DT 30630

99 comments on “DT 30630”

1. I agree with Falcon at ** and thank heavens for the anagrams. Slightly obscure GK but 13a just about parsable. I thought 7d clever but my COTD is 11a. Excellent. Thanks to Falcon and our setter for this slightly tougher than usual start to the week.

2. A great start to the week but there were a couple I didn’t understand. I don’t see how Durham comes into 16a or what Hamlet has to do with 7d. No doubt the hints will explain all. Other than those, it was very enjoyable and just one cup of coffee long. No real COTD but I did quite like Scrooge’s wealth at 7a.

   I did not understand the Quickie pun. No wonder – I put “zeal” as the third word! 😳

   Thank you to the setter for the fun. Thank you, Falcon for the hints.

   1. Durham made a pleasant change from the usual Cambridgeshire city.

   2. Durham has a bishop & his diocese is known as hie See

      1. You’ve used your name rather than your previous alias. Both will work from now on.

3. Very enjoyable.

   A nice start to the week with my LOI being the splendid 15d.

   13a was a great lego clue which I had never heard of and the parsing of 16a defeated me. I’m a half-decent speller but I had to hesitate over the fifth letter of 25a. Its etymology makes sense but I always wobble over it. 14d has to be mentioned in despatches/dispatches as it was a top lurker.

   My podium is 1d, 3d and 15d which gets the gold.

   Many thanks to the Monday master and Falcon.

   2*/4* (I was close to giving it full marks)

   1. Re 25a, I did not hesitate, and bunged in the letter O… fortunately it did not stay there for long!

      1. I’ve just checked and it’s the only high-frequency word that has those last seven letters.

         I’ll never forget it again!

   2. Ditto with 25a, I revisited the anagram letters and found only one “o”, so had to look it up.

4. 1.5*/4*. Perfect Monday fare – light and fun.

   12a was my favourite.

   Many thanks to the setter, Robyn perhaps, and to Falcon.

5. Completed the guzzle with the utmost difficulty. That is because for the first time I could not start it without going into the Puzzles section as the Cryptic has moved there today and was almost impossible to access. This has totally taken away my enjoyment of solving the cryptic. I can only see one clue at a time – at least there wasn’t a clue involving 2 or 3 different clues as I would have to look at them all individually. Why has DT done this? Soooooo annoying. Also the icons top right are so small if I hit the wrong one I end up having to start again to find the puzzle section. Grrr! Because of all this I didn’t really enjoy the guzzle at all and will probably revert to the paper version which I can’t do in bed in the morning as Mr M gets the paper later on. Rant over. Thanks to all except CL.

   1. After doing the cryptic crossword daily for probably thirty years or so I now find I have to abandon it since I’m a digital subscriber and it has now disappeared from the online newspaper. Very sad. I hope the Telegraph will relent and bring it back.

      1. I think this is the end of me and DT crosswords. What are they thinking of? Mike

      2. Totally agree with all the sentiments expressed, it’s just a back door way of squeezing more money out of readers. The puzzles site is probably the worst bit of software since Apples iplayer.
         If they want to charge more for the. Puzzles, so be it but at least restore them to the main paper.
         Sometimes change is not progress or for the better!

         1. The tip about deleting and reinstalling the app has worked pro tem.

      3. I’m a digital subscriber and pull the puzzles from the puzzles link. I rarely have used the link in the digital paper. I’ll have to look and see what this is all about. Strange decision of there are no puzzles in the paper itself.

   2. I had the same problem on my Amazon Fire tablet. Eventually resolved it by uninstalling and then re-installing the DT app.

      1. Richard, I also use a Kindle Fire. Is your reply to Peter or to me? I somehow don’t think the cryptic will appear as it used to by re-installing the app. If you are also having to use the puzzle doofy, have you managed to see more than one clue at a time? Thanks because any help with this hugely appreciated.

         1. I too found myself muttering uncharitable sentiments about Telegraph Towers when I couldn’t access the crossword as normal on my iPad from the newspaper version. Reluctantly I moved over to the App or the puzzle doofy which I use very occasionally when out and about.
            I clicked on the first puzzle available without checking too closely and wasted ten minutes of my life before realising it was one I’d solved last week. I then went to the puzzle doofy on my iPhone and there was today’s crossword which I duly solved. I have now reinstalled the App on my iPad and all appears to be well and at least I have a larger screen on which my increasingly clumsy fingers can make mistakes.
            My question for Telegraph Towers and Mr Lancaster is “Why?” If it ain’t broke etc….
            To paste and copy from today’s paper
            “We’re always working to bring you the best experience across our Puzzles website and app. We hope you enjoy these new features.”
            Well as far as I’m concerned you’re failing and I’m not…😤

            1. I cannot agree more with all of your sentiments above.
               Why on earth have the crosswords etc been removed from the digital edition?
               I cannot see any good reason for it.
               Thank goodness we still get the print edition.

            2. I totally agree, I hate the format, the font, in fact everything about it.

               1. Welcome to the blog, Lesley.

                  1. If you go to the home page at the bottom you will see some icons namely latest newspaper and puzzles. Click on puzzles it will take to the crosswords. Click on the crossword you wish and the whole grid comes up with all the clues in one screen.

                     1. … the change of digitsl crossword offering .. it’s a rip off from Telegraph Towers to generate more cash by selling the puzzles. I’m going to cancel my digital subscription and ho back to paper.

   3. Agree !
      iPad user. Will try reloading app .

      1. Reloading worked !!

   4. Doing the guzzle in bed certainly makes the sheets dirty with newsprint, unless you remember to ask the butler to iron the pages first.

      1. My mother kept a towel to put across her top sheet to prevent dirtying it with newsprint.

   5. Hate that the Cryptic has moved to the Puzzles app. Hate the layout and find that from time to time, leaving and restarting the puzzle itself results in odd letters (usually B or N) replacing already entered letters in the grid. Anyone else experience this?

      The DT has a poor record for apps, it took far too long to fix the issues with the newspaper app.

      1. You’ve used your name rather than your usual alias. Both will work from now on.

         1. Oops, thx. It didn’t populate as it used to.

      2. Same problem with the rogue letters Michael – vbn especially

      3. I get it, but don’t use the app. On principle I don’t use apps as they just bog down my iPad and iPhone.

         1. Expensive paperweights, then. Everything except iOS is an app, even the phone, calendar, etc. 😎😉

      4. Yes, I have the same issue with the rogue letters. Assume you also use an iPhone with no home button. It’s when you swipe up to leave the app it registers a rogue letter input.

         1. iPad Air, no Home button.

   6. I have the Telegraph Puzzles App. When I tap it for todays cryptic, it is stuck on 1st June
      I can get the cryptic, though, by going through the Telegraph UK website.
      Extremely annoying.

      1. I agree with all the above, the loss of the Cryptic and Quick from the digital edition of the paper is something I emailed CL about, to no avail. In particular, in addition to the above comments it is now not possible for me and my husband to both do the quick crossword, as the answers remain even if you do the reset grid option. I also pointed out that the cryptic and quick puzzles have been a back page feature of the paper version for years and it seemed very unfair to create a 2 tier system where the digital only subscribers do not get these 2 puzzles.
         The loss of the puzzles from the digital edition almost certainly explains why several of us could not submit our prize puzzles yesterday, sincere apologies for wrongly blaming you Steve!!

         1. So there is a puzzles link in the DT app which takes you straight to the cryptic without having to go through the paper. It looks almost the same but with better optics and an option, via icon, to show all clues under each other. IMO what’s not to like 🤷🏻‍♂️
            I know it’s change 😱 but give yourself more than a day to get used to it!

            1. I haven’t got a link and I’ve reinstalled the app to try and find it

   7. I was appalled by this terrible misjudgement. Who was responsible for it? And I agree with all the critical comments.
      Although the cryptic is back to its usual place at the back this evening it should never have been moved in the first place.
      (And by the way the clue numbers in the grid are too small to see, in that puzzles app they were always pushing.)

6. Well, this was considerably more friendly than yesterday’s Prize Puzzle that I have only recently looked at. I found this spot on for a Monday, with some excellent and very fair clues that were easily decipherable if you followed the instructions. Like RD, the topical 12a was my favourite.

   Thanks to our setter and Falcon.

7. A little more challenging than recent Mondays and thoroughly enjoyable throughout. I thought I was going to need parsing help for 16a but then the penny dropped and that is today’s favourite. Lots of ticks for podium places but 4d and 9d make it onto the dias. Special mention for the anagram at 28a with its clever surface read. Thanks to our setter and Falcon.

8. Like Tom I thought this a super kick off (Robyn I suspect) to the new week. I had ticks aplenty – 8,12,13&25a plus 1,3,7&9d would be my picks but pretty well liked ‘em all. The puzzle certainly lightened my mood after finding that the crossword is no longer in the digital edition.
   Thanks to the setter & to Falcon.
   Ps Has anyone seen the musical Standing At The Sky’s Edge? Have just booked matinee tickets for Wed at the Gillian Lynne theatre in Covent Garden. Am a big fan of Richard Hawley’s music so looking forward it

   1. Superb show

      1. Thanks. Good to know

9. Pleasant Monday fare with my ticks going to 12a plus 7&9d.

   Thanks to our setter – Robyn? and to Falcon in his retreat for the review.

10. This puzzle felt invigoratingly new. No idea who the setter is but giving many ticks during the solve.22 a, 2,3,7and 14 d.much appreciated. Super start to Monday.thanks to Falcon and setter

11. Gentle, but pleasant to solve.

    Thanks to the setter, and to Falcon.

    Thankfully no musical clips have been added to 6d – it’s bad enough that I have been wandering around the house all morning singing “I’ve got my beer in the sideboard here……”

    1. Rabbit, rabbit, bunny, bunny 🤣

12. Reasonably straightforward but not a lot of sparkle for me – 2.5*/2.5*

    Smiles for 8a, 10a, 6d, and 7d.

    Based on his comment last Monday, thanks to Robyn presumably and thanks to Falcon.

13. An enjoyable start to the week – thanks to our setter and Falcon.
    The clues I liked best were 8a, 12a, 25a and 14d.

14. A big shout out to all specialists from the medical professions who bunged in the answer to 13a. However, the committee held an emergency meeting this morning and unanimously voted 13a on to THE LIST. Many congratulations and a warm welcome indeed.

    I really enjoyed this guzzle which (for me, and I stress for me, TM Senf) was a lovely challenge. I took a quick look and thought, “Oh my gawd!” but then chipped away clue by clue until I only had 21d left, and I mused, “Well it ain’t ‘ling’ mister, it must be the other one.”

    We enjoyed a lovely day yesterday in cheering sunshine. We went for a walk through the Chilworth Gunpowder Mills, and then on through a few fields where a very friendly horse became rather too chummy for H’s comfort and I had to gently guide him away. He was in smashing condition and it was good to see him and his two pals in a very large field with plenty of food and access to the Tillingbourne. All too often, out for walks, I see miserable looking horses, almost abandoned, in the most unsuitable snippets of land.

    Then we had a delicious supper (nut roast for me) at the William Bray in Shere, sitting outside and looking up at Netley Woods in the distance. Listened to Paul Weller’s new album on the way home. A good day.

    Thanks to the excellent setter and the equally estimable Bird Of Prey

    1. I was thinking the other day Terence that if you always see same formula in writing to The King, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Taylor Swift, Ant & Dec etc , ie using green ink, capital letters and the Daily Star someone is going to cotton on to you. Try varying the colour of your ink and the paper you are going to cut up – I would hate to see you banged up.

15. I solved this one in reasonable time for me , but cannot say it set the woods on fire for me.

    Just grumpy today perhaps….it’s not unknown.

    Thanks to Falcon and to the setter.

16. Light and enjoyable, plenty of clever clues and little to give cause for delay. Special mention to 1a, 25a & 14d.

    1.5 / 4

    Many thanks to the setter and to Falcon

17. This had a very different Monday feel to it. I made a complete horlics of 7a/d which was a complete nonsense to parse and held me up, but got there in the end. This was very enjoyable after yesterday’s white flag event. Particularly liked the logo 13a but I’m giving cotd to the 1a anagram. Thanks to compiler and Falcon.

18. A lovely puzzle. Thank you setter and Falcon. Your home from home sounds idyllic.
    13a was a new word for me, but very gettable from the parsing.
    Ticks for 8a, 12a, 16a, 25a, 1d, 7d and 18d, with CoD to the lovely 15d.
    Very sad news on Times for the Times website this morning:

    Richard Rogan – RIP

    1. Very sad news indeed and thank you for posting it over here, Mark – I tend not to see TFFT until late in the evening. A huge loss to his family and friends (my condolences, CS), let alone The Times and the crosswording community.

19. I thought this was going to be too tricky for me having had a few days away on a Gardeners World weekend and no crossword access. However after a slow start it fell into place and produced some smiles.
    Top picks for me were 16a, 1d, 6d and the LOL 7d.
    Thanks to Falcon and the setter.

20. A puzzle of two parts for this Monday with left side finished in good time and right side much slower to manage through … along with three words I have never heard of.
    Definitely a trickier puzzle for a Monday this week.

    3*/3*

    Favourites 8a, 22a, 1d, 3d, 14d & 15d — with winner 8a
    Smiles from 1a, 22a, 3d & 15d

    Thanks to setter & Falcon for hints/blog

21. I thought this was a brilliant start to the week and have so many daisies. I just do t know where to start. Husband hiding in bedsheet or preparing exciting food, people expecting 😀 Batman & Robin / I dare not annoy Kath so I am going for Edward 1 in Mercia as favourite but it a close run thing. They have finished thatching the little cottage to the left of the bottom of our drive. It was in such a sorry state but doesn’t it look good now? Many thanks to Messrs. Setter & Falcon

    

    1. What a truly outstanding dwelling!

    2. It looks lovely Daisy. If I could get a wider picture I would love to do a watercolor of that…

       1. I’ll see what I can do!

          1. It’s really beautiful, and I can vouch for BusyLizzie’s lovely watercolours. She did one of my house that hangs beside my chair, it has been admired many times.

             1. Wow. Lucky you.

             2. You are too kind.

22. I thought 1a a good start to the week

23. That horrible complaint got me! Thank you compiler and Falcon

24. Great start to the week (except the loss of the puzzle from the digital edition, see comment 5). Lots to enjoy, with my favourite being 1d. I did not understand the parsing of 7d so needed the hints to explain.

    Many thanks to the setter and to Falcon for the hints. We just need a miracle to put the crosswords back in the digital edition.

25. I wasn’t really on wavelength here and found it harder than **, I enjoyed it though so no complaints. I couldn’t understand the “why” of many, so thank to Falcon for the explanations. I knew 10a was cockney slang but I didn’t have a Scooby doo, so had to google that. I needed ehelp with a couple, 16a and 13a, but word search got it for me. Lots of good stuff, 7d was fave, the Hamlet reference put me on the right track. I liked 21d, welcome back, and the lurker at 18d.
    Thanks you setter for the fun, and Falcon for unravelling so much. Off to read the comments, I hope all have enjoyed this.

26. 2/4. What a pleasant change from yesterday’s monstrosity. Some obscure words but all gettable from the excellent clues. 13a was my favourite. Thanks to the setter and Falcon.

27. Oh dear – just me then – I often make pigs ears on Mondays but this was worse than usual.
    Quite a few that I managed but then everything went wrong.
    I did like the topical 12a and the 13a itch – being a nurse spelling wasn’t a problem.
    I also liked 9 and 17d.
    My favourite by a long way was 7d.
    Thanks to today’s setter and to Falcon for all my much needed hints.

    1. Not just you, Kath, I found this a bit tricky, needing a lot of ehelp! But I did enjoy it.

    2. I’m with you Kath re Mondays’ puzzles whose wavelength I often find hard to locate.

28. I started out thinking “Oh no, it’s going to be one of those Tuesdays”, but slowly it all made sense and fell together. Ended up being very enjoyable, with just a few hints to verify some tentative answers. Even the disease sprang to mind. I did have to check 25a spelling. Of course the capitalized Robin in 15d led me on a song and goose for a while. Thanks to setter and to Falcon. Home away from home sounds perfect.

    1. I’m sorry to break it to you but you won’t know if it’s going to be one of those Tuesdays until tomorrow

       1. Good shout, CS.

          Nicely delivered.

       2. Oops, I swanned from Sunday straight to Tuesday. It must have been visiting the dermatologist early, before we even had breakfast. That’s my excuse anyway 😊.

29. When I was younger, so much younger than today
    I never needed apps to help in any way
    But now these days are gone, I’m missing my crossword
    Now I find it’s such a grind they’ve closed down all the doors.

    Help me if you can, I’m feeling down
    And I do appreciate Big Dave around
    Help me get my cryptic on the ground
    Won’t you please, please help me?

    And now my life has changed in oh so many ways
    My crossword seems to vanish in the haze
    And every now and then it’s gone for sure
    I know I need it like I’ve never done before.

    Won’t you please help me, help me
    Ooooh.

    1. Brilliant!

30. I can only suggest to the unhappy people that they print off a copy of the crossword to do in bed, over the breakfast table, on the toilet or whatever. Since Mr Lancaster listened to the complaints the printed version is fine, even if it uses a little more toner ink than necessary.

    1. Printing it is just what I do.
       But it is annoying.
       Also, I try not to use paper on principle.

    2. How can I print it off, I can see the grid but not the clues until I highlight one and then I can read that clue. Next suggestion please! I happen to enjoy my half hour in bed with the guzzle. It floats my boat.

       1. Sorry AL find you comment completely absurd.

       2. Hello Manders. This is how I have managed to print:
          Enter Telegraph Puzzles app
          Choose the puzzle you want
          Press ‘More’
          Press ‘Print’
          Press the ‘send’ icon that looks like an inverted female gender symbol ( I only know of two gender symbols, so how on earth do ‘enlightened’ people indicate the other 70?)
          Scroll down to ‘Print’ and assuming you have connection to your printer Bob’s your uncle. 🤞

          1. Thanks very much Pip, I will give it a go!

31. I found this trickier than recent Monday’s offerings ***/*** 😳 13a was not a word that I have come across before (thankfully) 🤔 Favourites 8 & 11a Thanks to the Compiler and to the Falcon 🤗 I think I will stay with my Newspaper version but of course the on line version brings so many people from across the World to the blog to make it the interesting forum that it is 😃

32. Good evening

    Every once in a while, I read through your comments and I see what hassle you’re having from the various sites, apps, etc that you have to deal with. And I’m glad that I stuck with the dead tree version of the newspaper and, therefore, of the crozzie. I know exactly where to find it; all I need is my lucky green pen (which, I’ll have you know, has been upgraded to a Parker Jotter. You can’t buy Parker refills in green any more, but Ryman’s do a “tribute” version. There! I bet your day is better now for knowing that! 😉)

    On to the crozzie: some excellent, witty clueage; a new word at 13a for my GK stock; several contenders for COTD, with joint honours going to 3d and 6d.

    Many thanks to our compiler and to Falcon.

33. Not got around to this yet, but just wanted to tell Falcon that if you scroll down to more puzzles click on crosswords, scroll down to the crossword archive the new puzzles usually appear at about 23:30 UK time
    (Earliest I have got them since discovering this is 23:24 latest 23:40

    1. Thank you, SJB, i’ll keep that in mind. What a a novel concept — archived before it’s even seen the light of day.

34. … what a struggle in the SW corner today! As it transpired it was because I had “gone livid” in 23a. Am I the only one??

35. A good Monday solve. 18A was my trickiest – I had the answer but not the parsing. 13D amused given my background. Thumbs up for 25A. All this after a tricky session at the dentist today – I can now smile after the anaesthetic!!!

36. As I have said above in reply to Kath, I rarely enjoy Mondays’ offerings and today was no exception. I made heavy weather of it to begin with but then did eventually surprise myself by grinding through beginning with the North. Surely the 1d component is hardly a sheet. 7d had ‘to be’ my Fav. Thank you setter and Falcon. And so to bed … where, as usual, I set out on this cruciverbal challenge this morning.

37. Trickier than I was anticipating based on recent Mondays, with some electronic assistance needed to finish, but worth it for the many entertaining clues, including 1d’s bed-sheet, 7d’s different words from Hamlet, 9d’s old scheme, and — my favourite — 12a’s defector to Labour.

    Thank you to the setter and to Falcon. And I hope those of you suffering technical inconveniences have them remedied soon.

38. I’m afraid I was off the pace on this but that’s probably due to a visit to the pub after dog training, pretty decent I thought for a Monday if on the hard side. Hard to pick a favourite but I rather liked 16a. Thanks to the setter and Falcon.

39. Very good. No holdups. Very witty too. Not looked at the hints yet but to whoever queried the Hamlet clue – what about one of the few quotes I can remember. Reference to Durham in another clue is that it is a See. Sorry I’m not referring to clue numbers but I’m under the bedcovers in the dark

40. 2*/4* …
    liked 15D “Criminal arrested with tip from Batman and Robin (9)”

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