Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2932

A full review by crypticsue

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

This puzzle was published on 31^st December 2017

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

Quite a lot of putting something inside something else again this week. My difficulty rating reflects the problems I had with a couple of bits of parsing.

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

8a    Admonishment about demonstration (7)
REPROOF – RE (about) PROOF (demonstration)

10a    Land in Middle East, making those people briefly angry (7)
EMIRATE – EM (them, those people ‘briefly’) IRATE (angry)

11a    Invented new way to process oil, in fact (9)
FICTIONAL – An anagram (new way to process) of OIL IN FACT

12a    Instinctive ability that makes learner fit in okay (5)
FLAIR – L (learner) in FAIR (okay)

13a    Work of statistician or carpenter accomplished after short time (5)
TABLE- ABLE (accomplished) goes after T (short, abbreviated, Time)

14a    Having ill feeling made worse by those who rock the boat? (7)
SEASICK – Perhaps not the cryptic definition we wanted to read over breakfast!

17a    Epitome of precision –- ain’t disorganised (15)
PERSONIFICATION – An anagram (disorganized) of OF PRECISION AINT

19a    Didn’t accept first of fellows getting employed again outside (7)
REFUSED – F (the ‘first’ of Fellows) getting REUSED (employed again) ‘outside’

21a    Physical strength shown as one separates partners and their opponents (5)
SINEW – These partners and their opponents are players in a game of bridge. I (one) separates S and N and then E and W follow

24a    Area covered by strike, island or part of island (5)
HAITI – A (area) covered by HIT (strike) followed by I (island)

26a    Record including location for weathervane as planned (9)
CONSPIRED – CD ‘including’ ON SPIRE (location for weathervane)

27a    Striking foreigner encountered in street (7)
SALIENT – ALIEN ‘encountered’ in ST (street)

28a    It’s like gold — that’s what we hear? Not at all! (7)
SILENCE – is golden!

Down

1d    Gain leading scholar on subject of computers etc (6)
PROFIT – PROF (professor, leading scholar) on IT (subject of computers etc)

2d    Special key and tempo in second piece of music (5,3)
SPACE BAR – PACE (tempo) goes in between S (second) and BAR (piece of music)

3d    Like some trees, if planted in clay, initially burdensome (10)
CONIFEROUS – IF ‘planted’ in C (clay ‘initially’) ONEROUS (burdensome)

4d    Article is unusually practical (9)
REALISTIC – An anagram (unusually) of ARTICLE IS

5d    Row in boat if fit, also going the other way at the end (4)
TIFF – lurking both forwards and backwards (going the other way) in boaT IF FIT

6d    Hunting trip in South Africa, with no end of panic, rearranged (6)
SAFARI – S (south) plus an anagram (rearranged) of AFRICA without no ‘end’ of panic

7d    What ceremonially covers soldier and supports family (8)
BEARSKIN – BEARS (supports) KIN (family)

9d    Taking away some capital punishment? Excellent (4)
FINE – A cryptic definition of a type of punishment that takes away some of your capital; or an adjective meaning excellent

15d    Awfully mad appeals –- male, in particular, gets it in the neck (5,5)
ADAMS APPLE – An anagram (awfully) of MAD APPEALS

16d    Justify very abbreviated show (9)
VINDICATE – V (very abbreviated) INICATE (show)

17d    Buy tea in container for cash (8)
PURCHASE – CHA (tea) in PURSE (container for cash)

18d    I admit limited number inside, being rude (8)
IGNORANT – I GRANT (I admit) with NO (limited or abbreviated number) inside

20d    Travel by plane outside atmosphere? Rather! (6)
FAIRLY – FLY (travel by plane) ‘outside’ AIR (atmosphere)

22d    Small device wife and I would understand (6)
WIDGET – W (wife) I’D (I would) GET (understand)

23d    Bishop at first removed from extra responsibility (4)
ONUS – B (Bishop at first) removed from BONUS (extra)

25d    Thought middleman oddly deficient (4)
IDEA – Oddly deficient indicates that you only need the even numbers of mIdDlEmAn

S2