Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27467
Hints and tips by Deep Threat
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Good morning from South Staffs this bright Good Friday morning.
As usual from Giovanni, some obscure words but fair wordplay. ** difficulty for me.
In the hints below, the definitions are underlined.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
Across
1a Chief’s border guarded by friend (6)
{ PRIMAL } The border of a cup or glass inside a word for friend.
5a Behind soldier see heartless people in shades (8)
{ PARASOLS } Start with an airborne soldier, than add a word for people (focusing on their spiritual rather than physical aspect) with the middle letter removed.
9a Opposing procedure and fighting against board (13)
{ COUNTERACTION } The sort of board where you might get served in a shop, followed by a military fight.
10a Perch by post where English journey may finish (5,3)
{ LAND’S END } What birds do when they perch, followed by what you do when you post a letter.
11a See 4 Down
12a This person’s a good editor, as portrayed (6)
{ IMAGED } Another way of saying ‘This person is’ followed by A (from the clue), Good, and an abbreviation for editor.
14a Words at foot of page giving indication of monetary amount (8)
{ TURNOVER } The gross income of a business might also be an instruction at the foot of a page encouraging you to go to the next page.
16a Chemical compound with lead affected doctor’s alter ego (8)
{ ALDEHYDE } Anagram (affected) of LEAD followed by the person Dr Jekyll turned into, giving a volatile fluid with a suffocating smell.
19a Bit of grub accounting for one disease found in bird (6)
{ TITBIT } The Roman numeral for one and the abbreviation for a serious lung disease, inside a small bird.
21a Lander crashing in grass (6)
{ DARNEL } Anagram (crashing) of LANDER.
23a Mum needs time with hair — it needs to lie flat (8)
{ MATTRESS } Put together another word for Mum, Time, and an amount of hair.
25a I’d grab iron and work — see me in the kitchen! (8,5)
{ DRAINING BOARD } Anagram (work) of I’D GRAB IRON AND.
26a Duck escaping from wide expanse of water on road in city (8)
{ BRADFORD } A Yorkshire city is made up of a word for wide with the O removed (duck escaping) and an expanse of water you can drive through.
27a Guarantee Conservative will escape blame (6)
{ ENSURE } Remove the initial C(onservative) from a word for blame.
Down
2d Rescue about 150 on train (7)
{ RECLAIM } Put together the Latin expression for about or concerning, the Roman numerals for 150, and a verb meaning train, as in training a piece of artillery on a target.
3d Pattern in soft earth (5)
{ MOULD } Double definition, the first being the pattern used for casting a piece of metal.
4d and 11 Across: Neat lady artists converted to become members of religious sect (6-3,6)
{ LATTER-DAY SAINTS } Anagram (converted) of NEAT LADY ARTISTS, giving the formal name for members of a church commonly called Mormons.
5d Green stone fairy placed on spot (7)
{ PERIDOT } A fairy, as in Iolanthe, followed by a spot like the one at the end of this sentence.
6d Runs of cards starting with king (5)
{ RACES } The Latin abbreviation for a king, followed by some high-value playing cards.
7d You must tell me what to do if mouth contains poison! (4,2,3)
{ SPIT IT OUT } An instruction to someone who’s having difficulty getting his words across, or a literal way of dealing with the ingestion of something poisonous.
8d Aperture in instrument plugged with open fabric (7)
{ LUNETTE } This is an arched opening in a vault. Put a fabric with a very open structure inside a stringed instrument popular during the Renaissance.
13d The Emerald Isle? Somewhere much further north (9)
{ GREENLAND } The word for the colour of which emerald is an example, followed by the nature of an isle.
15d Rubbish on a piece of furniture that can be shifted round (9)
{ ROTATABLE } A word for rubbish followed by A (from the clue) and a piece of furniture.
17d Name assumed by boss, an enthusiastic swimmer (7)
{ LEANDER } This was the chap who swam the Hellespont every night to visit his girlfriend Hero. Put Name inside a boss or chief.
18d Queen leads my people, with diamonds bedecked in the Lords? (7)
{ ERMINED } Put together the Queen’s regnal cipher, the pronoun for ‘my people’, and the suit symbol for diamonds at bridge.
20d Person with confidential info is nerd, I fancy (7)
{ INSIDER } Anagram (fancy) of IS NERD I.
22d Contributor to baffling office jargon (5)
{ LINGO } Hidden (contributor to) in the clue.
24d Ways Greek island gets reported (5)
{ ROADS } Sounds like (gets reported) a Greek island which used to have a Colossus.
The Quick Crossword pun { CARRY }{ HOKEY } = { KARAOKE }
A slow start but everything rapidly fell into place. No problems once I got stuck in. Thanks to setter and to Deep Threat for the review.
2*/2* for a relatively straightforward offering from Giovanni today. I found it a bit dull, perhaps unfairly comparing it to yesterday’s sublime puzzle. There were the usual obscurities in 5d & 8d, and in fact I didn’t complete the latter because I had put the wrong ending for 9a.
Thanks to setter and hinter.
Thank you DG, a good start to the weekend with the usual obscure words. I am going to mow the darnel now. Thanks DT for your review and hints. Didn’t need any decoding of wordplay today !
So far I’m the first but I probably won’t be by the time I’ve written a comment, had another cup of coffee etc.
I took a while to get on the right wave length today – I’m not sure that I ever did. 3* difficulty and the same for enjoyment.
I spent too long hunting for Easter references of some kind.
I didn’t know the religious sect or the grass but got those in the end – both anagrams so not too tricky.
Don’t know how but I had the wrong ending for 9a to begin with which made 8d impossible.
I liked 10 and 25a and 7 and 22d.
With thanks to Giovanni and Deep Threat.
I knew it – still never been the first to comment.
A sprinkling of new-to-me words, but no problems. Liked 7D. Thanks to Giovanni and DT.
Dead in the water on today’s Toughie…
A very enjoyable and not overly difficult Friday offering from the Don and a very amusing review, many thanks to Giovanni and Deep Threat, the Osmosis toughie is worth a go, quite similar in difficulty to this.
This rather unamusing puzzle turned out to be more straightforward than the original impression. I had same problems as you, Kath, due to ng ending of 9a. No outstanding clues for me. Thanks Giovanni and Deep Threat. ***/**.
My ending to 9a was ‘ve’. Hopeless!
Mine was ING – does that make me even more hopeless
No – at least yours fits with the clue – mine was just plain wrong!
Got there without too much exertion but there were some odd words which I had to look up for confirmation . 2* all round .
Well, I did enjoy this more than the rest this week, although I did need a bit of help with 5a and 21a. In fact the top couple of lines took longer than the rest because I insisted on having ‘con’ as the first three letters of 9a for longer than was healthy.
The 4/11 anagram was lovely.
My favourite was 7d.
BBC weather forecast annoyingly inaccurate for the last two or three days……
I found it fairly tricky and , throughout the puzzle I kept worrying that the solution might be some word I have never heard of and will never hear again.Such was the case for 21a.This niggling feeling that no matter how hard I try I won’t get it spolis the enjoyment a bit.Thanks Giovanni and DT.
That black line is still at the top of the page and is a bit of a mystery .Can anybody explain what one is supposed to do with it ?
Una, I am sure BD can explain the technicalities of it, but, with my very limited understanding, this site is hosted by WordPress and the black “line” now appearing at the top of the page appears to be a WordPress toolbar. However I have no idea what, if anything, we humble bloggers are supposed to do with it. (I won’t be clicking on “Like”!)
It used to only be seen when I logged on to the WordPress account to do blogging/editing etc. I presume BD’s update has made it visible to all.
I’m that thick that I never noticed it.
Neither did I until you mentioned it Una
Nor me!
What black line ? :-)
I found out what was putting it there and removed it.
I thought this one was pretty straightforward as I went sauntered through leaving the trickier ones to come back too….and then I realised I have quite a few to return too. Managed nearly all without hints however I have 9a ending with …ing….which threw 8d which turned out to be a new word for me. Still cannot see why 9ac is …ion and not …ing based on the wording of the clue…but I am just a mere mortal. In summary very enjoyable, at least *** for me. Hoping for something really tricky to keep me occupied over the weekend.
I could easily be wrong here – I am, quite often – but I think 9a ending in ‘ing’ is a verb, of some kind or other, which is probably how we’re meant to read the clue but ‘opposing procedure’ can also be a noun so ‘counteraction’ works. That all sounds pretty garbled – oh dear!
I think it could also work the other way round from that in the hint too, as in ” counter” bring an adjectival synonym for “opposing”; action being a synonym for procedure and the whole word being something that a board member might choose to do to be contrary (I think this is a business manoeuvre).
Whew!
Really enjoyed today’s puzzle, definitely much more on my wavelength then yesterday’s effort, and therefore all the more satisfying. There were a couple of new words, but we looked them up with the electronic device. 8 down was the last in, because we put ing as the ending for 9 across. Thank you to the setter and to DT for the explanations.
Four words that I’ve never heard before … and will never use again. So it’s a thumbs down from me.
Thoroughly enjoyable, an excellent offering from the Master. I especially liked 14a and 15d, nice to see a bit of science and a minimum of religion :-)
21 a was today’s new word for me. Wasn’t perhaps 100% with 3d but that’s just picky.
Thx to Giovanni and to DT.
PS How dare the DT put an advert in the anagram box! Not playing the game at all
I often fall into the 9a trap of using the verb rather than the noun form.
Many thanks to all the setters and contributors in the last fortnight. I had to have a leg amputated and the crosswords have been vey therapeutic. Now for a walk ( or should I say “roll” !) in the sunshine in my wheelchair.
Gosh , neveracrossword, I admire your spirit and joie de vivre, keep on rolling !
Well done you in getting around in your wheelchair! I’m sure the weather is also a bit therapeutic.
Will you be up and about on 1+1 at some stage?
Poor you, although you don’t sound the slightest bit sorry for yourself – brilliant. Hope that you had a nice outing in the sun.
Sorry to hear the Neveracrossword and I too admire your spirit. Anybody with two legs has more than the average number of legs.
Like !
Well, all good thoughts to you, you are very brave. I suppose you will now be heavily involved with PT, I hope it all goes well.
Great spirit Neveracrossword!
Wow. That’s quite a conversation stopper! Keep smiling, all the best, we’re thinking of you.
Yet another great puzzle from The Don. Wonderful stuff and a joy from start to finish.
Great puzzle, much better than yesterday that I gave up on. No new words for me, darnel was in a crossword not that long ago, I googled the DT and it wasn’t that, but I do quite a few so it could have been anywhere. Fave was 7d, along with the majority. Thanks to Giovanni and DT.
Great puzzle which I enjoyed very much. Must have been on the right wavelength. For 9a I went through an ending in ive, ing before getting it right. Shouldn’t the clue have started with opposition rather than opposing? Just a thought. Being French once again helped me with 8d. 7d was very good. Thanks to the setter and to Deep Threat for the review. Happy easter to everyone.
Oh we’ll, it’s just me then. I failed miserably with this today , and didn’t enjoy it, but maybe I imbibed a bit too much vino at lunchtime!
Reassuring to read that we were not alone in putting in the wrong ending for 9a. This made completing the NE corner rather a slow process but did get there. Done in fits and starts as family staying for the Easter break and other things like The Lego Movie (a must see), McDonalds, and adventure playground had to be fitted in to the schedule too. Enjoyed the solve.
Thanks Giovanni and DT.
Evening session today as the sunshine today was irresistible. My brain works better in the morning so I ran out of steam with 4 to go only to find they were probably the simplest of all – after the hints, of course.
Enjoyable early evening saunter though.
Thanks to Giovanni and DT for all their effort.
PS. 15d. I couldn’t believe my first thought could be correct and I was right when I realised that my first part also appeared in the clue! “Rubbish with part of F(urniture)?” Not in the Telegraph!
I took quite a while to get a foothold in this, but eventually managed it without having to draw on DT’s excellent hints. 3*/3* for me, and 7d probably my favourite. My thanks to Giovanni. Now – back to what looks to me like an utterly impenetrable Toughie!
Thanks to Giovanni and to Deep Threat for the review and hints. New words in 21a and 8&17d, but all were gettable from the wordplay . Nice puzzle, was 3*/3* for me. A bit late commenting due to attendance at the Margate beer festival.