Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27540
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty **– Enjoyment ***
This puzzle was published on Saturday, 12th July 2014
Emergency stand-in blogger here so I can’t remember how difficult I found this as my solved grid is at home. I do remember it didn’t seem like a Cephas puzzle, although it was in theory ‘his’ week.
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
1 Suit you’ll need when entering church (4)
CASE – AS (when) entering or being inserted into CE (Church of England) to get a legal suit.
3 Cool number, new song about the French female (10)
NONCHALANT – NO (number) N (new) and CHANT (song) with LA (French female form of ‘the’) inserted.
9 Orderly to have a snack after end of session (4)
NEAT – N (the end of session) followed by EAT (have a snack).
10 Coping with supporters a bad result upset? (10)
BALUSTRADE – An anagram (upset) of A BAD RESULT
11 Another court passage (7)
EXTRACT – EXTRA (another) and CT (abbreviation for court).
13 Questioning of physicist cut short by old American (7)
CURIOUS – Either of the physicists with the name of CURIE (minus the last letter – cut short) followed by O (old) and US (American).
14 Assembly of peers, triumvirate reforming economic policy? (11)
PERESTROIKA – An anagram (assembly) of PEERS followed by a TROIKA (a triumvirate – from the Russian word troe = three).
18 Pep pill taken by one before endless criticism makes one become violently angry (2,9)
GO BALLISTIC – GO (pep, energy) BALL (pill) I (one) and STICK
21 Turtle avoiding soft ground (7)
TERRAIN – Remove (avoiding) the P (soft) from a TERRAPIN (turtle).
22 Legislator spilt no tears (7)
SENATOR is an anagram (spilt) of NO TEARS.
23 Derision cast about politician behind bars (10)
IMPRISONED – An anagram (cast) of DERISION with an MP (politician) inserted.
24 Asian neckwear, by the sound of it (4)
THAI – sounds like a TIE
25 Member of 15’s band, Ms Fitzgerald, back touring Canada, left for clubs (5-1-4)
ALLAN-A-DALE – A reversal (back) of ELLA (Fitzgerald) going round (touring) CANADA once you have changed the C at the front for an L (Left for Clubs).
26 Nimble agent catching leader in race (4)
SPRY – The ‘leader’ of Race is ‘caught’ by SPY (agent).
Down
1 Disdain shown by prisoner over bait (8)
CONTEMPT – CON (prisoner) and TEMPT (bait).
2 Top of the bill set off on vessel (4,4)
STAR TURN – Or split 5, 3 START (set off) and URN (vessel).
4 Love role in abstract school (2,3)
OP ART – O (love) and PART (role).
5 Statesman in place of worship, unwell (9)
CHURCHILL – CHURCH (place of worship) and ILL (unwell).
6 Change involving degrees Centigrade causes argument (11)
ALTERCATION – Insert C (the abbreviation for degrees Centigrade) into an ALTERATION (change).
7 Female soldier in river (6)
AMAZON – Double definition time.
8 Insect set free by misguided set (6)
TSETSE – An amalgamation of two anagrams of SET (free and misguided being the anagram indicators).
12 A small gesture by topless people in clandestine meeting (11)
ASSIGNATION – A (from the clue) S (small) SIGN (gesture) and NATION (topless being the indicator that the first letter should be removed).
15 Much associated with this outlaw (5,4)
ROBIN HOOD – Much being one of the Merry Men!
16 Falsely incriminate rather small chap taken in drink (6,2)
STITCH UP – Insert a TITCH (rather small chap) into SUP (drink).
17 Inadequate supply from Detroit perhaps following onset of strike? (8)
SCARCITY – S (the ‘onset’ of Strike) and CAR CITY (Detroit being the home of many American car manufacturers).
19 A dry one around Greek region (6)
ATTICA – A (from the clue) TT (dry, tea total) and CA (the Latin abbreviation for circa, around).
20 Drive mostly right, then left (6)
PROPEL – PROPER (most of proper, right) and L (left).
22 Blow up second fountain (5)
SWELL – S (second) and WELL (fountain).
Apologies if there are any errors – they aren’t deliberate. When I next meet a certain Gnome at a crossword gathering, I can tell you exactly who’ll be buying all the drinks!
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Well done emergency blogger, This was a 2* sat IMHO . Cheers to setter, doesn’t have the feel of Cephas but could be