Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28540
A full review by Crypticsue
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This puzzle was published on 23rd September 2017
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
I found the bottom of this Saturday Prize Crossword a lot harder than the top, and unusually for me, went into 3* difficulty time for a back-pager.
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Across
1a Athlete’s tip for training — he knows what you are thinking (11)
TELEPATHIST – An anagram (for training) of ATHLETES TIP
10a European movies, long ones (5)
EPICS – E (European) PICS (movies)
11a China‘s police ran amok (9)
PORCELAIN – An anagram (amok) of POLICE RAN
12a Adaptable creature, desert animal accepting hard time (9)
CHAMELEON – CAMEL (desert animal) ‘accepting’ H (hard) and followed by EON (time)
13a Emerge with a pay increase (5)
ARISE – A (from the clue) RISE (pay increase)
14a Turned on by some form of worship (6)
LITANY – LIT (turned on) ANY (some)
16a Using a particular method, prepares tomatoes and various items (8)
SUNDRIES – Prepares tomatoes using a particular method. This photographs explains Jane’s comment on Saturday afternoon. On a very hot day, you can use the car dashboard to make sundried tomatoes – it works best on the red cherry ones rather than the larger yellow plum ones which take a long time to dry out. Once they are dried enough, put into a jar and cover with olive oil and add some dried herbs – I used Sainsbury’s Italian mixed herbs.
18a Theatre’s promotion: act Shakespeare in an unusually familiar way? (8)
PLAYBILL – PLAY (act) BILL (an unusually familiar way of referring to Mr Shakespeare, as we’d normally call him Will)
20a Fiery, sailor? Take it easy? (6)
ABLAZE – AB (sailor) LAZE (take it easy)
23a Girl from island accompanied by Frenchman (5)
IRENE – I (island) accompanied by RENE (Frenchman)
24a Member of clergy facing debts associated with someone else (9)
VICARIOUS – VICAR (member of clergy) IOUS (debts)
26a Costumier dated mechanic (9)
OUTFITTER – OUT (dated) FITTER (mechanic)
27a Car with old sound system (5)
AUDIO – AUDI (a car that’s been in several crosswords recently) with O (old)
28a Emotional pull found in running (4-7)
TEAR-JERKING – JERK (pull) found in TEARING (running)
Down
2d Show some rare vitality (5)
EVITA – Lurking in some rarE VITAlity
3d Oriental festival before 1st of November (7)
EASTERN – EASTER (festival) before the N that is the first letter of November
4d Cut top off piece of embroidery, it’s more than enough! (6)
AMPLER – Cut the top of a SAMPLER (piece of embroidery)
5d Managed in a huge complex producing slate (8)
HARANGUE – RAN (managed) inserted into an anagram (complex) of A HUGE
6d Race official‘s second raised blast arresting you and I (7)
STEWARD – S (second) followed by a reversal (raised in a Down clue) of DRAT (blast), the latter ‘arresting’ WE (you and I)
7d Hire pro to broadcast about unravelling clue — him? (7,6)
HERCULE POIROT – An anagram (broadcast) of HIRE PRO TO goes about another anagram (unravelling) of CLUE
8d Fawlty towers above art gallery and church (8)
BASILICA – BASIL (Mr Fawlty) ‘towers above’ or goes before ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts, gallery)
9d Entire prison’s broken out, scattering (13)
INTERSPERSION – An anagram (broken out) of ENTIRE PRISONS
15d Take to court about a T-shirt? Injustice! (8)
TRAVESTY – TRY (take to court) goes ‘about’ A (from the clue) and VEST (T-shirt?)
17d Lift woolly to reveal … (8)
ELEVATOR – An anagram (woolly) of TO REVEAL
19d … what followed Dior’s famous style, they say — most direct approach (7)
BEELINE – Dior’s famous style was the A-Line, so the solution is a homophone (they say) of the style that followed – the B-Line
21a Obama receiving Republican heckle (7)
BARRACK – BARACK (Obama) ‘receiving’ R (Republican)
22a Rare blemish on church (6)
SCARCE – SCAR (blemish) on CE (Church of England)
25a See rising study of ancient times (5)
OLDEN – A reversal (rising) of LO (see) followed by DEN (study)
S2