Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3102
A full review by crypticsue
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
This puzzle was published on 4th April 2021
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
The sort of Sunday service we have come to expect from Dada – my Across favourite was 22a and my Down favourite was 18d
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.
Across
1a Right steal (11)
APPROPRIATE – Double definition
9a Abhorrent conclusion, bane evil (14)
UNCONSCIONABLE – An anagram (evil) of CONCLUSION BANE
11a Absent, a system (4)
AWAY – A (from the clue) WAY (system)
12a Power maintained by top sportsperson in race (5)
SPEED – P (power) ‘maintained’ by SEED (top sportsperson)
13a Opener removed from fielding position for spell of bowling (4)
OVER – Remove the ‘opener’ from cOVER (cricket fielding position)
16a In little bits, railway business (8)
INDUSTRY – IN (from the clue) DUST (little bits) RY (railway)
17d Nick is residing in flat, briefly (6)
PRISON – IS (from the clue) ‘residing’ in PRONe (flat briefly or without its last letter)
19a In test, put a stop to breaks (6)
TRENDY – END (put a stop to) ‘breaks’ TRY (test)
20a Tightly packed store cleared out in secret (5-3)
CLOSE-SET – Clear out or remove the inside letters from StorE and insert into CLOSET (secret)
22a Soft drink: I’m going without one on the counter (4)
SODA – A reversal (on the counter) of ADiOS (I’m going) without the I (one)
23a Last of all in kingdom, prince without biggish debts, solvent (5)
METHS A sneaky surface reading leading to taking a moment or two to work out what meaning of solvent was required. All the last letters of kingdoM, princE withouT biggisH debtS
24a Narcissist keen to make a comeback (4)
DIVA – A reversal (to make a comeback) of AVID (keen)
27a Mentioned a drab drunk that will pick your pocket in Vegas? (3-5,6)
ONE-ARMED BANDIT – An anagram (drunk) of MENTIONED A DRAB
28a Item on list, killer objective (6,5)
BULLET POINT – BULLET (killer) POINT (objective)
Down
2d Does sewer have those? It’s an uncomfortable feeling (4,3,7)
PINS AND NEEDLES – Items a sewer may have provide the name for this uncomfortable feeling
3d Reportedly track origin (4)
ROOT – A homophone (reportedly) of ROUTE (track)
4d Document I don’t know on drink (8)
PASSPORT – PASS (I don’t know) PORT (drink)
5d Flowers in roses I rightly pulled up (6)
IRISES – Hidden in reverse in roSES I RIghtly
6d Fish in a fruitcake brought over (4)
TUNA – A reversal (brought over) of A NUT (a fruitcake)
7d Better than hint, obviously faultless? (5,9)
ABOVE SUSPICION – ABOVE (better than) SUSPICION (hint)
8d Use river with bit of salt water (4,3,4)
WEAR AND TEAR – WEAR (river) AND (with) TEAR (bit of salt water)
10d Performance I saw with very hot dancing (7,4)
VARIETY SHOW – An anagram (dancing) of I SAW with VERY HOT
14d A camp, out of the way (5)
ASIDE – A (from the clue) SIDE (camp)
15d Serious amount? (5)
GROSS – Double definition
18d What begins with a beat, pal improvising around Beethoven’s Fifth (8)
ALPHABET – An anagram (improvising) of BEAT PAL ‘around’ the fifth letter of BeetHoven
21d Possible breakfast TV show announced? (6)
CEREAL – A homophone (announced) of SERIAL (TV show)
25d Tongue held by paramour, dutifully (4)
URDU – Hidden in (held by) paramoUR DUtifully
26d Dope working for government department (4)
INFO – IN (working for) FO (Foreign Office, government department)