Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27748
Hints and tips by Deep Threat
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Good morning from South Staffs on dark and rainy Friday 13th.
There seemed to be a fairly high proportion of answers needing General Knowledge today. If you know them, the puzzle is quite straightforward, if not it may be rather trickier.
In the hints below, the definitions are underlined. The answers are hidden under the ‘Click here!’ buttons, so don’t click if you don’t want to see them.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
Across
1a New student may be given that coat (6)
PRIMER – Double definition: an introductory textbook; or a first coat of paint.
5a Powder in lotion or resin seen around a pit (8)
CALAMINE – Reverse (seen around) a resin made from the secretions of certain insects, then add A (from the clue) and a coal pit, to get the lotion your mother covered you with when you had chickenpox.
9a Male and one female by back of the depot for demonstration (13)
MANIFESTATION – Put together a male human, the Roman numeral for one, Female, the last letter (back of) thE, and a railway depot.
10a US city in desert with one personality (3,5)
SAN DIEGO – A major component of some deserts, followed by the Roman numeral for one and the conscious self.
11a Fox? Has got into hospital — bother! (6)
TALBOT – Hidden in the clue is the second part of the name of the photographic pioneer, the first part of which is Fox.
12a What’s near fire? It’s hot soil (6)
HEARTH – Hot followed by garden soil.
14a Castle quickly established by promontory (8)
FASTNESS – A word for quickly followed by a promontory or headland.
16a Got reminder about remedial treatment (8)
PROCURED – A reminder (delivered with a pointed stick, perhaps) wrapped around a remedy.
19a A bishop in the present time seen as bigoted (6)
NARROW – A word for ‘the present time’ wrapped around A (from the clue) and the abbreviated form of a bishop’s title.
21a Verses of song in bars (6)
STAVES – Double definition, the second referring to wooden or metal bars rather than drinking establishments.
23a Attempts to get worker joining in songs (8)
SHANTIES – Attempts, as in trying to knock a coconut down at the fair, wrapped around one of the usual workers.
25a English gentleman — bow-tie sort ‘ere possibly (6,7)
BERTIE WOOSTER – Anagram (possibly) of BOW-TIE SORT ‘ERE, giving a fictional Englishman of independent means.
26a Taunt directed at saints is uncalled for (8)
NEEDLESS – A verb meaning to taunt or irritate, followed by an abbreviation for some plural saints.
27a Author without much experience, we hear (6)
GREENE – An English author whose name sounds like (we hear) someone unseasoned and lacking experience.
Down
2d Servant goes after farm animal that’s run amok (7)
RAMPAGE – A male ovine followed by a junior male servant.
3d Like coal maybe, as material brought to surface (5)
MINED – Reverse (bring up, or to the surface, in a Down clue) a tough cotton fabric used for jeans. When I first solved this clue I thought it was a rather weak cryptic definition. I only spotted the wordplay while writing this blog.
4d Sort of course in Religious Education given to new student (9)
REFRESHER – The abbreviation for Religious Education followed by a first-year student at university.
5d Discarded actors start to object very loudly (4,3)
CAST OFF – The collective term for the actors in a play followed by the first letter (start) of Object and the musical symbol for ‘very loud’.
6d Certainly not the most exciting tales (5)
LEAST – Anagram (exciting) of TALES.
7d Drug addict in sea ship (9)
MAINLINER – A drug addict who injects, made up of a word for sea followed by a large passenger ship.
8d Soldiers of Mons once coming to premature end, terribly (3-4)
NON-COMS – Anagram (terribly) of MONS ONC(E) (once coming to premature end), giving an abbreviated form of a term for senior other ranks.
13d Dog seen around Fleet Street area journalist rescued (9)
RECOVERED – A popular name for a dog wrapped around the London postal district which contains Fleet Street, followed by the usual journalist.
15d Evil girl and one almost good in musical event (9)
SINGALONG – Put together some moral evil, a dialect form of ‘girl’, the first two letters (almost) of ‘one’, and Good.
17d Artist having item of furniture that can be valued (7)
RATABLE – The usual artist followed by a common piece of furniture.
18d The infernal world has possession of rejects (7)
DISOWNS – An alternative name for Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld, followed by ‘has possession of’.
20d Two terms of cricket go on too long (7)
OVERRUN – Put together the cricket term for a set of deliveries from a bowler and the basic scoring component at cricket.
22d Horse let out after first hint of sunshine (5)
SHIRE – The first letter of Sunshine followed by ‘let out’ or lease.
24d Miss maybe in hat crossing end of street (5)
TITLE – An archaic slang term for a hat wrapped around the last letter of streeT, giving Miss, or Mrs or Ms…
The Quick Crossword pun JUICY + THAT = D’YOU SEE THAT?
It is lovely and sunny and warm in East Kent (sorry DT) and the Giovanni was more straightforward than he usually is – or did I just have the right level of knowledge? Thanks to G and DT.
Thank you DG for the puzzle. I always find Friday’s difficult and feel a sense of achievement when I finally get to the end. Today no different ! Thanks DT for your review and hints – helpful as always for checking out some of my answers.
**/*** seems about right.
A little heavy on the GK for my taste. As DT said, it’s fine if you know it.
Only hold up was 11a, I guessed at the hidden word then looked up the answer.
Many thanks to the Don and to DT for a great blog.
Total. Brain. Fail. Have to abandon this now in favour of chores and drudgery, so will be looking at the review and comments much later.
But I just dropped in because I was at least pleased with myself for remembering that a tile is something one can put on ones head. Legitimately, that is. Without any requirements for non-standard usage of pencils or the word “wibble.”
Me too. Hardest crossword of the year, I reckon. Might just as well have been written in Swahili ! Hey ho..roll on tomorrow’s.
Could be the hardest of the week ; difficult to solve without good GK particularly bottom half. ****/**
Perhaps not quite the year but would agree that it is very difficult indeed.
Joining the club of the digruntled. A total disgrace for me too! Had to cheat on several clues, ugh! 4*/2*. Thank you to setter and to DT for a much needed review.
Boy that was really intimidating but after employing every possible reference aid I got there. 14a and 7d new to me however I continue to live and learn thanks to daily cruciverbal exercise. No favs today. Thanks Giovanni and DT. ****/**.
A lovely work-out today ***/**** from me. As a rule I don’t like GK – based clues but if you know the answers……..
Incidentally is General Knowledge an oxymoron? Most folks don’t seem to have much of it – me included usually! If it’s general, shouldn’t most of us have plenty of it?
Very cold, wet and misty today in the Peak District – I wish I could get the Toughie on my IPad. Not much else to do in this weather!
I have always thought that Random Knowledge would be a better description.
I found this a bit tricky, not because of the GK but because of my understanding of the meaning of words, I suppose. In 21a for example, I think of notes being on the answer here rather than words, but I see the dictionary disagrees with me! Then 25a was a pretty tortured anagram!. I had never heard of the bishop reference in 19a either. So a few troubles.
I cannot say I found this one too enjoyable so I would rate it as 3*/2* for me.
First pass gave me three answers and one of those was the cricket reference – how sad is that!
Only by virtue of looking up a couple of synonyms did I get any toehold on this one. Completed with a lot of guesswork.
Things I didn’t know include:
5a resin
14a castle
23a attempts
13d Fleet St. postal area
18d Pluto name
24d hat
Oh – 11a was a bung in (and the hidden word was yet again split onto two lines in the paper!) and I missed the reversal in 3d.
Actually, it’s a miracle I ever got to the end.
3.5*/3* and nothing that I really want to put on the honours board.
Thanks to Giovanni and definitely to DT for bringing clarity to this one.
Thank you Jane! Everyone saying how easy it was but I too got only 3 on the first pass and struggled along slowly thereafter. I very rarely seem to agree with the degree of difficulty – must be wired differently!
I’m with you on that! Don’t forget that the degree of difficulty is determined by the blogger who is always a highly experienced expert crossword solver. For us mere mortals you usually have to add at least one star.
Agree with DT that general knowledge had a large part to play in a quick solve, spotted 11A but thought it had something to do with the now extinct fox hound, my friend had a pub of the same name -the internet provided the photographer ! I thought it the best puzzle of the week for enjoyment so a **/****,very well clued by the setter and an entertaining blog by DT, should be a good rugby weekend!
Was that the Talbot in Chipping (Lancs) by any chance?
We had one near us when we lived at North Weald in Essex.
It was the photographer in Lacock, Wiltshire.
I really like your hints but if I may say so, sometimes your picture clues give away the answer too easily. Today’s examples include 25a,16d, and 22d.
Welcome to the blog Tim
You can please some of the people all of the time …….. but you can’t please all of the people all of the time
I found that because the blog is so addictive I tended to read it before I started the crossword but I have trained myself not to look at it until I have done as much as I can. It is all too easy to spot something pictorial that gives the answer away. Welcome to BD’s gang.
Spring has sprung in the Languedoc. It’s lovely and warm today.
I’ll be interested to hear what Brian has to say about this one
I didn’t know bertie or talbot, but could look them up after working out the clues from wordplay. I thought 3d was a weak double definition, with the two definitions a bit close for comfort, having not seen the reversal – so very clever to have a reversal that looks like a second definition (but also risking it isn’t seen!)
I liked the definition in 24d (miss maybe), the surface in 22d (horse let out..), and I love the way 6d reads (certainly not the most exciting tales).
Many thanks Giovanni and Deep Threat
Seemed reasonably gentle compared to the usual Friday. I was a very disappointed in 2d until I read the blog, proving yet again that when I jump to conclusions on poor-looking clues it is ususlly a prelude to showing my inability to spot the best ones! Many thanks to Giovanni and to Deep Threat.
Thanks – I’ve just started doing the Cryptic Crossword’s your help is very much appreciated.
Welcome to the blog, j2macca. Now that you’ve introduced yourself I hope that you’ll become a regular commenter.
25a – What an absolutely spiffing anagram!
Toodle-pip!
Found this one difficult but got there in the end with copious coffees. I filled in 11a from the hidden word which Google informed me was a now extinct white hunting dog with big ears. Bingo, I thought. Had to wait for the blog to come on line to check. So I got it right for the wrong reason. Don’t care, I’m chalking it up as a completion. Agree with all the comments on GK gone mad. Thanks to setter and DT for putting me right.
A tad on the easier side of the Don’s range. Fortunately I had the GK to know those answers and 14a is a new word for me. Enjoyed quite a few of the clues with 23a being ever so slightly pipped at the post by 13d.
Thanks to Giovanni for the puzzle and DT for his succinct review. Today’s toughie is quite do-able with a splendid hidden word. Have a good weekend everyone
I’ve got 15. But I have got the hidden word!
Actually finished this crossword, although using electronic help (otherwise we would be here all day). It must be one of this setters easier efforts I think. Thank you to the Friday setter and to DT.
For us far too full of weird and bizarre terms. *****/* for us.
Thx to DT for attempting to explain.
Quite agree!
Yesterday the answers appeared as if by magic, today I mined them by hand, syllable by syllable. I thought I was in for a marathon but it turned out to be more of a 1500 metres as I did have the general’s knowledge. Must see if he wants it back.
Having ‘new student’ as part of the wordplay in two intersecting clues would not have passed my editorial blue pencil, otherwise it was the expected technically sound but rather dull mixture.
2*/2*
Thanks to Giovanni and to Deep Threat for the review and hints. Thanks to all who left messages of sympathy. Your support was touching and much appreciated. On to the puzzle, I thought it was very tricky. I didn’t have the right level of GK. Never heard of 11a, though I guess that’s where 20th Century Fox comes from. Also needed the hints for 1a&8d,and to parse 3&22d. Favourite was 10a. Was 3*/3* for me. Very enjoyable tussle.
11a should be banned. Who has heard of him? Also happened to know postcode of fleet street because I went to school there. Too much Gk, there are other newspapers that do That better.
Welcome to the blog John.
It could have been worse. There’s a French photographic pioneer called Nicephore Niepce!
Funny enough, there used to be a Fox Talbot shop in the Strand at the bottom of Bedford street.
I’ve heard of him.
Thought I was going to get well and truly stuck, but the trusty pencil and I soldiered on starting, as always, at the bottom and working up. Remember 5a being put on everything and flaking off as it dried. As DT said a good GK helped and I am lucky to have that so three stars for difficulty but five for enjoyment. Bright but chilly in East Anglia, thanks to Giovanni and Deep Threat.
Last one in was those sea shanties in 23a.
No problem with Jeeves boss in 25a. Give me a TV clue anytime. Some of you might very well have read it, but I only look at the pictures.
Favourite is 16a.
Thanks to the Don and to DT for the review.
Now, here’s a funny thing: I stopped doing Giovanni puzzles for months because they might as well have been set in Sanskrit for all the chance of my solving them. Here, today, I found this a piece of cake! And so many found it so difficult?
I didn’t know 11a but an obvious hidden word, easy enough to google.
I remember my Mum dabbing 5a on me when I had chickenpox!
Fave was 25a, he almost wrote himself in it was so obvious.
Thanks to Giovanni, and to Deep Threat for your review.
A 3 qestionmark day for me after a relatively easy solve. No 1; 5a, the resin seems to be ALC what’s this when its at home?
No 2; 11a, the answer was obvious from the hidden word, but I needed your help to find out why, even though as a photographer I am familiar with the man who invented the negative process and therefore modern photography.
No 3; 18d, I guess this is a crossword land clue as no sensible person would have heard of dis. ( thus offending all you classisists)
So without this blog I would have remained ignorant. Thanks to DT And the setter
The resin in 5ac is LAC (as in shellac).
I disagree with you about 18d. I am far from sensible and certainly not a classicist, but as it appears The Divine Comedy, for me, makes it fairly mainstream.
Mainstream! Do leave off, how many people have read Dante?
You don’t have to have read it to know that Dante wrote it.
Quite a few people. Regardless of whether you have read it, it is referenced in modern life.
I have found rather less enjoyment in the cryptic crossword recently. Has something changed or could it be that I am still recovering from the ‘flu nearly a month after it started?
Aristotle,
In your comments this afternoon you’ve left an A out of your email address.
3D was deceptively clever , some of the others like the( cat in the) hat was new and a general smattering of quirky GK clues made this more difficult than Friday’s normal offerings . Had to cheat i.e. look up an answer or two to finish , which always rankles . Still there’s always tomorrow and overall a good weeks clueing .
Thanks to DT for the much needed help/GK
Found this one quite difficult and needed the clues for a lot of the SW corner.
Comforting myself that I would never have got some of the answers without the clues…better than shouting ‘Doh’ all the time .
Thank you to the setter and to Deep Threat.
I thought there were lots of interesting clues, 25a is my stand-out favourite.I also particularly liked 15d and 3d. Thanks Toro and Giovanni.
Started late but gave up to watch the Cheltenham Festival. we even bet real money which is a rarity. £50 out and £56 back. That’ll do. I think I will return to the crossword. I only had a few answers and wasn’t enjoying it
What a great race the Gold Cup was (perhaps not good for you though?!) and a terrific result for the Oaksey family but such a pity John Oaksey is not still around to enjoy the success.
St Sharon had money on Coneygree which saved the day. She also backed Wicklow Brave. Clever girl. I got my money back from paint The Clouds. Good day. Good fun
I really enjoyed today’s crossword. There was an excellent range of clues and my favourite has to be 24d…. only because I had remembered it from last time!
Now as far as my mother and chicken pox goes, I only finally caught it a few years ago; my wife has never allowed me to forget the calamine experience.
3*/3* overall for me, the puzzle! not the calamine…..
Thanks to the Don and DT for the review.
11a was someone who was new to us but easily worked out and then found, and a similar experience with the first part of the wordplay for 5a. We know that it is always a good idea to have reference material to hand with a puzzle from the Don. We don’t see that as a problem, just a point of difference and interest. We enjoyed the solve as ever.
Thanks Giovanni and DT.
I was sad to read so many of you complaining about the few GK questions today. Reading your comments over the past few months has made me realise that most of you are probably qualified and/or have had a very good education. At my age I was one of the unlucky ones who fell into the gap between the School Certificate and the start of the GCE (or what ever it was called) but I have always read voraciously and consider that I have built up a database of general knowledge which has stood me in good stead for most of my life. These days there is always the Internet to fill in a gap or to check a long-forgotten memory, I can recall cycling down to the library on a Saturday afternoon with a list of queries to look up from the previous week.
I did Cambridge Senior School Certificate and Cambridge Higher School Certificate in my day, the latter now called Sixth Form I think. I still read nonstop and I agree this is a huge help. Reading the blog, I realise that most are professionals with university educations, way beyond my educational scale.
Don’t put yourself down Merusa. People of our generation had to be among the top 15 percent of the population to get into a university. Nowadays every Tom, Dick and Harry seem to go. Are they any better educated? I don’t think so.
I haven’t got a degree – like you I just read voraciously and have the sort of brain that remembers ‘stuff’.
While I still prefer to read books and turn pages, I LOVE my Kindle, it’s chockablock with stuff I can’t wait to get into.
That made me laugh, CS. My brain also remembers stuff, it’s just that these days it sometimes churlishly refuses to allow me to access it on demand.
I still do , it’s pavlovian http://bigdave44.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-monalisa/icons/wpml_negative.gif
Nice crossword **/**** but without DT pointing out the hidden word tip, I would never have arrived at the answer Thanks.
I found this fairly gentle for a Giovanni but only after gaining a foothold or three which obviously makes solving a little easier. Enjoyable fare with thanks to DT and the Don **/***
Well, it took a long time to get going today, but once one or two had fallen, the rest toppled in quick succession. Enjoyable as ever from Giovanni.
Never had a problem remembering obscure things, so the GK aspects of this weren’t an issue. It wasn’t difficult (2*), but was very enjoyable (4*). I loved this puzzle, in fact, mainly because it contained one of my favourite characters – the subject of my favourite clue in 25a. Thanks to the Don, and to Deep Threat for the review.
I am starting to find the clues in these crosswords too convoluted to solve and I have been doing these puzzles for 50 years.
Well, I got there in the end. Came back to it sporadically, so it’s hard to evaluate difficulty or enjoyment. I completed without any egregious cheating but did have to investigoogle half a dozen bits after I’d successfully worked them out. Normally I enjoy that, so not sure why today’s left me a grumpy bunny.
Learning new words or trivia is a good thing, but if like me you only really count a solve a “success” if you needed no aids, it needs a mental rebalancing to maintain satisfaction when solving harder puzzles. Which I am happy with when I do have time to tackle a Toughie or other hard one, so not sure why it irritates me so on the back page. Expectations. Always lead to disappointment. I agree with the 2Kiwis, even if today I couldn’t muster up much enthusiasm.
Thanks to Giovanni – it was a much better puzzle than a scan of the comments might suggest. And thanks to DT for saving many solvers’ sanity today.
After not doing so well at the crossword and then Cheltenaming for five hours I solved on the ipad over dinner. (not vegetarian today after two vegetarian days) Easy Peasy after roughty toughty this morning. How does that happen?
Yes it Is strange how a puzzle that seemed fairly inpenetrable when you first tackle it can seem to be fairly accessible when you return to it hours later.
A curious place the inner workings of the mind!
I didn’t print this out until this morning ( between completing today’s cryptic and quickie and waiting for the NTSPP to appear). Straightforward for me, since the GK questions were all familiar. 25A gets my vote. Thanks Giovanni and DT.
Last to check in again.. I did 3/4 of this in one go and then had to have a nights sleep before doing the last quarter – the SE of course. I quite like crosswords where I learn arcane language that can be of no use at all. Quite liked this one. Thanks to Mr G and DT. Btw, this blog is getting bigger a healthy sign that we all have more leisure time!?