Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29437
A full review by crypticsue
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This puzzle was published on 8th August 2020
BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment **
A middling-difficulty Saturday puzzle – full of insertions and/with anagrams, a slight beep of the repetition radar, some specialist knowledge (eg 23a) and, although there were a couple of clues/solutions that made me smile, I ended up quite a grumpy blogger by the end of preparing the review
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.
Across
1a Talk loudly about ship that’s vulgarly ostentatious (6)
BRASSY – BRAY (talk loudly) goes about SS (ship)
4a Keeping supply of hosiery (8)
STOCKING – Double definition
10a Woman caught West Indian batsman (5)
CLARA – C (caught) Brian LARA (West Indian batsman)
11a Lamenting bungling order (9)
ALIGNMENT – An anagram (bungling) of LAMENTING
12a Like simple creatures I exist in unconscious state on reflection (7)
AMOEBIC – A reversal (on reflection) of I BE (I exist) inserted into COMA (unconscious state)
13a Reel engaging tip of dancer’s foot (7)
TROTTER – TOTTER (reel) ‘engaging’ the tip or last letter of danceR
14a Harry Hole author — thin, extremely patronising (6-4-4)
HOLIER-THAN-THOU – An anagram (harry) of HOLE AUTHOR THIN
17a Cat fish biting a cheeky young chap (14)
WHIPPERSHAPPER – WHIP (cat) SNAPPER (fish) ‘biting’ or taking inside PER (a)
21a Chemical engineers needing salesperson (7)
REAGENT – RE (Royal Engineers) AGENT (salesperson)
23a A new cricket ball’s right to the front for sport (7)
ARCHERY – A (from the clue) followed by CHERRY (a slang term for a new cricket ball, presumably because of its bright red colour) bringing one of the Rs to the front
24a Got better of fool whose cover is exposed (9)
OUTWITTED – TWIT (fool) covered by OUTED (exposed)
25a Publication is to launch litigation (5)
ISSUE – IS (from the clue) SUE (launch litigation)
26a Key jargon for gourmet food (8)
ESCARGOT – ESC (key on your computer keyboard) ARGOT (jargon)
27a System taking of vassal a due fraction in return (6)
FEUDAL – Hiding in reverse (return) in vassaL A DUE Fraction
Down
1d Support expert going round hospital in pain (8)
BACKACHE – BACK (support) ACE (expert) ‘going round’ H (hospital)
2d Returning greeting by Scottish runner, a religious leader (9)
AYATOLLAH – A reversal (returning) of HALLO (greeting) TAY (Scottish river, runner) A (from the clue)
3d That woman gets minced lamb in butcher’s stall (7)
SHAMBLE – SHE (that woman) into which is inserted an a anagram (minced) of LAMB – I always thought this was pluralized but the BRB has it as singular too – for some reason, if anyone ever said something was a shambles, my mother would always say ‘a shambles is a slaughterhouse’ and I do so wish I’d asked her why!
5d Broadcast transmits Hardy novel (8,6)
TRISTRAM SHANDY – An anagram (broadcast) of TRANSMIT HARDY
6d Defraud kind husband? (7)
CONSORT – CON (defraud) SORT (kind)
7d Failing in record time (5)
INEPT – IN (from the clue) EP (record) T (time)
8d Soldiers packing guns — they’re dangerous (6)
GATORS – OR (other ranks, soldiers) ‘packing’ GATS (guns) – There was a lot of discussion about these abbreviated American guns on Saturday – they’ve been appearing in crosswords for so many years now, I just think of them as ‘crossword guns’ rather than attributing them to any particular nation
9d Book two football teams following dismissal (5,6-3)
CATCH TWENTY-TWO – CATCH (dismissal) followed by TWENTY-TWO (if a football team has eleven players, then two would have ….)
15d Put burden on newspapers blocking article expressing opinion (9)
OPPRESSED – PRESS (newspapers) ‘blocking’ OP[-]ED (a newspaper article expressing the opinion of the writer)
16d Reportedly favour marine creature — or another? (4,4)
GREY SEAL – A homophone (reportedly) of GRACE (favour) EEL (marine creature)
18d Leading politician has popular group in support (7)
PREMIER – REM (popular group) in PIER (support)
19d Record verse penned by young prince (7)
ARCHIVE – V (verse) ‘penned’ by ARCHIE (young prince)
20d Track rhino finally entering wood (6)
GROOVE – The final letter of rhinO ‘entering’ GROVE (wood)
22d Early American map followed by sleuth (5)
AZTEC – AZ (map) followed by TEC (sleuth)
2d caused me some wasted time as I was originally convinced that the Scottish runner was Bruce TULLOH the greeting was AYA giving a mutation of AYATOLLAH !!
I wonder if this was a deliberate trap by the setter , a coincidence and if anyone else made the same wrong connection.
Thanks Sue and please note your regular efforts are appreciated and not wasted .
I do not know if the inclusion of the Toughie on the iPad is a good or bad thing for me . Time will tell .
Thank you
I never thought of Bruce Tulloh and I’d actually met him – my uncle was Gordon Pirie
You are even more famous
Kind of you to say so, but I think not
You keep leaving the S off your middle name in your email address and going into moderation
Thanks . My saved address was wrong. Now corrected .More haste less speed .
Thank you CS for enlightenment, I found this quite a struggle and didn’t finish it maybe because I find it harder to do on the iPad than the hard copy paper (as does Dad)
Thanks to the setter too
One day I’ll get good at these but don’t hold your breath 😀
Well that’s the mystery of the 5/3 homophones in 16d solved – got the last bit but no matter how I said it just couldn’t make the first part work.
Thanks Sue
See below
Just spotted 16d . There is a prey seal ie praise eel .
The marine creature is definite a grey seal – homophone of GRACE (to mark with favour) EEL (another creature)
Many, many thanks C.S. for your explanations ! Regarding my previous comment, I still think this was in no way to my taste or abilities and I got no pleasure from it but at least I now understand some of the thinking in the setters mind ?
10a threw me as I’d put Gayle (Woman caught West Indian batsman) as in woman (Gail) caught (heard) WI batsman (my answer Gayle). Then managed to correct in time to send it in. Then forgot to. Oh not a good week! Stumped for days – and it’s just not cricket when you forget is it?
Thank you CS. This one didn’t get finished and I was intrigued as to its parsing. Just not on the same wavelength.