DT 30373 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
View closed comments 

DT 30373

by Huntsman  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30373
Hints and tips by Huntsman

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

BD Rating – Difficulty ** –  Enjoyment **/***

No golf today as the forecast looks a bit iffy so I guess it’ll have to be the joys of tackling much neglected household chores with no doubt the odd puzzle thrown in to break up the tedium.

I suspect today’s enjoyable guzzle is probably every bit as straightforward as last week but I’ve given it an extra * for difficulty as 3 clues in the NW took me as long as the rest of it. 11a was the real head scratch for me yielding only once the pennies dropped at 1&4d. A wee bit more humour than of late from Mr Plumb (I assume) with this one & not so many single letter insertions & deletions.

In the following hints, definitions are underlined, indicators are mostly in parentheses, and answers are revealed by clicking where shown as usual. Please leave a comment below on how you got on with the puzzle.

Across

1a Inquisitive dog, faithful, with no lead (7)
CURIOUS: a word for an aggressive mongrel is followed by a synonym for faithful minus (with no lead) the first letter

5a Memory loss – a name is muddled (7)
AMNESIA: an anagram (muddled) of A NAME IS

9a Little bird’s cry of pain getting shot at Wimbledon? (5)
OWLET: a spontaneous utterance followed by an umpire’s call in tennis

10a Leaders from Europe, lo and behold, make a speech complicated (9)
ELABORATE: the initial letters (leaders from) of Europe Lo And Behold plus a verb for to make a speech

11a Cow’s food consumed around the rear of manger (10)
DISHEARTEN: a word that can describe a prepared item of food as well as the receptacle it’s served in is followed by a synonym for consumed into which you insert the last letter (rear of) mangeR. A nicely misleading surface read, the definition having nowt to do with cattle.

12a View model scratching bottom (4)
IDEA: remove (scratching bottom) the last letter from a synonym for model or perfect

14a I perhaps alarm nun with more misbehaving (5,7)
ROMAN NUMERAL: an anagram (misbehaving) of ALARM NUN with MORE

18a Athlete might be in this angry state (5-7)
CROSS-COUNTRY: link synonyms for angry & state as in nation. My idea of torture at boarding school.

21a Cut beef, by the sound of it (4)
MOWN: a homophone of a word for beef or complain

22a End to Cairo wrestling match (2-8)
CO-ORDINATE: an anagram (wrestling) of the first 3 words in the clue

25a Bound to embrace German man? Not hard if scared (9)
TERRIFIED: start with a synonym for bound or fastened. Insert into it the German for  address or title for Mr less the initial letter H (not Hard) plus IF from the wordplay.

26a Boob reflected in mirror revealingly (5)
ERROR: a reverse lurker (reflected in)

27a Live around university grounds (7)
RESIDUE: the single letter for university placed into a synonym for live

28a Fidelity with new beginning for Harry and Megan? (7)
ROYALTY: change the first letter (new beginning) of a word for fidelity. A nicely ironic surface (at least that’s how I read it) referencing the definition by example status of the  Montecito duo

Down
1d Piece of music loud, yet not clear (6)
CLOUDY: a lurker (piece of) found (not very quickly in my case) in the 3 words preceding the definition

2d Enjoy spicy condiment 
RELISH: double definition

3d Where the chimney is usually free (2,3,5)
ON THE HOUSE: a cryptic definition for a phrase meaning gratis – you always get a nice limoncello at my favourite Italian

4d Weapon European held in fight (5)
SPEAR: the single letter for European inserted into a word for fight/argue or trade light blows in boxing

5d Greek character a revolutionary among men (9)
AGAMEMNON: the A from the clue plus an anagram (revolutionary) of AMONG MEN. You’re looking for the unlucky fella in Greek myth who came a cropper at the hands of his missus, Clytemnestra, as told in the first play of the splendid Oresteia trilogy

6d When PM starts taking advice finally, from nobody (4)
NOON: remove the last letter (finally) of advicE from another word for nobody. A super little clue that has nowt to do with Number 10’s incumbent

7d Tolerate poet without second class degree (8)
STANDARD : link a synonym for tolerate with a word meaning literally lyric poet less the initial letter B (without second class). The definition context is the extent to which something happens or is present.

8d Compliant American chaps with expert (8)
AMENABLE: link the single letter for American with synonyms for men & expert (adjective)

13d My dire robe unravelled fancy needlework (10)
EMBROIDERY: an anagram (unravelled) of MY DIRE ROBE

15d Express regret a record is kept by US writer (9)
APOLOGISE: a nice lego clue – start with the A in the clue then add an American writer of poetry & some prose into which you insert (kept by) a type of record (as kept by Cap’t Kirk on the Starship Enterprise) plus IS in the clue.

16d Something that cuts racism – it’s out of order (8)
SCIMITAR: an anagram (out of order) of RACISM IT’s. This chap’s swordsmanship with an over-sized one no match for Indy’s bullet in the best scene in the first of Spielberg’s hugely successful movie franchise & shot at the suggestion of Harrison Ford

17d In favour of divisions of hospital strikers (8)
FORWARDS: link a word meaning in favour of with rooms in hospital for a definition with a sporting rather withdrawing labour context

19d Pub concerned with large container for beer (6)
BARREL: link a word for a pub with a preposition meaning concerning & the single letter for Large

20d Cheerful shout to get one’s attention outside of craft (6)
HEARTY: place an exclamation to get one’s attention around (outside of) a synonym of craft or skill

23d Cowboy perhaps finding fish in two rivers (5)
RIDER: place our old friend of the carp family between the single letter abbreviation for river – twice. Here’s Clint as a Pale one in a great remake of Shane & the highest grossing western of the 80s

24d Strain from day supporting family (4)

KIND: a synonym for family then append the single letter for Day

My favourite was 6d with ticks for 11,14&28a plus 1,15&20d. Which ones made it onto your podium?

Today’s Quick Crossword pun: BAT + ALL + LACKS = BATTLE AXE

49 comments on “DT 30373”

  1. Gentle once I corrected my spelling of 5d. 11a gets my vote today. Thanks to Huntsman and today’s setter.

  2. Found this quite tricky to get started probably due to starting in the wrong place. Once down the bottom it all started to come together.
    Needed the hints to fully unpick 11a and 5d. All in all quite fun.
    **/****
    Thx to all

  3. I found this to be on the tough side. Are we, I wonder, going to pay for the ease of last week’s guzzles? I’m not sure about a couple of my answers but I haven’t looked the hints yet. I did like a number of clues such as 3d and 6d but my COTD has to be the tolerant poet at 7d.

    My thanks to the setter for the puzzle. Thank you, Huntsman for the hints, which I will now read.

    Rain in The Marches so still the fields remain unharvested. Hudson is becoming quite impatient!

  4. Enjoyable Tuesday puzzle deftly clued ,nothing obscure, I liked the surface of 5d-what a wonderful name!
    Favourits were 21a, nicely succinct and 11a a top class charade, 9a amused.
    Going ror a **/***
    Spot on Quickie Pun

  5. A straightdorward puzzle, in the main apart from a knotty collection of clues crossing ine another in the NW to centre of the puzzle. Once the penny dropped, I found rhem to be some of the best clues. I particularly enjoyed 11a and 12a with their wily misdirection and 5d because it brought back happy memories of Greek literature classes in Oxford a few years ago. Thanks to Mr Plumb for an enjoyable guzzle and to Huntsman for the hints.

  6. I thought this puzzle was pitched at just the right level of difficulty for a Tuesday with several straightforward clues to get us started then a few trickier ones to stimulate the grey matter – thanks to our setter and Huntsman.
    The pick of the clues for me all had cleverly misleading definitions: 11a, 6d and 17d.

  8. Not Typically Tuesdayish for me. Mr Plumb, based on the Quickie grid, has upped the ante this week although I probably made heavier weather of it than I needed to – 3*/3.5*

    Candidates for favourite – 21a, 25a, 3d, and 15d – and the winner is 3d.

    Thanks to Mr Plumb and Huntsman.

  9. Brilliant!

    Beautifully crafted with nearly every surface being a winner. Nothing more to add.

    The pick of a delightful bunch are 1a and Id (it’s so hard to get a smooth lurker that throws you off the scent) with the spoils going to the outstanding 14a as it has it all: great use of ‘I’, an excellent anagram with a surface that conjures up a humorous scene.

    So, so good.

    Thank you Huntsman and take a bow, compiler.

    2*/5*

  10. I enjoyed this enormously, particularly the clever misdirections and well-defined anagrams. Judging by earlier commenters’ varying choices of favourites, it should be well received by the majority of solvers. My particular favourite was 5d.

    Thanks to AP and Huntsman.

  11. On wavelength from the off today until I came to the SW corner which took me almost as long as the rest of the puzzle. It did take me some time to realise that I needed to use ‘cow’ as a verb in 11a and, like others, I needed to confirm the spelling of 5d. I loved the clever misdirection in the short 6d and 24d. Podium places today for 25a, 7d and my favourite, the lego clue at 15d. Thanks to Mr Plumb for the enjoyment and Huntsman for helping me out with the parsing of 17d.

  12. I did feel moved to check on a couple of the less obvious synonyms but this one came together quite nicely.
    Top marks here for the old chestnut at 27a plus 6&17d.

    Thanks to our setter (Mr Plumb?) and to Huntsman for the review – hope you get the household chores out of the way, you can then give yourself a self-satisfied pat on the back!

  13. Really enjoyable puzzle, reasonably light and straightforward with just enough bite to justify its Tuesday slot. A generous dollop of eminently gettable anagrams, some good cryptics, great surfaces and plenty of amusement throughout. A steady solve from top to bottom, returning to the NE for the final two before putting down the pen.

    COTD – for the laugh out loud surface read – 26a, runner-up 5d, with too many candidates to list for the other podium places.

    1.5* / 4*

    Many thanks indeed to the setter and of course to Huntsman

  14. If stuck but use a reference work to check a synonym or anagram for example, does that constitute. “cheating” ?

    1. I feel that if you use whatever source post completion to help with understanding a clue then it’s still an unaided solve. There’s nothing wrong however with using reference books, letter reveals or the check facility mid solve to assist completion – ok it’s not under exam conditions but that’s how we improve & gradually need them less. I reckon most of us had to look up yesterday’s gun

      1. Good to see an inclusive response Huntsman, in line with this being a safe place to help crosswordists improve their skills. Unlike the (albeit maybe unintended) short shrift the two new contributors received last Thursday! 🧏🏻‍♂️

    2. As far as I am concerned, the only ‘place’ where no reference materials are allowed is in the finals of the Times Crossword Championship and for all but one member of our company our chances of reaching that august event are slim to zero!

  15. I was on the right wavelength today, and had heard of everything except the fish in 23d. I was thrown off by the word structure of 22a to begin with. My Oxford dictionary doesn’t hyphenate the word and Fowlers says that the not hyphenated form should be preferred. However Chambers does hyphenate it, so fair enough. I needed the dictionaries, but overall it was an accessible puzzle. 14a was probably my favourite clue.

    1. The fish is found in rivers, ponds and lakes in Northern Europe, Asia and Crosswordland. Well worth remembering!

  16. Lovely guzzle full of misdirection. I’m not a pizza fan but the White Hart in Aldeburgh have a wood fired pizza oven in the summer months – this delicious 4 cheese really thin one has just fed us both with 2 slices to take away. 1d my COTD. Thanks to all

  17. Excellent puzzle, with quite a bit of head scratching, and many of the answers prompting an ‘of course!’. Elegant and good fun. Many thanks.

  18. Had same problems as Huntsman in NW corner, but got there in the end.

    Very enjoyable. Thanks to Huntsman and setter.

  19. Great all round puzzle with the NW holding me up for a while. Loved 6d but my COTD is the well-hidden lurker at 1d, which as well as being a brilliant clue also describes the miserable day we are having here in SW land. Thanks to the setter, thanks to Huntsman. Roll on the sunshine for the rest of the week.

  20. Good fun and no aggro today although thinking at first around the bovine association for 11a did delay things a bit. N was smoothest passage. 6d my Fav for its ‘bum-steering’ effect. Thank you AP (?) and Huntsman.

  21. Found this to be a normal sort of difficultly Tuesday puzzle today, but still some parsing issues arose through the grid as well as some head scratching too.
    Several the parsing I did not get so will check in the morning.

    2.5*/3.5* for me

    Favourites include 1a, 14a, 18a, 27a, 3d & 17d — with winner 17d
    Well hidden lurker for me too in the grid. PDM was a real duh!!

    Chuckles from 14a, 18a, 21a & 3d

    Thanks to setter and Huntsman for hints/blog

  22. Tuesday still the new Monday! Found this a steady solve and a tad more enjoyable than yday. Thanks to setter and the unneeded hints!

  23. A giddy guzzle – most enjoyable, with Cumbria being the last area to fall to my dazzling intellect.

    I used to enjoy 18a in my schooldays. Picked to run for the county championships at Hampstead Heath, I got off to a flying start only to be overtaken by this gangly youth who zipped past everyone as if we were all statues. He was Steve Ovett, who went on to win the 800 metres at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, and set 5 world records. He won our 18a race by a margin of about half a mile (in a three mile run).

    Thanks to the setter and Andy (not) On The First Tee.

  24. An enjoyable Tuesday offering, much more pleasant than the soggy rescue dog walking in the rain. I needed a hot shower when I got back and I am now being pinned down by one of our cats who wants to steal my warmth.
    I needed the hints to understand my answer to 6d. The anagrams were all clever. 1d is going to be my favourite as it was a well disguised lurker which took me ages to spot.

    Many thanks to the setter and to Huntsman for the hints.

  25. All OK except 11a
    Took an absolute age until
    The proverbial penny dropped
    With a deafening thud.
    Another meaning of cow
    Suddenly came to mind.
    Great surfaces eg 18 and 25a.
    Many thanks to the setter and Huntsman.

  26. Unlike most others, I found this trickier than most Tuesdays, and a bit of a plod from start to finish. My knowledge of Greek mythology is very thin and even when I had half an idea for 5d I had to check the spelling. I just don’t have the time this puzzle would need as I am off for my consultation re cataract surgery for my left eye. Thanks to setter and to Huntsman. Glad you have got the hang of adding the pictures 😊.

  27. This was a real mixture, some gimmes and others head scratchers, much more difficult than yesterday. I did finish with ehelp. I so badly wanted to put “loose” as the third word at 3d but I knew it was wrong, I didn’t get my epiphany until the end, last one in. There was some fun along the way, 11a, 14a, 21a, 5d, stood out.
    Thank you Mr. Plumb and Huntsman for unravelling some for me.
    Off piste a bit: I received my Majesty magazine yesterday. There’s a pic of Prince Edward, he is the spitting image of his grandfather, George VI. Anyone else think so?

    1. As an erstwhile member of this blog used to say, “if all else fails……” :grin:

  28. Good afternoon
    Day off today, so hit the finishing line a little earlier than usual. Several contenders for C O T D, my winner is 11a and a definite Crikey! for 14a. I must hold my hand up: third from last one in was 1d – pondered that for absolute yonks until I finally figured out that it was a lurker!

  29. I am in the “Tricky” school as found this clever crossword difficult to parse in several places😳 ****/*** my favourites are 9a, 27a and 3d & 8d 😃 Thanks to Huntsman (should have played golf yesterday 🌞) and to the Compiler. Unable to comment yesterday hope this gets a better reception

  30. 3.5/4.5. I found this at the trickier end of the scale for a Tuesday. It was however very satisfying. My favourites were 26a (phnar phnar) and 6&15d. Thanks to the setter and Huntsman.

  31. Thoroughly enjoyed this today. Some really good clues, such as 14a. LOI was 21a, which did elicit a beef…

    Thanks to all.

  32. I’m feeling really stupid as I just cannot get the hang of this puzzle. I’m going to give up and just read the blog
    My name is still not being remembered despite ticking the “remember me” box. Anyone else have the same problem?

  33. Thoroughly enjoyable! Last one in and needing to come back after a break was 11a – Big penny drop and it then became my COTD, 14a had been in the lead up until then. Had a giggle at 26a too. Glad using the Dictionary isn’t considered cheating as most days I am checking something – hadn’t heard of the fish today.
    Thanks to the setter and Huntsman.

  35. I had a racing start with this one, then a slow finish. Slightly distracted by the lumberjack cutting down a very large tree in the corner of my garden. He was amazing to watch. Tufty the squirrel now running around in circles wondering where his tree has gone. Thank you setter and Huntsman

  36. Finished this with some e-help needed. Quite a lot of head scratching but very enjoyable. COTD 14a. LOI 1d, took me an age to realise this was a lurker – forgot the rule about looking for this first – Doh! Thanks to Huntsman for hints which I will now read, and to setter for the enjoyment.

Comments are closed.