Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31368
Hints and tips by Smylers
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.
A fairly straightforward guzzle, which took me a while to get into. In fact, after getting only three of the acrosses on the first pass, I thought it was going to be a tough solve. Fortunately, the downs came to the rescue and there were checkers all over the grid. From then on, it was a steady solve. I liked the fact that 1a contained an oxymoron and the cheery island at 11a raised a smile. My COTD is the esteemed editor at 23a because of the picture it conjured.
Thank you, setter for an entertaining start to the week. Thank you, Smylers for the hints.
I was so trying to avoid saying anything about 1a but you just dived in – nice!!
I wondered if anyone else had noticed it. 😊
1*/3.5*. This was light and fun with no particular favourite.
Thanks to the setter and to Smylers.
A light and breezy Monday puzzle with nothing to cause any delays – it helped that 1a wrote itself in straightaway from the enumeration and appearance of the anagram fodder, so there was a lot from which to hang the downs. Many great surfaces, very smooth, and the four long anagrams were very well spotted.
Many thanks to the setter and to Smylers.
And limitless thanks to Canada for … being Canada, a beacon of hope and decency.
A slightly chewy start to the week, but just enough to get the cruciverbalistic juices flowing. Everything fairly clued just needing some attention to detail to get over the line. I had to check that I had the correct spelling for the religion at 30a but that was the only aid. My favourites were 10a, 12a and 20a.
Many thanks to the setter and Smylers.
1.5*/3*
Tripped over a couple in my enthusiasm so brought up short and had to revisit when it became obvious that other answers wouldn’t fit. Other than that boo-boo, a gentle and entertaining puzzle to start the week. Whilst I liked 9a, it misses out on a podium place to 10a, 11a and 23a. Thanks to compiler and Smylers.
An enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to setter and hinter. I was surprised to find the down hints before the across hints. Is this a deliberate change or a problem with my phone?
Apparently it’s whimsy.. see reply to comment 13
A enjoyable start to the week with plenty of neat constructions on a friendly gridderoony.
The superb 1a kicked things off very nicely and it fairly flowed from there.
I feel sorry for Lorde as it was impossible for her to follow the brilliant Royals that launched her career at just 16 years old, topping the charts both sides of The Pond. She’s had one top 20 since.
My picks are the aforementioned 1a along with the very funny 23a and 7d.
Many thanks to S and……hmm….X-Type?
1*/4*
Hi DisappearingTom,
Sorry, but who is Lorde?
A Kiwi singer/songwriter – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorde
But, prompted by Disappointing Tom’s comment, I didn’t know that until e-searching 10 minutes before replying to your question!
Lorde is mentioned in the clue for 9a. See the hint for 9a for a video of her biggest hit.
It’s an outstanding song.
She wrote it when she was 15 which is truly remarkable.
That was a hit? Gosh.
To quote AI, it’s been called a massive, generation-defining hit that became one of the most successful and best-selling singles of all time. It’s sold over 10 million physical/digital copies and surpassed 1 billion streams.
It won two Grammys: Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance
As I said, Gosh.
“There’s no accounting for taste” should cover both your view of it and mine!
Of course.
The reason for me going on about it is that I always get excited when I see someone that young can be so talented. It took her half an hour to write when she was 15.
Doing a quick search, it looks like it could be the biggest selling single written by a teenager which is such a cool claim, especially when she’s up against prodigies like Stevie Wonder, Kate Bush and Adele.
Kate wrote The Man With The Child In His Eyes when she was 13 & most of her debut album, The Kick Inside, as a teenager.
Amazing
Some people are just off the scale.
Yes, it was. Musical taste is subjective and generational. I really don’t think we should be surprised that music in the charts doesn’t match our personal tastes; if anything you should be more surprised if you’d found the charts were full of music you really liked and you’d been missing out on it!
Anyway, let’s all be thankful that I resisted including Fat Les’s Vindaloo after the curry clue …
Vindaloo: a wonderful parody of The Verve’s Bitter Sweet Symphony – now that really is one of the top singles of its time!
Please regard the second line of my comment to be 5d.
I shall recommend a book instead.
“Hard-boiled Wonderland and
the End of the World”
by Haruki Murakami
The translation from the Japanese is excellent
by Alfred Birnbaum
Where’s Tom disappeared to? That’s disappointing!
Quite.
Hi S
Yesterday, Rabbit Dave was commenting in on how long my alias is. So, I thought I’d shorten it as it does take me a while to type.
You’re never disappointing to me … can’t you be Entertaining Tom? (Or E.T, even, very short 🙂)
We like it but I love the reason why I’m called disappointing.
How did yesterday go?
This was, I thought, a modest step up in difficulty for it to be typically Mondayish, but it was still good fun and a decent test. Plenty of entyertaining clues, none better than the brilliant 1a.
Many thanks to both our compiler and Smylers.
Not quite, but very close to being The Spirit of Rufus – 1.5*/3.5*
Candidates for favourite – 22a, 23a, and 14d – and the winner is 23a.
Thanks to whomsoever and Smylers.
One thing I am thankful for – ‘finding’ this amazing community almost 15 years ago!
Gentle and fun – what more do we need on Monday? Thanks to our setter and Smylers.
I particularly liked 1d and 18d.
Very Mondayish guzzle, George read the clues out whilst I was doing my nails and I impressed him be getting several anagrams without seeing the clue written down (I DO like anagrams!) Last one in was Lorde but I seemed to remember a singer of that name. Monthly Royston Ladies Luncheon Club , just off and George will take his Old Codgers to the pub – one wheelchair, one pusher and several walking sticks involved. Thought you would like to know that. Many thanks to Benevolent Setter, always good to have a doable puzzle to encourage those new to the game. And thanks to Smylers as well. I did like the folding dinner jacket!
Thank you smylers and setter. I am feeling a bit under the weather (and it’s raining) – I think it might be the flu vaccine I had on Friday – so did the puzzle early (for me). It cheered me up enough to think about planting some sweet peas. Book wise, 10 Marchfield Square is proving gently enjoyable.
A lot trickier than the previous few Mondays but I did enjoy the solve
Thanks to the setter and Smylers. Any reason why the Down hints appear before the Across hints?
Whimsy, mainly. I tackled the downs first (see intro), and since I write each clue’s explanation as I solve it, I was hinting the downs first and it occurred to me they could go first for a change.
As a habit, I always start with the last down clue (in this puzzle 27d) and work backwards (ie 26d..1d…30a…1a).
Straightforward but fun. Luckily I got the 1a anagram without any fuss which opened up the downs nicely.
Knowing who Lorde was made the clue clever, though perfectly solvable if you didn’t.
*/****
Thanks to Smylers and setter
I agree, I would have been quicker if I had started with the downs. Picked up pace after a slow start. Super enjoyable though and I didn’t need to add any extra hot water to the bath I was soaking in
I thought this was pretty good!
My favourite was 1a, with 15a in second place.
Many thanks to the setter and to Smylers.
Excellent puzzle. Completed well inside the Black Crowes album I’m listening to 🎸
Thanks to setter!
Made no headway in North so moved South where going was much smoother however when returning North it was a case of slowly, slowly catchee monkey. We do seem to go from bad to worse with anagram indicators but in fact most of them do actually appear in Chambers’ . Overall a great start to the cruciverbal week. Thank you setter and Smylers.
For me this was a slightly trickier Monday puzzle than normal with a few head scratches and pauses for thought along the way.
2*/3.5*
Favourites 15a, 20a, 30a, 4d, 15d & 21d — with winner 21d
Thanks to setter & Smylers
Solved before golf at 7.30am which was kill or cure as I’ve had the lurgy over the last few days & am now at the cough & wheezing chest stage. Gentle but perfectly enjoyable for the short time it lasted with only the 5d why threatening a scratch of the crumpet. Can’t say I care much for her music but I liked the clue so 9a gets my vote & I rather liked the fodder in the top & bottom long ‘uns.
Thanks to the setter & to Smylers – always good to hear some John Otway. His gigs are great fun & you can’t beat a bit of audience participation
I saw John Otway at Cropredy once, he was still giving the microphone “headbutts” I bet he uses a foam thingy on his mikes nowadays
A gentle start to the week made all the more enjoyable by a rare John Otway video … he played Aylesbury College back in 1971 with his pal Wild Willy Barrett. Our student union was broke at the time but they still played for nothing and we just loved them! Thank you compiler and Smylers
Ha, I can never predict which of the random other things I throw into these reviews will resonate with commenters, but that’s two comments in a row praising John Otway, who’s here because he mentions “heavy metal” in those lyrics. I was expecting complaints from fans of actual heavy metal!
Completed this puzzle in two halves. This morning I struggled with the top section, but when I came back to it this afternoon, the answers in the bottom half just flew in! Only problem I encountered was 5d as my revolutionary detective was ‘DIC’ for ‘CID’ which meant the answer appeared correct, although I seemed to have a couple of random letters left over. Thanks Smylers for clarifying this for me. Thought I would struggle with 26d as I know nothing about Harry Potter, but luckily the answer was obvious from the second part of the clue. Top clues for me today were 20a, 30a and 21d. Thanks to the setter and to Smylers for the hints.
Congratulations, JG. These unaided completions are becoming a bit of a habit for you.
Come on Mr Plumb! Let’s see what you’ve got…
* / ****
Usual Monday gentleness and very enjoyable. Particularly liked the 5d construction and the superb 30a anagram.
Thanks to Smylers and the setter.
Very straightforward after finally giving up on last Friday’s Toughie which completely defeated me.1*/2**
This was not easy to get into but once I did it all came together nicely and was very enjoyable. No single favourite today but I did enjoy the anagrams, particularly 1a.
Many thanks to the setter and to Smylers for the hints.
Chester Marathon done – 4:16:25, considerably harder than I anticipated, for various reasons, but a very enjoyable event and a lovely first trip to Chester. A nice medal and shirt too – turquoise / teal is a popular colour in our house so that’s a bonus.
An entertaining Monday puzzle for the train home. Pody picks – 1A’s neat anagram surface, 9A’s Lorde double performance trickery and 26A’s Hogwarts clue, I imagine not everyone thrilled by this GK requirement?!
Thanks to setter and to Smylers ⭐️
Congratulations, Simon — 4¼ hours sounds several days, if not weeks, faster than I’d manage it!
Congratulations, Wriggles. Another Marathon hits the back of the net.
A friend, who is an unbelievable runner (2h40m!), has done stacks, including quite a few overseas. So, I suggested he should do the ”Marathon Alphabet” as I spotted there are 26 letters, one for each mile. He has to run in a city that begins with A, one with B, one with C etc.
He loved the idea as he has already done 12 that begin with different letters. It does mean, though, that he has to go to Xi’an in China!
Congratulation, Simon. I can’t run for toffee!
Thank you to all. Yes my ego felt a tiny bit bruised but I’m over it now 😸 After the run we met two Brummie brothers several years older and one is a 2:48 runner and qualifies for the world majors for his age, amazing ⭐️ and in a great craft beer pub the day before the run we met a couple that were doing the Telegraph crossword (last Friday’s), I recommended they join the blog 🙂
bet you can break into a canter for liquorice allsorts
Huntsman I’m guessing that was for SC, but I do also like liquorice all sorts very much. There’s seldom enough of the pink and blue bobbly ones though.
Spogs!
Thanks! I had to google that, I’ve even bought them separately, so I shan’t forget spogs now I hope.
Bath water not getting cold, album not finishing, gentle, unaided etc – all of the above applied today for a * Monday solve.
Thanks to the setter and Smylers ( JJ specialises in preposterous coincidences. Go back to The 100 yr Old Man…… his first book, which kicked it all off, for a riotous ride). All in the series recommended if you want some light escapism.
Nice Monday puzzle with some nice anagrams.
Thanks both
I particularly liked 15d. Haystacks is a hill in the Lake District (where Alfred Wainwright’s ashes are scattered) There are 3 15d’s near the summit, one is called Innominate ****, one is called Nameless **** and the third one……
doesn’t have a name at all 😁
Thanks to Setter and Smylers
P.S. I have bagged a ticket for Mama Bee and myself to see the “Murder Most Cryptic” talk in Ilkley Literary Fest
Yay — it’ll be lovely to see you both!
I’ll have to be quick about the Sunday Toughie blog if I am to get to Ilkley for noon
An enjoyable start to the week especially getting 1a quickly. It helps to boost the confidence level. Upon checking the hints my only mistake was putting Taipan for 11a! Much to like and a good solving time. Many thanks to the Setter and Smylers. Happy Thanksgiving Day to Falcon and all the other Canadians who read/submit to the blog.
Very enjoyable Monday puzzle with the magnificent anagram at 30A my favourite.
VMT to Setter & Smylers.
I made things hard for myself in the north by my own incompetence by ennumerating 1a as 6/9 as opposed to how it was indicated. It took me ages to notice and I wondered why my answer wouldn’t fit. How stupid can you get. 🤦 Does 10a need an americanism indicator, I certainly have never referred to a dj as that. Apart from my self inflicted problem I fairly breezed through this and enjoyed doing so. Thanks to the setter and Smylers.
Defeated by 5d, drat. Was trying to fit an x as the second letter. Very pleased other than that to have got the rest unaided. Favourite today was 13d but as for the clueing at 1a, ‘a moral, creditable politician’ does such a thing exist!
Thank you to the setter and to Smylers for the hints.