Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27265
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ***
A typical Cephas Saturday puzzle, with quite a few of his trademark anagrams.
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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.
As to be expected another enjoyable puzzle from Cephas with 4d being my favourite. Thanks to Cephas & to CS for the review.