DT 30928 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
View closed comments 

DT 30928

by Mr K  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30928

Hints and tips by Mr K

+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - +

BD Rating  -  Difficulty **** -  Enjoyment ****

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Friday. Today’s challenging and enjoyable puzzle felt different to the work produced by our regular group of Friday setters. I hope that today’s compiler will drop in later to take credit for it. 

In the hints below most indicators are italicized, and underlining identifies precise definitions and cryptic definitions. Clicking on the answer buttons will reveal the answers. Please leave a comment telling us how you got on.

 

Across

1a    Revival meeting travelling between estuaries? (5-2-5)
MOUTH-TO-MOUTH:  The answer could, whimsically, mean “travelling between two estuaries”. The definition is cryptic 

8a    Massage in a lazy way, without bending (7)
RIGIDLY:  Massage or cook or fiddle, with “in a lazy way”

9a    One scoffs putrid wraps cold (7)
SCEPTIC:  A synonym of putrid contains (wraps) the single letter for cold 

11a   New Year rise for school staffer? (7)
JANITOR:  A (3,1) abbreviation for New Year’s Day with a rise or hill

12a   Newcomer with orchestra I needed to show part (7)
TRAINEE:  The answer is hidden in (with … to show part) ORCHESTRA I NEEDED 

13a   Vegetable was scorching in one's mouth (5)
CHARD:  A homophone (in one’s mouth) of a word meaning “was scorching” 

14a   Stand-in certain to receive title or backing (9)
SURROGATE:  A synonym of certain containing (to receive) the reversal (backing) of the fusion of a title or name and OR from the clue 

16a   Smelling oil, one's exited workshop (9)
OLFACTORY:  OIL minus the Roman one (one’s exited) with a plant or workshop 

19a   Degree thus should be simple (5)
BASIC:  The abbreviation for a first degree with a Latin word meaning thus 

21a   During court guards fire, turning rough (7)
INEXACT:  A synonym of during is followed by the map abbreviation for court that contains (guards) the reversal (turning) of fire or dismiss 

23a   Good drag is taken first - mellow stuff for a trip (7)
LUGGAGE:  Putting the bits in order, link together drag or pull, the single letter for good, and mellow or ripen 

24a   Rumours about son doing head over heels in assembly (7)
SESSION:  A synonym of rumours containing (about) the genealogical abbreviation for son, all reversed (doing head over heels) 

25a   Sort of a trite question: what comes before foxtrot? Echo (7)
ITERATE:  An anagram (sort of) A TRITE with the letter answering the question “what comes before foxtrot” in the NATO phonetic alphabet

26a   Bending rules using hidden microphone, electronic broadcast smears EU (4,8)
TAPE MEASURES:  Join together a hidden microphone or secret listening device, the single letter for electronic, and an anagram (broadcast) of SMEARS EU 

 

Down

1d    Fellow with wrapping of mummy, a shade (7)
MAGENTA:  A fellow or man is sandwiched between (with wrapping of) an informal word for mummy or mother and A from the clue 

2d    Revised over two days, maybe had lunch brought in (7)
UPDATED:  A synonym of over is followed by two copies of the single letter for day that are sandwiching (… brought in) a word that could mean “had lunch” 

3d    What animals eat mashed - little piggy said it's magic! (3,6)
HEY PRESTO:  A homophone of the fusion of what animals eat in winter, mashed or squeezed, and the foot digit that might be referred to as a little piggy

4d    Attack crowd supporting cricket side (5)
ONSET:  A crowd or group comes after (supporting, in a down clue) a side of a cricket pitch

5d    In season, age rosemary, turning up flavoursome plant (7)
OREGANO:  The answer is hidden in the reversal of (in … turning up) SEASON AGE ROSEMARY 

6d    Ship not using carbon, a Queen (7)
TITANIA:  A ship that hit an iceberg, minus (not using) the chemical symbol for carbon, and followed by A from the clue

7d    Flights made by jet car excited right-thinking politicians (12)
TRAJECTORIES:  An anagram (excited) of JET CAR with an informal name for Conservative politicians 

10d   Awfully smart clubs with bar that shifts doubles (6-6)
CLEVER-CLEVER:  The playing card abbreviation for clubs with a bar that shifts using a fulcrum, all repeated (… doubles) 

15d   Pay for writer's clothing with a CR crest? (9)
ROYALTIES:  This pay for a writer could also, cryptically, describe some neckwear bearing King Charles’ crest 

17d   Liberated continent lacking initial growth (7)
FREESIA:  A synonym of liberated with a large continent minus its first letter (lacking initial) 

18d   Killer word linked with 1 Down I'd solve at the end (7)
CYANIDE:  A shade that’s linked with the answer to 1 down and yellow is followed by I’D from the clue and the last letter (at the end) of SOLVE 

19d   Insect on large animal causes irritation (7)
BUGBEAR:  A generic insect with a large animal that might be black or brown or polar 

20d   Two kinds of deep dish (3,4)
SEA BASS:  A marine synonym of deep with a musical synonym of deep 

22d   Charged  past? (5)
TENSE:  A word meaning charged or strained is also what past defines by example (?)

 

Thanks to today’s setter. Which clues did you like best?

The Quick Crossword pun:  TENOR + REEF = TENERIFE

56 comments on “DT 30928”

  1. I needed Mr G for a couple but, on the whole, a pleasant Friday offering. I had one or two bung ins and had to reverse parse to see how they worked. I had the second word of 10d but could not work out the first until it appeared with a grin on its face. The school staffer always seems to be clued with New Year. Can anyone think of another way? After all, there are myriad ways of cluing “orchestra”. My COTD is 26a with its bending rules. A neat misdirection, I thought.

    Thank you, setter for the Friday fun. Thank you, Mr K for the hints.

  3. This one took me longer to complete than any other DT puzzle this week, including the Tuesday-Thursday toughies.
    A very enjoyable puzzle, although I struggled with a couple of the surfaces (25a and 26a – my last two in).
    Favourite clue, 23a (I was thinking of the wrong type of trip!).
    Many thanks to the setter and to Mr K for the review.

  4. Quite chewy but an ‘enforced’ break for a 30 minute phone call helped. If it is the work of one of the Friday Triumvirate then Zandio would be the obvious choice.

    Candidates for favourite – 19a, 25a, 6d, and 20d – and the winner is 20d.

    Thanks to whomsoever and Mr K.

    A kitty with travel plans needing some 23a:

    1. Doh! As soon as you get the cases down they know how to make
      you feel bad.

      1. Yes, we used to have to hide the cases under towels or the sulking would begin.

  5. I can’t remembwr rhe last time it rtook me so long to finish a DTbackpager. This guzzle was really hard work and,like Steve, I had to reverse engineer the parsing after filling in the clue some of the time. I liked the combined anagram/lego clue at 7d, the cryptic definition at 5d, the Lego clue at 20d and the Lego clue at 16a. Thanks to the compiler and to Mr K for the hints.

  6. Great puzzle, just right for a Friday. Loved 26a. Thanks to today’s setter and Mr K.

  7. I thought that this was about as tricky as back-pagers get and I did enjoy the challenge. Thanks to our compiler and Mr K.
    My ticks went to 1a, 14a, 23a, 26a and 10d.

  8. A great 10d puzzle, perfect for a Friday back-pager, and appropriately challenging. Slow start but then accelerated having tuned-in to to the setter’s wavelength. Some absolutely cracking clues and a good workout for the LGCs. Honours to outstanding COTD 1a, which crossed the line a nose ahead of 26a, with runner-up 23a (brilliant surface).

    Best puzzle of the week. Thank you setter, and thanks also to MrK

  9. Well, that took some teasing out and a long time to do it, but perseverance paid off in the end for an unaided finish. My LOI was the second word of 10d!! Can’t think that I’ve ever heard that phrase. I loved the misdirection of 1a and 26a, so they become my joint favourites today. I also liked 2, 15, 18 and 20d so they will have to vie for podium places. The whole thing made for an enjoyable solve. Thanks to our setter and Mr K.

  10. Wonderful! Another 5-star puzzle for enjoyment — I’ve felt spoilt this week! Not many answers on the first pass, so I thought this might be beyond me, and indeed it took longer than most puzzles, but there were obscure words and everything parsed nicely. Thank you so much to our 10a(!) setter. Like Senf, I’m presuming this is the work of Zandio.

    My top few include 23 with its mellow stuff for a trip, “bending rules” in 26a, 15d’s clothing with a CR crest, 18d’s killer word, and “Charged past?” in 22d.

    In 21a, ‘rough’ caught me out as a definition, which I wouldn’t mind so much except we also had it meaning that (albeit cluing a different answer) just yesterday (in 19a)! Apparently I don’t learn …

    I didn’t know that 25a can mean ‘say again’ even without ‘re-’ in front of it. I was about to say that I’ve learnt that 25a can mean that, but given the preceding paragraph it’s clearly far too early to make a claim like that.

  11. What a wonderful puzzle!! As interesting and challenging as anything I can remember in a long time. Scrupulously fair in the clueing, and so satisfying to solve. Many thanks!

  12. I’m leaning towards Zandio being the author of this one, no doubt we’ll find out later if he pops in. Top clues for me were the revival meeting and the awfully smart person, both of which raised a smile.

    Thanks to Zandio, presumably, and to Mr K for the review.

  14. I needed to confirm a couple in the SW with the hints as I was struggling with the parsing. Bar that this was a stiff, but enjoyable, challenge. Much to admire especially 1a in part because I couldn’t get another, wrong, answer out of my mind. This makes my podium alongside 3d and 13a in top spot. Thanks to compiler and Mr K.

  15. Pretty tricky, needed help for a couple of clues and to confirm the parsing of another, but, the clues were very fair and once the answers came (or were provided!) it was very much the case of “of course, why didn’t I get that!”
    Thanks to setter and Mr K

  16. 5*+/3*. That was enjoyable despite being tougher than the three Toughies I have solved this week, taking me three stop/start sittings to finish.

    According to the BRB, the synonym of “rumours” in 24a is obsolete. Nevertheless, it was good to be reminded of the excellent Fleetwood Mac album of that ilk.

    All four 12-letter answers round the perimeter provided a good framework with 1a being my favourite.

    Many thanks to the setter and to Mr K.

  17. Glad others found this tricky too. The North lulled me a bit and the South was super-difficult. A separate 2 clue combo in 3 of the 4 quadrants held up the finish by a long time. Other hold ups were thinking of the answer to 25a when looking at 21a, which at the time had the same checkers; wondering which word in 10d was my first thought only to conclude they both were (and the hyphenated phrase is in the LRB, which was a surprise); bunging in the ship at 6d when clearly it had to be transformed into the Queen and the PDM for 17d that unlocked the SW. Ticks of favouritism to 23a for the misdirection, 6d for my stupidity – see above, 15d for the answer reading as two words (I like those sort of clues) and 18d for the intricate wordplay. But over and above all those is my clue of the day, the splendid 26a, which was not so much a penny drop moment as 1-ton weights falling for a year. What a great cryptic definition of the answer as well as the overall wordplay.

    Many thanks to the setter and some parsing explanations from Mr K!

  18. An excellent Friday puzzle! A toughish challenge, one to really get your teeth into – just up my street. My guess is Zandio. Plenty of ticks and I’ll go for 26a as my favourite clue today. 4*/4.5*

    Here’s one of my favourite tracks: Southern Man by Neil Young, from his 1970 album After The Gold Rush. It’s about racism in the American South and contains some fantastic lead guitar work:

    1. I absolutely love that song Jose & have been fortunate to see it performed live a few times. For my money the 13+ mins live performance by CSNY on the Four Way Street album (this is usually a long song folks & we’re going to do it real slowly for you tonight) is the best version – the mid section guitar jam by Stills & Young is quite brilliant.
      Merry Clayton (she of the backing vocals on Gimme Shelter) does a terrific cover & somehow the lyrics hit home even harder with a black woman belting ‘em out

  19. Well I hope the reds do better at Stamford Bridge tonight than I did with this guzzle! I needed a great deal of help from Mr K. Thankyou. My favourite was 20d. Thanks to the compiler for the challenge.

  20. When I looked at this puzzle going through all the clues I got nothing.
    Eventually I managed a couple of guesses in the NW and built on those and piece by piece it came together. Wasn’t as hard as a lot of Friday puzzles can be. A Zandio offering maybe(?)

    3*/3.5*

    Favourites 1a, 26a, 6d, 7d, 10d & 18d — with winner 1a
    Good chuckle at 6d, 7d & 18d

    Thanks to setter & Mr K

  21. Clearly a Friday puzzle having entered 4 answers and checked the grid only one was correct. So when my good lady ‘whose frown and wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command’ intimated we needed to leave to do shopping I didn’t demur.

    When we returned after shopping there was no way I was going to make myself miserable by continuing to prove Friday is not the day for crosswords even when it’s Good Friday.

    I did note a week or two ago that as I only visit rarely I have not seen a post from Brian. Could someone please let me know the reason?

      1. Has anyone actually checked to see if he is ok I wonder. Maybe one of the bloggers could – I’ve deleted his posts on my blog otherwise I would. I’m sure he continued to post after being put in special measures. Hope all ok with him.

    2. Brian did show up once recently. A shame, as I would love to know what he thought of today’s puzzle.

    3. Kath has also not checked in for a long time. I did email her but have had no reply.

  23. I’m with all the others that said in took a deal longer than normal, about 4 times as long in my case, and the only reason it got done at
    all was that I’ve got ‘swimmy ears’ and we’re not off diving this morning.

    The only one that I couldn’t see the why of was 8a, the answer was easy enough, but the ‘massage’ threw me a bit.

    I’ll just say one thing, ‘bending rules’ brilliant!

  24. Difficult but doable so perfect for a Friday and I managed to parse everything albeit some retrospectively. Favourite was 22a. Thanks to the setter and Mr. K.

  25. Well I struggled through that and needed Mr K’s help parsing 24a. 10d phrase was new to me.

    Top picks for me were 26a, 17d, 3d and 18d.

    Thanks to Mr K and the setter.

  26. This one was definitely at my absolute limit of ability. I eventually got answers for all the clues but would not have done if the digital puzzle didn’t tell me when I was wrong and I needed help to parse several. All that said I really enjoyed trying to solve it and learning the parsing from the hints afterwards. 28a was my favourite.

    Many thanks to the setter for the challenge and to Mr K for the helpful unraveling of my brain.

  27. I agree that this one was a tough nut to crack. We were slogging away
    when Mark the Lovely Man Who Can Do Anything came in to talk about a quote
    and suddenly it was 3 o’clock and time to do other things. I have just finished it
    and It was indeed a very smart guzzle, full of misdirections. I liked too many to make
    a choice, so many thanks to Messrs. Setter and Mr. K.

  28. Excellent Friday crossword … 1A and 20D my favourites though many challengers. VMT Setter and Mr K.

  30. Very very tricky guzzle today. Top half quite easy but bottom half a different kettle of fish. Finished – eventually! Thanks to setter for the brain mangling and Mr K.

  31. Good evening

    Pen down, finally! So many times throughout this afty and this evening when I felt I had to hoy the sponge in; even to the point of getting to my last to fall, 21a. Perseverance paid, but by crikey, this was a tough one today and no mistake.

    A couple of instances where Mr K was needed to help with the parsing; all in all, though, I enjoyed the challenge, particularly as I’ve hardly looked at a crozzie all week.

    COTD is the superb piece of misdirection that is 26a!

    Many thanks to our setter (consensus seems to favour the Mind of Zandio; I wouldn’t be surprised!) and to Mr K.

  32. Yes it was the longest back-page solve of the week by some margin extending into ***time but I reckon we’ve had trickier on a Friday. Thought it a belter topped & bottomed by 2 cracking definitions in revival meeting & bending rules. Lots of ticks elsewhere – 8,14,16&23a plus 3,7,15&19d other particular likes.
    I’m with MG in rating this best of the week by a whisker from yesterday’s Silvanus Toughie.
    Thanks to Mr K & to the setter

  33. Sorry, not for me and I venture to guess a Zandio production as he is usually on a different planet from me. Got to this later today and just don’t have the time or energy to fight to the finish. I threw in the towel when I saw freesia = growth…. For quite a while the best thing about Friday puzzles has been Mr K’s pictures and sadly he no longer has time to include them. But reached 110 days in Wordle so I am not completely ga ga yet. Thanks to setter and Mr K.

  34. Hello, compiler here. Thank you for taking the time to solve, analyse and discuss. Always appreciated.
    Greetings from Dallas, Texas, here in God’s country, the southern USA. Going to see Samantha Fish at the House of Blues tonight, along with Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram.
    Have a great weekend.

    1. Great puzzle – thanks for popping in. Enjoy Chris – he’s a great player. I was at The Garage for the recording of his Live in London album & he put on a terrific show with a phenomenal version of Hey Joe (not on the album) to finish.

  35. I eventually completed this puzzle……it was to me the most difficult for some time.
    A huge sense of satisfaction when I’d finished.

  36. A tough but enjoyable workout that was very satisfying to solve. I had an extra glass at Drinks O’Clock as I earned it.

    My LOI was the extremely tough 18d.

    My podium is 23a, 26a and 10d.

    MT to Z and K

    4*/4*

  37. Challenging solve and needed the hints for a few in the southern hemisphere. Northern portion went in quite smoothly but, as I said, a different story in the south.
    COTD 1a for me , very good and amusing.
    Thank you to the setter and to Mr K for the hints.

  39. I don’t usually comment on the following day. I figure no one’s reading . I ve been behind all week as busy , and just completed this corker that I had guessed was Zandio – my favourite compiler. Chewy , but brain was in gear so was a steady and satisfying solve. Thanks to Zandio and Mr K

Comments are closed.