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DT 29240

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29240

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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)

3 comments on “DT 29240

    1. I have real problems with this setter, take quite a time to solve his clues, and definitely don’t find the experience enjoyable

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