DT 26726

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26726

A full review by Crypticsue

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

 

Just doing Gnomey a last minute favour as he was kept on site until very late  on Thursday evening and hadn’t even started this blog.   Lucky for him, and you, I can type fast.    I found this Saturday Mysteron puzzle quite tricky on the day, but having just had to solve it again to sort out the hints for the blog, can see that it wasn’t just me being tired, it was a tricky one.

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.

Across

1a           How Red Arrows fly – low-down (11)
INFORMATION –   The Red Arrows fly IN FORMATION –  remove the space to get another way of saying low-down in the sense of  confidential INFORMATION .

10a         Veteran man fighting endlessly (5)
OLDIE –  An informal term for an old person is obtained by removing  the first and last letters (endlessly) of SOLDIER (man fighting).

11a         Cleese top comic in shower of stars (11)
TELESCOPE – please tell me I wasn’t the only person to drift off into the world of astronomy!   It isn’t a shower (pronounced OW) but a shower (Oh) of stars and other distant objects, the telescope.   The anagram indicator comic indicates the need to rearrange CLEESE TOP.

12a         Get beating being reckless in affair (9)
THRASHING –  Insert RASH or reckless into THING (affair) to get another term for a beating.

13a         Domain of actual money (5)
REALM – A synonym for domain –  REAL (actual) plus M (money).

14a         Two party leaders arrested (6)
NICKED –  The Leader of the Liberal Democrats – NICK (Clegg) , and the Leader  of the Labour Party ED (Milliband),   merge together to get an informal way of saying arrested.

16a         Piece of information about tool returned for renovation process (8)
FACELIFT –   This renovation process is undertaken by people dissatisfied with their looks.   Insert a reversal of FILE (tool returned) into FACT (piece of information).

18a         Harmonic apparent on single (8)
OVERTONE –  OVERT (apparent, clear) plus ONE (single) go together to make a musical term meaning a harmonic.

20a         Unpleasant time in gold trade (6)
ORDEAL  – a charade of OR (gold) and DEAL (trade)

23a         Bulb working with charge carrier (5)
ONION – This bulb is a member of the allium family –  ON (working, not off) and ION (an electrically-charged particle).   

24a         It may be pulled running around top of Main Street (9)
HAMSTRING – this tendon is often pulled by athletes, footballers and the like.   Insert M (main) and ST (street) into HARING (running around).

26a         Weed that’s rampant under logs (9)
GROUNDSEL – a common weed is an anagram (rampant) of UNDER LOGS.

27a         See trailers – perhaps with these (5)
LOADS –   Trailers on tractors or lorries carry loads –   LO (see) and ADS (trailers are those adverts you see in the cinema).

28a         Harry kept me working in very big shop (11)
HYPERMARKET – a very large shopping venue is derived from an anagram (working) of HARRY KEPT ME.

Down

2d           From Orion a direction opposite the zenith (5)
NADIR – the point of the heavens diametrically opposite the zenith is hidden in OrioN A DIRection.

3d           Supervise some poetry in Old English (7)
OVERSEE – a  synonym for supervise  insert VERSE (some poetry) into O (Old) and E (English).

4d           SF movie in original art mix (6)
MATRIX   –  Son no 2 was a fan of this science fiction  movie (and its sequels) – an anagram (original) of ART MIX.

5d           Mrs Simpson allowed to set up message (8)
TELEGRAM  – don’t think people send these messages any more, Big Dave apparently remembers when they were delivered by boys on bicycles!!  –   reverse(set up ) MARGE (Mrs Homer Simpson) and LET (allowed to).

6d           Watch start of tennis game following outside broadcast (7)
OBSERVE –  A synonym for watch  – OB (the abbreviation for outside broadcast) and SERVE (a tennis game starts by one player serving the ball to another.

7d           Fixed seat with unsound piece of wood having got men in (6,7)
ROTTEN BOROUGH  – a seat in Parliament where the choice of MP was in the hands of one person or family (ie fixed)  – ROTTEN (unsound or inferior) and BOUGH (piece of wood), the latter having OR (ordinary ranks – soldiers described as men not officers) inserted.

8d           To have casual affairs outside Middle Eastern country is sensible (8)
WOMANISE – Men who have casual affairs are said to do this –   the Middle Eastern country of OMAN is inserted into WISE (sensible).

9d           Make up glamorised tot – one may improve complexion (13)
DERMATOLOGIST –  an anagram (make up) of GLAMORISED TOT produces some who specialises in skin and so might well improve your complexion.

15d         Reputation applied to Devon town (8)
CREDITON  –   CREDIT (reputation) and ON (applied to) makes a town in Devon of which the non-geographically inclined Gnomey was unaware, but luckily for you, I was!!

17d         Ace involved with shunt, not being restrained (8)
UNCHASTE – An anagram (involved) of ACE and SHUNT – I will leave it to you to work out how someone unchaste might be unrestrained!

19d         Note French city’s occupation at a price (7)
TENANCY – Occupation of a property by paying a price or rent –   TE (a musical note) and NANCY (French city).

21d         Venomous creature hunting dog round lake (7)
RATTLER  – An informal term for that venomous creature, the rattlesnake –   a RATTER (a dog that hunts rats) with L for lake inserted (round lake).

22d         Device to bind up hay without a motor initially (6)
EMBLEM – the one that held me up most on Saturday, and thanks to a merry Prolixic for helping me out when I couldn’t remember the answer in my haste to get this typed.   EMB[A] LE  or bale up hay, with the A removed (without A) and M (motor initially).

25d         Cross sea-dog losing head (5)
IRATE – a nice easy one to finish with.   Remove the P from the start of PIRATE (sea dog) and you are left with a word meaning cross.

Gnomey is very lucky that instead of going straight for an early night with my new library book, I decided to have one last check of my emails.   He has promised me a very large pint.    Do come back at midday to see my more carefully considered review of last Sunday’s puzzle.    I will be back on Saturday afternoon too!!