Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27295
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
The Mysteron provided us with a very slightly trickier puzzle than usual this week.
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 Predict what are opening leads effectively in quarter of hands (10)
FORECASTLE – Quarters for the hands on a ship – FORECAST – (predict) followed by L and E (the openings of Leads and Effectively).
6a Put back containers for biscuit (4)
SNAP – A reversal (put back) of PANS (containers).
10a Means of expressing identity on island in the Irish Sea (5)
IDIOM – ID (identity) IOM (Isle of Man, which is of course situated in the Irish Sea).
11a One getting a grip bugs team (4,5)
GRUB SCREW – GRUBS (bugs) and CREW (team on a boat). The wordplay was clear but I thought I had better check and said to Mr CS ‘is there such a thing as a ….’ to which he replied ‘Yes, you need an Allen key for it’. Not relevant to the crossword but someone might find this knowledge useful one day.
12a Old fool embracing that woman — it’ll all turn to ashes (7)
CHEROOT – A type of cigar which will indeed if smoked turn to ashes in the end. Insert HER (that woman) into a COOT (an informal term for a foolish or silly person – if you’ve ever had much to do with the birds of that name, you will know where the term came from!)
13a Gain a cold greeting from Adam? (7)
ACHIEVE – A (from the clue) C (cold) HI EVE (the greeting from Adam )
14a Derby’s certainly not one for exotic cheese plates (12)
STEEPLECHASE – The Derby being a race on the flat, a steeplechase involves obstacles. An anagram (exotic)of CHEESE PLATES.
18a Consumed to get self-confidence, all right? That’s nonsense (12)
GOBBLEDEGOOK – GOBBLED (consumed) EGO (self-confidence) and OK (all right?)
21a Defunct passage from the Bible incorporated ‘the first shall be last’ (7)
EXTINCT – ‘The first shall be last’ is the instruction to move the first letter of TEXT (passage from the Bible) to the end, INC (incorporated) should then be inserted between the two Ts.
23a Remove priest making a Continental congregation change hands (7)
UNFROCK – UN (the French word for A, Continental being the indicator that we are looking for a foreign word) followed by FROCK (flock or congregation with the L changing to an R – changing hands).
24a Nothing fresh in stable block (9)
STONEWALL – Insert O (nothing) and NEW (fresh) into STALL (stable).
25a Old South American tin, fashionable to the West (5)
INCAN – IN (fashionable) precedes or goes to the west of CAN (tin).
26a Pained as love rejected (4)
SORE – A reversal (rejected) of EROS, the god of love.
27a Baseball fielders with two sorts of sportswear (10)
SHORTSTOPS – SHORTS and TOPS (two types of sportswear).
Down
1d Bird around lake is quail (6)
FLINCH – Insert L (lake) into a FINCH (bird).
2d Horseman catching a bandit (6)
RAIDER – Insert (catching) A (from the clue) into a RIDER (horseman).
3d Provider of security to search gangly alien besieging castle (7,7)
COMFORT BLANKET – Insert FORT (castle) into COMB (search), add LANK (gangly) and ET (Crosswordland’s favourite alien).
4d Show sorrow and take steps to follow the score (5-4)
SIGHT-READ – SIGH (show sorrow) and TREAD (take steps).
5d Girl left with mystique (5)
LAURA – L (left) and AURA (mystique).
7d Spray that kills butterflies around Georgia (5,3)
NERVE GAS – Insert GA (the abbreviation for the US State of Georgia) into NERVES (butterflies in the stomach being a sign of nerves).
8d Pulverised with a motor containing diesel initially (8)
POWDERED – Insert D (diesel initially)into POWERED (with a motor).
9d Welsh factories abandoned directly (2,3,4,5)
AS THE CROW FLIES – An abandoned anagram of WELSH FACTORIES.
15d Practical joker’s influence in classic race (no saint) (3-6)
LEG-PULLER – Insert PULL (influence) into LEGER, the classic horse race being, of course, the St Leger).
16d See gross deformed monsters (8)
OGRESSES – An anagram (deformed) of SEE GROSS.
17d A club mounting wild revelry — it makes a killing (8)
ABATTOIR – A (from the clue) BAT and a reversal (mounting) of RIOT (revelry).
19d American boss has repeated laugh about North Carolina (6)
HONCHO – Insert NC (North Carolina) between HO and HO (repeatedly laugh).
20d Lizards showing small quirks (6)
SKINKS – S (small) KINKS (quirks).
22d Refuse time spots (5)
TRASH – T (time) and RASH (quite a few spots!)
My ‘week off’ next week but I’ll be back in due course with a Sunday review.
Thanks to crypticSue for the review. Yes, it was a difficult one, but very good. 13a made
me laugh.
Yes, 13a made me laugh, too.
It was a tricky puzzle and I needed an explanation for the parsing of 21a and the answer to the first half of 11a, of which I have never heard. Much appreciation to setter for a very enjoyable puzzle and to Crypticsue for her excellent enlightenment.
Gave up on completing this one. Was delighted to find your excellent site or it would still be lying on my bedside table, driving me nuts every morning!
Welcome to the blog AnnieKay.