Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2709
A full review by crypticsue
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
Another splendid start to Sunday morning. My top favourites were 6a and 5d but there were lots of runners-up.
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 Relatively generous contribution for fatherless child (6,4)
WIDOWS MITE – A small insignificant offering which represents self-sacrifice on the part of the giver – a reference to the parable in Mark xii, v 42. The expression might also be used to describe the small child of someone whose husband has died.
6a He didn’t have a single passenger on his vessel (4)
NOAH – Because they all went in two-by-two, even the humans!
9a Novice in better shape, capturing rook or queen (7)
LEARNER – Insert an R (either the chess abbreviation for a rook or the Latin abbreviation for queen) into LEANER (in better shape)
10a Single out, accommodating first of guests making petty complaints (7)
NIGGLES – An anagram (out) of SINGLE into which is inserted the first letter of guests.
12a Declaration from key people in court following part of speech (13)
PRONOUNCEMENT – PRONOUN (part of speech) followed by the abbreviation for CourT into which is inserted the musical key of E and MEN (people).
14a To no longer be seen in leading position is hard (6)
VANISH – VAN (towards the front) followed by IS (from the clue) and H (hard).
15a Short publication about river or small stream (8)
BROOKLET – insert R for river into a BOOKLET (short publication).
17a Race that’s cross-country? (8)
NATIONAL – The Grand NATIONAL is the race; cross-country? refers to national meaning relating, belonging or peculiar to one particular country.
19a European article on cause of ill-feeling (6)
GERMAN – Follow GERM (a cause of feeling ill) with the indefinite article AN.
22a Lacking power to hold naughty child, a head is blameless (13)
UNIMPEACHABLE – UNABLE (lacking power) ‘holds’ or has inserted IMP (naughty child) and EACH (a head).
24a Subsequently a learner shows creative kind of thinking (7)
LATERAL – The sort of thinking we are supposed to need to be able to solve cryptic crosswords. LATER (subsequently) A (from the clue) and L (learner).
25a Course official who controls race, initially? (7)
STARTER – A cryptic definition of someone who starts a race.
26a Reversed cart a few feet (4)
YARD – A reversal of DRAY (cart).
27a Had match with county represented as unimportant (6,4)
PLAYED DOWN – PLAYED (had a match) and DOWN (one of the six counties of Northern Ireland).
Down
1d Pack animal run over (4)
WOLF – A reversal (over) of FLOW (run)
2d Study about a daughter and father showing no emotion (7)
DEADPAN – Insert D (daughter) and PA (father) into a DEN or study.
3d Outsider who can see what’s in store (6-7)
WINDOW-SHOPPER – A cryptic definition of someone who does what Chambers describes as the activity of looking at goods in shop windows as the next-best thing to buying them!
4d Religious type found in ashram or monastery (6)
MORMON – A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is hidden in ashraM OR MONastery.
5d They could be upset, extremely, over any rent revision (8)
TENANTRY – The final (extreme) letter of upseT over or followed by an anagram (revision) of ANY RENT.
7d Source of crude advice for dealing with squeaky wheel (3,4)
OIL WELL – The source of crude oil could also be advice given to someone who has something that squeaks, such as a wheel.
8d Male with saying about one liable to lose (10)
HESITATING – HE (male) and STATING (saying) with I (one) inserted. The saying referred to here is, of course, “he who hesitates is lost”.
11d Gets carried away and has mishap at sea (4,9)
GOES OVERBOARD – Goes to extremes of enthusiasm about something, or literally falls over the side of a ship (a mishap at sea).
13d In the end, level with union supporter (10)
EVENTUALLY – EVEN (level) TU (trade union) ALLY (supporter).
16d Never meeting standard a European set in 50s (8)
PARALLEL – PAR (standard score in golf ) A (from the clue) and E (European placed inside three Ls (L being the Roman numeral for 50).
18d Crook that could do a lot of damage in Midwest (7)
TWISTER – Someone who behaves dishonestly or a North American informal term for a tornado.
20d Distinguished player as changed teams run out (7)
MAESTRO – An anagram (as changed) of TEAMS followed by RO (the abbreviation for run out in cricket).
21d Spirit of the Scots — or Irish, but not English (6)
WHISKY – The Irish spell it WHISKEY, the Scots leave out the E for English!
23d Architect that constructs home in tree (4)
WREN – Mr CS and I don’t have anything designed by the architect Sir Christopher Wren, but we do have a number of these delightful little birds living in a very large old rosemary bush.
He never lets us down does he? Perfect for a quiet Sunday.
As for wrens we only have the occasional visitor but what a nosy little beggar he or she is! Makes the starlings & crows sound like amateurs.
Thanks to V & to CS
No, he never does let us down. Superb puzzles week after week. All thanks to this wonderful blog! There was a time when I couldn’t do them — what a lot of pleasure has been missed!
As for wrens, tiny they may be, but they’re in our garden as well trying to out-sing the blackbirds.
Many thanks to Virgillius & Cryptic Sue.
Another lovely crossword for a Sunday morning.
The main thing that I remember about actually doing this one is that I had trouble untangling 12a. The reason for that was my own stupidity – I saw the ‘noun’ for the part of speech but completely failed to spot the ‘pronoun’! I was also slow to get 1a, having never heard of it, and 1d.
Far too many good clues to pick one favourite.
With thanks to Virgilius and CS.