Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28594

A full review by crypticsue

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This puzzle was published on 25^th November 2017

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

A nice Mister Ron offering this week – no special favourites, a nice puzzle to both solve and then review.

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.

Across

1a    Book accommodation with credit, and transport for Halloween (10)
BROOMSTICK – B (book) ROOMS (accommodation) TICK (credit)

6a    As drink might be ordered (4)
NEAT – An undiluted drink, or an adjective meaning in an orderly fashion

9a    Let go manual worker, one taking others for a ride (10)
FREELOADER – FREE (let go) LOADER (manual worker)

10a    Fix son’s legs (4)
PINS – PIN (fix) S (son)

12a    Good boy, happy (4)
GLAD – G (good) LAD (boy)

13a    Uncertainty following detective arresting Beds town’s dangerous element (9)
PLUTONIUM – UM (an expression of uncertainty) following PI (detective) ‘arresting’ LUTON (Bedfordshire town)

15a    Figure pathogen out (8)
HEPTAGON – An anagram (out) of PATHOGEN

16a    Forces politician into terrible lies (6)
IMPELS – MP (politician) into an anagram (terrible) of LIES

18a    Cry, having starter of sour milk product (6)
SCREAM – S (the starter of Sour) CREAM (milk product)

20a    Seethe at dodgy art lover (8)
AESTHETE – An anagram (dodgy) of SEETHE AT

23a    Affair resulting in daughter before marriage? (9)
DALLIANCE – D (daughter) before ALLIANCE (marriage)

24a    Plunder part of subsidiary in recession (4)
RAID – In recession indicates we are looking for a reversed lurker in part of subsiDIARy

26a    Animal from island west of Bute extremely cross (4)
IBEX – I (island), B E (the extreme letters of ButE) and X (cross)

27a    Broken grate included in quotes smokes (10)
CIGARETTES – An anagram (broken) of grate ‘included in’ CITES (quotes)

28a    Prime Minister from European country (not its south-west) (4)
EDEN – Take the SW (south west) away from SWEDEN (European country)

29a    Persistent crew in the middle, not fast? (10)
RELENTLESS – The middle two letters of cREw and LENTLESS (without a time of fasting such as Lent)

 
Down

1d    Polish expert (4)
BUFF – Double definition time – a verb and a noun

2d    What greedy cat might do in shared area (7)
OVERLAP – A greedy cat might well lap up too much milk

3d    Hammy actor with dilemma performing (12)
MELODRAMATIC – An anagram (performing) of ACTOR with DILEMMA

4d    A poet’s drunk, working to find something that stirs (8)
TEASPOON – An anagram (drunk) of A POETS followed by ON (working)

5d    Revolutionary massage for angelic figure (6)
CHERUB – CHE (Crosswordland’s favourite revolutionary) and RUB (massage)

7d    Sheeran providing something cool, something monumental (7)
EDIFICE – ED (Mr Sheeran the pop singer) IF (providing) ICE (something cool)

8d    Question Time taking precedence with teacher’s demanding boss (10)
TASKMASTER – T (time) taking precedence or going before ASK (question) with MASTER (teacher)

11d    Area where they get the Daily Express? (8,4)
COMMUTER BELT – Nice cryptic definition with misleading capitals for Daily and Express!

14d    Desperate wives’ third card-school (5,5)
WHIST DRIVE – An anagram (desperate) of WIVES THIRD

17d    Bill interrupts peaceful song (8)
SERENADE – AD (bill) ‘interrupts’ SERENE (peaceful)

19d    Replace engineers on holiday, we are told (7)
RELIEVE – RE (Royal Engineers) on a homophone (we are told) of LEAVE (holiday)

21d    Record list rewritten by European for Romans, say? (7)
EPISTLE – EP (record), an anagram (rewritten) of LIST, E (European)

22d    Source of power from spirit in seance on a regular basis (6)
ENGINE – GIN (spirit) in the regular letters of sEaNcE

25d    A sibling’s unchanged (2,2)
AS IS – An ‘old friend’ to finish – split A SIS (a sibling) 2,2

B1