Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29455
A full review by crypticsue
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Another Saturday, another prize puzzle
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.
Across
7a Paint Dean Court ground (9)
UNDERCOAT – An anagram (ground) of DEAN COURT
8a Mean to get wasted (5)
TIGHT – Double definition – miserly (mean) or drunk (wasted)
10a Way to load part-emptied revolver? (6)
PLANET – LANE (way) to ‘load’ the outside (emptied) letters of ParT
11a Drunk shortly drinking last of booze in pub (8)
HOSTELRY – An anagram (drunk) of SHORTLY ‘drinking’ the last letter of boozE
12a Wingers of value in one Madrid team for show (6)
REVEAL – More ‘outside’ letters, this time the wingers of ValuE inserted into REAL (just one of the football teams that are based in Madrid)
14a Again and again? (6)
THRICE – If you do something again, that’s twice, so again would be THRICE
16a Stick close to flatmate in block (4)
BEAR – The ‘close’ to flatmatE inserted into BAR (block)
17a Good people achieving freedom from sin (5)
GRACE – G (good) RACE (people)
18a Fish convulse when beheaded (4)
HAKE – ‘Behead’ or remove the first letter from sHAKE (convulse)
19a Spend colder months in Kraków in terror (6)
WINTER – A verb meaning to spend the colder months of the year somewhere – hidden in KrakoW IN TERror
21a Have riches perhaps in American vault (6)
ABOUND – To be rich in or exist in great plenty – A (American) BOUND (vault)
24a Excited seeing leg — not small — in flimsy robe (8)
NEGLIGEE – An anagram (excited) of sEEING LEG – not small telling you to omit the S
26a Sailor posted away (6)
ABSENT – AB (sailor) SENT (posted)
27a Creature in riotous binge (5)
BEING – An anagram (riotous) of BINGE
28a Hardened companion comes to standstill (9)
STALEMATE – STALE (hardened) MATE (companion)
Down
1d Ancient invader offers perspective (5)
ANGLE – Double definition
2d Beast runs right round a German river (8)
REINDEER – R (runs) and R (right) go round EIN (the German word for one) and DEE (river)
3d Battered chest containing yard tool (6)
SCYTHE – An anagram (battered) of CHEST ‘containing’ Y (yard)
4d Bishop has spoiled party (4)
BASH – B (Bishop in chess notation) and an anagram (spoiled) of HAS
5d One-dimensional Shakespearean king stays home (6)
LINEAR – LEAR (Shakespearean king) ‘stay’s IN (home)
6d Task and chore to mix something to eat (9)
SHORTCAKE – An anagram (to mix) of TASK and CHORE
9d African transmitter sets in hollow tree (6)
TSETSE – How lovely to have a different clue from the usual ones for this nasty African transmitter of sleeping sickness) – SETS (from the clue) inserted into the outside letters (hollow) of TreE
13d Animal in lake with Buddhist monk (5)
LLAMA – L (lake) LAMA (Buddhist monk)
15d Something done about meat supplied (9)
DELIVERED – DEED (something done) ‘about’ LIVER (meat)
17d Sort of music book extracted from rubbish (6)
GARAGE – Remove the B (book extracted) from GARbAGE (rubbish)
18d Carriage said to be well-proportioned (8)
HANDSOME – A homophone (said) of HANSOM (carriage)
20d Beer fuels explosive ability (6)
TALENT – ALE (beer) fuels or goes inside TNT (explosive)
22d Delphic priestess in wicker boat seen topless (6)
ORACLE – Remove the ‘top’ from a cORACLE (wicker boat)
23d EU collecting money raised forms alliance (5)
UNITE – A reversal (raised) of EU ‘collecting’ TIN (money)
25d Takes in tea brewed by son (4)
EATS – An anagram (brewed) of TEA followed by S (son)