Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29240
A full review by crypticsue
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This puzzle was published on 21st December 2019
BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *
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Across
1a Tinker a little, using starter only after car’s repaired (6)
RASCAL – A (from the clue) and the ‘starter’ of Little go after an anagram (repaired) of CARS
4a They take you out on your birthday (8)
MIDWIVES – When I eventually worked out what this clue was on about, my reaction was ‘yuck’ which is really quite polite in the circumstances
10a A constituent that’s divorced? (5)
APART – Another ‘A from the clue) plus PART (constituent)
11a After reforming, turn out educated or self-taught? (9)
UNTUTORED – An anagram (after reforming) of TURN OUT plus ED (educated)
12a Bizarre, retiring somewhere in California — blunder by you and me? (7)
SURREAL – A reversal (retiring) of LA (somewhere in California) ERR (blunder) US (you and me)
13a Meadow pipit’s home with the most slender dimensions (7)
LEANEST – LEA (meadow) NEST (pipit’s home)
14a They study some fish, little ones (14)
SCHOOLCHILDREN – SCHOOL (some fish) CHILDREN (little ones)
17a Club in Milan shifted painter to rendering (14)
INTERPRETATION – INTER (Milan football club) followed by an anagram (shifted) of PAINTER
21a One guarantees being cool and confident, right? (7)
INSURER – IN (cool) SURE (confident) R (right)
23a Partly explode prototype spinning missile (7)
TORPEDO – Lurking in reverse (spinning) in part of explODE PROTotype
24a As spy at GCHQ eats, twit occasionally drops food (9)
SPAGHETTI – The occasional letters of aS sPy GcHq EaTs TwIt
25a Collars — you probably have 20 of them (5)
NAILS – A verb meaning arrests (collars) can also refer to 20 things found on your digits
26a Paper from Paris wraps a sparkling drink (8)
LEMONADE – LE MONDE (French newspaper, as read in Paris) ‘wraps’ a third example of “A from the clue”)
27a Commercial about poet’s inspiration was funny (6)
AMUSED – AD (advertisement, commercial) goes ‘about’ MUSE (poet’s inspiration)
Down
1d Think twice about Bible class with son falling behind idiots (8)
REASSESS – RE (Bible class) ASSES (idiots) with S (son) ‘falling behind’ or added at the end
2d University dons huntin’ marine creature (3,6)
SEA URCHIN – U (university) ‘dons’ or puts on the outside SEARCHIN’ (huntin’)
3d School of architecture academy runs up to about the last month (3,4)
ART DECO – A (academy) R (runs) TO (from the clue) ‘about’ DEC (December, the last month)
5d Eggheads showing foolish elitist leaning (14)
INTELLIGENTSIA – An anagram (foolish) of ELITIST LEANING
6d Slough‘s moderate Tory followed by fifty plus (7)
WETLAND – WET (moderate Tory) followed by L (Roman numeral for 50) AND (plus)
7d Dash or run to be involved in the day victory came twice (5)
VERVE – R (run) ‘to be involved’ in two lots (twice) of VE (VE Day being the day victory came in Europe)
8d Decorous meeting in Kent? (6)
SEDATE – A meeting in Kent would be a SE DATE
9d Official ghost writer’s boss should be charitable (6-8)
PUBLIC SPIRITED – PUBLIC (official) SPIRIT (ghost) ED (editor, writer’s boss)
15d Outbreaks of movie star Moore appearing in films like Exodus (9)
EPIDEMICS – DEMI (Ms Moore the movie star) ‘appearing’ in EPICS (films like Exodus)
16d Approved finale with men O’Connor maybe brought over (8)
ENDORSED – END (finale) OR (Ordinary Ranks, men) and a reversal (brought over) of DES (the Christian name of someone like (maybe) Mr O’Connor, the comedian, singer and TV presenter)
18d Made of clay, shell-like article held up by knight (7)
EARTHEN – EAR (shell-like being an informal term for an ear) THE (definite article) held up by (in a Down clue) N (knight in chess notation)
19d Acorn with slight mutation arising, my word, that’s initially important (7)
ACRONYM – Not quite an anagram of ACORN, but a ‘slight mutation’ followed by a reversal (rising) of MY (from the clue)
20d Listen, playing it adds the sparkle to Christmas (6)
TINSEL – An anagram (playing) of LISTEN
22d Nebulous body, fighting between two sizes (5)
SWARM – WAR (fighting) goes between S and M (small and medium, two sizes)
Well, CS, glad someone made sense of that!
Surprised at the rating, ***/*** here
Thanks CS
I have real problems with this setter, take quite a time to solve his clues, and definitely don’t find the experience enjoyable