DT 27408

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27408

A full review by crypticsue

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

I spent last Saturday afternoon in a nice pub in Bristol with my fellow bloggers telling me that ‘today’s puzzle wouldn’t take me long’. Trouble was I had to wait until the evening to solve it as I didn’t see it until I got back to the paper waiting for me at my brother’s house – the promised morning print-out having been swallowed by Gnomey’s printer. ‘They’ were right! I found it a slightly different Cephas crossword this week – there seemed to be more cryptic definitions than his usual sprinkling of 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 Draw an old friend (9)
STALEMATE -STALE (old)MATE (friend)

8a Going ahead with illegal roof-stripping? (6,3,4)
TAKING THE LEAD -An expression meaning going in front, also describes what a thief might be doing on a church roof.

11a River lies west of Russian waterway, in the country (5)
RURAL -The abbreviation for river – R -goes before, or lies west of, the Russian river URAL.

12a Former office-holder having taken orders? (5)
PRIOR – Someone holding high office in a monastery is the same word as an adjective meaning former.

13a Monster from Hardy novel (5)
HYDRA -An anagram (novel) of HARDY.

16a Nottinghamshire maid turned tail in boat yard (6)
MARINA -The Nottinghamshire maid is of course MARIAN.If you swap the positions of the last two letters of her name you get a MARINA or boatyard.

17a Buffet car? (6)
DODGEM -A cryptic definition of a fairground ride – buffet here being a verb meaning to strike or push about roughly.

18a Heidi, an animation with pivotal part for a lady (5)
DIANA is hidden in HeiDI AN Animation.

19a Turkey’s suspended attachment of power unit by the French (6)
WATTLE -The strange-looking coloured part of a turkey’s neck -WATT (power unit) and LE (‘the’ in French).

20a Work’s turned liquid into medicine (6)
POTION -A reversal (turned) of OP (work) and an anagram (liquid) of INTO.

21a Acute pain (5)
SMART -I knew this was a stinging pain but had to check in the BRB to make sure of the ‘acute’ definition.

24a Rogue favoured leaving home (5)
VILLA -Remove the IN (favoured) from a VILLAIN (rogue).

26a Established when planted in garden (5)
BASED -AS (when) is planted or inserted into a BED (part of a garden).

27a Clear a Parisian complex (13)
UNCOMPLICATED -UN (the word used in Paris and other parts of France to mean ‘a’)and COMPLICATED (complex).

28a Holiday express — rising fare! (9)
BREAKFAST -A meal eaten on rising -BREAK (holiday) and FAST (express).

Down

2d Hearing test (5)
TRIAL-Double definition.

3d Willingly it has been handed down (6)
LEGACY -A cryptic definition of something left in a will.

4d Second husband’s dry woolly yarn (6)
MOHAIR -MO (second, moment) H (husband) and AIR (dry).

5d Bloomer of mine, to turn up covering Lulu endlessly (5)
TULIP -A reversal(turn up in a down clue)of PIT (mine) with UL (the middle two letters, ie endlessly, of LULU).

6d Strange tribal manoeuvring causes military bluster (5-8)
SABRE-RATTLING -An anagram (manoeuvring) of STRANGE TRIBAL.

7d One who’s in a hurry to give you a winning horse? (6,7)
RACING TIPSTER -Someone in a hurry(racing) to give you the name of a good horse to back in a race.  Young Tilsit, who had been left in charge of the hints, was very keen to let everyone know that the solution is also a very relevant anagram of STARTING PRICE.  Only trouble was, that would have been giving an alternative clue and as we all know we don’t put any ……. ALTERNATIVE CLUES.  Even though he rest of us were in Bristol, he soon discovered that offending comments may be …… in extreme cases, deleted.  Still, if anyone actually reads this, I’m sure they will be impressed.

9d Part of tide of anarchy? (5,4)
CRIME WAVE -Another cryptic definition.

10d Walk or shuffle open-armed (9)
PROMENADE -An anagram (shuffle) of OPEN ARMED.

13d Underground world he’s hanging around these days (5)
HADES -Insert AD (these days) into HES from the clue.

14d Play with a tot first (5)
DRAMA -Put a DRAM (tot)first before A (from the clue).

15d Modify commercial article, going over point (5)
ADAPT -AD (commercial) A (article)and PT (point).

22d One is not able to take the long view with it (6)
MYOPIA –And don’t I know it!  A cryptic definition of the correct term for short-sightedness.

23d Judge admitting priest in mitigation (6)
RELIEF -Insert the Old Testament priest ELI into a REF (referee, judge).

25d A thousand of us loved one (5)
AMOUR – A (from the clue) M (the Roman numeral for one thousand) and OUR (of us).

26d Money that is taken from old club (5)
BRASS -Remove the IE (that is ‘taken’) from a BRASSIE (old-fashioned golf club).

I’ll be back at the weekend with a a review which will explain Alchemi’s deviousness with regard to the question in the blog’s February Monthly Prize Puzzle, and, in due course, a review of the Mysteron’s Saturday Prize Puzzle