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DT 29293

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29293

A full review by crypticsue

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This puzzle was published on 22nd February 2020

BD Rating – Difficulty ***Enjoyment **

One for fans of anagrams and/or ‘container and contents’ clues; one of the latter, 18d, being my Down favourite as I did smile at the ‘one in hand’; my Across favourite was 12a

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.

Across

1a    Union supporter surprisingly is left outside backing a communist (10)
FEDERALIST – An anagram (surprisingly) of IS LEFT put ‘outside’ a reversal (backing) of A (from the clue) and RED (communist)

6a    Theatrical party (4)
CAMP – Double definition

9a    Tangle with international footballer (5)
MESSI – MESS (tangle) with I (international)

10a    Right to vote of a man in European country (9)
FRANCHISE – HIS (of a man) inserted into FRANCE (European country)

12a    Award one successful with first clue! (8,5)
VICTORIA CROSS – VICTOR (one successful) with I (one) ACROSS (first clue)

14a    Crudely looks back on fresh depiction of recent events (8)
NEWSREEL – This type of depiction of recent events was prevalent between the 1910s and the 1960s! A reversal (back) of LEERS (crudely looks) on NEW (fresh)

15a    Lower status of church dignitary around Middle East (6)
DEMEAN – DEAN (church dignitary) ‘around’ ME (Middle East)

17a    Cheerful pub to get drunk and have a meal (6)
UPBEAT – An anagram (to get drunk) of PUB plus EAT (have a meal)

19a    Product of Seagrams, one may relieve stress (8)
MASSAGER – An anagram (product of) SEAGRAMS

21a    Biblical character — I put in ‘apostle’ erroneously (7,6)
PONTIUS PILATE – An anagram (erroneously) of I PUT APOSTLE

24a    Supporter at home was hard to indoctrinate (9)
BRAINWASH – BRA (supporter) IN (at home) WAS (from the clue) H (hard)

25a    Head off arm-in-arm showing tattoos (5)
INKED – Remove the ‘head’ or first letter of LINKED (arm-in-arm)

26a    Dash around during vernal equinox (4)
ELAN – Lurking (during) in reverse (around) in verNAL Equinox

27a    Inexperienced people guided head of government in affairs (10)
FLEDGLINGS – LED (guided) and the ‘head’ of Government inserted into FLINGS (affairs)

Down

1d    Celebrity makes a couple of notes (4)
FAME – Split the solution 2,2 and you get a couple of musical notes

2d    Deny Ovid was involved in Metamorphoses (7)
DISAVOW – An anagram (involved) of OVID WAS. Coincidentally the Giant GK Crossword required you to know who wrote Metamorphoses

3d    Making a comeback, getting about in the pink? (13)
REINCARNATION – RE (about) IN (from the clue) CARNATION (pink)

4d    Spare from socialist excess (8)
LEFTOVER – LEFT (socialist) OVER (excess)

5d    Posh part of London holding a mass for teacher (5)
SWAMI – SWI (posh part of London) ‘holding’ A (from the clue) and M (mass)

7d    Swim over sea back to front, being fat (7)
ADIPOSE – DIP (swim) O (over) and SEA (from the clue) with the A at the back moved to the front of the solution

8d    Lower orders comprehending students making fatuous remark (10)
PLEASANTRY – PEASANTRY (lower orders) ‘comprehending’ L (student) – Surely the students in the clue should be singular as you only need one L to insert into the lower orders??

11d    One to welcome dawn crossing bridge with one’s dog (6,7)
COCKER SPANIEL – COCKEREL (one welcoming dawn) ‘crossing’ SPAN (bridge) and I (one)

13d    Alpine club disbanded is not to blame (10)
INCULPABLE – An anagram (disbanded) of ALPINE CLUB

16d    Seized area captured by whirling Dervish (8)
RAVISHED – A (area) ‘captured’ by an anagram (whirling) of DERVISH

18d    Headgear of daughter taken by one in hand (7)
BANDANA – D (daughter) ‘taken by’ BANANA (one in hand)

20d    Good family will take her to find London landmark (7)
GHERKIN – G (good) KIN (family) will ‘take’ HER (from the clue)

22d    Will Shakespeare’s first grand house (5)
SHALL – The first letter of Shakespeare and a HALL (grand house)

23d    Misdeeds regularly ignored in certain days in Rome (4)
IDES – Ignore the regular letters of mIsDeEdS

3 comments on “DT 29293

  1. Thank you CS, for once I didn’t complete this, the south went in fairly easily but the north eluded me even with the hints, comments on the blog and assistance from dad!

    I’m obviously a slogger rather than better 😀

  2. I thought this was a goodie, the stars would be swapped around for me and agree with the 8d comment, plus 12a & 18d faves
    Thanks CS

  3. Really kicking myself as well. Got al the officiating ones but 6 across and 22d eluded me for some reason. On front line of COVID so maybe distracted!

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