Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2502
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
A fairly straightforward puzzle, with one very minor possible slip-up by the setter at 26D.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 7 | Vessel going West in trip for so long (8 ) |
| FAREWELL – EWER=vessel (it’s a big vase/jug) reversed in FALL=trip – simple elements, but crafted together to make a good surface meaning | |
| 9 | Was devoted to a party on the far left (6) |
| ADORED = A,DO,RED=far left | |
| 10 | Communicates with monarch what Don was going to say? (6) |
| RADIOS – R=Rex/Regina=monarch,ADIOS – “Don” being a term for a Spaniard | |
| 11 | Account of incident in which one acted badly (8 ) |
| ANECDOTE = anag. of ‘one acted’ | |
| 12 | Old divine verses modified? That’s about right (7,7) |
| REVISED VERSION = anag. of “old divine verses”, with an R inserted – hence “that’s about right”. And our first &lit/all-in-one of this puzzle. This way of inserting an R is a well-worn path but the rest justifies it in spades | |
| 15 | It indicates something is somewhat empty threat (4) |
| THAT = TH(re)AT – a “somewhat empty threat”. “It indicates something” is a fairly slippery def. but again the overall result is worth it. | |
| 17 | Husband invested in food store in Asian city (5) |
| DELHI – H in DELI | |
| 19 | Swim across river, certainly not a torrent (4) |
| DRIP – R in DIP=swim (noun) | |
| 20 | Awfully rude about New Testament in 12? That’s putting it mildly (14) |
| UNDERSTATEMENT – N in anag. of rude,STATEMENT = anag. of testament – with “revised version” as the anagram indicator. Lovely surface about the NT in a particular bible. | |
| 23 | Support striking project (5,3) |
| STAND OUT – STAND=support,OUT=striking (the TU kind). You have my sympathy if you thought of STICK OUT first – so did I! | |
| 25 | Land, and order not to take off (6) |
| GROUND – 2 meanings | |
| 27 | Didn’t bid spades, mistakenly (6) |
| PASSED = anag. of spades | |
| 28 | Citizen pronounced insane after jumping off bridge? (8 ) |
| PARISIAN – who would be “in Seine” after the jump described. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Priest holding a mass in Hollywood location (4) |
| LAMA – (A,M=mass) in L.A. | |
| 2 | Undistinguished couple in star group (6) |
| GEMINI – the couple are undistinguished because they’re twins | |
| 3 | Exemplarily fit jumper (4) |
| FLEA – as in “fit as a flea” – are fiddles and fleas the fittest things we can imagine beginning with F? Why not “Fit as a frog”? | |
| 4 | Go quickly out of control in one’s job (6) |
| CAREER – two meanings | |
| 5 | Part of orchestra producing moving air under conductor (8 ) |
| WOODWIND – “Conductor” is good old Timber – Sir Henry WOOD (no excuses with the last night just past and prommers getting used to seeing sunsets again),WIND=”moving air” | |
| 6 | Inhabitant of island battered in East wind (4,6) |
| WEST INDIAN – anag. of “in East wind” – the def. is precisely vague in referring to no island in particular. | |
| 8 | Part of our capital — least endangered part (4,3) |
| EAST END – hidden word | |
| 13 | Knock out supporter — that should clear the air (7,3) |
| EXHAUST FAN – charade of “knock out”=EXHAUST,supporter=FAN – “knock out” = “to tire oneself out” is in Chambers. | |
| 14 | Man attending another dance ending prematurely (5) |
| VALET = “man attending another”. The valeta (also veleta) is a dance | |
| 16 | Insisted on changing order (8 ) |
| TIDINESS = anag. of insisted | |
| 18 | Put into ground holding, for example, this number? Not half! (7) |
| INTEGER – e.g. in INTER – the number ½ is of course not an integer = whole number | |
| 21 | Girl from part of Wales, we hear, runs foreign car (6) |
| RHONDA – double wordplay here – she sounds like “Rhondda” and is R=runs + Honda. Pedants may want to mention that a Welsh double D sounds like TH, but most of us know the famous hymn tune as “koom ronda” | |
| 22 | Follower of system extremely changed from Taoism (6) |
| MAOIST – swap the extreme T and M in TAOISM – and another all-in-one | |
| 24 | Character flaw evident in party politics (4) |
| TYPO – another hidden word | |
| 26 | His passengers were diverse, but never odd (4) |
| NOAH – everyone knows that “the animals went in two by two”, but the instruction given to Noah is “Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female”. This might suggest that some animals were in odd-numbered groups, but the insertion of “a male and his mate” makes me wonder whether the apparent seven was really fourteen. The wikipedia article about the ark seems to agree, talking about “seven pairs of the birds and the clean animals, and two pairs of the unclean animals”. With this reading, the clue still works. | |