Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30888
Hints and tips by Smylers
Morning, and happy Smothering Monday to any Spoonerism fans celebrating. I found today’s crossword harder than any recent Monday backpagers I can remember, managing only 3 across clues on my first pass (though I did better on the downs). However, a lot of my hold-ups were being unable to work out anagrams; those are often the clue type I find hardest but are many solvers’ first answers in, so I’m guessing many of you will find it easier than I did. If you’re also one of the anagram-averse, maybe add another difficulty star.
Hints and explanations for each clue are below, with the definitions of each underlined and the answers hidden behind the woo-ooo woo-ooo-ooo blobs. Do leave a comment sharing how you found it, which clues you particularly liked, if any of my explanations aren’t helpful enough, or if it isn’t clear what a picture or video has to do with the clue it’s supposedly illustrating.
And note that a clue having a long explanation below doesn’t indicate that the clue is problematic. I’ve got a hinting style that was generously described as “chatty”, and sometimes include asides or other barely-relevant details.
Across
1a Photographers’ models? These should be easy to take (7)
SITTERS: This is the plural of somebody who poses for a photographer (in a particular position), or a slang term in some sports for a catch or shot that’s so easy the player should definitely be able to take it.
Pic credit: Anthony Duran
5a Refusing to submit French article due on 3rd of Feb (7)
UNBOWED: The answer starts with a grammatical article in French, but we don’t yet know whether it’s masculine or femenine and singular or plural, so maybe leave that for now. After that goes the 3rd letter of ‘Feb’, then a word meaning ‘due’, as in a sum of money. The verb tenses aren’t entirely straightforward here: both the a debt that is due now and the answer could be verbs in the present, but to make them fit the grid they need to be adjectival forms (which look like past-tense verbs).
9a Ill-mannered, rude Finn excitedly swallowing ecstasy (9)
UNREFINED: Excite the rude Finn by jiggling their letters around, and put the slang term for the drug ecstasy inside them.
10a Plant material from this is alcoholic (5)
SISAL: From the final few words in the clue take some consecutive letters to spell out the answer.
11a Sort of bag with masculine emblem (5)
TOTEM: Follow a type of bag with the gramatical abbreviation indicating ‘masculine’.
12a Leader of Presbyterians getting as far as giving moral advice (9)
PREACHING: Start with the lead letter of everybody’s favourite anagram of Britney Spears. The rest is a transitive verb which indicates having got as far as its object.
13a Criminal case: crooked Poles supplying meat products (9)
ESCALOPES: Put the letters of ‘case’ in a criminal order and then the letters of ‘Poles’ in a crooked order. The two parts don’t get mixed together, so this is easier than a single anagram of ‘case Poles’.
16a Republican in Roman dress backing common speech (5)
ARGOT: Think of what a stereotypical Roman dressed in, turn it backwards, and insert the single-letter abbreviation for the Republican party.
17a Maybe chickpea or beet, might you say? (5)
PULSE: Say “beet” out loud and it sounds like another word. We want a synonym for that other word which is also a homonym for something that a chickpea is an example of.
18a Fantastic PR created – on this? (3,6)
RED CARPET: The definition refers back to the rest of the clue — it’s a place where somebody might get some good public relations. It’s also a fantastic arrangement of the letters of ‘PR created’.
20a Not stopping to grab book that’s reserved (9)
UNBENDING: A word meaning ‘not stopping’ (in the sense of never finishing) grabs the single-letter abbreviation for ‘book’. The definition is ‘reserved’ in the sense of having formal attitudes.
23a Insult a means of transport (electronic) (5)
ABUSE: Enter in order: the ‘a’ from the clue; a form of public transport; the letter used to indicate ‘electronic’.
25a An orb I possess? What rot! (2,3)
MY EYE: The orb here is a part of the body. Most people have two of them, but for this clue we’re only concerned with one. If it were your own orb you were describing, you could refer to it as the answer, which is an interjection used to dismiss something as nonnsense. It’s described by dictionaries variously as ‘informal, dated’ and ‘now somewhat archaic’.
26a Clive performing with suit and an old book? (9)
LEVITICUS: Make the letters of ‘Clive’ and ‘suit’ perform for you until they spell out the answer, which is a book of the Old Testament. Normally cryptic crossword clues only include articles when they are part of the wordplay, so I was surprised to see the ‘an’ here.
27a E Street, when playing, rocks! (7)
TEETERS: Play with the letters of ‘E Street’. The answer is a verb meaning ‘wobbles’.
28a One in theatre to rush off? Quite the opposite (7)
SURGEON: This is somebody found in a particular type of theatre. After a word meaning a rush we need the opposite of ‘off’.
Down
1d Fuel container in sink (7)
SCUTTLE: The answer is both a noun for a container for a specific sort of fuel and a verb meaning to deliberately sink your own ship.
Pic credit: Taylor Flowe
2d Nothing in pie – could this have predicted it? (5)
TAROT: Put the letter that looks like the digit that indicates nothing into a pastry dish that isn’t really a pie unless somebody puts a lid on it.
Pic credit: Nathan Lemon
You can decide whether this picture works best for the clue above or the one below:
3d At home, pepare lime flan with last of wine (2,7)
EN FAMILLE: Pesumably the third word here is missing a letter, so let’s all petend that it’s there. Use it as an anagram indicator to rearrange ‘lime flan’ and the last letter of ‘wine’. The answer is a foreign phrase used to indicate the members of a household being together.
4d Dawn‘s turned up jokes about university (5)
SUN-UP: This is one of those clues where I hesitantly obey what the wordplay appears to be saying, not sure that it will result in a word, then am surprised when the answer appears. Though in this case it was partly because I wasn’t familiar with the word, which is really two words jammed together: the Chambers has a hyphen in there (though it’s one word in The OED). Think of a type of joke. Pluralize it, then wrap it around an abbreviation for ‘university’. Given we’ve only got 5 letters to play with in total, you can guess there isn’t room to fit even ‘uni’ in there, so it has to be the single-letter abbreviation that I’ve only encountered in the context of American universities. Which is apt, because the answer is also labelled as ‘US’ in Chambers.
5d Not fit to appear in public, like salad without mayo? (9)
UNDRESSED: A description which if applied to a person would make them not appropriate to be seen in public and which can also be used to describe a salad without mayo or similar on it.
6d Refurbished cab is somewhat spartan (5)
BASIC: Refurbish the subsequent two words by putting their letters in a different order.
7d Dirty dishes arriving on a beach? (7-2)
WASHING-UP: This could be a noun describing a pile of dirty dishes after a meal, or a verb describing the process of how jetsam, say, might arrive on a beach.
8d Amusement as daughter hit leg clumsily (7)
DELIGHT: Start with the abbreviation for ‘daughter’, then get clumsy with the letters of ‘hit leg’.
14d Cook a crab, eels and some broccoli (9)
CALABRESE: This is a type of broccoli I hadn’t heard of. Cook the letters of ‘a crab, eels’ until you get something pronounceable, possibly waiting till you have all the crossing letters if your vegetable knowledge is as limited as mine.
15d Piece – slice chopped up in tiny portions (9)
PARTICLES: Start with another word for a piece (an actual word for component of something for once, not a chess piece or a gun) and follow that with ‘slice’ chopped up and rearranged.
16d A research facility with plant to make a type of gypsum (9)
ALABASTER: Enter in order: the ‘A’ from the clue; a name for the facility where scientists might conduct research; a flowering plant.
17d Purple fruit gathered in fall (7)
PLUMMET: Think of a fruit that’s often purple (though I ate a red one yesterday, and other colours are available). Follow that with a verb meaning ‘gathered’, as in a group of people.
19d The motive in Yorkshire for betrayal (7)
TREASON: Think of a synonym for ‘motive’, then say it out loud preceded by ‘the’ in the stereotypical Yorkshire way of speaking. Though in practice I think for somebody with this accent, the ‘the’ would end up being swallowed up as a kind of gulp rather than sounding like this answer.
21d Relative scrupulous about end of marriage (5)
NIECE: List various 5-letter relatives until you come up with one that has the end letter of ‘marriage’ somewhere in the middle of it. Observe that the remaining letters spell out a word which could mean ‘scrupulous’.
22d Presents from soldiers, including coat from Versace (5)
GIVES: The definition here is a cunningly disguised verb. We want one of the usual abbreviations for soldiers (in the plural), then include in it the letters that are coating the outside of ‘Versace’.
24d Article dropped by corrupt pawnbroker (5)
UNCLE: I’d forgotten this slang term for a pawnbroker until I had all the crossing letters — possibly because it’s one dictionaries describe as ‘historical’ and ‘archaic’. We need a word for ‘corrupt’ or ‘tainted’, then for that to drop a grammatical article from it. For further details, take your pick from one or more of: which article it is an; where the article appears in the ‘corrupt’ word at the end; or a more straightforward synonym for the ‘corrupt’ word dirty.
Quickie Pun
In today’s Quick Crossword the first 3 clues are italicized, indicating that their answers when read aloud together can be made to sound like another word or phrase. 1a was unknown to me. If you want to check, here are the answers and pun:
WENS + LEAD + AIL = WENSLEYDALE
I can’t make a pun out of the bottom row, which suggests that today’s setter isn’t the same one we’ve had recently who’s been reviving Campbell’s practice of additional puns. Do comment if there’s something I’ve missed.
Tonight we’re seeing Deacon Blue at St George’s Hall in Bradford. Here’s the title track from their new album, which entered the album charts at number 3 on Friday:
The sun is shining and we have a splendid crossy to go with it. Lots of nice cluing on a very friendly grid. Marvy parvy.
I can’t believe that 4d doesn’t have a hyphen in The OED. What’s that all about???
Re 26A, here’s a way to learn the initials of the first five books of The Old Testament and therefore The Torah:
God
Exists.
Let’s *
Now *
Discuss
* As a back-up, or should that be backup, the third and fourth are alphabetical as that could be a mixup.
That should keep Brian happy.
Many thanks to the super setter and Symlers (love the Spoonerism!)
2*/4*
I forgot my pody. How remiss.
13a, 18a (excellent anagram) and 14d.
For me, and I stress for me…
Wrong day you fool! Start again!
Tricky for a Monday but I rather enjoy yer anagrams so this guzzle was welcomed into the home to join me, while I consumed my gruel and orange juice with no bits.
A bit of ye olde Bible will trouble some but let him who is without sin cast the first stone (a touch of Old Testament humour there).
There’s a 70’s hit by The Police that contains references to Scylla, Charybdis, Mephistopheles and 16d. You don’t get that with yer Sabrina Carpenter.
Thanks to the setter and The Erudite Gent From Ilkley.
The Doobie Brothers are coming over for a couple of gigs this summer – exactly at the time when I’m supposed to be in The States. Most inconvenient.
Apologies for being pedantic Terence but ‘let he who is without sin cast the first stone’ is from the NT – John 8:7.
Snap.😃 you beat me to it Senf. 🤣
Sorry Tel, just to don my pedant’s hat for a mo, 🤣🤣 but the Biblical quote is from John 8,v7, which is in the New Testament. Otherwise, a super easy puzzle today, maybe a tad anagram heavy, but perfect for a Monday, a lovely sunny one at that. Thanks to all concerned (for the puzzle, not the weather) 😃
Listen to the Music was one of my favourite songs of the Seventies!
Yeah!
It was time to unfreeze
When the Reverend Alabaster danced on his knees.
Darn it! All those RE classes gone to waste. I was probably looking out of the window and dreaming of opening the batting for England.
3*/1*. I found this puzzle disappointing. I thought it was also relatively tough for a Monday.
Apart from the typo in 3d, the answer to 4d is American. Also, although it doesn’t affect the wordplay and definition, the surface reading for 17d only works using the American meaning of “fall”.
Doubtless it appears in a thesaurus somewhere, but “scrupulous” in 21d is a stretch for me, and there were far too many anagrams for a satisfying solve.
Sorry not to be able to be more positive, but thanks anyway to the setter and to Smylers.
For 17d, I think the surface could be made to work with the same meaning of ‘fall’ as in the answer.
Also, ‘fall’ was used in England before the USA: ‘fall’, ‘autumn’, and ‘backend’ were all regional terms for the harvest season. Over time, ‘autumn’ became more popular and pushed out first ‘fall’ and then ‘backend’, but that’s hardly Americans’ fault.
In these confusing times, I consider that we can blame America for everything!
Fair enough!
Chambers disagrees with itself on 4d.
The 21st Century Dictionary on-line has enumeration of (3-2) and US.
The BRB, Revised 13th edition (also published in the 21st Century), has enumeration of (5) and no attribution.
The BRB app goes 3’2 sun’up, suffice to say it is not a word I will be using.
A few clues in the south held me up a tad and I’ve never heard of 24d being a slang term for a pawnbroker. You live and learn in crossword land. All in all a great Monday offering and, as I’m useless at spot the setter, I’ll be interested in who it might be. My podium comprises 1d, 13a and 27a. Thanks to whomsoever and Smylers.
Gentle Monday fun. I had hoped there was some cryptic point to 3d’s typo. But no. Hey, these things happen. 18a’s jolly and 1d & 17d both appealed. Many thanks to our setter and Smylers. Great Spooner there – I reckon some setter will nick that, if they haven’t already!
I missed that. I can’t remember seeing a Spooner. Perhaps the answer was obvious and therefore I didn’t need to read the whole clue.
Ha, the Spooner was from Smylers, in his intro!
Three stars for difficulty? I thought it barely warranted one.
Maybe I just got on the wavelength right away, but still quite surprised to see how quickly it went as I’ve got the worst headcold in ages, so off now to see if some fresh air will cool it at all.
Oh yes, favourites today are 1a and the lovely 19d.
I liked today’s guzzle. I too thought 4d should be hyphenated and 16a was a new word for me. I would never have come up with 21d as a synonym of scrupulous but worked it out the same way as Smylers.
Top picks for me were 1d, 24d and 15d.
Thanks to Smylers for the enjoyable blog and to the setter.
Isn’t it interesting how we find different crosswords hard or easy. I romped through this and thought it was one of the easiest Monday puzzles for months! Thanks to the setter and hinter
Me as well.
Moi aussie
Very straightforward except I know very little about broccoli (seemingly) , and uncle? Pawnbroker !
Nothing stands out but my pick is 2d perhaps because I used to have a set of these cards and sometimes their predictions were rather spookily accurate .
Thanks to all .
I had only been doing cryptics for a few weeks when I came across 27a in DT 27118 on March 6 2013 – “The Yorkshire currency is a load of bother (7)”
Once I solved that, it opened my eyes to the joy and fun that a good puzzle could provide – and I was hooked. I have very fond memories of that clue so I was delighted to discover 19d today!
With grateful thanks to the mystery setter and to Smylers for his apposite and entertaining hints.
Definitely extra chewy for a Monday which had some effect on the enjoyment – 2.5*/2.5*
Candidates for favourite – 17a, 17d, and the (only) Pun – and the winner is 17d.
Thanks to whomsoever and Smylers.
The very high number of anagrams (10 by my count including 4 in the space of 5 down clues) made this somewhat lopsided. Thanks to our setter and Smylers.
My favourite clue was 17a.
I really enjoyed this and the sun is out again. Whilst there were several that needed extra thought I liked the anagrams and the clue mix.
Many thanks to the setter and to Smylers for the hints
A good start to the week for me , and I too found this to be the easiest Monday puzzle for a long while. Horses for courses ! A new word for me was the pawnbroker word. Thanks to setter and Smylers.
Wavelength thing, clearly. I’d got more than half-way through the acrosses before my first pause, turned to the downs, got most of the way through those, returned to the acrosses and finished with the last few downs. Some nice misdirection and good surfaces throughout. Puzzle badly let down by the high number of anagrams – more than 1 in 3 clues being of the same 6d type is ridiculous – though they were fairly indicated and leapt from the page.
COTD 5a, runners-up 12a, 17a & 14d (which sounds like an interesting recipe!)
Thank you Smylers and also of course to the setter, but more variety in your clueing next time, please.
Like Suffolk Lass, I cmpletwd this so quickly it was almost a read and write. I did enjoy this guzzle too, with plenty of anagrams, some General Knowledge and a variety of clues to keep me happy. My COTD was the lego clue at 6d, remembered from my days studying geology at University. The anagram at 14d, the double definition at 1d and the biblical anagram at 26a were all great clues too. Many thanks to the compiler and to Smylers for the hints.
Can’t say that I care for this setter’s style but I guess that’s the way it goes, we can’t like them all. No particular favourite to mention but thanks to our setter for his efforts and to Smylers for the review.
Trickier than normal for a Monday and despite not having heard of 10 or 16a they were easily worked out from the clues and 14d also needed online verification but that’s probably my penchant for meat over veg!
Thanks to Smylers and setter
I thought this was a breeze and very straightforward even for a Monday. No one particular clue stood out for me, not even one of the many anagrams.
Many thanks to our setter and Smylers.
Quite the separator, this crossword! I’m with the far trickier than normal for a Monday but still at the easier end of the spectrum. No typo in 3d as printed from the website. Liked 28a and 5d. Even though I’m not from the Glorious People’s Republic, I loved 19d. Never heard of the broccoli and that put me off getting the chickpea, which otherwise would have appeared in my mind more quickly than it did I’m sure.
Thanks to the setting ands Smylers.
I thought your lack of typo might be that somebody had tweaked the website by now, but I’ve just refreshed the page and both the online interactive crossword and the printable PDF still have the typo for me.
Not that typos particularly bother me. I’m always spotting them in my own writing (including hints here).
Astonishing, like one of those scrambled pieces of writing with correct first and last letters of each word that one can still read easily! I just checked my print out and then went back to screen shot the site with no typo to post here and then … … … spotted the typo!!!!!
Ha-ha. My apologies to the setter for for drawing attention to it, then — they’d’ve got away with it for at least some solvers!
A little tougher than a normal Monday for me this week.
Couple of real zingers in the mix, but overall all worked out fine.
2.5*/3.5*
Favourites 18a, 23a, 25a, 1d, 7d & 19d — with winner 19d
Thanks to setter & Smylers
I thought I might be headed for a PB completion time but was slowed down considerably in the S, with the still slightly mysterious 24d (to me) last in. 1d may well be my favourite now I understand it. Thanks very much to the setter and to Smylers for the help with a few bits of parsing and reminding me about Eels.
27a got a smile from me (obvious for a Bruce fan) and although the anagrammer part of my brain got a good workout today it was about right for a Monday.
Thanks to Setter and Smylers, please carry on in the chatty style, it is fine by me
Very enjoyable thank you compiler and Smylers, with 19d as a great clue. Many many years ago as a Psychology student I read a paper on telegraphic speech and analysed some accents and dialects … it included a list of those UK regions that packed in the most meaning using the fewest words … rest assured Yorkshire was in there!
Found this suitable for the early week apart from the two gourmet ones 13a & 14d 🤔 ***/***
Favourites 17d, 28a & 17a 😃 Thanks to the Compiler and to Smylers
Despite there being too many anagrams, and I enjoy anagrams, this was an enjoyable puzzle except for the south west corner which took it into thumbs down territory for me. Certainly not suitable Monday fare. Surprised that by this time the DT had not corrected the typo in 3d. Never heard of that broccoli – but we had a dentist by that name for 36 years, so wish we had known that then 😊. 16a was a new term for me, but I am finding there are a lot of words used by youngsters that seem part of another language. Thanks to setter and to Smylers.
I’m with those for whom this was a tougher challenge than usual for a Monday although I did manage without having to fathom Smylers’ chatty hints. NW corner came in last. Hope for another easy Tuesday ride. Thank you setter and Smylers.
What a mixed bag of comments! Too many anagrams…no problem with anagrams…too easy…more difficult than most Mondays…not enjoyable…good fun for a Monday…etc, etc. Well, you can’t please all of the people all of the time, as they say. I hope to see you again soon!
There is only one thing worse than being talked about…
Keep up the good work – we love them all really
Well I enjoyed the challenge, just right for a Monday, keep them coming
Oh don’t be upset, you are one of our favourite setters. You can’t please all the people all the time, although you usually do. We have been spoilt.
Excellent puzzle, thanks X-Type, in fact an 8d!
Thanks too to Smylers
I’m not usually an anagram lover but sat down after work to a lovely straightforward Monday puzzle. Was surprised to see a *** grading as I thought it was*. I really enjoyed it and I look forward to your next outing.
Hi, X-Type. Thank you for popping in to see us. I’m impressed with the wide range of difficulty others have reported this as. I think it”s an excellent example for illustrating how hardness of a puzzle varies between solvers.
A very enjoyable Monday puzzle, don’t mind the amount of anagrams and learnt a new word for broccoli, what more could you want!
1.5* / 3.5*
Thanks to X-Type and Smylers
Ps Going to the quickie pun next week, I just know the weather is going change !
I hadn’t heard of the bag in 11a, I looked it up and it’s a female accessory so I wouldn’t have would I. 20a parsed but not the first synonym that springs to mind. No typo found in the paper version for 3 down, I decided it was an anagram and couldn’t make an English phrase out of it so made up a French sounding one and to my amazement it meant exactly the right thing. Couldn’t believe 4d was a word but had to be an unindicated Americanism, but still couldn’t believe it wasn’t hyphenated or two words, also had my doubts about scrupulous in 21d. Apart from that little lot I fairly breezed the the rest of it and generally found more straightforward than a lot of recent Monday offerings. Favourite was 16d. Thanks to X-Type and Smylers.
Hi, Taylor. Thanks for your comment. The kind of branded 11a bags depicted in the hints are definitely not female-only; mainly they are utilitarian bags, fulfilling a similar purpose to supermarket bags for life (but nicer!), rather than fashion accessories. I have a Telegraph-branded one from a few years ago with a Matt drawing on it celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee.
I don’t have a paper paper, but I did check PressReader before hinting (which should be a digital representation of the printed pages), and that did have the 3d typo, so I’d presumed actual paper copies did too:
Had an inkling this might be an X-Type puzzle. Enjoyable enough though no real fav clue & maybe not one of his better puzzles in my view. Waltzed through it & didn’t even notice the typo in 3d.
Thanks to X-Type & for popping in (always appreciated) & to Smylers for another great review.
Ps back has gone playing golf today so it’s the hot bath treatment – if there is no review at 🕚am tomorrow it’ll be because I can’t get out of it.
Relieved to see many others found this hard. An enjoyable challenge though. The SW corner took three times longer than the rest did to solve.
14d was a new word for me. Pleased to have got 26a unaided though.
Thanks to all.
Needed the hints (and more) for 14d (as never heard of it); also needed the hints for 17a (I thought “paste”), 20a (precise definition a bit of a stretch), 21d (easy one I missed but definition of scrupulous a real stretch) and 25a (one eye?). The other answers went in fairly quickly and I agree with the other commentators on those answers. COTD 1d for its neatness. Thanks to X-Type and Smylers. ***/***.
Really sailed through this one so must be on the letter’s wavelength. The anagrams helped and I have heard of the veg in 14d. As to 19d, we Yorkshire folk do not pronounce the first letter of the answer. The whole definite article is a glottal stop. Thanks to Smylers for the blog.
2*/2* …..
liked 18A “Fantastic PR created – on this ? (3,6) “