Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31131
Hints and Tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** Enjoyment ****
I don’t think there’s much doubt about the identity of today’s setter based on the smooth surfaces and the inclusion of a Scottish football team. Thanks to him for a very enjoyable puzzle.
I’ve given the puzzle four stars for difficulty because I thought some of the wordplay was quite tricky – I’ll be interested to know whether you agree or not.
I have to go for an eye test this morning which involves drops in the eyes so I’ll probably be unable to read your comments for a couple of hours.
In the hints below the definition element of each clue has been underlined, anagrams are CAPITALISED and indicator words (e.g. anagram indicators) are in brackets. The answers are concealed under the Click Here buttons.
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Across
1a International doctor persuaded to follow women’s sporting event (9)
WIMBLEDON: the abbreviation for International, one of our usual abbreviated doctors and a phrasal verb (3,2) meaning persuaded or beguiled all follow the abbreviation for “women’s”.
6a Decrepit person, briefly resident of the Everglades? (4)
CROC: an informal word for an elderly decrepit person without its last letter (briefly).
10a Bar outperforming others to some extent (5)
INGOT: hidden (to some extent) in the clue.
11a Genuine supporter gutted Arsenal lost of course (9)
NATURALLY: start with an adjective meaning genuine or uncontrived and add a synonym of supporter or accomplice without the outer letters (gutted) of A[rsena]L.
12a Every so often taunt got Liverpool player disciplined (7)
TUTORED: the odd (every so often) letters of ‘taunt got’ followed by the nickname of a Liverpool football club player (based on the colour of their kit).
13a City trusting to back emporium’s opening as intended (7)
FIANCÉE: stick together the postcode of the City of London and an adjective meaning trusting or gullible. Now reverse that (to back) and append the opening letter of emporium.
14a Circumvent folk aunt condemned (8)
OUTFLANK: an anagram (condemned) of FOLK AUNT.
16a Develop spacecraft door (5)
HATCH: double definition, the first a verb to develop or concoct (e.g. a cunning plan).
19a Perhaps Capricorn right to drop subject (5)
TOPIC: a word for a parallel of latitude (of which Capricorn is one of the two examples) without (to drop) an abbreviation for right.
21a Instruction from detective to make complaint (8)
DISORDER: a word for a medical complaint comes from an instruction from a senior detective (2’1,5).
24a Avoid going near store belonging to female (4,3)
KEEP OFF: a verb to store or stock followed by a preposition meaning ‘belonging to’ and the abbreviation for female.
25a Operative employed by the police? (2,5)
IN FORCE: this could mean on the payroll of a police organisation.
27a Gemstone of ours, quite unusual (9)
TURQUOISE: an anagram (unusual) of OURS QUITE.
28a Type of orange from eastern Mediterranean, mostly round (5)
NAVEL: start with an old word for the eastern area of the Mediterranean, drop its last letter (mostly) and reverse (round) what remains.
29a Picked up which people besides Rwandan? (4)
HUTU: Homophones (picked up) of a) which people? and b) besides or additionally produce the name of an ethnic group of people.
30a Unknown Parisian is ready to perform Beatles’ song (9)
YESTERDAY: assemble one of the algebraic unknowns, the third person French verb meaning ‘is’ and an anagram (to perform) of READY.
Down
1d Garment wife requires one to wear at Ascot surprisingly (9)
WAISTCOAT: the genealogical abbreviation for wife followed by the Roman numeral for one which is contained in (to wear) an anagram (surprisingly) of AT ASCOT.
2d Ability of small child that’s pronounced (5)
MIGHT: a homophone of a small child often used in an expression of sympathy such as ‘the poor little ****’.
3d Misprint when drunk on flipping limitless wine (7)
LITERAL: an informal word for drunk followed by the reversal (flipping) of a type of red wine without its outer letters (limitless).
4d Before golf, row with Vietnamese ready for fight (4-4)
DING-DONG: preceding the letter that golf represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet we need a word for a row or loud noise. Finish with the Vietnamese currency (ready).
5d Declare company finally meets match regarding rises (6)
NOTIFY: weld together the final letter of company, a verb to match or suit and a preposition meaning regarding. Now reverse the lot (rises, in a down clue).
7d Leaving Yorkshire essentially, funny Leeds actor moved house (9)
RELOCATED: an anagram (funny) of LEEDS ACTOR after we’ve dropped the essential (central) letter of Yorkshire.
8d Not all publicly denigrate Scottish football club (5)
CLYDE: hidden (not all) in the clue.
9d Opening note composer pens (6)
BREACH: the name of a German composer contains (pens) one of the notes of tonic sol-fa.
15d Oddly unseen, other rocket site erected’s very hush-hush (3,6)
TOP SECRET: just the even letters (oddly unseen) of ‘other rocket’ are followed by a synonym of site or location. Now reverse all that (erected, in a down clue).
17d Fooling around with royal he’s freely admitting pressure (9)
HORSEPLAY: an anagram (freely) of ROYAL’S HE containing the physics abbreviation for pressure.
18d Smart quality of model turning up restricting lunches (8)
TIDINESS: the reversal (turning up, in a down clue) of a verb to model or pose contains (restricting) a verb that can mean lunches.
20d Plant 6 tubs at intervals (6)
CROCUS: the answer to 6a and regular letters (at intervals) of ‘tubs’.
22d It can be taken out of alcohol shop, Alice discovered (7)
OFFENCE: start with a shop selling alcohol for consumption elsewhere and take out the inner (dis-covered) letters of [a]LIC[e].
23d Figure everybody’s content to go gathering fine fruit (6)
EFFIGY: the outer letters (content to go) of E[verybod]Y contains (gathering) the pencil abbreviation for fine and a soft fruit.
24d Posh dip ultimately removed from sauce boat (5)
KETCH: remove the abbreviation meaning posh and the ultimate letter of dip from a type of (normally red) sauce.
26d Delayed by large crowd, daughter wandered about (5)
ROVED: start with a word for a number of animals herded together and delay the genealogical abbreviation for daughter from the start to the end.
The clues which appealed to me most were 11a, 28a, 4d and 22d. Which one(s) took your fancy?
The Quick Crossword pun: MOO + DEEP + LOSE = MOODY BLUES
I struggled with today’s offering but it is Thursday so no complaints. There were a few I didn’t understand so will need the hints to explain them. For example, I cannot see how “Vietnamese” comes into 4d unless it has something to do with the second word. Neither do I understand the large crowd in 26d but I will probably slap my forehead when I see the hints. My COTD is the unknown Parisian performing a song by The Beatles.
Thank you, setter for the brain mangling. Thank you, Gazza for the hints.
I liked the Quickie pun because they were the soundtrack to my time at university and I’ve been a fan ever since.
Well done Steve. Vietnamese readies are its currency, the second word. The first three letters of the first word are a synonym of Row, followed by g for golf. The solution is another word for a fight……
Isn’t that what my hint says?
Not again. My apologies Gazza, I haven’t read the hints yet and I guess Steve hasn’t either. Please delete my comment and accept my apologies.
Umm, not knowing the orange blocked my thoughts on the one down which shares the middle letter. 2 short today. Nice challenge for a train ride to Manchester today.
Wonderful mix of the mild to the hard and nicely thought out. COTD for me was 13ac
Steve – reading the hints before commenting can be beneficial
True but that would let Conor or RD in. 🤣
You are 100% correct. Mea Culpa.
Lots of ‘guess then go back to see why’ for me today, especially in the SE corner, never met ‘Naif’ as a word before, and didn’t know misprint meant 3d (if indeed that’s what the clue means)
Still can’t see why 15d works, or 28a for that matter, so will need to read a lot of hints today! (and to see where the ‘S’ comes from in 21a)
Last one in was the aforementioned 3d, a toughie clue if ever I saw one.
Off for a lie down in a darkened room now……..
4*/5*. Hooray! It looks very much to me as if it’s Dream Team Thursday!
Today’s back-pager was certainly a challenge particularly in the NE corner but it was a real cracker; a joy to solve from start to finish with smooth surfaces throughout and some delightfully complex parsing to unravel.
Almost every clue is ticked and, after a struggle, 11a, 29a & 23d are my podium choices.
Even without 8d, which confirms my thoughts about the identity of the compiler, I am as sure as I can be that this is the work of Silvanus.
Many thanks to Silvanus (?) and to Gazza.
And I thought I was going to be first today!
Aha! I see we have another solver who wants to be part of the 11:01 club.
Good morning.
This was fun and deserved a bit more thought than recent X Words, but by no means difficult. 1a and 1d made great use of W but 1a is a masterpiece. Solving it was easy and when I parsed it, I loved it. As such it is my CoTD.
There are plenty more to like such as 4d but I am always interested to read what others like. Many thanks to setter and himself/herself for the hints which were not nee
I didn’t find this as tough as Gazza which is highly unusual for me! A **/**** although there are many times when others find a puzzle easy and I do not. My favourite was the ingenious 22d although 4d was excellent. Thanks to Gazza for fully explaining the answer to 29a and out Thursday setter.
A big step up in difficulty compared to the last few days, with much engineering needed to parse several clues.
The sporting event at 1a was cleverly constructed and I liked the mostly eastern Med orange in 28a. The limitless wine in 3d and what can be taken in 22d also got ticks.
4d has to be my COTD though, a fine term to describe the clue’s definition and for the fact it raised a smile when it brought the great Leslie Phillips to mind.
Top stuff, my thanks to our setter and Gazza.
A splendid start to Sade’s 2026 campaign with the usual suspects on display plus some other nice bits and bobs (I love that expression).
I liked the hat-trick of footy clues with his customary nod to the sweaties in 8d.
I had to think twice about the synonym for ‘besides’ but got it in the end.
Plenty to choose for the pody but I’ll go with 30a (excellent construction for a clue that with keep RogB happy), 3d (though I don’t know why limitless wine is a problem) and 4d.
MT to the aforementioned and Gazza.
3*/5*
Sweaties, Tom! 😆
You’re pushing it, mate!
Rude, Tom
Apologies if some think it’s rude. I love the term. So, I thought I’d run it up the flagpole to see who’d salute it.
I nicked that expression from the marketing guy in the truly outstanding Twelve Angry Men. What a film!
Along with Casablanca, it is always in my top 3 with many others constantly battling it out for the third spot, depending on my mood.
I was pleased to see that it’s in the top 5 films on IMDB along with the two Godfathers, Shawshank and Pulp Fiction.
I don’t care where you say you got it or who you said said it.
It is rude and inappropriate.
Oh gosh. I am so sorry, OM.
Apparently, Sassenachs is seen as a derogatory term but I love it. Such a satisfying word to say.
To me, it’s all harmless fun but I guess it’s not the case for some.
Apologies, once more.
Well said OM
Thanks Senf
12 Angry Men a film that’s as good as filmed in real time come to think of it
I do love a one scene film which it almost is.
Me too. I was at the cinema today watching Ethan Hawke giving a superb performance playing Lorenz Hart spiralling into despair following his split from Richard Rogers in Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon. I’ll be astonished if he doesn’t get a Best Actor Oscar nomination.
Thanks for that, Hoots. I’ll try to check it out.
I’ve just booked tickets for Hamnet as I’ve heard great things.
Jess Buckley is dynamite and will pick up an Oscar. It’s a matter of time.
I’d like to refer those who are castigating you to the cartoon in the hint for 22d.
Hi STB
I assume you are sporting some fine face furniture with your splendid alias?
I’m a huge fan of these sort of nicknames: Erik the Red, Ivan the Terrible, Ivar the Boneless, Charles the Bold and not forgetting Nogbad the Bad, of course.
Gotta luv a bit of Oliver Postgate!
I’ve had a full beard for over fifty years now, but I’m not sure you could call my face furniture “fine” nowadays. My Good Lady has persuaded me that an elderly retired gentleman needs to look tidier, so my barber trims it using a Number 4 setting. In the old days I had a beard you could lose a badger in.
Great expression! (as are yours, Mr Mister)
My eyebrows give Dennis Healey’s a run for their money. So much so that I get them threaded every two months by a woman that my daughter introduced me to! I get all sorts of funny looks by her customers when I go.
Talking of every two months: bimonthly and biweekly are such fun to use as they cause chaos.
The joys of the English language.
Threaded eyebrows.
There’s so much I look forward to learning about when I grow up.
Good shout.
Hunt the Thimble and Paul the Other One. No one took them seriously, of course.
I’m not a fan of a pile on but I rather agree with Ora. My mother came, from Ireland, to England as a teenager in the late 1940s and was subjected to a breathtaking level of abuse and name-calling from ‘friends’ and colleagues in the name of harmless fun, because of her accent. It isn’t fun when it hurts people.
Hi T
I had no ideas that it caused that much offence. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve been called a sassenach softy when I venture north of Hadrian’s finest but maybe it’s the people I mix with.
Giving it out, as I do, it’s bound to come back…with interest.
I can only apologise again.
Tom, sorry to wade in but I think Terence makes a good point. I think you have to be careful when taking liberties with peoples’ names, some will see it as a bit of harmless fun, others won’t. Unless you know someone very well, there’s always a risk of offending them.
Hi MR
OM and T are talking about my comment about 8d not playing around with someone’s alias on this blog.
.
Hadrians Wall isn’t the England / Scotland border
Well, I never. I had no ideas.
Thank you for that.
My day is full.
Not sure if you’re being sarky or not, it’s just something that people assume. There’s a lot of Northumberland and Cumbria north of the wall
No, I had no ideas and am amazed that the border is 70 miles beyond it.
It’s a great bit of information.
👍
Definitely a very challenging puzzle for me with some difficult wkrdplay. It was guess and reverse engineer the parsing for me too. There were sone geeat anagrams, 14a abd 27a, being especially fine.I also liked the 2oa homonym and the 30a Lego song. Ma y thanks to the compiler for an absorbing guzzle And to Gazza for the hints, some of which I shall noww read ro illuminate the parsing.
I found this quite tough and certainly wouldn’t disagree with Gazza’s rating. It was one of those puzzles where a bit of doggedness paid off in the end and there was a feeling of satisfaction when the grid was full. Many candidates for cotd including 1a/1d, 28a and 9d. The award however goes to the clever 4d. Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.
Crikey that was tough. Completion took longer than the previous 3 back-pagers combined or the Tues & Wed Toughies. Wasn’t sure if it was just me so somewhat relieved to see Gazza has awarded it a 4* difficulty rating. I found filling the grid no easy task & parsing ‘em a real challenge so reckon it was a puzzle maybe more suitable to the other spot. As ever hugely enjoyable, great surfaces & impeccably clued throughout with ticks all over the shop. Particularly liked two of the wee ones at 6&29a.
Thanks to Silvanus & to Gazza
This took me as long as an average Toughie, but no complaints as it was beautifully clued throughout and cheered up a cold, miserable Shropshire morning. There were so many great surfaces, so picking a winner is arbitrary, but 4d gets my nod.
Many thanks to Silvanus for a first-rate puzzle, and to Gazza.
I found this quite a challenge and needed Gazza’s hints to parse a number of them.
Hadn’t heard of NAIF before.
Top picks for me were 19a, 24d and 1a.
Thanks to Gazza and the setter.
Quite a brain mangler from Mr Smooth, especially in the SE, and interesting to note that he dug into the depths of the fourth tier of the SPFL, that’s Scottish League 2, to find 8d – 3.5*/4.5*
Candidates for favourite – 16a, 19a, 20a, and 9d – and the winner is 16a.
Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.
I found it challenging to get started, but once I got the SW in the rest flowed slowly, albeit with much head scratching. I am another who had to reverse engineer the answers to get the parsing and then confirm with Gazza’s hints. In my book this was more of a weekend prize puzzle standard.
Some nice anagrams and clever wordplay.
My favourites were 1a, 13a and 17d.
****/****
MT to Gazza and the setter
Well I’m glad it wasn’t just me. I’d dreamt about failing to complete a crossword (yes, that’s how exciting my life has been recently) and then found myself faced with something that seemed almost impenetrable at first. Nevertheless, I made some headway thanks to Glaswegians, Floridians, Rwandans and the Beatles and eventually managed to complete what I thought was an excellent puzzle with some very clever (too clever for me in places) wordplay. 1a and 22d were among my favourites, although I could choose almost any of the clues today. 13a was LOI and I would probably have never got there without the checkers. Thanks very much to the setter and to Gazza for some much needed help with various bits of parsing. I can’t think of the word “Levant” without hearing it stuttered by Nickolas Grace as Anthony Blanche.
‘I can’t think of the word “Levant” without hearing it stuttered by Nickolas Grace as Anthony Blanche.’
Well remembered T – wouldn’t have been able to recall the actor who played him but a great performance
Not much pleasure for me today. Struggled through but failed to parse many of the clues….too convoluted for me.
Needed the hints for the misprint and the figure.
Thanks to the setter and to Gazza.
Dreich here. We are enveloped in freezing fog.
Tough.Some excellent clues 3 of which needed which needed a lot of GK .I didn’t realise Crocs inhabited the everglades I think alligators are the reptiles that are found here ,along with snakes ? Last one in 23 because I could not see the solution to 25 ,which I regard as a rogue clue , probably suited to Friday’s Toughie? Still , who am I to challenge . Very difficult to pick a favourite but 22d and 30a certainly in the frame . Thanks to all .
George said exactly the same thing about crocs not being in the Everglades but it has to be the answer so I googled it. Every day a school day!
Yes, crocs in the Everglades was a surprise for me too, so I had to go and check to see if it was correct. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_crocodile
**** / ***
A big step up in difficulty with 4 ‘pencilled in’ in the NE before inking over them once 5d became apparent. Last to go were 26d and 28a, the wandered and the orange. Big head scratches throughout. Ticks went to the 1a event and the superb 4d phrase and that was even before I remembered Leslie Philips saying it!!
Thanks to Silvanus (I presume) and Gazza for the 9(!) parsings I had to check.
I know Silvanus dislikes the “misplaced Toughie” evaluation, but that’s how I see this, no matter what he intended. 3d is an obvious example. ****/**
I’ve surprised myself by solving half of The Toughie by Beam. Perhaps it’s because I am a lot better at RayT’s offerings now than I used to be.
I too found this clever crossword a bit of a teaser and needed the hints for the parsing on a couple of clues that befuddled me.
6A triggered my inner pedant as I pondered what crocodiles had to do with the Everglades, but since I see no one else was troubled by this I realise I may need to get a life…
Favourites today were 1A and 30A.
Thanks to the ingenious setter and to Gazza for his insightful parsing help.
I’m gld tou mentioned the crocodiles((?) in rhe Everglades. I was puzzled too, having watched a few programmes about the hunters, who keep down the numbers of alligators in that part of the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_crocodile
Wow – that was difficult and I needed a little help with 13a. I couldn’t parse 28a and 26d although both answers are correct
4*/5*
MT to Silvanus and Gazza for the explanations.
1a and 30a favourites today.
Seemed to be on the right wavelength on this one, except the eastern Med – couldn’t work out why the answer was what it was. Starting the day with a crossword is fab!
What a tricky little number that was, it took me ages to burrow in and in the end I had 5 unparsed answers (which fortunately I knew were correct as digital edition tells me if wrong). Thanks to the hints I now see the why. The terms in 13a and 28 a were new to me so I have learnt some new words. All that said it was a brilliantly satisfying puzzle to complete and I had 4d as my favourite.
Dense fog here in the Chilterns with a weather warning for snow later (the old snow got washed away yesterday).
Many thanks to the setter and to Gazza for the hints.
It is indeed Dream Team day – just the thing to fortify us before the French storm disrupts our lives for the next few days. Mr Smooth kicks things off with a chewy but satisfying puzzle in which it was parsing the wretched rocket site that threatened to derail me. Favoured clues here were 1&21a plus 4,22&24d. Smiles for the 29a people and also for the Quickie pun – makes a nice change to get a group that I know and like!
Many thanks to Silvanus and to dear Gazza for the review and cartoons – particularly the one for 1a which really made me smile.
As this is the off week for RayT this week, the setter is a mystery. So is the parsing and the answers to the clues the setter has composed.
Even with the answers I managed the parsing is just not fathomable to me on most of the clues.
Not for me today. No fun, no enjoyment with this one.
Glad I’m not the only one who feels this way.
As the Hintsman said. Crikey. But oh the joy of cracking those I managed before turning to Gazza’s hints. I looked up misprint – that’s another bit of knowledge to cram into my poor brain. I had a horrid morning with George and was in meltdown by the time we sat down to lunch and the guzzle. Anyway, the district nurse has agreed to call in this afternoon and oh. Joy, it’s off to Addenbrookes tomorrow at 3.30 no doubt in the height of the storm. No wonder we love our guzzle. I did quite a bit of guessing and then reverse parsing, I thought 7d very clever and the wretched orange was my last in. Many thanks to Mr Setter for the struggle and to Gazza for the lovely hints.
Tough – as it should be on a Thursday, sadly my brain wasn’t able to cope with the step up in difficulty so was unable to fully parse three or four. Definitely a school day regarding 3d. Completed but doesn’t count without the parsing – so thank you to Gazza for providing enlightenment.
Thanks to the setter also of course – too good for me today.
Blimey a real game of two halves, slow going on East side but all the more satisfying as the lights gradually got filled in… that said, 28A on West side got the better of me. I picked up on ‘picked up’, but didn’t arrive at the synonyms for ‘which people besides’ 🙈
I needed these hints to explain the parsing of a few – 13A, 28A, 20D, 26D – and learned a couple of new words in the process.one of the many things I love about cryptics.
Liked the Scottish football subject of 8D, the royal gossip surface of 17D, the overall challenge of 28A (it beat me but I’m better schooled for it) and favourite was 30A, though it did not make my personal list of Top 50 Beatles’ songs.
Thank you Gazza and setter 👏🏽
Setter here, many thanks to Gazza for his Hints and Tips and to all solvers and commenters. I hope that 2026 has begun well for you.
It’s a strange coincidence that the two football teams mentioned in 11a and 12a are playing each other tonight. I’m beginning to run out of SPFL teams to include but there will be at least one or two more appearing during the year.
See you all again soon.
Thank you, Sylvanus, for a real brain mangler. It brought me right down to earth with a bang.
Looking forward to many more struggles, I am sure it is good for me!
This was a battle from start to finish. I suspected it would be when I saw the rammed clues section. All the words Beam had saved seem to have found their way here… No complaints about the clues/parsing – all fair if not straightforward. I first met Levant in the context of the species of sparrowhawk….
4d gets my prize, but more for Leslie Phillips.
Thanks to Sylvanus for a comprehensive work-out and to Gazza for the smiles
I often finish this crossword but never answered so few clues in this one. I will have to learn the setter’s “language”. Soo frustrating but thank you for the solutions, not that I understood most of those either.
Welcome to the blog
Welcome, Judy and please stick with us and all will become clear. 😊
Today was a proper beastie.
A dnf as I needed the answer to 3 clues.
Many of the clues I did get required the hints to parse.
Thanks to all.
Snowing really hard in Leicestershire, might be a case for engaging 4WD tomorrow. Not only did I not know 28a and 3d in that sense I couldn’t parse them either so a double whammy, needed the hint to parse 15d as well. Still I got there in the end. A number of contenders for favourite but I’ll go with 1a. Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.
Started this one late this evening and finding a bit hard going so popped in here to see how others found it , so feeling vindicated. About half way through at the moment and will resist looking at the hints for now. I will say my thanks to Silvanus and Gazza now in case I don’t finished it tonight.
I don’t normally tackle The Toughie, especially later in the week when they become harder. I do look at those earlier in the week sometimes and have found them to be amenable on occasion. Taking on a Thursday Toughie has always been out of the question thus far. However, I am a fan of RayT/Beam so I thought I would have a go.
My motto being “If you don’t try, you won’t learn.”
Not an unaided finish by a wide margin because I needed hints for about half the puzzle but I was encouraged by the half I did solve without aid.
Therefore, I have resolved to start looking at Toughies more and using the hints to analyse the clues in an effort to improve my solving skills.
Good on you, SC!
It’s a great attitude.
I’m in the same boat – I was very surprised to finish Tuesday’s Toughie, without needing hints.
The hints are such a golden helper / learning tool, and to Judy’s comment, if they didn’t clear it up for you on some clues, I know this community would happily clarify – I recall asking such questions over the years 🙂
There are no 6a’s in the everglades.
There are no 6a’s in the everglades. Okay, I’ve checked and there are both species. A big surprise.
Tough and, for me, not very enjoyable. Clues a bit too contrived I thought. I’ve never seen that spelling of Naive before. I needed Gazza’s hints to explain 9 of my answers which just about sums up my completion of this one.
Well worth its 4 stars! VMT Silvanus for a serious workout, and to Gazza for explanations.
Ive been encouraged to leave a comment, ( for the first time ever!) Been learning how to do cryptics since the pandemic: still a lot to learn, but know enough now to have favourite setters, and not-so-favourites. Thanks for the tips when all else fails.
Welcome to the blog, Heather.
Now that you’ve introduced yourself I hope that you’ll be a regular commenter.
Welcome, Heather and it’s good to hear you are progressing. It’s a great journey and the blog is a great help. Please keep commenting. 😊
4*/4* …
liked 27A “Gemstone of ours, quite unusual (9)”
Thank you for inviting newbies to leave a comment.
We often need a little assistance with the last 1 or 2 clues, and your help in explaining how to parse the answers is invaluable and can always be relied upon to clarify the logic.
This crossword was no exception and we needed your expertise on 28a
Thanks
Welcome to the blog, Andrew.
Now that you’ve introduced yourself I hope that you’ll become a regular commenter.
If there’s anything you don’t understand after reading the hints never be afraid to ask about it.