Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31225
Hints and tips by Huntsman
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** Enjoyment ****
Well quite a weather contrast to yesterday’s glorious day here in Harpenden as it’s dull & overcast with maybe even a smattering of much needed rain due in the next hour or two.
Today’s Anthony Plumb (I assume) production is the usual gentle exercise that I suspect won’t leave many 17d. As ever nicely clued throughout & fun while it lasted. For those seeking a further challenge I see Hudson is over in t’other place so I’ll save that for an afternoon watching the snooker & nursing a poorly back.
As usual there is a selection of music to enjoy or ignore.
In the hints below the definition element of each clue has been underlined, anagrams are CAPITALISED & the crossword technique “indicator words” are in brackets. The answers are concealed under the Click Here buttons. Please leave a comment below telling us what you thought & how you got on with the puzzle.
Across
1a Drunkard in the hay turned red (7)
BLUSHED: insert (in) a drunkard/sot into the hay/place to sleep – the expression hitting the hay comes from the fact that hay was once the 17a used to fill mattresses.
5a Steal pub profit (7)
BARGAIN: link a synonym for pub/boozer with one for profit/yield. Nowt to do with sticky fingers.
9a Convexity on upper surface around hotel room (7)
CHAMBER: a term for a convex or slightly bowed surface (on a road for example) with the single letter for H[otel] inserted (around).
10a Luxury cot from abroad (7)
COMFORT: an anagram (abroad) of COT FROM.
11a Businesses take steps cutting costs (9)
PRACTICES: insert (cutting) a verb meaning to take steps/proceed into costs/charges.
12a Frenzied chap in charge (5)
MANIC: chap/fella + the usual two letter abbreviation for in charge.
13a Produce that is left in yard (5)
YIELD: the usual abbreviation for yard goes around the two letters for ‘that is’ & L[eft].
15a Gets bigger hip wrinkles (9)
INCREASES: hip/fashionable + wrinkles/pleats.
17a Vessel bearing meat (9)
SUBSTANCE: an abbreviation for an underwater vessel + bearing/posture.
19a Genesis admitting end of pop career (5)
SPEED: place (admitting) [po]P (end of) into genesis/root.
22a Downright eccentric leader’s thrown out (5)
UTTER: remove the 1st letter (leader thrown out) from an informal term for an eccentric/oddball.
23a Flirt with intern with tea brewing (9)
ENTERTAIN: an anagram (brewing) of INTERN TEA.
25a Guarantee ball is close to hole (7)
PROMISE: ball/dance + IS from the wordplay + [hol]E (close to).
26a Encounter cheat exchanging diamonds with queen (7)
RECEIVE: a synonym for cheat with its initial letter swapped out – D[iamonds] replaced with queen/R[egina].
27a Modest about son’s ancestry (7)
DESCENT: a synonym for decent/tasteful with S[on] inserted (about).
28a Violent Danes with ship, creating misery (7)
SADNESS: an anagram (violent) of DANES then append the usual ship prefix.
Down
1d Earlier talk brought up money you’re owed (4,3)
BACK PAY: earlier/previous + a reversal (brought up/down clue) of talk/yatter.
2d Ignorant French article essentially creates conflict with Spain (7)
UNAWARE: the French indefinite article for use with masculine nouns + a two word term for an armed conflict then append the IVR code for Spain.
3d Sister might wear this headpiece crossing British island (5)
HABIT: place a headpiece/titfer around (crossing) the single letter for B[ritish] & for I[sland].
4d Awful court, I found, regularly ignored guidance (9)
DIRECTION: awful/dreadful + the two letter abbreviation for court + I from the wordplay + the alternate letters in f[O]u[N]d.
5d Resists American bread (5)
BUCKS: a double definition – the first as in a trend for example, the latter US slang for a dollar dating back to the 18th-century frontier trade.
6d Reminisces about old monarch getting upset with those in political party? (9)
REMEMBERS: reverse the royal cypher for the late queen + those who have paid up & joined a political party.
7d Measures adult horses, perhaps (7)
AMOUNTS: A[dult] + horses/rides.
8d Sees no sign of nerves before exams start, initially (7)
NOTICES: NO from the clue + an involuntary muscular contraction that may be a sign of nerves + the 1st letter (initially) of E[xams] & S[tart].
14d Put off by quarry’s shape (9)
DETERMINE: put off/discourage + a verb synonym for quarry/excavate.
16d Animals sure react strangely (9)
CREATURES: an anagram (strangely) of SURE REACT.
17d Cricketer hates getting this confused (7)
STUMPED: a double definition. The first, as I am confident Daisygirl will know, the price a batsman may pay if he’s out of his crease & Rabbit Dave whips off the bails.
18d Shakespeare character with donkey’s head and small feet (7)
BOTTOMS: Nick, the weaver + amateur thespian in Midsummer Night’s Dream, who is transformed by Puck + S[mall]. The definition context is the lowest parts.
20d Look at chopper climbing with me in, up in the air (7)
EXAMINE: reverse (climbing/down clue) a chopper + an anagram (up in the air) of ME IN.
21d Daughter put out by Sunningdale’s first hazards (7)
DANGERS: D[aughter] + put out/annoy + S[unningdale’s].
23d Still on time for jamboree (5)
EVENT: still/flat + T[ime].
24d Zoomed over in sidecars (5)
RACED: hidden in reverse (over/in).
No real favourite today but plenty of likes – 19&25a along with 4,8&17d the ones that stood out for me. Please let us know which clues you liked best.
Today’s Quick Crossword pun: COP + PUP + LATE = COPPERPLATE or COPPER PLATE
This morning’s listening while preparing the blog, has been my Ray LaMontagne playlist. I’m really looking forward to seeing him for the first time in June. Here’s a fun track off his Gossip in the Grain album, he wrote about Meg White of The White Stripes
I found this more difficult than the normal Tuesday offering, but there were some clever clues, as usual.
Very enjoyable puzzle today with not too many hold-ups. I did find I was entering answers because they fitted and working out the parsing later on. I had six or seven left before I went to shower that seemed tricky, but refreshed and smelling sweet, the final few went in. Thanks to the setter and to Huntsman.
One of those days when everything seemed to make sense resulted in a steady solve with many that required thought but nothing too taxing, a perfect Tuesday.
Difficult to decide on a COTD and so I’m offering a selection – 8d, 11a and 25a.
Many thanks to the setter and Huntsman.
A steady solve from top to bottom, no real hold ups except for 26a. I am still not sure the answer is synonymous with encounter.
8d, 27a and 5a favourites today.
Thanks to Huntsman and PP.
2*/4*
Hi SL8
I’m struggling too with encounter. Could it be something like ”Her speech *******d/encountered a lot of criticism” or am I clutching?
I scratched the crumpet too trying to think of examples where they’re interchangeable. Mr G reckons the synonymy strictly restricted to contexts of foreshadowing or indicating potential – the project will encounter/promise a difficult road ahead.
Oh! What a day I had yesterday!
Driving back from a weekend in the depths of Lincolnshire, PC Chilworth called me as the alarm system at the committee rooms had been set off by an incandescent Colonel Bagshot. He had been battering at the door for several hours, unaware that I was dining in Louth. Apparently it was connected to 3d in yesterday’s guzzle. Something to do with a painting technique developed by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac.
As Colonel Bagshot has been released on bail, the committee met this morning and I am pleased to announce that yesterday’s 3d has been admitted, unanimously, to The List. To placate Colonel Bagshot, it has been placed on a plinth in the front lobby.
What? Today’s guzzle? Great fun to solve, and some ace music tracks provided by Hintsman.
Thanks to the setter and Andy On The Sofa – I hope your back pain eases with the aid of the snooker.
A gentle puzzle with some good lego clues, (1a ,9a,, 11a to name a few. I also liked the swapped initial letter clue at 26a and the souble definition at 17d. Thanks to the compuler and to Huntsman for the hints
A very elegant if not too taxing Tuesday offering, with 8d my pick of the bunch. Thanks very much to the setter and to Huntsman. In the privacy of the confessional, I would admit that I love that Genesis track and indeed most of the Lamb album – and not just because it was inescapable in a boys’ grammar school in the 1970s.
Me too – I smoked Winston fags for a time because of it.
This was a strange one for me. The fast time belies the effort made and the subsequent parsing. There were no hold ups but the across clues took longer to solve. 5, 11 and 17 across are my top picks but there were several others also worthy of note. 3d reminded me of an old joke “you can kiss a nun twice, but can’t get into the habit”! The pun was very funny. Many thanks to the setter and hinter!
I agree with our blogger, nothing too complicated, this was a fairly straightforward though enjoyable offering.
The smart reference to golf at 25a was my COTD.
Thanks for the Slade tune, H. That track and indeed the whole album shows what the band were capable of, before the demands of making money for the record company kicked in. Still, I don’t suppose they’re complaining, they did OK out of it all and their pension fund is topped up every Christmas…
My thanks to our setter and Huntsman.
This took me a tad longer to solve than I might have expected for a Tuesday, mainly because, inexplicably, the SW quadrant held me up. Bearing in mind we have just spent three days watching cricket at Worcester it is inexcusable that 17d held me up. My dimness aside, this was the usual excellent puzzle from Mr P and 17d was my favourite once solved.
Many thanks to the aforementioned and The Hintsman.
I found this to be a very enjoyable challenge with a smattering of humour added in. My knowledge of Shakespeare is very limited so although I was aware of the characters name I was looking for I wasn’t aware of his physical attributes and struggled for a long time to solve the clue as I was looking for a cryptic element that turned out to be just a straightforward physical description. COTD for me was the cricketers nightmare in 17d as it provoked a grin.
Thai corner.
Following the description of the difficulties encountered with a language that, has no spaces between words, in its written form, places vowels above or below or before consonants they follow when spoken and has the killer function of being tonal, todays’ big reveal may surprise those who are not familiar with the language.
The biggest revelation when starting to learn Thai is that there are virtually no rules to its grammar. There are no tenses. Verbs do not change at all dependent on the time of the action they describe.
There are no plurals, nouns maintain the same spelling regardless of the number being described. In effect it’s one cat, two cat, three cat.
There are no indefinite or definite articles. It’s the dog chased, cat not a cat or the cat.
Because of the simplicity of sentence structure and the use of far fewer words than you would use in English it can feel like you’re speaking a pidgin language. More to come of the challenges that the lack of grammatical rules entail. Most importantly though, spare a thought for Thai speakers, learning English, getting their head round the fact that they had only one word in their language for eat and now they have to deal with eat, eaten, ate, eating for the one concept.
Thanks to Huntsman for the hints and to the setter.
Thank you, once more. Fascinating stuff. That does make sense as I often hear non-English speakers not using the articles.
Write a book about this, will yer.
”Tyke’s Tongue-Thaied Tips”
To quote a TV resident of Peckham….You know it makes sense
The book has to be written as it would be such a shame to waste such an amazing title.
It was screaming at me.
Firstly, thank you, Hoots, for the Genesis song which will appeal to the tiniest of audiences. Steve Hackett at his very best.
This was a great crossword from Il Professore with almost every clue being a winner. I drifted into 2* territory as I couldn’t get the letter d out my brain for donkey’s head and I was convinced the 4th letter of 26a was a consonant.
I’m always up for setters pushing the onvy (can I get away with that?) and that includes ‘out there’ anagram indicators which may surprise some of you. But, I’m struggling with ‘abroad’ even though I think I’ve seen it before a few times. I don’t mind ‘alien’, i,e ‘different’ but ‘abroad’? As Simon Cowell would say….It’s a ‘No’ from me.
My podium is 11a, 19a (of course) and 17d.
MTTTA
2*/5* (I’ll let ‘abroad’ slide as there are enough beans in the jar)
I found this a bit trickier than our usual Tuesday fare (how does ‘encounter’ mean the 26a answer?) and wondered at one stage whether we had a new setter.
I liked 5d and 18d.
Thanks to the setter and Huntsman.
2*/4*. TT with, of course, 17d my favourite, which is joined on my very crowded podium by 5a, 17a, 25a & 5d.
Many thanks to AP and to Hintsman.
A good example of the new Typically Tuesdayish – **/****
The only reference I could find for encounter and 26a was in the listing for the latter in The Chambers Crossword Dictionary.
Favourite a toss-up between 17a and 17d – and the winner 17d!
Thanks to Mr Plumb and Huntsman.
P.S. Correction to my second sentence – also on-line in Collins Thesaurus and Chambers Thesaurus.
A slightly perplexing one and I think Huntsman is as bang on as ever. Thanks to he for the hint to 21d as I didn’t quite understand the answer to that one. I was having a coffee in the Bedford Hotel Tavistock and it was quite distractingly busy so that may have affected my concentration but never mind. Great fun and 17a for no reason whatsoever was my COTD. Thank you our setter.