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ST 3136

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3136

A full review by crypticsue

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This puzzle was published on 28th November 2021

BD Rating – Difficulty ***Enjoyment ***

Trickier than the previous two Sundays with one clue that took an age to parse

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.

Across

9a    Capital never safeguarded by locks, ultimately lost (5)
HANOI – NO (never) ‘safeguarded’ by HAIr (locks) without the R ‘(‘ultimately lost’ being an instruction to remove the final letter)

10a    Make a comparison, as a legion on manoeuvres (9)
ANALOGISE – An anagram (on manoeuvres) of AS A LEGION

11a    Back sore at first, one crying (7)
SWEEPER – A back in football – S (sore at first) WEEPER (one crying)

12a    Guide: one goes on foot (7)
TRAINER – Double definition

13a    Century after century by India, restorative (5)
TONIC – C (100, century, in Roman numerals) goes after TON (century) and I (IVR Code for India)

14a    Blighter’s puppet, is one wearing cap? (9)
TOADSTOOL – TOADS (blighter’s) TOOL (puppet

16a    Game whose winner won’t have had a shot (7,8)
RUSSIAN ROULETTE – A cryptic definition of a dangerous game where the winner is the person without a shot or bullet in the cylinder of the revolver

19a    A hunger to join team next door (9)
ALONGSIDE – A (from the clue) LONG (hunger) SIDE (team)

21a    Beethoven’s Seventh, a top sound (5)
VALID – V (the seventh letter of BeethoVen) A (from the clue) LID (top)

23a    Offensive act not in fashion (7)
OUTRAGE – OUT (not in) RAGE (fashion)

25a    Auditor’s painting jug (7)
PITCHER – A homophone (auditor’s) PICTURE (painting)

27a    An on-line figure? (9)
NUMERATOR – The number above the line in a fraction

28a    Monsters of ghastly reputation, enormous size originally (5)
OGRES – The original letters of Of Ghastly Reputation Enormous Size

Down

1d    Part of Macbeth usually like that (4)
THUS – Part of MacbeTH USually

2d    An educational officer on the mountains (6)
ANDEAN – AN (from the clue) DEAN (educational officer)

3d    Critical intervention, the police initially stopping criminal activity (10)
NITPICKING – The initial letters of Intervention The Police ‘stopping’ NICKING (criminal activity)

4d    Imitate rock, music genre served up (6)
PARROT – A reversal (served up) of TOR (rock) RAP (music genre)

5d    Is tango dancing captivating a South American capital? (8)
SANTIAGO – An anagram (dancing) of IS TANGO ‘captivating’ A (from the clue)

6d    Seat is for flat, used regularly (4)
SOFA – The regular letters of iS fOr FlAt

7d    Indicator by the way in initial letters? (8)
SIGNPOST – If you initial letters, you SIGN POST

8d    Keen driver later hoped to go travelling (10)
PETROLHEAD – An anagram (to go travelling) of LATER HOPED

13d    Opportunity with a period of boxing for reversal of fortune (10)
TURNAROUND – TURN (opportunity) A ROUND (a period of boxing)

15d    Dribbling Italian wingers in Salerno about to net five (10)
SALIVATION – An anagram (about) of ITALIAN and the wingers or outside letters of SalernO into which is inserted (to net) V (the Roman numeral for five)

17d    Let’s go with some rocks (8)
SHOWTIME – An anagram (rocks) of WITH SOME

18d    Chocolate: one hardened in minute (8)
NOISETTE – I (one) SET (hardened) in NOTE (minute)

20d    Ace, old and bold! (6)
EXPERT – EX (old) PERT (bold)

22d    City in Pakistan I see inspired by traditional beliefs (6)
LAHORE – AH (I see) ‘inspired’ by LORE (traditional beliefs)

24d    Some land in water, carried towards the surface? (4)
ACRE – Hidden in reverse (towards the surface) in watER CArried

26d    Wine was revolting! (4)
ROSE – Double definition

4 comments on “ST 3136

  1. With 3d, if the definition is just critical the next 3 words Intervention the Police provide the letters to go into Nicking and initially is just an indicator. but we may both be overanalysing this.

    Thanks for the review Sue and thanks to Dada too.

    1. You are of course correct – I spent ages looking at this – I’ll amend the explanation

  2. 4*/5* …found the SW the trickiest;
    liked 16A ” Game whose winner won’t have had a shot (7,8) ” …. amongst others.

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