ST 3167 (Hints) – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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ST 3167 (Hints)

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3167 (Hints)

Hints and tips by Senf

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg where, for those of you who are counting, at 1:00pm yesterday in our respective time zones in the Northern Hemisphere, and because of ‘springing forward,’ this year of 2022 became ‘half over’ – I have no idea how it works out ‘Down Under’ although I think they are on ‘Standard Time’ at the moment.

For me, Dada a little more quirky this week with six anagrams (two partials), two lurkers (one reversed), and no homophones – all in a frugally symmetric 26 clues; with 13 hints ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid you should be able to get the checkers to enable the solving of the unhinted clues.

Candidates for favourite – 7a, 20a, 25a, 5d, 13d, and 24d.

As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, a number of the more difficult clues have been selected and hints provided for them.

Don’t forget to follow BD’s instructions in RED at the bottom of the hints!

Most of the terms used in these hints are explained in the Glossary and examples are available by clicking on the entry under “See also”. Where the hint describes a construct as “usual” this means that more help can be found in The Usual Suspects, which gives a number of the elements commonly used in the wordplay. Another useful page is Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing, which features words with meanings that are not always immediately obvious.

A full review of this puzzle will be published after the closing date for submissions.

Some hints follow:

Across

7a China and Japan etc are parting quickly (3,4)
ARE from the clue inserted into (parting) a synonym of quickly.

10a Three quavers by singer good, on the whole (10)
An anagram (quavers) of THREE placed after (by) all of a type of male singer (a.k.a. voice) and the single letter for Good.

15a Covered by dressing, wound site sure to be germ-free (11)
An anagram (wound) of SITE SURE contained (covered) by a three letter type of dressing.

20a Insect burrowed into unremarkable tropical food (8)
One of our favourite insects inserted (burrowed) into a synonym of unremarkable – not what it might look like in the illustration.

23a Type of bridge: brilliant crossing over from the other side (10)
A synonym of brilliant containing (crossing over) a single word term for from the other side (in a debate?).

25a For example, third noise has interrupted exam (7)
A synonym of noise inserted into (has interrupted) a type of exam.

26a Take a holiday? That seems unlikely! (3,4)
A double definition – the second is an interjection expressing disbelief.

Down

1d Negative side effect when Yankees’ season dismissed (7)
Nothing to do with baseball, thank goodness – a season (of the year) where Yankees live and a (crickety) synonym of dismissed.

5d Kid with a state payment on track (10)
A from the clue and an informal term for a type of state payment, all placed before (on) a synonym of track (when following an animal?).

9d Sport bound to feature in broadcast (11)
A synonym of bound contained by (to feature in) a synonym of broadcast – my first thought was that the answer should be hyphenated but the BRB shows it unhyphenated and we all know that the BRB is always right, even when it’s wrong!

13d Liquid carried by boat and coach, source of easy money (5,5)
A liquid poured over a meal from a container called a boat and a verbal synonym of coach.

18d Greek character transported by vessel from the 7 across (7)
A four letter character from the Greek alphabet contained by a type of vessel (that Aussies get beer in).

24d Cheese crafted the wrong way (4)
A synonym of crafted reversed (the wrong way).


Quick Crossword Pun:

HAIR + EIFFEL = AIR RIFLE


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Australian singer, songwriter, and musician Judith Durham, who became the lead singer of the Australian popular folk group the Seekers, is 79 years young today.  From 1966, this is one of the Seekers most successful singles, associated with the film of the same name, although this version has different lyrics to the two versions in the film which apparently also had different lyrics for each usage at the start and end of the film (confused? I am):

38 comments on “ST 3167 (Hints)

  1. I thought even by recent standards this was a gentle Dada Sunday puzzle, but enjoyable enough.
    Took me a little while to justify the exact parsing of 23a and that was my only real pause for thought.
    Top clues for me were 1&18d.
    Many thanks to Dada and Senf for the early Sunday fun.

    1. Enjoy it while you can, the toughie is a real stinker today. Still giving me vexations. As Laurence Oates said “I may be some time”

      1. Happy to help wherever I can John. I sympathize, ProXimal is tough enough with his back page hat on!

        1. I think I have it beat but it keeps fighting back. I was hoping it might be a bit easier today after I encouraged the Friday commenters to come and have a go at the toughie.

  2. I found this a reasonably straightforward puzzle with some good, well-disguised anagrams like 15a, 10a an18d, which ismy COTD because I like geographical clues. Ialso liked 25a, a term, which, with its opposite, often catches me out. Thanks to Dada for another enjoyable puzzle and to Senf for the hints.

  3. 2*/3*. I enjoyed this and found it relatively straightforward for a Sunday back-pager although a couple of clues took a bit of teasing out.

    I rather liked 1a & 13d.

    Many thanks to Dada and to Senf.

  4. I rather enjoyed the double entendre element of 8&26a so those get podium places along with 18d which made me think a bit and my favourite, 13d.

    Thanks to Dada and to Senf for the hints and the reminder of Georgy Girl – hard to believe that Ms Durham is almost an octogenarian!

  5. Managed to enjoyably glide through this puzzle with no major hiccups along the way apart from 18d. Hello again to 12a. 23a was unparsed by me. Fav was 13d with 1d running up. Thank you Dada and Senf.

  6. I seem to have found this harder than other commentators so far, needed a couple of sittings and some head scratching. That said there was nothing obscure and when I got the answers I did wonder what took me so long.
    So overall a very enjoyable and satisfying solve, 23a and 18d were my last in so I will award them COTD as they required the most thought.
    Thanks to Dada and Senf

  7. As is so often the case, when pals above say a puzzle is straightforward I find it challenging. Such was the case today so I found Senf’s tips to be most helpful.

    With Covid rates at boiling point, we are (I suspect rather foolishly) heading into Knightsbridge for a late birthday luncheon.
    *grabs mask*

    Thanks to Dada and The Man From Manitoba.

  8. Like GJR, I too found this took me a while longer than I might normally expect. Just a wavelength thing I suspect as there were no elephant traps, just concise clueing. That and I was multi-tasking listening to the test match at the same time. 18d was my final entry, and my favourite was 23a.

    Thanks Dada and Senf.

  9. 21d makes no sense at all to me to the words that could fit in with the 3 letters I have from the across answers.

    1. Fishy is an anagram indicator. Probably the winner of the Wooden Spoon of today’s clues.

        1. Well, knowing that fishy is the anagram indicator and with two other words in the clue, looking for a six letter answer, one of the other words must be the definition.

          And, as it is a Prize Puzzle, I will have to leave you to work it out from there.

        2. There are only 3 words in the clue one of which is the correct number of letters.

    2. If the above comments don’t help I would suggest one of your across answers is wrong. The first word of the 3,5 clue maybe

  10. My sluggish solving of late continues today, although I managed to finish this tough Dada in *** time but only because I yielded to some electronic help at the very end with 18d: one letter, the third one, and then I realised that I was still trying to solve a GK-centred / NYT-style puzzle. I must remember that I’m ‘not in Kansas’ anymore. Excellent puzzle, with 13d my favourite. Will I be sent packing onto the naughty step [redacted – it’s a prize puzzle – read the instructions in RED below the hints]? Thanks to Senf and Dada. *** / ****

  11. Very gentle but still enjoyable & done in under 1.5* time until the brick wall at 18d. Unlike Jane who only had to think for a bit I thunk & thunk to no avail & cursed audibly when reading Senf’s hint.
    Thanks to Dada & Senf

  12. I made heavy weather of this I’m afraid, needing all but 2 of Senf’s excellent hints.
    And then, like GJR , wondered why I was being so dense.

    Thanks to the setter and to Senf.

  13. Wow that was really hard but still enjoyable. Not sure about 23A. It fits bit can’t parse it!
    Thanks to Dada and Senf although I didn’t use the hints.
    ****/***

  14. Another challenging but very pleasant Sunday solve from Dada.
    I did need Senf’s explanation to help me parse the answer for 18D (those Aussies do like their beer containers🙄) but otherwise what once again, at first read through, seemed like an impossible challenge, slowly started to come together as the right ‘Dada wavelength’ was achieved!
    Thanks again Sir and, as always, to Senf for the great blog ‘n hints 👍
    Cheers!

  15. Another pleasant, benevolent puzzle to solve from Dada today with no quirkiness in sight!
    2*/4.5* for me today.
    Candidates for favourites were many but I picked 7a, 15a, 23a, 25a, 1d & 13d

    Thanks to Dada and Senf

  16. This one is way above my pay grade, for me the toughest Dada for a long time. Had to admit defeat as the clues I have left are unhinted.
    Shame because I was enjoying dada puzzles.
    *****/*
    Thx to all

  17. Forgot to add … great music video selection today … thumbs up for that!!!

  18. Heading for 1* time but taking longer over 10a and 9d placed me in a solid ** time
    Enjoyable throughout.
    Equal gold 1 and 26d.
    Many thanks Dada and Senf.

    1. Not sure which platform you’re using to access the puzzle but on my printout the second word does look very much as though it has 5 letters with the middle letter ‘m’. Make that into an ‘r’ followed by an ‘n’.

  19. Needed too many hints and still had gaps. Succumbed to electronic help, and then annoyed with myself for not seeing the wood for the trees. Bit of a glum puzzle weekend, as I didn’t do very well yesterday and then discovered that Canuckle has ended. Oh dear. Thanks to Dada and Senf.

  20. Still struggling with this one. Well with most these days really, But I love a good pun and/or clever clue to give me a giggle. All the best to Big Dave. Grumpy is good, my Alan practices a lot :)

  21. After a break I found this not too bad puzzle. Thanks to Senf for explaining the ones I struggled with. Thanks also to Dada for a slightly easier time than with the Toughie.

  22. Brilliant puzzle, best for quite a while for me, though it was a tussle to get it finished…

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