ST 2495 – Hints

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2495 – Hints

Selected hints by Big Dave

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

This is a crossword for those who love crosswords.  Comparitively easy, so it should be within the reach of most solvers, it has some excellent clues.  I have given hints for those which I think will cause the most problems.

At the bottom of the post you will see an array of five stars – use these to give your assessment of the puzzle.  Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between.

For the weekend prize crosswords I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.  A full analysis of this puzzle will be available at 12.00 next Friday, 7th August.

Across

1a Entrepreneur I stone (10)
This entrepreneur is derived from another word for uppercase “I” followed by the abbreviation for stone – at first I thought there was something missing from this clue until I realised that the “I” provides 80% of the answer!

9a Maneater producing irritation between partners (5)
Those of you unfamiliar with crosswordese might like to know that North and South are bridge partners, as are East and West

14a One may help police in area, in a last resort (8)
To get this animal which helps the police you need to resort A(rea) IN A LAST

15a Who, for example, is to cook? (6)

25a Inspection that’s repeated, we hear, for European bank draft (5)
This synonym for an inspection has two homophones (words that sound the same but are spelt differently)

27a Lively dance disheartened Moses, in part (10)
This lively dance of the twenties is revealed after you have removed the centre (disheartened) from the name of the actor who played the part of Moses in the Ten Commandments

Down
1d Weapon used in Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, originally (4)
Here originally tells us that this weapon comes from the initial letters of Casebook Of Sherlock Holmes

3d Manipulative type who could make tune go wrong? It’s hard to say (6-7)

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked;
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

That’s pretty hard to say!

4d Navigational guide read, lost at sea (8)
This navigational aid formerly used by sailors, also known as Polaris, the Pole Star or the North Star, is an anagram of READ LOST with “at sea” as a very appropriate anagram indicator

11d Man promises to pay corrupt cleric, in situation going from bad to worse (7,6)
It may not look like it, but this is a charade of a man’s name and those bits of paper on which people write promises to pay followed by an anagram (corrupt) of cleric

18d Composer going into past without fear (7)
Insert the composer of Bolero inside by (past) and you get an adverb meaning without fear

It was difficult to choose for which clues to provide hints as this is such a well-crafted puzzle.  If you need further help then leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do.