DT 26421

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26241

A Full Review by Gnomethang

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

A pretty standard puzzle from Cephas this week with a couple of niggles/unknowns for me – please help me out if you think I have misrepresented a solution.

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Across

1a           Where publicans may be bottled up? (6,4)
BEHIND BARS – A cryptic and definition to start with. Mein Host is found behind the bar of the local and you are also bottled up if you are staying at Her Majesty’s Pleasure. I rejected the location of ‘bottling up’ as being another definition here, was I correct?

6a           Stay for beginning of party (4)
PROP  – A charade of PRO (for ) and the start of Party for a stay, as in a beam providing support of a weight.

8a           Verdict is in code to be unravelled (8)
DECISION – The verdict in a court for example is an anagram (unravelled) of IS IN CODE.

9a           Two men were clearly noticeable (6)
MARKED – Two men’s names, one a diminutive, combine for a phrase meaning ‘clearly noticeable’ as in a marked as opposed to an unmarked Police Car

10a         Ready with material cut out in advance (8)
PREPARED – The jury is still out for this clue in my mind. The initial thoughts on the Saturday Hints blog were that it meant ‘material cut out in advance. Cut out being PARED and doing it in advance would be PRE-pared. It was pointed out that REP is a twilled material and placing PARED (cut) outside (out) might also give the same answer. The problem with the former is that it doesn’t explain ‘material’ and the latter does not explain ‘in advance’. Once again I am confused!!

11a         Gently at an angle outside, it is very wet (6)
SLOPPY – A synonym for ‘very wet’. Place SLOPY (at an angle or sloping) around P (piano – a musical instruction to play gently)

12a         Assistant first-class from around Paris (4)
AIDE – A charade of AI (first class or top-hole) and DE (‘from’ in Paris and also from around Paris!) leads to an assistant in politics or the military.

14a         Delay prisoner coming after what he received (4,3)
TIME LAG – The definition is any delay experienced between the transmission and reception of a signal. Add LAG, a word for a prisoner (like con) to a word for his sentence or stretch in jail, TIME.

18a         New US city a loner’s wandering round (7)
ORLEANS – One of the US cities that are prefixed by NEW. This is an anagram of A LONERS (indicated by ‘wandering about’

20a         Tape some made more of (4)
DEMO – A demo tape (shortened to DEMO by those in the biz) is a musical sample sent to radio stations and music publishers in order that a band may get a foot in the door. It is hidden in 9is some of) maDE MOre of. Thanks to gazza for pointing out my omission of the hidden word!!

23a         One’s main holiday perhaps (6)
CRUISE – A holiday that is taken on the sea (In e.g. the Spanish MAIN – Crosswordland’s chestnutty synonyms for the sea)

24a         Turn pale with certain enjoyment (8)
PLEASURE – An anagram of PALE (i.e. turn it) followed by SURE for fun or enjoyment.

25a         Married woman’s ill-will (6)
MALICE – the abbreviation for Married on family trees plus a woman’s name. The definition is ill-will or spite.

26a         Fit lady in who is very attractive (8)
ADORABLE – Here we need to put DORA, a lady’s name, In(to) ABLE (fit/up to the task). It seems that ‘who is’ is merely padding to lead to the definition of ‘very attractive’.

27a         Tailless bird returned to ice floe (4)
BERG – An ice floe is an iceberg or berg. We need to find the correct bird, GREBE, remove its tail and then reverse (return) it.

28a         Go to bed, with painful disorder arising in the morning (7,3)
TURNING OUT – A charade of TURN IN (go to bed for the night) and GOUT (A painful affliction erroneously attributed to excessive port consumption) gives a phrase for getting up in the morning – the opposite, in fact, of turning in!

Down

1d           Shoot nuisance besieging a city (8)
BUDAPEST – The capital city of Hungary. Take BUD (leafy shoot) and PEST for nuisance and put them around (they are besieging) A.

2d           Couple of journalists given the chop (6)
HACKED – An ‘in-house’ term for a clapped out newshound and the abbreviation for his EDitor give a word for ‘Given the Chop ‘, axed or cut.

3d           Una’s as troublesome in the capital (6)
NASSAU – Another city, this one defined as a capital (of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas), is a troublesome anagram of UNAS AS.

4d           Commission makes bankrupt vent anger (9)
BROKERAGE – I felt this clue worked in an about face way but there may be a clue convention that I am missing here. BROKE (a synonym for bankrupt) plus RAGE (vent anger) makes BROKERAGE – commission, that percentage paid for a financial transaction. I can’t see it the other way round, though.

5d           Seems troubled three times during the course (8)
SEMESTER – Another troubled anagram of SEEMS with TER (usually a prefix meaning thrice or three times) gives a course, term or fixed period of study.

6d           Sea-creature I propose doctoring! (8)
PORPOISE – A well signposted anagram (doctoring) of  I PROPOSE but a nice image!

7d           Unfolded diagram featuring no internal walls (4-4)
OPEN-PLAN – Descriptive of a building with no internal walls. A charade of OPEN (unfolded) and PLAN (diagram).

13d         Ode old man composed forecasting disaster (4-5)
DOOM-LADEN – Compose an anagram of ODE OLD MAN to lead to a description of a portentous, ‘pocalyptic prophecy.

15d         In line for a rise (8)
INCREASE – Another charade, of IN and CREASE (a line or fold on paper, say) for a numerical rise.

16d         Thrilling going to include Charlie (8)
EXCITING – Charlie represents C in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet (this is available in  The Mine ). Include it in EXITING (leaving) to get a thrilling solution.

17d         Stick with New Testament disciple (8)
ADHERENT – A verb meaning stick (ADHERE) with the abbreviation for New Testament added gives a fan or disciple.

19d         Second peak that’s the most dangerous (8)
SEVEREST – A reasonably misleading clue given that the peak (EVEREST) is pronounced differently when the S(econd) is placed in front of it.

21d         Caution about entering colony (6)
WARREN – The colony on question being most often associated with rabbits. WARN (caution) with RE (about, on or of) entering in.

22d         Penny turning blue at old American Indian village (6)
PUEBLO – A semi-unfamiliar or forgotten word for me. Start with Penny, add an anagram (turning) of BLUE then add O for Old. The result is a town or settlement in Spanish speaking countries

Thanks to Cephas for the puzzle. Given the impending yuletide fun and games it will remain to be seen who is in the chair next week – probably Crypticsue but diaries and setters need to be synchronized!