Big Dave's Crossword Blog

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.

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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.