DT 25976

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25976

Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***

When I solved this puzzle I was not overly impressed with it, but writing the review has made me appreciate some of the individual clues more, and I ended up quite liking it.
As usual the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – just select the white space to reveal them.

Across Clues

1a  Salt produced by burn on outside of food (8 )
{SEAFARER} – put SEAR (burn) outside FARE (food) to get another word for sailor (salt).

9a  I am favourite — I start to find a reason to scratch (8 )
{IMPETIGO} – a charade of I’M, PET (favourite) and I GO (I start) produces a skin infection (reason to scratch).

10a  Alarming sound in French pipe? (4)
{HORN} – the sound of an alarm appears in both French HORN and HORNpipe.

11a  Exchanging words with sending off earns a reprimand (8,4)
{DRESSING DOWN} – there are two separate anagrams indicated here – one (exchanging) of WORDS and another (off) of SENDING – but you will not get anywhere if you try to solve them separately and stitch the results together, so it’s a bit naughty! You have to pretend that it is a single anagram of WORDS SENDING to produce a carpeting or reprimand.

13a  Perks up when crossing Northern Ireland with friend (8 )
{ANIMATES} – a verb meaning perks up is constructed from AS (when) which contains (crossing) NI and MATE (friend).

15a  The girl who has more style when undressed? (6)
{LASSIE} – someone who has more style is CLASSIER – undress this, i.e. take off the outer letters, to leave a Scottish word for girl.

16a  Curry favour with supporter, welcoming wife (4)
{FAWN} – a verb meaning to flatter in an exaggerated way (curry favour) is produced from FAN (supporter) with W(ife) inside.

17a  A right to property from abroad (5)
{ALIEN} – double definition – a legal right to keep property and someone from another country (or even another world).

18a  Expert artists ultimately produce prints (4)
{DABS} – a word meaning expert (normally used in the phrase “a DAB hand”) has the last letter (ultimately) of artistS added to produce a colloquial term for fingerprints.

20a  Love to kiss and follow – one could land in the soup! (6)
{OXTAIL} – a charade of O (love, as in tennis scoring), X (kiss) and TAIL (follow) produces what you might find in your soup, but preferably not a whole one.

21a  Admission by article during recent changes (8 )
{ENTRANCE} – put AN (article) inside (during) an anagram (changes) of RECENT to get a way in (admission).

23a  The feeling that it includes workforce after award (12)
{PRESENTIMENT} – this feeling of foreboding is constructed from PRESENT (award) followed by IT which contains MEN (workforce).

26a  A species almost related (4)
{AKIN} – an adjective meaning similar or related is made from A KINd (a species, with “almost” indicating that the last letter has to be dropped).

27a  Doctor’s resigned love for flyer (8 )
{MOSQUITO} – put MO’S (one of the many abbreviations for doctor) in front of QUIT (resigned) and O (love, as in tennis) to get this annoying and dangerous flyer which kills millions of people every year.

28a  To make a home encourages savings (4,4)
{NEST EGGS} – to make a home is to NEST – add EGGS (encourages) to get a term for accumulated savings.

Down Clues

2d  Obsession with creating an image around job centre (8 )
{EGOMANIA} – an anagram (creating) of AN IMAGE needs to be placed around O (centre of jOb) to get this term for obsessive self-centredness. Proverbially someone with this condition is described as “a self-made person who insists on giving everyone else the recipe”.

3d  Amusing lady with unusual slant on basic principles (12)
{FUNDAMENTALS} – put FUN DAME (amusing lady) in front of an anagram (unusual) of SLANT to get basic principles. A simple but pleasing clue.

4a  Dismiss disheartened judge in soldiers’ court (6)
{REJECT} – a synonym for dismiss is assembled by putting JudgE (without the central letters, i.e. disheartened) between RE (Royal Engineers, soldiers) and CT (court).

5d  Kids may like them spare, for example (4)
{RIBS} – a synonym for kids (in the sense of “teases”) is also placed after spare to get a pork dish in which you always seem to get a lot more bone than pork.

6d  Clear aircraft after docking in such a work area (4,4)
{OPEN PLAN} – this way of organising the seating arrangements in an office is made from OPEN (clear, not blocked) and PLANe (an aircraft which has been docked, i.e. had its tail removed).

7d  Greeting that agents love? (4)
{CIAO} – a charade of CIA (agents) and O (love) produces this Italian term for a greeting which is derived from schiavo, meaning “(I am your) slave”.

8d  Goes down with developers (8 )
{FOUNDERS} – double definition – goes down as a ship may do when it hits the rocks, and people who establish or develop an institution or organisation.

12d  Hamper from head of department is benefit (12)
{DISADVANTAGE} – a verb meaning to hamper is constructed from D (head, i.e. first letter, of Department), IS and ADVANTAGE (benefit).

14d  Appropriate views may be reported (5)
{SEIZE} – a verb meaning to appropriate or take possession of is also a sound-alike (may be reported) of sees (views).

16d  Pay to extract information about cause of inflation (4-4)
{FOOT-PUMP} – a charade of FOOT (pay, as in foot the bill) and PUMP (extract information) is a tool for inflating your tyres.

17d  Country mostly found in Greek body of water? (8 )
{ATLANTIC} – put LANd (most of country) inside ATTIC (an old Greek dialect) to get this large body of water.

19d  Variable income in our island on the up – that’s appropriate (8 )
{BECOMING} – our island is GB – reverse it (on the up) and include inside an anagram (variable) of INCOME to get an adjective meaning appropriate or fitting.

22d  Deals in surprises (6)
{TREATS} – double definition – a verb meaning negotiates (deals) is also a noun meaning pleasant surprises.

24d  Feeling nauseous, no question, but relaxed (4)
{EASY} – feeling nauseous is QUEASY – take off the first two letters (no question) to leave an adjective meaning relaxed.

25d  Symbol from fashionable company adopted (4)
{ICON} – a word meaning symbol is constructed from IN (fashionable) with CO (company) inside (adopted).

There are a number of clues with nice surface readings, and amongst them I like 27a, 2d, 6d, 19d and 24d, but my clue of the day is 15a. What do you think? – all comments are welcome!