Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3365 (Hints)
Hints and tips by Senf
A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg where, on Friday, fortified coffee was required after going to the supermarket partly because of the weather, rain/freezing rain/ice pellets/snow, over the preceding 12 hours and partly because of the bill!
For me, and I stress for me,© Dada more brain mangling than NYDK was yesterday – two long ‘uns, six anagrams (four partials), one lurker, one homophone, some cross-referencing, and one palindrome all in a symmetric 28 clues with some interesting anagram indicators (just for TDS); with 14 hints ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid you should/might be able to get some of the checkers to enable the solving of the unhinted clues. I hope you have your Crimson Tomes at hand!
So Terence, what did go wrong at Stamford Bridge yesterday afternoon?
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Candidates for favourite – 1a, 14a, 16a, 27a, 7d, 15d, and 19d.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, a number of the what I very subjectively perceive to be the more difficult clues have been selected and hints provided for them.
Most of the terms used in these hints are explained in the Glossary and examples are available by clicking on the entry under “See also”. Where the hint describes a construct as “usual” this means that more help can be found in The Usual Suspects, which gives a number of the elements commonly used in the wordplay. Another useful page is Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing, which features words with meanings that are not always immediately obvious.
A full review of this puzzle will be published after the closing date for submissions.
Some hints follow:
Across
1a Tongue poke – pain is it? (6,5)
Listen very carefully, I shall say this only once! A (foreign) tongue (at the other end of the Chunnel) and a synonym of poke (and the first word of the definition is in the foreign tongue).
11a Big fish at sea in prison when virtually bankrupt (9)
An anagram (bankrupt) of PRISON and WHEn with the last letter deleted (virtually).
12a 8 Down that man, unclear if wobbly (9)
Have you solved 8 Down because I haven’t hinted it! That man as the nominative masculine form of the third person pronoun and an anagram (if wobbly) of UNCLEAR.
14a Book location in Greater Manchester (6)
A double definition – the first is an abbreviated form (in the Big Red Book) of the name of the twenty-first book in my other Big Red Book!
18a Delinquent? I have backed older miscreant (8)
The reversal (backed) of the contracted form of I have and an anagram (miscreant) of OLDER.
26a Keep going, by challenging (9)
A three letter synonym of by and a synonym of challenging.
28a Narrator, person banking on lie (5-6)
A term for someone working in a bank (person banking) placed after (on) a synonym of lie (as in a porky).
Down
2d Turner Prize work stolen to order, every second counting (5)
You don’t need to know that the Turner Prize is for art; just select the second letters (every second counting) of five words in the clue.
4d Race is one short of a football team? (6)
A (3,3) phrase that can indicate that a football team is short of one player.
7d Source of information US president once put on paper (4,9)
Select a former president from the illustration and put him before (on) the paper source of our enjoyment/torture.
9d Politician identified as criminal, effectively working on plot? (5-8)
Guess a term for a politician from a minor party (I understand that there are five in the UK Parliament at the present time) and a slang term equivalent to identified as criminal.
15d Arrangement of locks: in remedy one breaks out (8)
We have a Matryoshka – all of the Roman numeral for one inserted into (breaks) a synonym of out is inserted into (in) a synonym of remedy.
22d Frightful cast, not as honest (6)
A synonym of frightful and CasT with the interior letters deleted (not as).
25d Love a way in, did you say? (5)
A homophone (did you say) of A from the clue and a a term for way in.
Quick Crossword Pun:
MANGO + CHERRY = MUNGO JERRY
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Before beginning a solo career in 1987, one half of the duo Wham, George Michael, released a first solo single in 1984 and a second one, A Different Corner, in 1986. The latter was at number one for three weeks starting on this day in that year:
A dnf for me as I resorted to e-help to confirm a fair few. Also needed Senf’s hint to parse 1a. In retrospect, a clever puzzle but not much fun given the help required. 7d raised a smile so is my cotd. Thanks to Dada for the brain mangling and Senf for the help.
We found this quite straightforward- maybe it is our muddled American brains. And our winningest clue was 7d !
Grateful to Dead Fans
Mr & Mrs T
Boston (prepping the the last frost)
Good to ‘hear’ from you.
Sorry, not for me. I gave up after solving about half a dozen.
As for the Quickie pun, I wouldn’t have got it in a month of Sundays.
Thank you for the thrashing, Dada. Thank you, Colonel for the much needed hints.
Yes, I agree, this was a beast of a crossword, and I very nearly gave up on it about half way through. It took a longer time than a Sunday puzzle usually does but I finished it invthe end. It wasn’t one of Dada’s finest but I did enjoy the diabolically cunning 1a, my COTD, the cryptic definition at 7d and the geographical clue at 14a. Thanks to Dada for the brain burner and o Senf for the hints.
Totally agree about the crossword. I do remember Mungo Jerry though!
I remember Mungo Jerry – I just wasn’t prepared to wade through all the possible combinations of fruit. 😊
I’m also in the not for me club.
Me too – six done and that was it.
4*/2*. Disappointing – I found this very tough and not much fun with a couple of dodgy anagram indicators to boot.
Thanks anyway to Dada and also to Senf.
Dada set us a crossword that wouldn’t have been out of place in the Sunday Toughie slot and without his usual sprinkling of fun
Thanks to him and Senf
Maybe it got in the wrong envelope, although I haven’t started this yet the Beam in t’other place is not too tough.
I agree, SJB. I’m getting on quite well with the Beam Toughie.
I came by to see if I wasn’t the only one thinking ‘wrong envelope’ today. I finished it with lots of help as a kind of training exercise.
WOW
Finished but needed the hints to verify matters .
Thanks and greetings.
For me, and I stress for me (© Senf), this was v-e-r-y H-A-R-D indeed. Lawks, my gruel and orange juice with no bits was long gorn when I shoved in the last one (18a). I would go for a little lie down if we weren’t going out for a lovely walk™ and Sunday luncheon (in the Chilterns).
Football? Yesterday? I can’t quite remember…
Oh it was painful! Tippy-tappy, sideways and backwards. Wayward crossing; abysmal decision making; flimsy shooting. Lack of commitment. No leadership. Cole Palmer a shadow of the player he was eighteen months ago.
A manager way out of his depth. Substitutions – like for like when a second striker was clearly needed. Centre forward who has made 24 Premier League appearances – one goal. Disgruntled supporters demonstrating outside the ground before kick-orf.
We could be next season’s Tottenham. What a thought!
Thanks to Da-doo-ron-ron and The Shivering Man From Manitoba
A DNF for me, although I got there with the hints, thanks to Senf. As others have commented I did not find this particularly enjoyable. Another DNF was my attempt to repair our concrete gatepost in the 40 degree midday heat. The gatepost awaits my attempts tomorrow and I am sure the cryptic offering will be more rewarding.
Thanks for the hints and to the setter.
This one seems to have got the thumbs down from everyone but I enjoyed it. Thanks to Dada and Senf.
The three top-notch clues I liked best were 1a, 28a and 2d.
At the Tough end of the “non-Toughie” puzzle spectrum and definitely worthy of its Prize status. Similar in many ways to today’s Dada Toughie 3673, the Comments on which is what led me to tackling this on. I’m with Gazza on this: a lot more fun than I was expecting. 1a gets my top prize.
Thanks to both Dada and Senf.
Another hour wasted on this one, far too obscure to be any fun, the only saving grace was 1a. Put toughie level puzzles back where they belong.
Thrown in the towel with 8 still to go. Sorry, not enjoyable, far too convoluted for my little brain! Thanks Senf for trying to help.
Came back to this and finally finished. Hard going and sadly would definitely put off a newby
I haven’t the time to spend all day on this.Will give it another go this evening. Not much fun so far with 75% of clues in.
i really struggled with this and can see I am not alone. I would not have got 1a without the hints, although I now see how clever it was. The rest eventually fell into place with the hints and some e help.
Many thanks to Dada…(please can we have an easier one next time?) and to Senf for the hints
Phew, what a tester. As others have said more befitting of a Toughie. Only got 7 on the first pass and ready to throw in the towel, but plodded on and needed to find possibles from the checkers and reverse parse for the majority of the remaining clues to fill the grid.
Favourites, if I can call them that, were 1a, 16a and 11a.
Ta Dada and Senf
4*/2*
I got two (10a and 7d) while waiting for the puzzle to print and thought it was going to be easier than yesterday’s. Oh no, it turned out to be, for me, a real stinker. If this weekend was the first that I’d tried the prize cryptics I think it would have been my last.
It was hard but I did get a smidgeon of enjoyment from it with 15d, 7d, 27a and 16a.
I got the words in the Quickie pun but couldn’t work out the pun.
Thanks to Dada and Senf.
I had a similar thought when 5d ‘leapt’ off my laptop screen while waiting for my printer to burst into action.
A dnf (the devious 11a beat me), but unlike the majority I’ll give it a 4.5* for enjoyment, I might be a masochist though!
Thought some of the clues were brilliant with superb misdirection and many smiles.
Favourites include 1a the pain, 7d source of info and 9d working on plot.
Thanks to Senf and the cunning setter
Ps I did crack the quickie pun which I thought was pretty obscure
I fully agree with Senf’s comments that this was definitely not a friendly Dada offering for this prize puzzle … this was really a Toughie IMHO. Plenty of quirkiness as well as personal thesaurus use this week. This was a rough puzzle to complete. I have a headache.
3.5*/3* for me
Favourites include 12a, 26a, 27a, 4d, 6d & 25d — with winner 27a
This was a real struggle today
Thanks to Dada & Senf
Bankrupt? Miscreant? Spent? Surely not.
I don’t mind a setter slipping in the occasional dodgy anagram indicator – well, I do, actually – but three? No, no, no.
A brace of bruising brainteasers at a weekend is as rare as hen’s teeth.
There was some excellent cluing with a couple of suspect surfaces getting in the way. Why am I not surprised that Chumpers has an abbreviated version of the Old Testament book? I have looked online and can’t find one reference to it. I can’t believe Radio has used it.
My podium is 2d, 7d and 9d.
MTTTA and Senf.
5*/3*
I took ‘off’ to be the anagram indicator in 21a with ‘spent’ as a last letter deletion indicator; and, I am a little surprised that you didn’t include ‘improvisation.’
The Crimson Tome is not alone, an e-search for the 14a abbreviation revealed that it is also in the OED, Collins, and Merriam Webster to name but three other fine dictionaries!
As you know, dictionaries carry zero weight with me. Not having found one reference online clearly shows that it’s not in common parlance. My guess is that none of us have seen it.
You’re absolutely right about off/spent. My mistake. Why is ‘My bad’ getting traction, btw? It’s up there with ‘pants’.
I did forgot to include ‘improvisation’. Goodness me. A synonym of an anagram indicator isn’t an anagram indicator. Why don’t setters get that? Isn’t a list of 1,000+ to choose from enough?
I will put two half-crowns on today not being the first time that the ‘book’ has appeared in a back pager!
….and nowhere else.
It shouldn’t be seen in one again.
“….and nowhere else” — oh, I expect you might find it were you to scour the footnotes of some scholarly religious studies journal
No doubt but that’s where it ends.
I’m all for specialist/obscure knowledge but this one is at another level.
Fun fact – last time I composed a Simon’s Top 100 Songs – this was in 2010 – Radio Ga Ga was #99.
I like the song but a few people say it’s one of their worst.
What were the top three in ‘SiRi 2010’?
Blimey! This was quite a workout. I’d wondered if my wife’s birthday night out (including seeing tribute band Oasish – highly recommend by the way) contributed to my struggles with this puzzle .. probably, but the comments here make me feel better. And I did think afterwards ‘I’ve done significantly gentler Toughies…’
LOI was 2D only because I failed to parse it without the hints – kicking myself there – else my last answer to solve was 11A; not a word I knew (nor enjoyed learning), but also very thrown by the ‘virtually bankrupt’ … I guess we are to take that as ‘almost emptied’??
Pody picks – 4D’s football team, 7D’s information source as I genuinely enjoyed learning this term, and 27A’s Sydney, lovely stuff.
Many thanks to Dada for challenging me out of my hangover, and to Senf ⭐️
An after lunch start which is unusual for me…to be frank I wish I’d left it alone, not for me at all I’m afraid.
Thanks to senf for the hints and to the setter for exposing my limitations
Couldn’t see that poke was the second word in 1a, what’s bankrupt doing in 11a (didn’t like the clue anyway), the less said about 14a the better, wasn’t keen on 27a either and surely the the first three letters reversed in 2d is the wrong tense. The rest just about pass muster but still tough. But at least we managed to finish. No real favourite. Thanks to Dada anyway and Senf.
First three letters reversed in 2d?
What a tricky weekend but at least Cardiff were promoted! The tongue poke gets my vote for CotD, thank you Dada and Senf
Didn’t find this enjoyable at all .Too many iffy surfaces .My initial thoughts on 14a were correct but I rejected it after some thought, still not convinced ! The east fell reasonably quickly but couldn’t work out 1a , another one I didn’t like . Definitely a DNF , without a hint or two . I’m drained, might watch the golf and relax . Not sure about doing the toughie, this was tough enough . Thanks to all
What a disappointment today… this takes me back a few years to the early Dada puzzles, which were a total enigma to me. Gradually I thought I had got the art of solving his Sunday challenges, but I think he must have dug this one out of storage. With just five answers so far, life is too short and I’m off to do the latest Chalicea NTSPP instead. Thanks to Dada, and to Senf.
Currently 3 shy of a finish (4&22d + 11a) & yet to read Senf’s words of wisdom so it remains to be seen if they’re hinted if required. Just popped in to see the general consensus on the level of difficulty. Can’t say I’m surprised. I thought it much like a number of his Paul puzzles (3d&27a) so for me this one has been pulled out of his Guardian bound puzzles drawer. I did like the peripheral clues & particularly 1a once that penny eventually dropped.
Thanks to D&S
Hinted just for you
Very nearly required for last in 4d.😮💨
Lordy me Huntsman, if you found some of it a bit tricky heaven help the rest of us!!
What’s going on this weekend? Two toughies escaped and looking for unsuspecting solvers! Thank goodness for Beam’s toughie and Chalicea’s NTSPP, which both provided loads of cruciverbal fun.
Thanks for the hints Senf but I’m afraid I threw in the towel on this one.
Well glad it’s not just me then. I still have 8 to go and determined not to be a DNF. I’ll get a hint or two and see if I can get it over the line. Onwards and upwards. I’ll say thanks now to Dada ..do I recall he threatened a hard one a while ago when we were all saying it was easy ? If so he wasn’t joking. Thanks to Senf also.
Got there in the end…I need a drink now 😀
Unlikely to have been Dada – I don’t think that he has ever commented on the blog. I have a vague recollection of NYDK making a comment like that on a Saturday.
Yes of course good point ! Feels so much more difficult than his usual ones though.
Oh gosh that was hard. I ended up with all the squares filled, using hints and other means, but just could not figure out most of the clues. As with yesterday’s prize puzzle it is another I cannot honestly enter for a pen.
This was tough with a capital TOUGH. I eventually got there – late in the evening. Too hard to enjoy and didnt like the construct of the the clues. Setter is not one for me – thought overall it was poorly set. Like yesterday – makes for a poor weekend of puzzles. Not for me at all this weekend.
Thanks to Dada and to Senf for the hints. Another really tough puzzle two days running. Wrong envelopes or setters flexing their muscles? Can normally finish the Sunday back pager, but nowhere near this one. Gave up, and looked up the answers for the missing eight. Don’t think I could’ve got any of them. Was 5* /3* for me. Favourite was 7d.
Monday morning in bed with my glass of hot water. Phew. Just finished although heaven knows if 27 a is right- I was glad to see I’m not alone in struggling. Where does Sydney come in? Do they have a different word for postcodes?(I am aware that the naughty step police are still lurking and what is more the cake will be stale). We had a very busy and complicated weekend with interment of ashes of a very old friend who had moved away anyway that is by the by. Or is it bye the bye? Anyway thanks to the Hard Hearted Setter and the Gentleman Hinter – at least I have completed the grid.
Hi Day Zee
Regarding 27a, the first two letters is a shortened version of the country and the remaining three is a number (figure).
By the way, it can be ‘by the by’ or ‘by the bye’ but not ‘bye the bye’ as it means along (by) the path/way (by/bye). It’s not the main route, i.e it’s ‘off the track’ or ‘of secondary importance’.
I can’t find why the second bit can be ‘by’ or ‘bye’. One theory is that by and bye are shortened versions of bayou which is a stream.
”Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and a filé gumbo….son of a gun, we’ll have big fun on the bayou”
If there’s a Top Ten for clues, then 1a “Tongue poke – pain is it? (6,5)”? must qualify. A clever mis-direction, rather like the one in a puzzle a couple of days ago, where I read the word “does” numerous times before realising I was mispronouncing it. Genius. That’s probably why I still keep paying £1,500 p.a. to have the paper delivered. Editor should note!
Goodness! Late to the party after a very busy weekend, and needed several return visits to finish it. 1a, 2d and 7d my favourites with the winner being 2d for its originality. Now to tackle the toughie and Saturdays prize puzzle.
3*/3* …
liked 11A “Big fish at sea in prison when virtually bankrupt (9)”