DT 30890

90 comments on “DT 30890”

1. I agree with Senf – quite tricky. I enjoyed 1a my COTD. 1d and 18d were excellent as well. Adequate number of anagrams and clever clueing and I thought just ***/ ****.I did need the hints to fully understand 10a, 9d and 23d. Thanks Senf and the setter. Good stuff.

2. Was fairly tricky, was defeated by the whip part of 14d. Otherwise really nice – especially the quickie pun.

3. Very enjoyable. 3a, 14a and 4d especially tickled me. So too, 19a – not that I’m planning to holiday in Redcar any time soon! Many thanks to our setter and Senf.

   1. Does Chris Lancaster live near Redcar? I vaguely recall somebody mentioning that at the Birthday Bash. If so, might that be a clue to today’s setter? (Or, I suppose, another setter putting it in to please the ed?)

4. Having struggled to get a foothold at the first pass, I somehow managed my fastest completion of the week so far. Definitely more oblique than the usual offerings, but lots to appreciate including 3a, 10a and 19a. Thanks very much to the setter and to Senf for taking the trouble to parse a few solutions I’d bunged in (I agree that 1a, while possibly quite clever, did not provide the most encouraging of starting points).

5. A very enjoyable midweeker that flowed from start to finish though having the last two letters of 6d the wrong way round mucked things up for a while.

   I love that the updated version of 26a (a new one on me too) Chinese Checkers has nothing to do with China and isn’t a checkers game. It was purely a marketing strategy.

   My podium is 10a (nice construction), 14a and 1d.

   Many thanks to the setter and Senf.

   2*/4*

   1. Seeing your comment about Chinese Checkers, Tom, has caused a minor eddy in the dustiest recesses of my memory that we may have encountered the game before in a DT puzzle in the last 4 or 5 years, although a basic site search suggests the most recent occurrence was in a Toughie 7 years ago. I don’t recall when I started posting here but I did not comment on that puzzle, and may not have been up to tackling Toughies back then.

      But your link to Checkers certainly rings a faint bell, so thank you!

      1. Always a pleasure, MG, me old cocker spaniel.

         I really liked 1a but it looks like I’m in the minority. I love setters pushing the envelope like that.

         The ending of 6d also got me. Someone learning English has got no chance when we have metre and meter.

         1. And meter and metric …

            1. ….and it’s got nowt to do with our cousins t’other side of Pond.

         2. You weren’t alone with the last 2 letters of 6d which meant 20a was last in.

         3. A meter measures
            A metre is a defined length, on its own or with various prefixes.
            I think!

            1. That’s the one, Susjulessex.

      2. As far as I can tell, you de-lurked 11 days short of four years ago!

      3. Goodness me! How did you research that? A basic site search going back7 years? Cor blimey, mister.

         1. Thank you Senf – it feels like much longer (“you don’t say”, cry the audience…)

            DG – top right hand side of the page there is a “search bigdave44.com” box with a magnifying glass as your “go” button. If your search is successful you will get a list of puzzles, however if your search results are the hidden answers you will then need to reveal each one to find your own pot of gold.

            & I now have an earworm coiling around repeating endlessly the line “he wears Cor Blimey trousers …” Thank you, and I thought I would pass it on!

6. For me, and I stress for me (© Senf) I cannot but wonder upon the age in which we live. The exhibition hall is overflowing once again, as we welcome yet another new recruit to THE LIST. Step forward please 26a. I am so sorry to inform you 26a, but nobody with the exception of the setter, and the compiler of that huge red book, had heard of you until today.
   Yet, that should not upset you for solving you was lemon-squeezy, and now you have entered the grand edifice that is THE LIST.
   Visitors should note that we are now operating on our summer opening schedule so you have even more time to marvel at such notable exhibits as ‘obeli’ and ‘philodendron’.
   Children and seniors half price admission on Mondays.

   Great guzzle; needed some brain power so I am drained for the rest of the day.

   Thanks to the setter and my pal, The Man From Manitoba.
   Today’s crossword soundtrack – St Etienne.

   1. Terence, I have a 26a set in my loft. I used to play it regularly in the 1950s.

      1. I had a set of 26a as a child in the 70s.

   2. I think I recall correctly a reference to 26a in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – by Eddie the Shipboard Computer maybe? That’s the only reason I’d heard of it!

   3. We played it in the 1950’s before you were born! I always found it a bit slow. I am pleased, however, that I can get in to view The List on Mondays.

      1. How does one access ‘The List’ please?

         1. I doubt Terence / sorry The Committee has a record of the obscure words that he/ sorry they have admitted. Half price admission on a Monday seems a good deal & I hear the cafe is reasonably priced too.

7. 1a is a dreadful clue which clouded my judgement of the rest of the puzzle from the word go. On reflection overall, it is a curate’s egg Wednesday for me.

   I usually only solve the italicised clues for the Quickie. Today I confidently put “piglet” in for 3a which led me a merry dance trying come up with a meaningful pun!

   Thanks to the setter and to Senf.

   1. Thank you, I thought the same re 1a.

8. A tad stickier than the last couple of days, as one would expect, but with one exception a cracker of a puzzle. Maybe it helps that I’ve taken to tackling the back-pager at about 0515 with the first cup of tea, and my LGCs haven’t had a chance to get frazzled by then?

   I thought 1a weak and wondered whether the setter had been painted into a corner by the two checking letters. The game in 26a “had to be” and was entirely new to me, too. But otherwise a steady, even swift, solve, and it would have been over a little sooner had I not initially adopted the American spelling of 6d – a definite groan when that penny dropped and 20a then fell into place.

   Otherwise good surfaces, nice mixture of clues, and a very satisfying solve. Honours to 10a, 21d and 15d.

   Many thanks both to Setter and Senf

   1. Retracting my questioning of 1a in light of the comments below concerning izzards being (archaic) Zs: every day is a school day!

9. Initially I thought this was going to be tricky but I moved steadily through it. No, hadn’t heard of 26a either but it was pretty obvious from the checkers. I know Madflower also has this problem whereby I can see all the answers immediately. Today wasn’t a problem as I had finished but on other occasions one has to whizz through to get to the comments without looking at the answers. Am I making any sense at all? Probably not! Anyway thanks to the setter and Senf on another gorgeous sunny day if rather chilly.

   1. I do indeed have the same problem with the email. Someone commented once that it was something to do with how the hinter formatted it – not inserting a blank line somewhere but I have no idea if that’s right or not. They do a great job so I’ve given up wondering why and am just ready to scroll furiously while averting my eyes.

10. Somehow managed to finish this but lacked any conviction about some answers.
    I had Fair Play for 18down to coincide with Ballerina. Not sure though

    1. You’re right about 18d. The definition is the first two words of the clue.

11. Tricky and a curate’s egg it certainly was and I found some of the clues off the wall. However, once I got into this guzzle I quickly completed it. A lot of the parsing was retrospective and I still dont understand some ofit , so I shall read Senf’s excellent hints. Like RD I wasn’t keen on1a but I liked the 3a cryptic definition, the 14a and 14d Lego clues and the 13a anagram. Thanks to tge compiler and to Senf.

12. I am confused..The answers for 27a and 18 down don’t seem to fit together. Am I having an aberration?

    1. I think there’s a typo in the hidden answer for 18d. Senf is probably still asleep so I’ve corrected it.

       1. Thank you

13. 1 across was a simple write-in but I don’t see what is “dreadful” about it. Comedian Eddie (or Suzi?) Izzard entertaining some individuals in the surface reading, but characters as letters for the solution, which makes it recognisably cryptic, doesn’t it? I enjoyed the pleasing double meaning that referred to Mister Toad’s obsession with cars, and the jester riddle that followed it. Much more fun and easier for me than the blogger thought it was.

    1. I liked 1a, Mr Mr. So much so that I almost put it on my podium.

       I think clues like that are a hoot.

       1. Broken Wings!?

          1. A classic 80s song, RB, and a mighty fine one at that.

       2. ‘Apparently’ in Private Eye has a good comment to make about Boomers and Generation Z relating to Zees and Zeds.

14. Good fun with a fresh feel about it – thanks to our setter and Senf.
    I particularly liked 3a, 10a, 17d and 18d.

15. I didn’t find this puzzle as difficult as Senf’s evaluation but for some reason I didn’t find it very enjoyable. 1a didn’t sit well with me, not as a word but as a clue, so I was grumpy from the off. As others, I also had the last letters of 6d reversed which made 20a my LOI and favourite. Another hold up with 5d. Did you know that there is a snooker cue called a Merlin?! What with that and 26a at least I’ve had an education this morning. Podium places for 10a and 9d. Thanks to our setter and Senf.

16. I found this enjoyable and refreshingly different.
    Hopefully our setter will pop in to take ownership of it.
    I also got the last two letters of 6d the wrong way round but I wasn’t going to admit to it for fear of incurring the wrath of RD!
    My LoI was 20a as I couldn’t get wine out of my mind – that probably says a lot about me. It should have been a piece of cake.
    Ticks for 10a, 12a, 16a, 15d, 18d, 23d and the Quickie Pun.
    Thanks to our setter and Senf.

17. A couple of clues caused the old eyebrows to flutter somewhat, especially 1 and 20a, but otherwise this was good fun and not too taxing. 3a was my favourite.

    Thanks to our midweek setter and Senf.

18. Congratulations to my bete noire who has an almost perfect score on the ‘hmm’ meter today, just fell short with 2d which was actually quite good.
    Ah well, tomorrow’s another day.

    Thanks to Twmbarlwm for his efforts and most definitely to Senf for his diligence – enjoyed the Acker Bilk clip.

19. The NW held me up for ages as I did not believe the answer to 1a. Once Senf confirmed it for me, 1d was a shoe in and raised a smile and the rest of that quadrant fell into place. My podium comprises 3a, 11a and 16a. Thanks to compiler and Senf.

    1. Hi P

       I often see people spell ‘shoo-in’ as ‘shoe-in’. It’s an understandable misspell as its origin isn’t obvious.

       Here it is…

       This meaning of shoo-in comes from an earlier use of the verb shoo, which generally means “to scare, drive, or send away.”

       At the turn of the 20th century, the verb shoo, followed by in, came to be used in horse racing to mean “to allow a racehorse to win easily.” It was an extension of the idea of driving someone or something towards a place: kids playing outside could be shooed into the classroom by a busy teacher; a racehorse that’s been rigged to win can be shooed into the Winner’s Circle.

       Obviously ignore me if it was a typo.

       1. I can’t claim anything except ignorance of its derivation, so as I said the other day, every day is a learning day in crossword land. Thanks and I’ll store it away for future reference. 😁

          1. Nice one, Prawnus!

       2. Fascinating. Thank you, Tom.

          1. A pleasure, Shabbingtons.

20. I quite enjoyed this with the exception of 1a.
    LOI was 20a as I too, although almost teetotal, couldn’t get wine out of my head. It was doubly frustrating as we are going to Madeira next month.

    Top picks for me were 20a, 10a, 21d and 14d.

    Thanks to Senf and the setter.

21. I found this pretty straightforward, in fact easier than yesterday! Whilst I knew 6d should end in ‘re, I almost hoped it was the other way around to see the wrath on here with that being un-indicated! Funny how so many did spell it the American way though. Liked 23d and 29a with 20a on my podium today.

    Mr. Google informs me (and verifies my memory): “In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Eddie, the computer on the Heart of Gold, suggests playing “electronic [26a]” as a way to calm the crew facing imminent death from a Vogon fleet.”

    Thanks to Senf and the setter.

22. With 1a surely “characters” can refer to any of the letters in Izzard. Wouldn’t “unknown characters” have been a little more specific? That said, once I got into the crossword I quite enjoyed it.
    Like RD I can remember playing 26a in the 50s/60s when rain stopped us playing football, tennis and cricket. Not a screen in sight! How did we survive? We must be truly old…..😂
    Thank you to all involved

    1. Hi F

       I think adding ‘unknown’ weakens the surface as ‘characters’, in this case, means cards, personalities or charismatic people.

       ‘Characters’ could indeed mean any of them but, as there are only seven letters, it doesn’t take long to work out the answer.

       I love the clue.

23. What a great puzzle.I enjoyed the quirkiness of some of the clues although I had to have two goes at it and I used a Thesaurus for a couple .. Best for me 9,10 ,20, and 29.Thanks to all .

24. A nice gentle Wednesday offering this week. One new word for me in the SW.

    2*/3.5*

    Favourites 3a, 14a, 24a, 5d, 8d & 24d — with winner 3a
    Smiles for 1a, 11a & 5d

    Thanks to setter & Senf

25. This all seemed to fall into place with the exception of 14d. I thought of the right word – at least it fitted in but I couldn’t parse it, and I struggled to justify 19a as I initially entered “reform” Nice to be reminded of 26a – I seem to remember that the little men were quite boring little pawn type things. I liked the spicy dish in Maryland and of course the quickie pun. Fun packed day tomorrow I am taking George in to the cataract clinic at 10.30 and have just had a call from the Stroke clinic following my funny eye experience on Saturday, optician Monday followed by doctor and now to Addenbrookes at 1.30 Thursday . How is that for service?
    Many thanks to the Setter and the Man in the Red Scarf.

    1. Good luck with the cataract. Mine was one of the highlights of my later life!
       And good luck with your appointments DG, of course!

26. No one’s mentioned it, so i assume that everybody but me already knew that the letter ‘Z’ is also known as an ‘izzard’ (according to my dictionary, at least)?

    i found this quirky and quite hard. I did like 3a.

    Thanks Senf, and whoever.

    1. How curious.

       I wonder if this was in the setter’s mind?

       If so – brilliant!

    2. That is top knowledge, Dips, and makes the clue even better!

       It is now most definitely on my pody.

    3. It makes much more sense to me now! Thank you.

    4. Thanks for the heads up re izzard. It is indeed a definition of Z in Chambers. How fantastic !

    5. No, I didn’t know that hence my comment above. It now makes sense and is rather good. Thank you – every day is a school day 😎

    6. Not me, I had no idea about Z and izzard… way too old.

27. I was on the wavelength with this one so didn’t have any real holdups and found it to be very enjoyable. I see 1a has caused some comment , but as Serendipity pointed out, it is a definition of Z in the BRB which makes 1A a truly splendid clue , and Izzard is my new word of the year so far. Thanks so much to the setter and Senf.

28. Wow! I can’t believe that so many people had trouble with this crossword. I thought it was on a par with Monday crosswords of old, but perhaps I am on Tumbledown’s wavelength, assuming it was one of his.

    Loads to enjoy but I’ll settle on the jumping toad for my podium place. I have never played Halma but was well aware of it. 23D was another of my favourites, very clever.

    Thanks to the setter and Senf for the hints.

    1. With you on this one. Found it on a par with Mondays and not too much of a stretch. Maybe I was on wavelength 🤭

29. Pretty sure this is a Twmbarlwm concoction as most of the clues made little sense to me, and it was yet another day of relying on checkers and ignoring said clues. Thank goodness yesterday was so perfect. Have to concur with Senf on his **** difficulty rating and “not a lot of fun”, looking at the number of sad faces I have in the margin. Thanks to setter and particularly to Senf, as I would not have finished without your help.

30. Loved the crossword, loved the hints and am loving and learning from the comments. Thanks to all

31. Much enjoyed and quickly completed.
    Minor point 16a doesn’t work as the initial letters of the first 5 words – the “to” is needed in the middle.
    Many thanks to the setter and Senf

    1. Blog explanation seems wrong for that. United is U as confirmed by the dictionary, then “to” as in the clue, then p i A are the initial letters.

32. Needed 4 or 5 hints with the surface reading of this one … but pleased that I managed to get the answer without revealing 😃😃. So, thank you livery much Senf. By the way, I believe that the definition (if that’s the right word) for 18d should be “it’s just” rather than “blondes having fun” … not that this really matters – I was grateful for the help. Thank you… Rod Forbes

33. I loved this and have found it to be the most straightforward so far this week. Have managed all apart from 1a, 10a, 12a, 20a and 2d, which I will revisit after supper. Thank you setter and Senf. Thoroughly enjoyable.

34. A lovely puzzle, challenging but not impossible and plenty of slightly quirky clues. I did not know the game and the discussion about 1a is fascinating particularly the definition of izzard which is new to me. I love that I learn new things every day on here.

    Many thanks to the setter and to Senf for the hints. Twmbarlwm, if it is his, does not seem to have claimed it yet on x or here which is unusual.

35. Fun and (for me) as straightforward as they get. Which has handy because I did this sat on a bench in a churchyard (while a child had a tap-dancing lesson in the church’s hall), without any internet access. Though I did check the game once I got home. By comparison with Monday’s puzzle (where I only had 3 answers by the time I’d finished the acrosses, and labelled it the hardest for some time), in this one the end of the acrosses all but of them had flowed into the grid.

    Hard to pick a favourite from so many, so I’m not going to. Thank you to the setter and blogger.

36. Really pleased to have solved this great solve unaided. If it is a tmbwmwmwm offering then I’m even more pleased.

    I liked 1a even before the meaning of izzard was revealed. Great clue.

    26a was a new word for me.

    20a was great misdirection. Been to the island and I like the drink, so this kept me going for a while. Not a fan of cakes, so took ages for the penny to drop.

    Thanks to all.

37. Amazingly (to me), I went through this puzzle reasonably quickly this afternoon, although, as usual, I didn’t get all the parsing and my wife assisted with 14d (I got the “whip” and my wife got the “horse” but neither of us knew it was one word) and 20a (my wife has an encyclopaedic knowledge of cakes whereas I was diverted to the island). Also, I thought 1a was straightforward, even without knowing the archaic definition but as we all know people are different! COTD 3a for the gentle humour. Thanks to the setter and Senf. **/****

    1. I think as one word it’s a verb, the item in question two words maybe

       1. Thanks for the comment Jules; I probably should have emphasised that I was indicating our ignorance, more than disputing the clue.

38. A quick solve that would have been a tad quicker but for initially misspelling 6d. Didn’t know than a izzard was a Z (didn’t mind the clue anyway) & had never heard of the board game. Really enjoyed the puzzle & had ticks against 3,10,19,20&29a plus 4&18d.13a prompted me to play a track off Van’s 3rd studio album, His Band & The Street Choir.
    Thanks to the Twmbarlwm & to Senf

39. … and having visited Redcar fairly recently … resort is not an adjective I’d apply to the place.

40. I am surprised by how many used the American spelling for 6d. At least we have different spellings for the two different meanings. Unfortunately we even see the American spelling of centre on some businesses. Perhaps social media has something to do with it.

    1. Hi JS

       I was confusing 6d with meter as in gasometer which isn’t logical.

       But, I won’t again. That’s for sure!

    2. Mea culpa.
       I have now collected the necessary birch twigs.

41. Late on parade for a very good reason. John and I both had our portraits done this morning by Harriet. She talks to each in turn for about an hour and as she gets a sense of the sitter she works the portrait on a sewing machine. It was remarkable, very much us and great fun. At the end we were joined together holding hands.
    The crossword seemed tame after all that. Not easy but it could be teased out. Fell at 24 across by putting in flirt. Got a bit lazy and just thought that there must be an obscure reason which was not obvious. Good end to a great day. Many thanks to all.

42. 3*/3* hardest of the week by a long way, couldn’t parse them all but got there in the end.

    Thanks to Senf for explaining a few and setter for a proper test

43. I set off at a pace then ground to a halt in the south. After nodding off in the chair for a while the SE became obvious leaving only the SW to grapple with, got there in the end though. Favourite was 23d. Thanks to the setter and Senf.

44. 3*/3* …
    found 1A interesting “Characters Izzard entertains ? (4)

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