DT 28671

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28671

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This puzzle was published on 24^th 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.

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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)

 

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