Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31134
Hints and tips by Smylers
Happy new year, gang! Yes, I know that feels a long time ago now, but these are my first hints of 2026. Also Happy Kiss a Ginger Day — easy for me to celebrate, because I had the foresight to marry a redhead; to those less fortunate, best wishes for finding a suitable way to mark the occasion.
We had a good time as a family between Christmas and New Year, visiting Saltaire’s Living Advent Calendar, seeing the Rock n Roll Panto at Leeds City Varieties, going ice-skating on the temporary outdoor rink in Leeds centre, and visiting Yorkshire Sculpture Park. There are no prizes for guessing which of those we were doing when I slipped over and broke my left arm. Fortunately I am right-handed, and we were right next to a hospital at the time. I’ve been sorted out with a fetching purple cast, it doesn’t really hurt any more, and I’m learning what I can do single-handed.
However, it has slowed down my typing. I’m writing this introductory waffle and the book review at the bottom at leisure on Sunday evening. Apologies if the bit in between — the hints and explanations for the clues in today’s Telegraph Crossword and the reason this blog actually exists! — are not quite their usual selves, but it’ll be all I was able to type before starting work.
Across
1a Playing Riga, go around European country (7)
georgia: play with the letters of riga go and the abbrev for european.
5a Forces English soccer to reform (7)
coerces: reform the order of e soccer
9a Rod perhaps gets water on flipping paintings etc (7)
stewart: we need a verb meaning gets water on or moistens, then to flip it backwards. a synonym in a crossword must be substitutable for the word cluing it, so given the verb form in this clue (third-person present tense), even without working out which synonym is meant, we instantly know what its final letter must be — which, when flipped, handily becomes the first letter of the answer. end with what paintings are an example of.
10a Fashion designer with a postgraduate degree makes a scene (7)
diorama: lego: the surname of a fashion designer; a from the clue; the abbreviation of the qualification somebody gets from one of the degrees one can do after they’ve already graduated in a first degree. the second a in the clue seems unnecessary to me.
11a Racecourse favourite’s special welcome (3,6)
red carpet: we need the name of a seaside town in north yorkshire that i presume has a racecourse followed by an informal term for being somebody’s favourite. then move where the space is. does the presence of a north yorks reference indicate x-type is today’s setter?
12a I’m not sure about that Parisian’s friend’s taste (5)
umami: what somebody may say to indicate they aren’t sure about something is followed by the word a parisian would use for friend. usually when this answer crops up it turns out to be a new word to a few commenters; is that you today?
13a Stuff from the dairy, stuff full of energy (5)
cream: stuff as a verb, physics energy inside it
15a Distrust of South American private eye, one visiting crook (9)
suspicion: lego: south abbrev; american abbrev; usual detective; usual criminal with roman one inside it
17a Moon affected little sea (9)
satellite: the spelling of the final two words have been affected and now say something else. i spent some time trying to think of the name of a specific moon, but it’s a general term we want here,
19a Calls former England goalkeeper back, ignoring the first answer (5)
names: we need the surname of a goalkeeper who played for the England men’s football team in the 90s, then to remove from it the first instance of the letter that indicates an answer (which itself tips us off that the goalie’s name has at least 2 of that letter in it). finally, put it back, so it goes right to left.
22a High floor with no walls in White House? (5)
igloo: remove the walls, that is the outer letters, from each of the first two words in the clue, enter what remains, and smile at the lovely definition.
23a Performer can depart after getting changed (3,6)
tap dancer: change order of can depart
25a One who’s no longer working on Scottish island (7)
retiree: on the subject of is followed by an island in the inner hebrides that i hadn’t heard of, but the definition is obvious so you can get it from that then look up the island.
26a No love for gold hi-fi, which is harsh (7)
austere: join together the chemical symbol for gold and another name for a hi-fi; remove from that the letter that looks like the number which is referred to as love in some sports.
27a Recycling an empty for a fee (7)
payment: recycle the letters of an empty and use them to manufacture a different word
28a Barbie’s boyfriend crossing long room (7)
kitchen: put the male toy doll round the outside of long as in a desire for something
Down
1d Fool not entirely following chat about your stomach (7)
gastric: to fool or hoodwink somebody but not all of it goes after a slang term for chatting.
2d Late, drove badly and periodically fumed (7)
overdue: put the letters of drove in a bad order, then take letters from fumed at equal intervals. given how many letters are in drove and how many are needed for the answer, simple subtraction tells us how many we need from fumed, which helps with working out which of its letters to start on.
3d By the sound of it, gather in country (5)
ghana: a term meaning gather (usually in the sense of becoming aware of facts) sounds like this country. they have identical IPA notations in the dictionary i checked, so i won’t be accepting any questions from people claiming they say them differently.
4d Somewhat mean tip, as tiny course (9)
antipasti: lurking across those little words
5d Bad guy and French trainee policeman? (5)
cadet: term for a man who bishaves dishonourably is followed by and in french. the ? indicates policeman is an example; the answer also applies to some other trainees.
6d Leaderless uprising in development (9)
evolution: take the leading letter off a word for an uprising. when i was a student in leeds there was a bar named one of those words and an unrelated nightclub named the other. i mainly avoided being confused by this by not being the kind of person who went to either.
7d Some butter absorbed by spiced tea bread (7)
chapati: a unit of butter goes inside an indian tea to form this unleavened bread
8d Figure in hiding over Paddington? (7)
station: start with the singular of the shortened form for pieces of numerical data; followed with in from the clue into which you’ve placed the cricket abbrev for over
14d Spice girl barely tours north-eastern Australian city (9)
melbourne: lego: the name of one of the spice girls — not their spice nickname, but the shortened form they were known by; tours from the clue made bare by removing its outer letters; abbrev for north-eastern.
16d Go for a stroll when you’re out for the night? (9)
sleepwalk: cryptic definition
17d Sound contented – it’s revolutionary support for a jockey (7)
stirrup: a noise of being contented (used metaphorically for humans or literally in some animals) is followed by the word its from the clue then the combination is made revolutionary by putting it up the grid.
18d Writer told story, omitting every fourth character (7)
tolstoy: a fun type of wordplay i haven’t seen before! it tells us exactly what to do: take some words from the clue and enter them in the grid but leave out every 4th letter.
20d American subject receiving award for play (7)
macbeth: not somebody who lives in america but a school subject taught there. well, it’s taught everywhere, but in the usa it’s called something slightly different from its uk name. into it insert the abbrev of one of those honours that folk can be awarded by the monarch.
21d Diagnoses ultimately encourage doctor (7)
surgeon: start with the ultimate letter of diagnoses. follow with a phrase that means encourage.
23d Stealing something sold by a newsagent (5)
theft: think of products that are specifically sold by newsagents. we need the name of one in particular, in its abbreviated form (albeit also with an extra word added to how it’s written on the item). remove the space and normalize the capitalization to get the answer. note the definition in the clue is a gerund, so we’re looking for a noun not a verb.
24d Ace before second part of tennis match is strong point (5)
ASSET: lego: card symbol for ace; science abbrev for second(s); and a subdivision of a tennis match.
Quickie Pun
in today’s Quick Crossword, 1a was a new word to me. say it and the next two answers out loud (indicated by their clues being in italics) and hear yourself saying another word or phrase:
jain + seem + awe = jane seymour
Recent Reading
Janice Hallett is a maestro of the unreliable narrator: her books cleverly weave together documents and correspondence of various forms which both tell the story and give the reader an entirely partial — in both senses — view of what actually happened. Sometimes reading unconventionally formatted novels can be hard going, but I didn’t find that at all with The Killer Question.
It’s set around a weekly pub quiz. We see text messages between the couple running the pub (one of whom writes the quiz questions themselves, taking it very seriously), and group chats between various quiz teams, along with lists of the question rounds each week, who was on each team, and the final scores. Is one of the teams cheating or just very good at quizzing? Also appearing are some messages and documents from a few years ago, as we learn about some characters’ pasts, along with police reports and records of interviews once crimes are suspected. Different characters come across in the idiosyncrasies in the way they choose to write their messages, and their tone in responding to others.
This had me gripped, trying to find any opportunity to read more of it, even being prepared to lug the hardback around (though I utterly deny that my injury was intentional, as useful as it was to get so many pages read while waiting in A&E with an ice pack on my wrist). The ending both completely took me by surprise yet also (once revealed) seemed inevitable: original, satisfying, and making me wonder how I hadn’t thought of it. One of the best mystery books I’ve ever read. Highly recommended to all fans of crime fiction.
What a great start to the week and a PB for me. It did appear to be heavy on the anagrams but I haven’t counted. My greatest obstacle was myself because I spelt 5a, 17a and 4d incorrectly. I put that down to the fact I’m feeling off colour this morning. It was a happy coincidence that I came across the word at 12a only last night as I perused an Asian recipe book. Far too many good clues to be able to pick a favourite and contenders are the flipping paintings at 9a, the White House at 22a and the nighttime stroll at 16d. However, I’m going for Barbie’s boyfriend at 28a as COTD.
I was about to complain the city in 14d is not in the north-east of the country until the penny dropped!
Thank you, setter for a fun start to the week. Thank you, Smylers for the hints.
it would be clearer that the 14d city isn’t in the ne if the dozy hinter had remembered to underline the definition!
(now fixed. thanks.)
Well done Steve on another new PB.
Good morning. This did not feel like a normal Monday puzzle as it took longer than normal. The South was solved reasonably quickly, but the North took more time. My podium is 10a, 12a and the somnambulist at 16d. 1a was my LOI and a place I visited for the first time last June. Many thanks for the review and hints which were not needed and the setter for the puzzle
The Spirit of Rufus seems to be taking a week off. Nevertheless, a very enjoyable start to the week – 1.5*/4.5*
Candidates for favourite – 28a, 4d, 14d, 18d, and 21d – and the winner is 14d.
Thanks to X-Type(?) and Smylers.
Do these qualify for Gingers to be ‘Kissed’ (on a regular basis)?
They need a good dunking first IMO
Definitely!
Especially with my teeth!😊
You can push the boundaries of structural integrity with a good ginger – These are from Ringtons Tea is Yorkshire of course.
1*/3*. Light and fun. Just the ticket to start the week with 16d my favourite.
I was especially happy to see “American” indicated in 20d!
Many thanks to the setter and to Smylers.
Agree with our reviewer’s 4*enjoyment rating. Pretty gentle but great fun while it lasted & nicely clued throughout. 15a + 14&16d my picks.
Thanks to the setter & to Smylers
Thanks for letting us know its “kiss a ginger day”. I’m married to a redhead too and he’s just been awakened with a peck on the cheek! A straightforward bbut ,nonetheless, enjoyable guzzle. I liked the geographical clues at 1a, 3d and 14d but my COTD is the 16d cryptic definition. Thanks to the compiler and to Smylers for the hints
Many a small step up in difficulty from recent Monday’s but only a wee one. Plenty of excellent clues with great surfaces, my personal favourite being 22a.
Thanks to our setter and Smylers.
Back to work today, got this enjoyable Monday offering done while my machine was restarting, a blessing in disguise by taking so long 😀
LOI was 23D, I was confident of solution but couldn’t parse so left it till the end … still couldn’t parse it, and I really had to get on with some work by then; thanks for explaining in the hints. It took a little while to parse 12A too, the ‘I’m not sure about that’ bit, satisfying when it dropped.
Favourite clues – 12A for making me think, and 6D & 23D for nice surfaces achieved with such clue brevity.
Thank you to Smylers – the living advent calendar sounds interesting?? – and to setter. Right, back to work …
the saltaire advent calendar uses actual windows: each day over advent, one or more homes (and a few businesses) unveil a decorated window, which is then on display (and illuminated in the evenings) till the end of the year — so if you visit after xmas you can see all of them. there’s a a gallery of the 2025 windows. my favourites were meowy christmas (day 18), jingle bell croc (day 14a), and the vegetables (day 1e).
worth a visit if you’re ever in the area one december.
That’s an impressive effort to make the calendar. Bit of a trek from West Sussex but stranger things have happened 🙂
A nice gentle start to the week. Re 3d .. I need to stretch my imagination and tongue to make that homophone work but I garner that some others may not have the same difficulty… especially if you regularly drop your “aithes”.
Several old friends making an appearance today leading to a fairly swift but nevertheless enjoyable solve. My favourite was 11a despite the answer not being the horse itself!
Thanks to our setter, X-Type? and to Smylers for the review.
An excellent start to the week with the imaginary nag at 14a, the gold hifi at 26a and the spice girl at 14d being among my favourites. Thanks very much to the setter and to our doughty one-armed blogger (it took me a while to work out why there was a picture of Stonehenge…).
thank you. some have pointed out, quite reasonably, that they find it frustrating when an illustration gives away the answer, so i try to be less obvious. the stone henge pic is from babbacombe model village, which we visited last year.
personally i was expecting more confusion over what terry wogan has to do with 1d or why two different across clues have the same video!
Keep the cryptic pics coming – as you say doesn’t give away the answer, and adds an extra layer to deciphering the clue. 👍
I love the pics as that gives me an easy tool to ration any hints I use – I only allow myself to use the hints with pics. Any more than that is just defeating the point of doing the crossword (for me). Some times that backfires of course, if I’ve already solved one or even all of said hints 😊.
A lovely puzzle to start the week. Lots of ticks on my page. The top picks for me were 22a, 7d, 14d and 10a.
Thanks to Smylers for the blog and book recommendation and to the setter.
Reasonably gentle start to the week albeit solved in fits and starts whilst trying to do other admin type tasks. Any number could be on the podium so, entirely at random the pin has picked1d, 10a and 12a in top spot. Thanks to compiler and Smylers.
A little harder than usual for a Monday but all fairly clued.
2*/5*
Really enjoyable with 14d, 16d, 22a and 28a as favourites with the somnambulist taking top honours
Thanks to setter and Smylers.
Good gentle fun – thanks to the setter and Smylers.
My ticks went to 22a, 8d, 16d and 18d.
* / ***
Back to work today, ugh (☹).
Nice start to the week. Plenty of ticks and particularly liked the 14a spice girl and the 23d newsagent! Don’t recall seeing a construction like 18d’s ‘every fourth character’ but liked that too.
Thanks to the setter (X-Type??) and Smylers.
Dear Smylers, sorry about your arm. Saw a friend yesterday with a black eye from slipping on ice, luckily not worse! And thanks for the Ginger reminder, mine passed away a year ago this month after 50+ years, but still walks beside me every day…
Much enjoyed the puzzle, have ticked both 1a and 3d as joint faves. Many thanks to our setter and to you, Smylers.
C.f. Alex MacLean.
sorry for your loss, lurker no longer. i can’t imagine what it’s like to be without somebody after that long together. best wishes for the actual anniversary date.
Sorry, LnL to hear of your loss. You have my sympathies.
Thanks Steve and Smylers.. Luckily have children and grandchildren nearby.
An enjoyable and pain-free way to kick off the cruciverbal week. Only 12a needed a bit of help. Thank you lenient setter and Smylers for being on hand.
1* / 4* An excellent start to the week with plenty of clever and humorous clues. Tricky to pick a top three but I’ll go for the night stroll at 16d, the Scottish play at 20d and forces at 5a
Thanks to setter and Smylers
Another good start to the non-work week again with this Monday puzzle. A fun solve with some smiles along the way.
1.5*/4* for me
Favourite candidates include 9a, 13a, 19a, 26a & 23d — with winner 9a
Smiles for 10a, 22a, 28a & 16d as well as most of the favourite candidates too.
What’s not to like about this puzzle?
Good start to the crossword week.
Thanks to setter (X-Type?) & Smylers
A very nice start to the week with X Type in fine form.
Why we use a fancy word like 12a when savoury works perfectly okay is beyond me. The wiki entry says ’12a or savoriness’. Are we being pretentious clowns? I love the way the setter has parsed the first two letters of this word that sounds like one Reeves and Mortimer would use on ‘Shooting Stars’. ‘What are the scores, George Dawes?’ Great fun.
I like that 14d is the capital of another spice girl.
My podium is 11a, 15a and 8d.
MT to the aforementioned and Smylers.
2*/4*
Nice steady solve with 22 Across being the one that made me smile the most.
A very fine Monday puzzle which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was a bit harder in places than some weeks. There were too many excellent clues to pick a favourite, 22a and 14d made me smile!
Many thanks to the setter and to Smylers for the hints, I hope you don’t get too frustrated with the one arm situation and than it heals speedily.
PB in every way this morning. I might begin to look forward to Mondays if they stay as friendly as this one. No clue shouted pick me for your favourite but they were all enjoyable.
Thank you to the setter and Smyler.
I do love a monday! Even I finished this – hints only used for 11a. Favourite is 12a as its such a cute and tidy clue!
Loved this gentle introduction, no particular favourites but 1a 17a sent me here
Sorry about the arm Smylers those statues can be vicious 😬 😘
A nice gentle puzzle to start the week and also interesting to hear about the kiss a ginger day! Thanks to the setter and Smylers.
Lovely gentle start to the crossword week. Thanks to the setter – and to Smylers for the book review. I absolutely loved the Twyford code so can’t wait to get my hands on another Janice Hallett book.
Lovely crossword today so thanks to all. Sorry about your arm Smylers, ouch. I didn’t get the customary email today which is why I am a bit late on parade. Annoyingly too, I solve the puzzle on my Kindle, starting off under the duvet. For the last fortnight, despite being a subscriber for nearly 20 years, it now asks me to log on every single day. Then it says ‘you are already a subscriber enjoy the puzzles’. So I press that and it says ‘log on’ and off we go in circles. Anyone else having this problem?
Very enjoyable puzzle, well judged as regards difficulty for a Monday IMHO – it certainly brightened up an otherwise dull morning for me
Perfect Monday fare. Scottish play wins it for me. VMT Setter & Smylers.
Thoroughly enjoyed today’s guzzle, and also your review Smylers, especially your regular book and locality recommendations. Loved the milk and Terry Wogan clips. Thank you. Hope your arm heals quickly
Thanks, Jan — and to everybody else who’s offered arm-based wishes. I won’t clutter up the comments with individual thank-you replies.
I concur with the enjoyability of today’s crossword. A few ‘Conors’ (read and fill) but also some others which made you stop and think.
Be interested to know if those who mention PBs are solving online so you have the timer or really time yourself!
Thanks to setter and blogger. @Smylers – if you play golf off a high handicap you could now be termed a one armed bandit!! 🤪
I did not find this puzzle to be a read and fill today, especially the Northern half. If anything, it felt more like a midweeker, requiring considerably more thought than a typical Monday offering.
This may have been a * but I still managed a dnf. Not heard of the term for butter (only a knob came to mind) nor the term for tea in 7d.
Enjoyed this nonetheless.
Thanks to all.
I think I’ve only heard pat of butter when it’s in individually wrapped portions — those squishy foil things you get at hotel breakfasts where so much of the butter sticks to the wrapper that you need several of them to cover all your toast.
Chai crops up quite often in crosswords so is worth remembering. I think it just means ‘tea’ in an Indian language, so ‘chai tea’ ought to be a tautology, but in practice in the UK it seems to get used for a particular blend of tea with spices in it.
Bad luck, and don’t let it get you down — the difficulty rating is based on a crossword overall; not knowing a word can scupper any crossword, so ratings should probably be interpreted as “this many stars if you happen to have all the required vocabulary but infinite stars otherwise“. It seems likely most crosswords have at least one solver somewhere who didn’t know one or more of the words!
The wooden paddles traditionally used for making butter are called pats too.
According to Wikipedia they are also called Scotch hands possibly because they are cold and don’t melt the newly churned butter.
Knocked most of that off listening to some early Clash and the Jam 🎸
Knocked off most of that after a relatively dull day in the office listening to some early Clash and the Jam 🎸
Great start to the week. A few clues brought a special moment. I just love Paddington and so miss Terry Wogan’s cheery banter whilst driving to work. I have not yet, knowingly, tried unami can’t imagine what it tastes like but seems to be featured in every cookery programme! Re 7d remembered one can have a pat of butter. Many thanks to the setter for an enjoyable solve and to Smylers for the videos. Do hope your break repairs quickly!
Light and enjoyable.
Many thanks to the setter and to Smylers.
Hope your arm mends quickly. When I was 2 years old, the day before my parents took my two elder sisters and I off on our summer holidays, camping with a company called Canvas Holidays to Royan, SW France, I fell over and broke my right arm.
18 years ago, my wife and I repeated the family tradition of camping holidays, and took our 2 year old son to Royan, with Canvas Holidays.
He fell over and broke his right arm!!
We subsequently moved to Spain and gave up on camping holidays
Wow, what an incredibly unlucky coincidence!
Got there in the end although I thought slightly trickier than a 1*. That said after the offerings of recent days I suppose I should be grateful! Slowed down in the NE corner, especially the fashion designer, then a moment of inspiration provided the answer; I would be hard pressed to name three of them.
COTD for me was 23 d for its simplicity and the smile it brought.
Thank you to the setter and to Smylers for the hints.
What a Monday treat of a puzzle, just right to start the week. An enjoyable solve from start to finish. If every day was this much fun I would be over the moon. COTD 28a. Thanks to setter and Smylers.
I felt this was a step up in difficulty. I hadn’t come across the spiced tea before but I have now. I enjoyed the crossword despite making slightly harder work than I should have. Being a lifelong 16d it becomes my favourite although the frequency has lessened over the years. Thanks to the setter and Smylers.
Thank you to the Setter and also to
Smylers, particularly for pointing out the Special Day, as another with a ginger partner I was quite unaware until checking I was correct on 8d and 20d having just finished the crossword in bed.
Unfortunately the ginger is already gently snoring…
Found it difficult to get into the mindset on this one, was about half done at all points of the compass but hit the wall. Watched an episode of Breaking Bad and picked it up again and everything fell into place straight away!
One of those puzzles today that even when I know the answer fits and is probably right it still has to be worked back from the clue a few times to be comfortable it is spot on, e.g. 9a (for the noun) and 7d (for the portion.)
Very enjoyable and now managing to finish it most days which feels like progress, just need BD to check the ones that went in uncomfortably!
Yay, that’s definitely progress!
Well done, CB. As Smylers says, it is progress so keep going. That’s what most of us did when we joined Big Dave and our solving skills improved by leaps and bounds. The banter and badinage on the blog are just so much fluff. The mission statement of Big Dave is to help and encourage everyone trying to solve cryptics whether starting out or have been trying, like I had, for years and getting frustrated.
This is why we on the blog encourage those new to cryptic crosswords to join us.
2*/4* …
liked 22A “High floor with no walls in White House ? (5) “