Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3254 (Hints)
Hints and tips by Senf
A very good Sunday morning from Winterpeg where Winter continues, with more of the white stuff, but it did not stop us Springing Forward in the wee small hours and now we have a three week hiatus, which seems to be a week longer than usual, when puzzles cannot be accessed until an hour later until the UK ‘catches up’ on Easter Sunday.
For me, and I stress for me, Dada reasonably friendly, only three four (see Comment 5) anagrams (two partials), one lurker, and no homophones, all in a stingy, not value for money, symmetric 26 clues; with 13 hints ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid, you should be able to get the checkers to enable the solving of the unhinted clues. And, remember, the Naughty Step is OPEN!
Candidates for favourite – 14a, 15a, 19a, 25a, 5d, 13d, and 17d.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, a number of the more difficult clues have been selected and hints provided for them.
Don’t forget to follow the instructions in RED at the bottom of the hints!
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.
Some hints follow:
Across
7a First sign (7)
A double definition to start – the second is an abbreviated form of sign(ing) – there has been discussion on this definition and answer in the past, do we need any more?
10a French boy crushes fruit flat (4-1-5)
Here’s a variation on a theme – guess a French boy who contains (crushes) a fruit which grows on a palm tree.
11a Shaft left in sharp tool (4)
The single letter for Left inserted into (in) the illustrated sharp tool.
15a Fantasy blue dish? (3,2,3,3)
A type of dish or what it can contain in what (the) blue can be a synonym of.
23a Good certainly to hole ball, finally — on this? (4,6)
The single letter for G and a (2,6) phrase equivalent to certainly containing (to hole) the last letter (finally) of ball.
25a Deny increase, for example (7)
A four letter synonym of increase and a three letter word equivalent to for example.
26a Tree: discuss planting one (7)
A synonym of discuss containing (planting) the Roman numeral for one.
Down
1d State elected huntress (7)
A two letter synonym of elected and the (Roman) goddess of the hunt (huntress) – a pleasant change not to be clued with a royal connection.
3d Pageant rubbish as well (6)
A three letter synonym of rubbish and an adverbial synonym of as well.
6d Bird atop cheese (7)
Guess a bird – the appearance of the illustrated one might help – and a synonym of atop – my favourite cheese.
13d Nerve-shredding unhygienic practice? (4-6)
A double definition(?) – the second is an oral compulsive habit.
18d Painful thing being second-class celeb? (7)
When written (1-6) a descriptive term for a second-class celebrity.
24d Standard quantity stashed away by leprechaun, I think (4)
We finish with the lurker (stashed away by) found in the last three words of the clue.
Quick Crossword Pun:
WHELK + HUM + INN = WELCOME IN OR WELCOMING – Hmm.
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Pop singer Pete Nelson, what do you mean you don’t remember/have never heard of him, was born on this day in 1945. He was a member of The Flower Pot Men a short lived English pop group created in 1967 as a result of the single Let’s Go to San Francisco, recorded by session musicians, becoming a major UK Top 20 and Continental Europe hit in the autumn of that year. Apparently the group’s name was derived from the BBC children’s show Flower Pot Men, with the obvious psychedelic era puns on ‘flower power’ and one of the nicknames for cannabis. Unfortunately the video is in B&W and probably does not do the psychedelic elements justice; although, if one was ‘under the influence’ of a recreational pharmaceutical the lack of colour might not matter:
What a brilliant, totally entertaining puzzle. Too many favourite clues to single out any particular one. Thanks to setter ***** for enjoyment.
1.5*/3.5*. I thought this was very light for a Sunday but good fun as ever with 23a my favourite.
I’m still recovering from the exhaustion yesterday of watching England’s cliffhanger victory over the strong favourites Ireland. It’s by far the best we have played in recent times.
Many thanks to Dada and to Senf.
Read and write but good fun for me (AISFM ™)
Smith was joint man of the match IMHO
Stand out winner was the French Boy
Stuck with the pitfall, otherwise all good. Must have one of my checkers wrong but just can’t see it. Thanks all.
Pitfall as in a slip up.
Thanks Senf, had the wrong shaft but equally plausible!
IMHO a slip up is not really a pitfall.
Hi guys – as someone who lurks on this site quite often, for the occasional hint or to help parse Dada’s often quirky clues, I came here this morning to get a small prod on 4d, the logic of which escaped me. Also typically, it was not one of the hinted clues, so I mentally said a rude word, had another look, and the penny finally dropped (sigh) – must be getting old. But many thanks to Dada for the enjoyment over my early morning cuppa and Senf for the blog.
PS. I would also like add my well done to the boys on Saturday. Supporting England at rugby has been a tad embarrassing of late…
Your comment went into moderation because you inserted a space between the last two letters of your alias – both should work from now on.
Doh!
Thanks
Concise, polished, very straightforward (one clue left after first read-through) and with admirable anagram restraint (I count four) but otherwise quite unremarkable, with nothing vying for a podium place.
<1* / 2.5*
Thank you to Dada / the setter, and to Senf
Yes, four anagrams – I couldn’t read my own notes. It must have been the effect of the vino collapso!
For those of you who have been enjoying Iona Whishaw’s telling of the exploits of Lane Winslow, you may wish to know that, according to Amazon in Canada and the UK, the eleventh book in the series is being published on paper and electronically in the first half of May.
Thanks, Senf. I’ve read and enjoyed most of the series although there’s one book which for some reason is not available on Kindle.
A gentle outing from Dada today – thanks to him and Senf.
For my podium I’ve selected 4d, 5d and 17d.
A very gentle Dada that brightened a damp and drizzly Sunday. As a serial 13d offender, I hang my head, but nothing has helped me kick the habit this past 60 + years. Too many good clues to pick a winner today. Thanks to Dada and Senf
A grey wet day here so it was nice to have this lovely puzzle to do. Very enjoyable, Inliked the anagrams and the multi word clues, 23a was my favourite.
Many thanks to Dada and to Senf for the hints.
For me a bit of a Curates Egg. On the whole very entertaining with favs of 10a, 19a and 26a. My real dislikes were 25a and 14a, both I thought very poor clues.
***(*)/***
Not my favourite Dada but by no means the worst.
Thx to all
For me, and I stress for me (™ Senf) this was a fun crossword to solve with my first tranche of answers ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid, I was able to get the checkers to enable the solving of the rest of the puzzle (almost ™ Senf).
No time to dilly or dally today. No shillying or shallying either. At the suggestion of The Youngster, we are heading into London for a surprise Ma’s Day luncheon for H.
Thanks to Da-doo-ron-ron and The Man From Manitoba.
All very neat
And tidy and
Most enjoyable.
Last in 7a, it took too
Long for the proverbial
Penny, putting me
Into 2* time,
Many thanks Dada
And Senf.
A very enjoyable solve , without much head scratching aside from my last one in 17d that I needed a little electronic help for, and then cussed myself as it’s obvious ! Thanks Dada and Senf.
Mr C and I enjoyed this puzzle a lot. Our favourite clue is our LOI 8D. We both smiled when the penny dropped. I did need to rely on Mr C’s knowledge of birds for this puzzle; good job he’s on my team! Thanks to Dada and Senf.
Well this Sunday puzzle from Dada was definitely at the easier end of his spectrum, with his thesaurus not used this week. Nice solve for me with lots of smiles.
1.5*/4* for me
Favourites include 12a, 15a, 3d, 4d, 17d & 18d — with winner 4d
Smiles for 12a, 3d, 17d & 18d to name but four.
Thanks to Dada & Senf for blog/hints
Must say I thoroughly enjoyed the match at Twickenham on Saturday … very enjoyable. Glad I didn’t skip it.
Nice puzzle from our Sunday setter despite there being no mention of Mothers’ Day – shame on you, Dada!
11&25a were the last to fall and my top three were 10&20a plus 6d.
Thanks to Dada and to Senf for the hints – I bet Little Weed was less than enchanted by the psychedelic flowerpot men!
Most enjoyable but 17d held me up for ages. Kept trying to capture the usual alien film in flier. 😀
Same here!
South progressed quite smoothly but that gave no real leads into the North half where NE was particular problem with 4d holding out until the end. 10a, 15a and 3d made up a trio of Favs. Thank you Dada and Senf. Now for more 6 Nations but doubt it will be as exciting as yesterday’s games.
Fairly rattled home. Favorite 18d.
Fairly straightforward and most enjoyable for me with no problems during the solve. 23a was my favourite. Many thanks to Dada and Senf.
I suspect the French will finally get it together this afternoon against a dispirited Welsh side.
Solved NW and SE quite swiftly and then pondered somewhat over the other axis. Not sure about the little green man but loved the surface of 4d where I solved and thought I’d parsed it without spotting the real wordplay!
Thanks to Dada and as ever to the hard working Senf
All bar 2 answers yielded on the first read through then for some reason 25a&17d took longer to twig than the remainder. Not surprisingly 23a was my favourite with podium spots for 5&17d. A nice puzzle though not on a par with last Sunday in my view.
Thanks as ever to D&S
Very entertaining. What is the naughty step?
The ‘naughty step’ is where you are sent, on Prize Puzzle days, when you forget to follow the instructions in RED at the bottom of the hints!
The naughty step is where people have to sit on if they’ve been bad! If they’ve been particularly awful everything that said was rubbed out!!
Pretty straightforward with 17d being LOI. Good fun while it lasted. Favourite was 23a. Thanks to Dada and Senf.
It feels a very long time that I’ve said that I didn’t have any problems without a crossword, let alone on a Sunday.
It’s cheered me up no end!
I particularly appreciated 10 and 19a and 13 and 18d (ghastly picture!) and my favourite was 21d.
Thank you to Dada for the crossword that even I could do and to Senf for the hints that even I didn’t need!
A little flower for other Mums for today.
This is silly. Gentle? I cannot get beyond 19a
Happy Mothering Sunday to the mums of the blog🌼🌼🌼🌼
What a lovely surprise to find this very friendly Dada waiting at breakfast time today. Even I managed to sail smoothly through, with just a couple of hold ups. Still don’t understand why super is in the 4d clue and I took too long trying to make ET fit into 17d. But just loved when all the multi word answers went straight in. Thanks to Dada and Senf. Happy Mother’s Day to everyone over there. We don’t get ours here until May 12.
Steve Cowling has asked me to thank you all for your kind comments and for thinking of them both. Mrs C is thankfully back home now, but he understandably does not have much time for cryptics right now, not even attempting the “mythical” yesterday.
4d super – the last three letters of the answer!
Staring me in the face…
Many thanks for the update, BL, let’s hope Mrs C gets to stay in her own home this time.
I’d say Dada was very kindly today, I loved it all, even though I was DNF. I missed 25a and 17d, just couldn’t work those out. From the French boy, to Huntsman’s speciality, to blue dishes, how does a girl choose a fave. So many smiles along the way.
Thank you Dada for the fun, and Senf for helping me, particularly the hint for 25a which enabled me to get 17d.
Happy Mother’s Day to all of our Mums here!
Nice one, Dada! The downs in particular.
Liked 4d v much, but took a while for the penny to drop. Thanks Senf for the pic of the cheesy bird. (I was sure I’d heard of it, but I did have to check….)
Picking 17d as fave as it took me forever to find the right bird and forget about the usual LGM.
Thanks again to Dada and to Senf.
Another Sunday cracker from Dada!👍👍👍
…as always, thank you for the excellent challenge, and also to our Senf for the blog ‘n hints!
Cheers!
A very late addition due to a day out in Cardiff watching Wales lose – a fantastic puzzle from Dada one of the very best and that’s saying something