Sunday Telegraph No 2913
A full review by crypticsue
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This puzzle was published on 20th 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
CS – thank you for the explanation for 20d.