Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27145

A full review by crypticsue

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

Cephas is definitely making us work harder to have a chance of winning that elusive Telegraph fountain pen.     My favourite clue was 11d – what was yours?

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Across

1a           Concealed weapon revealed in argument between two seconds (5-5)
SWORD-STICK –   Insert  WORDS (an argument) between S and TICK (one an abbreviation and the other a term for second or instant).

6a           Novelist‘s foreign friends (4)
AMIS –   It depends on how old you are as to  which one you think of first, but the surname  of either  the novelist Kingsley, or his son Martin, AMIS is the same as  the French word for friends.

9a           Egg’s general character is about right for starter (10)
MINESTRONE –   MINES (egg being a slang term for a mine or bomb) and TONE (character), the latter having R (right) inserted.

10a         Advertising material mostly making indistinct impression (4)
BLUR – Nearly all of a brief commendatory advertisement or BLUR[b].

12a         Loss of power taking heart from scandal (6)
OUTAGE –   Remove the middle letter from OUT[r]AGE or scandal to get a period when the electricity fails or is cut off.

13a         Foreign Office swore to be single-minded (8)
FOCUSSED –   FO (Foreign Office) and CUSSED (swore, cursed).

15a         He lent banger, crashing somewhere in East London (7,5)
BETHNAL GREEN –  An anagram (crashing) of HE LENT BANGER.

18a         Traveller’s joy seeing father’s to tolerate daughter (3,4,5)
OLD MANS BEARD –  The name I use when referring to the plant traveller’s joy  – OLD MANS (fathers) BEAR (tolerate)and D (Daughter.

21a         Personnel retained by one directing exciting film perhaps (8)
THRILLER –   Insert HR (personnel, human resources) into TILLER (someone steering a boat).

22a         Good court official is well (6)
GUSHER – An oil well that does not have to be pumped.   G (good) plus USHER (court official).

24a         Liberal award for division (4)
LOBE – A division such as that of the ear or the brain – L (liberal) and OBE (award of the Order of the British Empire).

25a         Have a large holding of Grammar School property (10)
BELONGINGS –   BE LONG IN, a  term meaning to own a lot of a particular security in order to profit if the its price increases,  followed by the abbreviation for Grammar School

26a         Information about lake valley (4)
GLEN  – Insert L (lake) into GEN (general information).

27a         A doctor in the Oval returned casual footwear (10)
ESPADRILLE –   Insert A (from the clue)and DR (doctor) into a reverse of an ELLIPSE or oval.

Down

1d           Bold character in a manuscript held by boy (6)
SAMSON –  Insert A (from the clue) and MS (manuscript) into SON (boy).

2d           Fancy spout round back of urn (6)
ORNATE –   Spout means to declaim or ORATE, into which should be inserted the last letter (back) of urN.

3d           Offensive elegies a bard composed (12)
DISAGREEABLE –  An anagram (composed) of ELEGIES A BARD.

4d           Pie Italian restaurant served up (4)
TART – A reversal of TRAT, the short form of the Italian trattoria.

5d           Assembled coven do act, wickedly (10)
CONVOCATED –   And another anagram (wickedly) of COVEN DO ACT.

7d           Treacle in large quantities — see about tucking in (8)
MOLASSES –   A reversal of LO (see about) inserted into MASSES (large quantities).

8d           Small nuclear weapon demanding attention (8)
STRIDENT –  S (small) and TRIDENT (nuclear weapon).

11d         Confusion of Cameron’s advice on petty criminals in speech? (6-6)
HUGGER-MUGGER –   a word meaning confusion or disorder sounds like (homophone – in speech)  the Prime Minister’s instruction that we should all ‘hug a mugger’.

14d         There’s virtue having a gun in game (10)
CHASTENESS –   Insert A from the clue and a STEN gun into the game of CHESS.

16d         Old Labour leader’s diary for March (8)
FOOTSLOG –   Misleading capital time – not the month but a march or tramp –  FOOTS  (belonging to the old leader of the Labour Party) and LOG (diary).

17d         With skill embraces woman deserving love (8)
ADORABLE –   Insert DORA (woman’s name) into ABLE (with skill, ability)

19d         Couturier provides such an elegant sample (6)
CHANEL –   A sample or part of suCH AN ELegant.

20d         Swimmer swears violently (6)
WRASSE –   A species of fish is an anagram (violently) of SWEARS.

23d         Garment, a Roman one (4)
TOGA –   TOG (garment) followed by A (from the clue).

See you next week with my explanations of the Mysteron’s offering.