DT 30704

79 comments on “DT 30704”

1. Slightly tricky in places with a few quirky clues but very enjoyable, nevertheless. I only had 7 after the first pass but they were spread across the grid so I had checkers to work with. Getting 1a immediately helped. It’s strange – sometimes I see the long ones immediately whilst other times the elude me. 15d held me up for a while because I was working with the wrong block. My COTD is the naked landlady at 20a.

   Thank you, setter (Tumberloom?) for the fun challenge. Thank you, 2Ks for the hints.

   Wet in The Marches today with some heavy rain this morning.

2. Re 6d, I thought FL is the abbreviation for Florida.
   I didn’t think the spoonerism worked as it seemed the wrong way round.
   Thanks to the setter and to the 2Ks.

   1. 100% with you on both

   2. Abbreviation for Florida is FL, and has been since 1963. Before that it was FLA. But never FA, so not sure how 6d works?

3. This puzzle started easily with the accessible anagram in 1a but ended more difficulty with LOI 3d which was my COTD with its clever reverse obscure lurker. 24d was a new one on me but an obvious lurker.

   I needed the hints to understand the Johnnie part of 28a. 7&14d were v good. I thought a **/**** Thanks to the 2K’s and our setter

4. 2.5*/3.5*. Assuming this is our regular Wednesday setter, this one was much more to my taste like his original Rookie and NTSPP puzzles.

   Isn’t FL the abbreviation for Florida?

   Many thanks to the setter for the fun, and to the 2Ks.

   1. It can be either FL or Fa. One of those US oddities, I guess!

      1. BRB says Fa & Fl, but a cursory web search did not instantly offer any support whatever for Fa. I’m happy to be corrected!

         1. I tend to use Big Dave’s “The Mine” under The Features tab in the top menu for comorehensive information about US States. This only gives FL.

            1. Comprehensive!

         2. Neither could I find any online reference to FA as Florida – only FL and FLA.
            I must admit I did not check the BRB!

         3. Hey, ALP! I’m coming out with a suggested tweak.

            So that the compiler doesn’t need to use a not-oft seen abbreviation, how about saying ‘the outskirts of Florida’?

            Gosh! I now know what it feels like to be a setter.

            I’m so in awe of these geniuses doing these, week in week out; I really am.

            1. Aha, so *you’re* making tweaks now, after royally ticking me off last week! Yep, that would certainly work. Longer, mind.

               1. Alternatively “… Florida on vacation upset …”

                  But since the BRB allows Fa, that’s all that matters and we risk being unfair to the setter, who has produced a wonderful crossword.

                  1. Well said, MG. It’s fine as is. I think the (to my mind, fabulous) Spooner is going to cause more upset!

               2. He certainly has.

                  And we do like ‘on vacation’.

                  We all love a ‘suggested tweak’………every once in a while.

                  1. You didn’t last week, you turncoat!!

                     1. Good shout. Turncoat is such a great word as is quisling.

                        On the scale, there’s a rather large gap between ‘let the occasional one slide?’ and ‘royal ticking off’.

                        1. Indeed! Btw, as Gazza suggests, Robyn’s Toughie is well worth a look today if you fancy another dabble over there.

                           1. I’ll certainly get back on my bike with the toughies as I enjoyed doing last week’s – though your rating threw me – but I may not have time as I’m oot and aboot for the rest of the day.

         4. I’ve been here in Florida since 1982, and it’s always been FL, so BRB is wrong in this instance unfortunately.

            1. It quite often is in my opinion and should be dropped as a reference book.

5. A Wednesday romp. I loved 5d’s smart (unusual but totally fair) Spooner but I suspect there may be the odd grumble! 20a’s comical, 23a’s fun and 30a’s a cracking spot. Thank goodness for the Charles in 28a as Johnnie had me foxed. Delightful. Many thanks to our setter and the 2Ks.

   1. As with 1a I guessed 30a was also probably an anagram but, since both answers were write-ins from the definitions and enumeration, didn’t bother working it out during the solve. As you say, though, post hoc 30a’s more evidently a good spot, and they are both well-constructed clues.

6. Gentle and, sadly, over far too soon but a hugely enjoyable puzzle. Like Steve, my thoughts are that this was a Twmbarlwm production – the Spoonerism (wasted on me as solved at the first word) and style made his name spring to mind. I had the good fortune to tune-in instantly and flew through from N to S leaving only the small dog to the end – not sure I’ve ever seen a small one of those, they tend to being large and overweight, especially the chocolate variety!

   Lots of ticks everywhere, from the lovely surface read & humour of the 20a landlady to my top three of 22a, 29a and 13d.

   Many thanks indeed to the setter (Twm for my money) and the 2Ks

7. Beaten by 28a
   Liked the reminder of Flanders and Swan at 1a

8. An enjoyable midweek puzzle – thanks to our setter and 2Ks.
   I share our bloggers’ reservations about the Spoonerism (although it does provide a strong hint to the setter’s identity) and the order in 20a seems wrong to me.
   Top clues for me were 10a, 13d and 21d.

   The Robyn Toughie today is a joy and not too tricky so do give it a go.

   1. I totally agree about Robyn’s not-too-Toughie. Tis an absolute joy. Yet again. How does he do it?

9. We like.

   Lots of great surfaces with some splendid humour thrown in (I’m picturing Nora Batty as my landlady. Each to their own)

   There’s mayhem at the base of the podium but I’ll go with 9a, 15a and 30a.

   Many thanks to Mr Tumble and the 2 Ks.

   2*/4*

10. Very enjoyable apart from the Spoonerism (these should be banned!!) **/*** COTD 20A

11. Wonderful Wednesday puzzle, lots to like, several requiring a punt eg24d and 28a as I did not know the why but they had to be. The hints explained all. I do enjoy the fact that each day the style of the setters is so different that ai have to reset my brain.

    Many thanks to the setter and the 2 kiwis for the hints.

12. A lot of fun. 28a was very obtuse. Having lived in Georgia for 30 years, first time I’ve heard FA. Otherwise a lot of excellent clues

13. Very enjoyable, just needed a couple of confirmations on the parsing of answers. I got the spoonerism from the checkers and ‘reverse’ parsed the answer. Clever. The spoonerism that is, not me. Clue of the day is the legendary swimmer at 30a. Thanks to compiler and 2K’s.

14. In similar vein to the expression – the answer to 1a – over the weekend I said (light-heartedly) “Well, I’ll go to the bottom of our stairs!” and both H and The Youngster looked at me as though I were speaking a foreign language. Neither had heard the expression.
    I Googled to check I wasn’t having some sort of lexicon related breakdown, and it seems it is a genuine phrase. I learnt it from my mother who had an extensive catalogue of such expressions, including ‘Jacques Jack tonight!’ which I can’t locate via Google. She was also a fan of ‘I didn’t come down in the last shower’ and ‘I wasn’t born yesterday’, and a couple of other ones that would not pass today’s more stringent thoughts on correctness.

    Great guzzle. I found it tricky but getting the two long ones at the top and bottom was key.

    Thanks to the setter and The TwoKays.

    Related to one of today’s answers:

    1. I’ve been going to the foot of our stairs all my life, Terence. 😁

       1. Likewise Steve, I’m a ‘foot’ man rather than a ‘bottom’ man …. but that’s getting rather too David Mellor-ish for me!

       2. Definitely foot here.

    2. My Geordie ancestors were always going to the foot of stairs via the local solicitors Haddaway and $hite
       On a similar vein anything highly improbable would be greeted with the alliterative “Well I’ll bare my backside in Binns window”

15. I’m wasting my time bemoaning the lack of decent surface reads, so I’ll just pick out a few that I did enjoy – 11&17a plus 8&13d.

    Thanks to Twmbarlwm and to our 2Ks for the review.

16. Enjoyable and reasonably straightforward. I had the answer to the Spoonerism in my head as the plural of the scar but that didn’t work with the number of letters in the answer so I agree that I don’t think the clue worked. It was good to see 15a as an answer rather than a clue!

    Thanks to the setter and the 2 Ks

17. Quite hard work, but a very enjoyable puzzle. If it is from Mr Tumbledown he hasn’t claimed it on twitter.

    1A held me up for ages as the multi-word answers often do when using the app. Like others, the Florida abbreviation caused trouble, and the Spoonerism didn’t seem to work, at least in my mind. 20A would have to get my vote, although none of the landladies I ever came across would have looked good au naturel!

    ***/**** Thanks to Tumbly? and the 2 Kiwis.

18. A curate’s egg for me with the good parts in short supply. Like Mustafa G, the top and bottom long ‘uns were, with a few checkers, write ins.

    No stand out favourites but smiles for 17a, 8d, 13d, and 14d.

    Thanks to Twmbarlwm, or whomsoever in the unlikely event that it is not he, and thanks to the 2Kiwis.

19. I found this Wednesday puzzle a little tricky in places and needed some head scratching to get things sorted.

    2.5*/3* for me

    Favourites include 1a, 17a, 22a, 23a, 30a & 13d — with 23a the winner.
    Smiles for 1a, 17a, 30a & 13d

    Thanks to setter & 2K’s

20. I found this Wednesday puzzle a little tricky in places and needed some head scratching to get things sorted.

    2.5*/3* for me

    Favourites include 1a, 17a, 22a, 30a & 13d — with 22a the winner.
    Smiles for 1a, 17a, 30a & 13d

    Thanks to setter & 2K’s

21. I liked this puzzle but could have done without Rev. Spooner. Just seeing his name makes me go into panic mode. I solved it but can’t say I enjoyed that particular clue.
    The top ones I did like were 28a, 11a and 15d.
    Thanks to the 2Kiwis and the setter.

22. An enjoyable guzzle with a few head scratchers for me but once I got into it, it fell into place. Still got a dreadful cold and hacking cough from our holiday – no matter, off to Aldeburgh for a week next Friday. Not sure what has happened to the hot sun we were promised. Thanks to our setter and to the 2Kays. As a matter of interest, are the setters provided with a blank grid to fill in the clues or do they make up their own? I have huge admiration for them all because I certainly couldn’t do it and it upsets me when people have a little go at them.

    1. Hi Manders,
       The Telegraph has an assortment of different grids from which setters may choose, not exactly sure how many they have on offer at the moment.

       1. Thanks Jane

       2. There are currently 122 15×15 grids to choose from.

          1. So not much choice then!

23. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It was tricky in places and my heart sank when I saw a Spoonerism. I have never been able to answer them, but cor blimey! I managed to get this one.

    This was one of my favourite types of crossword: Tricky but you feel as if the answer is there on the tip of your pen, rather than clues that I just stare blankly at having not the foggiest where to begin.

    Only needed Big D’s help with 3 clues.

24. Hello,
    Got to have a rant.
    My telegraph subscription is due with a hefty price increase. I’m refusing to renew until they do something about the amount of ink required to print. After numerous conversations with the Telegraph team, they still can’t say when they will make a greyscale function available.
    A quick look at the (ahem) Daily Mail cryptic I was surprised to see that it is free to play and print AND has a greyscale function.
    I’m refusing to renew my 6-7 year old subscription until they finally do the simple task of adding this simple function!
    Thanks, rant over.

    1. Haggle with them Anthony – I got quite a chunk off when I did a few months back. It was thanks to someone on the site recommending having a haggle.

       1. Thanks Manders,
          I’ll look into that.

    2. Can’t you set your printer to print out with an ink saver? I do this and it uses less ink.

    3. Hi Anthony,
       I added a link to the comments a couple of crosswords ago which got you the year for £1 for the puzzles site.
       As I was already in a subscription, had a few months left, I then cancelled the current one – they then automatically offered it to me for £5.99 and then when I didn’t bite at that they made another offer, I think it was £1 for a year.

    4. And, FWIW, the cost of the DT subscription is sharply thighlighted, when the newspaper ignores simple requests. I am referring to the ever-popular Sudoku puzzles. For some unknown reason, their puzzles are partly shaded in grey – exactly the same colour as the pencil that most of us use in solving Sudokus I have written countless times, to no avail. One is afraid that the DT is on the slippery slope. Does CL read these comments?
       Rant over.

25. Good afternoon

    Far be it from me to disagree with either of our esteemed Kiwis, but 2*? Crikey! A fourser, I’d say. Only the time-honoured tactics of a) going away and forgetting about the crozzie for two hours, and b) reaching for my Lucky Green Pen managed to get me over the finish line, with 14d the last to fall. The CLUNK! of that particular penny dropping must have been audible throughout the country!

    No objections here to the Spoonerism; several synonyms today stretched beyond credibility; and no fewer than five contenders for COTD, with 3d the winner.

    I may be wrong, but I suspect that the contorted braincells of Twmbarlwm might have been at work here. My thanks to him, or whomever, and thanks also to 2Ks.

    And in the light of recent news, how about a Clerihew?
    The Gallagher Brothers
    Divide opinion like no others
    One of my daughters loves Oasis
    But the other one says “No way, Sis!”

    1. Hey, Pip! You’ve got competition.

       Nice work, SJ.

26. I’m never on wavelength with Toombarloom, but I did manage this bar two; 10a and 6d, since when is Florida FA? I love when I get 1a right away, dear old Flanders and Swann, they were so enjoyable. I’m going to need the hints to know the “why” of some, I’ll look at those in a minute. Toombarloom reminds me of Mr. Micawber, but he’s probably a three-piece suit doing something in the city. I liked 15d, the pic looks like Rufus, but fave has to be 1a.
    Thank you Toombarloom for being so approachable, and 2Kiwis for your hints and pics.

27. Alternative answer for 15d SNAG seems also to work.

    1. Yes, I thought so too; and the given answer is a bit clumsy, IMO.

    2. Yes, I too had SNAG which only sort of worked.

       1a invoked Flanders and Swann, and the guzzle could be considered A Transport of Delight! Hold very tight please …

    3. I went down that dead end myself at first.

28. An enjoyable and mostly straightforward solve, despite the slightly dodgy Spoonerism and the abbreviation for Florida pointed out by copious others above.
    Thank you setter and the Kiwis.

29. A slightly tricky crossword for Wednesday as so often they are.
    I like anagrams and I find them a good way into a crossword but I couldn’t do 1a – for ages.
    I wouldn’t have said that 9a was a synonym as weird but it obviously seems to be!?
    I liked 15 and 20a and 14 and 15d. My favourite was 24d for numerous reasons.
    With thanks to whoever today’s setter was and to the K’s for the hints.

    1. I liked that too. When I went to live in UK, I had friends who lived in Hurstpierepoint and they explained the meaning of the name, I’ve never forgotten the first part.

       1. There’s a few places in Sussex called ‘…hurstwood’. Repetition as yet unexplained, at least to me

    2. You sound a lot better Kath. Excellent.

30. I’m with Senf in finding this a curate’s egg of a guzzle and with Merusa in finding it difficult to get on Twmbarlwm’s wavelength. I did, however, find rht my guesswork facility was on song roday and reverse engineering dealt with most of the parsing, although the Spoonerism didn’t work so well. The 1a and 3pa anagrams were the best of the clues. Thanks to Twmbarlwm and to rhe Kiwis for the hints

31. Quirky but engaging. 2d from Down Under is a new one on me. Spent ages trying to justify 21d as that kind of play didn’t occur to me. IMHO 5d is too clever by half. Thank you Setter and the 2Kiwis.

32. All was going so well until I encountered Arthur… took ages with that one clue. Thank you compiler and 2Ks

33. Morning all.
    We are not very familiar with US state abbreviations so did not question 6d when we wrote the hints.
    Looks like many solvers found a few more stumbling blocks than we did this week. Sorry about that.
    We also suspect that Twmbarlwm is the setter so will patiently wait to see if he pops in.
    Cheers.

34. Surprised and pleased to find a Wednesday that I could finish, 1a went straight in, followed by bursts of speed, and some slow downs, but overall very friendly. COTD for me is 30a, even though that took me a while, having not even picked up on the anagram indicator. 6d used an incorrect abbreviation for Florida – it is FL and FA – and don’t think of twee as pretty. Would have been perfect without the Spoonerism. Thanks to setter and 2Kiwis.

35. I thought 28A was great … but only appreciated the clue after getting the answer. 23A also a fave. VMT Setter and 2Ks.

36. A very pleasant problem free solve much earlier today. The 24d lurker rang a bell but checked it out anyway & I just assumed it must be an alternative State abbreviation at 6d. I didn’t overly care for the Spoonerism but it didn’t spoil my enjoyment in the least. 11a was my pick of the clues.
    Thanks to the setter & to the 2Ks.
    Ps 25d (Tales of Yankee Power) is a great Dylan song – much covered with fine versions by Tim O’Brien & Jerry Garcia so have amused myself playing them in the car journeying to & from golf

37. Perfectly straightforward until it wasn’t. I set off thinking this was entry level and ended up thinking I was doing a toughie, that might be a slight exaggeration but not by much. 15a got a ?, needed the hint to parse 21d and never heard of the wood in 24d but fairly clued and anyway I have now. Favourite was 3d. Thanks to the setter and 2K’s.

38. Hello to anybody still reading this. Thank you to everybody who identified the setter — whether it’s the Real Twmarlwm or the imposter (there was a Wednesday puzzle a few weeks ago which Twm clarified wasn’t one of theirs, but only after many commenters had thought otherwise), it was great fun to solve and I’m glad I came back to do it.

    Thank you to the Kiwis and commenters for explaining Florida in 6d. I didn’t know Arthur’s wood in 24d, but being a lurker made it solvable anyway. Last in was 23a, which confuddled me by having “Test series” in a cricket-themed clue actually refer to a Test series of cricket; I’d spent far too long considering each word separately and completely missed the obvious!

    I particularly liked the 15a Ray T tribute clue, 1d’s legal rubbish, 2d’s tense Yankee, 30a’s legendary swimmer, and 20a’s landlady with nothing on.

39. 3*/3* ….
    liked 2D “Tense Yankee drinking pub beer in Sydney ? (5)”

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