Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27482
Hints and tips by Gazza
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
This is a pleasant puzzle with a few too many anagrams for my liking (33% of the clues if my counter is to be trusted). I would have finished it quicker if I hadn’t put the wrong answer in for 15d initially. When I read 26a I did wonder at first whether today’s Mr Ron was unmasking himself as the booted one slumming it on the back page, but if that were the case it would be a bit trickier – wouldn’t it?
For those new readers of the blog who haven’t yet twigged – the answers are concealed in the gaps between the brackets under the clues. You have to highlight the gap to reveal all.
Across Clues
1a Sport jumper? (7)
{CRICKET} – two meanings, the second a jumping insect.
5a Sword injured girl (7)
{CUTLASS} – a straightforward charade – injured with a blade and a girl.
9a Express: ‘Putin’s beginning to be involved in invasion’ (5)
{RAPID} – insert the beginning letter of Putin into an invasion. An indication that the puzzle was compiled fairly recently?
10a Coach engineers lengthen to hold third of toilets (9)
{ENLIGHTEN} – an anagram (engineers) of LENGTHEN containing the third letter of toilets.
11a Feels rude and answers back, showing pride (4-6)
{SELF-ESTEEM} – an anagram (rude) of FEELS followed by the reversal (back) of a verb meaning answers or satisfies.
12a Revolutionary thing a horse might do (4)
{TROT} – double definition – the first a shortened form of a word for a revolutionary socialist, supposedly a follower of the doctrine of the Russian who was assassinated with an ice axe in 1940.
14a Freedom fighter needs initial boost in upheaval (12)
{ABOLITIONIST} – this is someone fighting to get rid of slavery. It’s an anagram (in upheaval) of INITIAL BOOST.
18a One takes the air in former farm vehicle with admirer (9,3)
{EXTRACTOR FAN} – string together a prefix meaning former or previous, a farm vehicle and an admirer or supporter.
21a Leave out some Merlot — I’m often coming over (4)
{OMIT} – hidden (some) and reversed (coming over) in the clue.
22a Deteriorating road — regret repairs (10)
{RETROGRADE} – an anagram (repairs) of ROAD REGRET.
25a Fine novel with story that’s unutterably great (9)
{INEFFABLE} – this adjective is somewhat of a paradox since it’s used to describe something so wonderful that there are no words to describe it. Start with an anagram (novel) of FINE and add a type of story used to convey a moral.
26a Great composition of Elgar? (5)
{LARGE} – an anagram (composition) of ELGAR.
27a Possible problem with lower tax — an upset around here, oddly (7)
{ANTHRAX} – lower here is a creature that lows or moos. We need an anagram (upset) of TAX AN containing the odd letters of here.
28a Woman embedding son’s work in stone (7)
{MASONRY} – the name of a woman (our favourite Welsh correspondent, for example) contains SON.
Down Clues
1d What she might do in front of Queen could make us cry with embarrassment, finally (6)
{CURTSY} – an anagram (could make) of US CRY and the final letter of (embarrassmen)T.
2d Gore in Italy with politician linked to alcohol (6)
{IMPALE} – bring together the IVR code for Italy, the letters appended to the name of an elected politician and a type of alcoholic drink.
3d Fancy I’d be Kenyan runner (6,4)
{KIDNEY BEAN} – an anagram (fancy) of I’D BE KENYAN.
4d Newspaper has article on robbery (5)
{THEFT} – the abbreviation for the pink newspaper has a definite article on it (i.e. before it, in a down clue).
5d Starts to complete one’s library? Reader’s one who accumulates a lot (9)
{COLLECTOR} – the starting letters of three words in the clue are followed by a reader in church or university.
6d Turned up with a classical item of clothing (4)
{TOGA} – reverse (up, in a down clue) a verb meaning turned (as in “It turned chilly last night”) and add A (from the clue).
7d A drug shaped like a star (8)
{ASTEROID} – A (from the clue) followed by a drug favoured by body-builders.
8d Lucidity outside court? Goodness! (8)
{SANCTITY} – put a word meaning lucidity or rationality around the abbreviation of court.
13d City‘s defeat without financial backer (3,7)
{LOS ANGELES} – in the wordplay the ‘S stands for ‘has’ rather than ‘is’ so we want a verb meaning has or suffers defeat. Put that around (without) the name given to the backer of a theatrical enterprise. Presumably the surface is having a little dig at the ‘blue’ side in Manchester, suggesting that their current success would not be possible if they weren’t awash with cash.
15d Postholder? (9)
{LETTERBOX} – I really thought that pillar… was a good start here but, alas, the Tippex was required. This is just a cryptic definition of what I need inside my front door to stop the black lab enthusiastically ‘reading’ my mail.
16d No limes spoilt a pudding (8)
{SEMOLINA} – an anagram (spoilt) of NO LIMES is followed by A to bring back not very fond memories of school dinners.
17d Small missile having a loud, grating noise (8)
{STRIDENT} – S(mall) followed by a missile that’s launched from a submarine.
19d Male doctor ran to senior nursing officer (6)
{MATRON} – M(ale) precedes an anagram (doctor) of RAN TO.
20d Cure an amount of extreme dysentery (6)
{REMEDY} – hidden (an amount of) in the clue.
23d Discharge from space, we hear? (5)
{RHEUM} – this is a discharge from the nasal area and it sounds like (we hear) a word meaning space or expanse.
24d At a distance, service area’s backed up (4)
{AFAR} – the initials of one of our military services are followed by A(rea) then it all gets reversed (backed up).
My votes are going for 25a, 27a and 13d. Where are you putting your X?
Today’s Quickie Pun: {PARKIN} + {PLAICE} = {PARKING PLACE}
My rating is 2*/3* for another enjoyable puzzle today.
13d was my last one in. The wordplay didn’t make sense to me as I took it as a synonym for defeat (4) placed round (without) a term for a financial backer (5), which is one short of the required number of letters to make up the name of the city which is the answer.
Many thanks to the setter and to Gazza, particularly for the explanation for 13d.
Hi gazza, amazingly I found this quite easy today a 2* IMHO, the kinf of crossword that if you follow the ‘instructions’ you won’t go far wrong, favourite clue 4d just because I like it :-) !
Please don’t tell me that I am the only blogger who can’t raise it on the screen. If I am, would you be kind enough to send me a pdf Gazza
en route.
Many thanks Gazza
The biggest hold-up for us was in parsing 13d. Could not work out how the stray “E” could be accounted for so delayed going to bed so we could get Gazza’s explanation. An interesting suggestion on who the setter might be too. Suppose it could be possible, we had not thought of him for a Back-pager. Not too taxing and good fun.
Thanks Mr Ron and Gazza.
Enjoyable solve today. No problems but not a write-in either. I was a bit unsure about 27A at first considering its last letter, thankfully 14D put my mind at rest.
Wife’s not happy – she’s just realised that next week she has to work for a whole 5 days !!! What is this world coming to?
Without wishing to upset Mrs S, I am delighted to report that I have so many lovely things to do this May that I almost have more days off than days at work and so my next 5 day week isn’t until 9 June
I’m quite content with my 0-day working week.
Not too much of a stretch today so I’d go for ** /*** although it took an age to get 5d as I was determined it must start “comp….”
Favourite probably 19a, or 3d perhaps.
Thanks to Mr Ron and Gazza.
Struggled a bit with this one, not least because I was trying to find a suitable suffix to revolution/evolution for 14A …. before realising that the clue was an anagram. Also wanted to start 10A with ‘RE’ – before it dawned on me that ‘engineers’ was yet another anagram indicator. As Gazza pointed out – there were a lot of anagrams.
I thought there were far too many anagrams.They made for a dull puzzle
Agree ***\*** some good anagrams !no help needed again today, no favourite clues, just enjoyed a interesting puzzle ,man in doctors surgery seemed to be having a bit of a problem with it ,thanks to setter .
I thought it was very straightforward, probably because I like anagrams. I would never think they made a puzzle dull and can be both entertaining and ingenious.
I agree with the comments re 13d.
The alternative spelling of 1d was also a bit of a hold up.
Anagrams I liked were 3 down and 22 and 14a.
Off to make paths…..
I failed to parse 13d as well – I was convinced it was an error! :oops:
Thanks to Gazza for the explanation!
Pretty straightforward but it took a while to get 7d – not sure how an orbiting lump of rock is starlike – or is that just me being picky?
Welcome to the blog Galligraphics.
As an adjective, not a noun, asteroid means resembling a star or star-shaped.
Thanks Gazza
Didn’t really enjoy this mainly due to overloading with anagrams although I do appreciate that they are genuinely cryptic. ***/**. I wonder if 3d is actually a runner? In common with Gazza,16d immediately brought to mind some of the awfulnesses of school dinners including lumpy custard! Thanks Mr. Ron and Gazza.
I think red kidney beans are the insides ie the seeds of rubber beans – aren’t they?
. . . or even runner beans!
I think not Kath although I’m not sure about rubber beans! However a bit of Googling confirms they are plants from different clans although they do both belong to the large Fabaceae family but the kidney bean is Phaseolus Vulgaris whilst runners are Phaseolus Coccineus.
OK – I bow to superior knowledge – I’m just a simple gardener not a botanical expert! I give in . . .
Sorry about the rubber bit!
I find rubber beans a bit chewy :-)
I think you are both technically correct re KBs, especially since the 70s when we started making chill con carne. But when I was growing up, climbing runner beans were called kidney beans. Is it regional?
Nowadays we bean lovers have a wide choice. I’m currently germinating broad beans, climbing French beans, dwarf beans which have a black pod (visible), and scarlet runners. To be honest, I prefer the young pod to the actual seed.
Don’t know if it’s regional – I’ve only ever known them as runner beans.
We also grow climbing French beans (still in pots in the greenhouse – too early to put them out) but not broad beans – too prone to black fly which then take over everything else.
I’m sometimes a bit mystified by greengrocers saying “green beans” . . .
Ah, yes…green beans, the generic term to distinguish them from baked beans!!
Lovely broad beans, how I miss them. We can only get Lima beans here, though you can get dried broad (aka fava) beans at the Lebanese store.
I love them, too and can’t get fresh ones. If you have an Italian deli near you, see if they carry Cento brand fava beans (they are packed in glass jars) or ask if they can stock them. They’re very good.
Hi Merusa and Expat Chris – we love broad beans too although we don’t grow them. We live about a two minute walk across the field and through a wood from a great PYO farm and they have lots – I’d rather concentrate on growing salad stuff and other things that really need to be picked just before you want to eat them.
Several beloved veggies of my youth that I can’t get here or with our Maryland climate are impossible to grow. Along with broad beans, I really miss purple sprouting and I would kill for Jersey new potatoes. But on the plus side I do have access to super fresh local sweet corn in season…amazing grilled in the husk.
What are purple sprouting? As for Jersey new potatoes, yum-yum. Yes, we get fresh corn as well.
Google purple sprouting broccoli. We ate the whole thing, florets and leaves. Delicious.
I think I’ll go for 2* difficulty and 3* for enjoyment.
The style of this crossword felt unfamiliar which I suppose could point to Elgar as he rarely sets back page puzzles and I steer well clear of his Toughies.
Until gazza mentioned it I hadn’t noticed the high anagram count which just goes to show how unobservant I am.
My last answer was 10a having missed the anagram indicator. I wasn’t too sure about 6d and had the same problem as others with 13d although the answer was obvious.
I liked 9 and 27a and 19 and 20d. My favourite was 15d.
With thanks to whoever set this and to gazza.
**/*** for me. No real problems but had to think quite hard about most of them. The way it should be i suppose! Thanks to all.
Quite enjoyable but definitely on the untaxing side, thanks to the setter and to Gazza for the superb review.
Quite straightforward I thought. I rather like anagrams so didn’t mind the high count. Favourite was 3d.
2*/3*
Thanks setter and Gazza.
Enjoyable and not too difficult, just as I like it! Finished it all on my own but needed a few of Gazza’s hints to work out my guessed answers – 10a and 27a! Thanks to setter and Gazza. Liked 5a. First one in was 4d, last 10a.
I quite enjoyed this, giving it ***. Fave was 3d, but I did like many others, such as 15d, 1a, 18a, and 25a. I rather like anagrams, so I too didn’t mind the rather high count. (16d certainly does bring back memories of school dinners and the terrible nicknames we had for such puddings…)
Like others, I had a problem parsing 13d. And, I’m ashamed to say, I overlooked the meaning of ‘lower’. Otherwise, no problems. Overall, difficulty about **.
Many thanks to Mr Ron for the enjoyment. Many thanks to Gazza for the super review.
I didn’t find this too, too taxing, though I did have to enlist the help of my electronic gizmo for 28a and 22a. Last one in was 3d, no excuse as I knew it was an anagram but kept thinking it was the name of a Kenyan runner! How stupid can one get, then I realised that the second word was bean. Favourite was 12a. Thanks to setter and to Gazza for review.
Thank you setter, enjoyed the puzzle and finished it over lunch sitting in the Suffolk sunshine. Thanks Gazza for your review and hints.
Quite straightforward but enjoyable puzzle. My only problem was the wordplay in 5d, the only lector I know is Hannibal! My favourite def 1a, sorry Kath! Very pleased to to see the season of willow on leather has returned, now that’s a true religion
Sorry forgot my manners, Thx to all.
Now I know that I’m going to have nightmares – Hannibal Lector gives me the heebie-jeebies.
Don’t let Brian mislead you – it was Hannibal Lecter.
I thoroughly enjoyed this, despite the plethora of anagrams.The only problem was 23d, a new word for me.As to who the setter is, I’ve never tried Elgar but I thought it might be the Don because of the very precise clueing.Please contradict me if you think I am completely wrong. Thanks to all.
2* for me and a jolly challenge completed on the Circle Line. That’s the yellow one for those who don’t know. 18a is an old favourite. Thanks to The Setter et al.
Rather easier than the Toughie (which is as it should be) but BD rated that one at 2* while you, Gazza score this at 3*. Not sure what – if anything – that suggests, but l would go for 2*/3*. 11a was my favourite, but l also liked the delightfully schoolboyish 23d. Thank you, setter, and thank you Gazza.
I wouldn’t take too much notice of the difficulty ratings. I gave this one 3* because I thought it was about average for a back-pager. We do judge Toughies to a different standard, so if this one had been a Toughie I would have given it a lower rating (1* probably).
Thanks to Mr Ron and to Gazza for the review and hints. I thought this was on the tricky side, but very enjoyable. I got 5&20d, without knowing why, so needed the hints to parse them. Favourite was 18a. Was 3*/3* for me. Late commenting due to the squash tournament .
Thanks to the large number of anagrams (I like anagrams – the boat’s name is an anagram) I finished this one on the first pass. Just as well, have to be up in the morning for a hospital appointment, but can’t go to bed until I’ve tackled the back-pager. The Toughie will have to wait. 1*/3*
28 ac was in the Times recently and was phrased:
Cradling of Jesus depicted in stonework.
My favourite clue – ever.
That’s excellent.
I know I am a day late but was I really the only person who thought 26a was ‘regal’.
Probably not, but you were the only one to own up to it.