DT 30215 (Full Review)

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30215

A full review by crypticsue

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This puzzle was published on 4^th February 2023

BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***

A friendly Saturday Prize Puzzle from Cephas 

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Across

4a    One’s entering procession in state of great happiness (8)
PARADISE – IS (one’s) ‘entering’ PARADE (procession)

8a    Speak unfavourably about some minimal ignorance (6)
MALIGN – Hidden in some miniMAL IGNorance

9a    Framework torn apart, it’s an exorbitant amount to pay (4-4)
RACK-RENT – RACK (framework) RENT (torn apart)

10a    Poor, very much out of form (5,3)
BADLY OFF – BADLY (very much) OFF (out of form)

11a    Fruit found by German fellow in outskirts of city (6)
CHERRY – HERR (German fellow) inserted into the ‘outskirts’ of CitY

12a    Ancient convict? (3-5)
OLD-TIMER – A cryptic definition of someone who might have spent a long time in prison

13a    Remove Chinese meal, say (8)
TAKEAWAY – A verb meaning to remove or a Chinese meal

16a    Real colour of one unswervingly faithful (4,4)
TRUE BLUE – TRUE (real) BLUE (colour)

19a    Party song about America (8)
CAROUSAL – CAROL (song) goes ‘about’ US (America)

21a    Taken from mother’s small cottage, it is believed to bring good luck (6)
MASCOT – MAS (mother’s) COT (archaic and literary term for a small cottage

23a    Where one finds oneself at end of flight? (8)
UPSTAIRS – Where you’d find yourself at the end of a flight of stairs – although technically you could be ‘downstairs’ at the other end of the ‘flight’

24a    Somebody walking in street in front of posh car (8)
STROLLER – ST (street) ROLLER (Rolls-Royce, posh car)

25a    Precision casting icy net (6)
NICETY – An anagram (casting) of ICY NET

26a    Arrange time for exhibition of horsemanship (8)
DRESSAGE – DRESS (arrange) AGE (time)

Down

1d    Message about father being competent (7)
CAPABLE – CABLE (message) goes ‘about’ PA (rather)

2d    Thousand still confused before somebody has burdensome responsibility (9)
MILLSTONE – M (Roman numeral for 1,000) and an anagram (confused) of STILL go before ONE (somebody)

3d    Advise Mike to support hip vocal quartet? (6)
INFORM – M (Mike in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet) goes after (to support in a Down solution) IN (hip) and a homophone (vocal) of FOUR (quartet)

4d    Around what typical sportsperson could expect (3,3,3,6)
PAR FOR THE COURSE – Especially if they were a golfer

5d    Is it hardly edible? (4,4)
ROCK CAKE – Sounds like it might be too hard to eat

6d    Reg and I’d composed funeral hymn (5)
DIRGE – An anagram (composed) of REG and ID

7d    Punch, having belted out tune the wrong way (7)
SANGRIA – SANG (belted out) and a reversal (the wrong way) of AIR (tune)

14d    Vehicle one might see by accident (9)
AMBULANCE – A cryptic definition of a vehicle one might see by an accident

15d    Fleet I’ll float round (8)
FLOTILLA – An anagram (round) of ILL FLOAT

17d    Builder not initially shielding a nuclear device (7)
REACTOR – eRECTOR (builder without the initial letter) ‘shielding’ A (from the clue)

18d    Occasionally, best Scottish island turned up in report (7)
NARRATE – A reversal (turned up) of the occasional letters of bEsT and ARRAN (Scottish island)

20d    Revolt is welcomed by group (6)
RISING – IS (from the clue) ‘welcomed’ by RING (group)

22d    Sign of the times (5)
CROSS – Used to mean ‘times’ in a multiplication sum