DT 27695

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27695

A full review by crypticsue

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BD Rating – Difficulty **  – Enjoyment **

This puzzle was published on Saturday, 10th January 2015

A fairly average Saturday puzzle

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Across

1a           Take over from endlessly flexible worker (8)
SUPPLANT –   SUPPLE (supple [flexible] endlessly) and ANT (worker).

5a           Irregular money order (6)
RANDOM – RAND (South African money) and OM (Order of Merit).

8a           Woman goes round new border village (6)
GRETNA –   GRETA (woman) put round N (new).

9a           Hazy blue liquid no American has consumed (8)
NEBULOUS –   An anagram (liquid) of BLUE ‘consumed by’ or inserted into NO US (no American).

10a         Central figure that’s not unusual being into hare coursing (4-4)
ANTI-HERO –   An anagram (coursing) of INTO HARE.

11a         Island also has land in the interior (6)
TOBAGO –   BAG (in the sense of land, eg, a fish) put inside (in the interior) of TOO (also).

12a         Photo‘s empty, we hear that adds weight (8)
HOLOGRAM –   A homophone (we hear) of HOLLOW (empty) followed by GRAM (weight)

13a         Bounder in Channel Islands with a jumpy creature (6)
CICADA –   Insert a CAD (bounder) into CI (Channel Islands) and finish with A (from the clue)

15a         That follows coffee before end of dinner (6)
LATTER –   Some confusion was caused for online solvers (and your blogger who uses the online puzzle to create the blog template) as the online version of this clue originally had ‘after’ instead of ‘before’.   What should happen is that LATTE (coffee) goes before R (end of dinner).

18a         Unreal — lotion being smeared round less than half of navel (8)
NOTIONAL –   An anagram (being smeared) of LOTION into which is inserted the first two of the five letters (less than half) of NAvel.

20a         Leniency is unknown among the non-clerical (6)
LAXITY –   Insert X (mathematical unknown) into the LAITY (non-clerical, not members of the clergy).

21a         Jack played games making the introduction for major celeb (8)
MEGASTAR – An anagram (of GAMES) followed by TAR (Jack here referring to another word for sailor).

23a         Initiative to stick with small part, backing number one (8)
GUMPTION – GUM (stick) PT (‘small’ or abbreviated part) and a reversal (backing) of NO I (number one).

24a         Odd characters from town meeting over street heading in opposite directions (3-3)
TWO-WAY – The odd letters of ToWn, O (over in cricket scores) and WAY (street).

25a         What one could be doing with a pitch fork (6)
TUNING – Using a two pronged ‘fork’ to produce a sound of known pitch.

26a         Expelled from university and locked up (4,4)
SENT DOWN –   Double definition – the second one being an informal term meaning to sent to prison.

Down

1d           Disgrace, having no time for Greek character (5)
SIGMA –   Remove the T (having no time) from STIGMA (disgrace).

2d           Sounds like an insignificant item of female attire (9)
PETTICOAT –   Sounds like a PETTY COAT.

3d           Dabbler and a friend going to ancient city (7)
AMATEUR – A MATE (a friend) going to the ancient city of UR.

4d           Holy orders (3,12)
TEN COMMANDMENTS – A fairly obvious cryptic definition, especially given the enumeration.

5d           Like the Tin Man, mug with twitch — ‘O my heart!’ (7)
ROBOTIC –   ROB (mug) O (O put in the ‘heart’) and TIC (twitch).

6d           Less than a full team play out miniature scene (7)
DIORAMA –   Put a PLAY (drama) outside IO (ten being less than a full team of eleven players).

7d           Nearly everyone having greatest importance (4,2,3)
MOST OF ALL –   MOST OF (nearly) and ALL (everyone).

12d         Henry taking steps in the gloaming (4-5)
HALF-LIGHT –   HAL (Henry) and FLIGHT (of steps).

14d         Angry remark that should make you think (9)
CROSSWORD –   Do I really need to tell you to split the solution 5,4 to ‘see’ the first part of the clue?   I thought not!

16d         VAT guy arrests one driver (7)
TAXIMAN –   TAX MAN (VAT guy) with I (one) inserted.

17d         Common-sounding element of poetry and slang? (7)
RHYMING –   Sounding alike (common sounding) as in poetry or Cockney slang.

19d         For the audience, draw a number — get tense (7)
TIGHTEN –   A homophone (for the audience) of TIE (draw) followed by the number TEN.

22d         Beam before negative response for send-up material (5)
RAYON –   RAY (beam) followed by a reversal (send up) of NO (negative response).

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