Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31191
Hints and Tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ****
Thanks to today’s setter (I’ll leave you to guess his or her identity) for an entertaining puzzle.
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 Boast about inspiring current supermarket biscuit (9)
GARIBALDI: reverse (about) a verb to boast containing (inspiring) the symbol for electric current. Add a cut-price supermarket.
6a Quite possibly fortunate (4)
WELL: double definition, the first as in ‘He could **** be a traitor’.
10a Barely credit flipping nursing student’s a lazybones (5)
IDLER: reverse (flipping) the inner (barely) letters of [c]REDI[t] and insert (nursing) our usual abbreviated student.
11a Calendar George endlessly changes, organised around one (9)
GREGORIAN: start with an anagram (changes) of GEORG[e] and add a verb meaning organised containing the Roman one. This is the calendar that we adopted in 1752 bringing disquiet at the ‘loss’ of eleven days.
12a Soldiers tense after scrap retreating for cover (7)
GARMENT: a word for male soldiers and the grammatical abbreviation for tense follow the reversal (retreating) of a scrap or fragment of cloth.
13a EU citizen almost delayed through congestion ultimately (7)
LATVIAN: assemble a synonym of delayed without its last letter (almost), a preposition (from Latin) meaning through and the ultimate letter of congestion.
14a Singer about to plug very old record (8)
VOCALIST: a two-letter abbreviation meaning about or approximately goes between (to plug) abbreviations for very and old and a record or register.
16a Brings up sum remaining unpaid a Republican ignored (5)
REARS: start with a word for money that should have been paid earlier and remove (ignored) A and the abbreviation for Republican.
19a Runs hotel hosting African party, spread for Americans (5)
RANCH: the cricket abbreviation for runs and the letter that hotel represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet contain (hosting) a South African political party.
21a Stimulating drink, order for one’s chauffeur perhaps? (4-2-2)
PICK-ME-UP: if we replace the hyphens with spaces we get a possible order given to one’s chauffeur.
24a Overheard extremely remarkable couple (7)
TWOSOME: a homophone (overheard) of an adverb meaning extremely and a word that can mean remarkable or outstanding in a phrase such as “She’s **** swimmer”.
25a Succeed with role in The Tempest? Not entirely (7)
PROSPER: the name of the hero of Shakespeare’s play without its last letter (not entirely).
27a Performing Dream lots will see great artist (3,6)
OLD MASTER: an anagram (performing) of DREAM LOTS.
28a Norwegian bread from Bergen or Kristiansand brought back (5)
KRONE: hidden (from) in reverse (brought back) in the clue. Bread here is used in its informal sense meaning money.
29a Minute mark (4)
NOTE: double definition, the first a noun and the second a verb.
30a Little beast, love rat we condemned (5,4)
WATER VOLE: an anagram (condemned) of LOVE RAT WE.
Down
1d Close inspection of track’s condition at an end (5-4)
GOING-OVER: a word used to describe the condition of the ground in horseracing and an adverb meaning ‘at an end’ or finished.
2d Sovereign, king that’s below accepted standard (5)
RULER: the Latin abbreviation for king follows (below, in a down clue) a word for an accepted standard or convention.
3d Delivery problem regularly blocks obtaining gym equipment (7)
BARBELL: another word for a delivery in cricket with regular letters from ‘problem’ inside it (blocks).
4d Most delicate fellows essentially get this flustered (8)
LIGHTEST: the central (essentially) letter of fellows followed by an anagram (flustered) of GET THIS.
5d Confession of drug pusher, originally sacrificing morals (6)
IDEALS: a confession from a drug pusher (1,4) followed by the original letter of sacrificing.
7d Bird tucks into cream put out (9)
ELIMINATE: a possibly talkative bird is contained in (tucks into) a synonym of cream or top-class.
8d Revolutionary from Left periodically being elected (5)
LENIN: string together the abbreviation for left, regular (periodically) letters from ‘being’ and an adverb meaning elected.
9d Bill regrets opportunities, to an extent, after retiring (6)
POSTER: hidden (to an extent) and reversed (after retiring).
15d Agreement to use empty airport as plane’s new base (9)
CONCORDAT: start with a supersonic plane and replace the letter used as a base in logarithms with the outer (empty) letters of A[irpor]T.
17d Replace exceptionally good, highly ranked player, it’s said (9)
SUPERSEDE: charade of an adjective meaning exceptionally good and what sounds like (it’s said) a highly ranked player at Wimbledon say.
18d Damp climbing tour across Italy daughter is leading (8)
DISPIRIT: reverse (climbing, in a down clue) a synonym of tour or outing containing (across) the IVR code for Italy. That’s preceded (leading) by the genealogical abbreviation for daughter and IS from the clue.
20d Expression of surprise when husband previously fusses (3-3)
HOO-HAS: an expression of surprise (as in Frankie Howerd’s ‘*** Missus’) and a conjunction meaning ‘when’ are preceded (previously) by the genealogical abbreviation for husband.
22d One criticising feature of front door? (7)
KNOCKER: double definition.
23d Confer over Warwickshire’s opener following defeat (6)
BESTOW: the cricket abbreviation for over and the opening letter of Warwickshire follow a verb to defeat or get the better of.
24d Spike needs time on musical instrument (5)
THORN: the physics abbreviation for time followed by (on, in a down clue) a brass instrument.
26d Italian banker fences recently stolen picture (5)
PHOTO: an Italian river (banker, i.e. something with banks) contains (fences) an informal adjective meaning recently stolen.
The top clues for me were 1a, 15d and 23d. Which one(s) did the trick for you?
The Quick Crossword pun: LANK + CASHIER = LANCASHIRE
3*/4*. This was a challenging and enjoyable puzzle with 1a my favourite.
Many thanks to the setter and to Gazza.
This was good fun from the off with a little more thought required than yesterday`s effort. There are too many to like so instead of picking a podium, I will highlight the following; the biscuit at 1a, the European at 13a, the missing article and republican at 16a, the tonic at 21a, the run-in at 28a, 3d and the 5d. Many thanks to the setter and hinter.
Very enjoyable. Did not catch the homophone in 7d for some reason, I believe only the French version of the plane (15d) had the addition final letter. Top clue 1a. Thanks Gazza and setter
Based on my aerospace experience and according to that unimpeachable source Wikipedia, only between 1963 and 1967. Always with the ‘base’ letter after Tony Benn added it back at the ‘roll out’ of the first French aircraft.
The French and British both used the same spelling. The British agreed to use a French letter.
Thanks to Senf and yourself for putting me right. I assume if it still been flying on Brexit day the letter would have been removed!
Tee-hee!
Hard. ****/***
Quite a tough crossword today, compared to earlier this week. My LOI was 18d, I kept wanting to fit in mist somewhere given the checkers. Finally, I snapped out of it and realised it wasn’t that kind of damp. Anyway, a very good work-out for the brain. My picks for the day are 1a, 21a and 8d. Many thanks to the setter and for the hints.
Even by Thursday standards, quite a challenge but doable – 3.5*/4.5*
Candidates for favourite – 14a, 25a, 29a, 7d, 15d, and 26d – and the winner is 26d.
Based on the smoothness of the Quickie Pun, thanks to Silvanus, or whomsoever if it is not he, and Gazza.
I found that appropriately challenging for a Thursday, although my enjoyment was hampered by the instability of the Telegraph’s website which crashed again, leaving me to start anew from scratch (I think Deansleigh had the same problem yesterday). I was mostly held up in the SW, looking for synonyms of the wrong definition of concur at 23d and wondering why the exclamation at 20d was upside down. The chauffeur at 21a was my favourite. Thanks very much to the setter and to Gazza.
That was tough. 20d had me stumped for a good while and not being wholly convinced with my answer, albeit it fitted the checkers, confirmed my answer with the hints post completion. 19a and 21a made me smile but cotd goes to 1a. Thanks to compiler and to Gazza for the hints.
2.5* / 3.5* Quite a few tricky and convoluted clues to contend with, all fairly clued though.
Favourites today include the new word to me at15d agreement, 25a succeed and quite like the wee beast at 39a
Thanks to Gazza and compiler
Unintentional reply!
A toughie if ever there was one, far too convoluted for me, took ages and still 6 left before I gave up, roll on tomorrow……
Agree, and too many stretched synonyms IMHO.
Afternoon all. 3*/3* for us with the downs going in fairly easily – although the acrosses left us head scratching on a few.
I still don’t understand how fortunate means ****. Resorted to dictionary and thesaurus but still stumped.
Thanks to Gazza and setter.
Fortunate is listed under the answer in the BRB so I assume it means ‘in good health’ but I agree that it’s rather a stretch.
In Collins, fortunate is the 15th of 15 synonyms for the answer in the sense of satisfactory (rather than healthy). However, when one searches for synonyms of fortunate, the answer does not appear on its own but only in combinations such as ‘****-off’, ‘****-heeled’, and ‘****-to-do’.
Thanks, Falcon. I should have looked at Collins which has the answer meaning ‘fortunate or happy’ and gives the example ‘It is well that you agreed to go’.
I thoroughly agree with your assessment Anorak ,v 1a was agood Lego clue, 11a wellthought out anagram but I felt that 20 was a bit weak hudgingby this compiler’s usual high standards Thanks to Silvanus and to Gazza for the hints.
Me too with the fortunate thing, just ‘cos it’s in the BRB don’t make it a good clue in my eyes.
Tough for me….didn’t finish so thank goodness for the hints.
Thanks to the setter and to Gazza
A bit chewier than the last few days, and the last half-dozen took as long as all the rest – my fault for being out of sync with the setter. Cracking puzzle, hugely satisfying.
A great shame that with so many clues extending to two lines, the DT’s inept page-setting resulted yet again in the puzzle printing to two pages (or it would have done had I not noticed in time), my irritation being intensified when I found exactly the same problem with the Toughie, too.
Come on DT, it ain’t rocket science to make the grid a bit smaller, or better still, make the whole thing scalable to a single page!
Honours to 10a, 25a and 23d. Many thanks indeed to the setter and to Gazza
I just print page 1, and write any additional ones in the margin.
I always do it on-line … no paper, no ink … no problem!
Well, for me, with this week being an off week for RayT on the backpager, I find that today’s puzzle very confusing and a lot of unfathomable parsing.
Can’t say I enjoyed working through it as I still couldn’t reverse engineer.
3*/2.5* for me today
I liked 1a, 21a, 2d & 15d — with 21a winner
Thanks to setter & Gazza
A tough , chewy Thursday work out today.Homophone at 24 doesn’t work for me although I worked out the answer, but needed the hint or at least half of it for 20d my last one in .I thought it was a bit of a stretch for 6a !! Three for the podium 19, 25 and 27 . Thanks to all .
A perfect challenge for the business end of the week with my LOI being 6a. I can’t think of anything harder than a four letter word that is a double definition with one of them being not obvious.
Thank you, G, for explaining the synonym for ‘remarkable’ and 15d has been added to the crib sheet.
17d is the most commonly misspelt high-frequency word going as the world puts a c as the sixth letter. In Latin, it means to sit (sedere) above, usually in office.
My podium is 1a, 14a and 26d.
MTT Silvanus (?) and Gazza.
3*/4*
PS
I tested Susie Dent on, what I call, the Filthy Five and she got 17d wrong. The other four are:
fuchsia (impossible)
haemorrhage
minuscule (the original spelling)
tranquillity (one L in The US)
Out of the thousands of people I’ve tested over the years, only two have got all five correct both of which were Classics graduates.
I’m surprised that diarrhoea isn’t filthy.
Like it, G. Like it.
Its etymology is superb: to flow (rheo – the r is aptly repeated) and through (dia). The committee were obviously in a rush to get to the taverna that night.
The Rhone and Rhine that flow have the same root.
No ideas why the o and e were swapped.
I know you like rules for remembering spellings, well “fuchsia” need never be misspelt if one remembers it is named after a German botanist called Fuchs (the German for fox, incidentally).
Oh happy memories of 15D. Here in Bracknell we had to time our church sermons around the 11am take off of said beast, there was no way you could be heard at that time on a Sunday! A very distinctive noise indeed. After the final voyages, a week of so later suddenly that characteristic roar came again, looked out to see another plane heading off to its final resting place (can’t remember which one). And of course in Alderney, where my brother was living at the time, where you heard the supersonic boom (both UK and French ones there).
As to the crossie, a little tricky compared to earlier ones this week but all completed sans-hints. ***/****
I used to make the same mistake, thinking it came from cedere (to fall) super (above)???
Totally understandable, T for 2.
I did Latin A Level and it caught me out.
The s just looks plain wrong.
I found this very tricky but got there in the end. Needed Gazza’s help parsing 20d. 15d was a new word to me. I’m not sure the supersonic plane would have come to mind if I hadn’t previously worked at Rolls-Royce.
Top picks for me were 7d, 14a and 9d.
Thanks to Gazza and the setter.
?Bankfield or Ghyll Brow perhaps. Mr J also a retiree.
Superb guzzle – thank you Sylvanus. Also, thank you Gazza – couldn’t have done it without you.
I was based at Filton, Bristol. I had the wonderful experience of standing directly under her as she came in to land on her last flight. It was a very emotional experience and the pilot after landing ‘drove’ her down the runway going from side to side raising and lowering the nose cone to bow to the employees.
***** / **
After a few very good days, just couldn’t get along with this today. It was a DNF for me and that spoilt the entertainment. Probably me as I’m not well at the moment but after completing a couple of toughie’s this week, I just wasn’t at the races today. Liked the stimulating drink for the chauffeur and the old favourite biscuit.
Thanks to the setter for the defeat and to Gazza for enlightening me!
Get well soon Alfiepops.
A real struggle today – needed a couple of hints to check i had the right answers (6a & 29a). Can’t say i enjoyed it much and found it very convoluted. Not for me im afraid.
Very late on parade today as we were taking advantage of the glorious spring weather to do some work in the garden. This was a very pleasant surprise and a nicely challenging one to boot. If I have to nominate a favourite I will go for 1a.
Thanks to whomsoever compiled this little gem, and to Gazza.
A mixed bag for me with several read and writes balanced by some serious head scratching. Most of it completed this morning and just returned home to finish the last seven. I needed Gazza’s explanation for 1d after I bunged in the correct answer, but otherwise fair and accessible.
Podium places for 17d, 25a and 15d.
My thanks to the setter and Gaza
2.5*/3.5*
Many thanks to Gazza and to all those solving and commenting. My best wishes to Jane.
See you all again soon.
Thanks for the top-notch puzzle, Silvanus.
A late solve today after a trip to York for lunch with my sister.
Found this troublesome the top right quadrant holding out the longest. And 1A being the top clue for me today.
Did not like 20d and had to resort to a “cheat” to find the last letter and even then struggled with both the word and making it fit the clue
All that said overall was enjoyable and been four good solvable puzzles so far this week
Very tough today and only just managed to finish – Ihave misspelt 17d though – thanks TDS above!
Thanks to Gazza and Silvanus – I’m sure it is he today
4*/4*
Well it’s Thursday, so I know the puzzle is inevitably going to be harder but I certainly struggled with some clues. I was unable to get 20d and concur with Spangledcat! Liked 1a, 11a, 21a and the anagrams and lurker. Many thanks to Silvanus and Gazza for the hints and cartoons.
I guessed it was Silvanus with a *****/* rating from me. Didn’t enjoy much of it and gave up with a few to go.
A satisfying grind with the last third taking some time – but then 20D .. urgh.
Pody picks – well I like a 21A refreshment, 15A was a new word, and 1D’s construction.
Whatever the opposite of the Pody is, 20D gets it!
Thanks to setter and to Gazza – especially for the 6A hint, wasn’t clear on the first half usage of the DD. ⭐️
Hi Wriggles.
I call the opposite of podium ‘schmodium’
or ‘schmody’ for short.
Just returned home from the stitching show at The Design Centre in Islington. Did the crossword on the train to London Bridge and although it was a bit chewy it fell into place nicely. Full of admiration for the setter but being in a good mood and the sun shining it would have taken a lot to damped the mood. Neck and neck favourites were the request to the chauffeur and 5 down. A day of inspiration in many ways . Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza
A brilliantly entertaining puzzle which I managed to finish and only needed to check parsing of a couple. My favourite was 1a.
Many thanks to Silvanus and to Gazza for the hints.
Trickiest of the week thus far & pegged it as a likely Smooth production. Got into a bit of a mess in the SW by initially entering tick at 29a but eventually realised that didn’t work. As ever plenty to like & very enjoyable with 15d my pick of the clues.
Thanks to Silvanus & Gazza.
No time for the puzzle because of a long and very convivial lunch. It appears to have been a bit on the tough side. The puzzle not the lunch!
Just want to post a picture of where I am. Where am I?
You’re there!
Droll, Tom very droll! 😊
Well, I have managed to find two half-crowns at the back of my sock drawer that say that is Hanley Swan!
It is indeed Hanley Swan, Senf! The birthplace of Big Dave – pictures of which adorn the site daily. 😊
His adopted home village rather than his birthplace, according to my understanding. He was brought up and went to school in South London.
Hope Hudson’s wound is improving.
Actually, silvanus I meant the birthplace of the blog not the big man. Hudson is not improving, unfortunately. He may need an operation, which the vet wants to avoid because it is painful.
Thank you for the puzzle, which I hope to tackle tomorrow.
A nice ‘replication’ of the view across the Duck Pond (confirmed with Google Maps and Street View).
I checked the shop (picture at top left of the site banner) and they do sell the Telegraph so I hope to tackle the puzzle over breakfast.
A nice but difficult puzzle rather spoiled by 20d IMHO. I enjoyed the challenge of the rest though. I parsed 15d as empty airport ‘AT’ replacing the ‘E’ at the end of the plane ‘new base’. Favourite was 17d as I knew how to spell it. As an apprentice draughtsman I had to write it hundreds if not thousands of times in mirror writing on the back of drawings that had been 17d’d so if they changed their minds it could be easily rubbed out. Apprentices were always given the menial tasks but it made a change from making the tea. Thanks to Silvanus and Gazza.
I found this very hard. Still not completed much of the west, but will revisit in the morning.
Thanks to all.
Found it hard and a bit less fun today-a lot of clues that I solved through letters and definition, without the satisfaction of knowing the answer for sure based on the parsing. Some lovely clues amongst them, but the end was a slightly unsatisfying slog…
Thanks as ever for the help disentangling at the end.
Got there in the end but only had completed about 80% before I had to call on the hints. Worthy of its three stars so was a challenge.
Thank you to the setter and to Gazza for the hints.
Hard! Needed the hints for one or two!
4*/4* …
liked 7D “Bird tucks into cream out out (9)”
also liked the cartoons in the hints.