DT28138

Daily Telegraph No 28138

A full review by gnomethang

This puzzle was published on 11th June 2016

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

 Morning All! I found this a reasonably solid puzzle with some good looking clues

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.

Across

5a           Secrets spilled about power and emblems of authority (8)
SCEPTRES – An anagram (spilled) of SECRETS around/about P for Power.

8a           Ailing popular company (6)
INFIRM – A charade of IN/popular and FIRM/company/business.

10a         Reportedly rough passage (6)
COURSE – A homophone (audibly) of COARSE.

11a         Charming volunteers repaired flutes (8)
TASTEFUL – TA – the usual crossword abb. for Territorial Army or volunteers followed by an anagram (repaired) of FLUTES.

12a         Male in desperation shakily took off (12)
IMPERSONATED – Place M for Male inside a shaky anagram of DESPERATION.

15a         Cheek given about maiden over being tired (4)
LIMP – LIP or cheek around/about M for a Maiden over in cricket scoring notation.

17a         Female wearing article, very pale (5)
ASHEN – SHE is the female and she is surrounded by/wearing the article AN.

18a         Seldom viewed artist, extremely reclusive (4)
RARE – RA for the Royal Academician/artist folloed by the extreme letters in R(eclusiv)E.

19a         Continually elected? Clearly (12)
INDEFINITELY – If you are elected you are IN. Add DEFINITELY for clearly.

22a         Safe to slate boyish man? (5,3)
PETER PAN – A charade of PETER – an old word for a safe box followed by to PAN or slate.

24a         In favour of international currency unit (6)
FORINT – The Monetary unit in Hungary  (Now you know!). A charade of FOR (in favour of) and INT, the abb. for INTernational.

25a         A jolly woman in navy (6)
ARMADA – A then RM (Royal Marine/jolly/jack/tar/sailor) followed by the woman ADA.

26a         Old celebrity on French street, returning for train (8)
EUROSTAR – Place O(ld) and a STAR/celebrity after the reversal (returning) of the French street or RUE – EUR O STAR.

Down

1d           Meagre sum originally held in reserve (6)
SPARSE – Place S – the original letter in S(um) inside SPARE or reserve.

2d           Electoral area undermining environmentalists is common (10)
GREENSWARD – A WARD or electoral area underneath (undermining) the GREENS/environmentalists.

3d           Audible disapproval in church is sacrilegious (4)
HISS – A hidden word (in) churcH IS Sacreligious.

4d           Volunteer to house complete delinquent (8)
OFFENDER – To OFFER or volunteer containing (housing) END or complete (as a verb).

6d           Fried noodles, food I must feed soldiers (4,4)
CHOW MEIN – CHOW for food then I is inside (feeding) MEN for soldiers.

7d           Turning honest about it, criminal is to avoid being committed (3,2,3,5)
SIT ON THE FENCE – Place an anagram (turning) of HONEST around/about IT from the clue then add a FENCE of criminal.

9d           Last character to wear striking clobber (4)
ROUT – The last character/letter of (wea)R followed bu OUT for striking/on strike.

13d         Finn and Turk go out to get a musical instrument? (6,4)
TUNING FORK – An anagram (out) of FINN and TURK GO.

14d         Dilapidated kraals in country (3,5)
SRI LANKA – A dilapidated anagram of KRAALS IN.

16d         Rate game? This should show its worth (5,3)
PRICE TAG – A simple charade of PRICE/rate and the children’s game of TAG.

20d         Wipe the floor with this? Is to be scrubbed ahead of series (6)
THRASH – Remove (to be scrubbed) IS from TH(is) and then add a RASH or flurry/series.

21d         Period of time, long, endless? (4)
YEAR – All but the last letter (endless) of YEAR(n) or long.

23d         E.g. 22 take part in a game (4)
PLAY – Peter Pan, the answer to 22a is a PLAY and the rest is a straight definition.