Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31167
Hints and Tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ***
A pleasant puzzle which shouldn’t cause too many problems. Thanks to our setter.
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
8a Very long motorway crossing area close to Halifax (4)
MAXI: the Leeds to London motorway contains the abbreviation for area and the closing letter of Halifax.
9a Cook Antonio, mostly pale native of southern Italy (10)
NEAPOLITAN: an anagram (cook) of ANTONI[o] (mostly, i.e. without the last letter) and PALE.
10a Speaker’s increased amount of money, it’s sickening (8)
GRUESOME: homophones (speaker’s) of a) a verb meaning ‘increased in size’ and b) an amount of money.
11a Very quick marmot serpent flipping catches (6)
PRESTO: a musical direction meaning ‘in a quick tempo’ is hidden (catches) and reversed (flipping) in words 3 and 4.
12a Film star boarding vehicle, awfully angry (4,5)
CARY GRANT: a bit of Yoda-speak – an anagram (awfully) of ANGRY goes inside (boarding) a load-carrying vehicle.
13a Shy female in poor health ignores pain essentially (5)
FLING: the abbreviation for female and an adjective meaning ‘in poor health’ without the central (essentially) letters of pain.
15a Something light, each article penned by freelancer devoid of content (7)
FEATHER: the abbreviation for each and a definite article are contained (penned) in the outer letters (devoid of content) of freelancer.
17a Dennis and Harry, maybe makers of earthenware items? (7)
POTTERS: Dennis the playwright and Harry the wizard are two examples of the answer.
20a Pilot aircraft to tour Alaska? That’s stupid (5)
FLAKY: a verb to pilot an aircraft contains (to tour) the standard 2-letter abbreviation for Alaska.
22a Standing in for another cleric, devout first off (9)
VICARIOUS: a cleric in the Church of England and an adjective meaning devout without its first letter.
25a Reinforce complaint at university (4,2)
BEEF UP: an informal complaint or grievance and an adverb meaning ‘at university’.
26a During Friday occasionally compose a posh musical piece (8)
RHAPSODY: an anagram (compose) of A POSH goes inside (during) alternate (occasional) letters from Friday.
27a Recover Clive’s canoe mistakenly I cast adrift (10)
CONVALESCE: an anagram (mistakenly) of CL[i]VE’S CANOE from which the letter I has been cast adrift.
28a Keeping attention (4)
CARE: double definition, the first meaning guardianship and the second vigilance.
Down
1d Coach, say, bearing motoring club heading north (8)
CARRIAGE: assemble the abbreviation meaning say or ‘for example’, a synonym of bearing or demeanour and one of our motoring clubs. Now reverse the lot (heading north, in a down clue).
2d Vivid costume with length not right? (6)
LIVELY: start with the distinctive costume worn by members of a guild say then replace the abbreviation for right with that of length.
3d Carefree and single, holding mirror up when undressed (9)
UNWORRIED: a synonym of single or spouseless contains (holding) the inner (when undressed) letters of mirror in reverse (up, in a down clue).
4d Long to secure date for parade (7)
PAGEANT: a verb to long or yearn contains (to secure) a synonym of date or period.
5d Excited over providing support to timid creature (5)
COYPU: reverse (over, in a down clue) an adverb meaning ‘in an excited state’ and place it after (providing support to, in a down clue) an adjective meaning timid or modest.
6d Newspaper having set place in schedule (4,4)
TIME SLOT: a broadsheet newspaper followed by a set of things offered at auction.
7d Immoral social worker stops present uprising (6)
WANTON: a social worker from the insect world goes inside (stops) the reversal (uprising, in a down clue) of an adjective meaning present or current.
14d Mixer was dear to supply (4,5)
SODA WATER: an anagram (supply, i.e. in a supple way) of WAS DEAR TO.
16d Accept number as jazz standard (4,4)
TAKE FIVE: a verb to accept and a single-digit number make a jazz standard originally recorded by the Dave Brubeck Quartet.
18d Denied Charlie scored run playing game (8)
ROUNDERS: an anagram (playing) of S[c]ORED RUN with the letter that Charlie represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet left out (denied).
19d Keep daily record inside revolting properties I raided (7)
DIARISE: hidden (inside) and reversed (revolting) in the last 3 words.
21d Hide inflatable mattress, we hear (3,3)
LIE LOW: this sounds like (we hear) an inflatable mattress (originally a brand name but now used generically).
23d Possibly cricket survey lacks focus (6)
INSECT: a verb to survey or scrutinise loses its central letter (lacks focus).
24d Indicated type of wheat (5)
SPELT: double definition, the first a verb meaning indicated or signified and the second an inferior type of wheat.
The clues which I liked best were 10a, 2d and 3d. Which one(s) hit the spot for you?
The Quick Crossword pun: RUG + BEES + COOL = RUGBY SCHOOL
Boy, that was tough! Well, it was for me and I took a long time to get into it. I had only five solved after the first pass and they were dotted all over the grid. I’m sure others will love it but I’m afraid it was not my cup of tea (or coffee). However, the inflatable mattress at 21d raised a smile and that is my COTD.
Thank you, setter for the brain mangling. Thank you, Gazza for the hints and cartoons.
I always think whether or not someone considers a puzzle easy or difficult, enjoyable or not so much depends on whether the setter and solver have brains that work in a similar way. I just plod on regardless trying to keep my brain active. So thank you to all setters and hunters for making my day more enjoyable than it might be…
It caused me a few Gazza! Thank you for your hints to 28a, 2d, 5d and 24d which assisted my understanding of the answers. ***/** for me today. The reverse lurkers and five anagrams helped but I was glad to finish this struggle. Thank you setter for the not inconsiderable challenge.
Not too tricky but I’m not sure I agree with the definition in 20a. I enjoyed it.
I had similar thoughts about the 20a definition but Chambers has it meaning ‘stupid, inept, incompetent’.
Please delete my previous comment completely. I will write a new comment soon. Many thanks
This puzzle was worth more than **. I think the Hints and Tips writers are getting better at solving the crosswords and therefore think us mere mortals should find it easier than they really are! My grammar is not good, forgive me
Loved it!
My favourite two today were 10a and the brilliant 13a.
Laid up today with a dreadful head cold, hope it goes by the weekend…..
The setters are putting us through the wringer at the business end of the week, that’s for sure.
The north west gave me the most trouble with my LOI being the splendid 10a. I didn’t help myself by having an o instead of an a as the third letter of 9a.
I didn’t know the synonym for ‘set’ in 6d and that 8a was a stand alone adjective.
I’m not sure who the setter is. Even though it has a couple of lurkers/rekruls, I don’t think it’s Silvanus or Zandio.
My podium is 10a, 27a and 7d.
MTT the setter and Gazza.
4*/4*
After yesterday’s brain mangling from Hudson this was, by Thursday standards, welcome relief. A good example of what a Thursday puzzle can be – pauses for thought required but not too often. Two shiny King Charles Loonies on this being a Silvanus production. ***/****
Candidates for favourite – 25a, 1d, 5d, and 7d – and the winner is 7d.
Thanks to Silvanus, or whomsoever if my Loonies go down the drain, and thanks to Gazza.
Much tougher than ** for me too.In fact, I ‘ve only just finished it at the third attempt. I’d never heard of 19d but thought thwme angrm at 18d was well disguised .it took a ling time to work out my COTD, 22d unril my Latin was recalled. Ilook forward ro Gazzas hints to figure out some diffiultparsing. Thank you compiler for a atiff challenge.
I have heard of 19d, but only in the sense of scheduling — and only by those who embrace awful business jargon (“Let’s 19d that for a week on Tuesday.”) The Oxford Dictionary of English marks the ‘keep a record of events’ sense as “archaic”.
I too found this quite a tough challenge and needed a couple of hints to complete it. My cotd is the reverse lurker at 11a. Thanks to compiler and Gazza for the much needed hints.
I too found this *** difficulty. A lot of head-scratching and staring into space, a coffee and a hot chocolate.
COTD 12, also LOI. The Yoda-speak three me.
Many thanks setter and Gazza.
Again I found this tricky, I did get there in the end but the north west was, for me, a battle. There was a lot to like and 21d was my favourite. It was just as well there were some lurkers and anagrams to help me get going. I needed help parsing a couple.
Many thanks to the setter and to Gazza for the hints.
Good morning. This was challenging, especially the down clues. Top picks are the film star at 12a, the down at 15a, Dennis and Harry at 17a and the crazy aviator at 20a. Noteworthy downs include 2d, 7d, and 21d. Many thanks to the setter and hinter
This being RayT’s week off the back pager, I have no clue as to whom the setter maybe. Overall I found the puzzle pretty straightforward, but definitely was tricky in spots across the grid.
2.5*/3.5* for me
Favourites for me 1a, 12a, 26a, 3d, 18d & 25d — with winner 12a with 8a runner up
Smiles for 20a, 21d & 23d
Thanks to setter & Gazza
I found this tricky but managed to complete it unaided. LOI was 5d.
12a has connections to where I now live so I liked that one.
Top picks for me were 12a, 13a, 10a, 26a and 21d.
Thanks to Gazza for the great cartoons and to the setter for the mental challenge.
I am reliably informed that today’s setter is Silvanus with a milestone of his 150th back pager marked by a four letter Nina in the LH side of the top line.
Congratulations Silvanus – keep up the good work!
Many congratulations to Silvanus on reaching the milestone.
not the catchiest Nina, but congratulations nevertheless Silvanus! oh and thanks for the beasting…..
Many congratulations,Many congratulations, silvanus! A fantastic achievement. Please keep them coming.
Absolutely no idea why the greeting duplicated but, hey ho, silvanus is worth it! 😊
Found this much harder than Gazza. Second day in a row where the reviewers rating were a little disheartening. Is it possible I’m just getting worse at solving instead of better?! Anyway – got there in the end but fairy limped over the line. As a few others have mentioned 21d was my favourite.
Thanks to the setter and to Gazza for the review
Others have suggested that my difficulty rating is too low so I probably got it wrong. Don’t let it dishearten you – the ratings are very subjective.
Kind of you to take the time to say that Gazza.
Much harder than of late but eventually succeeded. The timid creature at 5d amused. Many years ago boating for a week in Brittany we came across loads of these shy creatures which in the twilight of the first evening my husband thought were otters. He was beside himself with excitement saying ‘f….. otters’! many times and jumping up and down. As I was videoing I kept ‘bleeping’ out his commentary and telling him to shut up. As we went through the lock at Josselin the following day I was told they were ragondin and indeed you could buy coypu pate. In the gloom they looked very like otters but had thick beaver like tails and white whiskers round their nose so they looked as if they were swimming behind ping pong balls. Natural History lesson over, sorry but it was a good memory. Thanks to setter and hinter.
What a great story Manders. I’m not sure I would have tried the coypu pate!
Many thanks to Gazza for his Hints and Tips (and illustrations!) and to everyone solving and commenting.
Those with good memories may recall that I included similar Ninas as today’s in my fiftieth and hundredth back-page puzzles, so I aim to keep the tradition going. Thanks to all for your congratulations.
See you all again soon and my best wishes to Jane.
Aha!
T’was Silvanus!
A very intelligent but tough guy.
Thank you.
Congratulations, Mr S. A fine achievement.
Your crosswords are a joy to solve though one needs to be firing on all cylinders to get over the finishing line.
Keep ’em comng!
Congratulations and very many thanks!
Forgot to comment yesterday but very much enjoyed the puzzle, didn’t register the milestone & found the solve a wee bit trickier than Gazza clearly did.
Just wanted to say here’s to the next 150
Like some others I found this to be really tough but a great challenge for my thesaurus! The 10a homophones needed Gazza’s help as did the shy creature. Big congratulations to Silvanus
I tried to do this watching the cricket and the Olympics and guess what I made hardly any progress on what in my opinion is a very tough crossword .I needed hints at the end. Favourites 21and 16d . Thanks to all .
3*/ 4* Quite tough for a Thursday with some cracking clues.
Favourites include the sickening 10a, standing in for 22a and the carefree 3d
Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza
10A and 21D gave me good laughs in a quality crossword. Many congrats to Silvanus for the CLUP milestone, and VMT also to Gazza.
As I knew I was going to have a busy day I wasn’t intending to solve today’s puzzles. However, when I looked at the review and saw that it was an anniversary puzzle set by my favourite setter, I had to make time for it.
For me, this was 3*/5* and a fitting celebration of Silvanus’ 150th back-pager.
Very well done and thank you for all your wonderful puzzles, Silvanus. Thanks too to Gazza, for a review worthy of such a masterpiece.
Well I’ve also found this a bit tough in parts and have 3 in the N/NW that are giving me a headache so will look at the hints to get over the line. I too was surprised Gazza gave this a 2* , but as he says it’s all subjective. Imagine a world if we all had the same brains ! Congratulations Silvanus on your milestone and the wonderful puzzle – you always give us a good one , and Gazza for the hints.
Hello Big Dave! First time doing Telegraph cryptic – afraid I’m a horrendous lefty who normally does Guardian, New Statesman, Private Eye and Indie grids. But I’ve been widening my net recently (did a few FTs last week) so thought I’d give this a shot, and for a quid, having access to all the puzzles for a year seems a bargain! Overall pretty straightfoward compared to some of the fiendish ones I’ve growned used to – solver-friendly definitions saved me a lot of head-scratching.
One query: I’m a bit dubious about whether 28d is a valid DD…? “Heedfulness” and “charge, oversight” are right next to each other under the entry for CARE in Chambers (and in Collins). I’d normally expect DDs to ideally be under different entries, or at least very distinct in meaning. Someone in one’s guardianship is more or less someone one is vigilant of. Thoughts?
Welcome to the blog, Karol S.
Thanks Gazza!
Welcome from me too, KS.
You’ve cut your teeth on some tough crosswords. So, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this smorgasbord of puzzles, from the gentle but beautifully constructed ones, early in the week, to the often fiendish ones at t’other end.
Regarding your question, I think they are different enough, i.e in someone’s care and take care on the roads tonight. More often than not the first one will involve someone else and the second one won’t.
Keep on solving and keep on posting!
Sweet dreams.
Thanks for the welcome and your thoughts. Cheers!
Phew, I’m glad that I am not alone in rating this on the tough side. Managed about 75% before I went out this morning, but the last 25% this evening was not so simple and came to a grinding halt with 10a, 25a and the timid creature requiring Gazza’s hints.
Thank you Silvanus and Gazza
3*/4*
The 5D creature got me. Aside from not knowing said creature, I just couldn’t get my head around the wordplay; had brain freeze over a short ‘energetic’ word especially.
Otherwise I was glad to persevere through a challenging solve of several clues before that, in SE then NW. Pody picks, all from the challenging home straight, are 22A’s nice definition, 3D’s striking surface – even if I find the word a bit clumsy – was satisfying when it dropped, and 12A’s film star.
Many thanks to Gazza and setter ⭐️ and will it be a hat-trick of hard back-pagers for me tomorrow …
I’m with the majority, anything but straightforward and needed help to get over the line, so a dnf. I’m going to have another one in the other place, the second in a row. Either I’m getting more stupid or the puzzles are getting harder. Favourite was 16d, certainly not the only hit record in 5/4, I know a few more more does anyone else? I doubt it anyone’s watching at this time of night anyway. Thanks to Silvanus for the brain mangling and Gazza.
So glad others found this hard-I got to 16d before I got a single solution. Clueing much less obvious for me, which I absolutely understand is more fun for those who are more seasoned.
I’m not yet at the stage of seeking hints (just justifications for parsing clues I have got), but it’s enjoyable and I’ll hope to get there…
**** / ****
Sorry, no time to comment yesterday. Congratulations to Silvanus on the ‘anniversary’. Very enjoyable puzzle but one I struggled over more than any other recently. None the worse for that. In the various time slot’s (see what I did there) I had yesterday, the first homophone of 10a eluded me as did the ridiculously obvious cleric at 22a. The shy female at 13a was my COTD. I don’t think I’d spot a Nina until advised if it stood up, shouted and punched me in the face but nice one, Silvanus!
Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.
4*/3* …
liked 23D ” Possibly cricket survey lacks focus (6)”
Following your encouragement to comment and not just lurk. Thank you to setters and those providing hints and tips. From NZ, I know we’re 12 hours ahead but these crosswords are a family endeavour at least a month behind. Plus our English-ness is frozen at about 30 years behind. Luckily one of us had the ‘classical education’, good that it’s finally useful.
The comments are great to help me know that we are not alone in being confused at times. For instance today we’ve gone through first P as second letter 4D, then O and finally E.
Welcome to the blog. Now that you’ve de-lurked I hope that you’ll become a regular commenter.