Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3297 (Hints)
Hints and tips by Senf
A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg for the last Sunday Puzzle of the year!
A quick reflection on 4d in DT 30806 – Magazine published after interval (4,3). There was some discussion on which magazine the setter was referring to so I decided to go to The Source which required a long and arduous (electronic) journey to somewhere in darkest Southern England. Fortunately The Source was quite friendly and this is part of the information received in response to my query – ‘. . . the definition was the listings magazine, not the more famous glossy publication . . . with the wordplay consisting of separate synonyms for “time” and “out” . . .’
For me, and I stress for me, and after, once again, feeding my brain with a little over three quarters of a pint of Arthur Guinness’s finest, Dada was friendly but not as friendly as in the last couple of weeks. Four long ‘uns, a few guesses, six anagrams (three partials), one lurker, and one homophone all in a symmetric 28 clues; with 14 hints ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid you should be able to get the checkers to enable the solving of the unhinted clues. And, remember, the Naughty Step is OPEN!
Candidates for favourite – 11a, 12a, 23, 24a, 4d, and 26d.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, a number of the more difficult clues have been selected and hints provided for them.
Don’t forget to follow the instructions in RED at the bottom of the hints!
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.
Some hints follow:
Across
1a Lovely skill of fielder on view (3-8)
One of the skills required of a crickety fielder (not letting the ball touch the ground?) placed after (on) a verbal synonym of view.
12a Ram I fed to god (5)
I from the clue inserted into (fed to) a (Greek) god.
19a Tongue in booze, by the sound of it? (6)
The homophone (by the sound of it) of a synonym or type of booze.
20a PM, one formulating plan on time (8)
A term for someone formulating a plan placed after (on – again) the single letter for Time.
23a Pasty, sensation scoffed by you and I (5)
This is dependent on the pronunciation of pasty, not the food item as I pronounce it – a (nounal?) synonym of sensation contained (scoffed) by the plural pronoun that is the combination of you and I.
27a Caption or lines misspelt – as The Guardian? (2,4,8)
Nothing to do with the newspaper – an anagram (misspelt) of CAPTION OR LINES.
28a Coppers in minute put on new uniform? (5,6)
Another pronunciation dependency – a synonym of minute (as in size) and a single word for put on new uniform (or any set of clothes).
Down
2d Formal sign-off terribly serious with NYC bank (5,9)
An anagram (terribly) of SERIOUS and (with) NYC followed by a synonym of bank (as in depend on).
4d Old king I entered in test, educational session (8)
Neither of the single letters for King (those come in 22a) – the abbreviated form of an old (Egyptian) king, followed by I from the clue (inserted into) in one of our favourite types of test.
5d Gas fire fixed for farm animal (6)
Guess a (noble) gas and place its chemical symbol before an anagram (fixed) of FIRE.
7d Nicer PC, when aggravated, attacking lover (6,8)
An anagram (when aggravated) of NICER PC followed by a synonym of attacking – I wonder if Dada likes Pantomimes?
10d Play your way? (2,3,4,2)
A double definition – the first is an old Bill Shakes production.
18d Their rock almost breaking in wind (8)
An anagram (breaking) of THEIR ROCk with the last letter removed (almost) – probably straight out of Dada’s personal thesaurus.
26d Old Peruvian driving endlessly? (4)
A (2,3) term for driving(?) with the last letter removed (endlessly).
Quick Crossword Pun:
HEAD + WOOD + LEER = EDWARD LEAR
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Singer and radio and television presenter Aled Jones is celebrating his fifty-fourth birthday today. He became well known as a teenage chorister having joined the choir of Bangor Cathedral at age nine, becoming lead soloist within two years, and his singing career developed from there. Here he is, with choral support, singing Ar Hyd y Nos (All Through The Night) on BBC’s Songs of Praise in 2002:
As Senf says not quite as easy as the previous two Sundays, but a very reasonable and enjoyable crossword. I am not sure I fully get the parsing of 14d, but that is probably just me missing something. My favourites for today are 1a and 4d. Thanks to the setter and Senf.
At the risk of the naughty step its an informal name of a note used as currency. Part of the construction is one of the common crossword religious ministers written backwards.
Horses for courses as usual; I found this more straightforward than most Sunday Prize Guzzles and very enjoyable it was too. I reeally liked the ccleverly worded 27a, the 10d play nd the 9a zspace cadet. Thanks ro the co piler and to Senf for the hints
Got it, thanks.
Hi Senf,
Thanks for the hints, a nice Sunday puzzle.
The only clue that I could not parse was 12a, so thanks for that.
I’m a rare visitor to the DT, an I have to say, I hate the DT app. Is there another way of doing the crosswords.
Thanks to Dada, I don’t do his puzzles in the Guardian as they are too obscure.
Hi Hoofs – good to see you popping into the site again. You do eventually get used to the DT puzzles app but agree that it’s not a patch on the Graun. Am hoping that your boys will play ball this afternoon so that we can climb away from the nether reaches of the Championship – I was so upset with Lampard’s appointment & the Robins sacking that I stuck a few quid on relegation
Yes, it will be interesting to see who we get to replace Harris. Lampard has done ok, but the sacking of Robins did seem odd.
Nice to be back for a bit.
I don’t use the app either, but I find the website quite usable.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/puzzles
2*/3*. A pleasantly untaxing solve, which was most welcome after the excesses of food and drink over the past few days.
Many thanks to Dada and to Senf.
Way too difficult for me I’m afraid. I love Dadas puzzles but this was just off the scale. The only clue for me was 10d, most made very little sense even when you did get the answer. Couldn’t get much help from the hints either I’m sorry to say.
*****/**
Thx to all
This took a bit of teasing out on an interesting grid.
I always find five letter answers tricky when the checkers are the second and fourth letters. But, these didn’t trouble me too much other than 14d, my LOI.
My podium is 1a, 12a and 10d.
Many thanks to Dada and Senf.
3*/3*
Last in was 14d, and then only with slowcoach’s hint, as I’m not musical at all, I was convinced it was some obscure term that I didn’t know, great misdirection though.
Enjoyable. Not sure clue to 8d word very well. 14d my fav
A good variety of types of clue made this an enjoyable Sunday morning challenge.
Favourites for me were the 27a Guardian and the 5d gas fire.
Agree with disappointing Tom about the five letter answers where the only checkers are the second and fourth. My LOI was one of those. It needed a bit of Googling to confirm that my initial suspicion was correct.
Thanks to Dada and to Senf who I trust is able to get plenty of Arthur Guinness’s finest which is in short supply in the UK.
An enjoyable puzzle – thanks to Dada and Senf.
I was held up in the SW by originally writing in the wrong first word for 28a.
My rostrum has on it 1a, 23a and 10d.
Pleasantly undemanding. 1&27a the two that stood out for me.
Thanks to D&S
For me, and I stress for me (™ Senf), this was a tricky blighter. As often on a Sunday, I came to a dead halt and required Senf’s help to get me going again.
It was very difficult to cram ‘Paddington’ into four spaces but somehow I managed it by writing in tiny letters. This meant that ‘Alan Rusbridger’s Legacy’ had to be incorrect for 27a, but I made up for it by squeezing ‘Larks’ Tongues in Aspic’ into the six spaces of 19a; so quite satisfying in the end.
Thanks to Da-Doo-Ron-Ron for the challenge and to the splendid Man From Manitoba.
Rather enjoyed this with the possible exception of 18d which went in simply because it couldn’t be anything else. Top clues for me were 1&27a plus 10&14d.
Thanks to Dada and to Senf for the hints and music – Aled seems to be one of the few boy sopranos who went on to enjoy a singing career even after his voice ‘broke’.
Well, I do have a completed grid, but whether it’s totally correct, I will have to wait for the review to see as some of the parsings are eluding me. Somewhat trickier from Dada than of late I felt. An enjoyable challenge. Apropos 10d, I can thoroughly recommend Dame Judy Dench’s book “Shakespeare, The Man That Pays The Rent”. Her insights on playing the Bard are fascinating. Haven’t been able to put it down. My podium is 10d, 1a and 18d. Thanks to Dada and Senf
Unusually for me, on a Sunday, this went remarkably smoothly and has confirmed my brain was simply addled for the past few days rather than completely gone! I enjoyed all of it, particularly the anagrams, partial or otherwise and I just seemed to be on wavelength from the off.
Many thanks to Dada and to Senf for the hints.
Dada again this week at the easier end of his spectrum, I thought, with a couple of quirky offerings thrown in, but his thesaurus left undusted this week.
1.5*/4* for me
Favourites 1a, 23a, 5d, 10d, 18d & 21d — with winner 10d & 23a a close followup.
Thanks to Dada & Senf for blog/hints
My first go this morning proved to be heavy going with limited success but a return to it a couple of hours later provided a smooth and enjoyable ride. SE slowest corner. 22a was a bung-in because it had to be as was case for 18d which I still don’t really get. Thank you to the Dada/Senf team for more great teamwork.
Hi AV
Wind, in this case, means flattery or hot air which are synonyms of the answer.
I imagined so but IMHO it’s a rather flimsy synonym.
2*/3*
Dada fairly benign. 27a LOI and my favourite today. I felt 18d a clever clue and 9a completes the podium.
Thanks to Dada and Senf.
I found this toward the trickier end of Dada’s scale, saved by being more friendly than yesterday’s puzzle. After getting just four answers at first pass, I held out little hope of finishing but perseverance and checkers paid off. But I would not have finished without Senf’s help. Cannot see what 18d has to do with wind? Thanks to Dada and to Senf.
I agree with you BL re 18d as per my comment in 16a above but tds65 makes a case for it in his reply to me.
I made a hash of Dada’s offering mainly because I had to take our daughter to Manchester Airport. No problems with either the road or the flight and she is now over Bulgaria. When I got home, I found she had left her boots! I’m not posting them – it would be cheaper to buy a new pair.
As for the guzzle, as I said, I struggled with it. However, there were some amusing answers. 19a reminded me of a rather rude joke, which I will not repeat here. My COTD for the simple reason I liked it is 22a.
Thank you, Dada. I’m sorry I could not do it justice but there is always next week. Thank you, Mr. Mustard for the hints and Mr. Jones. A work colleague’s best friend married him.
A little late on parade today having been entertaining family most of the weekend. I am certainly pleased to have got round to it though as it was a real delight, fairly straightforward yet with enough head-scratching to push out the solving time a tad. As for a favourite, I need look no further than 18d.
Many thanks to Dada for the fun and to Senf.
Good evening
I couldn’t have finished this without the hints, that’s for sure. I was convinced that the letters U and S were required in 23a; I had to look up the god in 12a; and my last to fall (18d) just wouldn’t reveal itself until the very end – I mean, I knew it was an anagram, but it just wouldn’t!! Put it down to post-Christmas torpor!
Many thanks to Dada and to Senf.
Best crossword of the Christmas week for me, thanks Dada.
And many thanks to Senf for this and all your others contributions through the year. Much appreciated.
A steady and enjoyable solve for me today. Nicely challenging without being overly so. Thanks to Dada and Senf.
Been out all day and just completed the guzzle in bed. Great end to a lovely day out with DD1. I particularly liked 27a (we are getting quite a bit of, how can I say it and avoid the naughty step?, classical influence) and 2&10d. Super guzzle, thanks to clever Setter & Senf. And so to sleep.
First one in was 25 down and last was 14 down. Thanks to setter and hinter.
We made a good start but divided an answer in wrong place which set us back.
Enjoyable and eventually solved. Chocolate needed now as reward for being persistent!
Have a brilliant 2025. Gary and Val.
And the very best for 2025 to you both. 😊
Relatively straightforward for Dada.
I discovered I hadn’t done this puzzle on Sunday, so did it now. It went in more easily than Dada’s puzzles sometimes do for me — thank you to him. My favourite was 22a’s We Three Kings.
And thank you to Senf for unravelling 4d for me: I’d found a different test around the answer, and having fixed on that, prevented myself from working out the rest of it.
3*/4* …
liked 9A “Ace in space ? (3,2,4,5)”