Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2733
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
This puzzle was published on Sunday, 2nd March 2014
Once again, Virgilius provided us with the usual great Sunday challenge with a fine mix of clue types.
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 Apply equal weight against noble, monarch, and bishop with a weapon (14)
COUNTERBALANCE – COUNT (noble) ER (monarch = our Queen, Elizabeth Regina) B (bishop) A (from the clue) and LANCE (weapon).
9a Musician given help by band-leader (7)
BASSIST – B (the leader of Band) and ASSIST (help).
10a Spend long time producing piece of music (7)
PASSAGE – Split 4, 3 you get PASS (spend) and AGE (long time).
11a Spoils sound of old instrument (4)
LOOT sounds like the old musical instrument, the LUTE.
12a Decorative gold people found in part of SA (10)
ORNAMENTAL – OR (the heraldic term for gold) NATAL (part of South Africa) with MEN (people) inserted.
14a Person who’s judgmental about husband, somewhat (6)
RATHER – H (husband) is inserted into a RATER (someone who judges and makes an estimate).
15a Line on former PM, our counterpart of Charles de Gaulle (8)
HEATHROW – London’s airport, as Charles de Gaulle airport is to Paris – HEATH (former prime minister) followed by ROW (line).
17a Barrier a second copper’s assembled in capital (8)
DAMASCUS – DAM (barrier) A (from the clue) S (second) and CU[‘]S (copper’s).
18a Ammunition for periods of fighting (6)
ROUNDS – Double definition – ammunition or subdivisions of a boxing match.
21a Run into experienced Tory in leading position, shown to be different (10)
CONTRASTED – CON (Conservative, Tory) goes before (in leading position) TASTED (experienced) with R (run) inserted.
22a Sporting contest that’s inconclusive, being tied (4)
EVEN – EVENT (sporting contest) with its last letter missing (inconclusive).
24a Doctor heeding how Arab, for example, sounded (7)
NEIGHED – An anagram (doctor) of HEEDING, the Arab an example of a breed of horse.
25a A couple of pages are left for whatever people have on (7)
APPAREL – A (from the clue) P P (a couple of abbreviations for page) ARE (from the clue) and L (left).
26a Go through problem area on foot and split cost of cheap accommodation (10,4)
PEPPERCORN RENT – PEP (go, vigour) PER (through) CORN (problem area on foot) and RENT (split).
Down
1d Iced drink worker found at last (7)
COBBLER – An iced drink made of wine or spirits with sugar and lemon; or a person who mends shoes at a last.
2d Links son up with team, oddly taking on rugby, initially, not cricket (15)
UNSPORTSMANLIKE – An anagram (oddly) of LINKS SON UP TEAM and the initial letter of Rugby.
3d Understand it’s a little bit of a chestnut (4)
TWIG – To suddenly understand or a small part of a chestnut or any other tree.
4d Some secret I revealed to end occupation (6)
RETIRE – Something I really want to do is hidden in some of secRET I REvealed.
5d On radio, it includes Romeo and Juliet (8)
ALPHABET – Romeo and Juliet are used as part of the NATO phonetic alphabet to represent the letters R and J over the radio.
6d Perversely obstinate over decision, ultimately producing this? (10)
ABSTENTION – An anagram (perversely) of OBSTINATE ‘over’ or followed by N (decision ultimately).
7d Fellow revised NT, reserved a location for text (7,3,5)
CHAPTER AND VERSE – CHAP (fellow) and an anagram (revised) of NT RESERVED A.
8d Chicken egg is partly this (6)
YELLOW – Chicken and yellow are both informal terms for cowardice; YELLOW is also the colour of the yolk of an egg.
13d Improperly conspires about hard cleaning work? (10)
CENSORSHIP – An anagram (improperly) of CONSPIRES and H (hard).
16d Unfashionable drink, we hear — certainly no favourite (8)
OUTSIDER sounds like (we hear) OUT (unfashionable) CIDER (drink).
17d From dockside can track transfer to another vessel (6)
DECANT – Hidden in docksiDE CAN Track.
19d Having one run on time in top gear (7)
SINGLET – SINGLE (one run in cricket) and T (time)
20d Person who leaves things to others, mostly in smooth manner (6)
LEGATO – The musical instruction is almost all of a LEGATOR (someone who leaves things to others in their will).
23d Circular letter with enclosure, unsealed (4)
OPEN – The circular letter O and a PEN (animal enclosure).
Gnomey’s week off this week so I’ll be back in the morning with the review of last Saturday’s Prize Puzzle.
Another splendid Virgilius puzzle! As I didn’t use any hints or make any comment on it at the time, I shall do so now. As usual, it’s difficult to choose a fave from so many super clues, but I did mark 11a, 15a, 26a, 1d and 3d. I also thought 13d was rather a nice anagram.
Although I parsed correctly throughout, I still managed to miss the double definitions in 18a and 8d.
Thank you very much, Virgilius for this most excellent crossword.
And thank you very much, Crypticsue, for your most lucid and helpful review. Much appreciated.