DT 29676 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 29676

by crypticsue  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29676

A full review by crypticsue

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This puzzle was published on 15th May 2021

BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***

A very straightforward crossword – a pangram from Cephas reminding us of the days when he was the only Saturday Prize Puzzle setter

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.

Across

1a    Inappropriate of problem daughter to purchase magazine (3-5)
ILL-TIMED – ILL (problem) D (daughter) to ‘purchase’ TIME (magazine)

6a    About to admit I would get carried away? (4)
RIDE – RE (about) to ‘admit’ ID (I would)

9a    Blonde careless entering marsh (6)
FLAXEN – LAX (careless) ‘entering’ FEN (marsh)

10a    Disappear without question overcome (8)
VANQUISH – VANISH (disappear) ‘without’ QU (question)

11a    Where foxes go to be practical (4-2-5)
DOWN-TO-EARTH – Without the hyphens, this might be somewhere foxes go

14a    Moon starer, possibly (10)
ASTRONOMER – An anagram (possibly) of MOON STARER – I do love it when the anagram fodder fits the definition/solution

15a    Sea bass (4)
DEEP – Double definition

16a    Enthusiasm shown by last letter oddly missing from bedsit (4)
ZEST – Z (the last letter) and the even (oddly missing) letters of bEdSiT

17a    Disorder, Georgia’s audible deception went away (7,3)
GASTRIC FLU – GAS (the US State’s) and homophones (audible) of TRICK (deception) FLEW (went away)

19a    Device showing if someone’s been at the gin? (6,5)
SPIRIT LEVEL – A useful device that might, cryptically anyway, keep an eye on the amount of gin in the bottle

22a    Keeping supplies of hose (8)
STOCKING – Double definition

23a    Fine-tune commercial exactly (6)
ADJUST – AD (commercial) JUST (exactly)

24a    Smear most of book cover’s contents (4)
BLUR – Most of BLURb (a description found on a book cover, describing its contents)

25a    Back twisted once more? (8)
RETURNED – RE TURNED (twisted once more)

Down

2d    Flower girl from the valley? (4)
LILY – A flower or a girl’s name, one variety of the former having ‘of the valley’ as part of its name

3d    Army team’s vehicle (4)
TAXI – TA (old Territorial Army) XI (eleven, team)

4d    Scotsman before long getting wind (7)
MONSOON – MON (Scots man) SOON (before long)

5d    Surprisingly I’m seen deserving to be an angel (6,9)
DIVINEMESSENGER – An anagram (surprisingly) of IM SEEN DESERVING

6d    Reported soldier’s bitterness (7)
RANCOUR – A homophone (reported) of RANKER (soldier)

7d    One taking medication out of habit (4,6)
DRUG ADDICT – Cryptic definition

8d    Set off twice knowing it’s a spreader of disease (6,3)
TSETSE FLY – Two lots (twice) of an anagram (off) of SET followed by FLY (knowing)

12d    Healer‘s potatoes cooked and hot (9)
OSTEOPATH – An anagram (cooked) of POTATOES followed by H (hot)

13d    Otherwise working on said holy agency of public speaking (10)
ORATORICAL – OR (otherwise) AT (working on) and a homophone (said) of ORACLE (holy agency)

17d    Pull up gentleman, accepting European is more courageous (7)
GUTSIER – A reversal (up in a Down clue) of TUG (pull) followed by SIR (gentleman) ‘accepting’ E (European)

18d    A recent cast perform again (2-5)
RE-ENACT – An anagram (cast) of A RECENT

20d    Open some beer (4)
AJAR – A (some) JAR (beer)

21d    Man perhaps erected Helsinki houses (4)
ISLE – Hidden (houses) in reverse (erected) in hELSInki

7 comments on “DT 29676”

  1. Thanks. Some tricky bits. I finished it but took a long time to get Zeal out of my head and also slur as synonym of smear.

  2. Thanks, CrypticSue.

    A question I couldn’t ask on Saturday: what’s cryptic about 7d? That just reads to me as a straight definition … and as such, I initially took it to be merely the surface reading — to be ignored — presuming it contained something cryptic I was missing.

    1. I think its supposed to be a cryptic definition clue – perhaps intending you to think of a monk in a habit before you arrive at the correct solution

      1. Thanks. If I were trying to find some paracetamol, I’m not sure a monk’s cloak would be the first place I’d look …

  3. I do not agree with 10 across which should have had the clue worded as follows:-
    Disappear including question overcome. The QU is in the answer; it is not without it! An inaccurate clue from the Setter.
    24 across. Your answer explainer has missed the point on this one!
    The blurb is on the dust cover of the book, known as advertising puff. It`s nothing to do with the book`s contents, unless the contents are crap!

    1. Welcome to the blog

      If you’d followed the blog for a while, you’d have noted that many people remark on ‘without’ meaning outside, so the ‘disappear’ is definitely ‘outside’ the QU

      As to ‘blurb’, Chambers defines this as a publisher’s commentary description of a book, which I usually read before I purchase a book so I know what to expect when I read it.

      1. Most helpful, thank you. I`m learning the meaning of idiosyncratic definitions!

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