Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2968

A full review by crypticsue

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This puzzle was published on 9^th September 2018

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

Lots to enjoy as per usual on a Sunday – the clues I specially liked were 15a, 23a, 22d and 24d

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.

Across

7a    Small animal and minute bird holding on (8)
MONGOOSE – M (minute) GOOSE (bird) ‘holding’ ON (from the clue)

9d    As substitute, make score of ten? (6)
DOUBLE – If you double ten you get twenty (score)

10a    Soft term of endearment is insincere (6)
PHONEY – P (soft) HONEY (term of endearment)

11a    Major post in advertising business (8)
MAILSHOT – Unsolicited advertising material

12a    Maiden I, perhaps wrongly, concluded is not well understood (14)
MISAPPREHENDED – M (maiden) I (from the clue) an anagram (wrongly) of PERHAPS and then  ENDED (concluded)

15a    Section of final song, and original source, too (4)
ALSO – Lurking twice in sections of finAL SOng and originAL SOurce

17a    Avoid what’s hot and cold initially (5)
CHEAT – HEAT (what’s hot) with C (cold) initially

19a    Stepping finally on ladder, or part of one (4)
RUNG – G (the final letter of stepping) on RUN (ladder in a pair of tights perhaps)

20a    Observed action of opponents in court, say, with appeal (9,5)
SPECTATOR SPORT – a cryptic definition

23a    Old book favouring words like ‘doth’ and ‘hath’ (8)
PROVERBS – PRO (favouring) VERBS (words like doth and hath)

25a    Support alternative to flights going in one direction (6)
UPLIFT – Alternatives to flights of stairs going in one direction – up rather than down

27a    Capital‘s first letter followed by second (6)
ATHENS – A (first letter) THEN (followed by) S (second)

28a    Metaphor is making, in part, for pithy pronouncement (8)
APHORISM – Lurking in part of metAPHOR IS Making

Down

1d    Child raised on hotel food (4)
NOSH – A reversal (raised in a Down clue) of SON goes on top of H (hotel)

2d    Get old and revised list of items (6)
AGENDA – AGE (get old) plus an anagram (revised) of AND

3d    Conclusions in hard case came from judge (4)
DEEM – The ‘conclusions’ in harD casE camE froM

4d    Guidance daughter needed, trapped in a bad habit (6)
ADVICE – D (daughter) ‘trapped in’ A VICE (a bad habit)

5d    Awfully tedious Republican who’s unlikely to win? (8)
OUTSIDER – An anagram (awfully)of TEDIOUS followed by R (Republican)

6d    Contributor of vital liquid assets deposited in bank (5,5)
BLOOD DONOR – A cryptic definition

8d    I comply with rearrangement of international events (7)
OLYMPIC – An anagram (with rearrangement) of I COMPLY

13d    Provide with pictures from artist in US, little altered (10)
ILLUSTRATE – RA (artist) inserted into an anagram (altered) of US LITTLE

14d    Constant temperature for competition (5)
EVENT – EVEN (constant) T (temperature)

16d    Summary covering struggle with weight (8)
OVERVIEW – OVER (covering) VIE (struggle) W (weight)

18d    Having got to the end of most of the difficult part of course (7)
THROUGH – TH (most of THe) ROUGH (most difficult part of golf course)

21d    In this way, husband is capturing rook or another bird (6)
THRUSH – THUS (in this way) H (husband) ‘capturing’ R (Rook)

22d    Partly switching sides — pathetic (6)
PALTRY – Switch the R and L (sides) in paRtLy

24d    Writer understood about his heroine’s character deficit? (4)
SHAW – SAW (understood) ‘about’ an H – Shaw’s heroine, Eliza Doolittle couldn’t say her Hs

26d    Don’t eat convenient kind of food (4)
FAST – A final double definition

Any errors in both this and tomorrow’s Prize Puzzle review are the result of my only realising that the Gnome was off on his holidays when he posted on Facebook a picture of a cold beer at Gatwick Airport last Sunday morning.   If only I’d known this before I put drops in my right eye as part of the preparations for a cataract operation!   I’ve read both reviews through and can’t see any obvious errors but I’m sure someone will find at least one.  Gnomethang should be back on duty next week, but if not, at least I’ll be able to see clearly exactly what I’m doing

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