Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30809 (Hints)
The Saturday Crossword Club (hosted by crypticsue)
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Another Saturday Prize Puzzle which has to be the work of the NY Doorknob, not least because of the long, across the grid, anagrams – one of which has definitely left me with an ear worm!
Please ask for help if you are stuck on clues I haven’t hinted, but before doing so, please read the comments that appear before yours, so that you are not duplicating questions, and make sure you obey both the instructions in red at the end of the Hints and the blog’s Comment Etiquette – Big Dave’s Crossword Blog)
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 Drink picked up for Scandinavian (4)
A homophone (picked up) of a verb meaning to drink gives us someone from part of a country which is considered to be more Nordic than Scandinavian (I checked because I knew someone was bound to comment on it!)
10a Moved to palace that houses King and Queen (9)
An anagram (moved) of TO PALACE into which is inserted (that houses) the Latin abbreviation for King
13a Whose words may lead to action? (9)
The action being a legal one
19a, 24a, 3a and 20a Line in 28 12 disrupted again? How to hear yodelling? All shh! (4,2,1,4,3,1,6,8) An anagram (disrupted) of AGAIN HOW TO HEAR YODELLING ALL SHH – had I not been providing the hints and so felt obliged to check, I would probably have just assumed that this anagram worked and carried on singing!
22a Wrong to stop assistant turning to reload (9)
A reversal (turning) of a moral offence (wrong) inserted into (to stop) an assistant
28a/12a Film spoils much fun, so it does (3,5,2,5)
An anagram (spoils) of MUCH FUN SO IT DOES
29a Winger losing front part of foot (4)
A type of bird (winger) losing its ‘front’ letter
Down
1d Substitute‘s back pass? Let me think (5)
A reversal (back) of a mountain pass and an interjection expressing hesitation or doubt
2d Media silence about northern recruiters? (5,4)
Newspapers and periodicals collectively (media) and a verb meaning to silence into which is inserted the abbreviation for Northern
6d Beyond silly covering banker’s last debt (9)
An informal way of saying beyond silly ‘covering’ the last letter of bankeR
7d Leader in Aerosmith quits festival compound (5)
Nothing to do with the hard rock band, the ‘leader’ in Aerosmith quits or leaves a religious festival
15d Couple protest about 101 bound by the dozen? (9)
A couple and an abbreviated protest, the latter going ‘about’ the Roman numerals for 101
17d The German Renaissance painter – one to advise more greens? (9)
The German feminine definite article and a Renaissance painter
25d Cold fish served up with hot worm (5)
A reversal (served up) of the abbreviation for Cold and a type of fish, followed by the abbreviation for Hot
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!
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The Quick Crossword pun: TEMPER+ HAIRY = TEMPORARY
I leaned a bit about book binding, 13a took the longest as several erroneous bung ins had to go as checkers came in. I was able to skip over the long anagrams without checking, but thank Sue for her devotion to the blog. Thanks to NYDK for the earworm and an entertaining puzzle
Yes, I was going to comment on 1a, but then again, also from Scandinavia as well as Finland. Thanks to the setter for a much easier solve than the two previous ones, and to crypticsue for the hints. My two choices for COTD: 17d and 13a.
I hadn’t realised there was a difference myself – anything north and west of a line from The Kiel Canal to St Petersburg is all Scandiwegian to me (but I only got a B in geography)
Hi Sloops
The Scandi countries are kingdoms as opposed to Finland that’s a republic.
I hear this boo-boo all the time.
Wow! That was tough! Well, it was for me. I really don’t like 8 word answers spread over four numbered clues. My heart sinks when I see them. I have not heard of 15d and I suspect may end up on The List if Terence and the committee have not heard of it either. Very much the egg of the curate that has left me with a bamboozled brain. I did like 1d and that is my COTD.
Thank you, NYDK for the mangling. Thank you, See Ess for the hints.
I knew of the film, but not the “line”.
I had 29a wrong, as I had the wrong winger in my mind and also the wrong type of foot… that had a knock on effect with 17d… say no more!
Thanks to NYDK and CS.
NYDK entertainingly on the border of head scratching territory. I got the film quite easily but it took a while to get the line and that only occurred with a PDM on its last word after correcting the debt. ***/****
Candidates for favourite – 29a, 1d, and 17d – and the winner is 1d.
Thanks to NYDK and CS.
My thoughts on the film in question are unprintable. Suffice to say it wouldn’t make my top ten. Once that anagram fell, the other, with a few checkers slotted into place. There are a couple of answers where I’m uncertain on the parsing so will look at the review mid week. A top notch NYDK production as ever. Thanks to him and CS.
I think Christopher Plummer shared your thoughts, particularly the snotty nosed kids he was working with
3*/3*. The SW corner took me up to my 3* time although the difficulty there was partly self-inflicted by writing in one of the crossing letters for 22a so badly that I was reading it as a different letter! 🙄
Many thanks presumably to NYDK and to CS.
Bu*g*r. Messed up my chance of the mythical by mis-spelling 17D. That’s what happens when you bung an answer in without carefully checking the parsing.
I also hate these multi-word answers spread all over the grid. Doing the puzzle on my tablet instead of killing trees, means I can’t mark the grid up to suit the word lengths. 15D is definitely a LIST candidate.
I’ll stop moaning now! Thanks to the compiler and CS for the hints.
The multi word answers spread over acnumber of clues are not my cup of tea kther than that it was an ok guzzle. I liked the 7d scientific clue and the 10a queen. Thanks to the compiler and to CS for the hints.
Welcome 15d to THE LIST. The committee took five seconds to decide to elect you with immediate effect. You will be housed in the new extension as the main gallery is now full.
We returned from the Cotswolds after a lovely break. The best day to explore Bourton-on-the-Water, Broadway, and the rest is on Christmas Day as it is the only day in the year when they are not bursting with tourists. We also squeezed in Stow-on-the-Wold, Moreton-in-the-Marsh, and Snowshill, all in three hours, including a stop in Stow-on-the-Wold for a quick drink in a splendid old inn. Impossible any other day. (*Bonus – found a shop named after H)
Thanks to the setter and huge thanks to Super Sue for all her splendid hints and good humour throughout the year.
Terence! I felt sure you would have done Latin at school ! All that extra work building a new gallery …
Stow on the Wild inn. That wasn’t by any chance The Queens Head in the main square?
I’m another in the club for not being keen on the long solutions being spread about the grid. I usually try to leave them to towards the end but bit the bullet today and got them earlier.
Some loud penny drop moments and 15d was a new word for me and an excellent addition to The List.
Top picks for me were 13a, 29a, 6d and 7d.
Thanks to CrypticSue and NYDK.
That was a puzzle of two halves – half of the clues were pretty much a write-in, the rest a bit of a brain-mangler. I also managed to misread my terrible handwriting for one of checkers for 22a, making it much harder than it should have been.
Favourites were 10a, 2d, and 6d.
Thanks to the setter and to CS.
Made it to the end. Found a lot of clues a challenge and never heard of the film
Tough today and electronic assistance needed for the line but not the film, to check 15d, 5d and 16a.
I also made the same mistake as Jezza with 29a which made 17d and then 29a a difficult pair to solve.
So i will go 5* for difficulty and 2* for enjoyment – just not my cuppa today.
Thanks to Sue and NYDK.
Well, from my POV, NYDK has excelled himself with his two multiple word clues this week. I got the shorter one fairly quickly into the puzzle. The second one took a while longer, but as I kept reading it and the reference in it to the one I had solved, it suddenly fell into place with ruddy great THUD!. Great piece of work I thought!!
Favourites with no doubt were those two clues.
I did like 10a, 13a, 27a & 18d too.
Thanks to NYDK & CS for hints/blog
Well I thought this was huge fun although I would normally agree with the compound word clues being a pain. Who would ever have thought that phrase could be seamlessly fitted into a guzzle! Genius. I thought 7d was a more likely contender for The List but then I am more of an arty type and had to look it up. I propose 29a for Clue of the Day for its misdirection but am still chuckling at 19 etc. I shall await another pen, although the first part of 3a could go two ways 🤔. Many thanks to NYDJ and the inimitable Seesue.
Oh dear I suppose I am being a bit of a stick-in-the-mud because I do find it really annoying to have to dodge hither and thither before even coming up with a framework for the solution. It almost seems like the setters are on ego trips to upstage one another with the most tortuous clues. I saw 28/12 in its original form not as a film but I didn’t recall the words of the song. Not much fun for me today but I guess it’s a case of chacun à son goût so doubtless other people enjoyed it. Thank you NYDk and CS.
What a gift of a puzzle. Have been out of the loop whilst visiting and it was a great welcome back as was yesterday’s puzzle. I started that at midnight. Just shows how much we can miss our crosswords. Favourite was 17 d. and I knew 15 d. because I banished my first boyfriend for 12 days whilst I had exams. He was so lovely that I knew he would have been just too much of a distraction. Many thanks to Sue and NYDJ although I have no idea to whom the letters stand for.
NYDK N(ew) Y(ork) Doorknob – an anagram of Donnybrook, our Prize Puzzle setter’s alter ego for the Telegraph Toughie
I call him NYDJ as that is a brand of American jeans I particularly like! (Other brands are available 🤭)
My ability to solve this fun puzzle was not enhanced by watching Bath demolish Saracens on tv at the same time. It may have taken a while to complete, but I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge, with the multiple clues my favourites.
Many thanks to Donny and Sue.
This was tremendous fun.
I roared when I saw a 29 letter dooberry, especially as it’s from such an iconic film.
This, plus Oliver and Grease are my top three musicals though Albert Finney’s sublime Scrooge is snapping at their heels. How Ron Moody as Fagin didn’t win an Oscar is beyond me.
I too fell for 29a – what an excellent trap and 13a also took me a while to get.
15d was fine with me, having studied the dead language many moons ago though I understand why it’s on The List.
So many to choose from but I’ll go with 10a, 2d, and 6d.
Many thanks to New Yoiker and she of the crypt.
2*/5*
Today is the first day I have been able to return to a puzzle and do it justice and I really enjoyed cracking this one. 15d was new to me and needed the hint for confirmation but I managed the rest unaided. After the first third I thought I would be defeated as the second multiworder took a while to fall, once it did the rest came together nicely.
Many thanks to NYDK and to CS for the hints.
I am not sure I fully get 21d 😐
Hi PG
A basic word for mammoth, inverted (upset), is followed by the abbreviation for ‘book’ and ‘about’.
Thank You
My heart sunk when I saw the linked compound clues, is this the wave of the future? Not a fan of these in the least and think I will just avoid any more puzzles that include these. Two linked I can tolerate, but 4 is pushing it. I have thought for sometime that the Saturday prize puzzle seemed to always be on the gentle side but someone at the DT seems to have corrected this which is fine, but not my idea of enjoyment on a weekend morning. Here’s hoping Dada is friendly again tomorrow. Thanks to the clearly very smart CS for being able to unravel this.
Thought I was fairly word perfect on the song in question but, when it came to writing it out, I dithered and waited for a few checkers to drop into place. Elsewhere, I needed to ask Mr G about 15d and am pleased to see that the committee have placed it on THE LIST and housed it in the new extension.
Clues that appealed here were 29a plus 6&17d.
Thanks to NYDK and to CS for the review and the painstaking check on the anagram fodder for the almighty 3a etc.
Once the film fell, the line was obvious from the breakdown of the letters which made things easier.
15d needed a bit of a head scratch, but apart from that nothing too obscure.
Nice to be back doing the DT for a change.
Oops, thanks to both too…
Welcome back, Hoofs! 👍😊
I completed this on my iPhone coming home from Aldeburgh. Very tricky to solve these long linked clues on an iPhone or tablet as you can only see a small portion of each clue. Don’t see why 15d should go on THE LIST. I’d not heard of it but it was very fairly clued. Picked up 30 just baked Noon tarts, 12 huge smoked prawns, 4 smoked trout and spinach tarts and 2 large prices of smoked eel. Apart from 20 of the Noon, all for me, yummy.😋 Thanks to all and see you tomorrow.
Solved on the journey down from Glasgow. A raucous & not particularly tuneful rendition of 19/24/3/20a by all accompanied the solve & 👍 for the latest inclusion to THE LIST.
Thanks to Donny for a fun SPP & to Sue
Hello. I’ve completed all except 5d, which seems to be lacking enumeration. Please could somebody who’s solved say if it’s a single 6-letter word or something else? Thanks.
It’s a single 6-letter word.
Thank you for such a speedy response — I’ll keep thinking!
Not particularly cryptic, but where did Noah end up?
Thank you. I was only asking about the missing enumeration, but it turns out I hadn’t retained that knowledge and wouldn’t’ve got the answer by myself. Though I do have a slightly related anecdote (but sufficiently slightly as not to worry the naughty step):
At some point in my childhood, our church switched to a new service book. In the first service with it, I was reading ahead and vexed by a part that said “We all exchange a sign of peace.” Now I knew what the sign of peace was, because we’d learnt about Noah’s ark in Sunday school, so I tugged on my dad’s jumper next to me and pointed at the text in question, then asked with great concern what we should do, because we hadn’t brought any doves with us.
Hi Smylers, I hadn’t noticed the lack of enumeration in 5d! But I think you can assume a 6-letter word, but I haven’t the foggiest idea how it can be described as a cryptic clue. Anybody any idea?
Thanks to the setter for the workout and to C Sue for the blog.
Hi Saint W
This is where his transport ended up after the natural phenomenon. This place is, by definition, high and dry as it’s way above the water level.
As you know, ‘high and dry’ means up the swanny or, in his case, the swannies.
Elevated to Saint hood! Whatever next?
Yes, I realise that but, as CSue agrees, it is hardly cryptic … more GK.
And CS I solved at 18:30 that’s why it was so long😎
When I solved this clue at about 930 this morning, I knew someone would agree with my thought about the clue not being particularly cryptic – I’m just surprised how many hours elapsed before someone did so
NYDK has used ‘high and dry’ as an expression’ to explain the awkward situation he’s in because this mode of transport is now redundant due to its location that is not low and wet.
So, it’s certainly not a straight definition.
I do like the clue as it’s neat though, admittedly, not too taxing.
Another Saturday I should have left well alone. I have never seen the film (and never will), so the 29 letter anagram was impossible. I was struggling with many clues on the East side as it was, but even with all the checkers this would still be beyond me. Has everyone here really had to suffer this film? The Internet came to my rescue.
5d was also beyond me. I did know 15d though.
Pleased to have solved as much as I did, but still a frustrating solve.
Thanks to all.
Made hard work of the 19a combo until I had all the checkers, then it couldn’t be anything else. Unfamiliar with 15d but did know a similar word with a different ending meaning 12 and it was fairly clued. Curiously 13a was my first in. Generally on the tricky side. LOI was 22a. Favourite was 18d. Thanks to NYD and CS.
With consecutive days of Donnybrook–Prime–Twmbarlwm–Zandio–Donnybrook, this has been my favourite crosswording week I can remember — it’s like Christmas! (And thank you also to whoever scheduled them on different days to each other: if 2 setters I’m particularly a fan of crop up on the same day, I often don’t have time to do both of their puzzles …)
Thank you NYDK for today’s puzzle, where the construction of 22a made it my favourite — though I’m intrigued that 2 separate commenters above mentioned their own handwriting affecting their solving of this particular clue! Maybe once the full solution is published, you could let us know whether it was the same letter for each of you?
For 19a, etc I got the last 3 words straight away, but it took a lot of crossing letters and then bothering to see what was left in the anagram fodder to get the first 5 words sorted.
Thank you to CrypticSue and others for help above.
Sorry not for me. I’ m normally a fan of NYDK but I thought having an 8 word solution over four slots linked to a four word solution covering two slots is plain daft and certainly irritating for a solver.
I did persevere and got there in the end with the necessary checkers finally dropping in, but got little satisfaction from the solve.
Thanks CS for the blog and NYDK for the effort. Sorry I’m not more appreciative.
Fairly simple for me today helped by knowing the film that was the subject of the joined up clues. These filled up a considerable amount of the grid. I’m not normally fan of these but I must nominate 19a etc as my COTD simply for the ingenuity of the anagram!
Thoroughly agree
Could only echo Busy Lizzie re linked clues but got to the end unscathed.
Anyone yet to tackle this will find an “aide memoire” has just started on the telly