DT 30497 (Full Review)

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30497

A full review by crypticsue

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This puzzle was published on 30^th December 2023

BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***

A nice friendly Saturday Prize Puzzle – I’m surprised no-one turned up to admit they’d set it

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Across

9a    Fish served with duck’s tongue (5)
LINGO – LING (fish) O (duck in cricket scoring)

10a    Just one MP and a rigged trial (9)
IMPARTIAL – I (one) MP (from the clue), A(from the clue) and an anagram (rigged) of TRIAL

11a    Racing dog beat favourite (7)
WHIPPET – WHIP (beat) PET (favourite)

12a    Odd speller in Scrabble? (7)
RUMMAGE – Misleading capitals time – RUM (odd) MAGE (person who casts spells)

13a    Knock back Burgundy perhaps with one cold drink (5)
CIDER – Reverse (knock back) RED (a wine such as Burgundy) with I (one) C (cold)

14a    Found priest quiet nursing wound (9)
ESTABLISH – ELI (Old Testament priest) and SH (be quiet) ‘nursing’ STAB (wound with a pointed object)

16a    Fancy nabbing extremely serious politician for media event? (5,10)
PRESS CONFERENCE – PREFERENCE (fancy) ‘nabbing’ the extreme letters of SeriouS and CON (Conservative politician)

19a    Spider natural at spinning (9)
TARANTULA – An anagram (spinning) of NATURAL AT

21a    Round relative sheds pound in weight (5)
OUNCE -O (round) and UNClE without (sheds) L (pound sterling)

23a    Bear in one piece one hears? Indeed one does! (7)
LUGHOLE – LUG (bear) and a homophone (one hears) of WHOLE (in one piece)

25a    Get into trouble – look inside for crew member (2-5)
CO-PILOT – COP IT (get into trouble) into which is inserted (inside) LO (look)

27a    Glasses almost providing sight (9)
SPECTACLE – Almost all of SPECTACLEs (glasses)

28a    Grind away in bar in central Greece? (5)
ERODE – ROD (bar) inserted into the letters in the centre of GrEEce

Down

1d    Good base for warm light (4)
GLOW – G (good) LOW (base)

2d    One French character hard-hearted (6)
UNKIND – UN (the French word for one) KIND (character)

3d    Panic rooms rebuilt in parallel (10)
COMPARISON – An anagram (rebuilt) of PANIC ROOMS

4d    This pot some occasionally steal? (6)
TIPTOE – The occasional letters of This PoT sOmE

5d    Rampaging pirate provided opening shot (8)
APERITIF – An anagram (rampaging) of PIRATE followed by IF (provided)

6d    Formidable leader in government on border (4)
GRIM – The ‘leader’ in Government on RIM (border)

7d    Spot at Scottish island endlessly brings obsession (8)
FIXATION – FIX (spot of bother) and AT (from the clue) on the Island of IONa without its ‘end’ letter

8d    Vulgar – and a notable stinker! (4,6)
BLUE CHEESE – BLUE (vulgar) CHEESE (a notable person or thing)

13d    Important city street accommodating single profit-seeker (10)
CAPITALIST – CAPITAL (important city) and ST (street) ‘accommodating’ I (one, single)

15d    Attacking winger endowed with incredible vision? (4,2,4)
BIRD OF PREY – A perfect cryptic definition of a bird of prey

17d    ERG on the rise coming in too soon for tea (4,4)
EARL GREY – A reversal (on the rise in a Down solution) of ERG inserted into EARLY (too soon)

18d    Wealth for all to see left among old coins (8)
OPULENCE – U (applied to films etc which everyone can watch) L (left) inserted among O (old) and PENCE (coins)

20d    Marksman at Agincourt more cunning? (6)
ARCHER – Double definition

22d    Channel so nearly consumes naval hero (6)
NELSON – Hidden in (consumed by) chanNEL SO Nearly

24d    Nothing on a Thursday for Bond (4)
OATH – More misleading capitals – O (nothing) A (from the clue) TH (Thursday)

26d    Flower kid picked up? (4)
TEES – Here the flower is a river – a homophone (picked up) of TEASE (kid)