DT 30737 (Hints) – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
View comments 

DT 30737 (Hints)

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30737 (Hints)

The Saturday Crossword Club (hosted by crypticsue)

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

Autumn has definitely arrived – a very cold start for my trip to the supermarket, but things are definitely warming up now the sun is out.

A fun Saturday Prize Puzzles – no prizes for guessing the setter this week.  Be interesting to see who agrees with me

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.

Across

1a           Walk at easy pace – better to avoid extremes (5)
Someone who places bets without (to avoid) the outside letters (extremes)

10, 13 and 9a and 17 d  Take me with busty schoolteacher to party? C’est la vie! (5,3,3,3,6,8)
Reading this clue left me in no doubt as to who set today’s Prize Puzzle.  Mr CS tried in vain to remember if he’d ever had a well-endowed schoolteacher  and was a little disappointed to find that she was only there as part of the anagram fodder.  An anagram (to party) of TAKE ME WITH BUSTY SCHOOLTEACHER

12a         Initially Androcles is trapped in big cat affair (7)
The initial letter of Androcles and IS (from the clue) trapped in a big cat

18a         And not the river close to Skipton? It’s up that way! (8)
A conjunction meaning and not, THE (from the clue) an abbreviated River and the ‘close’ to SkiptoN

23a         Chaps bothering you? Try this! (3,4)
Something to used when part of your face is chapped

26a         Unshaven hooligan (5)
A description of something left unshaven or a hooligan

29a         Some Aberdeen terriers go in (5)
Hidden in words two and three of the clue

Down

1d           Gold coin finally found under fruit machine (9)
The chemical symbol for gold and the final letter of coiN, the latter going under a type of fruit

3d           Saucy material in books Heather’s collected (7)
Abbreviated books of the bible inserted into (collected) another name for the Heather plant

5d           White female leaving chips and fish (8)
The abbreviation for Female leaving an alternative word for chips and a type of fish

6d           Anything but restrained in prison house (7)
An abbreviated way of saying anything but restrained inserted into a prison

14d         Poet, unknown, in time associated with pen (4,5)
A mathematical unknown inserted into a period of time and an enclosure (pen)

22d         Saint surrounded by snakes and crows (6)
An abbreviated saint surrounded by some snakes

25a         Nonsense written about us causes stir (5)
Some nonsense ‘about’ US (from the clue)

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!

Please read these instructions carefully – they are not subject to debate or discussion. Offending comments may be redacted or, in extreme cases, deleted. In all cases the administrator’s decision is final.

If you don’t understand, or don’t wish to comply with, the conventions for commenting on weekend prize puzzles then save yourself (and me) a lot of trouble and don’t leave a comment.

The Quick Crossword pun: HOARSE + SPLAY = HORSEPLAY

82 comments on “DT 30737 (Hints)
Leave your own comment 

  1. Terrific fun and a steady solve with plenty of pennies dropping. The warm chicken at 19d raised a smile as did the diamond robbery at 28a. Fortunately, I knew the poet otherwise I would have struggled in Devon and Cornwall. My COTD is the busty schoolteacher at the party in the four linked clues.

    Thank you, setter for the fun. Thank you, CS for the hints.

    Lovely day in The Marches so I’m getting on with bulb planting.

  2. Today appeared to be all about getting enough checkers to solve the huge anagram. I presume that this was an attempt to defeat those that use electronic aids, but I cannot say that I am a fan of this type of puzzle. I liked 18a and 23a, though. Personal COTD 5d. Thanks to setter and Sue.

  3. Nothing to frighten the horses here. I didn’t bother trying to work out the anagram in the 4 parter but waited till I had some checkers, when the answer became clear.

    23A was a serious case of Deja Vu. 15D gets my gold medal. I’ll just sit back and wait for the mythical now. 🤭

    **/**** Thanks to the setter and CS.

        1. I use the automatic entry on my phone too Manders. I often didnt bother to post the prize puzzle from the dead tree version.

    1. Also 19d is a deja-vu from not too long ago. Used the same approach to get the long anagram. I liked 1d, 5d and 19d. Thank you setter and hint-provider.

  4. 2*/3.5*. This was quirky and great fun. I’m going to stick my neck out and suggest it was an NYDK production. Who else would have come up with 10/13/9/17?

    Many thanks to the setter and to CS.

  5. There will probably be complaints about the multi-word answers which require a bit of scribbling at the side but they were fairly straightforward.

    Favourites 19d like Steve, the pale rocker at 20a and 5d’s white female.

    Thanks to the setter for the entertainment and CS.

  6. A 28 letter answer? What a hoot!

    It, of course, won’t go down well with some solvers but I love this sort of thing as it means you solve half the puzzle with one clue. Thrown in ‘The Act’ and you’ve got yourself a splendid Saturday crossy.

    I love that 23a has appeared twice in a week….hilarious!

    Lots of excellent surfaces made this a joy to solve with my podium being the great surface, if you know what I mean, of the 28 letter dooberry, 1d & 7d.

    Many thanks to Mr Knobby (?) and she of the crypt.

    2*/4*

  7. Undoubtedly this very enjoyable fun challenge has to be the work of NYDK – 1.5*/4.5*

    Candidates for favourite – 20a, 28a, 1d, and 3d – and the winner is 3d.

    Thanks to NYDK and CS.

  8. A superb, but never difficult, entertaining puzzle. I had so many chuckles along the way, but I’ll only mention 1 down and 18 & 23 across as my picks as the whole solve was so pleasing. Thanks to the setter, who I thought might be our floughie lady and also to CC (CS)

  9. Really nice puzzle, but hard work to start with, trying to get enough crossers to get the longuns! What a lovely pair they were, but actually just needing one word to get them.
    Indeed 23a has been see recently is it autumn setting in?
    Apart from the lovely long ones I’m going to plump for 19d as the laugh of the day!
    Many thanks to the setter and to CS.

  10. Good fun although a bit laboured with multi-word answer being slow to dawn as 10a is not really one word and 9a perhaps not the usual UK term. There were however lots of smooth/amusing surfaces. 5d did raise a tut! Thanks for the workout Mysteryone and CS for being faithfully by our side.

  11. Bright and breezy puzzle for an equally bright and breezy Saturday here – surely has to be the work of our door knob.
    Leaving aside the ‘chestnuts’ my top three were 1&20a along with 1d.

    Thanks to NYDK and to CS for the hints.

  12. Great fun to solve with the outrageous four part anagram worthy of top spot this afternoon, alongside the warm chicken at 19d.

    Many thanks to our Saturday setter and Sue.

  13. For anyone looking for further cruciverbal entertainment today, can I give a plug for today’s NTSPP from Shabbo? It’s very light and extremely enjoyable.

    1. Yes indeed RD, thanks for the recommendation. I really enjoyed the whole solve with just 10a left unsussed (silly me!). Congratulations and thanks Shabbo for a thoroughly entertaining puzzle – I look forward to the next.

  14. How I miss dear Robert Clark, who died on 1st October 2023. To this day, I notice something come up in a crossword and know I would have enjoyed exchanging a few words with Robert about the topic. Such a lovely man, with a kind word for everyone.

    Today – hugely enjoyable crossword. A key letter from 4d helped me get the lo-o-o-o-o-ng one early on, and that, of course, gave a whole dictionary of checking letters.

    Thanks to the setter and PC Security (anag)

    1. He is indeed much missed – we had many a pleasant exchange too. I particularly liked the fuss about Kipling as his “Little Friend of All the World” was the name we gave to our equally missed Labrador

    2. I take it, Terence, that you are not referring to Robert Clark of ABPC – with your show business connections. It would be a mad coincidence indeed if you knew him!!

    3. Yes I miss Robert very much. A kind, thoughtful, generous man with a love of literature which he enjoyed sharing and discussing.

    4. I think of him often too. Someone I wish I’d had the chance to spend a few hours with. ( he’d hate my grammar in that sentence)

  15. Fantastic crossword, initially I was slow off the mark but once I got going I thoroughly enjoyed it. A couple of new synonyms to me, which I checked afterwards, were correct and were able to be got from the word play which is how it should be. The long anagrams were my favourite, such clever wordplay. Like others I also smiled at the chicken.

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

  16. A nicely varied collection of ckues, which I enjoyed. Things went much faster after 10a and the rest of that multiple clue went in. I lijed the fruity lego clue at 1d and cheers to 5d too. Like Steve I remenbered the poet and also the double act thanks to CS for the hints and to NYDK for another fine puzzle.

  17. A really enjoyable solve today. Getting the 4 parter gave the grid a hefty boast which helped. Strange to see 23a so soon again as others have said. I loved 5d – tremendously clever clue. Thanks to setter and to CS.

  18. Well well well nearly outwitted at last… don’t think I would have completed without the wonderful hints from CS!! I’m going to chalk this up as a forehead slapper as the various pennies dropped … I had to go through the parsable clues to get enough to get me going …I had no idea about the poet not helped by my fixation that a mathematical unknown is a different letter!
    Is enjoyable torture an acceptable phenomenon? 🤣🤣🤣🤣

    1. I think perhaps there are several names, or euphemisms, for enjoyable torture but I am too much of a lady to know them.

  19. A couple of strategically placed checkers unlocked the “longun” and from then on it was relatively plain sailing. I thought 14d a pure gem and is my cotd. Honorable mentions go to 1d and 28a. Thanks to NYDK if it is indeed him, and CS.

  20. Another very enjoyable Saturday crossword. I just need clarification on one point. I was under the impression that the term for gold was the other one used in crosswords.
    Loved 10a, etc.

    1. You’ve changed your alias from your forename to this new one. Both will work from now on

      You are correct but I’ve had to redact your comment a bit as it is a Prize Puzzle

  21. The 2 long anagrams we’re the key for me, the first I solved pretty quickly as the clue really hinted at the answer and the very long on became obvious with most of the checkers in place – especially if you solved 4d.
    My COTD was 1d. All in all an excellent puzzle with plenty of smiles.

    Thanks to setter and Sue

  22. Another great puzzle, we are being spoilt this week.
    Top picks for me were 1d, 16d and 5d.

    Thanks to CrypticSue and the setter.

  23. very enjoyable but i don’t ”get’ 6d can someone explain what ‘anything but’ has to do with the answer

  24. My German teacher was indeed quite well endowed, so much so that I was so distracted that I failed the “O” level
    4d was my fave today (for reasons explained to Terence up a bit)
    I solved the long anagrams from just a few checkers and although the baked goods suggest an Americanism I think it is common parlance
    Thanks to NYDK (if he) and thanks to Suetoo

    1. I took German ‘O’ Level in the Sixth Form and, like you, SJB, failed but not for the same reason as I was at an all-girls school and the German teacher was the only male member of staff!

      1. Hmph! We didn’t have a single male teacher at my school in Wimbledon. Miss Hamer was our Fraulein and I can still recite aus, bei, mit, nach, zeit, von, zu, gegenuber but I have absolutely no recollection of what they did! As opposed to ‘neuter nouns in Al, ar, a behave in an adjectival way – but in the ablative you see a letter I, and not an e. No wonder I cannot remember what I had for lunch yesterday with my brain full of that stuff!

        1. They are common prepositions taking the dative case. As opposed durch, für gegen ohne, um which take the accusative.

      2. Almost certainly known as Adolf I expect,
        My German teacher was given the epithet of some Wagnerian Heroine

        1. I will not tell you the nickname of our German teacher…..let us just say that the lady was indeed well-endowed.

          Cannot remember how the boys got on but I got a grade A Higher thanks to her.

        2. I took “Scientific German” because we were told all scientific papers were written in German! I lasted about two months.

  25. Wonderfully amusing romp, which is surely the work of NYDK. I’d be very surprised if this is not.

    My work is insanely busy at the moment, and has been since certain regions around the planet decided to implode, so I didn’t see the incredible coincidence arising between this puzzle and yesterday’s until today. Same entry, and almost the same joke: wow.

    The long anagram had me tittering, if that’s the right word given the subject matter. I wonder if that is the longest anagram to have appeared in the DT? I was giggling mostly as the definition just HAD to be ironic: what bad luck to be taken to a party with a busty schoolteacher.

    My other favourites for today, among many, were 27A (simplicity) and 22D (definition).

    Big thank you to NYDK, if it is he, for the welcome relief from work’s tyranny, and to CS for the hints.

    1. Terrific puzzle and very unusually I solved without any help at all. For some reason the two multi-word clues came easily. Illustrating the quirkiness of crossword land i can’t help remarking that 23a Chaps bothering you… appeared only yesterday as 18a Regularly taken ale in pub; daily mass relief for chaps. Great puzzle and thanks.

      1. Thanks for asking Merusa. Unfortunately I think I may have bruised (don’t think any cracked) ribs at the back – very painful.🙁

  26. A Saturday puzzle to really like and enjoy. I like the multi-word clues that go around the grid too. Nothing weird or strange today at all. Filled grid right side first with last area being NW.

    1*/4.5* today. Best puzzle of the week by far, for me!

    Favourites include 4a/21d, 12a, 23a, 5d & 22d — with winner 4a/21d. So good.
    Smiles and chuckles from the 10/13/9/17 clue, 29a & 19d

    Thanks to NYDK & CS for hints/blog

  27. Phew – I’m exhausted, but finished at last!
    I found it very hard and at least part of that difficulty was running around trying to find the clue numbers!
    My last answer was 5d.
    I liked 20 and 23a and 6 and 16d.
    Thanks to NYDK and to CS for all the amount of work taken.

  28. We all seem to be agreed on this one, most enjoyable. I thought 1a was brilliantly simple and I think must be favourite although there is so much more to admire. It’s been quite a week! Huge thanks to NYDJ and CeeSue . I shall sit back and await my pen 🥰 it is a big day at Duxford IWM with the Red Arrows – I do wish they would fly over us, we are so close but we never see even a hint of a coloured vapour trail!

  29. Nice to enjoy a DT prize puzzle.
    The G. has one of those intensely irritating ‘special instructions’.
    Not difficult, the long one was gettable from the numeration.
    Thanks both.

  30. When I started this I wasn’t too sure that I liked it, but once I got going, that was so much fun! I missed that 10a-etc was an anagram, I wrote out the checkers I had on my paper and it jumped out at me! It has to be my fave, but my warmed up chicken and the machine at 1d were all good, how about 4d and 5d, really there was a ton of good stuff. I needed Sue to unravel 18a for me.
    Thank you setter, that was soooo much fun, I loved it, and CS for the hints and pics.

  31. The four clue combination made the whole crossword rather disjointed which we didn’t like. Apart from a couple of unindicated Americanisms the rest were good enough fun. Favourite was 1d. Thanks to the setter and CS.

  32. Nicely challenging but needed a few more hints than I would like. Particularly liked 16d and 18d. Thanks to setter and CS. Sun has just come out after a rainy start so I need to get outside and take care of a couple of gardening chores as we look to be likely to get up to a foot of rain this week from the next, as yet unnamed, storm coming across the Gulf of Mexico. But compared with the people in the Florida panhandle and around Asheville, we really can’t complain.

  33. Great fun today.

    Favourite has to be the huge anagram.

    Thanks to the setter and to crypticsue.

    Been sorting out the apples today into store for eating, freeze for cooking and save for juice.
    We will not be short of apple crumble here for some considerable time.

  34. Hello. NYDK here. Thanks to everyone for comments, and to Sue for the hints.

    Wherever there are lots of hinters, they call it the hinterland. Did you know?

    1. Very droll, NYDK. 😄
      Thank you for a terrific puzzle and allowing me another shot at The Mythical. 😊

  35. I didn’t find any Americanisms as the word in the long clue is used in this particular saying in the UK. My problem was that I didn’t realise it was an anagram so it was my penultimate solve. 5d was my LOI. I’ve not done much solving as since my summer holiday I have been away again in Torquay and Sidmouth and Belfast. Just had a week of good weather in the latter which was cheering. Favourites 15 and 28a and 4 5 7 and 14d. I got the latter straightaway. The name of the poet came to me straightaway. Don’t know why as I had no idea what he wrote.

  36. Great puzzle today. 1d favourite. LOI the very very long anagram – needed to write the whole clue down and add the checkers to find this. My piece of paper was just not long enough!
    Thanks to setter and Sue for the hints
    4*/4*

  37. Like BusyLizzie, I ended up using more hints that I would’ve liked (or expected). I’m choosing to blame it on a weekend of solo parenting, so being less able to focus on the puzzle.

    I only got 10a from seeing the picture while scrolling past to something else, I didn’t know 27a, and I made things hard for myself in the top-right by inserting into the big cat 1 letter too early — which produced a collection of vowels that seems to me at least as plausible as the actual answer, but of course makes it impossible to find answers to fit the crossing down clues!

    Thank you to CrypticSue for the much-needed hints, and NY Doorknob for the puzzle. My favourites were 5d’s white female and 14d’s unknown poet.

Join the Conversation, Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 2 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop file here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.