DT Cryptic No 25864 – Hints

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25864

Selected hints

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

It seems to be a regular occurrence that the Saturday puzzle is an easy one.  As this is a prize crossword, I will be publishing just a few hints to get you started.  A full review of this puzzle,  by crossword blogging veteran Peter Biddlecombe, will be published at 12.00 on Thursday, 5th March.

Across

1a Dared to remove second half of outlet (4)
Find an 8 letter word that is a synonym for dared, where the first half of this word means an outlet

9a Empty protest (6,6)
A form of protest, usually by a prisoner, that involves refusing to eat

21a Extremely upset it had been dashed to pieces (9)
Almost every word in this clue smacks of crossword construct – well ignore them all, it’s a straightforward double definition

24a He left the motive for crime (7)
I like this, simple but neat – “he left the” means take the letters of “he” away from “the”, then add a motive to get a heinous crime

Down

3d The scientist who’s a writer on divinity (10)
A lot of words for scientists have the same ending – ophthalmologist, neuropsychologist, vulcanologist to name but 3 out of the 290 in Chambers – and this ending is now accepted as a generic word for a scientist; precede it with the definite article and you have someone who’s a writer on divinity

13d Show girl (9)
A very simple cryptic definition of a girl who shows you to your place in a theatre (and sells ice creams during the interval!)

26d First Greek loses second article in river (4)
The first letter of the Greek alphabet (it’s in The Mine if you really don’t know it) loses it’s second “a” (article) to give a fictional river mentioned in the poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, or a real river in Antarctica

Don’t forget the full review next Thursday.