Daily Telegraph Vintage No 12
Hints and Tips by Rossophile
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** ½ Enjoyment ***
The volunteering team (me) happy to keep vintage hinting, but would love company. The definitions are not as clear as nowadays. Lots of anagrams to get you started. V-Day was actually 8th May 1945 when the Allies accepted unconditional surrender from Nazi Germany.
Across
1a One chop is enough to construct this kind of cage (3-4)
HEN-COOP: Anagram of one chop
8a Famous author of the past with a head for modern progress (7)
CARLYLE: Scottish author and essayist, 1795 to 1881, strongly influenced Victorian culture. The “sage of Chelsea”
9a A real soldier, this one! (7)
REGULAR: Regular means real, and is a type of soldier
10a Not a generous use of rag and pins (7)
SPARING: Anagram of rags pins
11a Warning of something wrong with a drum? (7)
EARACHE: Medical condition of ear causing pain
14a He needed horse sense, this fellow (6)
OSTLER: Person who tends to horse welfare
18a May be the cause of a rise in food (5)
YEAST: Causes dough to swell
20a Leave this unfavourable place in the lurch (6)
DESERT: Something no soldier should ever do.
22a Nice toy for the piper’s son (6)
TOMTOM: *** ***, the piper’s son, stole a pig and away did run. Well known nursery rhyme
23a This way lies progress (5)
AHEAD: The way ***** means progress
25a Suspend more than fish (6)
DANGLE: One letter D added to the word for fish (the verb)
28a The looker-on gives a low-brow greeting! (7)
WATCHER: Homonyms , using an informal slang greeting Wotcha
29a Van near to Italian town (7)
RAVENNA: Anagram of van near. Actually a City near Bologna famous for its mosaics.
32a Bid rust to break the peace (7)
DISTURB: Anagram of bid rust
33a A comedian is rather apt to put it on (7)
COSTUME: This performer will often don a recognisable outfit on stage
34a To do so is a put-up job (7)
ELEVATE: Verb involving moving to a higher level
Down
1d Shrewd (4-6)
HARD-HEADED: hyphenated word describing the bargaining position of a shrewd individual
2d Incomplete darkness is at hand (4)
NIGH: Time between dusk and dawn minus the last letter.
3d May often describe the waste in engineering works (4)
OILY: Description of the greasy substance used to lubricate machines.
4d Remove the heart of this plant for argument (7)
PARSLEY: Remove the S from this curly leaf salad item to engage in conversation, from the French P*****-vous Francais?
5d V-day may see it light-headed in the street (8)
LAMPPOST: Lights coming from the top of these will provide illumination for the V day celebrations (now VE) long into the night
6d Another colour from most of scarlet (6)
CLARET: Anagram of Scarlet minus the S which can always also be imbibed
7d Get plenty of air in the inside of it before you take it! (6)
PLUNGE: Four letter word for the organ of breathing surrounded by P and E
12d Yielded to us by gum? (5)
RESIN: A viscous sticky exudate from certain plants or synthetic equivalent. Yielded to us refers to it being an exudate
13d Take a reef, and you may get more than you want (5)
CORAL: Noun is a brightly coloured living marine structure. The homophone with an extra R means gathering people things up, (verb) or a formation by doing so (noun)
15d Not one of those thin refreshers (5)
STOUT: The opposite of thin is also a dark coloured alcoholic beer, supposedly “Good for you”
16d The lifting of it may remove a barrier to further progress (5)
LATCH: By lifting this you enable the opening of a door, allowing one to progress through it
17d Make barrel in astonishing fashion (10)
REMARKABLE: Anagram (fashion) of make barrel (r***rk**le)
19d This goes up in 6 down (3)
ERA: Middle three letters of solution 6d ARE spelt backwards
21d Without this there would be no war (3,5)
THE ENEMY: A description of those people who are not your friends
24d The wind is always with it, but you will see it lessen (7)
DWINDLE: The four letter word “wind” in the clue enclosed in three letters DLE
26d Take a man, including little to weigh up, and get a strong woman (6)
AMAZON: An anagram of “a man “ and the abbreviation for an ounce inserted backwards
27d It requires hosts to entertain them (6)
GUESTS: You couldn’t host a party without these people turning up
30d Describes 31 down (4)
ISLE: Geographical description of an area of land surrounded by water
31d This was an early discovery in the new world (4)
CUBA: Four letter island discovered by navigators and mariners travelling west across the Atlantic many centuries ago.
Thought this might be a pangram, but four letters missing. Enjoy.
I am keen to see the blogging of these vintage crosswords continue, but work and Mama Bee keep me busy during the week. I would be happy to do whatever is lined up for tomorrow if you like. I’ll have a look at it early doors tomorrow and if it is from before a Big Dave Blog I’ll give it a go.
Not sure if the Vintage’s are published at the weekend. I can’t see the recent publishing dates. Happy to try Monday.
I know Big Dave started 2005, so anything before then will be un-(we)blogged
Thanks for your offer.
The Telegraph Vintage archive just says there is one every day for 30 days, which seems right as they started last Monday making the 12th one todays. I will have a go at #13 tomorrow, but probably not have time for #14 Sunday.
Big Dave started in 2009.
Think we’re starting to get the hang of these a bit better now as we managed to get all of this one sorted and enjoyed the solve.
8a was our last one in.
Thanks once again Rossophile.