Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28318

A full review by crypticsue

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This puzzle was published on Saturday 7 January

BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***

Another Saturday, another Prize Puzzle, the only hold up for many of us being putting the wrong ‘underground deposit’ in 12d and then finding that 22a “wouldn’t work”

Across

1a           Day briefly cloudy reaching the French fortress (5,6)
DOVER CASTLE – Interestingly, your mobile phone provider is highly likely to think you are in France when you visit this fortress, but it is definitely on our side of the channel.   D (day ‘briefly’) OVERCAST (cloudy) LE (French definite article)

7a           Church with popular comedian giving chat (7)
CHINWAG – CH (church) IN (popular) WAG (comedian)

8a           Objection made by expert before trial (7)
PROTEST – PRO (expert) goes before TEST (trial)

10a         Once made rum in Utah, for example, during the war (4,4)
CODE NAME – an anagram (rum) of ONCE MADE, Utah being one of the code names used during the D-Day Normandy landings.

11a         Mark‘s two little boys (6)
VICTIM – A mark is a ‘suitable victim for theft’   VIC and TIM (two shortened, little, boys’ names)

13a         Sign of females losing weight (4)
OMEN – WOMEN (females) losing the abbreviation for Weight

14a         Shelved, article on power by one behind leading group (3,3,4)
OFF THE PACE – OFF (shelved) THE (definite article) P (power) ACE (one)

16a         Relax wearing mate’s fur (10)
CHINCHILLA – CHILL (relax) ‘wearing’ or inside CHINA (Cockney mate)

18a         Thought model short (4)
IDEA – IDEAL (model) ‘short’ or without its last letter

21a         Gold leaf in unusual room, with centre in blue (6)
ORMOLU – An anagram (unusual) of ROOM followed by the ‘centre’ of bLUe

22a         Female, the leading character in rare film (8)
SCARFACE – F (female) and A (the first or leading character in the alphabet) go inside SCARCE (rare)

24a         King — Urdu not quite his original language (7)
KURDISH – K (King) URDu (Urdu ‘not quite’) and an anagram (original) of HIS

25a         Up against it flying to Spain (2,1,4)
IN A SPOT -An anagram (flying) of TO SPAIN

26a         Trickery of member, dear me, surprisingly elected (11)
LEGERDEMAIN – LEG (member), an anagram (surprisingly) of DEAR ME, and IN (elected)

Down

1d           Weaken in bad wind (levanter) (7)
DWINDLE – Lurking in baD WIND LEvanter

2d           Promising volume overdue (6)
VOWING – V (volume) OWING (overdue)

3d           Street kid‘s shown in newspaper with a bun (10)
RAGAMUFFIN – RAG (newspaper) A (from the clue) MUFFIN (bun)

4d           Poisonous things, flying insects heading off (4)
ASPS – Remove the ‘head’ from WASPS (flying insects)

5d           Pair watch, maybe, and cheat (3-5)
TWO-TIMER – TWO (pair) TIMER (watch, maybe)

6d           Choose artist showing a complex character? (7)
ELECTRA – ELECT (choose) RA (artist)

7d           Timepiece — not right upstairs, notice (6,5)
CUCKOO CLOCK – CUCKOO (an informal term meaning slightly mad, not right ‘upstairs’) CLOCK (notice here being a verb)

9d           Moving pentameter about male outlook (11)
TEMPERAMENT – An anagram (moving) of PENTAMETER put ‘about’ M (male)

12d         Underground deposit, old — work on it inside (10)
STALACTITE – STALE (old)with ACT (work) and IT (from the clue) ‘inside’  

15d         Reprimand son, unfriendly in general, at first (8)
SCOLDING – S (son) COLD (unfriendly) IN (from the clue) G (general)

17d         One with military decoration said to be corrupt (7)
IMMORAL – I (one) MM (military medal, decoration) ORAL (said)

19d         Notice the old man in study, expressionless (7)
DEADPAN – AD (notice) PA (dad) in DEN (study)

20d         Engaged in war, Madagascan navy (6)
ARMADA – Lurking (engaged) in wAR MADAgascan

23d         One cleans vehicle husband’s collected (4)
CHAR – H (husband) collected in CAR (vehicle)

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