DT Cryptic No 25902

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25902

Today’s hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

Fasten your seat belts! This puzzle takes us on a virtual world tour – we visit two English towns, two French towns, an American university, regions in the Middle East and Italy, and an African country.

Across Clues

1a  Poem is read to pals wrongly (8,4)
{PARADISE LOST} – an anagram (wrongly) of “is read to pals” gives us the title of John Milton’s most famous poem.

9a  Dig supported by market town (7)
{TAUNTON} – a charade of TAUNT (dig, i.e. put-down) and ON (supported by) supplies the name of this market town in Somerset. The initial reading of the clue makes you think, if you are like me, that we are looking for a word for market after (supporting) the dig – not so!

10a  One turn diverted part of atom (7)
{NEUTRON} – an anagram (diverted) of “one turn” produces a word for a subatomic particle.

11a  Advertising flaw initially exposed powerful figure in school (7)
{PREFECT} – Advertising is PR (Public Relations) and this is followed by dEFECT (flaw) without its initial letter (initially exposed) to form a senior pupil authorised to enforce discipline in a school.

12a  Thoroughly popular department in front of hospital (2,5)
{IN DEPTH} – popular is IN. Follow this with the normal abbreviation for “department” and H (front of “hospital”) to get a phrase meaning thoroughly.

13a  Part of magazine hidden in main settee (5)
{INSET} – unusually, the indicator signalling a hidden word is “hidden” (the compiler is obviously feeling generous!). The hidden word is inside “main settee” and means an insert in a magazine.

14a  Support for a lot of titles? (9)
{BOOKSHELF} – a cryptic clue to a piece of furniture which holds (supports) a book collection so that you can read the titles.

16a  Bird beginning to go by grey ridge (9)
{GOLDCREST} – “beginning to go” is G, “grey” is OLD and “ridge” is CREST. Put the bits together to get the name of a very small bird.

19a  Reckon wine in audience is for this purpose (2,3)
{AD HOC} – “in audience” signals that we have a sound-alike – two actually, for what we want is a latin phrase which sounds like ADD (reckon) and HOCK (wine) and which means “for this purpose”.

21a  Suspect cuts linked to some Italian region (7)
{TUSCANY} – an anagram (suspect) of “cuts” is followed by (linked to) a synonym for “some” to generate the name of an Italian region.

23a  Horrific place? Deduce a negative response (7)
{INFERNO} – “deduce” is INFER – follow this with a negative response to get one of the divisions of hell in Dante’s La Divina Commedia.

24a  Edward taking in championship I forgot is annoyed (7)
{NETTLED} – Edward is a popular name with compilers because it has so many common abbreviations. This time it’s NED, which includes (taking in) TiTLE (championship) minus the I (I forgot) to get a term meaning annoyed.

25a  Destructive wave woman detected in swirling mist (7)
{TSUNAMI} – an anagram (swirling) of “mist” includes UNA (woman detected in) to form the name of a destructive wave at sea.

26a  Cheered about lawyer in appeal and made stronger? (12)
{CONSOLIDATED} – take CONSOLED (cheered up) and put inside it (about) DA (district attorney in the U.S.) which is itself inside IT (slang term for sex appeal), to form a verb meaning made stronger.

Down Clues

1d  Ones having very little bread? (7)
{PAUPERS} – a cryptic definition of people who are very poor (bread is being used here both literally and in the sense of “money”).

2d  Potato pulled up around engineers in secluded site (7)
{RETREAT} – potato here is not “tuber” (which was my original thought) but the colloquial TATER. This is backwards (pulled up, in a down clue) around RE (Royal Engineers) to form a word for a quiet and secluded place.

3d  Daughter lacking balance in Bedfordshire town (9)
{DUNSTABLE} – a charade of D (daughter) and UNSTABLE (lacking balance) to arrive at a town in Bedfordshire. “Lacking balance” so often means bankrupt or in the red, that it’s a bit of a disappointment when it’s used literally!

4d  Wrong road for peninsula (5)
{SINAI} – a wrong is a SIN. Follow this with the Great North Road (AI) to get the name of a peninsula in the Middle East.

5d  Rules do change in place of pilgrimage (7)
{LOURDES} – an anagram (change) of “rules do” gives us this town in South-West France to which masses of Roman Catholics make a pilgrimage (about 5 million a year).

6d  Moral consideration? It’s of little weight (7)
{SCRUPLE} – if you have SCRUPLEs about something then you are hesitating about a course of action on moral grounds. The singular form is a unit of weight of 20 grains, once used by apothecaries.

7d  Teens stopping for recreation-feature across stream? (8-5)
{STEPPING STONE} – an anagram (for recreation, i.e. re-creation) of “teens stopping” gives us an aid to get across a stream without getting wet feet.

8d  At first glance, how a clock is read? (2,3,4,2,2)
{ON THE FACE OF IT} – a phrase meaning superficially or at first glance, is also where you set your eyes on a clock in order to read the time.

15d  Published journalist trapping fool beaten for ingenuity (9)
{OUTWITTED} – published is OUT and journalist is the usual ED. Include inside these TWIT (fool) to get a verb meaning outsmarted or beaten for ingenuity.

17d  Drunk in squalid hole in African country (7)
{LESOTHO} – include SOT (a habitual drunkard) inside an anagram (squalid) of “hole” to get the name of a landlocked country in southern Africa, formerly known as Basutoland.

18d  Man from church overlooking French city (7)
{CHARLES} – A man’s name is formed from CH (church) and (overlooking, in a down clue) ARLES (a city in S-E France).

19d  Culpable volunteers put up with poor service (2,5)
{AT FAULT} – volunteers are the usual TA (Territorial Army). Reverse this (put up) and add what is called at Wimbledon if a player does not serve the ball correctly (poor service) to get a phrase meaning in the wrong or culpable.

20d  A Bible kept in rigorous university (7)
{HARVARD} – rigorous is HARD – put inside this (kept in) A RV (Revised Version of the Bible) to get the name of one of the premier universities in the USA.

22d  Some gentle doyen promoted song (5)
{YODEL} – a hidden word (some) meaning a type of song is backwards (promoted, in a down clue) inside “gentle doyen”.

Well, how did you find it? If you would like to air an opinion on either the puzzle or on my efforts to explain the clues, then please leave us a comment.