ST 2572

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2572

A full review by Crypticsue

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

Another Sunday treat from Virgilius – a super mix of clues from the straightforward to the very deceptive; so thanks once again to the Sunday Supremo for an excellent, enjoyable brain stretching workout.

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.

Across

1a    People manning aircraft carrying second propeller (8)
AIRSCREW – An easy one to start with: the collective name of the people working on an aircraft – AIR CREW carrying (ie put inside) S (second). An airscrew is an alternative name for a propeller.

9a    That staggering piece of cricket (3,5)
HAT TRICK – A positive feat achieved three times in a game is an anagram (staggering) of THAT with RICK – a ‘piece’ of the word cRICKet – added.

10a    Long garment, in principle, shortened (4)
MAXI – A maxim is a general principle or proverb – remove the last letter (shortened) to get the sort of skirts those of us around in the 1970s wore after we had finished with miniskirts!

11a    Protraction’s distorted funny pictures (5,7)
STRIP CARTOON – An anagram (distorted) of PROTRACTIONS – a narrow space in a newspaper in which a story, usually amusing, is told in pictures.

13a    Lawless behaviour producing complaint (8)
DISORDER – a nice double definition – riotous behaviour or an ailment /illness.

15a    Grey geese, initially, caught in storm – a lot of them (6)
GAGGLE – The collective noun for geese – a GALE or storm with G G (Grey and Geese initially) inserted.

16a    Communication shortened by what sounds like random deletion (4)
MEMO – The abbreviated form of that pre-email office communication the memorandum, having deleted the bit that sounds like random.

17a    Someone who’s not English in English course (5)
ASCOT – A + someone from Scotland (ie not English); merge these and you get the famous English racecourse.

18a    Related to heartless young man (4)
TOLD – Related as in having told a story – TO and L(A)D (a young man with the middle (or heart) removed).

20a    Ring-leader, in law, is showing prejudice (6)
RACIST – Someone prejudiced against another class or group of people – R (ring leader) plus ACT (law) with IS inserted.

21a    About time, put in a little money for show (8)
PRETENCE – A misleading false show or claim – the much used RE (in the sense of about) and T for time, inserted into PENCE, a small amount of money.

23a    Underground found in nearest urban interchange (12)
SUBTERRANEAN – a synonym for underground is an anagram (interchange) of NEAREST URBAN.

26a    One of two couples holding hands, in love as teenagers (4)
EAST – Bridge players around a table are known by the compass points north, east, south and west. One of them is hidden in lovE AS Teenagers.

27a    Defensive writing in articles about game American fighter (8)
APOLOGIA – The articles are A’s; put inside them the game of POLO and the American fighter the GI – an apologia is apparently, as the clue says, a written defence or vindication.

28a    One found in church (8)
MINISTER – An all-in-one clue – Place I (one) inside the church usually attached to an abbey – the MINSTER – to find the person usually found there taking the service.

Down

2d    Doing little during first session of play against English (8)
INACTIVE – an adjective meaning dormant or inert is created by a charade of IN (during) ACT I (the first act of a play) V (versus or against) and E (English).

3d    Expert on natural disasters in ruined sites is filled with awful gloom (12)
SEISMOLOGIST – Two anagrams combined here: SITES (ruined) and GLOOM (awful) – this expert on earthquakes would indeed be filled with awful gloom at sites ruined in this way.

4d    Inflexible type putting sign on pole (6)
RAMROD – Someone who is strict, stern or inflexible; or the pole used for putting a charge into a gun barrel – the sign of Aries the RAM and ROD (pole).

5d    Who harasses insubordinate politicians, primarily? (4)
WHIP – the person in charge of making sure MPs toe the party line is found in the initial letters of Who Harasses Insubordinate Politicians.

6d    Sound heard that’s dramatically serious (8)
STRAIGHT – an adjective that describes a serious role in a drama is a homophone of a sound or inlet of the sea (strait).

7d    Spies connected with ring for so long (4)
CIAO – the American spy service the CIA plus O – the Italian way of saying goodbye.

8d    He’s a kind that’s disorderly (8)
SKINHEAD – Another all-in-one clue: an anagram (disorderly) of HE’S A KIND produces these disorderly people with shaven heads.

12d    To understand that woman’s point creates cohesion (12)
TOGETHERNESS – The act of sticking together or closeness is a charade of TO GET (understand) HER (belonging to that woman) and NESS (point).

14d    Briefly visit old ground again, put back on team? (5)
RECAP – A double definition – to go over something again or to reselect for an international team.

16d    Expert with weapon takes on defensive role (8)
MARKSMAN – A word meaning an expert shot, when split (5,3) could describe what a defender does in a football match to prevent a member of the opposition scoring a goal.

17d    What psychoanalysis might do for sign of split personality? (5,3)
ALTER EGO – Psychoanalysis might change your view of your ego or self; your alter ago is a term meaning your second self, implying that you might have an split personality.

19d    Game in casserole not quite stewed (8)
LACROSSE – ‘Stewed’ is the anagram indicator here, ‘not quite’ tells you that you need to leave the last letter of CASSEROL(E) out of the mix – Lacrosse is a team sport played with long sticks with a net on the end.

22d    Team from central Mexico (6)
ELEVEN – hidden in the middle of MeXIco are the Roman numerals for eleven – a number of sports have a team made up of eleven players.

24d    Audibly disapprove of King John, for one (4)
BOOK – Audiences that disapprove of something BOO. Adding this to K for king produces the word BOOK, an example of which is the Gospel according to St John in the New Testament.

25d    A mother, the ancestor we all share? (4)
ADAM – A DAM is the mother of, usually, a horse. ADAM is the Biblical first man on Earth from whom we are all said to descend.

As is usual with a Virgilius crossword, it is impossible to pick a favourite clue. I will be back in due course to have another go at picking a favourite in next Sunday’s puzzle.