ST 3102 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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ST 3102

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3102

A full review by crypticsue

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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)