DT30615

106 comments on “DT30615”

1. I’m sorry but I had to give up on this when only about a third completed. There were quite a few clues that I just did not understand such as 1a. The first two words give the answer so what the rest means I have no idea. No doubt others will enjoy it.

   Thank you, setter but your offering was not for me I’m afraid. Thank you, Shabbo for the hints, which I will now read to show me how the guzzle works.

   1. You said it, with knobs on!

      1. For me too !

2. I completely agree with Steve above. I too have given up which is the first time in an absolute age. Having now read Shabbo’s hints I would never have worked most of these out. 19a – I merely reversed Neil which is obviously not correct. Altogether too convoluted by far – more a Toughie than a back pager. Sorry, did not enjoy but thanks to Shabbo for the interesting hints.

   1. PS. I actually managed all but 10! but still feel a bit of a failure – be interesting to see what everyone else has to say

3. Most of this went in very swiftly, however the final 5 clues took as long again as the first 25. Spent ages trying to justify the answer for 6d, as it seemed too obvious and not terribly cryptic – and that held me up with 12a, where again I was looking for something ‘more’ about Cairo’s location than mere geography. Whether here or in The Times, I recall some mild harrumphing when I saw 24a last appear in a grid. 17a was a write-in from the definition but I’m still uncertain as to the role played by Hardy in the Spoonerism unless it’s something to do with a friend of eg Nelson or Stan. Good surfaces, great variety of clue types, and a decent late-week puzzle. Hon Mentions to 11a, 29a, & 4d.

   3* / 3*

   Many thanks to the setter and Shabbo

   1. From the expression, _ _ _ _ and Hardy – to be in good health, gives you the word to Spoonerise

      Found this tough, couldn’t get 1A which held up much else.

      1. You have used your name rather than your alias (rogueElement). Both will work from now on

         1. oooh….autopopulate at work….no matter

      2. The problem for me, Roger – despite your explanation and Shabbo’s, above – is that I’ve never heard or used that expression other than as “_ _ _ _ and hearty”, so the Hardy bit made (and indeed still makes) little sense to me.

         1. Not sure that “expressions” need to come into it. It’s a Spoonerism of the synonyms friend (mate = HATE) and hardy (hale = Mail). Hale = hearty, hardy, robust, etc. The setter chose Hardy as misdirection to fool us into thinking it is a person.

      3. Roger, I know “hearty” and “hardy” are synonymous but I’ve always thought the expression was “hale and hearty”. The BRB concurs.

         1. Good point. I missed that – apologies.

         2. I was just about to make similar comment. Every time I see a Spoonerism as a clue I go “oh no!” as to me it’s an indicator of a tough grid and so it proved. However to stick in a homophone as part of the Spoonerism is beyond the “pail” (sic)!!!!

            1. What, exactly, is wrong with the Spoonerism? I’m at a loss ….

               1. I’m with Jose.

                  “Spoonerise” two synonyms (you need synonyms for friend and hardy) and get a two word phrase for unwelcome correspondence.

                  1. You’ve changed your alias since your previous comments (in 2015!) so this needed moderation. All the aliases you’ve used so far will now work.

               2. The pedantics are here … answer is “ m(h)ail” and clue refers to hardy (as in hale and hearty) so the spelling of wrong.

                  1. The Spoonerism is mate hale = HATE MAIL. It’s the sounds that are exchanged, not spellings. Spelling is secondary. Eg: Chewing the doors = doing the chores.

               3. …as am I, J, as it works for me as did the crossword which I really enjoyed. I also thought 1a was fine (including its surface) and have just seen Mr Tumble’s rationale behind it. Very honourable.

                  Like Zandio, I applaud Mr T pushing the envelope. Many of the compilers have their styles and trademarks which, I’m sure, makes many solvers feel at ease. But, when you jump on the aforementioned’s rides at ”Lancaster’s Legoland” theme park, you know it’s going to be white-knuckled.

                  I liked learning a new word in 4d (v parsable) and the spoonerism was nop totch. I’ve just seen that these two writers were around almost at exactly the same time (1840 to 1928 and 1844 to 1930)

                  The above is on my podium along with 1d (a tad ironic) and 3d which is an excellent clue.

                  Many thanks to Mr T and Shabbs who was in fine form

                  3*/4*

                  PS Loved the ‘other trains available’ comment
                  PPS Good luck with the moonwalking!

4. Ouch. Struggled through about two-thirds of it, and then had to give up. Some of the clues were very convoluted to the point of impenetrability. I get that the puzzles increase in difficulty through the week, but this change of pace gives me whiplash and removes all enjoyment from the solve.
   *****/**

   1. A question on the spoonerism (17d):
      Switching the initial letters gives ‘mate’ and ‘hail’, but the hint suggests this should be read as ‘hale’. Is it acceptable for spoonerisms to also be homophones?

      1. good point!

      2. Hi Anorak
         The simple answer is yes!

      3. Spoonerisms are switching initial sounds, not spellings: say the words with their initial sounds switched, then write down the spelling of what you said.

         For instance the famous Spoonerism “The Lord is a shoving leopard” becomes “… loving shepherd”, not “… loving sheopard”. So a Spoonerism isn’t also a homophone; a Spoonerism is inherently sound-based.

         1. Indeed, S. It boils down to mate hale = Hate Mail. A straightforward/conventional Spoonerism. But people are complaining about it. Any idea what their bone of contention is?

            1. If that’s meant with me in mind, Jose, I didn’t have an issue with the Spoonerism, just the expression hale and hardy. It mattered not to me – with a checking letter already in place the clue was solvable from the definition and did not require the wordplay.

               1. The expression “hale and hardy” doesn’t exist and isn’t implied in the clue. It’s just Hardy = hale. The fact that there’s an expression “hale and hearty” and hearty sounds a bit like hardy (and certainly not close enough to be a homophone) is irrelevant.

                  1. Why was ‘Hale and hearty’ chosen when ‘Hardy and hearty’ was up for grabs?

                     The fools.

                     1. wasn’t the other fella called Pace.

                        

                  2. The blog was edited many hours ago, long before most of the resulting comments in this thread and indeed page, making the bulk of the subsequent conversation about hale, hardy & hearty redundant

5. Thanks to the setter for the challenge (™ Steve Cowling). This was the hardest solve, for me, in probably ten years. Like Steve, I managed about a third after a lengthy struggle, accompanied by my gruel and orange juice with no bits.
   A massive ‘did not finish’. My newly sharpened pencil remained idle for much of the morning.

   Tonight H goes to a dinner related to a board that she sits on (that reads like a weird sentence doen’t it?) but ‘other halves’ are not invited, so I will drive her into London and then find a pub to while away the time until the dinner finishes. She didn’t want to attend under these peculiar circumstances, but I am genuinely happy to spend some time with a newspaper and a Diet Coke with no ice.
   Ordinarily I would have gone to one of my two clubs – I was a member of the House Of St. Barnabas but it closed down last year (not my fault!) and I have let my Groucho Club membership lapse as we attended so rarely. So a pub it shall be, and I will almost certainly tackle The Times’ crosswords.

   Thanks to the setter (ouch) and Shabba-dabba-doo.

   1. Diet Coke?? Yeah … I believe you, thousands wouldn’t.

6. 4*/2*. A curate’s egg puzzle for me. Some of it was quite a struggle and a few clues were too contrived for their own good, notably 1a. SC @1 is right. The first two words clue the answer and the rest (apart from the definition) is just convoluted padding to achieve a not very coherent surface.

   I’m not keen on “curls” as an anagram indicator. I’ve never heard of 4d but it was fairly clued.

   Thanks to the setter and to Shabbo.

   1. But in 1a the setter has chosen to use a legitimate 3-letter slang word for sandwich, plus some essential wordplay to get to the answer. So, for me no padding exists.

      1. I am sorry, Jose, but I don’t agree. For me, this is a very poor clue with a large amount of surface padding, admittedly designed as (unnecessary) wordplay. Sub is an abbreviation of submarine, which is the second word of the answer, but you know that already. :wink:

         1. Fair enough. You know I always try to defend setters (and the editor) but in this case my passion isn’t particularly strong.

7. This was challenging but right up my street. I went down quite a few blind alleys,which I’m sure is what the setter intended. I couldn’t make head or tail of 1a to start with though I did appreciate that the first word was yellow, so was looking for an obscure food additive. Once the penny dropped on that the top half came together. I struggled to sort out the anagram fodder in 29a, and needed to research the general in 11a. Otherwise a very enjoyable solve. Favourite today was the unusual 12a, supported by 15a and 18d. Thanks to our setter and Shabbo.

8. I categorically refuse
   To give up.

9. Surprised myself this morning by finishing the crossword before the rain stopped which delayed me getting out in the garden. COTD for me is undoubtedly 21d. Thanks to the setter for rea great puzzle and to Shabbo for confirming my parsing.

   1. having reread my comment I should explain that my parsing sometimes is ‘it couldn’t be anything else’ confirmed in the answer given.

10. Long time lurker, first time commenter.

    Thank you for the hints, and I’m impressed that Shabbo managed to parse 1a. I could not understand the latter part, despite the answer becoming obvious.

    I wonder if 6d is more than just a cryptic definition? A short (though slightly stretched) synonym of “to score” performing could also produce the answer. Perhaps I’m being too generous.

    Building from the NW, this actually became a bit of a canter until I was left puzzling over three holdouts. Hence, here again…

    1. Welcome to the blog. Now you have de-lurked, please come back and comment again

    2. Welcome, small pawn. Hope to hear from you again. 👍

11. I am relieved to read that I am not alone in my opinion of this mind-bending headscratcher, a whole half dozen of curate’s eggs! – 4.5*/1.5*

    Smiles for 12a, 5d, and 21d.

    Thanks to whomsoever and Shabbo

    1. I thought of you, Senf, while watching Countdown this morning: given the letters EOINSTNOP to make as long a word as possible out of, one of the contestants came up with ‘toonies’, which was checked by Susie Dent, found in Oxford Dictionaries Premium, and allowed for 7 points.

       (No screenshot of it, though; Rachel Riley put the other contestant’s ‘isotope’ up the board instead.)

12. “There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”
    Thank you Donald. We knew the answers eventually, but didn’t always know why.

13. Like others I found the clues i,n this puzzle tather complex andover- complicated with surplus vwrbiage in places . SinceI now do the puzzle on the app and I was having trouble sleeping, I didn’t give up and a catnap gave me renewed energy. Some of the anagrams, particularly 14d and 29a ,were good but I put in28a in using wordplay and don’t understand the meaning, so I shall read Shabbos clues to enlighten me. Thanks ro Shabbo and the compiler

14. Well this helped while away a lot of time in Amsterdam airport (it is HUGE!!!) waiting for transfer, but in the end I just gave up – with a big thank you to Shabbo for explaining things. Thank you compiler for a really tough xword lesson

    1. For me it helped while away a lot of time in Munich airport.
       Also a DNF , but once the penny dropped for 1a, progress was fine until giving up on the moonwalking Neil.
       Saw Ringo perform 1a in a gig about 10 years ago. May well have been one of the Beatles worse songs, but everyone in the audience joined in.

15. I looked at the clues before I printed this crossword and then thought….’this is probably not one for me’. Having read the comments and seen Shabbo’s explanations, looks like I was right! I wouldn’t have got 1a in a month of Sundays. Fortunately, I still have Chalicea’s NTSPP to solve.
    Thanks and well done to Shabbo for solving this one!

16. Well that was a tricky little blighter but I got there in the end with just the parsing of 19a eluding me so thanks to Shabbo for the explanation for that one.
    Top picks for me were 12a, 29a, 13d and 21d.
    Thanks to the setter for the mental workout and for turning my brain to mush. Thanks also to Shabbo for the excellent explanations.

17. Spent ages on 13d trying to make an anagram with Ben in it – doh!
    Thanks to all

18. Certainly more like a Thursday toughie than a Thursday back pager but a fair workout. I thought 1a a very clever clue ( after a “reverse parse”)
    Thanks to unknown setter and full marks to Shabbo for a good review.

19. Sorry to say that I thought this was a case of the setter trying too hard to be cryptic at the expense of enjoyment for the solver. 1a set the tone and little of what followed was much of an improvement. If my assumption is correct, this setter used to compile enjoyable puzzles prior to joining the Telegraph team, I wish he’d continued in the same vein.

    Thanks nevertheless to our setter for his efforts and well done Shabbo for making sense of it all.

    1. I think it’s significant when the setter has to write an essay explaining his thought processes.

       1. I was merely addressing Rabbit Dave’s issue with the second word of 1a, and why I hadn’t gone down the same more obvious route that he was indicating.

20. Well that is just a little bit curious. Most Thursday puzzles are beyond me unless I get help from hints here. Occasionally, I’m still flummoxed after reading the hints. Then I read the blog and find everyone else thought it a challenge but fair.

    Today, for the first time in ages, I finished the thing unaided – tough, but unaided. Only to read that many thought it a bit of a challenge.

    It must be a mindset thing. Perhaps I need therapy!

21. For a non-RayT week, this puzzle was easier than most of them have been on his off weeks. SE was the last area in for me.

    2.5*/3.5*

    Favourites 1a, 11a, 20a, 28a & 18d — with winner 1a
    28a was a new one on me.

    Thanks to setter & Shabbo for hints/blog

22. I bypassed the niggles and ran through this fairly quickly. Unable to identify a favourite but enjoyable nonetheless.

    Thanks to our setter and Shabbo.

23. Gosh, that was tough!! Had to be ground out clue by clue, and like several others there were answers that went in half-parsed (at best) and never very confidently understood…. NE corner was the hardest – NHO of 4d, but it had to be, and not wild about 6d, which is perhaps obvious, but I was looking for something trickier. Can’t say I really enjoyed it, but ultimately it was doable.
    Many thanks.

24. I thought this just had to be Mr Tumble. And – having checked the dreaded X – I find that it is. How lovely to be right for once. Moonwalking Armstrong screamed him! Typically quirky, borderline experimental and hugely enjoyable. Thanks to him and Shabbo.

25. I enjoyed most of the puzzle (with the exception of the 17d Spoonerism) – thanks to the setter and Shabbo.
    Top clues for me were 1a, 28a and 3d.

    Fans of Silvanus (and I know there are many) may like to know that he’s on Toughie duty today and has given us a typically smooth and not too tricky puzzle.

26. Thank you, Twmbarlwm — I really enjoyed this, with some great quirkiness in there. For me℠ it was a decent level of challenge: I completed it without hints (though I did need some for the parsing; thank you Shabbo), in a middling sort of time. Certainly not quick, but nowhere near as long as some recent Monday puzzles have taken me.

    I liked 4d for the journalist not being “ed” for once (and also because it’s a fun word) and 5d’s kipper, with my favourite being 2d’s smooth landlord. More like this, please!

    1. Yes, I enjoyed 4d’s breath of fresh air, too. Though, knowing a few few 4ds, I’m pretty sure they would all dispute Chambers’ definition of them as being “part time”. Some of the hardest working hacks I know!

27. This was indeed a Thursday toughie, all seemed to require 1a which I had difficulty parsing- thanks to Shabbo for theSub Sandwich-new to me.
    Have to admit quite a few bung ins eg12a 17a 6a
    Favourites 28a i5a 20a 11a.
    Going for a ****/*** as per Shabbo

28. So eating lunch and thought I d have a read of the comments to see if others are finding this as difficult as I am and feeling a bit comforted that I’m not alone. Not throwing in the towel yet or reading the hints but given how much of the grid I ve filled in , it’s likely. For the moment , onwards and …upwards ? …maybe

    1. Well I can hardly believe it but I finished it. Maybe it was the trout pate – is that brain food ? Hard going and I ll be reading up the hints on some of the parsing but pleased to have finished. Not sure if I enjoyed it much . Best take out nagging dog now. Thanks setter and Shabbo

29. A really good Thursday puzzle. A bit unconventional (fine by me), no idea who the setter might be. Mostly fine clues, a tough challenge and an enjoyable skirmish. I’ll pick 6d for special mention. 4*/4*.

30. Thanks to all who commented and solved, and especially to Shabbo for the blog. Glad many of you enjoyed the tussle, although I had it marked as an end-of-the-weeker for difficulty. My next one is similar, but then I have a string of seven or eight easier ones after that.

    Just a few points which may have been cleared up by others since I read them:

    For 1a, the sandwich can be the whole of the second word or a 3-letter abbreviation of it. My original clue was simpler and had the second word entirely clued as sandwich – but I had a feeling that it might have been done before, and when I checked, I saw it had. So I rejigged the clue with sandwich as the 3-letter shorter version and the rest of the word clued differently. So a more complicated clue than I’d originally wanted in the service of not repeating someone else’s!

    Hopefully the Spooner clue has been cleared up. ‘Hearty’ has nothing to do with it, even though it often goes with one of the words in the Spoonerism. (Thomas Hardy was a contemporary of Spooner’s, but that’s neither here nor there!)

    The cryptic non-musical element in 6d is meant to invoke players scoring for Hamilton Academical, a fairly well known Scottish League team.

    ‘Pullman’ in 24a refers to the train and the author Philip.

    1. Thank you, Toombarloom. Not for me, I’m afraid but it is Thursday and you have shown you can deliver guzzles of differing difficulties. I did enjoy others you have compiled.

    2. Didn’t have a chance to contribute earlier but have just read through the comments. Pleased to say I finally correctly pegged it as one of yours & really enjoyed the solve first thing this morning. My initial reaction on the first read through was rather you than me Shabbo but in the event it went in pretty smoothly. Oh & I liked 1a too.
       Thanks T & to Shabbo.

    3. I’m glad you did change 1a, because I may not have been able to solve your original version: “sub” is an everyday term used in sandwich shops, and in supermarkets selling packs of the bread as “sub rolls”. Its full name is something that I have heard of but doesn’t come as readily to mind.

       So while the original may have been simpler in the sense of fewer components, this one is simpler in terms of the vocabulary required, so arguably simpler to solve!

31. I’m not surprised it’s Toombarloom today, I’m so way off his wavelength it explains everything. I only solved half (with great difficulty) when I had to go in for the answer to 1a to get me going again. Even with that, I was DNF in the SE. I had “spam mail” for 17d, I’ve never heard of 28a, nor the movie at 20a. I couldn’t parse most of those I could solve, so I really didn’t stand much chance. Well, what else did you expect from a tiny brain?
    Thank you Toombarloom, and for your invaluable help Shabbo, how you unravelled that lot is a mystery.

    1. You called my previous puzzle last week “bushels of fun”, so miracles can happen!

32. Thoroughly enjoyed this one!

    Thanks to Twmbarlwm and Shabbo.

    1. If you’re the ‘Paul’ who left several comments in 2009 and 2010 welcome back! If you are someone else then welcome to the blog.

33. I think the worst telegraph crossword I’ve yet seen. Word builders are lame. I am thinking of offering myself as a setter. I cannot do worse than today.

    1. Welcome to the blog, Tom.
       I look forward to seeing your first puzzle in Rookie Corner.

       1. 😂 I suspect ‘Tom Gibbons’ might be a bot, but he can remove that doubt by replying in more detail.

          1. A bot? That’s interesting. I asked ChatGPT to solve 1a. 😊

             (This clue seems to be indicating a word that might fit in a crossword grid. Let’s break it down:

             “Chicken sandwich” suggests a word related to chicken or a type of sandwich.
             “Next to fish” indicates that this word might be placed next to or adjacent to a word for fish.
             “Left out E number” suggests removing or “left out” the letter “E” and a number from the word.

             Putting it all together, a word that fits this clue could be “TUNA,” as it’s a type of fish and could be next to “CHICKEN” in a menu. If you remove the letter “E,” you get “TUNA.”

             This could fit a cryptic crossword grid where each cell contains a letter and the clues provide wordplay to help solve for the correct words.)

             Thanks! 🤣🤣🤣

             1. Well, I don’t know, but forums sometimes have spam comments in them from non-humans, and the phrase “word builders are lame” seemed odd. It’s not the same as a ChatGPT program. But if it is indeed a real comment from a first-time poster it’s hardly a helpful one. (In my defence, you could ask AI to solve clues by other setters and get similar daft results.) 😇

                1. I do hope you realise my comment was made with my tongue firmly in my cheek. 👍

                2. Typing warriors making barbs are really lame (without merit)

                   Loved the puzzle, 12a,19a and 28a especially

             2. Ross, an AI bot specifically trained to solve cryptic crossword clues (press on the dog icon to open its interface), offered me as possible answers “yellow submarine, yellow vetchling, attack submarine, golden handshake, public transport”. When I selected the first, it then said its best explanation was:

                “’next to fish left out e number’ is the definition.
                I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.

                ‘chicken sandwich’ is the wordplay.
                ‘chicken’ becomes ‘yellow’ (as in cowardly).
                ‘sandwich’ becomes ‘submarine’ (submarine is a kind of sandwich).
                ‘yellow’ ‘submarine’=’YELLOW SUBMARINE’”

                Not bad (and probably enough to help somebody who hadn’t solved the clue at all).

                But I don’t think Tom is a bot: I doubt this forum is sufficiently high-traffic or monetizable for bot authors to have an incentive for posting here, and also the comment is specific enough to be relevant to the post: bot comments tend to be more like “Very interesting. I enjoyed your article and will think about your main point” — something which doesn’t require any understanding of what it is commenting on.

                So: welcome, Tom ­— I believe you exist! Sorry you didn’t like today’s puzzle, and I hope you will also comment on crosswords you do like.

                1. It’s more likely we’ll be commenting on one of his crosswords before then, Smylers. 👍

          2. Blimey, I never thought of that possibility. Don’t tell me that I have to guess when moderating any post from a new commenter whether it’s AI-generated.

    2. Let’s try that again, Tommy G (or whoever you may be)….

       I think it’s the worst Telegraph crossword I’ve yet to see. Word-builders are lame. I am thinking about offering to be a setter because I cannot do any worse than today’s.

       (I do hope it’s a botty as us Toms have a reputation to uphold when it comes grammar, syntax and the like)

34. Well, I thought I was going to be in trouble here after staring at the first few clues but obviously Greek red wine has energised my brain cells as I managed to cross the finish line without recourse to the hints. 1A ended up as my favourite.

    Thanks to tw???????? for the crossword and Shabbo for the hints.

35. Today’s offering was a tad tricky but fun to solve and very satisfying to havecompleted. Thanks to the blogger and setter.

36. A longish breakfast and lunch guzzle, but finished in the end, with some visits to MrG. E.g to the Moonwalking reference in 19a, with Michael Jackson imitating the Goons going to Christmas.
    Didn’t get the score in 6d, so thanks to Shabbo – and to Twmbarlwn!I
    Luckily have never heard of or been forced to consume the venomous drink at 28a!
    Also forgot the original dividing of the Red Sea!
    Fave 13a!
    Many thanks to Mr T and to Shabbo.

37. I really liked this, although it was difficult in parts. My last three in 4d, 6d and 19a . I thought the answer to 6d too easy but put it in anyway and having looked up Hamilton realized this was straightforward but 19a !!! Could still be trying to work that one out tomorrow if I hadn’t looked at the hints. Thanks to all.

38. Have spent a lot of time on this to be less than half done. I suspect a DNF is on the cards

39. Like Jacob wrestling with the angel I staggered through to the bitter end. 16a required a heavy hint to get me over the line. I bet Friday’s offering will be a gentler challenge.

40. This was indeed a challenge today but one that I enjoyed – an excellent brain workout! Took me ages to crack 1a but once the penny dropped I decided it was my favourite clue. Many thanks to Twmbarlwm and Shabbo.

41. Good evening

    By the cringe! That was an epic tussle. Thanks to 1) persistence; 2) the time-honoured tactic of putting the crozzie down, going off to do something else and letting the subconscious go to work; and 3) my lucky green pen, I finally got there.

    COTD: jointly 1a and 22d; 15a is runner-up. Many thanks to Twmbarlwm and to Shabbo.

42. I really enjoyed this challenging solve. I often do enjoy Twmbarlwm’s offerings.

    I solved this unaided but managed to Horlicks 19a and bunged in leer. What a wally! I may have solved this clue, but still a dnf.

    I had no issues with 1a nor 17d. 16a was my LOI.

    Thanks to all.

43. Spurred on by reading a few comments I kept at this and finished in the end. I freely admit that I would not have finished without the check answer function and that several answers were unparsed but ai did get there. 1a was my favourite once I got it.

    Many thanks to Twmbarlwm for the challenge and to Shabbo for the hints and explaining my answers.

44. Ultimately beaten by 12a (the answer seemed too obvious and I couldn’t parse it anyway) and 6d (didn’t know the musical so didn’t understand the significance of score) and had to resort to to the hints, I can see why now. The rest were just plain difficult. I’m desperately trying to find a favourite but nothing is jumping out, perhaps 21d. Thanks to T and Shabbo.

45. Maybe the work of a Mr McCartney
    He’s a known crossword fan and 1a and 3d might be a little clue to his musical interests?!

46. Well Mr Toomalooma, you gave me a few more wrinkles. Bottom LH corner gave me most problems so thanks for the hints Shabbo. I didn’t know the cocktail and entered Junk Mail though I knew it wasn’t feasible. Very late today as I went to the funeral of a Church friend’s husband. Nice man, knew him for years but we never quite connected with him. Today we learned he rowed for the Rob Roy Club in Cambridge ! G could have talked rowing with him – how often to we learn something really fascinating about a person at the funeral? Which is why at G’s 90th birthday last year I gave a précis of his life – I highly recommend this – it sparked lots of conversations and many people said what a good idea it was. However, as usual I digress but it is so late no one is going to read it anyway. I liked 1 & 29a which were helpful, 20a was a guess, and I thought 1d was quite sly. So many thanks to the Twm man and to Shabbo and to the good Lord above for the rain on my runner beans.

    1. I read you, Daisygirl.
       Goodnight, sleep well.

    2. I read you too, Daisy. I don’t have runner beans but wish Big Massa would send us a little rain for my parched grass.

47. I gave up.
    Far, far too hard.
    Many new words
    eg stringer.
    I did not like
    any clue.

48. Finally finished this morning after resorting to a couple of hints to finish the bottom RH corner. It was a challenge, but I enjoyed it!

49. 4*/4* … finished but needed the hints & Bing & Wikipedia for many . ..
    liked 9A “Turned out daft and ignorant (9)”

Comments are closed.