DT 30217

84 comments on “DT 30217”

1. Quite slow to start, but once I got started on this puzzle it fell into place. I think the lack of obvious anagrams and phrases made it seem trickier than it actually was, but for me more testing than usual for a Tuesday. Is it me or or is there an extra “s” in 7d? I liked 12a, 17a and the topical reference in 21d, but my COTD goes to the clever 22a which was a fairly obvious bung-in but took me a while to figure out why! ***/****

   Ty to today’s setter and MrT

   1. No extra s for me. Men is already plural following the I’m for the writer and before the initial letters of sound and exasperated

2. 1.5*/4*. Another light, fun puzzle to continue the week with 22a, 5d & 21d making up my podium. I suspected a pangram as I neared completion but there were a couple of letters missing when I got to the end.

   Many thanks to the setter and to Mr T.

3. I am going **/**** for this excellent puzzle. My favourite was 18d with 27a second. Lots of helpful anagrams and I thought 11a a well hidden lurker. Thanks to Twmbarlwm and the setter

4. Whoosh!
   Hurrah!
   But a lot of guessed bung-ins.
   Which proved correct.
   Great.
   In perfect sync with this setter.
   Invariably find Tuesdays the easiest of the week.
   5,13 and 23a and 6d stand out.
   And 11a gave pause, very cleve lurker.
   Many thanks to the setter and Twmbarlwm.

5. I think the setter is Antony Plumb. Different cryptic grid but same quick grid which is the only one he has used for months

6. Initially thought this was going to be a non-starter but then once underway it all fell into place with the NE coming in last. 11a is a clever lurker as of course my mind turned to reading Harold P. 5d was a bung-in since I couldn’t really parse it. Thank you Mysteron and MrT.

7. Very enjoyable but tricky in places, with 5d, my LOI, still puzzling me a bit (it must be a particular use of the term that I’m unfamiliar with, because it hardly means ‘a slap on the wrist’ over here), but it had to be what it was. Otherwise, I mostly did what the clues said to do and breezed through the rest of the grid. No deep immersion here but I liked 27a, 22a, & 18d. Thanks to Twmbarlwm and today’s setter. **/***

8. Typical Tuesday, find the definition and ignore the complex wordplay. I thought 22a and 5d both very poor clues, thx for the hints to explain them.
   Not my favourite but Tuesday seldom is.
   ***/**

   1. Well, there you go Brian – it just goes to show we’re all different!!. 22a took me a little while to parse, but, when I did, what a penny drop moment – 100% my COTD!!

      1. It’s horses for courses. I thought 5d was great. I also agree with our Welsh mountain about the so called comedian.

         1. 

   2. I have to ask you Brian, which is your favourite crossword day? Have you actually got one?

9. For me, a very gentle solve today. All fell into place fairly quickly with only the NE corner causing any problems.10a held me up for a while as I was trying to make the editor do the accepting so making the first letter an e. 5d was my last one in and therefore favourite. Others I liked included 11a, 15a, 22a and 6d. Thanks to the compiler and Twmbarlwm, for confirming my parsing of 7d.

10. Another very enjoyable Tuesday challenge and, as suggested by Cephas above, it did have the ‘feel’ of an Anthony Plumb puzzle – 2.5*/3.5*

    Candidates for favourite – 1a, 25a, 26a (even if it is an oldie but goodie), 27a, 3d, and 18d – and the winner is 25a.

    Thanks to Mr Plumb(?) and Twmbarlwm.

11. A good filler between meetings this morning. Nothing too taxing or obscure and no GK, so my kind of puzzle. Just had to pause on 22a and 5d to think through the parsing.
    No particular favourite today, generally good all round.
    Thanks to the setter and Twmbarlwm

12. An enjoyable Tuesdayish puzzle – thanks to the setter and Twmbarlwm.
    Ticks from me for 11a, 22a, 27a and 6d.

13. A bit disappointing after yesterday’s superb Campbell puzzle It was straightforward until it wasn’t and i struggled with the clues in the NE corner. 18d and4d were the best of the clues and it took me a while to unravel the parsing of the latter. Thanks to Twmbarlwm for the hints, which I needed to check that I had parsed some of the clues correctly. Thanks to the compiler for his efforts

14. Hooray! A pre-midday finish. As mentioned above, on my first pass through, I thought it was going to be harder than it was.
    I couldn’t understand the answer to 12a until I looked it up in Collins. I had not heard of it as the definition given in the hint above….you live and learn.
    I liked 1d and also 21d.
    Thanks to the setter and for the hints.

    1. Good evening
       Made it in the end! Not sure about 12a, 5a was my last answer….duhhh! And a crikey 🙄 for 3d

       Thank you Mr T and our compiler

15. Right on wavelength from the start with lots to enjoy in this straightforward Tuesday offering.

    1*/4*

    Fav topical 21d LOI 13a

    Thanks to setter & Twmbarlwm

16. Nothing to terrify the nags in this one, just good, tight clueing and some wily misdirection. I particularly enjoyed 22a, my favourite.

    My thanks to, presumably Mr P and definitely Mr T.

17. Think that perhaps Tuesdays have taken over from Mondays in terms of hosting the most straightforward cryptic of the week but they are often very enjoyable puzzles.
    Didn’t have a particular favourite today but the solve was certainly a pleasurable one.

    Thanks to our setter (Mr Plumb if Cephas has got it right) and also to Twmbarlwm for the well-illustrated review – a few pics are always a very welcome addition.

    1. I agree, as I was doing it I thought this is exactly what one might expect from a cryptic crossword. Then it did get more tricksy but in a good way.

18. Like others NE held out the longest but otherwise fairly straightforward. Conundrum: we had the outside of the house painted last summer and now the pheasants are pecking off the paint and leaving bare wood and huge holes. Any ideas? I chase them away but they return, mostly the males. Thanks to the setter and hinter today

    

    1. It’s the mating season so he might see his reflection in the window and think it’s a rival. The other thing is, he might be attracted to linseed oil in the putty.

       1. Think your theory about reflections could be spot-on, Steve. At our previous home we had a cat flap with a Perspex ‘window’ in the laundry room and during the pheasant mating season it would clang open almost ceaselessly as one of the testosterone-fuelled males attempted to see off his perceived rival! I fully expected that we’d find a slightly stunned pheasant wandering around in the house one day!

       2. Almost certainly attacking its reflection – I’ve known this to happen before on many occasions at several different locations. The paint or its colour has no bearing on his antics.

    2. Have a gun and a cooking pot ready.

       1. Actually I have been mean enough to put a mirror out in the garden and watch the pheasants and partridges get in a hell of a lather at their reflection – kept us humans amused for hours – perhaps they are getting their own back!

       2. Too late by 6 days.

       3. Yes. Pheasant is pleasant, DG.

19. Light and enjoyable puzzle, with only a few outstanding once the first trawl through the acrosses and then downs had been completed. Ticks afterwards for 11a, 22a and 14d.

    1* / 2.5*

    Thank you to the setter, and of course to Twmbarlwm, too.

20. Often, the best part of a puzzle for me is learning “new-to-me” British slang words or being reminded of long forgotten ones, so 1D got a tick on my sheet. 11A is my top pick, followed by 18D. I confess that I didn’t bother to parse 22A since the solution was so obvious, and I didn’t cotton to 5D. Thanks to the setter and to Twmbarlwm.

    1. I can’t see what George has got to do with it at all!

       1. “By George!” = “By Heck!”

          1. Oh the tribulations of being called George! Large spiders were always called George when I was a gal, my father was terrified of them and would get me to pick them up and throw them in the garden. Then I married one.

             1. Groan! Poor George

             2. I wonder how our future King copes with being a George, well not me I imagine I will be long gone before we get George as King

                

             3. I had to slow down and read that again, Daisygirl — first time through I thought you said you’d married a large spider!

                1. I believe she did, Smylers. I now have a completely different image of George in my mind! 🕷

21. As with others, relatively straightforward today apart from the NE which held me up for a while. Like the weather outside, my brain was in a fog until I twigged 5d – although I wasn’t convinced by the synonym for most unlikely. COTD for me was 6d as it reminded me of embarrassing episodes on the dance floor in the 70s and 80s. Thanks to the setter and to the unspeakable Welsh hill hinter.

    1. Sorry – I meant unspellable Welsh hill hinter. Not unspeakable! Damn autocorrect! Apologies to Twmbarlwm- there I can spell it!

       1. I laughed when I read the original post, but guessed it was something to do with pronunciation!

          Someone called me Twerpbarlwm the other week, so it’s easily done.

          1. Thanks for understanding Twmbarlwm- keep up the good work!

22. Most enjoyable with some smiles appearing here and there. One such was 5a because I took ages to work out an alternative for move. I always miss the obvious one in such clues. I dithered with 2d as well. I had the answer but simply could not parse it. It wasn’t until the proverbial dropped that I saw it had nothing to do with hanging things upside down. My candidates for favourite are 22a and 18d with the latter becoming my COTD.

    Many thanks to the setter for the fun. Thank you, Twmbarlwm for the hints.

23. No hold ups this morning. 22a gets my vote. Thanks to today’s setter and Twmbarlwm.

24. An enjoyable solve with the NE delaying me the longest.
    I think the answer to 5d is a bit more than just a “slap on the wrist”?
    Thanks to T and setter.

25. I love it when – as rarely happens- the BD rated level of difficulty is *** and I breeeze through it as if I have some cruciverbal superpower- which I very definitely do not!
    My fastest recorded finish ever today so must be a wavelength thing. My favourites were 11a and 17a
    Thanks to setter ( Mr Plumb?) and to Twmbarlwm
    Off to have a celebratory After Eight.

    1. Golly, that’s a bit rash.

26. I usually get on with Tuesday guzzles, but sadly not today. All a bit of a struggle for me. Not so much getting the bung ins, but the parsings.
    So, not a happy day for me..
    Mind you, the fact that my dratted printer is playing up again is not helping my mood. Why do things just suddenly stop working ? and why so often does turning them on and off again fix them ? and why do I so often forget about the turning off and on again thing ? These are not questions that I actually want the answers to.

    Thanks to the setter and to Twmbarlwm

    1. Guzzles will be guzzles for evermore. It’s a done deal. And as George decided it was a good day to test one of his birthday presents, I am a guzzler guzzling.

       1. …After Eights?😁

27. As Jane hints ,a litle mondaylike for me too, a straight forward no nonsence puzzle from our setter, nicely clued throughout.
    Liked 1d and 13a together with the surface of 27a,my favourite. **/**** for me.
    Thanks to Twm for the picks, 14d looked like a heart attack on a plate!

    .

28. I became fogbound in the north east as (I agree with Robert) the answer to 5d is more than a 5d if you see what I mean. I’m easily confused.
    After solving 5a, the rest of the area around Newcastle became clearer and all answers were safely gathered in the harbour.

    Thanks to the setter and The Twmp.

    1. I’m intrigued now Terence/Robert.

       when does a 5d become a 5d? Or is there an intermediate step? A sort of 5d lite?

       1. It’s an interesting word with so many nuances. It is also a mild cuss and an enormously damaging force after an explosion as I remember well from my childhood!

29. I only managed to find one answer after reading all the clues! 25a which I put in 26a which didn’t help (Specsavers?) eventually my brain got into gear and things became clearer. 11a and 22a were favourites. I wanted 5a to be Godwits (Kiwis favourites) but that didn’t make sense. Thankyou setter and Mr T.

30. The easiest solve for a long time 😃 **/*** Favourites 5a, 27a and 8d 👍 The only slight hold up was with 5 both ways, not sure about 5d 😳 Thanks to Twmbarlwm (9 letters with only one vowel sounds Irish to me 😬) and thanks to the Compiler

    1. Welsh, Scottish and Irish are all Gaelic languages so you could well be right!

       1. As is Breton. Our Breton friends took a cycling tour in Wales. One evening as they sat eating their meal in a pub, all around them were speaking Welsh. They were surprised to realise that they understood most of what was being said.

31. Always fun when 1a goes in straight away. I liked 5,13,23 and 27a and lived 18d. At 21d I thought for a moment we were going to get a repeat of last weeks brilliant palindrome. Anyway many thanks to the setter and Twmbarlwm. Glorious sunshine in Cambridge but I decided against putting my washing on the line. I am still wrestling with two clues in Sundays toughie, most frustrating.

32. Daisygirl said it ‘more tricksy but in a good way’.
    Like others, I slowed up in NE. LOI 5d and I was surprised when the app said all answers correct. I too think the answer is an order of magnitude above the definition.
    Lovely pguzzle, thanks setter and Twmbarlwm.

    By the way DG, how can you say you lived 18d AND married a spider?

    1. I am a woman of many parts. My computer always pre-empts me by putting lived instead of loved –
       it really ought to know me by now, as should George.
       I fear I am misunderstood.

       Incidentally, I have now finished Sunday’s toughie – phew.

       1. Well done Daisy

33. It’s late in the day (as usual for me)! But I’ll mention it anyway … am I the only one to parse 20d differently to our venerable blogger?

    I read it as “re” and “ive” supporting (as in inserting) church. So nothing to do with it being a down clue.

    But anyway thanks to Twmbarlwm and to the setter for an enjoyable challenge.

    I have not been here for a while due to personal circumstances/challenges but hope to make up for that in the future.

    1. So good to see you back, Stone Waller, you’ve been missed.
       20d as written will only work for a ‘down’ clue, had it been an ‘across’ clue the word ‘support’ would have needed changing.

       1. Hi Jane. Thanks.

          Looking at it again i guess you have to read it is that only the “ive” is supporting.

    2. Wonderful to see you back with us, Stone Waller! As Jane said, you have been missed. I hope your circumstances and challenges are sorting themselves out. 👍

34. A pretty straightforward grid fill but with a couple of ?s. Though parsed ok can’t say I thought 5d particularly synonymous with a slap on the wrist (more like a boot up the backside) & hadn’t realised C is an acceptable abbreviation for clubs so didn’t parse that one. Fav the 11a lurker nicely disguised in a good surface. 4&6d along with 27a other likes.
    Thanks to AP & T.
    Ps a large G&T by the pool beckons after the rigours of today’s golf (spent more time in sand that a day out in Blackpool) so Gila’s Toughie will have to wait.

    1. From memory the beach at Blackpool is very pebbly, I guess they carted all the sand down to Lytham

35. I found this to be much harder than a normal Tuesday puzzle … 3*/3*

    Found some of the parsing to be very convoluted as well as the clues being difficult to unscramble.
    A couple of iffy synonyms to my way of thinking as well as answers to some of the clues a stretch.
    Just my take on things today

    Favourites included 1a, 12a, 15a, 23a, 3d & 14d with winner 3d

    Thanks to setter and Twmbarlwm

36. After a slow-ish start I ended up racing through this and found it very entertaining throughout and typically “Plumb-ish”.
    Not sure 5d is strictly accurate and the mean/average synonym is open for debate though I’m sure both can be justified.
    5&12a plus 4&6d were my winners.
    Many thanks to the setter and Twmbarlwm.

37. I raced along with this one (well, raced as much as a tiny brain can) until I came to the NE. I spent as much time there as the rest of the puzzle. I had to go in for a hint for 5a to get some more letters, but that didn’t help a lot. After a slog I did finish with fingers crossed, surprise, surprise, my bung ins were right! Fave, I think, is 1d, but lots more to like, 22a was fun and several others.
    Thank you setter and Toobarloom for his hints and tips, I needed you today.

38. This felt as if I was never going to get started at all and then all of a sudden there it was done and finished.
    I ended up with a handful in the top right corner which were a bit slow to want to play ball nicely but eventually even they gave in.
    I needed the hint to explain 22a – it was a case of, “Yes, but why . . . “.
    My favourite was 21d – have to show solidarity having been one, even a long while ago . . .
    Thanks to today’s setter and hinty person too.

39. Re 17a, strictly speaking a labyrinth is not the same thing as a maze. Google will tell you the difference.

40. Finally finished but not without significant head scratching and with several answers I had no clue how to parse until I read Twmbarlwm’s wonderful explanations.
    It is so reassuring to see others had similar troubles with some clues especially 22a. I was really stuck with the NE corner for ages but got there in the end. However, I must admit that without the ‘reveal mistake’ option in the digital version I would not have had the confidence to finish before looking at the blog as I was so uncertain of my answers.
    Thank you to Twmbarlwm and the setter.

41. Managed this in two sittings at work, a short coffee break got 3/4 done but like many others here it was a longer lunch break to solve the NE corner, but I got there in the end.
    Thanks to Twmbarlwm and Mr. Plumb the setter.
    Time to see if the toughie is solvable – a first glance in what remained of lunch gave me cause to worry.

42. If not my fastest ever finish then very close to it, some would think it slow. I like Tuesday’s. Parsed 22a straightaway. Hard to pick a favourite but I’ll go with 12a, the best I’ve seen it clued, there were lots of contenders. Thanks to the setter and T.

43. I did well, until I didn’t. I kick myself for not getting 1d sooner, but 23a gets my COTD. Not sure I agree with the definition in 5d, a blast is rather more than a slap on the wrist, in my book. A bit laborious overall, but kept me out of mischief.

44. I had the opposite experience to some other commenters: I started at a reasonable speed, then really slowed down, getting stuck in the top-left corner. I’d managed to parse the clues for 1a, 1d, and 2d, but not to come up with the require synonyms — meaning Twmbarlwm’s splendid hints didn’t actually help, because they just told me the bit I’d already got.

    I got there in the end, but found it less fun as it went on. My list of potential favourites generally matched those highlighted by others above, with 6d (jolly dance music) being my top pick. Thank you to setter and blogger.

    Anybody else do the Cross Atlantic? I found today’s (by Picaroon/Lavatch/Rodriguwz) way harder than usual, taking about 3½ times my average time!

    1. Late evening solve for me an d a relatively speedy one. Like most I was held up in the NE and only reluctantly entered the solution for 5d as the only possible answer for two synonyms neither if which work for me.
       I think Big Dave might be shuddering if he’s seen TT referred to as a
       bike race. His guide elsewhere on this site is very clear that TT stands for Time Trials and definitely not a race.
       Thanks to Mr T and our setter

45. Hurrah hurrah!! In spite of the 3* difficulty I finished this unaided, to my amazement, and this followed an unaided finish yesterday as well. As you can se I am very pleased with myself. Head scratching but very enjoyable. Many thanks to setters and hinters for both guzzles!

46. 3*/4*…
    liked 6D “Finding dance music jolly (9)”

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