Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31182
Hints and tips by Smylers
Hello from Ilkley. Here are some photos from a day trip this weekend — where did we go? (People from Yorkshire, please let others answer first!)
I liked all the clues in today’s Telegraph cryptic crossword. I got fewer answers on the first pass than I often do on Mondays, so I’ve rated it ★★ rather than ★ for difficulty. But several of the ones I skipped were those I’d successfully identified as anagrams, which I find hard to work out until I have crossing letters; if you’re somebody who can solve anagrams straight away, you may find it easier than I did.
Hints and explanations are below, with the answers hidden in nothing to see hereblobs. Comments are welcome below. If you’re reading this but haven’t ever left a comment before, why not make today the day? Big Dave’s etiquette guide has the house rules.
Thank you to today’s setter — Weatherman if his fortnightly pattern is continuing … though I couldn’t spot an REM reference so perhaps it’s somebody else? (Maybe fitting in X-Type last week reset the schedule?) I also note yesterday’s International Women’s Day edition of the Telegraph Puzzles Newsletter highlighted a mini crossword by Victoria Godfrey, introduced with “As well as providing us with clever Cryptics …”. Victoria is Carpathian, Vigo, Butch and Alex in various other publications; did we know she was also setting Telegraph backpagers? I wonder which day of the week her puzzles appear.
Across
1a Blue fish catching cold (4)
RACY: Make a 3-letter fish catch and surround the letter that marks a cold tap.
3a In prison, criminal bribed Hans (6,4)
BEHIND BARS: Arrange the letters of the final 2 words in a criminal order.
10a Notes Mike and Lisa finally going around capital, towards the west (9)
MEMORANDA: First assemble these 3 components: the letter indicated by ‘Mike’ in the Nato alphabet; the literal ‘and’ from the clue (sneaky!); and the final letter of ‘Lisa’. Then we need the name of a capital city and to make it face west. Finally make the combination of the first bits go around the reversed capital. I’m choosing to presume this clue is a tribute to our friends Mike and Lisa, who are currently going round Prague.
11a From a distance, shoot bird (5)
SNIPE: This is a double definition; the tricky bit is working out that the boundary between them isn’t at the comma.
12a Poet‘s gold study (5)
AUDEN: Follow the chemical symbol for gold with a colloquial term for a study, as in the room.
13a British muralist’s confused architectural style (9)
BRUTALISM: After the single-letter abbreviation for ‘‘British’, confuse ‘muralist’, so that it’s letters are in a different order.
Pic credit: © Mike Wallis, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
14a Writer receiving consent for colour of boat in nonsense poem (3,5)
PEA GREEN: The ‘writer’ here is a piece of stationery used for writing. Make it receive inside it a word meaning ‘consent’. The definition is from Edward Lear’s The Owl and the Pussycat.
16a Run over, sits back in daze (6)
STUPOR: Concatenate the cricket abbreviations for ‘run’ and ‘over’, and a word that can mean ‘sits’, perhaps in the sense of sitting an object on a shelf. Then make the whole lot go backwards.
19a Old German state’s leader leaves country (6)
RUSSIA: We need a former German kingdom. Remove its leading letter to get a country which still exists.
20a Might this help you get into Oxford? (8)
SHOEHORN: A clues phrased as a question like this is often a crypic definition (there isn’t anywhere readily to split it into definition and wordplay). Given the apparent meaning is about Oxford University and qualifications needed for addmission, that won’t be it; we need to think what else ‘Oxford’ can be. It could mean literally a way of travelling into Oxford the city, but ‘M40’ isn’t long enough, so I ruled that out as well. The thing that most surprised me was that the answer is indeed a single word in dictionaries, not (4,4).
22a Soften aim after rewriting list of policies (9)
MANIFESTO: Rewrite the ‘soften aim’ so that its letters are in a different order.
24a Error of judgement in large part of church (5)
LAPSE: Enter the clothing-size indicator of ‘large’ followed by the name for a part of a church building that I encounter far more often in crosswords than I ever hear by going to church each Sunday.
26a Fewer than two foreign articles (5)
UNDER: We need a word for ‘a’ in one language, and one meaning ‘the’ in a different language. Both languages are European, and both have genders, meaning there are multiple variants of these articles from which we have to pick.
27a Bishop captured by hired gun running city (9)
EDINBURGH: Make the letters of ‘hired gun’ run, and have them capture how a bishop is notated in chess.
28a Play a particular English politician in audition (3,7)
THE TEMPEST: Start with a word used to specify a particular instance of something. The rest is the single-letter abbreviation for ‘English’ and the usual politician, together placed inside an audition or try-out. Handily for me, this play featured in the episode of Death in Paradise we watched just before bed last night, but we’re over a week behind, and it’s unlikely you did the same.
29a Barely modest lyric poems (4)
ODES: Make the word ‘modest’ bare, by removing its outer letters.
Down
1d Dance with game business graduate (5)
RUMBA: A usual game is followed by the letters a graduate who who studifed business can put after their name.
2d Function bored by average stand-ups (9)
COMEDIANS: A trigonometric function is abbreviated to the form it’s usually written in forumale and on calculator buttons. It’s then bored by (in the sense of making a hole in it and then inserting into that hole) one of the mathematical averages.
4d Gives honour to Lennon, ablest to ignore all outsiders (8)
ENNOBLES: Ignore all the outside letters of some preceding words in the clue, and enter what’s left of them in the grid.
5d Ill-fated high-flier‘s letters from America rushed (6)
ICARUS: Use some consecutive letters from the final 2 words in the clue.
We’ve got tickets to see The Proclaimers in Bradford later this year. I saw a few years ago supporting Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott; it’ll be good to see them in their own show — presuming we can find a babysitter, that is!
6d Mostly awful religious books the French take apart (9)
DISMANTLE: Enter in order: most of a word meaning ‘awful’ (all but its final letter); some usual religious books; and one of the words French use for ‘the’.
7d Defence of library blocking ChatGPT? (5)
ALIBI: Make an abbreviation of ‘library’ block the middle of what ChatGPT is an example of.
8d New order for marines to implement that could neaten clothes? (5,4)
STEAM IRON: Put the letters of ‘marines to’ in a new order. Nicely done by the setter, with ‘to implement’ spanning the fodder and the definition and reading so smoothly as a verb that it very much isn’t.
9d I was in charge of country (4)
IRAN: Use the ‘I’ from the clue followed by the past-tense form of a verb that can mean to be in charge of something.
14d Superior standard quantity (9)
PARAMOUNT: For this one we need synonyms of ‘standard’ (perhaps for a golf hole) and ‘quantity’.
15d Strengthen restriction supporting church (9)
REINFORCE: ‘Supporting’ in a down clue often indicatess one word goes under (or ‘supports’) another, for instance a word for a restriction going under a church. But not in this clue, where we enter in turn: a physical restriction, perhaps on a horse or a small child; a word meaning ‘supporting’ or ‘in favour of’; and a usual abbreviation of a church denomination.
17d Respectable editor, ringing Head of Sales, did well (9)
PROSPERED: Follow a word meaning ‘respectable’ with the usual journalist, and make them both ring round the outside the of the head letter of ‘sales’.
18d Politicians pinching that man’s ideas (8)
THEORIES: These politicians belong to a particular party. They pinch, as in go round the outside of, a pronoun indicating ‘that man’.
21d No longer conscious of snake taking shelter (6)
ASLEEP: We need a short species of snake. (As in, the word is short; the snake itself can be a couple of feet long.) Make it take inside a word for shelter provided by a neighbouring object.
Pic credit: © Sirenz Lorraine, CC BY-ND 2.0
23d Prompt northern extremists to abandon budget (5)
NUDGE: Start with the letter indicating ‘northern’. Follow with ‘budget’ once the letters at is extremities have been abandoned.
24d Where scientists might be found with initially loose stomach muscles (4)
LABS: After the initial letter of ‘loose’ we need the informal shortening of the name for stomach muscles.
25d Greet host, holding spirit (5)
ETHOS: The first two words hold the answer in consecutive letters.
Quickie Pun
I found I had to solve more of today’s Quick Crossword than usual to get the top row, with vague clues such as ‘Country’ and ‘Dance’ requiring multiple crossing letters before they could be answered. The first 3 clues are italicized, indicating we can say their answers out loud to make another word, name, or phrase:
MASS + TAR + PEAS = MASTERPIECE
Recent Reading
I picked this up in Barter Books knowing nothing about it (but the cover is certainly striking!). The protagonist is teenager Elizabeth, whose mum leaves quirky notes for her around the house (“There is porridge on the stove for you. Your blazer is in a heap on the living-room floor where you left it last night. Can you peel four potatoes when you get home from school? If you are bored while peeling the potatoes, you can spend the time thinking about the colour white. What are some really white things?”) and who gains a pen-pal after her English teacher makes the class write letters to pupils at another school.
The entire story in Feeling Sorry for Celia is conveyed through letters and notes to and from Elizabeth, plus some letters from various imaginary groups such as The Association of Teenagers that Elizabeth feels she should be part of and are nagging her. It’s is the kind of thing that could get tedious but Jaclyn Moriarty carries it off really well, with the different characters’ personalities coming through in their writing styles. It’s also nice to have a book featuring relative normal teenagers worrying about normal teenage things and which can be read purely for pleasure, rather than being an ‘issues’ book. Some of my favourite parts are where the teenagers are being more rational than their parents.
It’s set in Australia, but the vicissitudes of teenage friendships are familiar to those elsewhere. It was published in 2001, but I didn’t notice that until one of the messages arrived by fax. A fun, light read.
A lovely start to the crosswording week although one or two required some thought. For example, Mike and Lisa at 10a took a bit of working out. It turned out to be a good clue. At 20a, I spent too long on the city before the light dawned. My COTD is the boat in the nonsense poem at 14a.
Thank you, setter for a great start to the week. Thank you, Smylers for the hints.
Assuming I have the correct answers, I can’t make anything of the Quickie pun.
Hudson is still bad and obviously in pain because he keeps groaning. The vet can’t see him until tomorrow. 🙁
Hi Steve so sorry to hear that Hudson is no better and the vet can’t see him until tomorrow. 🤞 that it isn’t anything serious. Please let us know how the appt went and the prognosis, as I’ve told ‘ Mr Tucker’ and we are both concerned for Hudson and yourself of course.
Thanks, Hilary. What worries me is his joint is swollen and there is a particularly nasty looking ulcer on his leg.
Best wishes for the vets tomorrow SC. Such a worry when they are poorly.
Thank you, JM. 👍
I hope all goes well tomorrow and he soon gets some relief from the discomfort and you get some answers as to the cause.
Hopefully, MTF. 🤞
The ulcer is concerning.
I know, TG and it looks ugly.
The answer to the pun is incomplete, Smylers. 😊
Not any more it isn’t! (Thanks.)
For a Monday I found this to be slightly tougher than usual, however it all went together in reasonable time.
Some clever cluing throughout, but 20a is brilliant. 13a reminded me of a birthday card I received from a friend in London which had a sketch of the Barbican Centre; he had annotated it as an example of post-modern *********.
My thanks to the setter and Smylers
1.5*/3.5*
An enjoyable start to the week that I thought was going to be a breeze as the east fell rapidly. The west however had a few more tricky clues to solve, well for me anyway. 14d took the longest until I woke up and followed the instructions. I liked the lurker in 25d, but podium places go to 11a, 5d and the aforementioned 14d. Thanks to compiler and Smylers.
A gentle start to the week. Very enjoyable.favourites 11 and 20 : didn’t know 13a but the checking letters meant it couldn’t be anything else.Thanks to all.
Good Monday fun – 1.5*/4*.
Candidates for favourite – 1a, 20a, 14d, and 17d – and the winner is 1a.
Thanks to whomsoever and Smylers.
P.S. In references to other lady setters featured in the Puzzles Newsletter yesterday:
Emma Dickson, who had set Quick 31164 on (Monday) February 16th. Presumably that means she had also set the back pager on that day. So, another name to add to the ‘pool’ of Monday setters?
Chalicea also got a mention for her ‘accessible’ (does accessible = floughie?) Toughies.
Emma Dickson is Heron, whom we already know about. She also has a puzzle in Unch issue 2, and as Turnstone has set for The Guardian both a recent Genius and Saturday’s Quick Cryptic (at opposite ends of the difficulty scale!).
Ah, I missed that she had debuted in January.
And, in answer to where were you yesterday – Haworth as one of the photos is the Brontë Parsonage Museum.
Well done! The final photo is Charlotte Brontë’s desk, inside the museum.
Cool, I haven’t been to Haworth since the Tour de France came through
I thought this was an excellent Monday puzzle. Slightly more challenging than some but satisfyingly solvable (unlike yesterday’s for me). I don’t normally like the shorter clues but 1a, 7d and the clever lurker at 28d were all favourites.
A most enjoyable romp with a good variety of clue types and some cracking surfaces. Many thanks to the setter and to Smylers.
Maybe a tad less easy than recent Mondays but still highly accessible and good fun to solve. I particularly enjoyed 13 and 20a.
Many thanks to our setter and to Smylers.
Like Mustafa G I wanted to use the words enjoyable and romp too, and to highlight the many good surfaces.
LOI was 11A’s subject, it’s a pleasure making use of my Crimson Tome to find this one. Now I’ve seen a picture.. they are very striking.
Monday’s Pody picks are 20A’s Oxford accessory, 1A’s efficient fish and I liked the Lego construction of 6D.
Thanks to setter and to Smylers ⭐️
A fine start to the week with the setter serving up a splendid crossy. The first two kicked things off nicely and it flowed from there.
Good to see the word ‘fewer’ in 26a and ‘judgement’ making another appearance.
Being a numbers man, the term in 2d doesn’t mathematically mean ‘average’ (see what I did there?). But, there must be a context where it does. Can anyone help?
A Prime Minister said…”9d for parliament to run (Tehran) the country.”
My pody picks are 20a, 27a and 28a.
MTTT setter and S.
2*/4*
At school we were taught that average is a general term and there are 3 types of average: mean, the one in 2d, and mode. Often ‘average’ is used without further clarification to mean ‘mean’, but all 3 of them are averages. Things like average incomes are often the 2d one, because it’s more representative to pick somebody in the middle of the range than use the mean, which can end up non-typical because of some absurdly large numbers at the higher end.
So far as I can tell, my children are still being taught the same thing. The setter’s use of it seems fine here.
So, median is a type of average. Well, I never.
Thank you S & S.
It certainly was an average when I was at school, you must have been bunking off that day.
Even though it was a hard watch, it’s a great way to remember it.
A good Monday puzzle – but average is not the same as median in my book. The National average number of children in a family might 2.4 – but I know a number of parents whose number of offspring would be at the median value.
This pretty much capture what I was taught over 50 years ago!
Are you correct about about the term in 2d not being an average? The three different measures of central tendency can all be described as a type of mathematical / statistical average I think.
A ‘just like Mondays used to be ‘ crossword, which I enjoyed solving
Thanks to the setter and Smylers
1*/5*. Perfect for a Monday puzzle!
Well done and thank you to the setter, and thanks too to Smylers.
Gentle and enjoyable – what’s not to like on a Monday?
I particularly liked 11a, 20a and 28a.
Thanks to our setter and Smylers.
* / ****
Greatly enjoyed, particularly the Blue fish, the defence of the library and the strengthen restriction. Time has been very limited of late so now I have to find time to work forward from last Friday, having only glanced at that and the weekend puzzles.
Many thanks to Smylers and the setter
A typical Monday type of puzzle to gently break into the non-work week. Lots of smiles and some clever clueing again this week, along with a couple of chestnuts to boot.
1.5*/3.5*
Favourites include 20a, 27a, 4d, 18d & 23d — with winner 4d
Smiles for many including 20a, 24a, 9d & 24d
Thanks to setter & Smylers
An enjoyable andstraightforward guzzle, which I completed in short order. I liked the geographical clues, 11a and 27a, the double definition at 11a and the lurker at 5d. Thanks to the compiler and to Smylers for the hints.
Much more enjoyable than Saturdays puzzle.
Enjoyed it whilst listening to the excellent Black Crowes new album 🎸
Easier than I’ve come to expect on a Monday. Lots to admire with 10a, 20a and 14d favourites.
Thanks to Setter and Smylers.
1.5*/4*
Hi and thank you to all of you for your God speed messages as my husband and I tried to get back from Dubai. We managed ! Saturday night , care of Etihad , we landed with much relief. Now I can concentrate on my crossword ……
That’s good to hear, welcome back.
Welcome back, I await news that airlines are fleecing customers even more now that fuel costs much more
So pleased to hear you are all safe and back home, Val. It must have been an extremely anxious time. Welcome home.
Yay — good to have you back, Val. Thank you for taking the time to let us all know.
Really good news Val. 😀😀😀
A gentle and enjoyable puzzle which I completed before going out earlier. I wasn’t supposed to be away for so long but my car had a disagreement with a pothole and lost so a new tyre was needed.
Top picks for me were 14a, 20a, 7d and 8d.
Thanks to Smylers and the setter.
An enjoyable puzzle but I did get hung up over 1a and 1d as Samba is a dance and game but then I couldn’t get a fish with Sad where the C of 2d would fit in. Hadn’t realised racy could mean blue? Most confusing, as there is a fish called Scad. I stupidly put Sea Green at 14a and didn’t notice the error until puzzling 14d for some time. I am blaming my muddled thoughts on worrying about whether my 2006 Honda Jazz would pass it’s MOT this afternoon. Just received a call to confirm everything is OK. Phew! COTD 20a.
Many thanks to the Setter and especially Senf for the much needed hints!
Hi, Hilary. They’re synonyms in the sense of ‘adult’. As in: “That joke is too racy/blue to tell on a nice family blog like this one.”
A great start to the week , nicely gentle and good fun. My last one in was 11a, where I was convinced bird would be a word meaning prison. I ended up going through the alphabet , and then found the answer and had to check it was an actual bird. 13a was also a new architectural term. Thanks to the setter and to Smylers.
Firstly, thanks to Smylers and the pictures from the Brönte home at Howarth. Makes one wonder how a rural backwater produced three of England’s finest writers?
As for today’s puzzle, a steady solve and without the need to engage with any external references. And in a respectable time. I seem to have been going backwards in my solving efforts the past couple of weeks and have found even the easier puzzles a struggle. So very pleased with today’s outcome. My CsOTD were the naughty 1a and the crib to get you into Oxford at 20a.
Thank you to the setter and to Smylers for the hints.
A very good start to the week, not quite as straightforward as some weeks but still accessible. 10a was my favourite and I also enjoyed the anagrams, 20a and my last in 1a.
Many thanks to the setter and to Smylers for the hints.
If this link works it is to a young lady who if you close your eyes sounds as close to Karen Carpenter as I have ever heard. I think someone mentioned a while back that they liked The Carpenters, I am sorry I can’t remember who it was.
I think it might have been me. A truly beautiful voice and, I seem to remember saying that I fancied her like mad when I was a teenager. Agreed, very close to the legendary Karen.
So, thank you.
Although Harriet hates being compared to Karen Carpenter the resemblance is uncanny.
Ticks all over the shop & spot on for a Monday puzzle. Very enjoyable indeed & chuffed with a rare sub *time completion after the labours of the last few days.
Thanks to the setter & to Smylers, best wishes to poorly Hudson & pleased to see Val home safe & sound.
Quick puzzle harder for me than this one & couldn’t figure the pun either.
I was surprised at a couple of commenters mentioning struggling with the pun. Then I realized that I say it with a flat /a/, which matches the answer to 1a, whereas if you say the pun with an RP /ɑː/ (which sounds to me like inserting an ‘r’ after the ‘a’), it’s less similar.
Really good puzzle with a few head scratchers to keep us honest. Numerous contenders for favourite, always a sign of a good crossword with 11a just nosing into first place. Thanks to the setter and Smylers.
Rather more demanding than usual for a Monday but softly, softly catchee monkey and I got there. 10a and 2d brought up the rear and it also took a while for 20a penny to drop. Thanks setter and Smylers.
Very enjoyable. Quickest solve I’ve done for ages. I think every one went in on first look. Unusually fore me I worked round it systematically whereas I usually dodge around. I cannot say that any bit was easier or harder than its neighbour. Thank you setter – more please
2*/4* …
liked 27A “Bishop captured by hired gun running city (9)”
Thanks for your comment, as ever, Robin.
And for anybody else reading this: it’s fine to make comments days after the puzzle was published. We will still see them and appreciate them!
better late than “the late” I suppose