DT 28791

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28791

A full review by crypticsue

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This puzzle was published on 14^th July 2018

BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

A fairly average Saturday puzzle, in yet another of those grids with double unches. My particular favourite was 24d because of the ‘appropriate item’

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Across

1a    Problem jazz fan picks up in gossip (8)
CHITCHAT – CAT (jazz fan) ‘picks up’ or has inserted HITCH (problem)

9a    Four articles about medium’s curse (8)
ANATHEMA – AN + A + THE + A (four grammatical articles) go ‘about’ M (medium)

10a    Worry about appearing in business paper (4)
FRET – RE (about) ‘appearing in’ FT (Financial Times, business paper)

11a    Working with stars, fool collects prize (that’s right) (12)
ASTROPHYSICS – The fourth insertion clue in a row – ASS (fool) collects TROPHY (prize) and SIC (so, that’s right)

13a    Engineer gets best clothes for chemical plant (8)
REFINERY – RE (Royal Engineer) and FINERY (best clothes)

15a    Shed small amount of light on tea that’s stewed (4-2)
LEAN-TO – L (one letter, a small amount, of Light) plus an anagram (stewed) of ON TEA

16a    Simple plant found in several gardens (4)
ALGA – Found lurking in severAL GArdens

17a    Group popular in the Nineties touring East being less happy (5)
BLUER – BLUR (group popular in the 90s) ‘touring’ E (east)

18a    Give out ecstasy in front of Cambridge college (4)
EMIT – E (Ecstasy) in front of MIT (the Cambridge Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

20a    Reconnoitring with a view to breaking cover (6)
CASING – Reconnoitring with a view to breaking and entering; another word for a cover

21a    Achieve success through Republican Party ties (2,6)
GO PLACES – GOP (the US Republican Party is known as the Grand Old Party) LACES (ties)

23a    Planes in navy crashed somewhere in USA (12)
PENNSYLVANIA – An anagram (crashed) of PLANES IN NAVY

26a    Good message to departed stagehand (4)
GRIP – G (good) RIP (Rest in Peace, message to departed) gives us a stagehand who moves scenery

27a    Report of events from all directions found (8)
NEWSCAST – NEWS (from all compass directions) CAST (found)

28a    Strongly criticise directors’ salary? (8)
EXECRATE – Fast becoming an ‘old friend’ split the solution 4, 4 and you get EXEC RATE (directors’ salary?)

Down

2d    Renegade caught by Henry makes a bloomer (8)
HAREBELL – REBEL (renegade) ‘caught by’ HAL (Henry)

3d    Italian Trot, a revolutionary dictator? (12)
TOTALITARIAN – An anagram (revolutionary) of ITALIAN TROT A

4d    Travel at speed damaged outside of limousine (6)
HURTLE – HURT (damaged) and L E (the outside letters of LimousinE)

5d    Mexican food cheers company (4)
TACO – TA (cheers, thank you) CO (company)

6d    Composer with uplifting part for one unaccompanied (8)
BACHELOR – BACH (compose) with a reversal (uplifting in a Down clue) of ROLE (part)

7d    TV cook endlessly found in food shop (4)
DELI – Remove the A at the end of DELIA (Smith, the cook we haven’t seen on TV for quite a while)

8d    What one may do during cheese course or entree? (8)
PASSPORT – During the cheese course one may PASS [the] PORT

12d    Theatre worker, a star that’s upcoming caught by surprise (5,7)
STAGE MANAGER – A reversal (upcoming in a Down clue) of A NAME (a star) inserted into (caught by) STAGGER (surprise)

14d    Canadian singer-songwriter, no longer this? (5)
YOUNG – I wonder if Neil YOUNG, the Canadian singer-songwriter, might be offended to learn that our setter considers him no longer young!

16d    Single-handedly captures international gangster (2,6)
AL CAPONE – ALONE (single-handedly) ‘captures’ CAP (international)

17d    Someone scary ravaged money bag (8)
BOGEYMAN – An anagram (ravaged) of MONEY BAG

19d    Person hard to satisfy that is boxing former boxer (8)
IDEALIST – ID EST (that is) ‘boxing’ ALI (former boxer)

22d    Colour in a kind of statistical chart a small digit (6)
PINKIE – INK (colour) inserted into PIE (a type of statistical chart)

24d    Pond creature wife caught in appropriate item (4)
NEWT – W (wife) ‘caught in’ NET (an appropriate item to catch the creature in)

25d    Division of Novotel (4)
VOTE – Lurking in noVOTEl