DT 31003

78 comments on “DT 31003”

1. A very pleasant and straightforward puzzle for a Tuesday morning. 7d gets my nod for COTD ahead of 25a. Entertaining but not mind-bending.

   Thanks to AP and The Hintsman.

2. A gentle puzzle – thanks to our setter and Huntsman.
   Top clues for me were 5a and 24d.
   I thought the 16d old fighter was more likely to be an aircraft.

   1. D’oh – definitely I’d say. Blame the opportunity to play the Dylan song for that.

      1. I’ll back you up on you on your choice for 16d, Huntsman, he coulda been tha champion o’ the world!
         Great pick for 20d too, I saw the superb Leslie West and his band plenty of times when the world was young.
         I had a toy PG Tips chimp as a kid, too! You hum it, son, I’ll play it!
         My COTD is the 7d nonsense.
         Thanks to the setter and the man from up St. Albans way for the memories.

3. I would agree with our blogger’s assessment and grading of this enjoyable Tuesday puzzle.
   19a will, of course, be a write-in for Huntsman, but others might struggle a bit?
   I spent far too long trying to think of a boxer or wrestler for 16d, when the answer was plane to see.
   15a my CoD.
   Good fun.
   Thank you setter and Huntsman.

   1. Like the ‘plane’ shout, Shabbington.

      1. I knew I could rely on you to spot that!

         1. Natch.

            Just know that I’m always waiting in the wings to applaud splendid shouts like that.

            1. Funnily enough the anagram jumped out at me – we see them overhead from Duxford. Very nostalgic sound.

4. I have just read Huntsman’s hint for 16d, following the comment from Gazza.
   It could be either, I suppose, but my money is on the aircraft.

   1. My first thought was Alex Higgins who got into a few scraps.

      1. I got into a verbal scrap with him when I booted him out of a betting shop in Notting Hill once.

         1. That sounds like a good story but sad at the same time. A legend on the table but not so much off it.

            Care to elaborate?

            1. Slightly the worse for wear he wanted £50 on a race at Thurles that we weren’t covering so no bets taken after the advertised off. He was late & didn’t take the refusal well & a torrent of verbal abuse ensued etc. He was carried out of the boozer next door later that night.
               I idolised him as a snooker fan – was distraught when he threw away a big lead in World final against Cliff & his semi final win against a young Jimmy remains one of my favourite matches. Sadly he was not a pleasant individual & having got to know a few people connected to the game there were untold instances of appalling behaviour.

               1. It’s such a shame; it really is.

                  His style of snooker transformed the game and inspired millions around the world.

5. A enjoyable crossword and not too taxing for a steamy Tuesday. Cotd for me is 16d. Thanks to AP and Huntsman.

6. Solid fare from Il Professore with plenty of nice surfaces.

   I’m a huge fan of contronyms like 6d. Great fun.

   We love Slammin’ Sam; a top man with a swing to die for to go along with those other great swingers (steady): Freddie ‘Boom Boom’ Couples, the Big Easy Ernie Els, the Wee Iceman Ben Hogan and, of course, my man Tom.

   My podium is 11a, 22a and 7d.

   MT to the aforementioned and Hoots!

   2*/4*

   1. Lovely smooth crossword,
      Just like the swing of one of our own golfers, a certain Neil Coles!
      Thanks setter & Huntsman.

      1. Old king Coles did have a nice swing.

         He had five top 10 finishes in The Open, with his best performance being at Troon in ’73 where he was runner-up with Johnny Miller three behind the winner Tom Weiskopf and one ahead of Jack.

         Esteemed company indeed.

         Are you delurking Venator or have you posted before? If it’s the former then welcome.

         1. Venator is not a “delurker,” just a relatively infrequent commenter.

            1. Thank you, S.

      2. An aversion to flying got him described as “the best golfer Americans have never heard of.”

         1. Ah, I didn’t know that. Thank you. It explains why his record in The States was so bad.

            Big John Daly, Dennis Bergkamp and John Madden also hated the air as did Bobby Charlton after 1958, understandably.

            1. “Colesey” is a very dear friend, the rascal will be 91 in September!

               1. You’ve changed your alias from Venator so this needed moderation. Both will work from now on.

                  1. Thanks Gazza,
                     Pure ineptitude on my part!

                     1. You know Neil?

                        How cool. He carried himself so well.

                        As well as being a gentleman he was a gentle man. Well, what I’ve read about him…the little rascal.

                        ‘Rascal’ is suich a great word that doesn’t get enough airtime.

   2. Indeed, I like a good contronym. One of my favourites is radiator – a device to generate/enhance heat or one to remove it.

      1. Ah, yes. I haven’t heard that before. One to add to the list.

         Ta muchly, J.

7. A pleasant, straightforward guzzle, with the few tricky clues ib the NE corner. I’d never heard of the golfer but manged to work it out from the clue. The 16d anagram was cleverly misdirected as was 1a, 20d was nice missing letter geographical clue and I liked the 14d Lego clue. Thanks to the compiler,and to Huntsman for the hints.

8. A gentle and enjoyable solve for a hot Tuesday. I wasn’t familiar with the word meaning guy -12a also the word for keen 14d both of which I parsed and was pleased the answers were correct , so I learnt something ! Thanks to setter and Huntsman.

9. Many thanks to the setter and to Huntsman for the review.

   My favourite was 2d – nice surface!

10. Thanks to the setter, and to Huntsman for the hints. Nice and straightforward today, although I slowed down a bit to finish in the NE corner. I had ‘tots’ in my head for 12a drinks which held me up a bit until I got it. As that Will fella would say all’s well that ends well.

11. A mild and pleasant challenge for a Tuesday morning. I like a reverse anagram so I nominate 5a as my COTD. Thanks to the setter and to Huntsman for the clip from the Dylan album I’m most likely to actually play rather than merely admire.

12. A typical Tuesday puzzle. I’d never heard of the golfer but the cluing got me there. Took me ages to parse 7d.

    Top picks for me were 15a, 11a and 1a.

    Thanks to Huntsman and the setter.

13. Very gentle today with no holdups.
    1*/3*
    I had vaguely heard of the golfer. Another vote for 7d as COTD
    Thanks to Prof and Hintan

14. Lovely puzzle straight out of the Goldilocks zone, rather like the weather here which is pleasant but nothing like as eye-wateringly hot as some are suffering – perhaps our blogger should be swinging his clubs over here today.
    After a long debate, I’ve awarded podium spots to 28a along with 1&7d.

    Thanks to Mr Plumb and to Huntsman for the review – extra thanks for indulging me with the17d clip.

15. Nicely Typically Tuesdayish – 1.5*/4.5*

    Candidates for favourite – 23a, 26a, 27a, 14d, and 16d (I went for the better but not so nice looking aircraft) – and the winner is 27a.

    Thanks to Mr Plumb and Huntsman.

16. Enjoyable and not too taxing for me today. My favourites were the nurse’s red pants at 17a and Slammin’ Sam at 19a. It took me a while to put together 14d for some reason. Thanks to setter & Hintsman.

17. 1*/3.5*. This was light and fun as usual for a Tuesday.

    As others appear to have done, I initially wrote in the wrong second word for 5a, but thankfully 8d was pretty obvious so that mistake soon got fixed.

    A very tiny bleep was emitted by my repetition radar as “with” had been used to link two words of anagram fodder in both 17a & 4d.

    Many thanks to AP and to Hintsman.

18. 1* / 3* Almost Monday like, but nonetheless very enjoyable. Favourites include 16d fighter, 1a babies and the glasses at 15a.
    Many thanks to setter and Huntsman

19. Thanks to the Setter and Huntsman. Sat in the midday sun solving today’s puzzle. Madness! Came indoors with 2 clues outstanding and resorted to hints. Don’t understand 12a. Is “tease” a guy? Gary and Val

    1. guy
       transitive verb (slang)
       To turn to ridicule, make fun of

       I’m just teasing you

20. 1a….Is Coddles a synonym for Babies and thus a noun or is Babies a verb?

    1. You’ve changed your alias so this needed moderation. All the aliases you’ve used will work from now on.
       Babies is a verb.

21. For me a Typical Tuesday offering again this week. A couple made me laugh on the way through the grid. Filled this out bottom to top with NE last in

    1*/4*

    Favourites 1a, 23a, 26a, 3d, 16d & 17d — with winner 17d
    Laughs for 1a, 13a, 1d & 5d

    Thanks to AP & Huntsman

22. Like Madflower I had no idea about the golfer but the checkers helped, and also 7d was last one in. Otherwise it was fairly gentle for an airless, oppressive afternoon. I wonder if we shall see the meteor showers tonight? Many thanks to the Setter and the Hintsman.

23. Easy peasy. Nevertheless I had to check the excellent hints for some. I forgot that babies could be a verb. I had no idea who the golfer is (was?). The only one I can remember is Tiger W and Peter Alice(ss). Oh, and that irish chap. Also I didn’t twig the plane reference. I thought it might be someone from ancient (yawn) Greece.
    Thanks all

24. Not quite the ride in the park usually offered on Tuesday but a not too stressful, fun solve nevertheless. 5a and 7d were unparsed by me. West fell to first. Thanks Prof and Hintsman.

25. A tad harder than last week’s offering but like last week a lot came to me as general knowledge of words. The golfer was easy even for me with my visceral dislike of the sport. Whenever the best in the various sports are named Sam Snead’s name cropped up many times and not in golf programmes which I never watched. He even cropped up in the Peanuts cartoon.

    Thanks to Tally Ho and the Professor for an enjoyable after lunch crossword and read.

26. Very enjoyable and satisfying to complete, I did not know the golfer but did get it from the clue, otherwise it went smoothly.

    Many thanks to the setter and to Huntsman for the hints.

27. An enjoyable Tuesday, especially after not doing so well yesterday. Would have been all my own work if not for the 19a golfer and 12a guy – the latter not found anywhere in my thesaurus. Thanks to setter and Huntsman. I see that some of you are having weather similar to South Florida, where we will have a high of 91F today. Well that is our forecast but it is usually wrong anyway.

    1. The 12a ‘guy’ appears quite often so it is worth trying to remember it.

28. How do you get cove from cavern in 9a?

    1. Chambers has cove as “a cavern or rocky recess”

    2. I had the same query Lola but I now get it.

    3. Cove is a very common name in Cornwall. Prussia Cove, Mullion Cove etc.

29. Some inventive clueing, I thought. Not hard by any means, but I found this more fun the Huntsman. I’m with Gazza with liking 5a, but my favourite was the very Carry On-esque 17a. Thanks to the Prof for the puzzle and Huntsman for the Blog

30. I found this crossword difficult in parts so ???? ***/*** Favourites 10a & 14d ???? Thanks to AP and to the Huntsman

31. Late on parade because Scottish Power turned the electricity off this morning. It didn’t come back until 2 o’clock and then the internet went down. I had to wait for BT to sort it out. Marking an essay usually takes me 45 minutes but today I took three hours!

    Anyway, today’s offering from the professor was a very pleasant affair with plenty of satisfying solves. I didn’t know 1a meant babies but every day is a school day. Too many good clues making a selection for the podium difficult. If pushed, I will go for the nurse with red pants at 17a.

    Thanks you, Professor in the library for a fun challenge. Thank you, Hintsman for the Hunts.

    Thirty degrees in The Marches today and I was out in it planting Gazania. However, my neighbour was mowing his grass!

32. Good evening

    Thanks to a long break at work this afty/evening, I’ve been able to sit with a brew and knock out today’s crozzie with only a couple of little stumbles. I genuinely believed I’d have to peek at today’s hintingtons to get my last to fall, 19a, until the name came up my back out of nowhere. 2d was a nifty little bit of misdirection, because I was convinced I was looking for a name, not a verb. 7d is my COTD.

    Many thanks to the Prof and to Huntsman.

33. A dnf due to not having heard of 15a. I’ve only heard of Tiger Wood because of his turbulent private life.

    Thanks to all.

34. Enjoyable puzzle from the Prof … the raunchier fighter is always welcome, but can’t separate 14D and 23A for super smooth clues. VMT to the Prof and Huntsman.

35. Anybody else having issues with the DT crossword website this evening? I found, even though still logged in to the main Telegraph site the puzzles site shows me logged out and if I try to login it still remains logged out. My Telegraph and puzzles subscription don’t run out until November and looking at my profile it shows I have a puzzles sub. Fails on two browsers on this computer and on my Android phone (website, not app).
    So I have not been able to start today’s puzzles….

    1. No problem accessing Puzzles Site for me (laptop, Windows 11, Firefox).

       I’ll email you today’s puzzle.

       1. Thanks Gazza for the pdf, that didn’t cause me two many problems even though I had to do it the old way with pen and paper… Guess I will have to be on the blower to Telegraph Towers tomorrow as it looks like they have turned off my crossword sub.

    2. I am the same – using a MacBook. Resorted to my iPad in the end.

       1. Thanks Jan. Same this morning, just tried ringing their help line and having gone through all the preliminary selection garbage was told I was number 11 in the queue…. Hopefully the 12 before me were also telling them they have a problem! By the way, the ‘notify me of follow up comments by email’ option below seems to not be working?

36. I’m not a complete outlier as one or two others found this tricky. On completion I couldn’t see why but that’s no consolation. I struggled to get a start struggled in the middle and at the end. I kicked myself a number of times for failing to see what should have been obvious. I’ll try and get a grip of myself tomorrow. Favourite was 6d. Thanks to AP and Huntsman.

37. 99.9% solved, defeated by 7d. Totally the wrong end of the stick. So that is my clue of the day along with 16d, which I took to be the partner to the Spitfire in the B of B. It was the mount of Sergeant James ‘Ginger’ Lacey, who achieved 18 kills, plus a few probables, making him the second highest fighter ace in Fighter Command during said battle.

    1. Sorry but forgot to mention the usual thanks to the setter and to Huntsman for the hints.

38. Unlike Monday’s puzzle I managed to complete this on the same day as starting. I initially entered a wrong answer for 1 down that seemed plausible even though I couldn’t parse it so didn’t get the confetti at first attempt. I will g for 15a as favourite, thanks to the setter and Huntsman

39. 5 across was the clue that stumped me, but as usual so obvious.

    1. A third change of alias – you used your name and Angle Grinder before – sent you into moderation

40. 19a Snead ? Well, I never. How did that get past the DT referee? Meanwhile, who is one of the greatest DT cryptic crossoword solvers, who always avoids reading the daily hints – Hugh Sawyer. Who knew?

    1. Hi Hugh

       Specialised knowledge often pops up in a cryptic. I have learnt so many words over the years because of it, especially all things flighty and floral where I am seriously lacking.

       As long as the solver can arrive at the answer then all is well. Sad (unhappy) around the even letters of ended is within reach of most solvers.

       That’s why the powers-that-be @ The DT gave it the thumbs-up.

41. 2*/4* …
    liked 16D “Raunchier, volatile old fighter (9)”

42. I usually find the so-called ‘gentler’ puzzles at the beginning of the week more difficult than the others. We all have such different wavelengths.
    I really enjoyed this AP cryptic, and for once it didn’t give me too much of a struggle.
    Top of my podium is 19a. It brings back many memories, being a familiar name in our household. Both my late parents were very keen golfers.
    I also liked many other clues, including 11a, 23a, 1d, 2d and 6d.
    Many thanks to the setter for the enjoyable cryptic and to Huntsman for the illustrated review.

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