DT 26890

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26890

Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **

We have fairly standard fare today with nothing that really stands out for me. Let us know what you made of it and how you got on.
If you want to reveal an answer just drag your cursor through the space between the curly brackets under the clue that’s causing you problems.

Across Clues

3a  Peers go out together in a London suburb (5,5)
{EARL’S COURT} – a charade of peers and a verb meaning to go out together romantically gives us a part of London once known as Kangaroo Valley because of the number of Australian backpackers to be found there. I’m not sure that ‘suburb’ is strictly accurate – it’s fairly central.

8a  Relative in Quantico (US Intelligence) (6)
{COUSIN} – if you read any American crime fiction you’ll know that Quantico is where the FBI Academy is based and if you’re a fan of John Le Carré you’ll be aware that this word (in the plural) is the nickname used by British Intelligence operatives for their US counterparts. However, you don’t need to know any of that to find a relative hidden in the clue.

9a  Flighty Sudanese ballet performer (8)
{DANSEUSE} – a female ballet dancer comes from an anagram (flighty) of SUDANESE.

10a  Digested notice about card game (8)
{ABRIDGED} – the definition here is digested, in the sense of arranged and reduced systematically to produce a shorter version or digest. Put an abbreviated notice or announcement around a card game for four people.

11a  Undergraduate ultimately failing to pass (6)
{ELAPSE} – the ultimate letter of (undergraduate)E is followed by a failing or oversight.

12a  Amends plans? Not initially (10)
{REPARATION} – the definition here is amends, as a noun meaning compensation for wrongs which have been committed. Remove the initial P from a word meaning plans or groundwork.

14a  Remaining financial record showing extravagance (13)
{OVERSTATEMENT} – a charade of an adjective meaning remaining or surplus and a financial record detailing debits and credits produces an extravagance or exaggeration.

20a  Spotted blunder by Greek character in retirement flat occasionally used? (4-1-5)
{PIED-A-TERRE} – this is a flat used occasionally (fairly obvious from the enumeration). Start with an adjective meaning spotted (a horse or piper, for example), then put together a verb to blunder and the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet and reverse it (in retirement).

22a  A few words from Lear finally entering stage (6)
{PHRASE} – the final letter of (Lea)R enters a stage or period to make a few words.

23a  Avoid team with pace (8)
{SIDESTEP} – a charade of synonyms for team and a pace gives us a verb to avoid or dodge.

24a  A way into free flight (8)
{AVIATION} – string together A (from the clue), the word from latin meaning way or road and an anagram (free) of INTO to make mechanical flight.

25a  Outspoken Shaw play, unfinished (6)
{CANDID} – drop the final A (unfinished) from the title of a comedy by Shaw to leave an adjective meaning outspoken or frank.

26a  Dramatist is wary, possibly put in dangerous situation (10)
{PLAYWRIGHT} – this is not the name of a specific dramatist but another word for dramatist. Insert an anagram (possibly) of WARY in a dangerous situation or predicament.

Down Clues

1d  Dark piece of ribbon round wide-brimmed hat (8)
{SOMBRERO} – an adjective meaning dark or subdued is followed by the first letter (piece) of R(ibbon) and the letter that’s round to make a wide-brimmed hat.

2d  Guess tie’s sorted — game over! (8)
{ESTIMATE} – an anagram (sorted) of TIE’S is followed by the final act of a game of chess.

3d  Riddle cracked in game (6)
{ENIGMA} – an anagram (cracked) of IN GAME produces a riddle.

4d  Theologian after game fish (4)
{RUDD} – the abbreviation for a theologian with a doctorate follows the 15-a-side game to make a freshwater fish of the carp family.

5d  Prison term given by one lacking awareness? Just the opposite (8)
{SENTENCE} – this is a prison term as handed down by a judge. ‘Just the opposite’ means that instead of dropping awareness from one we have to start with a word meaning awareness or consciousness and take out the I (one).

6d  Individual means ‘not reciprocated’ (3-3)
{ONE-WAY} – a charade of an adjective meaning individual or singular and a synonym for means or manner gives us an adjective meaning not reciprocated.

7d  Oppose all others crossing small island (6)
{RESIST} – this is a verb meaning to oppose. I think that there are two ways of parsing this: a) a word meaning all others containing (round) single-character abbreviations for small and island, or b) all others containing a two-character abbreviation (small) of island.

13d  Utterly unwise to discard spades, senseless (5)
{INANE} – start with an adjective meaning utterly unwise or not of sound mind and discard the S(pades) to leave an adjective meaning senseless or foolish. Although the answer here was fairly obvious I was a bit surprised by ‘utterly unwise’ until I found that it is one of the definitions in Chambers.

15d  City in Brazil surrounded by delightful lake (8)
{SUPERIOR} – a city and port in Brazil is surrounded by an adjective meaning delightful to make the name of the largest of the five great lakes in North America.

16d  Service uniform, good worn by lad (8)
{EVENSONG} – a church service appears when an adjective meaning uniform and G(ood) go round (being worn by) a synonym of lad.

17d  Reportedly call boy to find a spice (8)
{TURMERIC} – what sounds like (reportedly) a verb to call or name is followed by a male name (boy) to make a spice.

18d  Miner’s tool in small shed (6)
{SHOVEL} – a tool that a miner might use comes from S(mall) and a shed.

19d  Pay, unfortunately, has risen on railway (6)
{SALARY} – an exclamation meaning unfortunately is reversed (has risen, in a down clue) and this is followed by one of the abbreviations for railway.

21d  ‘Enthusiast’, as shown in middle-of-the-road dictionary (6)
{ADDICT} – an enthusiast is hidden (shown) in the clue.

23d  Catch horse after start of steeplechase (4)
{SNAG} – place an informal term for a horse in poor condition after the starting letter of S(teeplechase) to make a catch or hitch.

The clues that I liked best were 12a and 5d. How about you?

Today’s Quickie Pun: {RAW} + {TIE} + {EARN} = {WROUGHT IRON}