ST Cryptic No 2471 – Hints

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2471

This one should take you longer than Saturday’s!

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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **

For the weekend prize crosswords I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.   The mini-poll is currently showing 70% in favour of hints only, so that’s the way it will stay for the time being.  A full analysis of this puzzle will be available at 12.00 next Thursday,  February 19th.

Here a a few hints to get you started.

Across

5a A number surrounded by buzzing horse flies (6)
Nothing to do with horse flies – a Roman numeral inside (surrounded by) an anagram (buzzing) of horse

9a Was, first to last, strange: was evasive (7)
A simple construct, nicely disguised by the punctation – a synonym for “was first” follows an anagram (strange) of last

Down

16d Inside out, it’s OK (4,4)
This took me a while to resolve, even after getting the answer – a double meaning: to know something inside out and an expression meaning it’s OK

24d Roaring out “Start off with the herb!” (6)
An anagram (out) of (r)oaring (start off) giving a herb – once again you need to ignore the punctuation

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