Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31301 (Hints)
The Saturday Crossword Club
(hosted by crypticsue)
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A lovely bright and early start to Saturday morning with the feel of being on holiday abroad where it is just the right temperature first thing but you know that it will be very hot later. My dad used to say ‘sun before seven, rain before eleven’ but as we haven’t seen any of the latter at all this month, I am not holding out any hope
An enjoyable SPP with a nice mix of clues including enough to keep fans of anagrams and lurkers happy. I am not sure whether two references to money counts as a theme and I also think we may have to play Guess the Setter
Please ask for help if you are stuck on clues I haven’t hinted, but before doing so, please read the comments that appear before yours, so that you are not duplicating questions, and make sure you obey both THE INSTRUCTIONS IN RED at the end of the Hints and the blog’s Comment Etiquette – Big Dave’s Crossword Blog)
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.
Across
1a Accompaniment to biscuits too bad for you (4,6)
Something to eat with biscuits or an informal expression meaning hard luck for you
9a Bother with core ingredient of hot sauce? (5)
A bother or nuisance and the core ingredient of hOt
10a Spooner’s timid sort loathing fellow resident (9)
How the dreaded Reverend would refer to a timid creature and some loathing
17a Yobs in part of golf course legless at the end (6)
Part of a golf course and the end of leglesS
22a Attack head for insolence (13)
An attack and a headland
27a Going on working as a publicist with formidable woman (2,8)
A phrase meaning working in public relations and a formidable woman
Down
1d Sleepy Hollow’s revolutionary advertising (4)
Hidden in reverse (revolutionary) in the first two words of the clue
3d Be inconsistent about dance with coppers, perhaps (4,3,6)
The Latin abbreviation for about, an informal name for a dance and what coppers can be an example of
11d MOR? Playing Genesis faintly, not loud (4,9)
If you can remember what type of music MOR is abbreviated to, then the anagram (playing) of GENESIS fAINTLY without the musical abbreviation meaning loud, shouldn’t take you long to sort out
16d Extremely desirable car part is back (8)
You always hope you’ll get through a crossword without thinking of Rabbit Dave won’t like that, but sadly today is not that day. The extreme letters of DesirablE and the unindicated American name for a car part
18d At university, competitors closer to the further away goal (7)
At university (2) and those taking part in something (competitors)
23d Drags parts of the feet, it’s said (4)
A homophone (it’s said) of parts of the feet
As this is a Prize crossword, please don’t put any ANSWERS, whether WHOLE, PARTIAL or INCORRECT, or any ALTERNATIVE CLUES in your comment. If in doubt, leave it out
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The Quick Crossword pun: JACKAL + INTO + PREY = JACQUELINE DU PRE
I sent an email to the competitions editor of the DT yesterday and received a lovely response this morning thanking me for letting her know that a consortium would be attempting to influence the outcome of today’s Prize Puzzle Crossword. Para 73 Clause iv of the DT PP Crossword regulations specifically prohibit collusion amongst entrants and when I pointed out that there was a mass gathering planned for today the said editor confirmed that facial recognition software will be used to identify and eliminate entries from anyone seen entering The Old Joint Stock boozer today.
I thank you for your attention to this matter.
Very witty Wilde, my entry was submitted before I arrived.
BTW we (well just me so far) are upstairs in The Chatwin Room
On my way!
An excellent post from ‘The Doc’!
2*/2*. We appear to have an American setter today. An American spelling is needed for 22a and an American meaning is used for the wordplay for 16d. (And that is even without mentioning two vague men in one clue.) Hmm…
The rest of the puzzle was enjoyable but I don’t understand how these Americanisms get through the editing team.
Thanks to the setter and to CS.
There is another Americanism in Wordle today which took me 5 goes!
I thought this was enjoyable, gentle fun for a Saturday morning.
My only mistake was with 15a; I had all the correct letters, but in the wrong order, and produced a different word that I thought fitted the definition. Fortunately 11d pointed out my mistake.
Many thanks to the setter and to CS
A gentle trip through Crosswordland that didn’t cause any issues.
22a isn’t far off two synonyms. So, there wasn’t much to work out.
Being a huge Genesis fan, I loved 11d which is a brilliant clue.
That goes on my podium along with 27a and 8d.
Many thanks to the setter and she of the crypt.
1*/3*
An enjoyable puzzle and, for me, it didn’t seem as tricky as recent Saturday ones.
Loved the Quickie pun.
Top picks for me were 27a, 16d, 1a and 3d.
Thanks to CrypticSue and the setter.
I hope all attending today’s bash have a lovely time and heed the warning in the first post.
Please take photos and upload them so we can put faces to names.
Hi, I’m back from a midweek trip to the Thai seaside which restricted my ability to comment. I found today’s challenge relatively straightforward but the clues were well constructed and I enjoyed the process of completion. As a prog rock fan I wonder if there is a subtlr dig in 11D which suggests our setter is a YES or ELP aficionado, if so he/she has impeccable taste. I managed the solving and parsing solo which is rewarding. My candidates for COTD are 5D and 16D as I thought the definitions were not obvious. COTD goes to 16D for the Baht drop moment. Thanks as always to the setter and CS.
Thai corner.
I feel I have to share this story from my 3 day trip to the seaside as I believe it is comedy gold, my apologies to anyone who thinks the forum or content is inappropriate.
My wife and I went on a snorkeling expedition on a speedboat to a local island. Before we embarked we were given life jackets which included straps to fasten across the body as well as between the legs from the front to the back. My wife decided the latter were superfluous and only fastened the clips that connected the left and right of the jacket. When we arrived at the beach to start snorkeling and jumped off the boat into the shallows it became obvious that the straps served an important service of stopping the vest rising over the head of the wearer and so my wife asked me to assist in fastening the two straps whilst still in waist deep water. The numerous other tourists present were then subject to the performance of me fiddling under water around my wife’s nether region accompanied by a commentary from her of, ”it doesn’t go there”, ”you need to put them both in”, ”it’s got twisted”, ”it’s too long now”,”that hurt”, ”now it’s too short”, ”have you finished yet?”.
Brilliant!
You’ve painted a great picture.
Before the fiddling began. Hence the height of the lifejacket.
Gentle workout indeed, which left the equines peacefully at graze, if that is a term at all.
A very cultured Quickie pun, and some musical references in the puzzle proper, but I can’t say anything stood out for me today, really. So I’m awarding the laurels to all the clues, apart from anything American! These, for me, if constitutive of a nod to our friends across the pond, constitute a nod too far. While I can’t see myself voting Reform, there are some Englishnesses which are surely sacrosanct, with crosswords being among them. And we do already have the Cross Atlantic, do we not?
I will now cease ranting. I suspect having had little sleep over recent nights has something to do with this, and the heat here is catastrophic.
Lastly, my best wishes to all those attending the meet. I hope you have an enjoyable day. Wish I were there.
I started at a canter then slowed to a crawl. 4d took as long as the rest of it put together. Very clever. My only gripe is 21d. There are lots of young solvers who wouldn’t have a clue who he was.
A lovely prize puzzles with a few in the south needing more thought. I rather liked the spooner today…..very unusual for me.
Many thanks to the setter and CS for the hints.
I hope all those meeting up have a very enjoyable time.
A more relaxing solve than yesterday, and certainly Thursday. The indicator for 1d is one of the most subtle I’ve seen for a long time. An apostrophe, a single letter and – to the keen-eyed – a change to plain font for both from italic is all we get. (I had to zoom in on my iPad to appreciate it so I would have little chance with the paper version). Definitely my COTD for that reason.
I’m not a big fan of Spoonerism clues but I didn’t mind 10a because of the visual image it invokes.
Nice and gentle this morning, only 18d held out and its a new word to me.
A lot of great clues today, 11d being my COTD followed by 24a what a nice old fashioned phrase I think I will use today if I can. Wasn’t keen on today’s spoonerism I am afraid.
thanks all and have an NGOW for me
I wish to complain in the strongest possible terms. I have written (special green ink) to Mathias Döpfner, Mr Lancaster, Mr Burnham, Prince William, and Harry Kane.
After another error last weekend, I had been assured that I would win the crayons this weekend. Now I understand a ‘consortium’ has shoved their way to the front of the queue. It is preposterous, and I can only hope that heads will roll as a result of this grievous turn of events.
Groovy guzzle. Last one in was 27a which was both devious and clever.
Thanks to the setter, and pleased to see PC Security has a day off from her Secret Service duties.
Love to Daisy and George. I hope all is well today
A great Saturday PP which I thought gentler than some of the recent offerings. I spent too long trying to convert 3d into an anagram and I wasn’t familiar with the 18a style but generally nothing too much to worry about.
COTD is the excellent 11d
Many thanks to the setter and CS for the hints
What a relief this was after the last two days of head scratching – a really delightful puzzle. I have no idea what MOR stands for but the anagram was fairly straightforward. I hope all you chaps attending the bash behave yourselves and as Madflower above said, lots of photos please to be able to put faces to names. I hope DG and George are somewhat better after a good nights kip. Thanks to the setter and CS.