Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2703

A full review by gnomethang

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

Morning All! – A fine puzzle that kept me hanging on the hook for a bit longer  than normal.

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           Manual surfaces, covering small parts for service (6)
PSALMS – the PALMS of one’s hands (manual surfaces) around (covering) S for Small.

4a           Near West End, impose limit on drink (8)
NIGHTCAP – A charade of NIGH (near) the end letter in wes(T) and then CAP for impose limit on.

10a         It’s hard to be penniless (5)
STONY – Stone like (hard) is the definition and the cryptic refers to STONY-BROKE – being penniless.

11a         Europeans from North and South accepted by chaps of the old school (9)
ESTONIANS – Place S for South inside the ETONIANS – The toffs from an old public school.

12a         Oddly I used to change outside — that’s doubly tiresome (7)
TEDIOUS – An anagram (oddly) of I USED TO and another anagram (to change) OUTSIDE makes two anagrams (doubly) of a word for tiresome.

13a         Polish girl’s complaint (7)
RUBELLA – A charade of RUB (polish) and ELLA (a girl’s name). German Measles I believe.

14a         Producer of sunflower oils (7,3,4)
VINCENT VAN GOGH – A lovely cryptic definition of an painter who used oil as a medium to produce, famously, pictures of sunflowers.

17a         Treatment of main water supply is nationalised in error (14)
DESALINISATION – I was more used to DESALINATION but this is an anagram (in error) of IS NATIONALISED.

21a         Concerning condition of course in progress (7)
ONGOING – a charade of ON (concerning) and GOING – the condition of a racecourse.

23a         Requirement covering label overturned, nullified (7)
NEGATED – NEED (requirement) around (covering) the reversal of TAG (a label overturned).

24a         Poisonous growth contemptible people saw, for example (9)
TOADSTOOL – TOADS (contemptible people) and a TOOL (of which a saw is an example).

25a         Clumsy writer held back by the aforementioned article (5)
INEPT – Reverse PEN (a writer geld backwards) inside IT (the aforementioned article).

26a         In general, one so melancholy being solitary (8)
LONESOME – A hidden word (simply “in”) generaL, ONE SO MElancholy

27a         Hunted some elephants initially in part of Africa (6)
CHASED – The initial letters of S(ome) E(lephants) inside CHAD – a part of Africa.

Down

1d           Fully convinced, as result of development (8)
POSITIVE – In photography we use the negative to develop the POSITIVE image.

2d           Evasion from a spokesperson about level of fighting (9)
AVOIDANCE – A from the clue with VOICE (a spokesperson) around a DAN (a level of achievement in martial arts).

3d           Month with foreigner in centre for traditional dance (7)
MAYPOLE – A charade of MAY (a month) and a POLE (a foreigner).

5d           Reform a real intention for a number of revolutionaries (14)
INTERNATIONALE – A reformed anagram of A REAL INTENTION. The number being of course a song.

6d           Handled weapon used in attack that’s carried out by woman (7)
HANDBAG – A lovely cryptic definition. To ‘HANDBAG’ is now in the dictionaries.

7d           Careless piece of writing, apart from first slow movement (5)
CRAWL – Start with a SCRAWL (careless piece of writing) and remove the first letter.

8d           In various forms, they’re used in cooking history, as follows (6)
PASTAS – A charade of the PAST (history) with AS following it.

9d           County with it can prepare compact living quarters (3-7,4)
BED-SITTING ROOM – A lovely charade of BEDS (the abbreviation for the county of Bedfordshire) then IT (from the clue) then TIN (a can) and finally GROOM (prepare e.g. a horse).

15d         Pure, like an unadorned lily, so to speak? (9)
GUILTLESS – I’ll give you BD’s hint on the day:” This sounds like an adjective that could be applied to a lily that has not been adorned, as in the phrase which technically means applying gold to a lily but actually means attempting to beautify that which is already beautiful”. If you gild something then you put gilt.

16d         Edward’s included in football team, as originally put on paper (8)
UNEDITED – ED for Edward inside UNITED (as in Manchester). Before the editor gets hold of it!.

18d         A lassie changed names to hide identity (7)
ALIASES – An anagram (changed) of A LASSIE.

19d         Using shot in a hospital for extreme pain (7)
ANGUISH – An anagram (shot, as in to pieces) of USING inside A and H for Hospital.

20d         Lesson to be learnt about temperature being deadly (6)
MORTAL – The MORAL of a story (lesson to be learnt) around the outside of T for Temperature.

22d         Show amusement about a bit of corn (5)
GRAIN – A GRIN about (around) A from the clue.

Thanks to Virgilius – I will see you all tomorrow for a review of last Saturday’s Cephas puzzle.