DT 30401 (Hints) – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 30401 (Hints)

by crypticsue  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30401 (Hints)

The Saturday Crossword Club (hosted by crypticsue)

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

A beautiful autumnal-looking morning but as soon as I went outside, I found it  so warm at 7.30 am that I knew we were in for another temperature record-breaking day.

The crossword is one of those where it helps to think that it might be a pangram, even if it is one letter short, although given the relative straightforwardness of the solve, I don’t think this is the work of our Friday setter who normally omits that letter from his solutions!

There are quite a few anagrams in this crossword, some more straightforward than others (I’m looking at you 5d!) but if I haven’t hinted a clue you are stuck on, just ask

As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, an assortment of clues, including some of the more difficult ones, have been selected and hints provided for them.

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

1a    Bow, having cut short nonsense (11)
Cut short or remove the final letter of an interjection meaning nonsense

11a    Last letter in vehicle for emperor (4)
The last letter of the alphabet inserted into a vehicle gives an alternative spelling for an emperor

18a    Occasionally shout very loudly in fit of anger (4)
The even (occasionally) letters of sHoUt and the musical abbreviation meaning to play very loudly

19a    Alpine transport except after end of snowmelt (1-3)
A preposition meaning except goes after the end of snowmelt

20a    With change of top, stomach is wobbly! (5)
Change the letter at the start of a stomach to create something wobbly

22a    Make firm points to clinch argument (7)
Insert  (to clinch) a slight argument into three compass points

23a    Link part of South American custom (7)
The abbreviation for South American and a synonym for custom

30a    English country squire welcomes a property dealer (6,5)
The abbreviation for English, a country and a squire, into which is inserted (welcomes) A (from the clue)

Down

2d    Plan one beloved king ignored (4)
The letter representing one and a synonym for beloved without (ignored) the Latin abbreviation for king

3d    Lacking energy, had a go at turning over soil (4)
A reversal (turning over) of a simple way of saying had a go without (lacking) the abbreviation for Energy

7d    Large carnivore‘s frightful, we hear, to tolerate (7,4)
A homophone (we hear) of a synonym for frightful or ghastly followed by a verb meaning to tolerate

8d    Prickly shrub surrounding a river bank in underwater structure (7,4)
A prickly shrub into which is inserted (surrounding) A (from the clue) and the abbreviation for river, the result followed by a bank

20d    Resentful of Jack, a six-footer cycling (7)
Start with the abbreviation for Jack in a pack of cards, then follow with A (from the clue) and a type of parasitic insect (six-footer), the last letter of the insect being ‘cycled’ to go before the A

25d    Editor with deal, oddly, for literary collection (4)
The name of two Scandinavian collections of mythological and heroic songs – an abbreviated editor and the odd letters of DeAl

26d    Celebrated wildebeests turning up (4)
A reversal (turning up) of some wildebeests

27d    Piercing lamentation (4)
An adjective meaning piercing or a lamentation over the dead

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As this is a Prize crossword, please don’t put any ANSWERS, whether WHOLE, PARTIAL or INCORRECT, or any ALTERNATIVE CLUES in your comment. If in doubt, leave it out!

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The Quick Crossword pun: SUCK + SEA + DEAD = SUCCEEDED

96 comments on “DT 30401 (Hints)”

  1. Bit of a challenge in parts but on the whole an enjoyable puzzle. Thought 2d was a weak synonym and my last in was 9a which for me was the toughest in the crossword.
    Thx to all
    ***/****

  2. Another entertaining X-less puzzle for Saturday morning which was decadently completed in bed.

    A question mark regarding the second word of 8d but the rest was pleasantly puzzling.

    I remember when the first 19a appeared at the Lecht in Aberdeenshire in the 1960s and it took the hardest work out of our sport.

    Today’s favourites are 19a for brining back memories of above and the amusing 23a.

    Thanks to the X-less setter and crypticsue.

      1. Sorry – I don’t want to get into trouble.

        I will leave it to crypticsue to give any additional hints.

      2. The illustration for 23a shows a particular way of preparing the solution which gives its name to the definition

        1. I think the definition for 23a has to be the first two words of the clue, otherwise ‘part’ seems redundant.

  3. Maybe me but seemed a little harder for a Saturday.
    Hadn’t heard of 25d but looked up what it had to be.
    Otherwise fell into place at medium speed.
    Thanks to setter

  4. 2.5*/3.5*. This was an enjoyable x-less pangram. I did get slightly held up with a couple of answers on the right hand side but generally it all came together quite smoothly.

    I don’t really get the definition for 23a.

    Many thanks to the setter and to CS.

    1. I am still puzzled by 23a. That definition, which neither Mrs RD nor I have ever heard of, is not, as far as I can see, in the BRB nor in Collins. However, on checking further, I have found it in Meriam-Webster. Does that mean it is an Americanism? :unsure:

      1. I knew it wasn’t you, I was just amused by the missing letter usually being missing from many of your crosswords

  6. As there is a photo I’m not betraying anything by saying I would say a string of but apparently it’s a link?

    1. A chain of long thin ones is a “link”, apparently. New one on me. As was the synonym of lamentation.
      As was the Nordic prose and poetry, more on Wikipedia.
      Thanks to all fellow cruciverbalists here

    2. As a butchers grandson, it is the special way that you knot them that makes them so, My Grandad Emm used to prefer the Cumberland method of long coils sold by the foot

  7. A few tricky spots, lots of short answers of 4 letters which typically I find challenging. 29a my favorite because I stared at it for a while before the penny dropped.

  8. First three comments cover all my observations. 23a was my favourite. Thanks to today’s setter amd CS.

  9. I thought what’s this? two in a row, but have just seen Mr P’s post disclaiming this. Had to take two goes and a good long run up to get the last few, until finally stuck on just 1a.
    Put it in front of Mrs TC (who doesn’t do crosswords) and she said “what meaning does bow have in this clue?”, she then said ” it could be a saw, or this” (she then mimed playing a viola) and the eureka moment came immediately, so to my shame, beaten by the non-cruciverbalist of the household. Great puzzle whoever it was, good hard fun.

  10. Much, MUCH better than yesterday’s fiasco. Got them all apart from 1a and 2d, then they both dropped after looking at the clue on here.

    Favourites were 23a and 20d.

  11. Hmm, now the ‘X-less’ discussion is out of the way, so far, no-one has commented on the ‘double unches.’ For a SPP, ‘double unches’ normally mean one particular setter but with the recent practice of setters borrowing other setters trade mark features a certain amount of caution might be required. However, I will agree with proXimal in Comment 9 and put my two half-crowns on Cephas as the setter of this enjoyable and not too challenging puzzle – **/****

    Candidates for favourite – 16a, 23a, and 6d – and the winner is 6d.

    Thanks to Cephas, or whomsoever if my five bob goes down the drain, and thanks to CS.

  12. Stumbled a little over 8d because I’d instinctively spell the prickly bush slightly differently – shades of childhood reading. It wouldn’t surprise me if that series of books has now been banned by the PC brigade!
    Favourite here was 23a with a nod to 22a.

    Thanks to our setter and to CS for the hints.

  13. Had to check that 1a another name for a bow, though anything else would have been fully fledged nonsense!
    Loved 23a and 30a made me giggle and it took a while to remember the nut in 6d – too long since I last played.
    Many thanks to the setter (Mr C?) and to CS for her sterling work, despite the heat. Was 24C this am here near Paris, 4/5/6 more than usual so not much cooling overnight. Keep cool, all!

  14. All completed with some faltering over the 4 letter ones and 1a which was last in. 23a was my favourite and 4d seemed clever to me for reasons I can’t explain for fear of punishment !
    I thought this was fun but maybe a bit harder than some recent Saturdays.

    Many thanks to the setter and to CS for the hints

  15. Another enjoyable Saturday Prize Guzzle with just the right amount of pondering needed. 1a made me laugh as did 4d but my COTD is the South American custom at 23a.

    Thank you to the setter for the fun and CS for the hints.

    When I checked the email address for DT Puzzles, I noticed I had a full stop at the end of it. I removed it and sent the puzzle off for The Mythical. I received an acknowledgement so I now know why I haven’t had one for the past few weeks.

    Pushing 30 degrees here in The Marches.

  16. A well-balanced puzzle, with a variety of clue types, General Kknowledge added in for interest and a balance between the easier and more difficult clues. My money’s on Cephas as he likes a lot of 4-letter clues round the edges of the gŕid. I liked the threemisdirected lego lues at 21d,23a and 21a but my COTD is the homophone, 6d. Thanks to the compiler and to SC for the hints. Just finished mowing the back and front lawns before peak temperature, which is forecast to be 88 F in old money.

    1. We are forecast to be 87F here in South Florida today, so you beat us 😊. Our humidity is said to be 64% so it’s still uncomfortable.

    2. I wish I were capable of supplying hints, Chriscross but CS is the expert. 😎
      It hit 35 degrees today in the car park of the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital! 🥵🥵
      I was collecting Mrs. C. She is greatly improved and more like her old self – that is, bossing me around!
      We’re still having carers visiting twice a day to make sure she is ok but she looks and feels great.

      2. Thank goodness you got to bring her home, Steve. With any luck, she’ll come on in leaps and bounds now.

        1. Mrs. C is much better, Jane. I am being given orders again! 😊
          Carers will be visiting for a few days to make sure she is steady on her legs.

      3. The Met Office says the humidity was 85% too, which makes it more uncomfortable as Lizzie says. But pleased to read that Mrs C is back home and feeling better.

  17. No complaints from me! I found this quite straightforward and finished nice and early EST. A bit of shopping to do before the heat sets in but at least there are indications that the mid-90sF days we’ve had recently are on the way out.

    Top picks are 1A & 22A. Thanks to CS and the setter.

  18. This was a bit of a teaser – four letter clues are often the sticky point. Speaking of sticky, oh boy it is hot. Poor George has gone with his pal to the first match at Hertford Rugby Club – good luck with that. When I read 23a I saw the makeup of the word straight away but couldn’t believe it was the answer, not complaining – just saying. Anyway, thanks to CS for her unfailing devotion to duty and to the setter for the challenge.

  19. Telegraph is monetising access to its puzzles website. As a digital newspaper subscriber, I used to get unfettered access, which was helpful. I sometimes (rarely, and not today’s SPP) need to print and screenshot a cryptic for AI help. Despite the mention of “one free puzzle daily’”, this doesn’t work. Guess I’ll have to pay up…

    1. I may have the wrong end of the stick but I have the digital telegraph and have never bothered with the puzzle site (I didn’t like it) as I can do the cryptic, easy and toughie (once in blue moon) all on the puzzle page within the newspaper. The plusword and cross Atlantic are also there in the ‘latest’ section. It also gives you a menu where you can check if you have made any mistakes or reveal answers (not for prize crosswords!). Have you looked at doing it that way?

    2. Thank you for that. I used to pay a lump sum once a year, but a charge of $3.99 started appearing once a month. I was going to phone to find out what it was for. Seems strange that they would arbitrarily just start deducting a monthly charge without letting me know.

      1. I hope it works out for you, the only puzzle which you can’t get in the digital paper is the Sunday toughie (no idea why not) but that does not bother me.

        1. Ps for those chasing a mythical pen, when I submit a puzzle crossword through the paper site it will only give you an Amazon voucher. Of course this makes me feel very virtuous as I am helping Steve with his mythical hunt by not diluting the pool seeking a pen!

          2. Your sacrifices to The Quest are noted and appreciated. Your names will be written in the Great Scroll, which is sealed forever until the End of Eternity
            Or until The Mythical drops onto my doormat! 😊

        2. The absence of the Sunday Toughie bothers me, as a crossover puzzle that usually straddles the divide between harder backpagers and moderate Toughies, it would be an ideal place to encourage more people to try the Toughie. Why this particular puzzle is unobtainable for some subscribers is a mystery to me

          1. Sorry SJB the reason it doesn’t bother me is that we also get the paper version which means I can look at the Sunday toughie there, although that is usually as far as I get! I didn’t mean to sound as though it was not important, apologies as I can see that is how it came across. i often look at your hints to try and do a few clues. It does seem strange it is excluded when all the others are there all week.

        3. By digital paper, I take you to mean the paper in the Daily Telegraph app. This is the list of prizes: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/contact-us/prize-puzzle-prizes/. It indicates that you can get the mythical via the digital paper on the web, because that version takes you to telegraph.co.uk/puzzles when you click the puzzles link. But as you say the app isn’t mentioned in respect of the Sunday Toughie. The strange thing is that there is an option to submit it via the puzzles app. But I don’t. I fill it in using the app, but then go to telegraph.co.uk/puzzles to submit it.

    3. I have digital plus and can access all the DT puzzles. I took advantage of a recent NYT offer of $20 to access all their puzzles for a year. Don’t expect to be able to master their cryptic any time soon 😊. But the DT puzzles only subscription is quite reasonable. I only do the full subscription so I can access the comments following the letters and articles.

  20. Well to me this Saturday puzzle seems like a Cephas offering to me even though it is a pangram but no X. Can’t be proXimal 2 days in a row, as he popped in to disclaim this I see, so I am throwing my 5/- Cephas’s way. If I am wrong … well it wouldn’t be the first time.

    1.5*/4* for me today.

    Favourites for me include 1a, 16a, 18a, 22a, 23a & 6d — with winner 6d.
    Many memories of school playtime and doing what one does with them when I lived in the UK.

    Thanks to Cephas and Cs for hints/blog

  21. One has to be jolly careful on prize-giving days so allow me simply to say: welcome to THE LIST 25d! *crowd roars in appreciation*

    I empathise with George and his sporting endeavour this afternoon. We are going to Stamford Bridge for a charity match involving former players from Chelsea and Bayern Munich. I suspect players and spectators will require drinks breaks every five minutes.
    Mad dogs, Englishmen, and footballers, eh?
    My car has wonderful air-conditioning. I hate that moment on arrival when we open the doors and the heat hits. It’s like going on holiday to somewhere tropical and the aircraft doors open.
    Instead of sending rockets to the sun, couldn’t we work on personal air-conditioning that follows us around, wrapping us in a cloud of gentle mist as we tootle about?

    Thanks to the setter and PC Security (anag)

    1. As with all air conditioning the heat extracted from ones environs has to go somewhere, I think we would be in even more of a pickle if that was available. 25d was an obvious candidate for THE LIST, but the clue lead to the solution so readily that I prefer to regard it as a learning moment
      Thanks to Setter and CS currently taking tea with Mama Bee in Helmsley

      1. We arrived in South Florida in 1982 and I can assure you that if there was no air conditioning in houses, cars, shops, offices, schools etc, here we would have been on the first plane back. Life would be intolerable and we would be fighting mould all the time.

      2. I only wish I had been taking tea with Mama Bee. Sounds a lot more fun than turning tomatoes into ratatouille!

        1. I do like a nice ratatouille, it would have been a perfect accompaniment to the posh ham sandwich I had with my tea, as long as courgettes are at a minimum.

          1. There weren’t too many courgettes in the one I made yesterday, but it did have the first aubergine from the garden. It was so hot here yesterday that the tomatoes were red hot and almost cooking themselves on the vine!

    2. Oh Terrence, 25d has appeared so many times over the years, it has become an old friend. I had the answer before I finished reading the clue.

    3. Oh Terence I had a feeling The List might be invoked today. As far as personal air conditioning is concerned, have you considered carrying a fan? I have several and always carry a simple one in my bag. I am certain that a man with your sartorial presence could carry it off with aplomb. (Though maybe not, on reflection, at a football match, I am thinking of your safety).

      1. I read about your hot weather with interest. In my five years living in England, I can’t ever remember being hot, I spent all my time trying to get warm! I remember one day watching polo at Windsor when it was warm but certainly not hot!

        1. You weren’t there in 1976, 2014 and 2018 and other years also. We lived there in 1976 and visited during heatwaves on the others and it was very hot. And people expected us to cope because we were from South Florida 😊 .

  22. Good fun if a little harder than usual for a Saturday. The fact that it took longer than expected, rather like yesterday’s challenge, is probably due to my brain frying in the heat. Not that I should complain as the temperature here is the same as our holiday destination next week.

    Many thanks to our setter and CS.

  23. Down with extremely pesky
    Four letter words, eg 9a and
    25 and 27d.
    Got them but only after
    Much experimenting with
    The given letters.
    Apart, a rather more testing
    SPP.
    Thanks to the setter
    And to CS.

  24. I found this friendly except for 9a which I cannot parse. DanWord gave me the answer but not why. 4 letter words!
    I think the rest is OK..COTD has to be 1a
    P.s. just sussed 9a. I was trying to include the letter “n” for “northern”.
    Heading back to Kent tonight. A mistake as it’s cooler here in Devon

  25. I found this a delight to solve, much trickier in the extreme NW. I needed CS’s hint for 1a to get me going again, but I think that might be my fave. I had a wrong answer to 5d, I got the anagram but not the right one. My, there was a lot to like, our old friends 6d and 25d appear once again. I liked 23a, no problem with link, maybe it is an Americanism.
    Thanks Cephas for the fun and CS for her help.

  26. Much harder than the usual Saturday crossword – or are we all just being weedy about the heat!
    It is definitely very very hot, specially for nearly half-way through anyway September.
    It took quite a long time, for me, and I’m not taking any guesses about the setter.
    Lots of good clues and my favourite was either 12 or 13a.
    Thanks to whoever set this one for the crossword and to CS for doing the Saturday hints as usual.

  27. Solved from the bottom up just because we had a foothold there. No major hold-ups. Favourite was 6d. Thanks to the setter and CS.

  28. Sound light Saturday fare, with all GK pretty G, good surfaces, a generous dollop of anagrams, and nothing to alarm the equines.

    Hon Mentions to 1a, 14a and 30a.

    Many thanks to the setter and to CS

  29. A mixed bag for me today, some I could solve and some for which I really needed the helpful hints. Not quite finished so I’ll save the rest for lunch time. Thanks to setter and Cryptic Sue.

  30. Quick romp home.

    As regards DT subscriptions, it is v worthwhile haggling with them come renewal date. The newspapers are getting like sat tv and insurance companies, bouncing you into bigger and more expensive deals, if you don’t watch out.

    1. Mmm if not your goodself I will plump for resident of the alps who must be well acquainted with 19a in all forms, take a bow Chalicea

  32. I found this tricky but came to it late after hosting a family barbecue. Still not got 9a – any allowed hints?

    1. A bodily waste product is obtained by putting the abbreviation for area after the name of a river in the north of England

  33. I’m blaming the sweltering heat on the first tee for a pedestrian solve & a subsequent struggle to parse 8&20d – the less familiar spelling of the shrub & cycling the problem. Got there in the end but took far longer than it ought to have. The wee one at 18a my fav
    Thanks to the setter (new it wasn’t proXimal & would have done my money once again on Cephas) & to CS

        1. Thanks, I am a firm believer that the selection of crosswords of various degrees of difficulty is an art that Chris Lancaster and colleagues get right most of the time and the only way solvers can improve is by stretching themselves a little bit occasionally, the Sunday Toughie seems like an ideal place to test out new skills and it would be nice if more people could access it.
          Keep trying on a Sunday and soon you may surprise yourself

  35. Yes, ’tis mine. So sorry Senf – lost your five bob again. The comment about Chris Lancaster ‘as an outside chance’ is not too far from the mark. He tweaked an embarrassingly large number of clues in this one as he considered them flawed and some of the ‘favourites’ are his – he adapted one that had an X in it – he even changed the X word in the grid, where I was naughtily producng a pangram, a style I am not over-fond of as I believe it leads to relatively obscure words which are OK maybe, in a Toughie but not entirely fair on SPP solvers. That produced the ProXimal imitation. Apologies to Cephas and ProXimal!

    So sorry for you all suffering unusual UK heat but the temperatures you are unhappy with would be welcome here (gazing at Mont Blanc where the evening light has just faded). We got to 41 last week and regularly reach low thirties (yes, we moan too!)

    crypticsue, as always I appreciate your hints and especially the illustrations 7d is a star, thanks.

  36. Tackled this in fan-cooled bedroom in the early morning before temperature began to rise inexorably through the day. No serious hold-ups although 27d took while to dawn and I failed to pick up points in 22a which had to be. It did seem a bit of a curate’s egg so not surprised to learn that there was in fact secondary input to Chalicea’s clues. Thank you Chalicea (aided? by CL) and CS.

    1. It’s still 32C in my fan cooled bedroom and it’s nearly 22:30! I’m sometimes unsure what people mean when they call a crossword a bit of a curates egg, which happens fairly regularly. The phrase stems from a cartoon in Punch called ‘true humility’ where a bishop says to the curate “I’m afraid you’ve got a bad egg Mr Jones”. The curate replies “oh no my Lord, I assure you parts of it are excellent”. Clearly no part of the egg was excellent – you can’t have a partly bad egg, if it’s off it’s all off – the curate was being polite. You can have a partly excellent crossword though and I suspect people often, maybe even normally, mean that when they use the phrase on this blog. Looking at what you say in context, I believe that’s what you mean. But in other contexts it could mean it is something completely bad to suffer politely with a brave face like the curate!

  38. I haven’t read all of the comments, but I seem to be the only person who failed to get 9a.

    I really enjoyed this solve other than 9a. Even with the checkers in place, it was still a mystery to me. Without cheating, I would never have solved this. Too many variables for me.

    Thanks to all.

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