Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2734
A full review by gnomethang
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
This puzzle was published on Sunday, 9th March 2014
I found this tricky to unravel in places but that just added to the fun. A couple of clues were particularly fun for me!
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 Religious teacher and Edward informally talked (8)
RABBITED – Your RABBI (a Jewish religious teacher) followed by TED, the informal name for Edward.
9a Coming out of hotel, even though it’s after ten (8)
ELEVENTH – The hour or letter after ten is hidden inside (coming out of) hotEL, EVEN THough
10a Part of rigging fight (4)
SPAR – A usual suspect double definition – a bit of the front sailing mast on a boat and the verb to fight/box.
11a Demolished hot unrefined food in street (12)
THOROUGHFARE – A demolished anagram of hot, THO, then ROUGH (unrefined/coarse) followed by FARE for food – (THO) ROUGH FARE.
13a Shrub needing drainage badly (8)
GARDENIA – A perennial favourite (if indeed it id a perennial!). Make an anagram (badly) of DRAINAGE.
15a Highest number on clock in taxi indicated? (6)
TWELVE – Tricky to spot but in the last two words (indicated by IN) there is an XI I – the Roman numeral for 12.
16a Guy‘s instruction to boxer, perhaps (4)
STAY – The tent rope is the straight definition and the instruction from the guy/man to a boxer dog might be the cryptic part. Excellent clue that made me laugh.
17a Look inside to study this part of body (5)
COLON – The archaic LO for look inside CON for study/revise.
18a Reversed a few feet in cart (4)
DRAY – A yard is 3 feet (a few). Reverse that to get the beer wagon.
20a Given and returned, coming back in fall, autumn (6)
MUTUAL – A hidden and reversed word (coming back in) falL AUTUMn.
21a It’s used by typist, but not for letters (5,3)
SPACE BAR – A nice cryptic definition of the key on the keyboard that does not wield a letter.
23a Sacred books we sent out, getting positive response time after time (3,9)
NEW TESTAMENT – An anagram of WE SENT (out being the indicator) Then ad T for Time, AMEN for a positive response then finally another T for Time.
26a Pupil is at the centre of this bloomer (4)
IRIS – A chestnutty def plus cryptic definition. q.v. IRIS the flower.
27a Downgrade, for example, when included in recount (8)
RELEGATE – Place E.G. the abbreviation for ‘for example’ inside RELATE or recount.
28a Lots of fish caught for men on board (8)
DRAUGHTS – Two definitions – lots of fish in nets and some men or pieces on a board game
Down
2d Would-be revolutionary partisan (8)
ASPIRANT – An anagram (revolutionary) of PARTISAN. The young pretender for example.
3d Nothing to wear for annual event? (8,4)
BIRTHDAY SUIT – A nice cryptic definition.
4d King’s supporter, it’s said, no longer in the saddle (6)
THROWN – Tricky to get it the right way around without checking the last letter. It is a homophone (It is said) of THRONE (the supporter of the Royal Fundament)
5d Finally, crowd outside film studio cut short protest (4)
DEMO – The last letters (finally cut short) of crowD outsidE filM studio. Note that the answer is a cut short version of DEMO(nstration).
6d Move up the right men, though lacking leaders (8)
HEIGHTEN – Remove the leading letters of (t)HE (r)IGHT) (m)EN
7d Where to find Nicaraguan or Guatemalan, or old Peruvian (4)
INCA – Split as IN CA one might find both these people IN California Central America.
8d Article about one extremely dishonest activity (8)
THIEVERY – Place THE (the definite article) outside of I for One and then add VERY for extremely/so.
12d Checking under normal conditions big game bagged by novelist (5-7)
FIELD-TESTING – Place a TEST (big game in cricket) inside Henry FIELDING, the novelist.
14d Legendary weightlifter collected world records? (5)
ATLAS – Two definitions – the first from Greek Mythology (he held up the world and the heavens) and the second for the Mappa Mundi named after him.
16d Where ministers could have learnt from poor miner, say (8)
SEMINARY – Make an anagram (indicated by poor ) of MINER SAY
17d Complaint over game in wintry spell (4,4)
COLD SNAP – A COLD (feverish complaint) and then SNAP (a card game).
19d Scary weapon seen in a catalogue (8)
ALARMIST – Place ARM (weapon) inside A LIST (a catalogue).
22d Old answer covering new business items (6)
AGENDA – Put AGED (old) and the indefinite article A around the outside of N for New.
24d Source for four-letter word repeated in Shakespeare comedy (4)
WELL – The source of water – Remember the Shakespeare comedy “All’s WELL that ends WELL”?. Well, there it is.
25d A royal I revered, ultimately, inspired with respect (4)
AWED – Start with A from the clue, then add WE (How a Royal might say I) then the ultimate letter in (revere)D.
NB: Gnomey is without good internet access today, doesn’t know where the Down explanations went (the wonders of technology strike again) and the draft review is on a memory stick at home. He apologises profusely and will sort it out this evening. CS
Apologies all – I don’t know quite what happened here – Thanks to CS for adding the warning and please find the Downs attached.
I’ll see you all next Thursday for the latest Virgilius. Continued thanks to him!
Gnomey is forgiven! Thought I was seeing things when no Down explanations appeared. I loved this puzzle when I did it, and I still do. So far so good with the parsing— except I missed the double definition in 28a. I did, however, recognise both in 10a.
Look forward to the pleasure of the Down explanations in due course.
Meanwhile, very many thanks to Virgillius. And very many thanks, too, to Gnomey and CS for always supplying these full and invaluable reviews. I’m always surprised so few seem to make use of them. Or, perhaps they do, and simply don’t leave a comment.
Many thanks for the continuation of your excellent review, Gnomey. Am well pleased because I didn’t miss the double definition. I particularly enjoyed three of these — 6d, 24d and 25d.
Again, very many thanks to Virgillius and to Gnomey.
Re your perennial favourite (which also reminds me of my dear mother). Gardenias are tender evergreen or semi-evergreen shrubs, sometimes trees. (So sayeth the RHS Gardeners’ Enclopaedia of Plants & Flowers.)
7D Living in Belize, we have CA on the end of our address; it’s Central America (as well as California in another context)
Thanks for all the help you give us with the cryptic crosswords.
Welcome to the blog Sitteesusan
I think Gnomey has slipped up there and it should be Central America not California. His geography is not very good, as regular readers of the blog already know! I’ll change it.