Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27265

A full review by crypticsue

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

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

A typical Cephas Saturday puzzle, with quite a few of his trademark anagrams.

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           Two loud experts communicating in person? (4,2,4)
FACE TO FACE –   F (loud) and ACE (expert) twice over, separated by a preposition meaning communicating.

6a           Baker forged link (4)
KILN –   An anagram (forged) of LINK.

9a           Criminal organises, embracing start of gangster hostility (10)
AGGRESSION –   An anagram (criminal) of ORGANISES plus the G at the start of Gangster.

10a         Notice    measles symptom (4)
SPOT  the double definition!

13a         Diplomat’s secured missing diamonds (7)
ATTACHE  –   Remove the D (missing diamonds) from the end of ATTACHEd or secured.

15a         I affectionately will wave goodbye to daughter, giving an expression of regret (2,4)
IF ONLY –  I (from the clue) and FONDLY (affectionally)with the D (daughter) removed (wave goodbye to).

16a         Warm current discovered while working online (2,4)
EL NINO – an anagram (working) of ONLINE.

17a         One could show a woman the time of her life (10,5)
BIOLOGICAL CLOCK –    A cryptic definition of the in-built mechanism which regulates the body’s physiological rhythms and cycles.   I’m sure a man has one of these too!

18a         Thief returned instrument used by Queen (6)
LOOTER –   A reversal of TOOL (instrument) followed by ER, the Queen’s cipher.

20a         Weighty melons exchanged (6)
SOLEMN –   An anagram (exchanged) of MELONS.

21a         Hopelessness of the French duo (7)
DESPAIR  –   DES (the French plural for of the ) and PAIR (duo).

22a         Cut makes Conservative on edge (4)
CLIP – C (Conservative) and LIP (edge).

25a         Fixer and Mafia boss, unconscious (10)
MECHANICAL –   MECHANIC (fixer) and AL (Capone, one-time  leader of the Chicago mafia).

26a         Vegetable lasagne starter — yikes! (4)
LEEK –   L (the starter of lasagne) and EEK (yikes!)

27a         Italian staggered into a plane (10)
NEAPOLITAN –   Someone from Naples is an anagram (staggered) of INTO A PLANE.

Down

1d           Anxiety‘s extreme, going over point (4)
FEAR –   Insert E (compass point) into FAR (extreme)

2d           Pen impounded by narcotic agent (4)
CAGE  is hidden in (impounded by) narcotiC  AGEnt.

3d           Deal with unknown contract (6)
TREATY –  TREAT (deal with) and Y (an unknown quantity in maths etc).

4d           Unexpectedly find posh chap his place for a takeaway (4,3,4,4)
FISH AND CHIP SHOP –  An anagram (unexpectedly) of FIND POSH CHAP HIS.

5d           Fool with high explosive makes for cover (6)
CLOTHE –   CLOT (fool) and HE (high explosive).

7d           Behind bars — dim person sadly getting one captured (10)
IMPRISONED  – An anagram (sadly) of DIM PERSON plus I (getting one)

8d           Broadcasting simultaneously with web in operation (10)
NETWORKING –   NET (web) and WORKING (in operation).

11d         What you might call hell of a liberty? (10)
DIABOLICAL –  The adjective meaning of hell can sometimes be added to liberty to mean something really bad.

12d         Crazy reason to support and train leader (10)
LOCOMOTIVE –   LOCO (crazy) plus MOTIVE (reason).

13d         Conceded we should block everybody overdrawn (7)
ALLOWED –   ALL (everybody)  OD (overdrawn) with WE (from the clue) inserted.

14d         Person choosing to be at cross-purposes? (7)
ELECTOR – Someone putting a cross to indicate their choice.

19d         Parson shortly before worship (6)
REVERE  –  REV (an abbreviated reverend or parson) and ERE (a literary adverb meaning before).

20d         Outstanding    indicator (6)
SIGNAL  –  An adjective meaning outstanding, remarkable, notable;  a noun meaning an indicator, usually warning of something.

23d         Northerner, no amateur on racecourse (4)
SCOT –   Remove the A for amateur from ASCOT racecourse.

24d         Mountain climbing nationalist’s scheme (4)
PLAN –   A reversal (climbing) of ALP followed by N (nationalist).
I’ll be back next Friday with my thoughts on tomorrow’s Mysteron prize puzzle.