Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26707
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
As usual from Giovanni we have ultra-smooth clues and very precise wordplay. This one should be within everyone’s compass. Let us know how you got on with it.
Crypticsue’s unable to give her usual Toughie tip in a comment this morning because she’s gone to the pub (yes, I know it’s a bit early, but they’re like that in Kent!) so she’s asked me to pass on the information that people shouldn’t be put off by the fact that it’s Friday and Osmosis as it is very do-able and great fun too.
Across Clues
1a A right angry tirade, out-and-out (6)
{ARRANT} – an adjective meaning out-and-out or complete, often applied to nonsense, comes from A, R(ight) and a tirade.
5a A roguish one about to become lawless (8)
{ANARCHIC} – the definition is lawless. String together an indefinite article (A), an adjective meaning roguish, I (one) and an abbreviation for about.
9a Oxford college’s rustic porch is vandalised (6,7)
{CORPUS CHRISTI} – the name of an Oxford college is an anagram (vandalised) of RUSTIC PORCH IS.
10a Disallow sin in botanical body (8)
{OVERRULE} – insert a verb meaning to do wrong or sin into the body that contains the egg cell in flowering plants to make a verb meaning to disallow or quash.
11a Delicate period needing brief international intervention (6)
{DAINTY} – an adjective meaning delicate or petite is formed from a period of time with an abbreviation for international inside (intervention).
12a Woman at match admits ‘Good game!’ (6)
{BRIDGE} – the main female participant in a wedding ceremony (match) has G(ood) inserted (admits) to make a card game.
14a Bag a group of people for event on sports day (4,4)
{SACK RACE} – a charade of a large bag and a group of people of the same ethnic group produces a traditional event on sports day.
16a More than one accolade attempts to stifle objection (8)
{TRIBUTES} – put a synonym for attempts around (to stifle) an objection.
19a Enthusiasm in a party given by ancient city entertaining king (6)
{ARDOUR} – this word means enthusiasm or fervour. String together A, a party or social event and the usual old Biblical city, then insert (entertaining) one of the single-character abbreviations for king.
21a Spots food in military refectory (no starter provided) (6)
{ESPIES} – put an item of food contained in pastry inside a military refectory without its leading M (no starter provided).
23a Take away a bishop’s religious pamphlet (8)
{ABSTRACT} – we have a bit of an old chestnut here. This verb to take away is a charade of A, the abbreviation for a bishop in chess (and its ‘S) and a religious pamphlet.
25a A root infested badly? It leads to many a tree being destroyed (13)
{DEFORESTATION} – an excellent anagram (badly) of A ROOT INFESTED.
26a With kindness, offer to meet learner before end of day (8)
{TENDERLY} – string together an offer or bid, the abbreviation displayed by a learner driver and the last letter (end) of (da)Y.
27a Emma is one English maiden stabling horse (6)
{EPONYM} – Emma is Jane Austen’s interfering heroine in the novel of the same name, so is an example (is one) of a character providing the title of a work. Put E(nglish) and M(aiden) around (stabling) a small horse.
Down Clues
2d Get better engineers on top of roof? (7)
{RECOVER} – a verb meaning to get better after an illness is constructed from the abbreviation for the Royal Engineers followed by (on top of, in a down clue) what a roof is an example of.
3d One for ventilating anger in middle of Carmarthen (5)
{AIRER} – the definition is one (used) for ventilating. Put a synonym for anger between the middle two letters of Carmarthen.
4d Defiant leader of union advanced after brief upset (9)
{TRUCULENT} – this adjective means aggressively defiant. Leader of union is the letter U – follow this with a verb meaning advanced money then put all that after a reversal (upset, in a down clue) of an adjective meaning brief or terse.
5d Walkers heading off may be country folk (7)
{ARCHERS} – remove the initial M (heading off) from walkers to leave the name of the dynasty of country folk whose everyday story has been running on radio for over 60 years.
6d Outside it’s barren, inside it’s cold, bitter (5)
{ACRID} – an adjective meaning bitter or pungent is a synonym for barren or lifeless with C(old) inside.
7d Money I had to pocket before being given the push (9)
{CASHIERED} – a description of someone given the push, normally in disgrace, from the armed services comes from combining ready money and the contracted form of ‘I had’ with a literary synonym for before inside it (to pocket).
8d One little lady in charge of keeping the books is brainless (7)
{IDIOTIC} – build an adjective meaning brainless from the Roman numeral for one, an abbreviated female name (little lady, referring perhaps to how the late Princess of Wales was known as ‘Lady **’ before her marriage) and the abbreviation for in charge, with the older part of the Bible (books) inside (keeping).
13d Pumped for information, being exposed down below maybe?! (9)
{DEBRIEFED} – double definition, the second a cryptic description of someone who’s lost their nether garments. Giovanni obviously likes this one because he’s given it an exclamation mark!
15d Girl sitting on rug in church is someone you’re at school with (9)
{CLASSMATE} – a girl precedes (sitting on, in a down clue) a rug and all that goes inside the abbreviation for the Church of England.
17d What’s left I’d reuse in a different way (7)
{RESIDUE} – an anagram (in a different way) of I’D REUSE.
18d Chess player to disappear into the blue (7)
{SPASSKY} – the name of the world chess champion from 1969 to 1972, when he lost the title to Bobby Fischer, is constructed from a verb to disappear or slip away inside what “the blue” is a poetic term for.
20d Weird upper-class grandma enthralling children at the outset (7)
{UNCANNY} – the letter used as an abbreviation for upper-class is followed by what a child may call its grandma with the first (at the outset) letter of C(hildren) inside (enthralling).
22d Characters from Lahore rose up, feeling more aggrieved (5)
{SORER} – hidden (characters from) and reversed (up) in the clue is a comparative meaning more aggrieved.
24d Beast in river almost squashing duck (5)
{RHINO} – most of (almost) the great river of Germany lies on top of (squashing, in a down clue) the letter symbolising a duck in cricket.
My favourite clues today were 25a, 27a and 5d. Are yours the same or different?
Today’s Quickie Pun: {SHAKES} + {PIER} = {SHAKESPEARE}
Yes, very smooth clues etc but sadly over far too soon. This was the quickest solve I can recall on a Fiday. Thanks to G & G.
Friday.
Sorry, had to put this in as I’m the only one so far not to reply to their own post
Again?
but don’t think you are
Good morning Mary, how are you today?
good afternoon here collywobs I am ok thanks just about to head out in this dismal weather to my ‘beginners’ art class, did you notice my home town is mentioned in 3d? I might have mentioned it! :-), hope the weather is nicer where you are
It’s a bit grey but not raining. Our winters are much the same as yours without the snow, generally. I havn’t got 3d yet, I’m still working on it but I am enjoying the puzzle as Gazza predicted
Thanks to Giovanni for a pleasant puzzle to finish my week in the office, and to gazza for the notes.
Toughie number 666 was not as much of a beast as it could have been, and is enjoyable too.
But it does have part of your palindrome from yesterday!
Thank you so much for the accompanying picture for 13d. Quite made my day,
Gazza: 13d – should you not consider the potential for cardiac arrest in the older gentleman by publishing such a photo?! Cheers up a gloomy day.
Smooth progress today. Happily, Lady L, being better informed than me, was aware of the word being sought in 27a. There may have been a delay otherwise. Thanks to G and G.
A nice easy one for me but enjoyable nevertheless. The anagrams seemed to leap off the page today. Thanks to Gazza for the review.
Good morning Gazza, another wet day here in CARMARTHEN, yes, imagine my home town being in the daily Telegraph cryptic
, so I have to say 3d was my all time favourite clue! Really enjoyed this one today and not just because I could do it, the readings and ‘instructions’ in most of the clues made sense and so clues were solvable, even if you have never heard of places like ‘Carmarthen’ 
lots of other fav clues today include: 12a,15a,21a, 25a, 6d and 8d, thanks for hints Gazza although I didn’t need them today and thank you Giovanni for mentioning , dare I say it again, Carmarthen 
Oh forgot to say, I still needed a little help from ‘my friends’
Also forgot to say had 18d wrong and had put Starsky! I seem to remember Starsky in ‘Starsky and Hutch’ playing a lot of chess??? anyone else???
We must have been writing at the same time. You liked 3d and I didn’t — but I did think of Starsky for a moment, then looked at Chambers. It’s cold and grey here too, but have a good day anyway.
Hi Franny I only liked it because it is where I live
Off to art class soon, to gaze in wonder at what these other so called ‘beginners’ are doing!! hope your day is good 
The only thing worse than a cold, wet grey day is a cold, wet, windy grey day, which we have in Carmarthen:-)
Remember Starsky and Hutch very well – really enjoyed it at the time but, if there is ever an old episode being shown, it seems very dated now – a bit like “The Professionals” which I also loved (mainly because of Martin Shaw!!) Have to say I don’t remember S and H playing chess but perhaps I was distracted by other things!
Can’t imagine what Kath
Totally with you there Kath and I must say still like watching Martin Shaw. Didn’t fall in to the Starsky trap as remembered the Russian losing but kept trying to spell it with one s – oh well.
We always watch anything with Martin Shaw in it. Have heard him interviewed several times – he sounds SO lovely.
After a slowish start I also sailed through this quite smoothly, largely due to the excellent anagrams at 9 and 25a. Enjoyed it very much. Many thanks for your explanations, Gazza, which helped me to understand the workings of 4d. I thought there were lots of good clues, with the exception of 3d which I didn’t like much. I liked 14a, and hope the Elfin Safety hasn’t put a stop to it, but my favourites were 21a and 13d.
Happy 11.11.11 everyone! And thanks to G&G.
I thought this was quite easy too – specially for a Friday. No need for hints today – had already correctly spotted the clue (perhaps I should say the answer) with the greatest scope for illustration!
16a took a while – I always forget about “but” being quite a common “objection”. I liked 9, 12, 25 and 27a and 5, 15 and 24d. With thanks to Giovanni and Gazza.
What a super puzzle, right back up to Giovannis high standard. Thank you Sir. Best clue for me was 13d, made me smile. Mrs B says thx for inc her favourite soap, 5d.
Very enjoyable if a little hurried today (managed to get the car stuck in the garage! Bloody hatchbacks that don’t close when asked). Must say that I think Giovanni is one of my favourite compilers, never too easy, never to hard, but always fun. Guess 13D was my favourite, but that could be the public school upbringing.
I am humbled that I only went to a grammar school
me too
How modest of you to say so.
Gazza, how do we justify the S in 23a?
It’s in the clue (‘S).
Tks
Much easier but enjoyable fare from The Don today!
Faves : 5a, 9a, 12a, 21a, 27a, 4d, 7d, 13d, 18d & 24d.
I think The Don was tempting you, Gazza, with 13d and he certainly succeeded!
I’m easily tempted
First one I’ve done this week and thoroughly enjoyed it. Started it with coffee after the gym but had to put it aside and only just got back to it. Kept trying to put nana in for 20d and couldn’t get it to work. Also thought the chess player only had one “s” so had to guess at it as the clue meant for the two then checked to see if I was right. I didn’t like 5d as it didn’t make sense to me but then I never have listened to it.
All in all a very good Friday puzzle – thank you Giovanni and Gazza I would imagine the heart rate of all the men increased dramatically when they saw your 13d picture!!!
Mary – hope you enjoyed your beginner’s art class – which medium are you doing? I recently added a one-brush painting class on the style of Donna Dewberry using acrylics and really enjoyed it – not easy to master but fun. Do know what you mean about other beginners – they are often not beginners….
It’s supposed to be a beginners class in water based oils Lea, now not having painted in any medium before to have the so called beginners turning out masterpieces each week is somewhat daunting!
Gazza, I don’t understand the middle bit of 5a, could you explain it?
It’s AN (a) + ARCH (roguish) + I (one) + C (circa, about).
I would have thought you would have got that one – its been in lots of crosswords lately. in addition to roguish, it means cunning, waggish, and mischievous. The latter two definitions could apply to Gazza who, when forwarding my toughie tip, didn’t mention the fact that I was going for a long walk before arriving at the pub at 1 pm
No, I havn’t seen it before. I was reading it as ‘a+narch+i+c’ and I couldn’t explain the ‘n’
Not my quickest ever solving time but very close too it. Probably because I was at home and Mr CS was nattering in the background. Thank you Giovanni for a very nice start to my day off – if you could have sorted the weather as nicely that would have helped. Thick mist and very chilly damp here. Thanks to Gazza for the hints too although I do think the pic for 13d is a bit too demonstrative of the solution.
Took me a while, but enjoyable. The crosswords haven’t necessarily followed the trend of getting more difficult towards the weekend this week, have they?
Finished and enjoyed it. I can normally finish 2* but I did struggle on some clues. Once again, thanks for your hints Gazza, without which I would not have finished and thanks to the setter for an enjoyable crossword
A pretty splendid crossword so my thanks to the Don.
Think my favourite was my last one in – 5a, very clever clue IMHO with a great surface reading!
Also thanks to Gazza for the review and the gratuitous picture – keep them coming and I’ll risk the cardiac arrest!
I don’t suppose anyone can give me a hint please for 5d in the Toughie? I don’t normally do it, but had a bash today and am just left with that one. Sorry, I know I’m not supposed to mention it here, but there’s been no review posted yet.
A word meaning prune or cut inside an abbreviation meaning lastest (think odds on the race course) followed by a word meaning trouble. It gives the name of an item a patient might need if having eaten too many prunes.
Thank you – got it now. I’d figured it all out except for the “latest” bit. Still not convinced that the abbr really means latest, but hey, I’m a stranger in these parts! Thanks again.
Rhymes with flop sail, a kind of bucket.
Thanks – see above.
Re: illustrations – 24d is much more attractive that 13d.
I totally agree Nora!
I found to-day’s probably the easiest of the week – is that normal?? Started off just filling them in in 10 mins before having to go out – stalled a tad over lunch but then finished with little problem – except, WHY did it take me SO long to get 5d????? (Must be becos I don’t listen to it either – that’s my excuse, anyway.) Very enjoyable – thanks to Giovanni and Gazza for the hints, which I needed to just explain a couple even though I’d got them (5a and 4d).
Wow! Love the denim in the above picture. More please. I found today’s challenge really good and it presented few problems. I liked 27a which was incidentally the last one I got. 18d was nice. The only problem with today’s puzzle was the fact that most of the commute was spent reading about the financial crisis as the crossword was done. Roll on 26,708. Am enjoying a nice glass of wine.
Let’s hear it for the rhino. What a magnificent beast!
Thanks two the two G’s. A super puzzle, favourite was 18 down, made better because the was a chess playing computer called Deep Blue which beat Kasparov .
Finally caught up with this one. Nice puzzle from Giovanni – easy to get into, and progress was fun and steady.
18d was the only one I couldn’t get – never heard of him – Short, Karpov, Kasparov and Fischer yes, but not that guy.
I’d say 13d was my favourite clue!
Thanks to the 2 G’s!