Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30924
Hints and tips by Falcon
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Ottawa, where we find ourselves in the midst of a gorgeous spell of weather with temperatures in the mid 20s and not forecast to hit either the sizzling highs or frigid lows that Winnipeg is expecting this week as Senf reported yesterday. It is Tulip Festival time and the beautiful blooms are everywhere. The festival is especially meaningful this year coming on the heels of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands to which the event is so closely tied having been born out of the gift of tulip bulbs from the people of the Netherlands as a gesture of thanks to Canada for our leading role in the liberation of their country and for providing sanctuary to the Dutch royal family during the Second World War.
I suspect we owe our appreciation for this puzzle to X-Type, although my setter identification skills have often been proven sadly lacking. For those like myself who are partial to cryptic definitions, this was a real treat.
I must also express my appreciation to Senf for the answer to the Quickie pun. It was a true “phone a friend” (or, rather, email a friend) situation as the river at 8d would have frozen over before I got it on my own.
In the hints below, underlining identifies precise definitions and cryptic definitions, FODDER is capitalized, and indicators are italicized. The answers will be revealed by clicking on the ANSWER buttons.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought of the puzzle.