Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27517
Hints and tips by Miffypops
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Good morning all from the centre of Downtown L I. A special hello to Ginny who occasionally blogs. 9ac and 21ac nearly pushed this into two star difficulty but not quite. I am thoroughly bored with The World Cup. Roll on 2015 when we can have the real thing.
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 Graduate cuts amounts left in bank account (8)
{BALANCES} Place a word used by the medical profession for cuts after one of the usual abbreviations for a university graduate
6a Signing for course (3-3)
{TIC-TAC} The courses here are the likes of Ascot Goodwood and Cheltenham. The signs are those used by “turf accountants” to communicate the odds of certain horses
9a Cannon ball? (6)
{POMPOM} A double definition the first being a new meaning of this word for me so thanks to google (who really needs the BRB these days). This is the nickname for the QF 1 Pounder and the QF 2 Pounder autocannons and so named because of the sound made on discharge. The second is another word for the bobble on a bobble hat
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ARVE Error: need id and provider |
10a Want no more, it’s unnecessary (8)
{NEEDLESS} Unite two four lettered words, one meaning need, and one meaning no more to form the eight lettered word meaning unnecessary. This clue perfectly illustrates why a daily dose of the Quickie Crossword will greatly improve Cryptic skills.
11a Military call-up (8)
{REVEILLE} The bugle or trumpet call used to waken military personel
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ARVE Error: need id and provider |
12a Industry in which men are under-employed (6)
{MINING} The industry where the employees work below the surface of the ground.
13a Expert carried out (12)
{ACCOMPLISHED} A double definition here. As an adjective the first means to be highly trained or skilled in a particular activity. As a verb, to achieve or complete successfully
16a Soldier intends to acquire personal wealth (7,5)
{PRIVATE MEANS} Place the lowliest of military personel before a regular crosswordland word meaning intends to get a term meaning income from investments property or inheritance as opposed to earned income or state benefit.
19a Standard CND supporter? (6)
{BANNER} This standard is often a long strip of cloth bearing a slogan and used in demonstrations. A member of the CND might also be classed as one of these
21a Made the young go off their rockers? (8)
{UNHORSED} This type of rocker might be found in the nursery or playroom. A child unsaddled from one will be said to be this. Our unusual word of the day, all checkers needed for me and a bit of paper and a pencil and several trawls through the the alphabet, lots of head scratching and a complete determination not to email Big Dave for help.
23a Satisfied when sausage mash is set before a number (8)
{ASSUAGED} There is an seven letter anagram here for which the fodder is wonderfully indicated . When solved it needs to be placed before the Roman numeral for five hundred.
24a Directions taken by clergymen? (6)
{ORDERS} These directions when Holy are what a priest takes upon ordination
25a Acquiesce when told to go (6)
{ASSENT} take a two letter preposition meaning during the time of being (when) and place a four letter word after it which means told to go
26a Revised diet distributed in rush (2-6)
{RE-EDITED} A charade with an anagram. Take my hand and I will walk you through it. Revised is the definition. Diet distributed tells us that the letters of the word DIET are anagram fodder. In rush tells us to place these letters inside another word for rush (think grasses)
Down
2d Fuss about daughter having lover (6)
{ADORED} Another charade. The usual thre letter word for fuss. The usual two letter word for about and a one letter abbrviation for d)aughter) will together give a six letter word describing one who is loved.
3d Liberal politician gets in the beer (5)
{AMPLE} Place your member of parliament inside some beer to gain a sufficiency
4d Sharing guilt, company member needs legal support (9)
{COMPLICIT} Here we do as the clue suggests. Take a two letter abbreviation for company. Fetch your member of pariament from the previous clue and add a word meaning legal to find a word meaning sharing guilt or being involved with others in criminal activity
5d Light coming down a shaft (7)
{SUNBEAM} Take our brightest and nearest star and place a word for a shaft or a long sturdy piece of timber after it to find a ray of light. Jesus wants me for one of these sang the Sally Annies when I was little
6d Unit for heating the small room (5)
{THERM} A unit of heat energy. The (from the clue) and a shortened word for room
7d Coins lost, possibly, but they settle (9)
{COLONISTS} Its anagram time again. The indicator is widely used. The fodder precedes it. The definition is those who settle as in those who start a colony
8d One missing tea’s been out (8)
{ABSENTEE} And another anagram. The definition is One missing. The word Out is the anagram indicator. Tea’s been is the anagram fodder.
13d Coming to river — that may be exciting (9)
{ADVENTURE} Place the religious term for coming as in the four weeks leading up to Christmas (191 days to go) and place the name of a river after it. There are approximately thirty nine rivers with three letters in their name in the British Isles alone. This one is in Yorkshire
14d Nasty hotel, so am moving (9)
{LOATHSOME} Anagram time again. In this clue they apper thus. Definition. Fodder. Indicator. You can do it. Off you go.
15d A right pursued by one US state and another (8)
{ARKANSAS} A from the clue. R(ight) also from the clue. The name of a state in Midwestern America named after the Native American tribe which inhabited the area. Altogether these give the name of another one of the States of America
17d His job is to cast waste away (7)
{MOULDER} One who casts metal is one of these. John Browns body does this.
18d Vehicle provided for those who are late (6)
{HEARSE} Late here means dead. This vehicle is used to transport the dead on their final journey. Often the only time one gets to travel in a Rolls Royce.
20d Not left
straight (5)
{RIGHT} a double definition. The first being exactly what it says.
22d They spread out in all directions (5)
{RADII} Apart from Skiing this is possibly the only word in the english language with a double i. Think spokes of a wheel.
Thanks to all who comment and make these pages a lot of fun.
The Quick crossword pun: (freak} + {when} + {seas} = {frequencies}
Thank you Rufus, an enjoyable puzzle and no problems. Thanks Miffypops for your comprehensive review and hints.
Well I am glad you had no problems SW, but I did.There were lots of old familiars such as 16a and 12a, both of which I like. However ,21a did for me, I thought it was unhinged.17d took an awfully long time to work out,and I had to wait until the blog to find out why 9a solution was what it was.I think I must have seen it before otherwise how could it have popped into my head ?
Thanks Miffypops for coming to the rescue, and to Rufus.
I thought it was unhinged too, Una…with not a great deal of confidence, after trying an anagram of the young for a long time.
Even though it’s an anagram I think 23a is very clever. Thanks to Rufus & to Miffypops for his review. A result on Father’s day from one of my offspring – a book of Rufus Crosswords! If I can find the same from Virgilius my summer would be complete.
Now as far as the Real World Cup is concerned I see that we have Australia & Wales in our group which should provide a a couple of tasty games.
I don’t see why anagram clues can’t be clever. I think many of them are masterly. The fact that they may be solvable quickly doesn’t stop one admiring the set-up.
Totally agree & they can be quite convoluted at times but I this one had me smiling which is quite an achievement on a miserable Monday morning.
You will probably get our lovely sunshine tomorrow.
Thanks to Rufus and Miffypops, an enjoyable if untaxing crosswordand an amusing review.
This was a bit of a breeze but pleasant nevertheless. Thank you Rufus and thanks Miffypops for helping me discount matador in 17d and for your guidance to an alternative for unhinged in 21a which was last to go in. No interest in soccer World Cup but Ascot and Wimbledon will be perfect TV sport substitutes for next 3 weeks. **/***.
I also gave matador a whirl for a bit.
9ac had me a bit puzzled, it had to be what it was, but why? I didn’t get as far as finding a gun called a pompom, but I did visualise the bobble on top of biretta. So possibly ‘canon ball’. One less ‘n’ I know, so a ‘sounds like’ would be needed to make it work correctly. So did I get it right by finding a hidden third meaning, or did I just get lucky?
Cannon & Ball…………?
I would have to put this at least a 2*, on the grounds that any kind of googling or other electronic help precludes me from rating less.
the misspelling of 23a stopped me completing 13d. Oh dear me!
No idea of the first definition of 9a, I bet my FIL would have known, as he was a gunnery officer – I’m pretty sure the answer to the question wouldn’t have blown his ear drums…
The 21a/22d fiasco also brought me to a halt before checking and, finally,
This was a bit more than 2* for me and 3* for enjoyment.
I started off really well but then ground to a halt for a while, got going again and then was left with 6 and 21a – I’ve been “had” by 6a before – the bit that really fools me is that it’s not in BRB under “tic” it’s under “tick”.
The other one that took too long was 22d – didn’t get that until I finally got 21a.
Like others I didn’t know the gun bit of 9a and the 7d anagram caused a few problems.
I liked 23a and 14d. My favourite was 13d.
With thanks to Rufus and Miffypops.
Horrible day here – grey, chilly and airless. Washing just dangling on line. My grandmother used to say the washing was hanging there like Cutty’s lugs – I always wondered who Cutty was and anyway what were lugs?
Lugholes??
Are you sure it was Cutty not cuddy Kath? Scots term for horse or donkey ears
Ha, that makes sense! Thanks for adding to my knowledge today.
That makes sense – maybe I wasn’t listening to her carefully enough – well done you – thanks! One less mystery in my life.
PS I was just thinking what an amazing “place” this is. Someone always knows the answer to whatever the question is.
Well that’s a new phrase to me, Cuttys lugs. Where does that come from?
I thought that a **/*** was warranted as the puzzle included clues like 21a and 17d-my uncle Tom was a 17d for many years at a ship yard, ery handy when cast iron parts of the old grate broke!.Old enough to remember the 9a cannon which will be lost on our younger viewers ,enjoyable start to the week thanks all.
Top half went in fairly quickly, then we got a bit held up with 21a and 17 down. 21 across sounds as if it should be in a historical melodrama and not a word used in everyday conversation, not even by me when I used to go riding. Thank you setter and Miffypops.
A gentle run out until a little stumble over 17d. Neither usage heard much these days but thankfully the checking letters got me there.
Finished before lights out last night, but only because I had to resort to an on-line Scrabble Word Finder for 9a – obviously Rufus showing his RN heritage. I wasn’t too sure about 21a, but with all the checkers in place it could only be what it was. So, **/*** for me. As ever, thanks to MP for the tasteful and not excessive in quantity illustrations.
21A put this into 2* difficulty for me. But I did smile when I got it.
Nice start to the week.
Hmmm, finished in reasonable time but wouldn’t call it straightforward. Words like radii and reedited are unusual, and I had to double check 6a, 9a and 21a, because I doubted even though the answer could hardly be anything else. Some of the surface readings pretty good, especially liked 11a. Thanks to all.
This was a standard Monday offering, not a great strain but enjoyable all the same.9A had me confused so had to see what MP had to say about it and I wasn”t alone! I would rate this 2/3 Thanks to Miffypops for his usual high standard review.
Unusual for me, I had a little difficulty getting into this on first read through, but after that everything fell into place. I am familiar with 21a because I used to ride a lot with a friend who would use the term whenever I fell off, not an unusual occurrence! I seem to remember that 9a was used a lot in the Hornblower books, am I not correct? Favourite is 21a for memories it brings back, with honourable mention to 11a and 16a. Thanks to Rufus and M’pops for review, tasteful as usual.
I don’t think Hornblower would have encountered pom-poms. His adventures took place in the Napoleonic wars in the early 1800s, and the pom-pom was only invented in 1880.
I hope the script writers of Hornblower knew that !
I just feel that I had read about pompoms in some book in my youth and it seemed it had to be Hornblower, great favourite of mine. As you say, it can’t be, but can you think of books I might have read that had mention of pompoms? No TV in those days,, so we read voraciously.
I can’t think of many books written about the navy during WWII – the only one that really springs to mind is The Cruel Sea which may have included the use of pompoms. Would they have been mentioned in any of W. E. John’s Biggles series?
Incidentally, The Cruel Sea contains one of my favourite quotes ‘You British, you think we Russians know bugger nothing, but I tell you we know bugger all’
Your quote from The Cruel Sea reminds me of when I had my copy confiscated at school because it was deemed to be unsuitable reading matter for a “young lady”!
Quite straightforward but nevertheless very enjoyable. Still not quite sure about 2d, doesn’t seem quite right somehow but that’s being picky.
Best for me was def 9a
Great start to the week. Mrs B says thank you setter! She is not keen on the tricky ones.
Thx to all
Having a lover means she was …………(the clue answer)
Back after a long week in deepest, darkest Devon chosen by my wife who liked the village name, I liked it as we were in a converted stable in the back yard of an old 16th century coaching inn.
No problems at all today, virtually a write in. Didn’t find any hassle with 9A (I come from a naval family and had to watch all the WWII movies involving such artillery) – the 2nd definition seemed straight forward to me as the fluffy balls American cheerleaders fiddle about with in their versions of sport.
21 and 22 held no problems for me.
Now, off to try the stuff from the weekend and continue to remove a weeks worth of unwanted e-mails (only 248 to go and I’ve been deleting for two days)
I will be a happy person when I finish one of these without reference to H&T.
Started well then had a pause before picking it up this p.m.
Some of these I would never have got without miffypops.
I think I have a macabre sense of humour because my favourite today is 18d and I think a while ago I liked the autopsy answer
Thank you Rufus and miffypops
Back from Tenby (oh for a horse to canter along that beach!) and put Mr P safely on his train North, so sat down with a cuppa – which got cold as I tussled with a few of these… But really enjoyed it, so thanks to setter for the fun, and to Miffypops for being such a great encourager for those like me less able to stroll through the solutions! Being a bit picky, would have loved an illustration for 21a, but never mind. Thank you. Tomatoes have survived my absence. Hurrah.
Agree about the soccer roll on 2015. I have tickets for thr final. England v ? . Strangely found today a tad difficult.
We thought this was a really good Monday puzzle. Well up to the standard of difficulty and enjoyment that we have come to expect and appreciate from this setter.
Thanks Rufus and Miffypops.
Enjoyable and pain-free. Last in was 21a my fave being 19a. All over rather too quickly.
. Thanks for the review.
A jolly little puzzle, l thought, for which many thanks to Rufus. I can’t choose a favourite because l can’t decide between 9 and 11 across – both are clever and both raised a smile when the penny dropped. Thanks to Miffypops as well for the review.
Thanks to Rufus and to Miffypops for the review and hints. An enjoyable start to the week, just needed the hint for 9a, had never heard of the gun. Favourite was 15d. Was 2*/3* for me. Late commenting due to getting a new mobile. Wonder if I can get the chicken back?
Very straight forward except 21a-spent more time on that than the rest put together.
I never find Rufus puzzles easy and I really struggled with this one, so rate it ***/***. I did eventually manage to complete it correctly and without hints, but it took ages. I found the lower half a little easier than the upper. Didn’t have a problem with 21a (my fave) as I used to ride and the clue triggered off an image in my mind of the toy version a friend had.I also liked 9a and the 23a anagram.
Many thanks to Rufus for an enjoyable puzzle despite the difficulty. And much appreciation to Miffypops for a most enlightening and amusing review.
And hello to you too Miffypops. Very sorry I didn’t see your kind greeting till just now, mainly because I have only just finished the previous Monday’s (I tend to print out a weeks worth and do them at my own pace, hence not contributing to the blog very often). Now to start this one! Thank you setter, and Miffypops for your hints which will probably be indispensable, like this blog.
Well I managed to finish in the end without the hints which were needed though to clarify 9a and the end letter of 2d which I had wrong. I enjoyed all the clues, particularly 19a and 21a. Thank you setter and Miffypops again. I enjoyed the review.