Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2932
A full review by crypticsue
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This puzzle was published on 31st 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
The advantage of currently running 8 days behind (rather than my usual 7) on the crosswords is that I didn’t have long for this review, so that I could finally understand the parsing of 18d. Thank you Crypticsue!
Delighted to help
I trotted through this quite happily until my last one in, which I stared blankly at for far too long. Then I realised I had the wrong ending for 8a. Double D’oh!!
Thanks for the review CS
I remember doing this but thanks to my OH and his insistence on clearing papers away I have lost my notes as usual. Smiley stuff as always, must have pleased with result. Thanks as always Sue.
I can never find the crossword by the time the review is here, and I can’t even blame my OH – it’s all my own fault. If I haven’t thrown it out I can’t find it.
I do remember 6d causing a spot of bother.
The usual brilliant Sunday crossword so thanks to Virgilus for the crossword and to CS for the review.
Single ticks for 8A, 23D and 25D
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