Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30980
Hints and tips by Senf
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
A very good Wednesday morning from Winnipeg.
For me, etc (I have to say that for Terence), a very fair Wednesday challenge. If there are any half crowns left at the back of my sock drawer they are staying there because when it comes to the setter, as my ancestors would say, je ne sais pas.
Candidates for favourite – 11a, 25a, 26a, 27a, and 2d.
In the hints below, the definitions are underlined. The answers are hidden under the Click here! buttons, so don’t click if you don’t want to see them.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.
Across
1a Astonished if lag has term reduced (6)
AGHAST: A lurker (if . . . reduced) found in the words ‘sandwiched’ by the indicator.
4a Walter Mitty or Houdini after losing old record? (8)
ESCAPIST: The term that describes Houdini with the single letter for Old and a type of record deleted (after losing).
9a Films legal advisers downing whiskey (6)
LAYERS: A term for legal advisers with the letter represented by whiskey in the phonetic alphabet deleted (downing).
10a Crew unwell after following American fleet (8)
FLOTILLA: Synonyms of crew and unwell placed after the single letter for Following all followed by the single letter for American.
11a Perhaps chat and propose a place to eat in the garden (4,5)
BIRD TABLE: What a chat can be a type of (perhaps) and a synonym of propose (a motion).
13a Stop working on trendy kind of music (5)
INDIE: A perhaps dramatic synonym of stop working placed after a two letter synonym of trendy.
14a People stepping out? (13)
SOMNAMBULISTS: A term for people who go walking (stepping) when they are ‘out’ (as in not awake).
17a Goon noted for a silly greeting … (4,9)
GOOD AFTERNOON: An anagram (silly) of GOON NOTED FOR A.
21a … starts to tease Harry on radio, not Spike (5)
THORN: Rest easy, not a homophone as on radio might suggest – the first letters (starts to) of five words in the clue.
23a Vehicle with many passengers heading for first class? (6,3)
SCHOOL BUS: A type of vehicle that can carry many passengers who are heading to the first class (of the day for learning).
24a Lie in bed, spoilt rotten? (8)
INEDIBLE: An anagram (spoilt) of LIE IN BED.
25a Suggestion from adult interrupting sister in front of church (6)
NUANCE: The single letter for Adult inserted into (interrupting) a religious sister placed before (in front of) the two letters for church.
26a Maybe pen note before extremely nail-biting final performance (8)
SWANSONG: An ornithological pen, the fourth note on the solfege scale, and the outer letters (extremely) of Nail-bitinG.
27a Detective infiltrating a party? Makes sense (4,2)
ADDS UP: The two letter for a detective inserted into (infiltrating) A from the clue and the abbreviated form of a NI political party.
Down
1d Is bad comic, bored by line, making improvised remarks? (2-4)
AD LIBS: An anagram (comic) of IS BAD containing (bored by) the single letter for Line.
2d Piece of dialogue at the end of The Conjuring? (3,6)
HEY PRESTO: What a magician might say to complete a trick (at the end of The Conjuring).
3d One of 9 flans served up with little hesitation (7)
STRATUM: A synonym of flans reversed (served up) with one of the sets of two letters for little hesitation.
5d Change upset Josh and Switzerland timber supplier (6,5)
SILVER BIRCH: A term for monetary change, a synonym of josh (the upper case J is there to be misleading) reversed (upset), and the IVR code for Switzerland.
6d Books comedian Harry to support ace centre for social workers (3-4)
ANT-HILL: The two letter designation of 27 of the 66 books in the Bible and the surname of a comedian named Harry, who I have never heard of, all placed after (to support) the single letter for Ace.
7d I was the first to admit Democrat was lazy (5)
IDLED: I from the clue and a three letter term for was the first containing (to admit) the single letter for Democrat.
8d Cross people losing temper possibly in middle of protests (8)
TRAVERSE: A single word term that could be equivalent (possibly) to people losing temper inserted into the middle letters of proTEsts.
12d Might treatment here make you feel hot? Doctor unable to say (6,5)
BEAUTY SALON: An anagram (doctor) of UNABLE TO SAY.
15d Bars that drifters must avoid? (9)
SANDBANKS: A hazard to those drifting on the open sea.
16d Such self-aggrandising pursuits got Piers in trouble (3-5)
EGO-TRIPS: An anagram (in trouble) of GOT PIERS.
18d Introduction of alcohol frees relatives (7)
AUNTIES: The first letter (introduction) of Alcohol and a synonym of frees (if someone was bound with rope).
19d Deep rubbish seen in mound when leaving motorway (7)
OROTUND: A vocally descriptive term from a three letter synonym of rubbish inserted into (seen in) Mound with the single letter for Motorway deleted (when leaving).
20d Dormant fish eaten up by snake (6)
ASLEEP: The reversal of a three letter fish contained (eaten up) by a three letter snake that it is believed to have caused the demise of Cleopatra.
22d End room new grad oddly rejected (5)
OMEGA: Odd letters removed (oddly rejected) from rOoM nEw GrAd.
Quick Crossword Pun:
HONOUR + NIGH + FETCH = ON A KNIFE EDGE
OK, two days is probably sufficient time to wait to follow the ‘cue music’ suggested by 7d in Monday’s back pager. From 1966, when the song was first released:
My comment has vanished. I’ll try again
What a truly outstanding crossword. I’ve ticked 25 clues which is unheard of. This has to be the work of Hudson.
I liked 3d’s reference to 9a and loved the Goon 17a/21a comby (Mr Secombe would obviously say the silly greeting).
I’ve never seen ‘reduced’ is a lurker indicator which I like…..a lot.
19d is an excellent word that has been added to the crib sheet.
It’s all booting off at the base of the podium but I’ll go with 17a, 12d and 16d.
MMT to the aforementioned and the Manitoban mountie.
2*/5*
I know you like them, so how’s this for a lurker, Tom, from yesterday’s Times puzzle: Not totally evident a lass is tantalising healthcare worker (6,9)
Outstanding or should that be…..standing out. One of the best.
What, with Hudson’s mastery and now this, my day is full.
Thank you.
Oh yes, an absolute cracker of a guzzle
Today’s offering was a slow burner with my only having solved three after the first pass. However, one of those was troubled Piers at 16d and he opened up Devon and Cornwall. The rest followed at a steady and enjoyable pace. The only one that held me up was 19d even with all the checkers in place. I had to look that one up so a DNF today. I enjoyed the Goon clues especially teasing Harry and not Spike at 21a. My COTD is 14a with its people stepping out.
Thank you, setter for a very enjoyable puzzle. Thank you, Colonel Mustard in the dining room for the hints.
Here are Eccles and Bluebottle.
Wonderful Eccles clip.
Haven’t heard that for years.
Made my day.
Thank you, Steve.
Brilliant – I’m too young to remember them at the time but have heard lots since. Thanks for posting.
Agree with above. A slow burn but very satisfying. 14a my favourite now I’ve seen the full parsing (thank you Senf. The synonyms crew and lot felt a bit of a stretch at the time but I can see now they do work. Harry Hill seems to be less apparent these days but it’s not so long ago that he (and his ridiculously large lapelled shirts) were all over the TV. Thank you setter.
What a tricky guzzle, moore like a Fridy thn a Wednesday offering. Like Steve I struggled to get started and, though I finished, there are some parsings I still don’t understand. I loved the cleverly disguised double meaning at 4a, the long anagram at 17a and the cryptic definitions at 11a and 23a. Congratulations to the setter on a cleverly contrived crossword and thanks to Senf for the hints which I shall now read.
Excellent. 1a, 11a and 23a for me. 12d made me smile too. Best thanks to setter and Senf.
2*/4*. I enjoyed this apart from one hmm as the definition for 3d is ungrammatical.
With lots of ticks, my podium comprises 4a, 11a & 12d.
Many thanks to the setter and to Senf.
An excellent puzzle with plenty of humour, clever misdirections and very smooth surface readings.
Plenty of ticks but I’ll pick out 17a: if King Charles does cryptics, this would be his favourite too.
Thanks to Senf and the setter, very enjoyable.
A top-notch puzzle – many thanks to our setter and Senf.
I have masses of ticks on my printout including 4a, 11a, 14a, 23a and 26a (and that’s just the acrosses).
A fun and fairly rapid solve for me, must have been on our setter’s wavelength today. Top clues here were those for 11,23&26a with a mention for the Quickie pun.
Thanks to our setter and to Senf for the review and video clip – my ear worm since Monday!
A very enjoyable puzzle today. My only gripe, until I read the hints, was that I thought 14a was missing a reference to the state of the person stepping out and then I realised it was there in full view.
COTD. 23A as it raised a smile.
Thanks for the hints, which I also needed to parse 7D and to the setter.
I had the same feeling about 14a but the last word of the clue perhaps covers my reservation.
Tough for me today but got there in the end.
19d rang a very distant bell so I had to check it in the BRB.
No special favourites today.
Thanks to the setter and to Senf.
Superb puzzle, certainly a candidate for the year’s Top 10. Faultless. Such wit and humour throughout, a great variety of clue types and all so cleverly written.
Like Tom I ended up with a ridiculous number of ticks and it seems somewhat unfair to select some and not others. I’ll go for COTD 11a, winning by a nose from 12d, with a photo-finish for 14a & 17a next across the line.
Quite brilliant. Thank you so much to the setter (yes, Hudson could be a good call) and to Senf – hope the smoke is receding and life is more comfortable now!
I agree re top 10 of the year.
An absolute belter.
A great crossword with some super surfaces and so many misdirections it’s a wonder I didn’t get twisted blood.
Thank you setter and to senf for the hints
Very good indeed, with special mentions for the Goons combo that had little to do with Spike, Peter or Harry and the linked clues at 9a and 3d. I also appreciated 2d and much more besides. Thanks very much to the setter and to Senf.
I don’t often post on here but I must echo the sentiments of fellow puzzlers.
This was a wonderful crossword with some lovely clues.
16d brought a wry chuckle (I hope someone shows that to Mr Morgan!), and 12d was clever, too.
What made me happy was that I completed it all in above-average time, with no hints needed or recourse to any online trickery. It was still only 10am… and I had the whole day ahead of me.
Full marks to the setter for boosting my ailing spirits.
I am joining the songs of praise. A cracking good guzzle, Grommit. Like Tom, I have so many daisies it is hard to choose just one – we have to keep Kath happy, there can only be one favourite. I liked the misleading sister, the first class, Houdini, the introduction of alcohol😌, the ‘out’walkers, I refuse to commit myself. Many thanks to the Scintillating Setter and Super Senf.
A slow burn for me too, but very enjoyable. Loved the Goon Show references too. 2d is my cotd. Thanks to setter and Senf.
An excellent puzzle with so much to like it’s hard to pick a favourite but I think I will go with 17a. I did learn a new word in 19d.
Many thanks to the setter and to Senf for the hints.
I found this tricky but satisfying. Lots of ticks on my page.
I had to check 19d meant what it does.
Top picks for me were 11a, 26a, 14a and 5d.
Thanks to Senf and the setter.
Really en joyed this one. I think it was probably quite a quick solve, the reason for doubt being that I was constantly being interrupted. On each return, I had to read several clues before getting any but then returning to those read, they fell easily. I suppose a great example of tuning the wavelength and getting ‘into the groove’ each time. Need the blog to confirm five parsings and when I did, their cleverness gained the clues big ticks e.g. 5d’s timber supplier and 23a’s first class – superb.
Also ticked Walter at 4a, the superbly smooth surface of 24a and the aforementioned 5d.
Many thanks to the setter and Senf!
This started very slowly for me with only three solved in the SW corner on first pass. So I decided to take an hour off to do a bit of gardening. What a difference that made – everything soon fell into place on my return. I did need to check with Senf the parsing of 10a and 8d. Favourites were 11a, 23a, 3d, and 15d (our favourite holiday haunt). Many thanks to Senf and the setter.
I found this Wednesday offering on the gentle side. Pretty straight forward except for one of the long across clues in the centre of puzzle. Not a word in common usage for me, but it clicked once I had a few cross check letters. I was obviously 20d!
1.5*/4*
Favourites 17a, 14a, 25a, 15d, 18d & 20d — with winner 17a
Thanks to setter & Senf
1* / 4.5* A thoroughly enjoyable midweeker with loads of top clues.
Favourites avian feeder at 11a, transport at 23a and the brilliant Walter Mitty at 4a
Thanks to setter and Senf
Thank you Setter and Senf. Today the puzzle was a bit like a curates egg for us. DNF and resorted to the hints. 19d was a new word for us. Gary and Val
I enjoyed the crossword (for a change), especially as most apparent General Knowledge was, in fact, misdirection. But I didn’t like 6 down as hyphenated. I’ve seen it as one word or two words, but never hyphenated.
Hyphenated 6d is the only spelling ‘recognised’ by the BRB.
I too was surprised that is it hyphenated as molelhill isn’t. Saying that the Chumpers probably also has that hyphenated.
Either way, you’ve got to love these guys….
I adored Wacky Races. There were some great names but my fave is definitely ”Rock and Gravel, the Slag Brothers, in their Boulder Mobile”.
It would appear that the BRB is consistently inconsistent as ‘molehill’ is a single word.
That makes zero sense.
Can their reputation get any worse?
Every so often a puzzle comes up with virtually universal praise and a 3 or 4 * rating which I complete quickly for me expecting to find it is only a 1* rating from the blogger. Quite often I find a 1* puzzle impossible to finish without help. It leaves me wondering if I am the only sane person in the asylum. Or perhaps the only insane person in the DT puzzles community.
Thanks to Senf and the setter.
I’m with you. You are totally sane.
Remember that the * ratings for difficulty and enjoyment are very subjective and us bloggers are not given a rating guide. My ratings are ‘loosely’ based on my solving time but I will not reveal any more than that.
Thankfully we are a very cosmopolitan bunch and long may it be that way!
I agree, S.
I skim over the blogger’s rating for difficulty but always note the enjoyment they give a crossy.
A solver shouldn’t put too much value on it.
Nothing personal, you understand.
I know what you mean,
We are more than two.
I beg to differ because I didn’t particularly enjoy this exercise mainly due to several stretched parsings or am I perhaps just being dull? 5d was merely a bung-in without fully parsing. Thank you Mysteryone and Senf.
Bang on wavelength with this little gem and very enjoyable to boot. Tough to pick a favourite from such a great grid, but 11a was excellent.
Thanks to our setter for a superb challenge, and to Senf.
Started out with 1a and 1d going straight in, which misled me to thinking this was going to be easier than it turned out to be. A bit of a curates egg in fact, with 3d and 19d removing any chance of finishing unaided. Plus I was tempted to bung in house for second part of 11a. Didn’t know 12a term had crossed the ocean and was now used in England. Thanks to setter and Senf.
What a delightful puzzle. Many clues raised a smile, but 11a gets the gold medal. Many thanks to the setter and to Senf.
Superb. For me a dead heat between 23A and 12D. VMT Setter & Senf
I usually struggle with Wednesday’s but thought it was Thursday so breezed through it 😂
Thanks to both
Late on parade. Apologies. I have been delivering a eulogy for an old friend at a funeral today.
A fabulous puzzle. The hidden word at 1a and the anagram at 17a (including the link to 21a, of course) and the anagram at 24a were the highlights for me.
I loved the Eccles/Bluebottle sketch. Timeless. Thank you Steve.
Many thanks to our clever setter and, of course, to Senf.
Battled enjoyably with this all afternoon and almost finished without assistance: needed the hint for 8d because even though I had worked out that the first and last letters were t and e respectively and I had the middle checkers I could not deduce the “ravers” (bit of a stretch clue) or the straightforward definition of “cross”, which with hindsight is easy. Also needed the hints afterwards for some of the parsing of 4a, 3d, 21a and 12d. Got the difficult one mind, 19d, even though I had never heard of it. COTD 11a for its construction and surface, although as many have commented there were lots of excellent clues. Thanks to the setter and Senf – and for the comments. ***/***
It’s all been said, so here’s a little Spike ditty….
A baby sardine saw her first submarine
And was scared and looked through the peephole.
‘Oh come, come, come’ said the sardine’s mum,
It’s only a tin full of people!
Thanks to the setter for a good challenge and Senf for the blog.
Good evening
A busy day at work so I didn’t even fold over the page and pick up a pen until half six, and I’ve only just finished. I was full of inspiration filling in the LHS, then I took a breather, and stared at the vast, inkless wasteland of the RHS….and stared…and stared….and stared!
Eventually I twigged 25a, and gradually the RHS was filled in – although I was so tempted to put SALOON CAR for 23a, I managed to talk myself out of that foolish notion.
I have to say that I thought the general standard of clueing was excellent. I only struggled a little with parsing in two cases, namely 27a and 5d.
14a (joint COTD) almost caught me out, as I originally entered -ANTS instead of -ISTS; my second choice of joint COTD is 4a. Sublime!
Many thanks to our setter and to Senf.
Very hard. I got to the end with much help from Mr Google et al. I shall appreciate Senf’s explanations of some of it tomorrow.
Well I agree with many others that this was a brilliant puzzle. I was on wavelength as completed it without too much trouble. Thanks to the setter and Setter.
I put my slow start down to having three fillings this afternoon and feeling a bit off because of it. With the anaesthetic wearing off and a mouth feeling like I’d been punched by Mike Tyson I didn’t think I’d be up to the job but I stuck at it and finished eventually enjoying it as much as I could under the circumstances. Favourite was 14a, I am one of those. Thanks to the setter and Senf. The toughie I suspect will remain a dnf.
Thanks to all solvers and commenters, and to Senf for the review.
[Rabbit Dave @7, I can’t see what’s ungrammatical about 3d.]
Thanks for a very fair Wednesday challenge and for popping in.
Thank you for the puzzle, and to Senf for confirming some parsing.
My favourite was 18d with the relatives freed by alcohol.
Hi Mr T
I think RD is saying that the word ‘the’ is missing.
Absolutely superb crossword, btw.
Thank you, Tumbledown Mountain for a most entertaining guzzle. I believe I am finally tuning into your wavelength. More please. 👍
Well I’d have gone all in it was a Hudson production so that’s another donation to the bookies. Gem of a puzzle with ✅s all over the shop. Wouldn’t disagree with MG’s view that it’s worthy of a top 10 spot in the 2025 back-page hit parade. Particularly liked 11,14&23a.
Many thanks & to Senf for the write up
One of my apropos of nothing posts.
I went to see a play this afternoon at Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury called Ghosts Stories.
This video is not wrong.
It was terrifying and I loved it!
I know the play came first, but I really liked the film with Martin Freeman a few years ago. I’d like to see how they compare but I can’t make it for the Cardiff shows, unfortunately.
Late on parade commenting .. but just for the record re 15d .. drifter is (was) a type of fishing boat primarily used for catching herring.
Super puzzle, Twmbarlwm! I always greatly enjoy your crosswords.
Top choices for me include 11a, 14a, 23a, 25a, 26a and 2d, 5d, 15d and 18d.
Many appreciative thanks for the excellent entertainment.
Many appreciative thanks to Senf for the review and illustrations.
Enjoyed this, only finished today as i was out all day yesterday.
A dnf due to 14a. I am doubtless on my own on not liking this clue. If you haven’t heard of the term, fairly impossible to get the word even with all the checkers. Very clever clue for fans of random words though.
Thanks to all.
3*/4* …
liked 1A “Astonished if lag has term reduced (6)”