Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28048
A full review by gnomethang
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
This puzzle was published on Saturday, 27th February 2016
Morning All! This puzzle went in quite quickly – I also enjoyed it a deal with the setter’s usual apposite anagram indicators.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five best!
Across
1a Obstacle for canoeists paddling initially in storms (6)
RAPIDS – Place the initial letter of P(addling) inside RAIDS for storms.
4a Critical remark makes good chap flutter (8)
BRICKBAT – A charade of a BRICK, a bit of an archaic term for a stalwart or good man, and BAT – to flutter ones eyelashes for example.
9a Page puts on a little weight in spring (6)
POUNCE – P for Page and an OUNCE or little weight.
10a Runner is more self-satisfied going round lake (8)
SMUGGLER – SMUGGER – more self-satisfied – placed around L for Lake.
11a Biblical books could make chap pray, getting old inside (9)
APOCRYPHA – An anagram (could make) of CHAP PRAY with O for old inside.
13a A shortage, unfortunately (5)
ALACK – Nice and easy with A from the clue and LACK being a synonym for shortage.
14a Oxford detective with not so much in bank, cruelly (13)
REMORSELESSLY – Place Inspector MORSE (the famous Oxford detective) and LESS (not so much) inside RELY for bank.
17a Decline to put off one formal speech (13)
DETERIORATION – A charade of DETER (put off) I for One and then an ORATION or formal speech.
21a French friend’s entertaining at fiddle (5)
AMATI – Un AMI or friend in French to contain (is entertaining) AT from the clue.
23a Fan belief stirring description of God (9)
INEFFABLE – As in the wisdom. An anagram (stirring) of FAN BELIEF.
24a Armoured battleship can lord it endlessly at sea (4-4)
IRON-CLAD – This was actually the name of the early dreadnought!. An anagram (at sea) of CAN LORD I(t) i.e. endlessly.
25a International relief includes pence still owed (6)
UNPAID – International relief could be described as UN AID. Insert (include) P for Pence.
26a Driver to get damp going round hill (8)
MOTORIST – Place MOIST or damp around a TOR.hill.
27a Bill losing head swallows unknown shellfish (6)
OYSTER – Remove the first letter (losing head) of a (p)OSTER and insert (it swallows) the mathematical unknown variable Y.
Down
1d Programme shown before about cultural material (6)
REPEAT – RE for about followed by PEAT, cultural/vegetable matter from a bog.
2d Someone rich and powerful put car lot into redevelopment (9)
PLUTOCRAT – An anagram (into redevelopment) of PUT CAR LOT.
3d Appropriate behaviour for environmentalist breaking into oil storage facility (7)
DECORUM – Place an ECO or environmentalist inside a DRUM or oil storage facility.
5d Games played between drinks in fund-raising event (7,4)
RUMMAGE SALE – Make an anagram (played) of GAMES inside RUM and ALE – two drinks.
6d Relative to perform dance getting up in church (7)
COGNATE – Reverse (getting up) a TANGO dance inside CE for Church of England.
7d Model aircraft material a piece of cake to set up (5)
BALSA – Reverse (to set up) A SLAB of cake.
8d Keepers of birds gobbling first bit of nutrition (8)
TURNKEYS – Start with TURKEYS/birds and insert (it is gobbling) the first letter in N(utrition).
12d Magazines spell silica wrong, missing an i (11)
PERIODICALS – A PERIOD or spell od time then an anagram (wrong) of S(i)LICA missing one of its I’s.
15d Small, with damn clean brickwork? (9)
SANDBLAST – S for small, AND for with and then BLAST for damn.
16d I’m consuming Delia’s cooking seeking perfection (8)
IDEALISM – IM from the clue includes (is consuming) a cooked anagram of DELIAS.
18d Restrain scoundrel to suffer again (2-5)
RE-INCUR – A charade of REIN (restrain) and CUR (scoundrel) with the letters reapportioned.
19d Childhood, as imagined (7)
INFANCY – As imagined might be indicated as IN FANCY.
20d Booze round North Dakota in drunken spree (6)
BENDER – Place BEER (booze) around ND- the initials of North Dakota.
22d An attack of illness on the go (5)
ABOUT – An attack of the flu for example is A BOUT.
Thanks to the setter. I will be back in two weeks Thursday.
I know Gnomey will be excited as he’ll think there’s going to be a comment on a weekend puzzle review, but my access to the site seems quite good this morning so I thought I’d test out the ability to comment.
Strange to relate mut I can no longer access from my phone!
Weirdly I can do all the normal site things on the work IE up to 9 am and then the site can no linger be accessed so it is back to my tablet on the wifi here
Thanks to Gnomey for the review and to Mr Ron for the puzzle. I don’t think that I was the only one to write in REPLAY for 1d. I still think it fits the wordplay better than the ‘right’ answer.
G. Respectfully, I must respond (despite the fact that I may be launching myself into an intellectual/grammatical trap). 1d: The wordplay/definition is an excellent clue for the answer REPEAT – I don’t understand why “cultural material” = PLAY more appropriately/obviously than PEAT? Also, a programme shown before is almost invariably called a repeat, not a replay. A replay is a goal/incident re-shown on MOD or the re-viewing of a tape or DVD, via a domestic player, on a TV. The clue seems to be valid/acceptable to the setter, BD and Gnomethang in their reviews, and to myself. But I am just an average(ish) solver and certainly not an expert blogger/annotator or grammarian like your good self. Could you give us a detailed explanation of the wordplay for the answer REPLAY? I am very willing to be convinced/educated by a (much) more experienced person.
I accept that repeat is the answer that the setter intended, but replay is defined by Chambers as “a recording played again” so it fits the definition pretty well. Whereas a play is a cultural event, I don’t associate peat with cultural material (probably because I’m no scientist) – I think of a culture as being something grown in a laboratory.
Thanks G. I do understand your explanation, but I’m not convinced the clue fits replay better than repeat. Incidentally, in my BRB (1998) definitions for culture include “to cultivate” and “to grow” – either in the garden or lab, presumably.
I must confess to not even considering REPLAY – If I had I might have written it in as well!
We are with Gazza on this one and had put replay in our grids. We understand that peat is just something that naturally occurs and is harvested. To us there is not much culturing or growing involved so culture in the sense of the arts is a much more plausible explanation.
2ks. Sorry, but I respectfully beg to differ. The “culture” in the clue does not refer at all to how the peat (certainly a “material”) is formed originally, but to what it is used for after harvesting – as a widely-used cultural material to help cultivate or grow plants/vegetables, etc. A programme shown before is almost invariably called a repeat, not a replay. Furthermore, “cultural material” fits peat almost perfectly but only fits play adequately at best. To me, the “cultural material” is a bit of amusing misdirection, aimed at sending the solver on a wild goose chase – and it seems to have worked somewhat! For it to fit replay well, the clue would need to be something like: 1d. Tape reprise about cultural event.