DT 30633

81 comments on “DT 30633”

1. A good Thursday **/*** with some great clues: 6d and 16a and 1a my COTD. I wasn’t sure about the party element of 18d but the answer was obvious. Not sure who the setter is but thanks to he or she and Shabbo.

2. The smoothest and most enjoyable solve of the week so far. West came in first. Never heard of 3d abbreviation for canvas. I suppose 21d is the constitution. Trio (1a, 17a, 29a) of goodies out of a collection of nicely crafted clues. Thank you Mysteryone and Shabbo.

3. Brilliant! I loved today’s offering from the master of brevity. The only one I didn’t understand was 9d but that’s me missing something. I am certain it will make sense later. Every clue was a gem but my COTD is eloping with one partner at 1a.

   Thank you, Ray T for a very satisfying solve. It was a joy from start to finish. Thank you, Shabbo for the hints.

   9d an anagram! DOH!

   1. I was with you SC on 9d but with Shabbo’s help all has been revealed.

      1. Me too! Imagine that, an anagram.

         1. Who would have believed it, Merusa? An anagram in a crossword! 🤣🤣

4. Top entertainment as always from Ray T this morning, with his trademark clues and remarkable brevity. Looking for a favourite is easy, as there is a gridful from which to choose, so I will use my trusty pin, and the winner is 17a. Hands up anyone who put the old Italian currency in first at 29a?

   Thanks to Mr T and Shabbo.

   1. I didn’t put it in but it was my first thought. 😊

      1. Same here!

         1. At least I dismissed Rome

   2. I reckon that’s why he chose Italy as its capital is four letters along with the old currency.

      1. Another similar clue re Italy, money and four-letter words: Italian currency (4). = ARNO, the river (has a current/flows).

         1. Nice one, J!

            ‘Tiber Rome’ sounds like Toblerone…..ish.

            1. Hm. That’s pushing it! 😊

   3. It was my first thought, both the R and L words, but I decided to wait until I solved 14d to get the first checker.

5. 1.5*/4.5*. Simply wonderful. A concise masterpiece and a jot to solve.

   Many thanks to RayT and to Shabbo.

6. Another solid RayT crossy hits the back of the net.

   This took a tad longer than usual as it took an age to get 16d. I had to biff 21d thinking it couldn’t be anything else and had never heard of ‘divers’.

   21a is truly a bonkers word. What clown came up with it? I do like the use of ‘digital’ in crosswords, it has to be said.

   My podium is 1a (love ‘elope’), 12a and 23d.

   Many thanks to RayT and Shabbs.

   3*/4*

   1. Totally agree re 21a – “detrain” is a ghastly word. What next – “debus”, “decar” or “debike”?

      1. Sadly “debus” and “deplane” already appear in the BRB as well as “detrain”. I suspect an American influence …

   2. I used to write a newsletter for the local village badminton team. I used the word “divers” to represent “Various” and “sundry” in one edition. I spent the whole evening trying to explain that I did not mean “diverse”.

      1. Hi gents

         I looked up the origin of divers and, sure enough, it’s diverse!

         How did that get past the committee?

         Ghastly is absolutely the word for detrain, Gr. Maybe the creator heard someone say ‘’I’m getting off the train’’ mistaking ‘de’ for ‘the’?

         I love your other options, btw. Did Neil and Buzz derocket?

         Dreadful. Truly, dreadful.

         El Tel needs a second ‘List’ for words that shouldn’t be allowed to appear in a crossword due to their nonsenseness like….nonsenseness.

7. Super puzzle with no reason for delay as completion went smoothly from N to S. MrT playing fast and loose with two sweethearts at the same time! Good variety of clues as ever, the homophones all worked for me, and anagrams were restrained in number: what’s not to like? COTD for me 16d, with runners-up 1a and 20d.

   1* / 4*

   Many thanks to RayT and Shabbo

8. The master of brevity being very kind to us today – 2*/4.5*

   Candidates for favourite – 1a, 10a, 4d, and 16d – and the winner is 16d.

   Thanks to Mr T and Shabbo.

9. The maestro fooled me with the anagram indicator in 9d and again with his sweetheart’s suggestion in 24a so he gets extra Brownie points for those but as for naming a favourite – simply can’t pick just one so I won’t even try.

   Devotions as always to the exceptional Mr T and many thanks to Shabbo for the review – enjoy your Spanish caper next week!

10. An exhausting committee meeting this morning with discussion about 6a being the only topic. A majority was about to be announced in its favour, but then the secretary to the committee showed that Collins note it as ‘a rare word’. Therefore, by a slim majority, we must welcome 6a to THE LIST.

    A terrific guzzle; most enjoyable with brilliant glues misdirecting the solver in every direction.

    I can present my own private opinion polling based on a walk around Shere in Surrey, yesterday afternoon. Total number of political posters displayed – two. One for the Liberals, and one for Labour. Therefore the House of Commons will be equally shared between the Liberal Party and the Labour Party. Take that, YouGov!

    Thanks to RayTee and Shabba-dabba-doo.

    1. Are members of THE LIST committee cryptic crossword enthusiasts or mere plebeians? In crosswordland laic/s?????r is almost an old chestnut.

       1. It is, Jose but once in Terrence’s LIST it is banished to the nether regions of Hades. Pray you never end up on THE LIST! 👹

11. Ray T on top form today – thanks to him and Shabbo.
    From lots of ticks on my printout I’ll just list 17a, 24a, 4d and 16d.

12. V many thanks to Ray T for a fab puzzle. 1a fave and v v punny. Closely followed by 16d and the clever 30a. Spent a long while looking for handwarmers, until was forced to look down by the crossers! Got 21d fairly early on, but needed all the crossers to convince me (was at uni with a pair of dentists!)
    Thanks again Ray T and to Shabbo for the blog.

13. Another excellent puzzle from Ray T. Fine, succinct clues as usual, a medium-difficulty challenge and an enjoyable solve. Too many good clues to isolate a favourite. 2.5*/4*.

    *Shabbo. I think 3d has a two-word definition.

    1. Well spotted. Thanks. Now amended.

14. Took a while to complete because of so many clever clues but I got there in the end. So many possible favourites but I will go with 1a. As ever a couple of new definitions and synonyms today.

    Many thanks to RayT and to Shabbo for the hints, enjoy your trip.

15. Wot RD said at comment 5.
    Thanks to Ray & Shabbo.

16. Just back from a week in The Isle Of Man watching motorbikes charge round the island at 190mph so todays offering had a wonderful calming affect – both experiences extremely enjoyable COTD 2d
    Thanks to all

    1. Most envious of your IoM trip although the weather hasn’t been that great. We’ve been watching the highlights. Well done Michael Dunlop.

17. 4d – no applause here until someone shows me where the first L comes from.

    1. Welcome to the blog, Ros.

       Man in the clue is ‘male’.

    2. Over to you, Ros…

       https://www.google.com/search?q=a+standing+ovation&sca_esv=7dc5793b08f7f22c&sca_upv=1&tbm=vid&sxsrf=ADLYWIKmsY6bGOxTBIRpuRlglJbszielIg:1717678448950&ei=cLFhZsDROdvZhbIPmcazkA0&start=10&sa=N&ved=2ahUKEwjAyabugseGAxXbbEEAHRnjDNIQ8tMDegQIEhAE&biw=1521&bih=695&dpr=1.26#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:42815360,vid:ZvnPS2bzDd0,st:0

18. A nice RayT puzzle to go on with today.

    2.5*/4* for me
    Favourites 12a, 21a, 30a, 3d & 4d — with winner 21a

    Thanks to RayT & Shabbo

19. A nice solvable puzzle from “The Maestro” tricky in parts but very enjoyable 😃 ***/**** Favourites 1a, 7d & 23d 👍 Thanks to Ray T and to Shabbo

20. A lot more than ** for me Shabbo, but a fun solve with lots of penny drops. Still not sure the “why” of 9d, but I’m sure Shabbo has explained it. I fell for every red herring … oh, you mean those canines! I’m never happy with 26d, it always sounds odd, I’m much more used to the “-en” ending. It’s hard to choose a fave, maybe 25d; we haven’t heard from her in a while.
    Thank you RayT for the workout, and Shabbo for the hints, I’ll check 9d now.

21. The wonderful RayT is as wonderful as usual although I admit to finding him tricky today and I don’t usually have that trouble.
    I appreciated 28 and 29a (if only for the trap) and 4 and 8d. My joint favourite was 2 and 21d.
    Thanks to RayT for his crossword and to Shabbo for today’s hints.

    1. JOINT favourites Kath? Does that mean they are now allowed?

       1. Only if I feel like it and I’m in a really good mood, and that’s not very often . . . .only joking!!

    2. Wow Kath, joint favourites? You are spoiling us now 😊.

    3. Oh good heavens Kath that means I can now pick joint Favs without feeling guilty!

    4. We can have more than one favourite! 🍾🍾🥂🥂🍻🍻
       Kath has said so! 🤭

22. Another easy -solve offering as this week’s puzzles continue to fail to live up to their names. I enjoy the odd quick solve as much as anyone but for three consecutive days now there has been no challenge and consequently little enjoyment and certainly no sense of achievement. I liked one or two clues 1a made me smile for the definition of elope. here’s hoping for a proper test tomorrow.

    1. I’m sitting here biting my tongue. Yes, Mum, I’m being a good girl!

       1. :)

       2. 👌!

23. Another easy -solve offering as this week’s puzzles continue to fail to live up to their names. I enjoy the odd quick solve as much as anyone but for three consecutive days now there has been no challenge and consequently little enjoyment and certainly no sense of achievement. I liked one or two clues 1a made me smile for the definition of elope. here’s hoping for a proper test tomorrow.

    1. If you don’t already do so, have a look at the daily Toughies, Steve – by and large more challenging, though not always, and generally very satisfying to solve. Tomorrow’s – likely to be from Elgar, Osmosis or Sparks – will almost certainly provide you with a “proper test”!

       1. Thank you, Mustafa, and you said it so nicely!

       2. You have said it all, Mustafa.
          The Toughie is more suited to Mr. Mattinson.

       3. elgar defeats me every time but i appreciate the advice

    2. If this is too easy for you Steve (a RayT?) you would probably be better suited to the Toughie puzzles. There are many, many of us who truly enjoy the regular Cryptics and would never set foot in Toughie land. Some days you will be lucky, when we get a Toughie masquerading as a Cryptic.

    3. Why did you repeat your post? 😳

       1. Just to make sure we first formers get the message.

          1. 🤣

       2. there was a typo in the first effort

24. Really fun crossword that we very much enjoyed. Still laughing at 1A, loved 2D, and a special mention for 29A for looking the sort of clue that you should never find in a cryptic. VMT to compiler and Shabbo.

25. The usual fair but chewy in places from RayT providing a satisfying breakfast challenge. I always have to work at his but have come to appreciate and enjoy the cleverness of his clues. COTD for me is 1a purely for nostalgic reasons, as I never hear the first two words over here. Silly me, I was only focused on fingers for 17a and 24a held me up for a while as I tried to make it start with ban (for bar) which of course made 20d impossible. Thanks to RayT and Shabbo.
    As a member of our Landscape & Beautification Committee (a somewhat overly grandiose name) I was out before breakfast helping replant the our large planter bowls with caladium to withstand the summer heat. We do this three times a year to try to defeat the seasons with different annuals. But it’s nice to be out there with fellow gardening enthusiasts.

    1. Do you mean you are a member of a gardening club, BL? 🤭

       1. No, we live in a community of 324 homes in 55+ community, where the HOA maintains all the landscaping, cuts the lawns, hedges etc. Our committee meets to make decisions on what needs replacing, seasonal plantings, improvements, etc, etc. Our proposals are then given to our Board for consideration. The main driveway through our community has a central flowerbed in which there are about 10 raised planter bowls. Three times a year our group repots these plants. We get a nice lot of comments about the added tough of color. But I do love gardening also, and spend more time in my garden than I should.

    2. BL I am interested to read of your Landscape & Beautification Committee because I am currently looking for garden maintenance help and find that few people these days claim to be gardeners. They are all “landscapers” which means they don’t want to be involved with routine gardening tasks! I do however appreciate BL that is doubtless not a valid point as far as your Committee members are concerned!

26. As with others above 1a is my CoTD, so enjoy RayT challenges. Thank you Shabbo

27. A great guzzle today. I completed it at lunchtime but was then whisked away to the Somerset Levels to see a rareish bird. Just back now to read the blog.
    10a gave me pause in the parsing but it couldn’t have been anything else.
    Favourites for me, now that Kath has decreed multiple are allowed, are 1a, 24a and 21d.
    Thanks to Shabbo and RayT.

    1. Hi Madflower
       What was the rare bird that you went looking for…and did you find it?

       1. Hi Shabbo,
          It was a Gull-billed tern and yes it was showing well. We also saw an American Golden Plover in it’s summer plumage which was nice as I’d only seen winter birds on Scilly.

28. Good evening

    As soon as I saw 24a and 16d, I knew that I was in for a battle of wits with the Mighty Mr T; and, of course, I fell straight into the trap of thinking that the two sweethearts indicated the same thing. I really should have known better! For that excellent piece of misdirection alone, 16d is COTD.

    I must take issue with the esteemed Shabbingtons – 2 stars for difficulty? Crikey! A fourser, in my humble opinion!

    Good fun – it took me most of the day, but I’m off today, so no problem!

    Many thanks to Ray T and to Shabbo.

29. A very fine crossword from a real master of crossword compiling, thanks Ray T. Too many good clues to even think about a favourite but my wife and I were wed at Gretna Green, so 1a made me smile!
    Thanks too to Shabbo.

30. Reasonably straightforward but showed down in the SE not helped by bunging in exile for 25d. My biggest problem was parsing 10a as my parsing of it had the word cut doing double duty, I’ve never seen the synonym of the answer spelt like that I can only assume that it’s an American spelling. The usual excellence from Rayt with favourite being 31d. Thanks to Rayt and Shabbo.

31. Evening all. Thanks to Shabbo for the review and to everybody else for your comments. Much appreciated.

    RayT

    1. Good evening, Mr T, thank goodness for ‘your’ Thursdays, a lot of us would be lost without them!

    2. Thank you, Mr. T! A terrific guzzle that was fun to solve!
       Capital of Italy gave me pause. 😊

    3. Thanks for a cryptic which I could understand and solve with a little help from my friends. No dismal comments from me even if I have just returned from a funeral.. I was cheered by your clues and their solutions.

    4. Thank you for popping in Mr. T. I remember the days when I found your offerings like swimming in molasses. I now enjoy them, how times change.

32. 13a. There are Angler fish and Angel fish but I’ve never heard of an Angle fish!!!

    1. You’ve used your name rather than your previous alias so this needed moderation. Both will work from now on.

       Think of angle as a verb.

33. 3*/4* ….
    liked 17A “Digital security providers (7)”

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