ST 2963

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2963

A full review by crypticsue

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This puzzle was published on 5^th August 2018

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

A hot sunny Sunday and a Virgilius crossword to solve – what more could one want? Too hard to pick just one clue I really like so I’ll just say that my d’oh moment was 10a

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Across

1a    Coming from abroad, one left on board falls in sea (8)
IMPORTED – I (one) and PORT (left on board ship) inserted (falls in) into MED (Mediterranean Sea)

9a    Trick requiring skill if leading diamonds (8)
ARTIFICE – ART (skill) IF (from the clue) ICE (diamonds)

10a    Cut initial sources of needles (4)
FIRS – Truncate (cut) FIRSt (initial) – this one took me longer to ‘see’ than all the rest of the crossword

11a    Start business with 1000 workers and stick together (12)
COMMENCEMENT – CO (company, business) M (Roman numeral for 1000, MEN (workers) CEMENT (stick together)

13a    A pass from wing in the French game (8)
LACROSSE – A CROSS (a pass from the wing) inserted into LE (French definite article)

15a    If a car is going astray, it has a horn (6)
AFRICA – An anagram (going astray) of IF A CAR

16a    Design section of aeroplane near rear (4)
PLAN – Lurking towards the rear of aroPLANe

17a    Go after one European friend or another (5)
AMIGO – GO (from the clue) goes after AMI (French word for friend) to produce a Spanish friend

18a    Belt, or other article of clothing or clobber (4)
SOCK – Belt, clobber and the solution are all words meaning to hit hard. Included between them is an article of clothing

20a    Went off, upset about nothing (6)
SPOILT – SPILT (upset) about O (nothing)

21a    Isolated state of Australians felt, ultimately, as madness (8)
TASMANIA – The ‘ultimate’ letter of felT, AS (from the clue) and MANIA (madness)

23a    Finding fault with service, enough to produce reaction (8,4)
CRITICAL – CRITICAL (finding fault with) MASS (church service)

26a    What’s writ large for either Aphrodite or Artemis, or another Greek goddess (4)
HERA – The thing that’s written large for either Aphrodite or Artemis is HER capital A at the beginning of the name. Who else noticed that the third Greek goddess is also to be found lurking in eitHER Aphrodite?

27a    Behave imperiously as person who’s active around pit (8)
DOMINEER – DOER (person who’s active) ‘around’ MINE (pit)

28a    Make little of sad tragedy, for instance (8)
DOWNPLAY – DOWN (sad) PLAY (tragedy for instance)

Down

2d    Animal is tangled up in large piece of canvas (8)
MAINSAIL – An anagram (tangled up) of ANIMAL IS

3d    Resisting enlightenment, having messed up subtractions (12)
OBSCURANTIST – An anagram (messed up) of SUBTRACTIONS

4d    Name Gray had for Welsh poet (6)
THOMAS – The Christian name of Mr Gray, the poet, is the same as the surname as the Welsh poet, Dylan

5d    May first, for example, become old-fashioned (4)
DATE – May the first being an example of a date in the calendar; the same word can be used to mean become old-fashioned

6d    Disconnected way to play toccatas in new arrangement (8)
STACCATO – An anagram (in new arrangement) of TOCCATAS

7d    Graves found in cellar, say (4)
WINE – Graves being an example (say) of something found in a wine cellar

8d    Part of French capital deposited with moneylender (4,4)
LEFT BANK – LEFT (deposited) BANK (moneylender)

12d    Models act as crew that’s needed for shooting (12)
MARKSMANSHIP – MARKS (models) MAN SHIP (act as crew)

14d    Legally remove some of the victims (5)
EVICT – Found lurking in some of thE VICTims

16d    Job English medic set up that helps with deliveries (8)
POSTCODE – POST (job) and a reversal (set up in a Down clue) of E (English) DOC (medic)

17d    Like office trainees, perhaps, object over board’s conclusion (8)
ARTICLED – ARTICLE (object) goes over the D that concludes boarD

19d    Island restricted by absurdly erratic standards (8)
CRITERIA – I (island) restricted by, or inserted into, an anagram (absurdly) of ERRATIC

22d    Follow performance with commercial break? (6)
SHADOW – SHOW (performance) with AD (commercial) inserted (break?)

24d    Part of poetic line — the writer is British (4)
IAMB – I AM (the writer is) B (British)

25a    Ruler producing line on circle — radius, then diameter (4)
LORD- L (line) O (circle) R (radius) D (diameter)