Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28671
A full review by crypticsue
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
This puzzle was published on 24th February 2018
BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Any puzzle with Mr Clifton in it has to be good, regardless of how many times you have to put a letter inside something else, which is the case this week.
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 Strip having turned brown bathing in river (6)
DENUDE – A reversal (having turned) of DUN (brown) ‘bathing’ in the river DEE
4a Shining silver items thrown out (8)
AGLITTER – AG (the chemical symbol for silver) LITTER (items thrown out)
9a Crazy person from Northern Ireland area absorbed in computer (6)
MANIAC – NI (Northern Ireland) A (area) ‘absorbed in’ MAC (computer)
10a Greek character cheers collecting ultimately excellent marks (8)
STIGMATA – SIGMA (Greek character) TA (cheers) ‘collecting’ T (excellenT ‘ultimately’)
11a Rebel gent in revolution protected country (5,4)
GREEN BELT – An anagram (in revolution) of REBEL GENT
13a Gangster with weapon creates panic (5)
ALARM – AL (Capone, the gangster) with ARM (weapon)
14a Refined frigid brunettes I’d abandoned — one wouldn’t make much of a catch! (13)
BUTTERFINGERS – An anagram (refined) of FRIGid BRUNETTES once you’ve abandoned or removed the ID
17a Producer of decorative writing a spiral glitch ruined (13)
CALLIGRAPHIST – An anagram (ruined) of A SPIRAL GLITCH
21a Scoffs at examinations (5)
MOCKS – Double definition, one a verb, the other a plural noun
23a Front of book, e.g. Master and Servant (5,4)
TITLE PAGE – MASTER being a title and PAGE a servant
24a Temperature right in old Spanish kingdom to produce aromatic herb (8)
TARRAGON – T (temperature) and ARAGON (old Spanish kingdom), the latter having R (right) inserted
25a Bird of prey — something normally seen over hill (6)
RAPTOR – A reversal (over) of PAR (something normally seen) over TOR (hill).
26a Looks for food and shelter initially having no fixed abode (8)
ROOTLESS – ROOTLES (looks for food) and S (shelter ‘initially)
27a Strapping king in private room (6)
STURDY – R (Rex, king) in STUDY (private room)
Down
1d Spoil mother with advance of years (6)
DAMAGE – DAM (mother) AGE (advance of years)
2d Somehow ban novel about resistance using signals to communicate (9)
NONVERBAL – According to the BRB, the enumeration should be 3-6. An anagram (somehow) of BAN NOVEL ‘about’ R (Resistance)
3d Curse about engineer briefly coming up in police hunt (7)
DRAGNET – DRAT (a particularly mild curse!) goes ‘about’ a reversal of ENG (engineer ‘briefly’)
5d Learn precisely what to do for post in Greendale (3,2,3,3)
GET IT OFF PAT – Definitely my favourite clue as I spent many years both reading the books and watching Postman Pat when my boys were young
6d Some chasing rainbows to fix colour (7)
INGRAIN – Lurking in some of chasING RAINbows
7d Note a Gunners headband (5)
TIARA – TI (musical note) A (from the clue) RA (Royal Artillery, gunners)
8d Provide more weapons for East German last of all (8)
REARMOST – REARM (provide more weapons) OST (the German word for East)
12d Curses director perhaps with shares (11)
EXECRATIONS – EXEC (director perhaps) with RATIONS (shares)
15d Person in Crowd Scene One in movie, concealing head — fan? (9)
EXTRACTOR – EXTRA (person in crowd scene) aCTOR (one in movie with its head or initial letter concealed)
16d Classic sports car — Micra’s crashed catching it (8)
SCIMITAR – An anagram (crashed) of MICRAS ‘catching’ IT (from the clue)
18d This month everyone gets put in place (7)
INSTALL – INST (this month) ALL (everyone)
19d Nice tax breaks as a ballpark figure (7)
INEXACT – An anagram (breaks) of NICE TAX
20d Pay agriculture department unknown amount (6)
DEFRAY – DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) Y (unknown amount)
22d Piece of bric-a-brac made of copper and gold turned up around India (5)
CURIOS – CU (chemical symbol for copper), a reversal (turned up in a Down clue) of OR (heraldic gold) into which is inserted I (India in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet)
S2
Thanks Sue, not being conversant with Postman Pat I had a wild guess which came good and I enjoyed the butter fingers but there was lots of other goodies to lighten my day.
Liked the quickie pun and 26A.
3*/3*
thank you CS and setter. My 92 year old father was most indignant about 5d, he got it from the crossers but had never heard of Postman Pat! I thought it was a wonderful clue myself….