Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27486
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
This puzzle was published on Saturday, 10th May 2014
A trickier offering from the Saturday Mysteron this week. 3d took me back to when I was (very) young.
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 Dish of seafood an aid to growth (8)
FISHMEAL – Fertiliser made from seafood if split 4,4 could be a dish of seafood.
9a Gaol rich crooked powerful man (8)
OLIGARCH – An anagram (crooked) of GAOL RICH.
10a Vegetarian food out of unopened bottles (4)
TOFU – Finding where this foodstuff for vegetarians was hidden was much easier for on-line solvers (where it appeared in one long line) than for those of us who prefer the newspaper where it was unhelpfully printed over two lines – it is hidden in ouT OF Unopened.
11a Veteran using net more certain to catch fish initially following change (6,6)
SILVER SURFER – Start with SILVER (change in the form of coins) and follow with SURER (more certain) which ‘catches’ F (fish initially).
13a Person drinking to wake up in vehicle (8)
CAROUSER – ROUSE (wake up) inserted into CAR (vehicle).
15a Bush expels one from a spy organisation twice (6)
ACACIA – A (from the clue) and CIA C[I]A (the US spy organisation twice over) removing the I (expels one) from one of them.
16a Look over section of film (4)
REEL – A reversal (over) of LEER (look)
17a Was speechless, taking motorway to sea (5)
MIMED – MI (the M1 motorway) and MED (Mediterranean Sea).
18a Ruth to be mine before year (4)
PITY – PIT (mine) and Y (year).
20a Encouragement to have run out in vehicle (6)
CARROT – RO (run out in cricket) inserted into a CART (vehicle).
21a Chamberlain perhaps to perform round Home Counties (8)
APPEASER – Neville Chamberlain was described as this at the beginning of the Second World War. APPEAR (perform) round SE (the South East of England is known as the Home Counties).
23a Fan to rub down athlete’s essentials (4,3,5)
NUTS AND BOLTS – NUT (fan) SAND (rub down) BOLTS (Usain Bolt’s).
26a The Thames in some parts is doubled (4)
ISIS – Part of the Thames at Oxford – IS plus IS (is doubled).
27a Made step wildly in this (8)
STAMPEDE – An anagram (wildly)of MADE STEP.
28a Fashion expert perhaps does clothes symbol (8)
DESIGNER – DEER (perhaps does indicating a possible reference to female deer) with SIGN (symbol) inserted.
Down
2d Forge raw ore in making this (8)
IRONWARE – An anagram (forge) of RAW ORE IN.
3d Senior politicians will get exercise having kick around on sports ground (5,2,5)
HOUSE OF LORDS – Insert USE (exercise) into HOOF (kick) and follow with LORDS (the famous cricket ground).
4d Goon associated with church briefly (6)
ECCLES – Cue lots of Goon impressions – one of the characters in the Goons or the abbreviation (briefly) for ECCLESiastical.
5d Prune supplied energy for run (4)
LOPE – LOP (prune, cut off) and E (energy).
6d Douglas perhaps sober getting medical treatment (5-3)
FIRST-AID – Douglas is an example (perhaps) of a FIR tree –follow FIR with STAID (sober). The BRB has this without a hyphen (5, 3) as do the ‘boxes’ at work!
7d In favour of female academic (4)
PROF – PRO (in favour of) F (female).
8d Army chap trained as chemist (8)
PHARMACY – An anagram (trained) of ARMY CHAP.
12d A paper surprisingly probing revolution making fresh judgement (12)
REAPPRAISING – Insert an anagram (surprisingly) of A PAPER into RISING (revolution).
14d Dance with business expert after game at Twickenham (5)
RUMBA – RU (Rugby Union being played at Twickenham) and MBA (a Master of Business Administration could be described as a business expert).
16d Arsenic’s disguised in spicy spirit (8)
RACINESS – An anagram (disguised) of ARSENICS
17d I’m involved with venture in which leader’s removed (8)
MUTINEER – An anagram (involved)of IM and vENTURE once you have removed the V (leader’s removed).
19d Speculate in article over origin (8)
THEORISE – THE (definite article) O (over)and RISE (origin).
22d Cloak on a small Greek goddess (6)
PALLAS – Another name for Minerva – PALL (cloak, shroud) A (from the clue) and S (small).
24d Fox catching a despicable person (4)
TOAD – TOD (a country name for a fox) catches A (from the clue).
25d Bachelor embarrassed having produced children (4)
BRED – B (Bachelor) and RED (the colour you turn when embarrassed).
I certainly agree that this was one of the more difficult Saturday puzzles for many a while. My mother, who is celebrating the 34th anniversary of her 50th birthday, could not finish it. That is a very rare occasion. Thanks to Mr Ron & to CS as always.
I don’t always have an opportunity to do the Saturday puzzles. I did, however, do this one and found it enjoyable but somewhat tricky. At the time, I needed Big Dave’s hint for 4d. I wouldn’t have got the answer otherwise.
I am very grateful to have this full review. I needed Crypticsue’s explanation for my answer to 26d. I have my copy to hand and am pleased that I did manage to complete the remainder of the puzzle correctly.
My thanks to the setter for an entertaining crossword, and appreciation to Crypticsue for this excellent review.
Thanks to Giovanni and to Pommers for the review and hints. I breezed through the first three quarters of this puzzle, then was held up in the SE Corner. Eventually got all bar one. Couldn’t even get 17d from the hints. Favourite was 11d, was 4*/3* for me.
Nice comment – wrong review!!
Hi there,
seems the web is a bit crazy today – all the answers visible.
22d Surely it was Pallas Athene – a very complex Greek Goddess!
All of the answers are always visible on the reviews of prize puzzles which are published after the closing date. It’s been that way since the very first such review well over five years ago.
Minerva is the Roman equivalent of the Greek Pallas Athene.
Brewers has her as Pallas or Pallas Athene. I went with the former when I typed the review.
It would appear that even putting the date of publication at the top of the review doesn’t prevent confusion
I was thrown by 21a. Home Counties is not the same as SE. I may have been thrown because I live in Hampshire, now incorrectly categorised as being in the SE and never a Home County.
Welcome to the blog spikeislander.