Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25990 – Review
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
A mostly easy puzzle, helped by straightforward clues to 15-letter answers. Only delay was in NW corner, where 11, 4, 2, 8 were the last few answers. A pretty good puzzle this – only a couple of weak CDs, and pretty solid surface meanings – only 13’s “axe a version” seemed really silly to me, and about half were as good as you could hope for – 8, 15 and 18 for example.
The charity bike ride which should have been happening on the day this appears has been postponed in the hope of getting two dry days in a row next week, riding on the second after the muddy sections of towpath have dried out on the first.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 8 | Do more exercise when unable to get off at night (8 ) |
| RESTLESS = “rest less” = do more exercise. Initially distracted by looking for words starting OUT- or OVER-, having guessed that “do more exercise” was the def. | |
| 9 | In there Lois expected another lady to appear (6) |
| ELOISE – hidden word – the best known Eloise is probably Héloïse, half of a famous pair of lovers. | |
| 10 | River flowing to and fro (3) |
| EXE – palindromic river | |
| 11 | Spellbind across awkward situation (8 ) |
| TRANS=across,FIX=awkward situation | |
| 12 | Physicist to land awkwardly (6) |
| DALTON = anag. of “to land”. John Dalton was a scientist who is probably best remembered for early ideas about atoms, but also worked on gas pressures, colour blindness and the weather | |
| 13 | Axe a version or an amendment for medical condition (8,7) |
| ANOREXIA NERVOSA = anag. of “Axe a version or an” | |
| 15 | A cat in any analysis (7) |
| ANATOMY “A TOM” in ANY | |
| 18 | Stupid nit, not being polite, thrust in (7) |
| INTRUDE – anag. of nit, + RUDE | |
| 21 | Not showing concern when needing a financial percentage (7,8 ) |
| LACKING INTEREST – LACKING=needing,INTEREST=financial concern. At least some of “when needing a” must count as surface padding. | |
| 24 | Leave pointer holding record (6) |
| DEPART – crossword cliché E.P.=record, in DART=pointer – which as far as I can tell only works in the same way as banker=river – the -er suffix indicates “something that has”. Real-world examples are four-poster and double-decker | |
| 25 | Trader’s French sea song (8 ) |
| MERCHANT – MER=French sea,CHANT=song | |
| 26 | I take this in France to be hard water (3) |
| ICE = I,CE=”this in France”. | |
| 27 | Notedly smooth (6) |
| LEGATO – which means “smooth(ly)” in music | |
| 28 | Hank’s oar operating old boat (5,3) |
| NOAH’S ARK = anag. of “Hank’s oar” | |
| Down | |
| 1 | No time uncharged particle is nerve-cell (6) |
| NEURON = NEU(t)RON | |
| 2 | Beat one reserve in part, one making amends (6) |
| ATONER – hidden in “beAT ONE Reserve” | |
| 3 | Test of one’s ego? (4-11) |
| SELF-EXAMINATION – cryptic def. | |
| 4 | One type of selection is neither male nor female (7) |
| ASEXUAL = without apparent sex organs. – charde of A=one,SEXUAL=type of selection | |
| 5 | Badger with argument propelled by sewer (6,3,6) |
| NEEDLE AND THREAD – badger=NEEDLE=annoy,AND=with,ARGUMENT=thread, “propelled by sewer” = definition by way of description | |
| 6 | Lottery prize that is a turn-on! (8 ) |
| ROLLOVER – ROLL=turn,OVER=on | |
| 7 | Edward held his wife and embraced (8 ) |
| ESPOUSED – SPOUSE=wife in ED=Edward | |
| 14 | Eggs from Vouvray oddly left out (3) |
| OVA – from vOuVrAy – plural of ovum=egg | |
| 16 | Spruced-up new journalist had taken food inside (8 ) |
| NEATENED – EATEN inside N=new,ED=editor=journalist | |
| 17 | Remove an Indian perhaps (8 ) |
| TAKEAWAY – 2 defs, one for “take away” | |
| 19 | America’s eastern purpose (3) |
| USE – U.S.=America,E=eastern – the ‘s is short for “has” here | |
| 20 | Colour of farm-workers’ tunics initially (7) |
| PIGMENT = colour – PIG MEN = farm-workers,T=tunics initially. Reggie Perrin had a brief spell as a pig man between the fake suicide and reappearing as “Martin Wellbourne”. | |
| 22 | Has her material to use again (6) |
| REHASH = anag. of “has her”. “material” is one of those anagram indicators which some crossword editors have permitted and solvers can only identify by hardened experience. As far as I can tell there is quite simply no logical reason why “material” should indicate an anagram. The Times puzzle used to allow “characters” to be used in a similar nonsensical way but now seems to have ditched it. | |
| 23 | Tanner boring several (6) |
| SUNDRY=several=various – SUN=tanner (because it tans you, on the days when you get to see it), DRY = boring. | |
Material crops up again as an anagram indicator in DT 25994, along with two other dubious examples ~ “for control” and “match”.