Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31227
Hints and Tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ****
Today’s puzzle is just one letter short of a pangram which is a strong hint as to the setter. Thanks to him for a very enjoyable challenge.
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 Wildcat hugged by maharaja guardedly (6)
JAGUAR: hidden (hugged by) in the clue.
5a Hate fellow guards in charge (6)
MALICE: a fellow contains (guards) the abbreviation for ‘in charge’.
10a Compulsions for one Republican to retire in America (5)
URGES: stick together abbreviations meaning ‘for one’ and Republican then reverse that (to retire) and insert it in an abbreviation for America. I wonder which Republican the setter has in mind.
11a Recalled certain ode laconical about Scotland (9)
CALEDONIA: hidden (about) and reversed (recalled) in the clue is the Roman name for Scotland.
12a Gaunt sick guy regularly receiving ridicule (7)
SCRAGGY: regular letters from ‘sick guy’ contain (receiving) a verb to ridicule or tease.
13a Tradesperson comparatively idle after rushing in the end (7)
GLAZIER: an adjective meaning comparatively idle or work-shy follows the end letter of rushing.
14a Ambassador with view about Italy that’s wavering (9)
HESITANCE: the abbreviated title of an ambassador followed by a synonym of view or standpoint containing the IVR code for Italy.
17a Period collecting money in street (5)
STINT: insert (collecting) a dated slang term for money in the abbreviation for street.
18a Boss, head of Yorkshire paper (5)
STUDY: boss here is a projecting knob. Append to it the first (head) letter of Yorkshire.
19a Heartless cad keeps heinous criminal protected (9)
CUSHIONED: the outer (heartless) letters of cad contain (keeps) an anagram (criminal) of HEINOUS.
21a Distressed following reprimand (7)
FEARFUL: the literary abbreviation for following and an informal word for a reprimand.
23a Trendy southern seaside resort, not second-rate (5-2)
RIGHT-ON: a resort on the south coast of England without the letter used to mean second-rate.
25a Time trouble gives evidence supporting congestion on roads (9)
TAILBACKS: assemble the physics abbreviation for time, a verb meaning trouble and a verb meaning ‘gives evidence supporting’.
26a Obvious upset after urn goes missing (5)
OVERT: a verb mean upset or upend without ‘urn’.
27a Birds back to nesting in trees having moved (6)
EGRETS: insert the last (back) letter of nesting into an anagram (having moved) of TREES.
28a Now and then ignoring treats, that woman’s restraint (6)
TETHER: stick together what’s left of ‘treats’ after removing regular letters and a possessive pronoun meaning “that woman’s”.
Down
2d Wrath after good person changes sides (5)
ANGER: start with a word for a good or helpful person and change its last letter from one side to the other.
3d Ugly uniform every evening worn by son (9)
UNSIGHTLY: the letter that uniform represents in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet is followed by the genealogical abbreviation for son contained in (worn by) an adverb meaning every evening.
4d Stone yard, but not stable (5)
ROCKY: a large stone and the abbreviation for yard.
5d Girls upset with mean deprecators (9)
MALIGNERS: an anagram (upset) of GIRLS MEAN.
6d Woman played sitar on and off (5)
LYDIA: regular letters (on and off) of two words in the clue.
7d Nick fiddle before musician Celine secures it (9)
CONDITION: a synonym of fiddle or swindle followed by Celine’s surname containing (secures) IT.
8d Rising places on top of church (6)
PUTSCH: a verb meaning places followed by (on top of, in a down clue) one of our usual abbreviations for church.
9d Vegetable crop uncovered within barrow (6)
CARROT: the inner (uncovered) letters of crop go inside a synonym of barrow.
15d Shrieking somehow equalising, being one down (9)
SQUEALING: an anagram (somehow) of EQUAL[i]SING with just a single occurrence of the Roman one.
16d With audacity, one’s pinching fifty items of jewellery (9)
NECKLACES: an informal word for audacity or impudence and one (in a card game) plus its ‘S bracket (pinching) the Roman numeral for fifty.
17d Carriage that’s pivoted round the bend was not big (9)
SWINGBOAT: an anagram (round the bend) of WAS NOT BIG.
18d Extremely shy about accomplishment setting up a refuge (6)
SAFETY: the outer (extremely) letters of shy contain (about) a synonym of accomplishment or achievement with the letter A moved towards the front (setting up a, in a down clue).
20d Refer to first character falling from Paradise, Old Testament (6)
DENOTE: weld together a word meaning paradise (where Adam and Eve reputedly lived) and the abbreviation for Old Testament then drop the first letter to the end (first character falling, in a down clue).
22d Lie about strength of character (5)
FIBRE: a synonym of lie or porky and a preposition meaning about.
23d Readjusted base in support (5)
RESET: the letter used for the base in logarithms goes inside a support for a cue in snooker.
24d Topic of article: vacuous manosphere (5)
THEME: a grammatical article and the outer (vacuous) letters of manosphere.
I liked 23a, 25a, 8d and 20d. Which one(s) appealed to you?
The Quick Crossword pun: WRY + TORS + BLOC = WRITER’S BLOCK
After a good start in the NW and SE, I ran out of inspiration for the remaining quadrants and a third cup of tea was needed to complete the puzzle. Too many great clues to pick a podium but the following are my top picks; 13,14,19 and 25 across, 5,9,16, 20 and 22 down. The lurkers, reverse lurkers and anagrams were all very clever and enjoyable solves as well. However, my COTD is 16d. Many thanks to the setter and hinter.
Quite a cross-section of clue types in this x-less pangram. Some very obvious bung-ins and a few which needed a bit more thought to parse, particularly in the south-east.
Ticks for the trendy southern resort in 23a, the missing urn in 26a and the audacity in 16d.
My thanks to our setter and Gazza.
Didn’t notice the nearly pangram, must be getting old(er)😉
2.5*/4.5*. This X-less pangram was a delight to solve with 25a & 20d my joint favourites of many ticked clues.
I don’t think I would describe the Celine in 7d as a musician but she was the first lady with that name to come to mind.
Many thanks to proXimal. It’s good to have you on the back page again as your visits here have become rather less frequent. Many thanks too to Gazza.
A tricky Thursday and I agree with Gazza. Thanks to him for the hints to 10a and 2&23d. I needed them to fully comprehend those answers. 8d was easily parsed but I couldn’t recall what it meant! Not sure who our setter is but didn’t feel like RayT. Thanks to whoever it was.
I found this long-winded, difficult and a bit tedious. It was a slow start but the rop half of the puzzle went inrelatively easily. The bottom half, with some less than obvious synonyms took a lot longer and I had nnever heard of 1 7d, so I needed electronic help for that. There were some clever recerse lurkers at 1a and 11a and I liked the 2d change of ending clue . Thanks to the compiler and to Gazza for the hints
I found it far from tedious Chris, I really liked it, and it went like a breeze (must just have been tuned correctly today, as I reckoned a 1* for toughness before I looked)
The only one I hadn’t heard of was 8d, but that was easy enough from the clue, different solvers, different tastes. I’ll probably find tomorrow’s one a real stinker and hate it 😁
‘Lord, how my head aches! What a head have I! It beats as it would fall in 20 pieces’.
Oh my bonce! Where’s the paracetamol? My brain is swirling like a politician caught between opinion polls.
This guzzle was a workout for sure. Each answer had to be teased out. Never mind old Hercules, this was the Thirty Labours Of Terence. Building the Pyramids of Giza was a total breeze compared to this guzzle.
Matey crossing the Alps with his elephants? Piece of cake in contrast to this conundrum.
I must away to a darkened room at once.
Thanks to the excellent setter for the challenge, and to the former Gansu Tianma midfielder.
Strangely, I followed it up with 2 paracetamol tablets too Terence (other painkillers are available)
Can’t say I liked 20d much, I would have thought ‘first character falling from Paradise’ would give either ‘den’ or ‘dene’ and then the abbreviation for old testament. I can’t see how the E gets to then end of the whole word from the clueing.
Oh well, maybe I’min a minority of just one on this way of thinking…..
Hi TC
I don’t know if you have seen Gazza’s tip but you are right with Eden becoming dene. However, the ‘e’ needs to go below Old Testament (OT) too as it says it needs to fall from ‘paradise Old Testament’ not just ‘paradise’.
See yer point Tom, but still reckon the comma turns it to my way of thinking, oh well different minds, different perceptions…..
The comma is there to make the surface work. The adage is to ignore punctuation and grammar.
Right, that’s it Tom, carpark NOW!
Queensbury rules, I assume?
Nope, Sandhurst rules, you can use anything found in your garden shed.
Grrrrrr!
A dnf unaided for me today as, somewhat annoyingly, 18d had me stumped and I couldn’t see the accomplishment however hard I looked. Once that was sorted, the rest of the SW was completed. A great tussle for a Thursday. Cotd from a crowded field is 8d. Thanks to ProXimal and Gazza for getting me out of a hole.
2*/ 4* A proper challenge but all fairly clued, although a few required some reverse engineering.
Last one in 27d took an age and didn’t realise it was an anagram until the end!
Plenty of cracking clues, favourites include the shrieking 15d, nick at 7d and the idle tradesperson at 13a
Many thanks to Gazza and compiler
The South was a lot tougher than the North, and a few of the clues were “inside worthy” notably 17d (not heard of word) and both 18d and 20d for the parsing. Great fun though, helped by the rare feeling of spotting the X-less pangram Setter hint. 16d is my clear favourite today.
Thanks to Gazza and proXimal
Wow what a challenge but very enjoyable. A tropical thunderstorm at midday Thai time cooled the air and assisted the solving but we’re still at 35 degrees at 5.00 in the evening, So many great clues but my vote for COTD goes to 17D as even though I solved it as a bung in due to checkers and definition it took me ages to realise it was an anagram. Thanks to the setter and to Gazza for the hints which allowed me to parse 20D which had eluded me.
Quick Thai corner.
After the relief of learning that in Thai there are few rules of grammar, no plurals, no indefinite or definite articles you are brought up sharp by personal pronouns. I stated at the start of these pieces that I was no linguist so I apologise in advance for errors in terminology.
The biggest challenge with Thai personal pronouns is that they are heavilly based upon seniority of age or social standing and not gender or whether they are first, second or third person. The most senior person in a conversation will be referred to as Pee, those of equal status as Khun and lower status individuals are Nong. So, if the higher status person wants to refer to himself as I, he will say Pee, those wanting to refer to him in the second person will say Pee and in order to use the third person it’s Pee again. So I am hungry is, ”Pee is hungry”, are you hungry? is, ”is Pee hungry?”, and is he hungry? is the same although the question is directed at a different audience. The same rules apply for those in the conversation of different social standing. The result of this is that it is extremely common for Thais not to use pronouns but to use names instead. Is Tyke hungry?, yep Tyke is hungry, where is Tyke going to eat?
Fascinating stuff. I’m all for binning pronouns as it’s just laziness.
…or should Tom say ‘Tom is all for binning pronouns as binning pronouns is just laziness’.
I agree with your sentiments but Tyke thinks your grammar has got confused and Tyke thinks you meant that using pronouns is just laziness, doew Tom agree?
Tom agrees with Tyke.
‘Pee’ is hilarious.
Solid Thursday fare, generally pretty straightforward, with 17d new to me – and the clue felt a little awkward, too. A largely unremarkable puzzle but 20d stood out as COTD.
Thanks to the setter & to Gazza.
A good cranial workout in which I missed the fact that a particular setters 25 letter alphabet had been used. The puzzle editors certainly seem to be mixing it up on who sets on which day. ***/****
Candidates for favourite – 17a, 23a, 8d, and 23d – and the winner is 8d.
Thanks to pro_imal and Gazza.
Another pedestrian solve. Didn’t peg the X-less pangram either during the solve or on completion. Like Whybird I found downstairs more demanding than up top. Add me to those who didn’t know what last in 17d was & I was embarrassingly slow to twig ‘bend’ as the anagram indicator there too. Liked the letter shifting at 18&20d & 11a prompted a listen to renditions of the song by Frankie Miller & Paolo Nutini a neat Van (he’s always referencing the place in song) instrumental. No real fav but very much enjoyed the solve.
Thanks to proXimal & to Gazza.
Ps the only upside to suffering with a sore back at the mo is that I won’t feel guilt sitting indoors this afternoon with glorious sunshine outside watching Murphy v Higgins in what promises to be a cracking tussle on the baize.
I took the 17d anagram indicator to be ’round the bend’.
so it is 🤦♂️ – I’m blaming the Tramadol.
This was spot on for an end of the week challenge with The Prox in fine cryptic form.
The jury is still out about moving letters up and down words, e.g 18d and 20d plus cycling etc. I think I’m sold though ‘setting up a’ is pushing it. It should be a last resort jobbie.
Getting 11a to be a lurker/rekrul is a splendid effort.
The silverware goes to the neat 21a and 22d with the outstanding 19a standing atop the podium.
MTTTA and G.
3*/4*
I found today a challenge but can’t say it was an enjoyable one. Clues like 18d & 20d where you have to think of a word/synonym then move one of the letters blah blah… just so convoluted. All done in reasonable time so not sure what im really moaning about – it just didn’t float my boat or should that be swing my boat?
Thanks to the setter and Gazza for the cartoons
I was slow out of the blocks today simply because the well constructed clues required considered thought, not many ‘bung ins’. I thought the reverse lurker at 11a excellent, very well concealed. I am now of the opinion that my advice ‘when nothing makes sense look for the lurker’ now applies equally to anagrams. I wasn’t’ too sure about ’round the bend’ as an indicator.
Many to like with 7d and 25a as my personal favourites.
Many thanks to the setter and Gazza for the hints
*** / ****
Thought about a pangram or close to very early on then pretty much forgot the Q appeared. Enjoyed then challenge with 3 quadrants meriting 1* difficulty and the SE moving the whole thing to 3*. 17d eluded me completely until I saw the hint (luckily didn’t notice the picture). I hadn’t clocked the anagram. Ticks went to the 1a lurking wildcat, 21a reprimand and the 16d jewellery.
Many thanks to proXimal and Gazza.
Certainly had to work at this and needed Gazza’s hints to explain the why of 20d and 8d which I did not know. My favourite has to be 24a as Cheam Village was close to the Brighton Road and we would pile into Daddy’s car and drive to Brighton where we would walk the dog along the beach. Afterwards we might be taken for a meal at a wonderful fish restaurant, English’s? Anyway, happy memories of the late 40’s. Many thanks to Setter and Hinter.
An off week for RayT for this Thursday back pager with an unknown setter this week. Not my favourite solve of the week,
I have to say.
Very tricky/difficult clues to parse IMHO.
3*/3* for me
Favourites 1a, 11a, 23a, 4d & 15d — with winner 23a
Thanks to proXimal & Gazza