DT 30740

94 comments on “DT 30740”

1. I found today’s offering quite tricky and I solved many from checkers rather than the clues. I only solved 4d because my son-in-law is Greek and he celebrates one every year. It took me a while to remember the pineapple in 9d and, for me, “wig” was a bit of a stretch in 18a. I did like the free relations in 12a and that becomes my COTD.

   Thank you, setter for the challenge. Thank you, 2Ks for the hints.

   Overcast and raining in The Marches but I’ll not moan given Hurricane Milton is threatening Florida. I hope Merusa, BusyLizzie and others in the area stay safe.

   1. Thanks Steve. Merusa and I are under a Tropical Storm Warning, being outside the “cone” of Hurricane Milton currently. If it stays on track it is set to make landfall overnight on the east coast around Tampa as a Category 4. It will impact the entire width of the State so life is very difficult for those trying to evacuate.

2. I, too, found this at the stickier end of my solving time with some of the synonyms being stretched almost to breaking point., giving me a good sense of achievement upon completion. My favourite was the pineapple.

   Thanks to our midweek setter and the 2Ks.

   I was beaten by the terrible Americanism in Wordle today. A good run came to an end.

   1. You and me both with Wordle, YS. I don’t think the word is used that often in UK. Never by myself, anyway.
      Yep, a good run has come to an end! 😳

      1. Managed Wordle in 4 having only an M after 3rd go – good guess I reckon.

         1. Me too – I just made it at five because of a guess. Horrid. We must remember it is American based , I often want to enter humor but cannot bring myself to do it. I bet we have it one day!

      2. I did manage today’s Wordle, in 4†, but my current streak is only 3 after failing on Sunday with guesses 3–6 being later, laser, later, and layer — but not the answer with the correct letter in the middle!

         † I generally start with the answer to that day’s Telegraph PlusWord puzzle, which was mediumly helpful today. That, incidentally, is how I got Wordle in 1 one day last week: the PlusWord and Wordle were both ‘cloud’.

         1. That’s a good strategy, Smylers. Trouble is, I do PlusWord in the evening and Wordle first thing in the morning before going to the village shop for the papers and morning natter.

            1. You could start with the previous day’s PlusWord answer? It’s just a way of varying the starting word, and it’s random if they are helpful for each other, so the day before’s will, on average, have the same effect.

               1. Good point. Thanks, Smylers. 👍

         2. Sorry to be late to the table with this but what’s “wordle” please?
            Many thanks !

            1. Hi, Katz. Worldle is a word game invented during lockdown and now published daily by the New York Times at https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/

      3. I’ve lived here for nearly 50 years but I crashed and burned at Wordle today. I see that they’ve started using that version of Mummy in Jamaica now and it grates no end! It is an American puzzle so I don’t fault American words, but is today’s word really appropriate for Wordle! I must stop, I could go on forever I’m so cross.

   2. Avoid The NYT Connections then. Both it and Wordle seem to had had an increasing proportion of words which are not used on this side of the Atlantic.

      1. Yes there is another Wordle on Power Language
         https://powerlanguage-wordle.github.io
         It doesn’t have a spelling bee, though, which I like more than Wordle itself.

         1. I am totally addicted to Spelling Bee 😊

            1. Me too and I sulk if I don’t get to Genius. 😊

               1. Agree, I can’t settle for less than Amazing, and am really only happy when I get to Genius.

   3. I managed wordle – but only at the last minute when it suddenly occurred to me it might be an American word.

      1. PS also, I didn’t realise for a long time that if you miss a day you lose your streak! That’s not fair 😢

         1. I managed it in 3, but it was a wild stab because of the letters I had from my first two ‘goes’. We used the word when I was a child in the East Midlands, but for us it meant meant gloopy, sticky-squashy and I still use it in that way, rightly or wrongly.

         2. That’s why I got the hump & stopped doing it. Mind you the same applies on the DT puzzles app.

         3. I discovered that rule just before we went to Bermuda on holiday last May, and as I was above 350 I made sure not to miss a day while we were away. But crashed anyway some time after we came home. And then again today. Oh well, start building again tomorrow – if we have power and the Internet of course.

   4. Yep, I crashed and burned today also, giving up current 88 day streak. As it is a NY Times owned puzzle, American words are the norm now.

   5. Add me to the list of those whose winning streak on Wordle ended ignominiously.

   6. I only just made Wordle today needing 6 goes until my transatlantic thinking tuned in which of course is often the case with spelling e.g. verbs with single letters rather than two when using past tense etc. I have a daily routine of doing six different word puzzles when the new versions all come out at midnight – no wonder I then suffer from insomnia!

3. Fun and mediumly taxing — so spot on for a Wednesday backpager. My favourite is 3d, even though I initially tried to force in the wrong lights (with the same 5 last letters!). I didn’t know the 18d instrument, but it seemed a plausible collection of letters for one, nor what the 5d answer meant. Thank you to the setter.

   And thank you to the Kiwis for explaining 2d’s “censors” and the type of paper, and the wordplay in 15a’s drip.

   For anybody who hasn’t spent time around toddlers in the past decade or so, Axel Scheffler is the illustrator of Julia Donaldson’s The Gruffalo and also — more relevantly for 10a’s surface reading — a series called Tales from Acorn Wood, featuring Fox who’s lost his socks and a Rabbit who’s desperately trying to get some sleep without being disturbed by friends and neighbours, among others.

   I make a 14a to Mary Berry’s recipe most Christmases. It’s looks disproportionally impressive for how easy it is to do!

   

   1. Yule log recipe (in a separate post so my comment doesn’t get trapped as spam for having more than one link).

      We now use chocolate buttercream in the middle instead of actual cream, so that it — in a callback to yesterday’s comments — doesn’t either go mouldy or need keeping in the fridge.

      1. Do you know, I love this site. Not only do we get guzzle tips but advice on keeping bread and recipes for Christmas. Plus of course weather information from all over the world and updates on what everyone is up to.

4. A very enjoyable midweek tester that had it all.

   I liked the up-to-date golf reference with the world no 1, though many wouldn’t have heard of him, and 11a made me smile. I had to biff 21a as I couldn’t work out the synonym for earthly.

   There were so many excellent constructions that it makes picking my top three very tricky but I’ll go with 8a, 15a and 20a.

   Many thanks to the setter and the 2 Ks.

   3*/4*

   1. Oh. I guess that makes more sense than the Scheffler and wood that I thought of!

      Thanks, Tom.

      1. He’s being heralded as the next Tiger Woods which is bonkers as he’s a happily married man.

         Wey hey!

5. Super surfaces and sly wordplay. I can’t quibble with Tom’s choices. But 1a, 18a and 1d are all delightful too. Many thanks to our setter and the 2Ks.

6. The outside of a 9d has been smooth since my time in the forces nearly 40 years ago so they no longer resemble a pineapple. Used to run the range with squads of nervous recruits throwing them (and dropping them!) – an often scary experience.

   Favourite has to be 1a for me.

   Thanks to the setter and 2Ks.

7. This one took me well into ** time & about the same time as yesterday to complete for an enjoyable solve. The parsing all came together satisfactorily though the when synonym at 23a (which I always seem to forget) was the usual head scratch. 18a was my clear fav & it was good to see Scottie at 10a – there’s a fine golfing clue in Hudson’s puzzle over in t’other place which is very entertaining & mercifully far easier than Donny yesterday.
   Thanks to the setter & to the 2Ks plus thoughts & best wishes to our Floridians.

   1. Ha, I knew you’d like Hudson’s golf clue. It’s a proper bobby dazzler from start to finish.

8. Not for me I’m sorry to say, too many stretches of belief involved, but thanks nevertheless to the setter for his efforts and to our 2Ks for the review.

9. Just right for a Wednesday. 1a and 1d went straight in but then 4,5 and 6d all sent me to the BRB for confirmation and I thought we were in for a hard time. However it all came together albeit with a few rather elastic synonyms more than made up for by some superb surface reads.Too many ticks again for an overall favourite so I concur with Tom with the addition of 9d where I spent too long trying to make the first word of the clue part of the anagram. Thanks to our setter and the 2 Kiwis.

10. I too found some if the synonyms a bit of a stretch, but got there in the end. My cotd is 21a. Fingers crossed for our Floridian friends. Thanks to compiler and 2K’s.

11. Somewhat of a grind that seemed to take a lot longer than it actually did – 3*/2.5*

    Candidates for favourite – 1a, 22a, and 16d – and the winner is 1a.

    Thanks to whomsoever and to the 2Kiwis.

12. Wow, that was plenty tough for a Wednesday, damn near a DNS for me.
    Ploughed on though while waiting for the drizzle to clear so I could go to the library, its all excitement when you’ve retired!

    Speaking of which, our library has an out of hours policy whereby you can gain access with your card and a code when nobody else (even the staff) are there, and you always feel like a naughty schoolboy being somewhere that he shouldn’t.

    Back to the puzzle, got there in the end with 3d being the last one, and can’t say I liked it, does ‘races’ really mean kinds?
    Puzzled also by 4d, do people use this word? the only time I’ve heard it used is on Game Of Thrones.

    Great puzzle nonetheless, and thanks to our setter today.

    1. I think it’s mainly Catholic friends I’ve heard marking their 4d-s. Our 12-year-old (who isn’t Catholic) knows when their 4d is (August 31st), though possibly not that general term is 4d.

       With terrible lack of planning, we managed give exactly 1 of our 2 children the same name as a saint — meaning that the 10-year-old doesn’t get a 4d, which obviously seems unfair. Personally I think it’s a good life lesson about both the inconsistency of our parenting and the capriciousness of life …

       1. Sami, my son-in-law, has a name day. He is Greek Orthodox and most Greeks have a name day they celebrate every year. Out of interest, I checked when my name day is and it’s 26th December.

          1. How do you find your name day Steve, its not the same as your birthday is it?

             1. It’s the day of the saint you were named after, TC. In my case St Stephen. There is a website that will give you your name day.

                https://www.nameday.com

                Just enter your name and you have another reason to celebrate! 🎂🍺😊

          2. Yours is probably the best-known one, because it’s got its own song! You must’ve heard of what good King Wenceslas was up to “on the Feast of Stephen”?

             In 1993 I was listening to an Irish radio station on Sunday December 26th. The presenters kept announcing it as St Stephen’s Day, declaring that it wasn’t Boxing Day because Boxing Day can’t fall on a Sunday, but it was still St Stephen’s Day, which is always the 26th. They then proceeded to call Monday 27th Boxing Day. (I remember it well, because one of the DJs phoned me during an end-of-year countdown they were playing that day, having apparently pulled my postcard out of a hat, and I won the top prize of £930. Admittedly not a Mythical fountain pen, but still not bad to a 16-year-old.)

             But … that remains the only time I’ve ever heard the claim that Boxing Day is on Monday 27th if Christmas falls on a Saturday, so I’m confused as to where that came from and if anybody else believes it. Even the same radio station 6 years later, the next time Christmas Day was a Saturday, then just called Sunday 26th as Boxing Day.

             1. £930 at the age of 16! Wow!

                I didn’t know that about Boxing Day not being on a Sunday. No that it matters because I was not named after St. Boxing. 😊

       2. Ta Smylers

13. Emergency meeting of the committee this morning which resulted in welcoming 4d to THE LIST. Please sit over there between ‘obi’ and ‘The Hanseatic League’.

    I like Smylers’ description, ‘taxing’.

    We were in Los Angeles for some weeks during the summer, and I keep glancing at the temperature over there and consequently hankering (good word, hankering) to be back.

    Thanks to the setter for the challenge (© Steve Cowling) and TheTwoKays

14. Luckily I finished the puzzle before opening the email with the link to the blog as the email itself contains the 2Kiwis blog with all the answers exposed. Clicking on Comment brought me here.

    Found this tough and it was hard to get into. LOI was 3d. Guessed at 4d as it couldn’t be anything else but I wasn’t familiar with the term.

    Lots to like though with top picks being 9d, 1d and 15d.

    Thanks to the 2Kiwis and the setter.

15. 2.5*/2.5*. Back to curate’s egg Wednesday again.

    All I will add to the foregoing comments is that “on the rocks” is hardly an adequate anagram indicator.

    Thanks to the setter and to the 2Ks.

    1. ‘On the rocks’ does appear in anagram indicator lists, in the sense of ‘broken down’, ‘failed’. Hard to resist for a surface involving a siren tempting sailors.
       Here’s Dada using it last year: https://bigdave44.com/2023/10/08/st-3232-hints-2/ . You don’t mention it in your comment there.

16. Tricky today
    3*/4*
    1 ac LOI and COTD
    With thanks to setter and bloggers

17. Very tough for a Wednesday, struggled to get 1a , so last in 3d , which I regarded as a weak clue.(synonym ) For me this could easily have been Friday’s offering.
    Favorites 11a and 15a . Thanks to all

18. Not my cup of tea today. Gave up as no pleasure was being had.

    Thanks to the 2 Kiwis and the setter

    And it is jolly cold and windy with rain coming…..sigh…..

19. My money (50p as I’m poor) is on this being a Tumbledown production.

    It was a bit of a slog, but nevertheless, I enjoyed it. I messed up 10A at first which made 7D impossible but eventually all became clear. 1A held out for some time, but when I cracked it, it became my entry for top prize.

    ***/**** Thanks to Tumbledown (possibly) and the 2Ks.

20. I agree with others that this was on the tricky side for a Wednesday but an enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to our setter and 2Ks.
    I thought that there was probably some wordplay in 7d (if not it’s not terribly cryptic). The second word can mean middles or hearts and the first can mean sociable or likeable but I can’t see where ‘comments’ fits.
    Top clues for me were 1a, 8a (very appropriate as that city’s rugby pitch has historically been waterlogged at times), 18a and 1d.

    1. Yes, likely just a cryptic definition. Readers click on (touch) a heart icon to comment on a post indicating they like it.

       1. That’s exactly it, thank you. A lot of social media sites (though not all) have the heart icon to express ‘likes’.

       2. Thanks for that, Falcon. I avoid Social Media sites like the plague so I was unaware of the heart icon. That makes the clue a better cryptic definition than I thought initially.

21. We got there 3* time but, as others have saiid, some of the synonyms were a bite stretched. Especially 3d
    Thanks to setter & 2Ks

    1. What was stretched about 3d’s synonym? The answer means to set something on fire, and so does lighting? I thought it was splendid clue, with “lights” misleadingly looking very much like the noun that it wasn’t.

       1. I understand the lights – no problem.
          It is the bit to get from races that I’m not keen on. Yes it is there in the dictionary, but not often used.

          1. Ah, I see what you mean. Now you mention it, I can’t actually think of a sentence where they can be used interchangeably.

22. Not an easy solve for me. ***/*. 13d my fav.

23. As is usual for me on a Wednesday, I find puzzle often the hardest one of the week for me. So far, the trend continues.
    As the 2K’s said, some head scratching required.

    3*/3* for me.

    Several,( or more), clues I could not reverse engineer for the parsing.

    Favourites include 1a, 8a, 3d, 9d, 19d & 21d — with winner 8a
    Smiles for 8a, 18a & 17d

    Thanks to setter & 2K’s

24. Wasn’t expecting quite such a tussle but got there unaided. Still catching up after being away. After 18 yrs. we are putting our house in Northern France on the market. It entailed a deep clean and much gardening plus painting and gate repair. It has been used by friends and family and is much loved and much used. However came back feeling rather exhausted and a tad down.What a great distraction our puzzle solves are and they put all other concerns out of one’s mind. Will check out the Mary Berry recipe and keep a watch for further life improving tips. We always thank the setter and hint giver but I think we should also thank each other.

25. I wondered if it was a wrong envelop day at times.
    Thanks to all concerned.

26. Chewy, I think is the word. Quite a number of leaps of faith. Terence is being rather hasty with relegating 4d to The List – it is used sewer le contynong, and in Limburg rather charmingly well wishers telephone the mother of the birthday girl (or boy, or person) and congratulate her each year. I did like the free and singular relations at 12a and the maid leaning on the rocks. I didn’t look at the lurking instrument closely enough and entered an ‘e’ instead of an ‘a’ which made 24a my last one in although I had thought of it straight away there was no ‘e’ in the anagram fodder. Anyway, now pouring with rain, quick dash to get washing off the line but how can we complain? Our houses are not being bombed or washed away. Do stay safe, Merusa and BL and anyone else in danger. Many thanks to Mr Setter and LesTookays.

    1. Me too with the “e”, DG.

27. Very difficult today, not helped by my mistaken assumption that lights are candles. Thanks anyway compiler and 2Ks

28. A fine Wednesday offering with good clues providing a moderate challenge and much enjoyment. Favourite: 8a. 3*/4*.

29. Way beyond me today – I seem to be saying that quite often at the moment – things that can only get better . .
    Several I’ve not heard of and I mean that rather than I’ve forgotten!
    I don’t much like 7d – not as the clue but how much time people can waste time.
    I liked 10 and 21a (eventuallly) and 16 and 21d.
    With thanks to whoever set today’s crossword and to the hard-working 2K’s.

30. An enjoyable puzzle for the mid-week back-page, reasonably straightforward once one donned the “lateral thinking cap”. A vague recollection that the person named in 10d was a golfer occurred post-solve, which rendered the clue more sensible. Some truly lovely surfaces and where answers or terms were less ‘usual’ I had the fortune to know them. COTD by a distance to 1a, with 11a and 13d (too many hours jump judging at autumnal ODEs & HTs suggests the numbers of fit ponies (and children to ride them) diminish annually!) runners-up (or walkers-up as the case may be).

    Many thanks to the setter – Twm is a good call despite the absence of Spoonerism) & the 2Ks

    1. You really are a whizz at these puzzles, I don’t think you’ve ever tagged one as anything but straightforward. I wish I had half your brain. Well done.

       1. Not the case, Merusa, but my apologies & I evidently have to seek some ‘straightforward’ synonyms! When I first lurked here I could barely solve an early-week puzzle; I now snatch moments here and there to tackle 3 or 4 puzzles a day, refuse to allow Elgar & Osmosis to defeat me too regularly, credit my enjoyment of cryptic crosswords to what I have learned on this wonderful site, and cannot overstate my thanks to its many bloggers & posters have brought ‘lights’ into my cruciverbal darkness during over the years.

          Best wishes to you, BL, & our other lurking/posting Floridians over the next couple of days.

31. Me too, Kath! I solved 15 clues, and I think I did pretty well, then had to go in for help for 1a to get going again. Alas, that was my lot, swimming in molasses again. What a strange puzzle. I was hoping for something fun that would occupy me for a day promising to be sun and then squalls, sun and squalls for the whole day. We have a tornado watch up too but you can’t prepare for those, they pop up unexpectedly but are very localized and small compared to a hurricane.
    Thank you setter but not my bag, I’ll now read your hints 2Kiwis to see if I can make sense of this, so thanks for that.

32. Disappointingly difficult for a Wednesday, and I am guessing one from the Welsh Mountain man, as I could not get on wavelength, getting only 6 answers on my own. Never heard of 4d although I should have penned that in as what else could it be? Didn’t know there were relations to the raccoon relatives, the original is bad enough. I had to check that it was indeed Wednesday and not Thursday already. Not for me I’m afraid. Thanks to the very smart 2Kiwis.

33. Morning all.
    Looks like most people had a similar experience with this one as we did and found some head-scratching was needed along the way.
    Quite nippy here this morning so an extra layer of clothing called for. Surely it will start to get a bit warmer soon as Spring progresses.
    Cheers.

34. I too found this one tricky in places , ending up with a handful of clues that took ages to solve but not sure why in hindsight. Enjoyable though . Thanks to setter and the 2Ks.

35. Thanks to 2Kiwis and solvers and commenters.

    1. Thanks for popping in T. Had an inkling it may have been one of yours but wouldn’t have backed it up with any pennies.

    2. Thank you, Tumbledown. I struggled a bit but did enjoy the tussle. I think I’m finally working out your style. 👍

36. I found this distinctly frustrating and even iffy with some far-fetched definitions and synonyms (too many to list and describe). Altogether not much fun to be had for me. Thanks anyway Twmbarlwm and the 2 Kiwis without whom I surprised myself by unravelling it all. Thoughts and be safe wishes to our Floridian friends – Jane, Merusa et al 🙋‍♀️💐.

    1. Jane lives on Anglesey so she should be safe from Hurricane Milton. Hopefully BusyLizzie and Merusa are far enough from the path of the hurricane to be safe

37. I found this a challenge, I completed the south but needed a hint to get going in the north. Once I did I got to the end albeit with a few guesses. I did enjoy it very much especially 1a once I twigged.

    Many thanks to Twmbarlwm and 2kiwis for the hints.

    I hope all commenters in Florida stay safe

38. Couldn’t finish this last night, due to wasting so much time trying to make crawling or creeping work for 1a.
    Thanks 2Ks for putting me right this morning.
    I can’t stop wondering if our master of brevity might have clued 2d as “Problem paper”

    1. Or “Problem broadcast” or “Problem outcome” or “Problem discharge” or “Problem children” etc. Most clues have potential to be made shorter, but that doesn’t mean they have to be. We all have different styles that some solvers like more than others.
       Would you have objected if Ray T had written 2d exactly the same as in this puzzle?

       1. I’m not really a fan of double definitions as there’s nowt to work with. Therefore they are a tad dull, i.e you just rattle off some synonyms until you come across the right one. I don’t mind them if the surface is a pearler but it has to be that good for me to enjoy it.

          Some people love lots of short clues. But, I don’t because it means there are fewer blind alleys to walk down which is a big part of my enjoyment when solving one of these bad boys……”Ah ha! You didn’t get me this time, setter.”…..or….”Rats! I fell for it.”

          RayT is a truly tremendous setter, he really is, and is always at the top of his game. But, he’s not my favourite for the above reasons. I’m a huge fan of lego clues which he rarely uses. 13a in today’s (Thursday’s) is an exception.

          1. Ray T is a brilliant setter, obviously more experienced than I am. My point was that it’s a bit off to speculate in the comments as to how a favourite setter would have written another setter’s clue.
             Still waiting to see if RD @15 has changed his mind on the anagram indicator. 😀

             1. ‘On the rocks’ is perfectly acceptable, in my view. I was very surprised he questioned it. Don’t worry that he hasn’t come back to you. It doesn’t necessarily mean he still disagrees.

                Your chat with cavedeli gave me a chance to give air my views on double definitions, my most disliked technique by miles.

                Very enjoyable crossword, btw. I love that you push the envelope. It’s to be embraced.

                1. Thanks. I do like a good double definition but they can certainly be tough for the solver, if not a combination that’s been used before.

                   1. Agreed.

                      Very limiting.

39. 4*/3* ….
    liked 18A “One’s first wife wearing wig and leather (7)”

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