DT 29503

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29503

A full review by crypticsue

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This puzzle was published on 24^th October 2020

BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment **

Most people seemed to find this Saturday Prize Puzzlestraightforward and enjoyable.   I was one of those who didn’t, although six days on, I have no idea why nott

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.

Across

1a    Change characters in French poem about Charlie (6)
ENCODE – EN (French word for in) ODE (poem) ‘about’ C (Charlie in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet)

4a    Crazy lustful type swallows new plant with supposed magical powers (8)
MANDRAKE – MAD (crazy) RAKE (lustful type) ‘swallows’ N (new)

9a    Court may be held in this but this can’t be held in court (6)
CAMERA – A court session may be held in camera (in secret, in a judge’s private room) but you can’t use a camera to take photos in a court room

10a    Recommend a VAT code needs changing (8)
ADVOCATE – An anagram (needs changing) of A VAT CODE

11a    Academic gets caught replacing fine computer part (9)
PROCESSOR – Replace the F (fine) in PROFESSOR (academic) with a C (caught in cricket scoring)

13a    Drive vintage Ford in wild country? (5)
MOTOR – T (vintage Ford motor car) in MOOR (wild country)

14a    Who’ll save a great pile taint loan administered with corruption (8,5)
NATIONAL TRUST – An anagram (administered) of TAINT LOAN with RUST (corruption) – this clue would have been written some time before the day’s newspaper headline about the National Trust and so there is really no excuse for the strange surface reading

17a    After long time volunteers will face politicians — they should secure delivery (7,6)
POSTAGE STAMPS – POST (after) AGES (long time) TA (Territorial Army volunteers) MPS (politicians)

21a    Talk about end of Gunpowder Plot (5)
CHART- CHAT (talk) goes ‘about’ the R at the end of gunpowder

23a    Group of soldiers throwing out head of government showing restraint (9)
CONTINENT – Throw out the G that is the ‘head’ of government from a CONTINGENT (group of soldiers)

24a    Boasting about American support (8)
BALUSTER – BLUSTER (boasting) goes ‘about’ A (American)

25a    Demure queen’s first coat (6)
PRIMER – PRIM (demure) ER (regnal cipher of our current Queen)

26a    Reverberating snore disturbed TV presenter (8)
RESONANT – An anagram (disturbed) of SNORE followed by ANT (TV presenter)

27a    Mean, like a jellyfish? (6)
STINGY – Depending how you pronounce the solution it could be a synonym for mean or describe a jellyfish

Down

1d    Flee with directions leading to headland (6)
ESCAPE – E S (directions) CAPE (headland)

2d    More than one camp friend of Clegg coming to North Dakota in America (9)
COMPOUNDS – COMPO (friend of Norman Clegg in the Last of the Summer Wine) and ND (North Dakota) inserted into US (America)

3d    Communist revolutionary left river (7)
DERWENT – A reversal (revolutionary) of RED (communist) followed by WENT (left)

5d    Noted alarms going off in weapons site (11)
ALDERMASTON – An anagram (going off) of NOTED ALARMS

6d    Unassertive type raised cap, cross (7)
DOORMAT A reversal (raised) of TAM (Scottish cap) ROOD (cross)

7d    Expect a comic to welcome adult (5)
AWAIT – A WIT (a comic) to ‘welcome’ A (adult)

8d    Condemn what director’s paid? (8)
EXECRATE – EXEC RATE would be what a company director is paid

12d    E.g. Hamlet on TV provides diversion (11)
SMOKESCREEN – SMOKE (eg Hamlet, cigar) SCREEN (TV)

15d    Provincial type must learn dancing (9)
ULSTERMAN – An anagram (dancing) of MUST LEARN

16d    Key watering-hole that’s out of this world? (5,3)
SPACE BAR – a BAR (watering hole) in SPACE (out of this world)

18d    Craftsman heading off guerrilla (7)
ARTISAN – Remove the head or first letter from PARTISAN (guerrilla)

19d    I’m great lumbering French detective (7)
MAIGRET – An anagram (lumbering) of IM GREAT

20d    Strong king in his counting-house? (6)
STURDY – R (Rex, king) in STUDY (counting-house)

22d    Geography student’s requirement finally reduced (5)
ATLAS – Reduce AT LAST (finally)