DT 25928

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25928

Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

Nothing too obscure or contentious today – what we have is a straightforward puzzle which should not frustrate regular solvers for very long, but which contains some entertaining clues.

Across Clues

1a  Nice country song from Israel – a smile breaks out (12)
{MARSEILLAISE} – an anagram (breaks out) of “Israel – a smile” gives us the name of the national anthem (country song) of the country where the resort of Nice is situated. The fact that Nice is being used as a place-name rather than an adjective and thus requires a capital letter is disguised by making it the first word.

9a  Plain dish with a bun in the middle (7)
{PLATEAU} – put together PLATE (dish), A and the middle letter of bUn to construct a high plain.

10a  One in charge warning worker (7)
{FOREMAN} – a charade of FORE (warning on the golf course) and MAN (worker) produces a junior manager (one in charge).

11a  Full fare is halved – permitted during exercises (7)
{REPLETE} – take the second half of faRE and add PE (physical exercises) with LET (permitted) in the middle (during) to get a synonym for full.

12a  Dream – always one welcomed by engineers (7)
{REVERIE} – put EVER I (always one) inside (welcomed by) RE (Royal Engineers) to get a daydream.

13a  Trouble started with the next in line of them (5)
{THEIR} – follow T (start of the word Trouble) with HEIR (next in line) to produce a possessive adjective meaning belonging to, or of, them.

14a  Supply weapons before cities arranged a truce (9)
{ARMISTICE} – to supply weapons is to ARM – follow this with an anagram (arranged) of “cities” to form a synonym for a truce.

16a  Man generally with right to enter queues making jokes (3-6)
{ONE-LINERS} – the pronoun used to refer to people (man) generally is ONE – follow this with LINES (queues) containing R (right to enter) to make short jokes.

19a  Influence dismissed by heartless colonel (5)
{CLOUT} – take the outside letters (heartless) of ColoneL and place after it OUT (dismissed, in cricket) to get a colloquial term for influence.

21a  Cheer very quietly during a double somersault (7)
{APPLAUD} – very quietly is PP (musical notation) which is put between (during) A and DUAL (double) which is reversed (somersault). The resulting verb means to cheer.

23a  No memory for new names – one starts aging (7)
{AMNESIA} – an anagram (new) of “names” is followed by I (one) and A (start of aging) to form a word meaning loss of memory.

24a  Stories about alternative river transport (7)
{LORRIES} – stories are LIES – include (about) OR (alternative) and R(iver) to construct a type of transport.

25a  Find another way for soldiers to beat fatigue at last (7)
{REROUTE} – string together RE (Royal Engineers, soldiers), ROUT (to beat) and E (last letter of fatiguE) to produce a verb meaning to find another way.

26a  Young lady who produced German wine around the West of Innsbruck (12)
{MADEMOISELLE} – produced is MADE and German wine is MOSELLE – introduce (around) I (the leftmost letter, west in an across clue, of Innsbruck) to get the name of a French young lady. The surface reading is quite good but spoiled by the choice of Innsbruck for the place name – how could anyone be making a German wine in an Austrian city?

Down Clues

1d  Food that millions consume with pride, oddly (4,3)
{MEAT PIE} – millions is M and consume is EAT – add the odd letters of PrIdE to get an item of food.

2d  Animal eggs rumoured to be expensive (3,4)
{ROE DEER) – eggs are ROE and then we want a word that sounds like (rumoured) “dear” (expensive) to get the name of an animal which has a red coat in Summer and a grey one in Winter.

3d  List people finishing with some ability at maths (9)
{ENUMERATE} – start with the last letter (finishing) of peoplE and add NUMERATE (having some ability at maths) to form a verb meaning to list one by one.

4d  Prisoner’s right to support existence (5)
{LIFER} – R(ight) supports (i.e. comes after in a down clue) LIFE (existence) to get the name of a prisoner who is inside for a long time.

5d  Gets to a point to cross rolling river (7)
{ARRIVES} – a (cardinal) point is A S(outh) – insert (to cross) an anagram (rolling) of “river” to form a verb meaning “gets to”.

6d  Pure heart possessed by beaten Masai warrior (7)
{SAMURAI} – put the heart (i.e. the middle letters) of pURe  inside an anagram (beaten) of Masai to get this feudal Japanese warrior. I like the wordplay here which pushes you into thinking that warrior refers to an African tribesman.

7d  How doctors perform in the theatre? (13)
{OPERATIONALLY} – this is a cryptic description of the way surgeons do their job in the operating theatre. I think that the presence of the word “doctors” will prevent most people falling into the trap of thinking of a different type of theatre.

8d  A fascination with bank charges? (8,5)
{INTEREST RATES} –  the second cryptic clue in a row (but it does not work terribly well!) – fascination is INTEREST and bank charges are RATES.

15d  Kills the people accepting a credit (9)
{MASSACRES} – the people are MASSES – insert (accepting) A CR(edit) to get a verb meaning kills on a large scale.

17d  Stores poem set to uplifting melody (7)
{EMPORIA} – an anagram (set, presumably in the sense of “arranged” like a precious stone) of poem is followed by AIR (melody) reversed (uplifting) to produce a somewhat outdated word for large retail stores.

18d  Think of one periodical in English (7)
{IMAGINE} – a synonym for “think” is constructed from I MAG (one periodical) IN E(nglish).

19d  Put up all art necessarily held to be fundamental (7)
{CENTRAL} – a cleverly-disguised hidden word meaning fundamental is to be found (held) in “alL ART NECessarily” backwards (put up).

20d  Little-known people who left school with remedy (7)
{OBSCURE} – people who left school are Old Boys (OBS) – add CURE (remedy) to form a synonym for little-known.

22d  Ring round for a music supplier (5)
{DISCO} – put together DISC (ring) and O (round) to get a function where music is played.

The clues which I particularly liked included 1a, 10a, 21a and 19d, but my clue of the day is 6d. If you agree or disagree, or if you want to express an opinion (favourable or otherwise) about the whole puzzle, one of the clues or my hints then please leave a comment.