DT 27109

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27109

A full review by gnomethang

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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **

Morning All!. The rating for difficulty indicates my befuddled state come Saturday morning. The main problem I had was tthat many of the clues seemed a bit samey for me.  It may well be that I do a bad thing by solving across and then down in the same way that I ‘Blog. In any case let us know what you thought.

Across

1a           Go to pieces as rent’s increased (5,2)
CRACK UP – A charade of CRACK (rent) and UP (increased).

9a           Outline in which one car is overturned (8)
SCENARIO – An outline of a plot for example. Make an anagram (overturned) of ONE CAR IS.

10a         Grandee adopted defensive stance (2,5)
EN GARDE – Another anagram, this one of GRANDEE indicated by adopted.

11a         Cares not about one farther up the tree (8)
ANCESTOR – One more anagram. CARES NOT (indicated by about) for one further up the (family) tree.

12a         Creator of a ramshackle hut finished with gold (6)
AUTHOR – A from the clue, then an anagram (ramshackle) of HUT finally finishing up with OR – the heraldic term for the colour gold.

13a         Escape outpouring that follows passing of coach perhaps (10)
SLIPSTREAM – A charade of SLIP (escape, the giving of) and STREAM – an outpouring.

15a         Old Bob is able to look at something quickly (4)
SCAN – The abbreviation S for a Shilling (known as a bob formerly) and CAN (is able to).

16a         American native whose day always seems the same? (9)
GROUNDHOG – A cryptic definition of the eponymous critter in a film where Bill Murray had to relive the same day over again until he made the right decisions.

21a         Artillerymen’s pints carried away (4)
RAPT – RA, the abbreviation of the Royal Artilleryman and PT – the abbreviation for pint.

22a         Nice cat lad gets befuddled — it’s not intended (10)
ACCIDENTAL – An anagram, indicated by befuddled, of NICE CAT LAD.

24a         Count governed in a daze (6)
ADDLED – A charade of ADD (count) and LED (governed/ruled).

25a         Told of French beginning to take Scottish isle, suffering complete reverse (8)
NARRATED – Start with DE (of in French) then add T (the beginning of Take) and add ARRAN (the Scottish Island). Then reverse the lot (suffering complete reverse).

27a         Increase prison sentence (7)
STRETCH – A double definition.

28a         State of uncertainty caused by southern coppers reportedly holding American (8)
SUSPENSE – S for Southern then a homophone (reportedly ) of PENCE (coppers/change) with US (Americal inserted between the two.

29a         Film expert standing in front of gallery (7)
ACETATE – An ACE/expert standing in front of the TATE gallery. I spent a while thinking of film titles before I realised that the definition referred to the old material that film strip was made of.

 

Down

 

2d           Reject belief in bird losing weight then adding weight (8)
RENOUNCE – Remove the W (abbreviation of Weight) from (w)REN and then add OUNCE (another weight).

3d           In conflict about flogging (8)
CLASHING – C for the abbreviation of Circa (about in Latin – also Ca) and then LASHING for flogging with  e.g. a Cat’O’Nine Tails – Aaaarghhh!

4d           Mark’s after articles from France and Germany, getting stress (10)
UNDERSCORE – Place SCORE (mark) after UN and DER – a French indefinite and German definite article.

5d           Graphic symbol of swindler’s confession? (4)
ICON – A swindler might confess by saying “I CON”. Run that together to get the straight definition.

6d           Lay out trendy underwear (6)
INVEST – IN for trendy/hip and VEST for underwear.

7d           One of the family runs into trouble (7)
BROTHER – One of the easier clues that took me ages to spot!. R for Runs (abbreviation in cricket) placed inside BOTHER for trouble.

8d           Bid of £100 raised by end (2-5)
NO TRUMP – The number 100 in speed or money terms is known as a TON. Reverse that and add the RUMP or end.

11d         Cut off a date line when travelling (9)
ALIENATED – An anagram (when travelling) of A DATE LINE. Cut off meaning isolated.

14d         Second Catholic’s disposed to be concerned with education (10)
SCHOLASTIC – S for Second (in S.I. units) and an anagram (disposed) of CATHOLIC.

17d         Incline to fail, interrupting scholarship perhaps (8)
GRADIENT – DIE for fail inside (interrupting) GRANT for a type of scholarship (the perhaps indicates that there are other examples).

18d         Part of shoe damaged — it’s a blow (8)
UPPERCUT – A charade of UPPER (part of a shoe) and CUT (damaged). A blow with the fist.

19d         Glossy coat to go missing, worn by Romeo (7)
VARNISH – VANISH – a synonym for go missing is placed around (worn by) R – Romeo in the international call sign alphabet.

20d         Player putting key in a lock (7)
ACTRESS – The musical key of C placed inside A TRESS (lock of hair).

23d         Reread novel that’s more treasured (6)
DEARER – A nice easy anagram (novel) of REREAD.

26d         Otherwise gripped by Handel’s ‘Esther’ (4)
ELSE – A word for ‘otherwise’ is hidden in the last two words

I’ll see you all next Friday for a review of the coming weekend’s Saturday Prize Puzzle.