Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31230
Hints and tips by Smylers
Welcome to the Telegraph crossword for Bank Holiday Monday. I treated myself to a lie-in, not having to solve and blog before starting work, and perhaps shouldn’t have done: this took me longer to solve than any other crossword I’ve hinted! How did you get on?
Across
1a That bloke with a cast bearing left for transport hub (8,7)
HEATHROW AIRPORT: The answer is the name of a specific transport hub, not a general term for one. Form it by entering in order: a pronoun indicating ‘that bloke’ as the subject of a sentence; the ‘A’ from the clue; a verb meaning ‘cast’, in the sense of fling through the air; a word that Bradford’s Crossword Solver’s Dictionary lists under ‘bearing’; and the nautical word for ‘left’. If you can help me out with what meaning of ‘bearing’ means the word it clues here, please comment below; I’ll check in once we’re back from watching the Ilkley Carnival parade, which begins right as this blog post goes live. (This year’s theme is children’s books, so we’re hoping to see some good costumes.)
9a Protestant satisfied with raise, receiving old penny (9)
METHODIST: Start with a word meaning ‘satisfied’, in the sense of satisfying some criteria. After that is a verb meaning ‘raise’, which has received inside it the letter that used to denote a penny.
10a Perhaps waiters signal audibly (5)
QUEUE: A signal, perhaps for a performer, sounds the same as this word which could apply to a group of people waiting.
11a Festival not primarily from India? (7)
EASTERN: I spent too long trying to think of a festival then make it not have its primary letter. What we actually need here is a Christian festival followed by the primary letter of ‘not’. The definition is an example, indicated by the question mark.
12a Indifferent, assert how old you are? (7)
AVERAGE: Concatenate another word for ‘assert’ and a single word which indicates how old you are.
13a Turning around to some extent elicits involuntary movement (3)
TIC: Turn ‘elicits’ around and extract some extent of its letters.
14a Vehicles pick up seeds periodically (7)
HEARSES: ‘Pick up’ often indicates we need to use the sound of an adjacent word; here it still has that meaning, but we simply want a synonym for that meaning of ‘pick up’. Follow it with letters taken periodically from ‘seeds’.
17a Spuds from Scotland almost as cheap as can be (7)
TATTIES: Think of a word for spuds that’s used in Scotland; that’s your answer. Then notice that there’s a letter you could add to the end of it to make a word which could mean ‘as cheap as can be’.
19a Lacking boundaries, call Omani back for annual publication (7)
ALMANAC: Remove the boundaries, that is the first and last letters, from the following 3 words in the clue, and use what’s left over.
22a European cheers, having eaten new maize porridge (7)
POLENTA: Start with a specific European nationality. End with a word meaning ‘cheers’. Between them make them eat the abbreviation for ‘new’.
24a A&E collecting X-ray tool (3)
AXE: The letters A and E collect inside them what X-ray denotes in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet.
25a Introduction to bodybuilding leaves son sturdier and more grumpy (7)
SURLIER: Concatenate the abbreviation for ‘son’ and a word meaning ‘sturdier’, then make the letter that introduces ‘bodybuilding’ leave the combination.
26a Call that thing English insect (7)
TERMITE: We need a verb meaning to call or name something. Follow that with a pronoun indicating ‘that thing’ and the single-letter abbreviation for ‘English’.
28a Walk better unclothed (5)
AMBLE: The ‘better’ here is a noun, somebody engaged in the act of betting. Unclothe them by removing their first and last letters. Apologies for disappointing anybody who was hoping for a picture illustrating this clue.
I’ve given REM the day off for the Bank Holiday, so here’s First Aid Kit performing a haunting cover of one of their songs instead:
29a Desperately bully emir to get metal (9)
BERYLLIUM: Put the letters of ‘bully emir’ in a desperate order.
30a On tour, hire pesky cooks – don’t get mad! (4,4,5,2)
KEEP YOUR SHIRT ON: Cook the first four words in the clue, so their letters are in a different order.
Down
1d Swimmer remarks he had ham, surprisingly (10,5)
HAMMERHEAD SHARK: Putting the letters of ‘remarks he had ham’ in a surprising order gives us a creature that swims.
2d Singers regularly wail, at worst (5)
ALTOS: Take letters at regular intervals from the last three words in the clue.
3d Noses about excessively, probing quiet revolutionary (7)
HOOTERS: A short form of ‘about’ and a word meaning ‘excessively’ together probe inside a sound you might make to tell somebody to be quiet. That is all made revolutionary, to go up the grid.
4d Adjusts to siren going off (7)
ORIENTS: The phrase ‘to siren’ goes off, leaving its letters spelling something else.
5d Draw area of land to the south of Aldershot’s borders (7)
ATTRACT: Don’t turn ‘area’ into the letter A! Here we need a word for an area of land and to put that to the south of the letters forming the borders of the word ‘Aldershot’. The answer is a verb, but not to do with art.
6d Ask sappers to lead mission (7)
REQUEST: Make the usual sappers lead a mission that somebody might go on.
7d Work in theatre, helping to support old people on vacation (9)
OPERATION: A helping (as in an amount of food) goes at the bottom, supporting both of the abbreviation for ‘old’, and the word ‘people’ after it has been vacated — that is, its inner letters removed. The answer is a noun.
8d Magazine article says chap gets hold of novel (3,3,9)
THE NEW STATESMAN: With a multi-word clue ending in ‘novel’, I spent some time expecting to find the title of a book, but the definition is actually at the other end. Start with a grammatical article; end with synonyms for ‘states’ and ‘chap’; and between those, make them hold a word meaning ‘novel’.
15d Blair made changes deserving respect (9)
ADMIRABLE: Make changes to the order of letters in ‘Blair made’. For the avoidance of doubt, the photo above is illustrating the previous clue, and definitely not intended as any kind of comment on Tony Blair.
16d Zeus’s wife missing husband for some time (3)
ERA: We need the name of the Greek Goddess who was married to Zeus, then to remove the abbreviation for ‘husband’ from her name.
18d Notice Oscar in trouble (3)
ADO: Follow the usual notice with the letter represented by Oscar in the Nato Alphabet.
20d Lack of experience from any vet, I suspect (7)
NAÏVETY: Put the letters of ‘any vet I’ in a suspect order. Don’t actually include the dieresis: that would mess up one of the crossing answers.
21d In Madagascar, I bought deer (7)
CARIBOU: Find the answer lurking in words from the clue.
22d Extremely profane policeman arrests sailor, causing fireworks (7)
PETARDS: Start with the letters at the extremes of ‘profane’. End with the initials of a particular rank of policeman — or indeed policewoman. Between those, make them arrest one of the usual sailors.
23d German rock singer learning line that is coming up (7)
LORELEI: Enter in order: a body of learning; the abbreviation for ‘line’; and the Latin abbreviation which means ‘that is’, reversed so it comes up the grid. That gives a big rock in Germany. Then check the comments below for somebody cleverer than me explaining what the word ‘singer’ is doing in the clue. (If there isn’t one, then that means you’re the clever person who should leave a comment explaining it for the rest of us.)
Pic credit: © Imehling, CC BY-SA 3.0
27d Fool One Direction to start with – it takes nothing (5)
IDIOT: Begin with ‘One’ as a Roman Numeral and the starting letter of ‘Direction’. Then we need ‘it’ from the clue, taking inside it the letter that looks like the digit representing nothing.
And if you’ve never listened to One Direction before, here’s your opportunity:
Quickie Pun
In today’s Quick Crossword the first 3 clues are italicized, indicating we can say their answers out loud to make another word, name, or phrase. Reveal the blobs below to check and to see a video featuring the answer:
STAY + TUSK + WOAH = STATUS QUO
Recent Reading
Having failed to understand the ending of the previous Sophie Hannah book I read, I’m pleased to report that I both understood and enjoyed the ending to this one! It feature’s the author’s regular detectives Charlie and Simon, and there’s a lot of internal politics at the police station, but it’s possible to follow enough of it without having read the previous ones.
There’s a mixture of chapters set now interspersed with diary entries — some recent, some from longer ago. The non-diary chapters are all written in the third person but are labelled with the name of a single character and follow their point of view. This means readers get the benefits of both a range of perspectives and being inside the characters’ heads — though it does mean the first few chapters are seemingly unconnected, so it can take a while to get into. Clever, and better than the average detective novel.
I was surprised to see Smylers rating for this offering as I found it bright and breezy for a distinctly grey morning in N W Surrey. Must have had the advantage from a good night’s kip. It certainly helped that the four long clues on the perimeter fell swiftly too. I liked the three letter answers in the centre and I have ticks all over my print out. My podium using the “random pin” is 1d, 25a and 9a. Thanks to compiler and Smylers
I enjoyed this a lot and it brought a smile to my face. 1d was my first one in.
Top picks for me were 1a, 22d, 22a, 10a and 3d.
I also liked the Quickie pun.
Thanks to Smylers (I’m now halfway through the latest Kirsten Perrin book) and the setter.
This was good fun with no surprises, But, I only got into it halfway down. I needed the down clues in the North to get the top half started. 1a, 12a and 30a are my top picks. Many thanks to the setter and hinter
In 1A, “Bearing” is “air” in the answer, as in demeanour, I think. A lovely puzzle I thought, just right for a Bank Holiday Monday. Thanks for the hints, you put me right on 3D where I had “hoovers” which sort of nearly parses but not quite.
I too hovered over hoover! Hooters was very funny I thought.
Thanks, Boileau Boy: that’s the bearing I was missing.
A very nice and friendly puzzle, thank you to the setter and blogger
I don’t know whether it necessarily makes me clever or just someone who has encountered the German rock singer on many previous occasions. A singer in German legend who lures fishermen to their death after whom a German rock is named
Hi CeeSue, Miss Hamer made us learn the whole poem off by heart – und das hat mit ihren singen die Lorelei getan. Now I’m sure the German scholars will tear that apart but it’s not bad for eighty years ago! It’s up there in the brain with aus, bei , mit, nacht, zeit, von, zu, gegenuber which all did something.
When the teenager gets home I’ll ask whether they’ve encountered the poem. The most recent thing they’ve done in German is create a presentation on a Bavarian festival that involves dressing up cows.
Thanks. I’ve now read the Wikipedia section on the siren, which manages not to say whether the character was named after the mound or t’other way round.
(And I definitely think you’re clever!)
Fun whilst it lasted, suprised by the rating.
Thanks to Smylers and today’s setter.
The rating surprised me, too!
I suspect that with a grid like this, solving times may be bimodal: solvers who got the four outer entries straight away have so many starting letters for other words that it was a quick completion, and those of us who didn’t took significantly longer, needing to solve many of the ‘inner’ clues to get the crossing letters for the long ones.
An enjoyable way to start the bank holiday with well-constructed clues including two fairly obvious, to me, long anagrams to get things started.
For 1a I took ‘bearing’ to be posture…. Leading me to ‘he had an “air” about him’
I was not familiar with the rock singer, but the setter provided an expert guide to the answer. I asked Mr G to confirm, and he tells me that the maiden lived on a large rock in Germany and sang songs that enticed sailors, causing them to crash.
There has been debate recently about anagram indicators so was I alone in laughing at 4a which gave us a choice?
Favourites include 8d, 9a and 22d but top step goes to 3d for the smile.
Many thanks to the setter and Smylers for the hints
The key to this grid waas to solve the long clues, which then let me through the ‘wall’ into the rest of it. I enjoyed all of them both the anagrams *1d and 30a) being very enjoyable. The two lego clues (1a and 8dxwere ingenious too. My COTD, howeveer was the oldie, the German roxk singer, which never fails to make me laugh
I am another who found this slow to get into with 13a then 19a first in, but then the pennies dropped one by one. Had it filled, but came back to Smylers for ratification of my parsing of 25a, 👍, and for 28a where I didn’t suss the better.
All in all a well crafted puzzle more befitting of a SPP in my estimation.
Many thanks to the setter and Smylers.
2*/4*
Plenty of enjoyable clues; thanks setter, listening to Barclay James Harvest 🎸
I found this very enjoyable and obviously was on the same wavelength as the setter as my only difficulty was 30A where I wanted the phrase to refer to a part of the body and not an item of clothing but the word length obviously meant that was incorrect. Quite a few of the clues raised a grin but my COTD goes to 25A which I thought was very well constructed. Thanks to Smylers for the hints and to the setter for a great puzzle.
Thai corner.
I appreciate TDS’s comment yesterday to not feel pressured to post this item on a daily basis, which if anybody else had made the comment I would suspect it was a euphemism suggesting I stop however as I am accustomed to TDS comments by now I am sure he would be a lot blunter. I did actually miss commenting on Saturday due to overindulging on Thai beer at a Vietnamese restaurant and failing to complete the puzzle as a result. The cost of the meal prompted me to think that it might be of interest to some of you to understand how cheap the cost of living is here. The total price of the meal for 4 people with 10 dishes, 3 beers,(not evenly shared), soft drinks and desserts was £35. Our 3 bed bungalow with air conditioning, two shower rooms and maids quarters costs us £225 to rent per month. We have a full time, live in, carer for my mother in law who works 7 days a week and another helper who does 4 hours each day and the wage bill for both of them is £90 per week. Other costs of living are of a similar magnitude.
Back to the Thai language tomorrow with a look at the madness that is the Thai use of loan words from English.
35 degrees here in a thunder storm which has just temporarily tripped our power supply.
Keep it coming Tyke but at your convenience, I’m sure TDS would agree! I find your reports fascinating whilst sat here at 13 degrees with weather that seems to have no clue what it wants to do!!
Most enjoyable and brighter than the morning is currently showing here in Shropshire. In terms of difficulty it was perhaps a slightly stiffer challenge than that to which we are accustomed for a Monday, with 23d my favourite.
Many thanks to our setter and Smylers.
An excellent Bank Holiday puzzle with smooth clues throughout. Thanks to our setter and Smylers.
I particularly liked 1a, 17a, 25a, 28a and 7d.
3*/3*. I found this pretty tough for a Monday back-pager but I did enjoy the solve.
Personally I would have said that 30a is the American equivalent of our “keep your hair on” but chances are it has crept over this side of the pond now!
8d was my favourite long clue and 10a my favourite short clue, plus 23d to complete my podium.
Many thanks to the setter and to Smylers.
A very enjoyable Monday puzzle approaching how Mondays used to be – 1.5*/4.5*
Candidates for favourite – 17a, 28a, 3d, and 10d – and the winner is 17a.
Both 1a’s bearing and 23d’s German rock singer have appeared before. The BRB entry for the three letter word in 1a includes ‘Bearing, outward appearance, manner, look.’
Thanks to the setter and Smylers.
I agree with RD and others, another more challenging Monday puzzle. Just managed to finish before alighting very shortly in London for a wedding.
Thanks to Smylers and setter, may come back with pody selection later! ⭐️
A pleasant kick off to the new week that was maybe a tad trickier than recent Mondays – difficult for me to judge as my average solve time seems to have nigh on doubled of late. No real fav but 1,9,14&26a + 23d were the ones that stood out for me.
Thanks to the setter & to Smylers – enjoyed the Pink Panther clip
Seems like too many solvers, including Hinter Smylers, have been having too much fun this weekend (is it possible to have too much fun?). This is probably the first, and last, time I would rate a Crossie two stars easier than The Hinter. All done before I finished the first cup of tea of the morning. If only this could happen on Thursdays and Fridays!
I agree with Smylers’s rating for difficulty with this one as I found it hard…but very satisfying to finish.
Having done Higher English and Higher German at school about a hundred years ago I was familiar with both ‘ air’ meaning ‘bearing’ and the German rock singer …..and the song about her “I weiss nicht was soll es bedeuten , dass ich so traurig bin” Astonishing what sticks from then when not so much sticks now……
Thanks to Smylers and to the setter
Ah, you’ve really triggered it now. I shall be trying to remember the whole damned poem now. Miss Hamer , like all our teachers, was a middle-aged maiden lady who had probably lost her beau in WW1. Such excitement in 1946 when we were joined by MRS Barnes (Geography) who wore her WAAF uniform to teach in, minus badges etc, as clothing was still rationed.
Surprised at the 3 * rating .
The joy of this puzzle was 23 down. It was necessary to check my spelling and then I was onto a video of Ivor , who in a few minutes did the whole climb with wonderful scenery. I was not at all out of breath and the strudel cake at the end did not add any weight.
Never heard of 22 down. Is it in the list ? Perhaps everyone else is familiar with it.
Thanks to today’s setter and Smylers
Hi, Dyslex. A 22d is a small bomb, perhaps most commonly encountered in the phrase “hoisted by their own petard”. I learnt its etymology from this explanation by Mark Dominus.
Brilliant puzzle, I got three of the long ‘un straight away, so the rest was a dream.
I had one of the vehicles mentioned in 14a as my daily driving car for about a year
when I was 19 back in the early eighties, same insurance group as Rollers and Bentleys as it was all coach built by a firm in Kew, did about 10 mpg and drank oil like it was going out of fashion.
Pic below was not my one, but that’s what they looked like.
https://www.vpoc.info/austin-a135-princess-hearse-ambulance?pgid=ky097eh3-ca81ae8f-3c42-4910-b13d-ec274fcddf86
As also owned by John Lennon! I can imagine that the 4 litre BMC engine left a lot to be desired in terms of efficiency.
Yep, huge engine, same one as fiited in the Jensen 541, but they had three big SU carbs, mine had one tiny carb which would have looked more at home on a small Lambretta, but I guess performance wasn’t really needed for it’s intended role!
A swift finish in terms of typing the answers in although the parsing took longer than usual on a Monday. Good fun nevertheless and the four long ones were helpful, of which 1a was my COTD. Thanks very much to the setter and to Smylers.
* / ****
I suppose if the long ones fell quickly this was pretty simple, if not, then not so much. They did for me luckily. I liked the old favourite German Rock singer. Always reminds me of a friend many years ago, who would randomly say “zum bespiel”, not correctly, just randomly, so I’d reply “bushaltestelle”, again totally randomly, we both just liked saying those words! Then we grew up ☺ … maybe!
Enough of that (got close to the ‘i’ word, TDS65, so close but controlled myself), really liked the unclothed walker at 28a and the 29a metal, which used that bit of my brain from the late 70s/early 80s when I studied such things.
Many thanks to the setter and Smylers.
Was breezing through till the halfway point and then slowed to a crawl in the south. But enjoyed every second of it. Great surfaces that gave me plenty of smiles. Agree with the higher difficulty for the bottom half.
Thanks to the setter and to Smylers – especially for the book reviews. I have just picked up ‘How to seal your own fate’ from my library as per your recommenation. Will have to reserve this one (although I’m not sure I was wild about the other 3 or 4 of hers I have read)
Seems like we are back to a normal Monday puzzle after the weekend. Lots of good clueing as well as the odd head scratcher.
1.5*/4* for me
Favourites include 1a, 10a, 14a, 30a, 3d & 20d — with winner the first in… 1a
Thanks to setter & Smylers
I like the challenge of four outside long clues. It is about the only time I deviate from going religiously down the acrosses before doing the downs. Very enjoyable guzzle, thank you Mr Setter, and I thought the quickie was very clever.
Thank you for the Smyley hints, I needed it for 25a which just would not come. I knew I had to lose a B but Burly didn’t come to mind. It is cold and dull – if it is going to be like this it might just as well rain. Enjoy your Bank Holiday, all you workers.
2*/3.5* Definitely trickier than an average Monday, held up by the 29a metal and 22d firework.
Favourites today include the 1d swimmer, 23d rock singer and 9a Protestant
Thanks to Smylers and compiler
Forgot to say thankyou for the book recommendation, I’ll look out for it. Just finished YELLOWFACE by Rebecca Kuang for my Book Group. Dont know what to make of it, good story, well written but made me feel quite uncomfortable. Did I tell you I went last week to a Cambridge Literary lecture by Jung Chang. Excellent.
Lorelei – a famous siren from Germany who lived on a rock. Hence the singer in the clue