DT 27522 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 27522

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27522

A full review by gnomethang

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***Enjoyment **

This puzzle was published on Saturday, 21st June 2014

Definitely a curate’s egg for me. Some lovely clues and others that I thought were very unfair to non UK based solvers. OK for all but a Prixe Puzzle.

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           Lawyer on screen is a silk (6)
DAMASK – A charade of a DA (the abb. of District Attorney or lawyer in the USA) and MASK for screen.

4a           Marmite? Greater Manchester town’s right out (8)
STOCKPOT – Remove the R (Right is OUT) from STOCKPO(r)T – the Manchester town.

10a         He produces sound of note (5)
TENOR – We see this a lot due to the prevalence of checking letters. The TENOR sounds like the Tenner.(Ten pound note).

11a         Nagging woman to call a great man? Not I (9)
TERMAGANT – TERM (to call/name) then A G(i)ANT – or s great man without the I. Lovely word!.

12a         Have beer with Northern bird (7)
BITTERN – A charade of BITTER (beer) and N for Northern.

13a         Military group holding test’s overthrown old empire (7)
OTTOMAN – Place the MOT (a UK car test) inside NATO – the Military group and then reverse the lot (its overthrown) – NA (MOT) TO reversed.

14a         Pestilent miser arranged profit from saving (6,8)
SIMPLE INTEREST – An easy anagram (arranged of PESTILENT MISER) but a great spot and good surface reading.

17a         You need to make better infernal precocious child (6,8)
ENFANT TERRIBLE – An anagram (you need to make) an anagram of BETTER INFERNAL. Not so hard this one!.

21a         One finds in theatre a clear sentimentality (7)
TREACLE – The sentimentality is found by oneself within theaTRE A CLEar.

23a         Daily, comedian Edmondson shows example of absurd behaviour (7)
CHARADE – A Charade (hah!) of CHAR (A daily or ‘woman who does’/cleaner) and then ADE – the abbreviation of ADRIAN EDMONDSON. Personally I hate to see a clue that relies on defining a person by their profession when they are hardly famous to most, and certainly not to the rest of the world’s crossword solvers.

ADRIAN EDMONDSON = ADE is a bit of a stretch here for Non UKians and a bit obvious for the UK group in my age bracket. I think that the setter certainly reached his Bottom here.

24a         Bounder in grip of writer’s block (9)
BARRICADE – Place a CAD (bounder) inside of (J.M.) BARRIE – the author of Peter Pan.

25a         Offal after time is strong-smelling (5)
TRIPE – RIPE (strong smelling) after T for Time.

26a         Snare fish after net’s repaired (8)
ENTANGLE – Place ANGLE (fish as a verb) after an anagram (repaired) of NET. Top clue. No frills, no fuss, good surface reading for me.

27a         Religious leader investigates head of Trinity (6)
PRIES – PRIES (investigates/snoops) and then the head letter of T(rinity)

Down

1d           Digital audiotape put down information in electronic form (8)
DATABASE – The abb. of D(igital) A(udio) T(ape) followed by ABASE or ‘put down.

2d           Tiny isle’s ballistic missile (9)
MINUTEMAN – A charade of MINUTE (tiny) and the Isle of MAN.

3d           A learner following light carriage that’s finally gone like a dream (7)
SURREAL – I didn’t realise that a SURREY was a light four wheeled carriage. Remove the last letter (being finally gone) and then add A from the clue and L for Learner.

5d           Novel performance by Mr Mackay perhaps (4,2,3,5)
TURN OF THE SCREW – No problem for me but some will have suffered not knowing the fact of Mr Mackay from the BBC comedy Porridge. He was a prison warden. So a performance of his might be a TURN of the SCREW.

6d           Official document a hit perhaps (7)
CHARTER – The first id the definition and if a song is a hit in the Top 40 then it could be said to be a ‘charter’.

7d           Religious song about Saint’s pre-eminence (5)
PSALM – The PALM (d’or) from the tree is a sign of pre-eminence. Insert S for Saint.

8d           Old masters neglecting one group of gods (6)
TITANS – Include the apostrophe ‘S in TITIAN’S – an old master. Then remove (neglect) the I for one.

9d           Police leader concerned with the person following suspect provides final irony (5,2,3,4)
STING IN THE TAIL – STING is the lead singer in the band The Police (hence Police leader is nicely hidden as a capital letter at the start of the clue). Then IN THE TAIL means concerned with the TAIL (ot person following a suspect). Nice clue.

15d         Extravagant roll could give man bruise (9)
SUBMARINE – A good definition – A large filled savoury roll!. Also an anagram (it could give) of MAN BRUISE.

16d         Apartment building with temporary accommodation sheltering European chaps (8)
TENEMENT – Place a TENT (temporary accommodation around E(uropean) and MEN for chaps.

18d         Case holding uranium for sale (7)
AUCTION – An ACTION in court (a case) including U for Uranium.

19d         Authentic nonsense served up by American estate agent (7)
REALTOR – REAL (authentic_ then an a reversal (served up) of ROT or nonsense.

20d         Firm’s team of workers? (6)
STABLE – The first is the definition – the cryptic definition is the team of workers.

22d         Bird to feel bad about taking off first (5)
EGRET – Remove the first letter (taking off first) of (r)EGRET) or ‘feel bad about.

Thanks to the setter – I have a couple of really busy weeks but will see you on Thursday week.

 

1 comment on “DT 27522

  1. I have much enjoyed going through this review, Gnomethang. Not only is it most informative, it’s also very entertaining. I agree with you that 11a is a lovely word — it was one of my faves. Must confess I didn’t know who ‘Ade’ was in 23a, so thanks for the details. I rather guessed that one.

    I did reach all the correct answers, but needed Big Dave’s hints for the parsing of 1d and 9d. I really appreciate having the details now. I certainly didn’t know that Sting was leader of the band called The Police. I see now, too, that I missed the subtlety of 5d.

    I must say that I did enjoy this puzzle at the time, and gave it ****. I still hold to this, warts and all!

    Very many thanks and much appreciation to Gnomethang for this super review. And very many thanks to the setter.

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