ST 2497 – Review

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2497 – Review

A full analysis by Big Dave

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

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

Yet another winner from our Sunday Setter.

At the bottom of the post you will see an array of five stars – use these to give your assessment of the puzzle.  Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between.

Across
1a Out of debt, having a little money in store, initially (6)
AFLOAT – clever misdirection makes you want to look for initial letters – but this one is a word meaning out of debt that is A FLOAT (money put in the till at the start of day)

4a Conservative politician guarded by distant PC, perhaps (8)
COMPUTER – C(onservative) is followed by MP (politician) inside (guarded by) OUTER (distant) to give PC

10a Part of uniform cut in a different way (5)
TUNIC – an anagram (a different way) of CUT IN gives this part of a uniform

11a Noble types opposed to screening one’s tally (9)
VISCOUNTS – These noble types are built up from VS (versus / opposed to) around (screening) 1’S (one’s) and COUNT (tally)

12a Collected documents from vagrant I put inside (7)
DOSSIER – these collected documents are created from DOSSER (vagrant) with I inside

13a List including duck or another domestic fowl (7)
ROOSTER – take ROSTER (list) and put O (duck) inside to get another domestic fowl

14a Ill-feeling people still do not suffer from (6,8)
TRAVEL SICKNESS – excellent surface reading for this cryptic definition of this illness felt by people who are moving

17a Improving appearance, you said, added to achievement of venerable status (14)
BEAUTIFICATION – what a difference one letter makes! – a word meaning improving appearance is generated by putting U (you said) inside (added to) BEATIFICATION (achievement of venerable status)

21a Model I wrapped in oddly shaped parcel (7)
REPLICA – this model is created by putting I inside (wrapped in) an anagram (oddly shaped) of PARCEL – it’s worth reiterating that this sort of clue is best solved by working out the anagram of all the letters involved

23a After first half of month, everyone’s back for work in library (7)
NOVELLA – after the first half of NOVE(MBER) put ALL (everyone) reversed (back) to get this book (work in library)

24a Leader of musicians on island adjusted old instruments (9)
MANDOLINS – here we need M (leader of Musicians) followed by an anagram (adjusted) of ON ISLAND to get these old instruments

25a King leading state, such as George III (5)
RAVER – R (Rex / King) is followed by AVER (to state) combine to get a word that could describe King George III, who went mad!

26a System for removing water one installed in a garden, originally (8)
DRAINAGE – a system for removing water comes from I (one) inside (installed in) an anagram (originally – not the best anagram indicator I have seen) of A GARDEN

27a Almost new, and ahead of time (6)
NEARLY – the definition here, almost, is cleverly disguised – you get it by adding together N(ew) and EARLY (ahead of time)

Down

1d A message about temperature I had, providing remedy (8)
ANTIDOTE – put A NOTE (a short message) around T(emperature) and I’D (I had) to get this remedy

2d Lights falling on part of costume and painted scenery (9)
LANDSCAPE – just as flight means stairs in crosswordland, lights means alights, or LANDS, now add CAPE (part of costume) and you get painted scenery

3d Man housing very systematic record collection (7)
ARCHIVE – the man is ARCHIE and he is around (housing) V(ery) to get a systematic record collection – my dislike of the use of arbitrary names clued on words like man, girl or he continues, but I didn’t let this one spoil the whole puzzle

5d Exploded courts into bits, delaying legal process (14)
OBSTRUCTIONIST – an anagram (exploded) of COURTS INTO BITS gives this synonym for delaying the legal process – it may look like a noun, but the clue is defining the word in its adjectival form

6d He, for example, is supporting no multinational organisation (7)
PRONOUN – “he” is an example of a PRONOUN, and you can work it out from the charade of PRO (supporting) with NO and UN (a multinational peace organisation)

7d Number coming from North and South – meeting in the middle, in principle (5)
TENET – put TEN the right way (coming from the North) and then reversed (coming from the South), but sharing the N (meeting in the middle) to get a principle

8d Put in new order for leisure centre (6)
RESORT – in this clever double definition the part that looks like wordplay, put in new order, is in fact one of the definitions

9d Second time I’m into greedy behaviour, being highly mistaken (14)
OVERESTIMATING – my favourite in today’s puzzle – S(econd) T(ime) and I’M go inside OVEREATING (greedy behaviour) to get a synonym for highly mistaken

15d Edges up to sweetheart, as an unexpected consequence (9)
SPILLOVER – LIPS (edges) is reversed (up– don’t forget this is a down clue) and followed by LOVER (sweetheart) to get this unexpected consequence – often sweetheart represents the middle letter of swEet, but not here

16d Against the rules, taking article from France? Quite (8)
UNFAIRLY – a word meaning against the rules is a charade of UN (article from France) and FAIRLY (quite)

18d Mythical beast presenting no dilemma? (7)
UNICORN – this mythical beast has only one horn, and you need two to be “on the horns of a dilemma” – think about it!
19d Democrat, in one part of chapter, is hostile (7)
ADVERSE – put D(emocrat) inside A VERSE (one part of chapter) to get a word meaning hostile

20d Wrongly convicted and prepared for hanging (6)
FRAMED – a double definition

22d Endangered animal also taken on board by the old man (5)
PANDA – this endangered animal comes from AND (also) inside (taken on board) PA (the old man)

There is very little to complain about here.  The use of a name in part of the wordplay for one clue hardly ruins a whole puzzle.  Spillover is not a commonly used word, but is clued well.  On tghe other hand there are many excellent clues to savour.