference (5)
{SHRUG} – The first two letters (almost) of she and then a floor covering,

24. Hollywood success means nothing to Mark (5)
{OSCAR} – An Academy Award statue is O followed by a mark left on the skin after a wound has healed.

25. Part of the church in a pseudo-Gothic style (4)
{APSE} – A domed or vaulted recess that usually contains the altar is hidden at the start of “a pseudo”.

The Quick crossword pun: {bridle} + {sweet} = {bridal suite}

68 comments on “DT 26697”

  1. Good morning Libellule, I envy you your good weather, damp and misty here on the South Coast but unseasonably mild. Re: the Xword, nice easy start to the week, sailed thro’ in good time, nothing to difficult and no hold ups. Agree with your * ratings.
    Thank you for your review and thanx also to the Compiler.

  2. A couple in the SW held me up briefly in what was otherwise an enjoyable, gentle start to my working week.
    Many thanks to Rufus, and to Libellule for the notes.

  3. I thought it was the extra hour that made this seem fairly easy. Thanks for a nice start to Monday though I still don’t really get 27a. or would expect a better clue. Still 13a, 25a and 28a are nice clues. Good to have plenty of time today to get on with other things without the crossword running in the background.

    1. Scrabo,

      Re.27a – Another weakish cd. If a tap dancer is not dancing then he isn’t making a noise.

  4. Nice and gentle start to the week – except that I don’t understand the answer to 18a. Could someone explain please?

    1. Play is used in the following sense: To discharge or direct in or as if in a continuous stream e.g play the hose over a fire.

      1. Thanks Libellule – yes I got that, but if that’s all there is to the clue, the solution could be any of several equally loosely related words. Without the crossing letters, how could you arrive at the correct answer? Anyhooo……….thanks to Rufus and to you for the review.

        1. Roland,
          Its a cryptic def and thats how I read it as well, maybe I am missing something, but If I am, then someone will put us right. There were a number of weaker clues in this crossword 9a, 27a,22d and possibly this one for example.

          1. I thought the worst clue was 28a, as it doesn’t really give a definition. I got it once I had a few of the checking letters.

  5. I can’t say I enjoyed this one very much at all. Some very loose, clues – 18a and 19a for example, and I don’t believe anyone could be misdirected by the use of “bloomers” in 18d. A very old chestnut at 13a, and some anagrams that were all too obvious eg 10a, didn’t help. Not my cup of tea today, sorry setter. Thanks to Libellule.

  6. Morning each. Typical Monday fare today I thought – not too taxing, but a couple of fun clues. Nice to see 28A getting an airing again – yet another of my all time favourites.

  7. 13a might be an old chestnut, but it and 2d amused me when I solved them. Was held up by putting PATIENCE for 14d, so thanks to Libellule for the 18a prompt, which put me right. A nice steady start to the week.

  8. I agree, a nice easy start to the week, but I didn’t help myself by putting racquet as the answer to 1d! Worked out where I’d gone wrong in the end though.

  9. Not too difficult although I was a bit slow with a few clues, all in the bottom left hand corner. I got 26a (there wasn’t too much else that it could be) but don’t quite see what the “Inc” bit has to do with “an American business contract”. Wasn’t terribly keen on 18a and I didn’t know the American slang term in 6d so guessed. I liked 19 and 28a and 1, 3 and 18d. With thanks to Rufus and Libellule.

      2. In Saudi (where I worked for a number of years), the Inc, Est, etc were used extensively and sometimes in conjunction with each other. We used to actively drive around Al Khobar trying to find a company by the name of Inc. Est. Ltd.PLC

  10. Took me a while to get started today – only because of another Telagraph cock-up. The system decided to close my account, even though I had, in the last two weeks, renewed my subscription. I had to wait till after 9 o’clock to talk to somebody on the phone. Then had a further couple of hours to wait till they sorted it. I thought it was too good to be true that I accessed the site easily every day last week!

    Once in, I found the puzzle fairly easy.

  11. Good afternoon Libelulle, got a late start today as we had an electricity shut off for a few hours! Not one of my favourite Rufus crosswords and I needed your hints for 2 or 3 today, thank you, also needed explainations for a few, eg 18a! never heard that before also 8d never heard of either, 2 favourite clues however were 3d and 23a, not keen on the slight American theme and I thought toots came from hooters not whistles?? I thought 27a was clever but can see why some people wouldn’t like it, off to catch up with the things I couldn’t get done earlier now, good luck all :-)

  12. The usual start to Monday from Rufus, albeit with a couple of trickier than usual clues. Thank you to him and to Libellule too for the explanations.

    One of those odd days where it is warmer outside (and very warm for October) than it is in the building. If you aren’t going to go outside to warm up like me, the Guardian today has Brendan (Sunday’s Virgilius) with a theme which is fun to do.

    1. Hi Sue, yes after a grey miserable start to the day, it is lovely and sunny and quite warm, even nice enough to put clothes out! :-)

      1. I’d like to have put some washing out but my washing machine is currently waiting for new bearings and i am slowly building up the East Kent washing mountain :(

    3. Hi Sue – hello again. Sorry been absent on parade for a while – too many ****** visitors. Non-stop here since 4th September.
      So thanks for asking after me, And Kath too.

  13. Sadly my early morning timeslot for doing this failed as their site refused to perform again. A tad annoyed. Will look at it later.

    1. I know what you mean, I couldn’t get onto the site until 6am UK time – prior to that I did get onto the home page once, but the puzzles hadn’t been updated. So frustrating!

  14. Surely the statue in 4 down is “The Angel of Christian Charity”, not the four-letter pagan god

    1. A statue of an archer popularly known as Eros (sometimes called The Angel of Christian Charity, but intended to be Anteros).

      1. “popularly known”… let us not commit the Democratic Fallacy… do we really want to join the ranks of those who think that there is a clock named “Big Ben”… ;-)

  15. Very p.easant start to the week, couple of fav clues, 13a and 9a. Last one in was 6d, odd word I thought. But many thanks to the setter whoever it was and to Libellule for the hints and the explanation of 6d.

  16. Thanks to Libellule and the setter.a nice not too taxing puzzle, except for 3d&18a, which were the last two in and took longer than the rest of the puzzle.

  17. Enjoyed today. Needed a couple of your hints to correct my errors for which, thanks Libellule. Weather fine here at first but rain clouds mid pm

  18. Hello one and all – now that all our visitors have gone I hope to get back to doing a few more crosswords and chatting to everyone here.
    Not one of my favourite Rufus puzzles – although I enjoyed a few clues, even if they were old chestnuts.
    Romped through the top half, filled in the SE corner and then came to a grinding halt. I too had PATIENCE for 14d so F_T_T_I_ was a tad difficult to fill in!
    I was looking for somne sort of intrument that plays itself but all I could think of was Pianola. Doh moment when I finally twigged 14d.
    Happy solving for the rest of the week, and thanks to Libellule and Rufus for a nice gentle stary to the week.

    4. Hi Pommette, glad I wasn’t the only one thinking of pianola :-) I finally got the answer, but thought it was a bit dodgy, but to my surprise, it was correct.

  19. Enjoyable fare from Rufus to start the week.
    Faves : 1a, 12a, 23a, 28a, 2d, 4d, 8d, 16d & 18d.

    Roast chicken and chips tonight with a drop of red wine!

    Weather in NL still magnificent.

  20. Good evening. This lulled me into a false sense of security as I zoomed off the first 3/4 then stalled on 18a (poor clue in my opinion); and 19a (vague?). As it was particularly early when I started I also misspelt 21a – DOH! This rather wrecked 17d. For 14d I put “patience” so overall I rather failed I suppose.

    Better tomorrow no doubt. The District Line provokes the brain cells.

  21. I really enjoyed today’s puzzle, in particular 28A and 13A which made me smile at the thought of a naughty little crab scuttling round nipping things!

  22. Been one of those days – haven’t really had a chance to concentrate on it yet. Have got a few but am now taking it to bed with me – how sad is that?!!

  23. Well I liked this one but agree not as good as last week’s. Didn’t like 18a much, I think it a little off-the-wall! Favourites 27a and 8d.
    Thanks to Rufus and Libellule.

    Giovanni Toughie tomorrow and they’re usually well worth a look – see you there Kath?

    1. Hi Franco, I’ve had trouble posting from my HTC Desire. So I just downloaded the WordPress Software, & now all looks different from this morning. Do you think it’s because the site HAS changed, or is it WordPress? Still whatever, at least I can now post comments :-)

  26. The crossword to-day was a gentle start to the week and enjoyable – but I have started getting the dreaded no data errors from the Telegraph website again – anyone else have the same? It was later in the day when I wanted to access the number puzzle rather than the cryptic.

  27. A gentle start to the rest of you maybe…but first time i have completed in one day…(5 hours)……well done me!!!…

  29. I don’t suppose there is any chance of reinstating the PDF puzzle posting? I’ve been unable to access the site Mon, Tue ….. morning (I’m in Oz so like to grab the puzzles in the morning …. i.e ASAP after midnight UK time)…..thanks

    1. OK finally in for Tuesday’s……is anyone else having an issue or is is simply that the puzzle page is not being updated by the DT until later in the morning?

    2. Not unless the Puzzles Editor starts sending them to me again!

      I see that the ability to download from the Telegraph Puzzles Home page has also disappeared.

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