Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31228
Hints and tips by Mr K
+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - +
BD Rating - Difficulty *** - Enjoyment ****
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Friday. Today’s puzzle is a very enjoyable solve with nothing to obscure or technical involved in the clueing. I hope that our setter drops in later to claim it.
In the hints below most indicators are italicized, and underlining identifies precise definitions and cryptic definitions. Clicking on the answer buttons will reveal the answers. In some hints hyperlinks provide additional explanation or background. Clicking on a picture will enlarge it or display a bonus illustration and a hover (computer) or long press (mobile) might explain more about the picture. Please leave a comment telling us how you got on.
Across
1a Working out FA Chair's in foreign country (5,6)
SOUTH AFRICA: An anagram (working) of OUT FA CHAIR’S
7a Hill maybe flipping exhausted idealistic migrant (7)
NOMADIC: The first name of Hill the racing driver is reversed (flipping) and followed by the outer letters (exhausted) of IDEALISTIC
8a Drove vehicle in competition, joined by winner finally (7)
RALLIED: Joined or working together comes after the final letter of WINNER
10a Keen to offload home, perfect for one (5)
TENSE: Keen or impassioned minus (to offload) the usual word for home or not out. The “for one” indicates that the definition is by example
11a Told man makes harsh sounds to expose birds (9)
NIGHTJARS: A homophone (told) of a man on a chessboard is followed by a word meaning “makes harsh sounds”
12a Advanced guards extremely tough and physical (7)
EARTHLY: Advanced or not late contains (guards) the outer letters (extremely) of TOUGH
14a Cat emerges from Portuguese maisonette, heading west (7)
SIAMESE: The answer is hidden in (emerges from) the reversal (heading west, in an across clue) of PORTUGUESE MAISONETTE
15a Where to enter chatroom with bestie abroad? (7)
WEBSITE: The single letter for with is followed by an anagram (abroad) of BESTIE
18a Scented plant releases aroma, ultimately enthralling one (7)
FREESIA: Releases or liberates and the final letter (ultimately) of AROMA are sandwiching (enthralling) the Roman one
20a Pay back Pat, upset visiting French city base (9)
REIMBURSE: The reversal (upset) of pat or stroke is inserted in (visiting) a city in Northern France, and that’s all followed by the usual letter used for the base of the natural logarithms
21a Lead in grey I put on my dog (5)
CORGI: The first letter (lead in) of GREY and I from the clue are coming after (put on) another word for my! as an exclamation
22a Lots mostly theologian claims that's idly scribbled down (7)
DOODLED: All but the last letter (mostly) of an informal word for lots is contained by (… claims) the abbreviation for a Doctor of Divinity (theologian)
23a Owner's command as dog went berserk? (3,4)
GET DOWN: An anagram (berserk) of DOG WENT. The definition refers to the rest of the clue
24a Check adequacy of lights for international games (4,7)
TEST MATCHES: Another word for “check adequacy” with a fire starter’s synonym of lights
Down
1d Discussion group remains confused (7)
SEMINAR: An anagram (confused) of REMAINS
2d Endless call to block French article is excessive (5)
UNDUE: Call or confer a name or title, minus its last letter (endless) inserted in (to block) a French grammatical article
3d Spots on EastEnders area of East London (7)
HACKNEY: The Cockney pronunciation (on East Enders) of the answer are unwanted spots that afflict teenagers
4d Searches around taking a very long time (7)
FORAGES: The answer split (3,4) could mean taking a very long time
5d Cyril, late as ever, somewhat embarrassed (3,2,4)
ILL AT EASE: The answer is hidden inside (… somewhat) CYRIL LATE AS EVER
6d Living with a friend outside Winnipeg, essentially (7)
ANIMATE: A from the clue and an informal word for friend are sandwiching (outside) the central letter pair (essentially) of WINNIPEG
7d Worth lender being bust? It's hell (11)
NETHERWORLD: An anagram (being bust) of WORTH LENDER
9d Recklessness of some French surgical procedure initially dismissed (11)
DESPERATION: Some in French with all but the first letter (initially dismissed) of a generic surgical procedure
13d Spooner's empty rooms creating problems for Tom? (4-5)
HAIR-BALLS: Apply the Spooner treatment to a (4,5) phrase meaning empty (very large) rooms
16d Escape trouble during fight (4,3)
BAIL OUT: Another word for trouble inserted in (during) a (boxing, perhaps) fight
17d Title of posh male from Elm Road, surprisingly (7)
EARLDOM: An anagram (surprisingly) of ELM ROAD
18d Transport by vehicle back to Cardiff right number (7)
FREIGHT: Link together the final letter (back to) of CARDIFF, the single letter for right, and a number less than ten
19d Heavy criminal uses to repress S American city (7)
SERIOUS: An anagram (criminal) of USES containing (to repress) a usual South American port city
21d Hear some unsuspected trick in question? (5)
CATCH: A straight forward double definition
Thanks to today’s setter. Which clues did you like best?
The Quick Crossword pun: LILY + PEW + SHUN = LILLIPUTIAN
That was a lot of fun, even the Reverend raised a smile. 10a was my favourite. Thanks to today’s setter and Mr K.
What an enjoyable puzzle. Lots to like and ticks all over the page.
Top picks for me were 10a, 11a, 12a, 5d and the great 13d.
Thanks to Mr K and the setter.
It’s National Riot Day in Zurich today. The left and the right will converge in the city hoping to destroy a few shops and burn a few cars. The Police will be ready for them, waiting with water cannons and rubber bullets. It will be barely reported in the news!
This was a fun solve from the outset, with no hold ups or difficulty in parsing. As such, it was a gentle puzzle to end the week, in fact, the gentlest of the week!
My top picks are the repayment at 20a, the international games at 24a and the load at 18d. COTD is a toss up between 20a and 18d. Many thanks to the setter and hinter!
I had to revisit a couple of answers after having a full grid to be able to parse them and claim a success, which is fair enough for a Friday backpager.
Nothing remotely obscure, just clever wordplay and the compiler’s devious mind to contend with.
Narrowing my ticks down to a podium, the Hill flipping at 7a, the mad dog at 23a and 3d’s Eastender spots take the honours.
I can confidently say anyone who pronounces 3d with an aitch does not come from there.
My thanks to our setter and Mr K.
The chewiest back pager this week,, with everything gettable until I came back to 2d/10a where I bunged in the unparsed answers, however Mr K’s hints did little to convince me of the merit of the cluing.
Customary thanks to the setter and Mr K
3*/3*
Call me a grumpy old man; on reflection I see the light. Sorry setter and Mr K, I should have given it more thought.
What a great finish to the week with Mr Smooth in fine form on a v friendly grid.
I know it’s an accepted anagram indicator but I’m not convinced by ‘abroad’. It’s pushing it too far.
10a is one of those where he’s playing around with a synonym which wouldn’t be first off the rank. A tough clue.
My pody picks are 21a (beautifully done), 3d (great fun) and 5d (an excellent lurker)
MTTTA and Mr K.
2*/5*
I spent too long parsing 11a and 21a having solved them via the checkers but otherwise I thought it a well constructed, fairly clued puzzle. My favourites were the well concealed 5d and 3d.
Thanks to the setter and Mr K for the hints
A fairly straightforward Friday guzzle, considerably more friendly than yesterday’s, Iwhich I quite enjoyed. As a Cockney born and bred, I rather liked the homophonea t 3d and as a knbirdwatcher the lego clue at 11a. My lst pick is the geographical anagram at 1a. Thanks to the compiler and to Mr K for the hints.
2*/5*. A Friday delight to end the week. Ticks galore, smooth surfaces, great clueing and an impeccable Spoonerism.
One question, is “in question” necessary in 21d?
Too difficult to try to pick a podium selection.
Many thanks surely to Silvanus, and thanks too to Mr K.
I thought 21d was a triple definition, with ‘question’ being synonymous with ‘catch’ as in “Good catch. That would have blown up in our faces”. Hmm. Now I’ve written that down, I’m not very convinced!
A trick question is definitely a 21d. So, I reckon this is where Silvanus is going with it. Aptly, he has thrown in a question mark which I’m guessing is his way of admitting it’s not perfect.
Apart from the 2d and 10a combination, which caused some head scratching, this was fairly straightforward for a Friday and highly enjoyable. Many ticks on my print out including 5d, the Reverend at 13d and 24a, but cotd goes to 7a. Thanks to Silvanus (?) and Mr K.
I had this down as a Silvanus production quite early on so many thanks to him for yet another terrific and stylish puzzle. Thanks to Mr K. as well. Unusually I liked the Spoonerism the best this morning.
A very enjoyable challenge with a lot of humour and BDM( Baht drop moments) completed in a second day of thunderstorms which cooled the patio down to a bearable 29 degrees. Thanks to the setter and for the hints from Mr K which I did need for the parsing of a couple in particular 3D.
Thai corner.
A Thai with three names.
Without exception Thai’s have three names, a formal version recorded at their Buddhist naming system determined in conjunction with monks and astrologists, which is used in all official circumstances, such as government communications, tax, business etc. and includes the chosen name along with their family name following it.
They also have a third name which they refer to as a, ”play name”, which is what they go through life being known as. The, ”play name”, is bestowed by the parents soon after birth and is sometimes a name of an unpleasant object, (e.g. frog or pig) as Thais believe this will deter the evil spirits or of a physical characteristic such as fat or small. The, ”play name”, is not the same as a western nickname as it usually doesn’t refer to a shortened version of the formal name and is used in most schools by teachers to take registers and to identify their pupils. It is not unusual for close friends and relatives to be unaware of the formal name as it’s use is restricted mostly to official occasions.
Love today’s Thai titbit, Tyke.
The theory behind the play name is superb. If my parents called me Slaphead then maybe I wouldn’t be looking like ‘The King of Siam’ himself, Mr Brynner.
Btw, it would be an SDM not a BDM.
I forgot to mention that the current trend with the play names is to use western elite brands. There are hundreds of Porches and Benz in our village.
With regards to SDM I presume you are referring to satang drop moment? The satang coin only comes in a 25 satang version nowadays and nobody except 7/11 (convenience store) accepts it. I’ll stick with BDM/
Fairy nuff
Keep it coming, gents!
An excellent puzzle – thanks to our setter and Mr K.
The clues I liked best were 4d, 13d and 16d.
The best pun for a long, long time and I applaud our setter. I was pleased to finish this in my idiosyncratic way but spent so much time thinking of words the checkers might produce where the wordplay was ambiguous or unhelpful that I failed to judge their quality.
I have looked back at the puzzle and find there are quite a few for the podium : 22a, 4, 9, 16, and 19d among them.
My thanks to the setter and I include the fine Spoonerism among all the other good things. Of course many thanks to MrK for his enlightenment of the hidden esoterica, at least hidden from me.
I haven’t read the above but I thought more of a Toughie than a back pager today. 10 answers were educated guesses and I needed Mr K to understand the solutions happily correct. My favourite was 11a but I enjoyed the cleverly hidden lurker in 5d. Thank you Mr K and our setter. Harder than yesterday and that was tricky. Must be my age!
Well for a Friday puzzle I would have to put this at the definite easier end of a Friday offering. Found this easier then the previous two day’s puzzles.
2*/4* for me
Favourites include 1a, 14a, 23a, 24a 4d & 13d — with winner 24a
Smiles for many including all the favourites … likely why they were the favourites!
Thanks to setter & Mr K.
A most enjoyable and not too challenging end to the (non-)work week of cruciverbalism perhaps 6d had something to do with it – **/*****
Candidates for favourite – 11a, 18a, 21a, the aforementioned 6d, and 18d – and the winner is 6d!
Thanks to Silvanus, for it must be he – the ‘smooth’ pun is a good indicator, and to Mr K.
Best puzzle of the week by a country kilometre. I completely failed to parse 2d but the answer was obvious, and I understand it now (thanks, Mr K).
One question remains on 3d: I understand using East End / Cockney to remove an ‘h’, but this seems to suggest adding an ‘h’ to a word which doesn’t have one. How does that work?
***/*****
Hi Karona
Re 3d, if you asked an Eastender to pronounce the area, they would say the synonym of spots.
So, it’s not your classic a + b = c jobbie. But, I’m okay with it.
Got it. I was looking down the wrong end of the telescope (again).
Silvy’s imagination and creativity is up there with the best of ’em.
From now on, whenever I hear this borough, I will picture a spotty Silvanus.
I thought the same as you Anorak, and besides the best efforts of TDS, I still don’t think it works for exactly the reason you stated.
A steady and enjoyable solve with Hill Jr at 8a and the bad place from which to get home from gigs at 3d my favourites. Sadly, I can’t admire my handiwork because the DT’s website has erased it. Let’s hope the new owners invest a bit more in dragging the e-bit of the paper into something approaching the modern age. Still, a minor gripe on a beautiful day and thanks very much to the setter and Mr K. I’m excited because my youngest son is coming back from university for the night and an old university friend of mine will be joining us to see PiL just down the road. I’ll be interested to see what the former makes of Lydon.
** / ****
Hugely enjoyable solve with lovely surfaces and humour to boot. If this is Silvanus, it’s a very quick solve by my standards for him. Ticks went to the 15a chatroom location, the 24a games – both super surfaces and my COTD went to Mr Spooner at 13d, wonder if that’s a reference to ‘our’ Tom and his suffering – on second thoughts this could be construed the wrong way, I’ll leave it there.
Many thanks to (presumably) Silvanus and Mr K
Like it, A-Pop. Like it.
Hooray, I’m de-lurking! I’m usually weeks behind so stay in my time warp determined to finish each puzzle, but enjoying the company and help on the blog 😉 But sitting in the sunshine this week with the crossy and comments about January weather, I decided it was the moment to skip ahead and solve in real time!
Thanks to everyone on here, bloggers commenters and setters. It’s an amazing community and I appreciate how much I’ve improved with your help. 🎉
Proud of how far I got by myself today before dipping in to the hints – thanks!
Enjoyed my old fave driver (before the days of Lewis) in 7a, laughed out loud at 3d, and certain that 13d would be feline related, spent much too long trying to make house/mouse the key 🙄
I will endeavour to keep up so I can pop in again 😊
Welcome to the blog Libby.
Now that you’ve de-lurked I hope that you’ll become a regular commenter.
You are ‘Libby the Lurker’, no more. Welcome from me, too.
Your name gives me an opportunity to tell people a ‘link’ (mnemonic) for a world capital…
Giving the name ‘Libby a’ (Libya) ‘triple e’ (Tripoli) is just silly (Libbeee) or should be that be….silleee.
Girls called Libby never forget it when I tell them that in my school visits.
I look forward to your next post.
Welcome Libby, keep posting
Hi Libby and welcome. Glad you have de lurked and hope to see you again soon.
On first pass I thought it was gonna be one hell of a shellacking, but slowly – (very very slowly!) I started to get a toehold and then only had 2 left, that pesky 2d 10a combo that had done the same to lots others going by the comments. Got there unaided eventually. Didn’t love it as much as most seem to have but pleased to have compleated it. Thanks to the setter and to Mr K for the excellent blog work
1.5*/4* This was a surprisingly gentle end to the week with lots of humour and clever misdirection.
Favourites today include the elusive birds at 11a, Spooner’s empty rooms at 13d snd the transport at 18d
Thanks to Mr K and compiler
Ps Also liked the quickie pun
I found this pretty straightforward, certainly not always the case, but all done and dusted in fairly short order. The best crossword this week. Favourite was 7a, there were other contenders. Thanks to Silvanus, I assume and Mr. K. Let’s hope the weekend is just as kind.
I would never normally be able to say this but for me it was the easiest solve of the week. Of course I made a spelling mistake with 18 across but spelling is not logical. Favourite has to be the spoonerism – a delight.
So happy that the birds in 11 across made an appearance because they are so incredible and Ashdown forest has them and it is a joy to hear them churr as the day fades.
Thank you Silvanus and Mr. K
I agree with Magichatuk , it wasn’t a walk in the park although if I’d managed to get 7d earlier it would have been considerably easier .I couldn’t get underworld out of my head.I must look more carefully in future ! I did go out for 9 holes in between starting and finishing this guzzle so my concentration was badly affected .., As was my putting on the last , 4 putts from nowhere , in around where a six was my highest score . Some great clues, liked 24, 11and 21 my favourites . Thanks to all
I got off to a very slow start, but particularly enjoyed 5d
Very enjoyable and thanks to the blog I’ve now learned something about Thai names! Favourite clue is the Spoonerism as always, thank you compiler and MrK
At first glance I thought this was going to be really tough but actually once I started it was a steady solve with some excellent clues. I thought the ‘perfect for one’ at 10a was sublime once the penny dropped – made me gasp ! I couldn’t parse 3d also but of course ‘acne’ , is also brilliant. I wasn’t familiar with DD at 22a so learnt something. Thanks to the setter (Silvanus ?) and Mr K.
I made steady progress through this once I got started about half way down. I really enjoyed it with only 2d unparsed at the end. My favourite was my last in which was 13d!
Many thanks to the setter and to Mr K for the hints.
A typical Friday challenge. Thank you.
Nearly called the AA for roadside help but the hints helped a lot. Not a fan of Spoonerisms but a spoonerism on top of a homophone sounds like a Fridge to(o) Bar!!
I absolutely loved this. Some very clever and subtle clueing. Thanks to all concerned.
You’ve changed your alias from madmanmoon so this needed moderation. Both will work from now on.
A lovely Friday challenge.
3*/4
My only issue is 3d. Just doesn’t quite work for me and I see it’s been discussed above.
But spots doesn’t have the silent h no matter where it’s pronounced!
Many thanks to Mr K and to all those solving and taking the time to post comments.
Cyril (in 5d) is one of those male names that is close to dying out in the UK, I suspect.
Wishing you all a good weekend. Back again soon.
Thanks for another cracking puzzle. As ever lots of contenders for pick of the clues but the Rev tickled me at 13d – & Tom presumably.
Thanks also to Mr K for his review which I’ll read anon.