DT 30584 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 30584

by 2Kiwis  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30584

Hints and tips by 2Kiwis

BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

Kia ora from Aotearoa.
Another beautiful sunny autumn day here. Feel we have to make the most of it though, as heavy rain is predicted to come across the Tasman Sea in the next few days.
We were planning to download our puzzles from the ‘new’ site today as practice for next month but unfortunately, at the due time, yesterday’s puzzles were all that were available so we had to revert to the trusty old site which has served us well for the last decade of blogging. Hope they get their act together in the next couple of weeks or it will be hair-tearing instead of head-scratching for us.
Once again we have GK in this puzzle that is probably better known to UK solvers than to us.

Please leave a comment telling us how you got on.

Across

1a     Small, silver-grey belt (4)
SASH : A silver-grey colour follows S(mall).

3a     Foxtrot: dance I sat out, spellbound (10)
FASCINATED : The letter phonetically represented by Foxtrot and an anagram (out) of DANCE I SAT.

10a     Actress Jodie’s after a couple of lines for everyone taking part (9)
ALLCOMERS : ‘A’ from the clue and the abbreviation for lines twice, followed by the surname of an actress with the ‘S.

11a     Word puzzle on coach (5)
REBUS : The two letter on or about, then a passenger transport vehicle.

12a     Around noon, what farmer’s wife hated to chop up (5)
MINCE : What the farmer’s wife armed with a carving knife hated, contains N(oon).

13a     Dull island, one crossed by granny with friend (9)
INANIMATE : The single letter abbreviation for island, then a short word for a grandmother followed by the Roman numeral one and finally a friend or partner.

14a     The very end of party, spilt my soda (8)
DOOMSDAY : Two letter party or get-together and an anagram (spilt) of MY SODA.

16a     Car in Minder? (6)
ESCORT : A double definition. The car is a Ford model.

19a     Fabulous one for Paris Saint-Germain against Madrid side (6)
UNREAL : The French word for one and the name for a Madrid football team.

20a     In advance, get lost camera accessory (4,4)
LENS HOOD : Advance, or make a loan, contains a way of saying ‘get lost’.

22a     Update: ores mined must be refined (9)
MODERNISE : An anagram (must be refined) of ORES MINED.

24a     Seconds for good child … (5)
SPROG : The abbreviation for seconds, then a prefix meaning in favour of and G(ood).

26a     … Oliver? Something to go on bread, that is (5)
JAMIE : A conserve and then the two letters signifying ‘that is’.

27a     Oops! A pear tumbled in Albion Market? (4,5)
SOAP OPERA : An anagram (tumbled) of OOPS A PEAR.

28a     Spooner’s lecturer on fish brains (10)
RINGLEADER : A long slender fish and an alternate name for a university lecturer. Swap their first letters.

29a     Travel sick coming back around Anglesey, say (4)
ISLE : A reverse lurker, hiding in the clue.

Down

1d     Drove Sierra close (5)
SWARM : The letter phonetically represented by Sierra and then close or stuffy.

2d     Regularly supplies knight with serious grandeur (9)
SPLENDOUR : Four alternate letters from the word ‘supplies’, then the chess abbreviation for knight and serious or solemn.

4d     Coffee with no doughnut for Georgian, perhaps (8)
AMERICAN : A long black coffee with the doughnut-shaped letter removed.

5d     Leaves Mariner, colleague playing up front (2-4)
CO-STAR : A type of salad green and a seaman.

6d     Flower, one wrapped up in beautiful mug (9)
NARCISSUS : The wordplay refers to a Greek mythological character.

7d     Label left over ace pair of drums (5)
TABLA : A label, possibly on a computer app, is followed by L(eft) and A(ce).

8d     Mock cult journalist investigated (9)
DISSECTED : Mock or criticise derisively, then another word for a cult and a senior journalist.

9d     Close to Mount on United pitch (4)
TONE : The final letter of mount and united or unified.

14d     Key for Mozart’s Prague Symphony hampering odd band leader (4,5)
DRUM MAJOR : Another word for odd or bizarre is enclosed by the key in which the symphony was written.

15d     What to do with sugary tea when fixing a building shaft? (9)
STAIRWELL : Put the ‘A’ from the clue inside what one must do (4,4) with sugary tea.

17d     Not smelling rambling old rose with us? (9)
ODOURLESS : An anagram (rambling) of OLD ROSE plus US.

18d     Some feet are never lifted and put on a pedestal (8)
VENERATE : A reverse lurker, hiding in the clue.

21d     Fate is bad for party (6)
FIESTA : An anagram (bad) of FATE IS.

23d     Beast in lair pierced by tick (5)
DEMON : A tick or short period of time is contained by an animal’s lair.

24d     Mum turning around to go (4)
SHOT : Mum or quiet and the reversal of ‘TO’ from the clue.

25d     Picked up large jar (5)
GRATE : A homophone of a word meaning large.

Quickie pun    nip    +    hoe    +    Lyon    =    Napoleon

53 comments on “DT 30584”

    1. Not to worry, I think the site had issues most of today. I was getting a 503 error quite often.

      1. From what we hear Mr Kitty has been performing a Herculean task. We are Sooooo grateful.

        1. Thanks. After learning a lot about debugging WordPress sites today, I made several changes. The site eventually returned to normal, but I’m not certain that it was because of anything I did. Time will tell.

          1. Thank you, Mr K, for all your work on this.

            That’s so annoying when that happens: an inexplicable fix is as frustrating as an inexplicable breakage!

          2. I thought of you yesterday, that must have been so frustrating. You came up trumps, as usual! Thank you.

  2. Whew … not often I am this close to the top of the list!

    For me, once again, a Wednesday puzzle that I found hard to crack. Some clues that I find very convoluted and even when I see the answer, the parsing is nowhere to be found for me.
    Yes, some good clues in this, but more that just aren’t my cuppa and made it hard to really enjoy.

    3*/2.5*

    Favourites 11a, 12a, 20a, 26a, 27a & 4d — wth 20a the winner.

    Thanks to setter & 2K’s for blog/hints

  3. Just delighted to see that Mr K has got us back again, I too tried to use the new site but it was over an hour late changing
    To today’s puzzle, the DD amused as I am sure Minder got a White Capri
    The sugary tea gets the vote as it reminded me of Papa Bee who had his own special sugar spoon that really piled it in, I gave up sugar and milk in beverages many years ago

  4. I don’t know what went wrong, but Big Dave’s appeared to be down for most of Wednesday.

    I found this one fairly pleasant, nothing too awkward.

    I’m partial to the Reverend S, so enjoyed 28a, and the flower in the beautiful mug was clever.

    Thanks to the setter and the 2Ks.

  5. 4/2. Not a very enjoyable experience. Too convoluted for my liking and no real favourites. Thanks to the setter and the 2Ks.

  6. First time for me too being so close to the top. I thought this was going to be a walk in the park until I got properly stumped in the SW. Some wonderful clues though – the sugary tea one being the best. Thanks to the setter and 2Ks .

  7. Fun whilst it lasted. I have the jingle welcome, welcome, welcome back to ITV running round my brain.

    I rather liked 3a and 11a.

    Thanks to the 2Ks and today’s setter.

  8. First things first, huge thanks to MrK for getting the site up and running again: not having access to BD, even for only a day, makes one appreciate it even more.

    And now to the puzzle: all fairly clued, generally good surfaces, and I enjoyed the step-up in challenge, but I did feel as though I was solving a GK puzzle using cryptic clues. I usually have no objection to GK in cryptics, let alone a UK orientation in a UK puzzle, but felt this went too far, was rather parochial, dated, and overly featuring named individuals. After so many recent appearances the two Madrid football teams need a long crossword holiday, as does Pep G, please! Highlights for me were 16a & 28a.

    3* / 2*

    Thank you to the setter and especially to the 2Ks for your persistence.

  9. Phew, a sigh of relief that the blog is back. Thank you so much Mr K.
    I found the puzzle ok in general with slightly too much GK for me but I managed to solve it so maybe the GK was general enough. The drums were new to me but gettable from the wordplay, just needed electronic help to check.
    Favourite was 15d but I also liked 20a and 24a.
    Thanks to the 2Kiwis and the setter.

  10. I just checked on the off-chance and there you are ! Back again! I am so relieved I despaired yesterday continually getting 503. I got in a real mess in the south east as I had L for large and my jar was URN so learn seemed a good fit for ‘picked up’. Oh dear. Thank you So Much for sorting out the gremlins Mr K. You are my hero.
    Thanks to Setter & Hinter. ❤️❤️❤️

  12. Good morning all! Very many thanks to Mr K for breathing life into the site!
    Luckily didn’t need the hints (though Mr G did help…)
    Like many others just loved 15d!
    Thanks to the setter and to the Kiwi pair.

  13. What a relief to log on this morning and see normality restored.

    My rating is 3*/4* for a trip down memory lane which was good fun, with the inclusion of several old cars and two bygone TV programmes (one of which was very obscure). There was even a mention for Paul Mariner!

    Most of this went in quite smoothly but my last couple of answers took quite some teasing out.

    I would have thought that the synonym for “mock” in 8d would be spelt with two Ss but, as it’s much more likely to be spoken (never by me, I hasten to add!) rather than written, who knows?

    7d was a new word for me.

    My podium selection is 16a, 5d & 15d.

    Many thanks to the setter and to the 2Ks, and especial thanks to Mr K for either his skill or simply his presence (or probably both) to get this essential part of our lives up and running again.

  14. PS for Mr K. One thing that hasn’t returned to normal for me is that ticking the box saying “Save my name …” doesn’t seem to be working as the name and email fields remain stubbornly empty.

  16. Thanks to all who have worked behind the scenes to get us back up and running and to the 2 kiwis for the hints. Not having access to this wonderful site showed how much I appreciate it.

    I completed the puzzle but the south East and a few of the 4 letter words took some time to sort.

  17. Very many thanks, BigDave team, for restoring this really great site.
    Much appreciated.

    Found the SW segment very
    Difficult in this challenging puzzle
    But it simply added to the
    Enjoyment.
    Wrongly parsed 14d,
    By getting confused by
    the ‘Keys’
    Apart, got there in the
    End in 4* time.
    Many thanks. setter and the
    2Kiwis.

  18. The most important comment at this moment is a huge vote of thanks for all the hard work done in restoring this wonderful blog back to normal. Endless hours of “503” was a nasty shock to the system. Many many thanks

  19. Another Big Thanks to Mr K for fixing the blog, nice to see it back.
    Actually, a big thanks to everyone who keeps the blog running and the daily bloggers, we all owe you a debt of gratitude, like everything, you don’t know how much you miss it until it’s not there!

  21. What a relief to have the site up and running again Gosh, how we missed it! Thankyou Mr K

  22. Panic was starting to set in yesterday evening. What a relief to have Big Dave back. Thanks so much to Mr K and anyone else involved in getting it working again.

  23. So happy to find the site upand running again. I was bereft to find the error message when I made my usual late in the day visit. Thanks to all those that work so tirelessly to make this wonderful blog happen.

  24. I am so happy to find the blog again this morning. It is usually quite late in the evening when I visit so I don’t comment very often but thank you so much. The hints are much appreciated (even when not needed, the explanations are really useful) and I always enjoy reading the comments. I found this crossword quite friendly with just a little head scratching to finish the top RH corner.

  25. Mr K, your efforts are hugely appreciated. We salute you.

    This was good fun and more challenging than the usual midweek slot with my POI being the reverend. It was nice to learn a new bit of knowledge with 7d.

    There are lots of fab clues to choose from but I’ll go with the splendid 24a/26a comby (I love the word sprog), 14d and 15d which was brilliant as I do love a pun.

    Many thanks to the setter and Le Touquet.

    3*/4*

  27. Good morning – setter here. Thanks to all commenters and solvers and to the 2Kiwis for the blog.
    Thank you again to Mr K for his tenacious work on the engine yesterday. It must have been a difficult day.

    1. Twmbarlwm
      Thank you for the puzzle, I feel even more pleased with myself now I know it was one of yours.

  28. Pleased to see reviews being left today for this very enjoyable (found it tough & far more so than Hudson’s Toughie) puzzle. For whatever reason just seemed to struggle to get on wavelength & appreciated it far more reading back through it after a ponderous completion.
    Thanks to T & to the 2Ks for their usual excellent review & of course to Mr K for all of his efforts restoring the site.

  29. I found this a hard slog, well into Toughie territory.
    Most of the time I do the cryptic in the evening, so I wasn’t aware of yesterday’s problems with the site. However, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your sterling work on the blog.

  31. Just to say well done to Mr K for his efforts to recover the blog, you don’t realise how much you miss something until it disappears😟

  32. This was so good I just gave up putting down ticks. Delightful. Precise wordplay (slightly) takes precedence over surfaces but that’s (annoyingly!) as it should be. 8d’s lovely, 28a’s hilarious and 14d (Chambers hyphenates it, Collins doesn’t, and I’m firmly with Collins and setter) is simply superb. 15d too. Impossible to pick a favourite, so I won’t. Huge, belated thanks to Mr Tumble and the 2Ks.

  33. Thank you, Twmbarlwm — I didn’t manage to finish it myself, but I had so much fun along the way I didn’t mind. On the first pass of across clues I had the grant total of ⅓ of an answer (the first 3 letters of 10a). Fortunately I did get 5 downs, and made some progress before getting stuck again.

    Normally I leave anagrams till the end for some crossing letters to help, but I resorted to computer-solving for 14a, 22a, 27a, and 21d to get me going again and provide crossers for other clues. I particularly appreciated the short 24a and 24d; 5d’s leaves; 14d’s key (which I’m guessing!); 15d’s cuppa instructions; and 19a’s over-the-top French indicator, using 5 words to clue just 2 letters! Incidentally, I learnt from the children this week that in Beano there’s a football team called ‘Fake Madrid’.

    Thank you to the Kiwis for their help, which I did need, for instance in identifying which farmer’s wife. And for 16d where I’d managed to make “meterage” fit both all the crossing letters and the definition of “Some feet” … ooops!

  34. As the song tells us – you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone – how very true, I was quite bereft yesterday. Well done indeed to Mr K for breathing life into the old lady and I hope she’ll soon stop asking me to fill in all my details every time I leave a comment!
    Found this offering rather over-laden with GK but at least I now know that particular actress Jodie and the name for the pair of drums.
    Top of my tree was 15d despite the fact that my reaction would be to tip it down the shaft!

    Thanks to Twmbarlwm and to our 2Ks for the review – hope the heavy rain doesn’t cause you too many problems.

  35. Sorry, but this one was like swimming In molasses. Just could not find a way in, clearly above my pay grade, but not unusual for this setter.

  36. Well done to Mr K for getting the site back online yesterday. Having worked on websites for many years I can imagine how challenging it was to get it working again.

    Really enjoyed the solve, and what a good challenge it was!

    Thanks to all.

  37. Ditto to all the praise for Mr K for his sterling work on rescuing this blog from the bog.
    We haven’t yet switched to the enforced new site and are not looking forward to it at all.
    The style of this setter seems unfamiliar. Anyone know whose it is?

  38. 3*/4* … not sure about the GK though …
    liked 24A. “Seconds for good child … (5 )”

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