DT 29879

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29879

A full review by crypticsue

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This puzzle was published on 8^th January 2022

BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment **

A Saturday Prize Puzzle where commenters’ views differed – some finding it easy and enjoyable, others tricky and a bit of a slog

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.

Across

1a    Authentic rock sounds (4)
REAL – A homophone (sounds) of REEL (rock or sway)

3a    Far-sighted viewers? (10)
BINOCULARS – A cryptic definition of something that helps you see a long way

9a    Enchanting creature, not female at first, gets fresh (4)
AIRY – fAIRY (enchanting creature) without the abbreviation for Female

10a    Queen Elizabeth coin occupying her attendant’s interest (10)
PERCENTAGE – ER (Queen Elizabeth) CENT (coin) ‘occupying’ PAGE (her attendant)

11a    Odd characters in sect ruin POTUS — many are employed in Hollywood! (7)
SCRIPTS – The odd characters in SeCt RuIn PoTuS

13a    Taken to court about little volume, ‘English Triumph‘ (7)
SUCCEED – SUED (taken to court) goes ‘about’ CC (small volume of liquid) and E (English)

14a    Solvers look for them first or last — if not inside, unusually (11)
DEFINITIONS – An anagram (unusually) of IF NOT INSIDE

18a    Obvious schools should ban independent pop? (11)
TRANSPARENT – Remove the I (ban Independent) from TRAiNS (schools) and add PARENT (pop?)

21a    Two exercises, warlike — oddly avoided being shot in the arm (3,4)
PEP TALK – PE and PT (two exercise) and the even (oddly avoided) letters of wArLiKe

22a    Any temp should arrange to get this (7)
PAYMENT – An anagram (should arrange) of ANY TEMP

23a    Lines up the mariner’s chart? (10)
LONGITUDES – A cryptic definition of lines going upwards on a map (whether used by mariners or otherwise)

24a    Yours truly and mum, getting fit together (4)
MESH – ME (yours truly) and SH (mum – be silent)

25a    Build up series, with Spain knocking out Italy next (10)
STRENGTHEN – Replace the I (IVR Code for Italy) in STRING (series) with an E (IVR code for Spain) and follow with THEN (next)

26a    Invites idiot to protect king (4)
ASKS – ASS (idiot) to ‘protect’ K (King in chess notation)

Down

1d    Attack won’t start, by the way (8)
ROADSIDE – A BROADSIDE without its initial letter (won’t start)

2d    Cockney barber uses this transport (8)
AIRCRAFT – Because as we all know; a Cockney barber would omit the H from his HAIRCRAFT

4d    Upwardly-mobile Mensa editor is full of these brainwaves (5)
IDEAS – Hidden in reverse (upwardly-mobile) in MenSA EDItor

5d    Dodgy casino in Cos rearranged events (9)
OCCASIONS – An anagram (dodgy) of CASINO inserted into another (rearranged) of COS

6d    Superfluous sunscreen goes off over a year (11)
UNNECESSARY – Insert (over) A (from the clue) into anagram (goes off) of SUNSCREEN and then add the abbreviation for Year at the end

7d    Lost for words? Before twelve, education should cover entire alphabet (6)
AMAZED – Insert AZ (entire alphabet) between (should cover) AM (before 12 noon) and ED (education)

8d    Competitors are told go after this firm (6)
STEADY – Ready STEADY go!

12d    Period in America perhaps that’s overlooked by lazy writers (11)
PUNCTUATION – Because lazy writers don’t bother with punctuation

15d    In practice, one covers one song linked with clubs? (9)
TRACKSUIT – TRACK (one song) linked with SUIT (clubs?)

16d    Judges free crooked fortune-teller, bound over (8)
REFEREES – An anagram (crooked) of FREE and a reversal (bound over) of SEER (fortune-teller)

17d    Mends past-it chesterfield, to an extent (8)
STITCHES – Hidden (to an extent) in paST-ITCHESterfield

19d    Shifts
signals (6)
SPELLS – Double definition – shifts or periods of time; signals or spells out

20d    Cricketer takes six balls, with writer dismissing five (6)
OPENER – OVER (six balls) where PEN (writer) ‘dismisses’ V (the Roman numeral for five)

22d    Scrap or truce in talks? (5)
PIECE – A homophone (in talks) of PEACE (truce)