DT 27689

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27689

A full review by crypticsue

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***  – Enjoyment ***

This puzzle was published on Saturday, 3rd January 2015

This prize crossword appeared in the paper at the end of a strange week when the Telegraph back page puzzles were, for me and quite a few other solvers anyway, relatively trickier than ‘normal’.    This one was no exception – I solved Saturday’s Times cryptic in half the time!

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Across

1a           Tackle current expense (6)
ACCOST –   AC (alternating [electrical] current) and COST (expense)

4a           Aircraft with replica Spruce Goose’s tail (8)
SPITFIRE –   SPIT (a slang term for an exact replica – usually preceded by the word ‘dead’) FIR (spruce being a type of fir tree) and E (the ‘tail’ of goose

10a         Recycling centre to go metric? (9)
SCRAPYARD –   A clue that’s starting to become an ‘old friend’ –   split 5, 4 to ‘get’ the go metric bit.

11a         Long for start of trip on small bay (5)
COVET –   Follow a COVE (small bay) with the start of trip.

12a         See Hurd end rebuilding in part of Chilterns maybe (7)
HUNDRED – An anagram (rebuilding) of  HURD END produces somewhere that will be familiar to MPs who resign during the course of a Parliament by accepting a nominal office for profit under the Crown: holding such an office disqualifies an MP from the House under the Act of Settlement 1701.

13a         When school is open, I will go in as stop-gap (7)
INTERIM –   I (from the clue) inserted into IN TERM (when school’s open).

14a         Matador’s opponent carries small trunk (5)
TORSO –   Insert S (small) into TORO (a Spanish bull, a matador’s opponent).

15a         They don’t appreciate where fires get started (8)
INGRATES –   Split 2, 6 to get where fires are started.

18a         Dance with boorish type without a fuss (8)
BALLYHOO –   BALL (dance) and YAHOO (boorish type) without the A.   With a capital letter, this word refers to a class of animals in Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, human in form, but which have the understanding and passions of brutes. Without the capital Y, it just means a brutal or boorish lout.

20a         Leg bone slightly twisted going round island (5)
TIBIA –   A BIT (slightly) reversed (twisted) with the abbreviation for Island inserted.

23a         Ineffective treatment of Post Office landing Cable in a mess (7)
PLACEBO – PO (post office) with an anagram (in a mess) of CABLE inserted. The misleading capital C is just put there to make those of us fed up with the current Business Secretary’s name appearing in crosswords groan loudly once again.

25a         Second-rate celebrity that’s swelled up (7)
BLISTER – Split 1-6 to get the second rate celebrity.

26a         Marsupial’s time for bed (5)
ROOST – ROOS (marsupial’s) and T (time).

27a         Liverpool’s colour kit adopted by Newcastle’s centre forward (9)
READDRESS – This was my last one in.   I don’t think the centre of Newcastle adopted  the Liverpool colour and the kit – the RED (the colour of Liverpool football team’s strip) ‘adopts’ the A  in the centre of NewcAstle and the result is then followed by DRESS (kit).

28a         Aid to pirate, perhaps — rover mostly returning with girl (8)
SPYGLASS –   Almost all (mostly) of a reversal (returning) of GYPSY (rover) followed by a LASS (girl).

29a         Hero of the Rovers, amid retreating English, that stands against the tide (6)
GROYNE –   Insert ROY (the fictional hero of the Rovers) into a reversal (retreating) of ENG (the abbreviation for English).

Down

1d           Tease the abstract art lover (8)
AESTHETE –   An anagram (abstract) of TEASE THE.

2d           One investigating death trap — there’s nothing in it (7)
CORONER – CORNER (trap) with O (nothing) in it.

3d           One who’s wise following grand American sporting event (5,4)
SUPER BOWL –   SUPERB (grand) and OWL (one who’s wise).   I just loved the idea of a SUPERB   OWL!

5d           Cuddly character providing extra material for a Bronte novel (10,4)
PADDINGTON BEAR – PADDING (extra material) followed by an anagram (novel) of A BRONTE.

6d           It’s understood one’s engaged in diplomacy (5)
TACIT – I (one) inserted into TACT (diplomacy).

7d           The opposite of how poetry is written (7)
INVERSE –   Split 2,5 to get the poetry connection.

8d           Doctor’s after space to put away body (6)
ENTOMB – EN (printer’s space) TO (from the clue) and MB (Bachelor of Medicine).

9d           Mobile adverts with a human interface? (8,6)
SANDWICH BOARDS – A splendid cryptic definition, the first word of the solution taking me far longer to get than the second!

16d         Get the German punishment for treason (9)
ATTAINDER –   ATTAIN (get) and DER (the German for ‘the’) produces the loss of civil rights through conviction for high treason.

17d         A ball played from the wing in the French game (8)
LACROSSE – Insert A CROSS (a ball played from the wing) into LE (the French for ‘the’).

19d         I would begin this Conservative declaration of love (7)
AMATORY – As the clue says, put an I in front of a split of the solution 2, 1, 4, to get the Conservative declaration- I AM A TORY.

21d         Queen tucked into sandwich in larder (7)
BUTTERY –   ER (the regnal cipher of our current Queen) inserted into an informal term for a sandwich – BUTTY.

22d         Electrician to leave car aboard ship (6)
SPARKS –   PARK (leave car) inserted into the abbreviation for steamship – SS.

24d         Former lover directed endless praise (5)
EXTOL –   EX (former lover) and TOLD (told – directed – without its end letter).

 

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