Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28887

A full review by crypticsue

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This puzzle was published on 3rd November 2018

BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

Solved on the train to London – I personally didn’t find it that tricky as others did on the day,  but if it is the setter I think it is, he does produce clues with a little more to unravel than the other Saturday Mysterons 

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Across

1a    Outskirts of Brisbane left right behind too (7)
BESIDES – The ‘outskirts’ of BrisbanE and SIDES (left and right)

5a    Blue landscape depicted by old boy (7)
OBSCENE – SCENE (landscape) by OB (old boy)

9a    Carpenter’s mate with uniform held in stomach, sadly English droopy feature (6,9)
WALRUS MOUSTACHE – WALRUS (the mate of the carpenter in the Lewis Carroll verse) and U (uniform) held in an anagram (sadly) of STOMACH followed by an E (English)

10a    Measure edge (4)
INCH – A double definition, the second being a verb meaning to move by slow degrees

11a    Husband rather routine? (5)
HABIT – H (husband) A BIT (rather)

12a    Duck enclosure not bolted (4)
OPEN – O (duck) PEN (enclosure)

15a    Mob means one takes this route on ship (7)
GANGWAY – GANG (mob) WAY (means one takes)

16a    Kind of clothing article oddly missing pleat Mary sent back (7)
THERMAL – The kind of clothing I wish I’d worn as it was very cold in the pub courtyard on Saturday afternoon. THE (definite article) and a reversal (sent back) of the even (oddly missing) letters of pLeAt MaRy

17a    Revolution mainly works in theatre — one with unique outlook (7)
CYCLOPS – This one-eyed giant is Crosswordland’s mythical person of the moment as he’s been around quite a bit in recent weeks. Most of a CYCLe (revolution mainly) OPS (works in theatre)

19a    Current will flow through non-stop, I calculate (7)
TOPICAL – Lurking in (will flow through) non-sTOP I CALculate

21a    Space dock approached the wrong way (4)
ROOM – A reversal (approached the wrong way) of MOOR (dock)

22a    Explorer that travels via land, water and air (5)
DRAKE – My favourite clue – not only the name of a famous explorer but a bird that travels via land, water and air

23a    Called relative making good move to the East End (4)
RANG – Take a GRAN (relative) and move the G for good to the east end of the word

26a    It turns men soppy, meeting celebrity player (15)
INSTRUMENTALIST – An anagram (soppy) of IT TURNS MEN ‘meeting’ A LIST (celebrity)

27a    Regular howler, having damaged car by getting by (7)
CRYBABY – An anagram (damaged) of CAR BY followed with (getting) BY (from the clue)

28a    Nick is closer, in an aggressive way (7)
SLAMMER – Nick and the solution are informal terms for a prison – the solution also sounds like someone who closes a door aggressively

Down

1d    Making deliveries, being personally inclined to keep left (7)
BOWLING – BOWING (being personally inclined) to ‘keep’ L (left)

2d    Corrupt councils’ foe’s cunning, in an awkward way (4-11)
SELF-CONSCIOUSLY – An anagram (corrupt) of COUNCILS FOE followed by SLY (cunning)

3d    Forbidding daughter to join quartet with no following (4)
DOUR – D (daughter) to join fOUR (quartet without the F for following)

4d    Announced as Jun-Aug, in brief (7)
SUMMARY – A homophone (announced) of SUMMERY (as June to August)

5d    One studying vision of love is taken in by sect (7)
OCULIST – O (love) and IS (from the clue) ‘taken in by’ CULT (sect)

6d    It’s in Home Counties locale (4)
SITE – IT (from the clue) in SE (Home Counties)

7d    Chopped-up spam in mac with cheese as fall-back option? (6,9)
ESCAPE MECHANISM – An anagram (chopped up) of SPAM IN MAC with CHEESE

8d    Going on and on about first sign of trucks breaking road up (7)
ETERNAL – RE (one) and T (the first sign of trucks) ‘breaking’ LANE (road) and then reversed (up in a Down clue)

13d    Presently being full of whisky, black out (5)
SWOON – SOON (presently) being full of (having inserted) W (whisky representing W in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet)

14d    Forecasters backed Italian runner’s speed (5)
TEMPO – A reversal of the MET (office, weather forecasters) followed by the Italian river PO

17d    One ace — clubs — following, say, queen of hearts (7)
CARDIAC – I (one) A (ace) C (clubs) following CARD (queen of hearts, say)

18d    Agent stocking cold spirit and other alcohol (7)
SCRUMPY – SPY (agent) ‘stocking’ C (cold) and RUM (spirit)

19d    Income deposited rises, protecting man at the top (7)
TAKINGS – Rises indicates a reversal of SAT (deposited) into which is inserted (protecting) KING (man at the top)

20d    Barge in having lost some shades? (7)
LIGHTER – A type of barge or a description of something having lost some shades

24d    Department that’ll give you an A in geometry (4)
AREA – A being the abbreviation used in geometry to mean area

25d    ‘Georgia, Georgia on my mind?’ No, out of it (4)
GAGA – A clue to make you smile at the end of the crossword – two lots of GA, the abbreviation for the US State of Georgia