Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31162
Hints and tips by Mr K
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BD Rating - Difficulty *** - Enjoyment ****
Hello, everyone, and welcome to a most excellent Friday crossword. Lots of smiles in this one.
In the hints below most indicators are italicized, and underlining identifies precise definitions and cryptic definitions. Clicking on the answer buttons will reveal the answers. In some hints hyperlinks provide additional explanation or background. Clicking on a picture will enlarge it or display a bonus illustration and a hover (computer) or long press (mobile) might explain more about the picture. Please leave a comment telling us how you got on.
Across
1a Inform touring American rock band to get good fare (6,4)
SQUARE MEAL: Inform on somebody who did something wrong, wrapped around (touring) both the single letter for American and a now-defunct rock band from Athens, GA
6a Damages vegetables, wiping row out (4)
MARS: Some vegetables that are a bit like long pumpkins, minus ROW from the clue (wiping row out)
10a Face worker locked inside washroom in error (5)
MINER: The answer is hidden in (locked inside) WASHROOM IN ERROR
11a Huge US game bird that's magnificent? (5,4)
SUPER BOWL: The answer split (6,3) could describe a magnificent nocturnal bird
12a Company invested in expensive car plant producing exciting ride (13)
ROLLERCOASTER: An abbreviation for company is sandwiched by (invested in) an informal name for an expensive car brand and a flowering plant
14a English king in grip of tax problem (8)
EXERCISE: The single letter for English and the Latin abbreviation for king are inserted together (in grip of) a type of tax
16a Films came in rolls (6)
CINEMA: An anagram (rolls) of CAME IN
18a Doctor owns this end of sundrenched island guarded by sailors (6)
TARDIS: The last letter (end of) of SUNDRENCHED and the single letter for island are inserted together in (guarded by) some usual sailors
20a At risk of being vanquished? Act like you're part of the furniture (8)
BEATABLE: The answer split (2,1,5) could, whimsically, mean “act like you’re part of the furniture”
22a The Lion King maybe, church broadcasts, or Game of Thrones? (7,6)
MUSICAL CHAIRS: Link together what “The Lion King” defines by example (maybe), the map abbreviation for church, and a synonym of broadcasts
26a Inferior bat, kind accepting trouble (4-5)
TAIL-ENDER: Kind or soft containing (accepting) another word for trouble. The definition is crickety
27a It might feature only clubs rolling in money (5)
FLUSH: Double definition. There would be five clubs
28a Number of Snow White's friends wanting small flat (4)
EVEN: The number of dwarves associated with Snow White, minus (wanting) the clothing abbreviation for small
29a Famous Conservative lost bet with leader (10)
CELEBRATED: The single letter for Conservative with an anagram (lost) of BET LEADER
Down
1d Regularly asked maid for particular tie (4)
SEMI: Alternate letters ( regularly) of ASK MAID. The tie is sporty
2d One French novel never put out (7)
UNNERVE: One in French with an anagram (novel) of NEVER
3d Both rugby codes spanning area of the country (5)
RURAL: The abbreviations for rugby union and rugby league containing (spanning) the single letter for area
4d Wrongly assumes European clients lie about being manipulated by her (8)
MASSEUSE: An anagram (wrongly) of ASSUMES with the single letter for European
5d Jelly and ice cream initially keeping son quiet (5)
ASPIC: The initial letters of AND ICE CREAM containing (keeping) both the genealogical abbreviation for son and the musical abbreviation for quiet
7d Advocate beer drinking in office (7)
APOSTLE: A type of beer containing (drinking in) another word for office
8d Liberal plans a role for sustainable energy provider (5,5)
SOLAR PANEL: An anagram (liberal) of PLANS A ROLE
9d Musician turning up among artists in a group (8)
ORGANIST: The answer is hidden reversed inside (turning up among) ARTISTS IN A GROUP
13d Spell in heart unit (10)
CENTIMETRE: Spell or duration inserted in another word for heart
15d Old chestnut split by new conker's last, decisive strike (8)
CLINCHER: An old chestnut or tired saying containing (split by) the single letter for new, all followed by the last letter of CONKER
17d Give extra juice to Her Grace when sloshed (8)
RECHARGE: An anagram (when sloshed) of HER GRACE
19d Engineers drool over electronic suspension (7)
RESPITE: Glue together some usual military engineers, another word for drool, and the single letter for electronic
21d Bishop is caught by Italian hiding uniform for Garibaldi? (7)
BISCUIT: Putting all the bits in order, concatenate the chess abbreviation for bishop, IS from the clue, the cricket abbreviation for caught, the letter represented in the NATO phonetic alphabet by uniform, and the abbreviation for Italian. The ? indicates that the definition is by example
23d See Director-General head for embarrassing retreat (5)
LODGE: Cement together see or behold, the abbreviation for Director-General, and the first letter (head for) of EMBARRASSING
24d Deduce where Paddington sometimes finds marmalade, reportedly (5)
INFER: A homophone (reportedly) of a (2,3) phrase describing where Paddington Bear might find marmalade if he’s been a messy eater
25d Spades that man had in outside store (4)
SHED: The playing card abbreviation for spades with a contraction for “that man had”
Thanks to today’s setter. Which clues did you like best?
The Quick Crossword pun: FALL + TEAT + HOURS = FAWLTY TOWERS
I have no idea who set this puzzle as per usual, but the setter deserves a prize for topping off, what was already a fabulous week for X words, with an absolute belter of a crossword. The Northern half went in easily enough but the South was a different animal altogether. 1a featuring that “band” is probably my favourite clue. 12, 14, 18, 28 and 29 are my top across clues. 7, 9, 15 and 21 are my top downs! 26a was my LOI. Many thanks to the setter and hinter.
A fun but difficult work out today, I thought. Took about an hour or so but I did finish with a full grid. A big bird at 11a and a Rugby country at 3d I found gratifying with my most popular for top position, 20a.
Thank you, compilation man or woman, for a soupçon of fun. Thank you, Mr. K. for indications of solutions.
Raining again in Salop? I’ll say.
I’d love to say I spotted your lipogram (and that I knew what a lipogram was before yesterday © Daisygirl) on my own but of course, I’ve read your reply to TDS below!!
Nevertheless, superb!!!!!
For anyone not knowing what’s going on, see post #12 below and Daisygirl’s post yesterday.
Congratulations! It takes a good deal of thought, doesn’t it!!
It does, DG and if you are not careful a rogue vowel can sneak in. 😊
I thought this was very enjoyable.
The two I double ticked were the Game of Thrones, and the spell in heart unit.
Many thanks to the setter and to Mr K.
Back to the other channel where Osmosis so far has got the upper hand!
I’m only so-so at the best of times, but breezed through half of these clues and managed to crack the others with a bit of extra effort. Even the (always dreaded) crickety one. Favourites were 18a and the wonderfully misdirectional 13d. Whoever set this is my kinda guy/girl!
I have spent an hour looking at this puzzle and filled out about half!!
3.5*/4.5*. This made a splendid finish to a splendid week for back-pagers. Overall I found it to be medium difficulty but a small number of clues required quite a bit of teasing out.
I’ve always spelt 26a as one word but I see that the BRB has it as hyphenated.
I had plenty of ticks with 11a, 18a, 28s & 3d making up my podium selection.
Many thanks to the setter and to Mr K.
Poor Jane seems to be in limbo. She is still in hospital undergoing tests which have so far proved to be inconclusive. She is missing the blog and sends her thanks to everyone for their good wishes.
Thanks for the update. The combined force of our collective best wishes are disappointingly slow to take effect but I’m sure they’ll yield results soon 🤞
Thanks for the progress report. Please let Jane know that we are thinking of her.
Thanks for the update Dave. Best wishes to Jane and a speedy recovery from me too.
Thank you, Dave for letting us know. Please give her my very best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Thanks so much for the update Rabbit Dave. Please would you send my love and warmest wishes to Jane. Hope she will soon be out of hospital and well again.
Please tell Jane I/we miss her. Give her our love and best wishes.
All the best from me too! Get well soon.
Hope you feel better soon Jane.
An excellent and most enjoyable puzzle – thanks to our setter and Mr K.
I really liked 18a, 4d, 13d and 24d with my standout favourite being the 22a Game of Thrones.
When I looked at this Friday puzzle, I thought it was going to be a non-starter for me. Nothing popped up right away … then I twigged to 11a. From that, the grid gradually became filled more- or-less top to bottom with a lot of bung-ins along the way. The SE was last area completed and with a huge grin & chuckle for 24d!! That was a great clue, I thought. Appealed to my sense of humour!
Overall 2.5*/4* for me
Favourites include 12a, 20a, 28a, 3d, 13d & 24d — with winner 24d with 13d runner-up
Smiles as I said for 24d along with 1a, 12a, 22a & 28a
Thanks to setter & Mr. K
I had this pegged as a Smooth production but am now starting to doubt myself because RD hasn’t said so. Anyway thought it a belter. Pretty gentle for a Friday but hugely enjoyable & certainly the full 5* entertainment for me. A pleasingly brisk completion with the only real head scratch twigging lost as an indicator at 29a. Top marks goes to 22a (though the sticky bear ran it close)with further ✅s against 1,11,20,26&29a + 3,9,13,15&24d.
Thanks to the setter & to Mr K
What a great puzzle. By no means a walk in the park but persistence paid off. I even managed to sort out the cricket one.
Lots of ticks on my page it’s tricky to pick just a few but I’ll go for 22a, 15d, 13d, 11a, 1a, 13a and 18a.
Thanks to Mr K and to the setter.
This puzzle was difficult for me, largely,,I suspect, because I am as far from being on the,setter’s wavelength as it is possible to be However, I finished it and found some of the clues ver clever, withh subtle misdirection. I particularly liked the reverse lurker at 9s, my COTD, together with the anagram at8d the Lego ues at 18a and 22a.
What a week this has been! A four star plus four five stars. (that reminds me of East Fife 4 Forfar 5)
This has to be the work of Silvanus with 9d’s splendid rekrul giving it away. That, plus a heap of brilliant surfaces.
We all need to bow at his altar for Game of Thrones. How good is that??? What a thrill for a setter when they spot something like that.
I’ve always pronounced 11a as (6,3) as a bit of fun (nice timing by S)
Do I give the thumbs-up to ‘lost’ as an anagram dooberry? I suppose so.
RD said that 26a with a hyphen is in THAT book which, as you know, means nowt to me. It has machinegun as one word which is a nonsense.
Deduce as a synonym for 24a always provokes conversation but I’ll give it.
My pody picks are 22a, 13d and 15d.
MTTTA and Mr K.
3*/5*
PS Jose, I’ll do the e-less post sometime next week.
Did one today. 😊
Excellent, Steve. Very well effected!
I only used Es as vowels for that reply to make up for the ones you left out.
👍😊
Excellent work, SC (and RD)
I wander if I’d have spotted it because I skimmed people’s posts as I was on the road. When I saw ‘I thought’ just now, I did think ‘Hmm’ as you write well.
A fine effort.
Bravo! Mr Cowling!
Surprisingly, it’s not too difficult to accomplish with a bit of skill? Alas, your post was first … apart from Daisygirl’s.
Good one! 😊
By Jiminy, so you did! I saw your post this morning and didn’t spot your grammatical exploits. And I now supply my contribution to this particular way of writing. Slightly difficult, isn’t it?
*Could someone please lipogram-check this for me?
“exploits”! 😊
By Jiminy, so you did! I saw your post this morning and didn’t spot your grammatical stunt. And I now supply my own contribution to this particular way of writing. Slightly difficult, isn’t it?
*Could someone please lipogram-check this for me?
Good one! 👍😊
And it needed checking! I’d put “exploits” instead of stunt. So easy to let an aberrant E sneak in!
I saw that and commented on it but the comment disappeared into the ether. As I said to Daisygirl, it is very easy for an errant vowel to sneak in.
Indeed! I checked that comment umpteen times so not to make a prat of myself. Don’t tell any of the others
Your secret is safe with me, J. If I’m honest, I had one sneak in during my first attempt despite careful, or so I thought, proofreading.
Sorry, Jose, also saw the “exploit” but wasn’t allowed to post as the site said I was replying to “an unauthorised post”!!!! Perhaps as you were changing the exploit to stunt as I was trying to post ☺
Not me!! Sorry.
Aha!
So, that probably leave Zands and Karla.
Whoever it is needs to take a bow.
This lipogram malarkey is great fun.
He knows his onions that rabbit! A wise decision to cancel my bet 😊
You mean an onion is the setter – oh stop, it must be Friday!!!!
Just right for a Friday, my two of the day are 15d and 24d, great fun!
What an absolute cracker to cheer up yet another dreary Shropshire morning. We have certainly been blessed of late with some wonderful puzzles, and this one is right up there amongst the very best. For a favourite, I went for the excellent 13d.
Many thanks setter for a fine challenge, and to Mr K.
That was top notch. Pity I was not up to speed because I put in answers that I had not parsed. The ticks equalled the question marks. Gratitude goes to Mr. K because although I only had 2 wrong answers I needed the explanation on 4 of the answers to realise just how brilliant the crossword was. 22 across got double ticks but then 4 down which had to be explained turned out to be so good.
Great start to the day as well as great end to the week.
Big thanks to Mr. K and our cunning setter.
An excellent end to the weekday puzzles. Had 50% or so penned in quite quickly before I had to go out for a couple of hours. Came back to reignite the grey matter with the SW a blank until 13d made a dull thud as the penny dropped. Being the recipient of a pacemaker 2 years ago I thought I knew all about heart units! That released the 4 across links. The rest needed a bit of teasing out but got there in reasonable time.
Too many ticks to list them all, but 18a and 22a get onto my podium and 13d is my COTD.
My thanks to the setter and Mr K
2.5*/4*
I found this tough going and had to resort to the hints to finish. It did not help by biffing in “booster” for 7d and wondering then why 6a and 16a became impossible to solve. I thought Paddington’s marmalade was excellent and the Game of Thrones, pure genius but cotd has to go to the punning 20a as I was certainly that today. Thanks to compiler and Mr K for the needed hints
** / *****
A superb end to a great week of puzzles. Found this much easier than I do most Fridays. Enjoyment was off the scale. What a great reverse lurker in 9d. Ticked 4d for the disguised use of such a large part of the clue as the definition. Was looking for something inside ‘miss’ to mean wrongly assumes for ages. Also ticked the 18a Doctor’s possession. But double ticks went to the 11a US game (I said the 6,3 version over and over, it sounds so good), the 20a part of the furniture and the superlative 22a Game of Thrones.
Bravo to Silvanus or whomsoever and Mr K for the review.
With you on the ‘miss’ clue. I’m sure I frightened the dog with the noise of that penny eventually dropping.
I must be having an off day, I found the toughie yesterday easier than this and I gave up the ghost with a few still to get .It didn’t help when I put power into 8d .I changed it of course but my pysche had been irreversibly damaged .I liked 18,22 and 27 . Thanks to all .
Super puzzle, very rewarding. Most of it was very speedy until suddenly it wasn’t, with a half dozen to go. Plenty of PDMs and smiles. Honours to 20a, 22a, & for the misdirection, 4d.
Many thanks to the setter and MrK
Great finish to the week with several brilliant clues including the US game, Game of Thrones, inferior bat and the manipulated clients.
2*/5*
Thanks to Silvanus if it is he and Mr K
Absolutely brilliant. One of the best, I don’t know where to start. I liked the big bird, the Doctor’s possession, the game of thrones – come on! So clever and funny. Hard to pick a favourite but I am going to plump for 20a because it is very silly. The only clue I did not get was the crickety one for which I had to consult Mr K.
Incidentally, a lipogram may exclude any letter so I suppose you might posit that a paragraph without any q’s could qualify and would certainly be less obvious to spot. A and E are the two which are most difficult to avoid. I see I shall have to scan the comments more carefully!
Many thanks to the Scintillating Setter and Helpful Hinter.
Yes, a lipogram without Z, J, Q or X would be easy but avoiding E T or A is difficult. I bet nobody could produce one without two of those last three.
Why would scribing such rubbish occur during your hour off?
Brilliant, RD! 😊👍
My apologies for the very clunky surface reading! However, at least it’s some sort of sentence!
From time to time our compilers set themselves similar challenges. See https://bigdave44.com/2017/04/11/dt-28398/ for some examples.
That’s incredible, Mr. K.. Thank you for drawing attention to it. 👍
Goodness! 70 As.
Outstanding.
Wasn’t there a triple pangram once? Django possibly
Do you mean every letter of the alphabet used thrice, H?
Toughie No 2861 by Moeraki was a quadruple pangram.
ST2600 is another interesting puzzle. 26 answers, each beginning with a different letter of the alphabet.
I recall that Mynot produced a series of five toughies, each using only a different single vowel, but I can’t track down my discussion of that accomplishment.
The genius of setters never ceases to amaze me.
How did I forget that & it was on my birthday too.
Both Steve & I commented on it & dear, much missed Robert Clarke too.
We also had an amazing quadruple pangram from Phibs in the NTSPP slot:
Best puzzle from a plethora of crackers- absolutely brilliant stuff. From the clever to the chuckle inducing – a fabulous achievement. So many ticks but found 11a, 20a and 22a to be my top picks. Great work setter and of course thanks to MrK
I found this pretty straightforward for a Friday. Favourite was 14d. Thanks to the setter and Mr. K.
the sticky bear?
An excellent puzzle, certainly not straightforward for me, particularly in the South west. I had 9d as my favourite, had no clue why 26a was the answer but guessed it would be crickety, and needed a hint for 15d my LOI.
Many thanks to the setter and to Mr K for the hints.
I don’t know why, but this was my quickest solve of the whole week, and a lot of great clues. Perhaps I was particularly slow on the others. 15d and 13d kept me on pause for a while. Very enjoyable thank you Setter and Mr K.
I have only just got back from Dartmoor so not read any of the above comments and forgive duplication please. Thank you setter. Tricky almost **** for me but not quite. Thank you mister hunter now I am back home seeing why 6a and 19d were so clearly wgg he at they were. 13d brilliant 4d excellent, Nuff said.
They released you, then, NAS? 😊
My spelling was dodgy – the brain and finger is being shaken by the 118 bus from Okehampton to Tavistock
As others have said a terrific puzzle. I did like 4d once penny had dropped , one of those clues that made no sense until it does. I wonder who the setter was – Zandio ? Thanks to whoever and to Mr K.
The whole crossword was, like the Owl at 11A, superb. 24D & 27A particularly hilarious. Also VMT to Mr K.
3* / 4* A terrific end to the week and a definite step up in difficulty for me.
Lots of excellent misdirection and wit which makes choosing a favourite almost impossible, however I’ll go for the big US game at 11a, game of thrones at 22a and the inferior bat at 26a
Many thanks to the setter and Mr K
Spent way too long on this, but it was still a dnf. Around half a dozen defeated me. I was never going to get the cricket clue in 26a.
Gutted that I didn’t get 11a. A great clue and answer.
Thanks to all.
And me!
3*/5* ….
liked 24D ” Deduce where Paddington sometimes finds marmalade reportedly (5) ” …
Best Wishes to Jane .