DT 26244

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26244

Hints and tips by Big Dave

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

Another enjoyable puzzle from Jay. I particularly liked 12 across.

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Across

1a    Study on prisoner’s moral scruples (10)
{CONSCIENCE} – a subject of study is preceded by (it’s that “on” in an across clue again) the ubiquitous prisoner gives moral scruples

6a    Gangway has top bit missing — land in water! (4)
{ISLE} – remove the initial letter (top bit missing) from a gangway, in a church or cinema perhaps, to get a piece of land surrounded by water

9a    Forbidding right to wear gun (5)
{STERN} – a word meaning forbidding or harsh is created by putting R(ight) inside (to wear) a small lightweight submachine-gun

10a    Miss tour representative — one in uniform? (4,5)
{GIRL GUIDE} – charade of a young miss and a tour representative gives a young miss in uniform

12a    The advantage of living on the edge? (6,7)
{FRINGE BENEFIT} – something in addition to wages or salary that forms part of the regular remuneration from one’s employment is built up from an edge and an advantage

14a    One’s distressed by nerve of attack ships (8)
{GALLEONS} – place an anagram (distressed) of ONE’S after (by) nerve or cheek to get these old-fashioned warships

15a    Person forking out to cover traitor’s final appeal (6)
{PRAYER} – put the person forking out around (to cover) R (traitoR‘s final) to get an appeal or entreaty

17a    The expenditure needed to expose non-professional (6)
{OUTLAY} – the expenditure, perhaps made by the person forking out in the previous clue, is a charade of to expose, as in to make public any facts about a person that he or she does not wish to be revealed, and non-professional, particularly used for unpaid church preachers

19a    Most prominent newspaper that’s mislaid outside (8)
{LOFTIEST} –a word meaning most prominent or highest is constructed from a financial newspaper and the abbreviation for that’s (that is / id est) inside a synonym for mislaid

21a    Head into hotel in order to get something to eat (4-2-3-4)
{TOAD-IN-THE-HOLE} – an anagram (in order) of HEAD INTO HOTEL gives a dish consisting of sausages baked in batter (something to eat)

24a    Apprentice’s agreement produced one new plate (9)
{INDENTURE} – the agreement entered into by an apprentice is a charade of I (one), N(ew) and a removable plate holding one or more artificial teeth

25a    Look around the back of larder and eat (5)
{GRAZE} – put a word meaning to look steadily and intently around R (back of lardeR) and you get a word meaning to eat, typically what farm animals do

26a    Here, El Greco returned full of joy (4)
{GLEE} – hidden and reversed (returned) inside the first three words is a word meaning joy – “full of” may be the concealment indicator here, or the definition may be “full of joy”; either way it doesn’t quite seem to work

27a    Insects’ reported smell prevents male going (10)
{CENTIPEDES} –to get these creatures with numerous legs start with a word that sounds like (reported) a smell or odour and add a word meaning prevents, after removing the M (Male going)

Down

1d           Client’s initial request for a barrel (4)
{CASK} – combine C (Client’s initial) with a request to get a barrel

2d           Wanting massage, say, left after four, forgetting regulars (7)
{NEEDFUL} – the definition is wanting and it comprises a homophone (say) of to massage followed by the odd letters (forgetting regulars) of FoUr and L(eft)

3d           Thought given to argument against team allowance (13)
{CONSIDERATION} – this thought is a charade of an argument against something, a team and an allowance

4d           Attractive engineer getting on (8)
{ENGAGING} – a word meaning attractive is comprised of an ENGineer and getting on, as in getting older

5d           Caught a kid — what language! (5)
{CARIB} – run together C(aught), A and a verb meaning to kid to get this language used by  Native Americans inhabiting parts of Central America and northern S America

7d           The sort of cooking found in prison? (4-3)
{STIR-FRY} – a cryptic definition of a style of cooking quickly in a wok

8d           One’s responsibility to pick members (10)
{ELECTORATE} – those responsible for voting for a Parliament – such a lot of rubbish has been written about this, but I still don’t know how you vote for a hung parliament!

11d         A one parent gig suffers this, perhaps (10,3)
{GENERATION GAP} – an anagram (suffers)  of A ONE PARENT GIG gives a lack of communication and understanding between old and young

13d         A fine night represented a favourable set of circumstances (1,4,5)
{A GOOD THING} – A with a synonym for fine and an anagram (represented) of NIGHT give a favourable set of circumstances – at first glance represented doesn’t look like an anagram indicator, but think of it as re-presented

16d         He is trapped by company lease — that’s logical (8)
{COHERENT} – sandwich HE between a company and a lease to get a word meaning logical

18d         Toddlers begin to walk like ducks? Nonsense (7)
{TWADDLE} – combine T (Toddlers begin) with a word meaning  to walk like ducks to get nonsense

20d         Green’s leader worried about source of material (7)
{EMERALD} – this green colour associated with Ireland comes from an anagram (worried) of LEADER around M (source of Material)

22d         Short uprising followed by ultimately fragile ceasefire (5)
{TRUCE} – a word meaning short or terse is reversed (uprising, as this is a down clue) and followed by E (ultimately fragilE) gives a ceasefire

23d         Bits of garden furniture? (4)
{BEDS} – a double definition – just split the clue as bits of a garden and furniture

That’s all for today, see you tomorrow.