Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28594
A full review by crypticsue
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This puzzle was published on 25th 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
As usual my notes have long disappeared but I seem to remember enjoying this, got 1d very quickly then 1a dropped into place. Thanks as always for your review. Hope all is well with you and yours.
All fine thank you – hope you and Mr OA are keeping well too.
I thought it was OK, but a teeny bit under par – a couple of niggles. (26a needs a tweak, CS).
Thought 12a, 5d, 25d rather plain…. 23a is getting tired, but this time it’s definition ‘resulting in’ wordplay?
11d probably favourite.
Many thanks to Mister Ron and to CS for the review.
And I’d tried so hard to remember I wanted the animal and not the holly
I thought it was OK but did find a couple of clues a bit Vague