DT 31368

Happy Thanksgiving to all Canadians, including my Monday blogging partner Falcon. And if you aren’t Canadian, maybe you can think of something else to be thankful for today?

Here we’re in the middle of Ilkley Literature Festival. So far we’ve been entertained by poets Brian Bilston and Pam Ayres, informed by John Kampfner, and introduced to a couple of new-to-me novelists, at which we were given proof copies of their books due out in April. One of next weekend’s talks is crossword-related: Alys Cummings is talking about her debut novel Murder Most Cryptic. If that sounds like your kind of thing, come and join us: buy a ticket and treat yourself to a trip to Ilkley.

Today’s Telegraph crossword is fairly straightforward, and most solvers seem to be better at anagrams than I am, so you may consider a ★ difficulty rating more appropriate. It’s particularly recommended for fans of single-letter abbreviations and those who like inserting things inside other things.

I looked at 1 across, saw a long anagram, and decided it was a ‘start with the downs’ sort of day.

Do please leave a comment below, especially if you haven’t ever done so before. Say how you found the puzzle, highlight any favourite clues, quibble with my explanations, share your favourite piece of music featuring an oboe, or tell us something you’re thankful for. Big Dave left us some house rules.

Down

1d Regularly claim Cambridge University cap (5)
LIMIT: We’re going to begin with some letters taken at regular intervals from ‘claim’. That could be either 2 or 3 letters, depending on where we start. The key to this clue is that it refers not to the English Cambridge University but the one in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that’s commonly known by its initials. Once you’ve got that in place at the end, its clear which ‘claim’ letters to use.

2d Freezing unfinished curry (5)
BALTI: Think of a word which is sometimes used like ‘freezing’ to describe the weather, and leave it unfinished by omiting its final letter.

3d Glowing ball captivating island south of area oddly forgotten (8)
RADIANCE: A ball, as in a social event, captivates around the outside of the single-letter abbreviation for ‘island’. That’s all entered south of what’s left of ‘area’ once its odd letters have been forgotten.

4d Boy covering English heavy metal (4)
LEAD: A synonym of ‘boy’ covers around the outside of the single-letter abbreviation for ‘English’.

5d Got rid of revolutionary detective supporting English extremist briefly (10)
ERADICATED: At the bottom goes a shortening of ‘detective’, revolved so it reads up the grid. That supports the same single-letter abbreviation for ‘English’ that was encountered in the previous clue and a word for an extremist that is made brief by omitting its final letter.

6d Get hold of old British coach, skipping run (6)
OBTAIN: Enter in order: the single-letter abbreviation for ‘old’; the single-letter abbreviation for ‘British’; another word for ‘coach’ as a verb, from which the cricket abbreviation for ‘run’ has been skipped.

Pic credit: © John Ward, CC BY-NC–SA 2.0

7d Accept seeing orc is crazy (9)
RECOGNISE: The answer is a crazy spelling of ‘seeing orc’.

8d Teenagers initially question chore (4)
TASK: The initial letter of ‘Teenagers’ is followed by a verb meaning ‘question’.

13d Professional adult with insincere talk about noble (10)
ACCOUNTANT: Start with the single-letter abbreviation for ‘adult’. Then we need a word for some insincere talk “especially with a false display of moral or religious principles” (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary), which goes about the outside of a particular rank of noble used in some countries. The answer isn’t a word that means ‘professional’ in general, but a job title of somebody in a specific profession.

14d Pressure idiot for permit (4)
PASS: The physics abbreviation for ‘pressure’ is followed by a word that can mean ‘idiot’.

15d Sailor on northern mountain lake (4)
TARN: One of the usual ‘sailor’s is followed by the letter that indicates ‘northern’.

16d Stress European politician has risen, ignoring limitations (9)
EMPHASISE: Enter in turn: the single-letter abbreviation for ‘European’; a type of politician; ‘has’ directly from the clue; ‘risen’ but ignoring the letters at its limits.

18d Hosting Mike, make a light meal (5,3)
CREAM TEA: The letter indicated by ‘Mike’ in the Nato phonetic alphabet is hosted by a synonym for ‘make’. End with the ‘a’ from the clue.

21d Notice bishop and reverend lifted part of speech (6)
ADVERB: Start with the usual ‘notice’. After that we need the letter that indicates a bishop in chess and the abbreviation for ‘reverend’, with the combination being lifted so that it goes up the grid.

24d Some cauterised organs (5)
UTERI: The answer is some consecutive letters from ‘cauterised’.

25d In France, you must probe flipping crazy bit of info (5)
DATUM: One of the French words for ‘you’ probes inside a flipped-upside-down word for ‘crazy’. The answer is the singular of a word more often encountered in the plural.

26d Hogwarts teacher’s short break (4)
SNAP: The surname of one of the professors at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter books is made shorter by dropping its final letter. If you don’t know the professor, you may know a crossword setter of that alias, also known as Eccles, and pictured here on the left with our late blogger Dutch:

27d Just money for transport, we hear (4)
FAIR: If we heard somebody say a word that means the money used to pay for using public transport, it would sound like the answer.

Across

1a Unexpectedly moral, creditable politician (7,8)
LIBERAL DEMOCRAT: Put the letters of the middle words in an Unexpected order. The clue’s definition leaves open as to whether we’re looking for a type of politician, a synonym for ‘politician’, or the name of a particular politician, so kudos to anybody who solved this without any crossing letters.

9a Exaggerated behaviour from Lorde performing in Massachusetts twice (9)
MELODRAMA: Make ‘Lorde’ perform so its letters are in a different order, and insert that into the concatenation of two instances of the state abbreviation for ‘Massachusetts’. Note you do have to join the state codes first and then insert the anagram somewhere into the combination; it doesn’t go between the two instances.

10a Folds dinner jacket for speaker (5)
TUCKS: An informal term for a dinner jack when spoken out loud sounds like the answer.

Pic credit: © Larry Ewing and The Gimp

11a Asian island cheers international looking peaky (6)
TAIWAN: Enter in order: a synonym of ‘cheers’ or ‘thank you’; the single-letter abbreviation for ‘International’; and a word that can describe somebody looking peaky or unwell.

12a Taking on welcome call (6)
HIRING: A word that may be said to welcome somebody is followed by a synonym of ‘call’ as a verb in a particular context. The answer relates to staff.

15a Scruffy technocrat’s garment (6,4)
TRENCH COAT: Make ‘technocrat’ scruffy, by messing up the order of its letters.

17a Capital the setter’s put into US city (4)
LIMA: We need how the setter would say “the setter is” from their point of view, contracted equivalently to “the setter’s”. That then goes inside a well-known US city. There are lots of cities in the US, but given there are only 4 letters in the whole clue, that really narrows down the possibilities.

19a Absorbed in great pity periodically (4)
RAPT: Take letters at regular periods from ‘great pity’. We need to end up with 4 letters and there are 9 in the fodder, so that tells us whether to start on the first or second letter.

20a Married sore loser, running about (4,2,4)
MORE OR LESS: ‘About’ can be lots of things in crosswords: ‘c’ or its longer form ‘ca’; ‘Re’; indicating surrounding; indicating reversal. But in this clue it’s the definition. Start with the letter that indicates ‘married’; the rest is ‘sore loser’ after its letters have run.

Pic credit: Fran Monks

22a Enthusiastic, study cracking creative works (6)
ARDENT: A word for a study, as in the room with a desk in it, cracks inside a general term for creative works.

23a Esteemed upper-class editor on toilet facing the wrong way (6)
VALUED: The abbreviations for ‘upper-class’ and ‘editor’ go at the end, on (meaning “after” in an across clue) an informal term for a toilet, turned round to read from right to left.

28a Sound of oboes I only partially recalled (5)
NOISE: The answer is found lurking in part of the preceding words in the clue, once they’ve been recalled to face the other way.

29a Separated chaps finally rent flat in the US (9)
APARTMENT: Enter in order: a synonym for ‘separated’; another word for ‘chaps’; and the final letter of ‘rent’.

30a My Persian tribe’s organised form of Christianity (15)
PRESBYTERIANISM: This is where solving the downs first paid off. Enter the form of Christianity which fits with the crossing letters, on the basis it’s plausibly the letters of the first few words in the clue organised in a different order; there’s too many to bother checking them all.

Quickie Pun

I found today’s quick crossword trickier than usual. Its first two answers are italicized, indicating that when spoken together they sound like another word, a phrase, or a name. Check them here:

WRIGHT + TANGLE = RIGHT ANGLE

Recent Reading

Swedish author Jonas Jonasson was recommended to me by a friend I bumped into on a train, and I’m very glad that they did. The Distinctly Competent District Councillor is easy to read, engaging, and above all funny. It’s also short; I don’t know what qualifies as a novella, but it’s possible this is one?

Oh, and it’s preposterous, with characters managing to get away with all sorts of things that they wouldn’t in real life — but it’s so entertaining you just go along with it. It’s set in a small Swedish town desperately in need of revival, where the new mayor chances upon various unlikely misfits and forms them into team who come up with a ruse to attract a major business to their town — completely bypassing official methods and the usual bureaucracy. Despite the absurdity of the individual capers, the overall plot holds together well, and the end included something that surprised me.

Pure fun. Worthy tomes have their place, but sometimes you just want something untaxing and entertaining, and The Distinctly Competent District Councillor does that magnificently.