DT 26870

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26870

A full review by gnomethang

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

Morning All! A double dose of me this week due to the changing closing dates at Telegraph Towers. This was the usual fun puzzle from Cephas. Looking back on it there were an awful lot of charades but I never mind them from Cephas.

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Across

6a           Forger seen in bar, assembling it free (13)
COUNTERFEITER – A forger of banknotes, for example, is found by taking COUNTER (a bar) and adding an anagram (assembling) of IT FREE

8a           The lady’s sphere mostly is found in aromatic plants (6)
HERBAL – A HER for ‘the lady’s’ followed by most of BALl (sphere) to give an aromatic plant

9a           Getting back, help clan in onslaught (8)
DIATRIBE – Reverse AID then add TRIBE for clan. The result is a verbal onslaught.

10a         Member in European Union being unable to take flight (3)
EMU – The flightless antipodean bird is found by placing M for Member inside the EU, European Union.

11a         Two possibilities for batsman making attack (3,3)
HIT OUT – To attack someone. A batsman may either HIT the ball or be OUT.

12a         Win takeaway? (5,3)
CARRY OFF – Two definitions. To win as in carry off a coup for example and also to take something away.

14a         Sustain record arrears (7)
BACKLOG – A charade of BACK (sustain) and LOG (a record) gives arrears in the sense of work outstanding.

16a         Restore your old well (7)
HEALTHY – Another charade, this time of HEAL (restore) and THY (your in an archaic style).

20a         Stored porridge maintained pulse (4,4)
KEPT TIME – Three in a row!. KEPT (stored) and TIME (Stir, porridge or gaol) gives a phrase meaning ‘maintained beat’ musically.

23a         Boy gets around to returning soup (6)
POTAGE – An originally French word for soup. Place PAGE (a serving boy) around the reversal (returning) of TO

24a         Little girl’s confident but not right (3)
SUE – Remove the R (not right) from SURE to get a diminutive of Susannah (little girl) like our own Cryptic one!.

25a         Idiot takes two different drugs (8)
CRACKPOT – Simply clue. Two drugs run together makes Idiot or half-baked.

26a         Swiss Cottage? (6)
CHALET – A not so cryptic definition of a Swiss holiday home. The cryptic part refers to the area in North West London

27a         New start in life requires restraint before growth (13)
REINCARNATION – Place a REIN (restraint) before CARNATION (a flower or growth) to get a rebirth or new start in life.

Down

 

1d           Screen star’s apartments? (8)
SUNBLOCK – One of my last ones in. One must ‘Lift and Separate’ the definition, screen, from a phrase that is easy to pass over taking it as one. So we have SUN for star then BLOCK for apartments.

2d           Heel tilts toe out of place (8)
Stiletto – The pointy heels mostly worn by women. Make an anagram (out of place) of TILTS TOE.

3d           Yield for Mussolini? (7)
PRODUCE – Start foth PRO (for) and then add DUCE, Il Duce (the leader) was the sobriquet given to Benito Mussolini after Der Fuhrer.

4d           Overhaul salesman’s appearance (6)
REPAIR – Take REP (salesman) and AIR (Apperance) to make an ‘overhaul’.

5d           Large number taken in by tale, getting wild (6)
STORMY – M for 1000 in Roman Numerals placed inside STORY (tale) gives you some Wild and Windy Weather.

6d           Mistake in the parish records? (8,5)
CLERICAL ERROR – A nice clue! Mistakes in the parish records might be made by a Cleric. Hence CLERICAL ERROR (with the question mark to indicate the whimsy).

7d           Eccentrically beg her fortune for luck (3,2,3,5)
RUB OF THE GREEN – Make an anagram (eccentrically) of BEG HER FORTUNE. This leads to the type of luck seen on a golf course wherein, for example, a friendly crow picks your ball up and drops it closer to the hole.

13d         River, one with a drowned valley (3)
RIA – I got this quite quickly due to my sporting breaks in Spain and Portugal (see previous clue!). A charade of R(iver) I for ‘one’ and A. A RIA is a valley between hills/mountains that has been taken over by floodwater.

15d         Great number who fled wicked city (3)
LOT – LOT fled Sodom and Gomorrah according to the Bible and the word also means a great number.

17d         Remarkable sixth sense Alice misconstrued (8)
ESPECIAL – Remarkable or notable. Start with ESP (the abbreviation for Extra Sensory Perception, sixth sense) and then add an anagram (misconstrued) of Alice.

18d         Seducer finding harlot dancing before ten (8)
LOTHARIO – A rake or seducer. A dancing anagram of HARLOT followed by IO for the number ten (not common but this does turn up from time to time). Nice surface reading here.

19d         Type of film we back (7)
WESTERN – Another simple but effective clue. We followed by STERN for back (of ship for example) leads to a movie genre.

21d         Nervous reaction suppresses part of play strategy (6)
TACTIC – An easy clue but the wordplay might be overlooked. Place ACT (part of play) inside TIC (nervous reaction)

22d         Strike camp — it disintegrates (6)
IMPACT – Make an anagram of CAMP IT (it disintegrates) to get a strike or hit.

I’ll consult Big Dave’s new Calendar to see when I am back next (but I believe it is next Friday). See you then!.