Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Sunday Telegraph No 2913

A full review by crypticsue

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This puzzle was published on 20^th August 2017

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

A Sunday puzzle that took me longer than usual to solve – I think one of the things that held up me was waiting for the penny to drop for 20d.

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Across

1a     Turn rough when one’s car is wrecked (7)
COARSEN – An anagram (wrecked) of ONES CAR

5a     Violent storm happening in recurrent series (7)
CYCLONE – ON (happening) in CYCLE (recurrent series)

9a     Gather in front of dramatic scenes of Japanese blaze (7)
INFERNO – INFER (gather) NO (Japanese ‘dramatic scenes’)

10a     Learn again in university after career in oil company (5,2)
BRUSH UP – U (university) goes after RUSH (career) and is then inserted into BP (oil company)

11a     Run into street artist that can carry some cases (9)
STRETCHER – R (run) goes into ST (street) ETCHER (artist)

12a     Holding part of flier distributed in capital only (5)
TALON – Distributed (lurking) in capiTAL ONly

13a     Famous limited edition? On the contrary (5)
NOTED – NOT (on the contrary) ED (limited or abbreviated edition)

15a     Report a form of knowledge found in Asian city (9)
BANGALORE – BANG (report) A (from the clue) LORE (form of knowledge)

17a     Leader of Scots or Welsh, for example, not English or Irish (9)
CONSONANT – The ‘leaders’ of English and Irish being vowels!

19a     Back became reconciled to missing kick in cup? (5)
DECAF – A reversal (back) of FACED (became reconciled to)

22a     Doctor with practice, shy and timid type (5)
MOUSE – MO (doctor) USE (practice)

23a     Person after good deal with more off, pocketing profit (9)
BARGAINER – BARER (with more off) ‘pocketing’ GAIN (profit)

25a     Measure used by farmer in frantic race against time (7)
ACREAGE – An anagram (frantic) of RACE goes ‘against’ or next to AGE (time)

26a     Leaves producer as original costume supplier (3,4)
FIG TREE – A lovely cryptic definition that made me smile

27a     Spades put on table, spread out (7)
SPLAYED – S (spades in a pack of cards) PLAYED (put on table)

28a     Child attached to friend without reservation (7)
TOTALLY – TOT (child) ALLY (friend)

Down

1d     Argument against covering lips bright red (7)
CRIMSON – CON (argument against) ‘covering’ RIMS (lips)

2d     Initially put evergreens in allotment — left, right, and centre (2,5)
AT FIRST – FIRST (evergreens) put in the letters that are positioned left right and centre in AlloTmenT – my clue of the day

3d     Row across river, getting little fish (5)
SPRAT – SPAT (row) goes ‘across’ R (river)

4d     Dread of the new phone let loose old prejudice, mostly (9)
NEOPHOBIA – an anagram (let loose) of PHONE followed by O (old) and BIA (most of BIAS, prejudice)

5d     In romantic Aberdeen, requirement for Highland fling? (5)
CABER – Lurking in romantiC ABERdeen

6d     King or queen, say — or royal jester? (5,4)
COURT CARD – Another reference to a pack of cards – a COURT (royal) CARD (jester)

7d     The lines at the heart of old, old tragedy (7)
OTHELLO – THE (from the clue) and LL (lines) go at the heart of O (old) and O (old)

8d     Looks for gold in river area (7)
EXPANSE – PANS (looks for gold) in the river EXE

14d     Desert traveller roamed haphazardly in arid setting (9)
DROMEDARY – An anagram (haphazardly) of ROAMED inserted into DRY (arid)

16d     What’s finally made from fine fabric for suit (3,6)
NET PROFIT – NET (fine fabric) PRO (for) FIT (suit)

17d     Course guide and firm criticism ultimately leading to success for student (7)
COMPASS – CO (company, firm) M (the ultimate letter of criticism) PASS (success for student)

18d     In which one parkswithout any charge (7)
NEUTRAL – A double definition which I seem to remember caused a bit of ‘conversation’ about whether you should park with your car in gear rather than in neutral

20d     Every answer here has one such letter — that’s key (7)
CENTRAL – Every single solution in this crossword has an odd number of letters so they all have one ‘central’ letter in the middle

21d     Press ahead with railway, making money illegally (7)
FORGERY – FORGE (press ahead) RY (railway)

23d     Money raised, we hear (5)
BREAD – A slang term for money is a homophone (we hear) of BRED (raised)

24d     Mythical ship on time, in a manner of speaking (5)
ARGOT – ARGO (mythical ship) on T (time)

B1