DT 29646

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29646

A full review by Rahmat Ali

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This puzzle was published on 10^th April 2021

BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

Greetings from Kolkata. First of all, I would like to state that C.G. Rishikesh Sir of Chennai, one of the bloggers of Big Dave’s Crossword Blog, passed away just two days ago (on the 14^th). The last time I met him was at the Grand Finale of the Indian Crossword League (IXL) at Bengaluru in December 2018. Incidentally, that was the first time we sat together for lunch. He asked me about my family members and I answered him. He was a very soft-spoken person. But again, incidentally, it had been only a matter of months when I happened to click on ‘Meet the Bloggers’ here for the first time to discover his name (Rishi), although I had been participating in the Monthly Prize Puzzle Contests since 2014. Had I known then, I would have asked him at the Finale to share his experience with Big Dave’s Blog. Now that he is no more, I pray to the Almighty for his peaceful, eternal rest.

Next, I have the pleasure of writing the review for the latest puzzle of the Saturday Crossword Club. The clues of Chris Lancaster were very entertaining. Although I was able to work out the explanations without too much effort, I believe there is always room for improvement on my part and I may please be enlightened.

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.

Across

1a    Wet bear hid nuts for food (5,5)
WHITE BREAD: An anagram (nuts) of WET, BEAR and HID

6a    Annoy leaving parking place (4)
SITE: S[P]ITE (annoy) with the removal of (leaving) P (parking)

9a    Name European plant in allotment (10)
REPUTATION: Abbreviation E (European) and PUT (plant) is placed inside (in) RATION (allotment)

10a    Member‘s loveless dance (4)
LIMB: LIMB[O] (dance) minus O being love or zero score in tennis (loveless)

12a    Place to sleep in empty room after party (4)
DORM: R[O][O]M without the inner letters (empty room) after DO (party)

13a    Close friend certain East will go for ace (9)
CONFIDANT: CONFIDENT (certain) with abbreviation E (East) leaving (will go) for another abbreviation A (ace) to step in

15a    Druidess occasionally left mixture of gin and wine (8)
RIESLING: Even letters (occasionally) from dRuIdEsS, abbreviation L (left) and an anagram (mixture) of GIN

16a    Seem confused about church plan (6)
SCHEME: An anagram (confused) of SEEM around (about) CH (church)

18a    Runners on this small step (6)
SLEDGE: A charade of S (small) and LEDGE (step)

20a    Potter’s friend mostly solitary and single (8)
HERMIONE: Most of the letters (mostly) from HERMI[T] (solitary) and ONE (single)

23a    See pin has damaged letter (9)
EPHESIANS: An anagram (damaged) of SEE, PIN and HAS leads to the definition as a book of the New Testament, functioning singularly and named the ‘Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians’, whereas Wikipedia shortens this to the ‘Epistle to the Ephesians’ which is also called the ‘Letter to the Ephesians’ and further shortened to only ‘Ephesians’

24a    Flatter fizzy drinks for the audience (4)
COAX: COKES (fizzy drinks) as homophone heard by the listeners (for the audience)

26a    Greek character tense and strained (4)
TAUT: A charade of TAU (Greek character) and T (tense)

27a    Make first monk that is welcoming sit back (10)
PRIORITISE: PRIOR (monk) and abbreviation for the Latin phrase id est, IE (that is) having inside (welcoming) SIT from the clue in reversal form (back)

28a    Charge judge (4)
RATE: Double definition; the first a noun denoting a price asked for goods or services and the second a verb meaning to form an opinion or conclusion about someone or something

29a    Oppose token performance (10)
COUNTERACT: A charade of COUNTER (token) and ACT (performance)

Down

1d    Part of speech that’s hummed out loud (4)
WORD: A homophone indicator (out loud) heard as WHIRRED (hummed)

2d    Press learning to support naughty child (7)
IMPLORE: LORE (learning) to follow (support) IMP (naughty child)

3d    Bug lover with awkward set-to looming (12)
ENTOMOLOGIST: An anagram (awkward) of SET-TO and LOOMING

4d    Brett, Nick and René all discovered time is backward (8)
RETICENT: Covers removed of all (all discovered) of [B]RET[T], [N]IC[K] and [R]EN[É], followed by T (time)

5d    Number initially applauded on stage (6)
AMOUNT: First letter (initially) being A (applauded) is placed upon (on) MOUNT (stage)

7d    Take off some Chinese tat I’m ironing when upset (7)
IMITATE: A set-up or reversal as in a downward clue (when upset) hidden inside (some) ChinesE TAT I’M Ironing as in clue

8d    Sour beer found in Eastern Mediterranean (10)
EMBITTERED: BITTER (beer) seen inside (found in) the combo of abbreviation E (Eastern) and MED (Mediterranean)

11d    Limit short show with clowns, medium and writer (12)
CIRCUMSCRIBE: Removal of last letter (short) of CIRCU[S] (show with clowns), followed by abbreviation M (medium) and SCRIBE (writer)

14d    Fortune-hunter in favour of area seizing power (10)
PROSPECTOR: PRO (in favour of) followed by SECTOR (area) taking hold of (seizing) abbreviation P (power)

17d    Stirring part of service (8)
TEASPOON: A cryptic definition of a cutlery item rendering one of the services

19d    Tax producer of emissions (7)
EXHAUST: Double definition; the first a verb meaning to tire or wear out and the second a noun signifying a system through which waste gases are expelled

21d    Something blown from retro car in accident (7)
OCARINA: Out of or hidden inside (from) retrO CAR IN Accident

22d    Shock arrangement? (6)
HAIRDO: A cryptic definition of the way in which a person’s hair (shock) is done or styled (arrangement)

25d    Hurry, hide! (4)
PELT: Double definition; the first a verb meaning to move rapidly and vigorously and the second a noun or a word for untanned skin of larger animals

Thanks to Chris for the entertainment and to BD for the encouragement. I enjoyed the ‘discovered’ of 4d, ‘upset’ of 7d and ‘service’ of 17d. A time may come when artificial intelligence will be making way for the stirrer’s part of service to happen in reality, without human touch, presumably to make our tea and life sweeter.

Hope to be here again. Have a nice day.

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It was with great sadness that I learned of the passing of Rishi.  He provided a hints for a number of puzzles (21 in all) back in the early days of the blog.  Rahmat sent me an obituary as a pdf file which can be downloaded from here.

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