DT 25948 – Hints

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25948 – Hints

Selected hints by Big Dave

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

I really enjoyed this Saturday puzzle, and I hope that those girls and boys names and obscure towns are gone forever.

There is an expectation that the Saturday prize puzzle will be more difficult than the weekday ones, but this has certainly not been the case in the Telegraph in recent years.  Being cynical, I suspect that this is a marketing ploy designed to sell more copies of the newspaper!

As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.  Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Thursday, 11th June.

Across

1a Dislike of French means of trial (6)
A charade leads us to a word which means to dislike – the French for of followed by an examination or means of trial

4a Reportedly breaks the spirit (8)
This typically Dutch spirit sounds like a word meaning breaks

9a Bar drink (6)
This double definition is a bit tricky – the kind of bar found on the front and back of a motor vehicle to lessen the shock of collision or a glass filled to the brim for drinking a toast

11a One or two birds, the kakapo (3-6)
This one was so difficult that the setter has virtually given you the answer – just look up kakapo like I did!

13a Composer Ravel’s returned with change of heart (5)
Returned signals that you need to reverse Ravel before changing the middle letter to get another composer

21a River and loch bird (5)
Take the river that flows throughYork and add an abbreviation for loch to get a bird

27a Petty officer sure upsetting show-off (6)
Put Petty Officer together with an anagram (upsetting) of SURE to get a show-off

Down

1d One who has yet to settle (6)
A cryptic definition of someone who owes money

3d Enquiry agent of course (7)
You will hear about his enquiry when an objection is made following a horse race

7d Stimulate one with behavioural disorder no end (5)
Could Norman Bates be the one with the behavioural disorder?

19d The lady’s caught in impossibility by one who is not a brave man (3-4)
For me this was the weakest clue – the impossibility is a NO-NO, and the answer is defined by Chambers as a person whose status is in no way heroic

20d Golfer? (6)
I was once asked if it was possible to have a one word cryptic clue – well here we have one!  A golfer could be described as this (or a footballer, come to that) but this is also the surname of one of the world’s most famous golfers

Did you notice the bright new header on the blog?  More of the opening screen is now taken up by the posts, and you should be able to select the latest entry without scrolling down.  I always intended to change it, but when I introduced the new theme, I set the header up to be resemble the old theme just in case anyone thought they had come to the wrong site!