ST 2520 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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ST 2520

by petebiddlecombe  

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2520

A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe

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

Sorry for the delay – I got engrossed in the tennis and then forgot about my blogging duties until a lunch at the local Italian, so this comes to you through a gradually diminishing haze of Pinot Grigio and Amaretto.

Across
1 Rejected, we hear? It’s all over (10)
THROUGHOUT = “threw out”
6 Having little time off, that is — it used to be one day a month (4)
IDES – “id est” less T = time. “id est”, Latin for “that is”, is what i.e. stands for. The def relates to the Roman calendar, where the ides was a mid-month day.
9 After pressure, very quiet, without energy, needing medicine? Take this! (3,4)
PEP PILL – P=pressure,E=energy,PP=pianissimo = v. quiet,ILL=needing medicine
10 Dog that hunts pests, including large snake (7)
RATTLER= – L=large, in RATTER = dog that hunts pests
12 Change of trees into a wasteland, ultimately? (13)
DEFORESTATION = anag of (of trees into a, D=”wasteland ultimately”) – an &lit/all-in-one
14 Unsatisfied with article from EU country (6)
HUNGRY = Hungary – a = article (a being the “indefinite article”)
15 Unbalanced, indeed — so crazy (3-5)
ONE-SIDED – anag. of “indeed so”
17 State of Australia when obsession follows start of Test (8)
TASMANIA – T=”start of Test”,AS=when,MANIA=obsession
19 Land intended for public use, as usual (6)
COMMON – 2 defs
22 Insect ruining Mary’s painting (7,6)
PRAYING MANTIS = anag. of “Mary’s painting” – regular readers will remember what I’ve said about arbitrary names and anagram fodder.
24 Sales pitch, perhaps, introducing new model (7)
PATTERN – PATTER = “Sales pitch, perhaps”,N=new
25 Harmless medicine to identify a couple of blood groups (7)
PLACEBO – PLACE=identify,(B,O)=”a couple of blood groups”. Place=identify is as in “I can’tplace him” when shown a portrait you don’t recognise
26 Small animal in enclosure, last in weight (4)
RUNT – RUN=enclosure,T
27 Musical director also featured in British editorial (10)
BANDLEADER – AND=also, in (B = British, LEADER = editorial)
Down
1 Inaccuracy in document held by security police (4)
TYPO – hidden word
2 Persuaded to join exercise class held by sculptor (5,2)
ROPED IN – P.E. = “exercise class”, in RODIN=sculptor
3 Foreign article in presentation I have is not enlightening (13)
UNINFORMATIVE – UN=”Foreign article” (that kind of article again),IN,FORMAT=presentation,I’VE=”I have”
4 Legal term used to name male or female (6)
HILARY – a legal term (term as in school term), and a name for a man or woman
5 Applying leverage after union’s first act of defiance (8)
UPRINSING – U=”union’s first”,PRISING=applying leverage
7 Daughter married — wasn’t in a hurry (7)
DALLIED – D=daughter,ALLIED=married – by the meaning illustrated in ODE by “in the seventeenth century, science was still married to religion”
8 Playing in attempt to win hand (10)
SERENADING – cryptic def – to serenade someone is to sing or play to them in the hope of attracting their love. Here’s an unsuccessful operatic example – the would-be serenader is the one with the lute.
11 Where traveller can get basic fare, by the way (9,4)
TRANSPORT CAFE – cryptic def – I waited for 27 to confirm whether it was a CAFE or CAFF
13 Pure rubbish ruler included in policy document (5,5)
WHITE PAPER – WHITE=pure,PAP=rubbish,E.R.=her maj=ruler
16 Raving mad, one’s twice put inside in this state (8)
VIRGINIA – two ones in anag. of raving
18 Paintings within period noted for austerity (7)
SPARTAN – ART=paintings, in SPAN=period
20 Wrongly judge sidearm out of order (7)
MISREAD – anag. of sidearm
21 Placed limit on being selected for team (6)
CAPPED – 2 defs, one about international sport
23 Wild animal repeatedly said to be a bother in South Africa? (4)
BOAR = both “boor” and “boer” – though you can debate whether the “bother” applies to one or both – if the latter, “boer” is enough on its own and “repeatedly” could just be seen as relating to the fact that there were two Boer wars. Except that I’ve misheard this and invented my own explanation(s) – see BG’s comment below

8 comments on “ST 2520”

  2. Some very enjoyable clues which I had not looked at before this evening.

    Peter you mean HUNGRY as the answer to 14A.

  3. Peter

    Brian Greer left the following explanation last Sunday:

    “The intented reading for 23D is a two-word phrase meaning a bothersome person from South Africa, each word of which is a homophone for the answer (hence “repeatedly”)”

    1. One of those slightly dodgy homophones, though. BOOR and BOER are OK (their etymologies are the same too, which helps) but BOAR is a bit different. For the first two my dictionary shows a “oo” sound, while BOAR has “ö” as in BORE.

  4. I never intended “boor” to enter the picture. The pertinent phrase is “Boer bore”. According to my online Oxford dictionary, the pronunciations of “bore” and “boar” are identical, and the same as one of the accepted pronunciations of “Boer”.

    Being Irish, I could never understand people for whom “cheetah” and “cheater” sound the same. Also, for me, “for” sounds quite different from “four” or “fore” though many English people have assured me that they sound the same.

    A timely reminder to be careful with this sort of clue!

    1. Hi Brian

      Seeing as I’m the only one who’s mentioned it it’s pretty safe to say it hasn’t ruffled feathers – certainly not enough to elicit comment. But you’re right about the effects of differences in regional pronunciation; taking all of the varieties into account, it could probably be argued that no two words sound exactly the same.

      I’d like to bet that, for some, even the homophone at 17a in today’s Indie doesn’t quite work.

  5. Just catching up with this one—enjoyed it v much though I did need just a little help with the clues.

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