Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27187
A full review by gnomethang
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Morning All! I thought that this was a pretty good puzzle for a Saturday with a couple of old chestnuts to get me started.
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Across
1a Party near American university site (6)
CAMPUS – A political party of faction, CAMP, before (close to or near) US for American.
5a Circus performers in glasses (8)
TUMBLERS – A chestnut of a clue. Forward rollers (acrobats) and whisky tumblers.
9a Old retirement place to take care of sheltering our pop finally (4-6)
FOUR-POSTER – An old style bed. Place OUR (from the clue) and the last letter in poP inside FOSTER (take care of)
10a Curses celebrity making comeback (4)
RATS – A reversal of STAR (a celebrity making comeback). Rats as an exhortation in a Dastardly and Muttley Style.
11a Biscuits with bananas (8)
CRACKERS – Two definitions , both a bit nutty but not necessarily with nuts.
12a Greek character aboard vessel, one at home in the sea (6)
URCHIN – CHI (A Greek letter of the alphabet) inside (aboard) the vessel or container that is the URN.
13a Sounds like a quaint case (4)
ETUI – Bad homophone alert!. Does anyone pronounce A TWEE (a quaint) as ETUI?
15a See on vid horrific headlong plunge (8)
NOSEDIVE – An anagram (indicated by horrific) of SEE ON VID.
18a Prolific robber making insolent comment brought back alcoholic drink (8)
PILLAGER – A reversal (brought back) of LIP (insolent comment) followed by the LAGER that BD hates (apart from with a curry).
19a Hit over the head because shortly hostility’s beginning (4)
COSH – A bump on the noggin is a short version of because – COS – with H for the beginning letter in Hostility.
21a Oddball in Rio wed in disguise (6)
WEIRDO – A disguised anagram of RIO WED proving yet another exception to the C rule.
23a Don’t happen to authenticate (8)
NOTARISE – A cryptic definition and definition. If it did not happen then it did NOT ARISE.
25a Wedding vow left one adored (4)
IDOL –A charade of I DO (a wedding vow) and L for Left.
26a Sort of welcome giving heart to record (6-4)
TICKER-TAPE – Your heart is a TICKER colloquially in the UK. Place it in front of TAPE (record) to get an American Hero’s welcome parade.
27a Ancient Britons keeping radical forecasts (8)
PREDICTS – RED (a radical leftie in politics) inside of PICTS (Ancient Britons)
28a Cross about theologian’s bewilderment (6)
MUDDLE – The big confusion of the day. Very easy if you solve crosswords regularly as a MULE is a cross animal (donkey stallion and a horse). Place DD (he abbreviation for Divinitas Doctor /Doctor of Divinity/theologian) inside.
Down
2d A keen endless love (5)
AMOUR – A from the clue and all but the last letter (endless) of MOURn for keen or wail. Good synonym territory on that last one.
3d Get bottle to hug a fabulous bird of limited scope (9)
PAROCHIAL – Place a PHIAL outside (a bottle hugging) A ROC (the usual mythical/fabulous bird).
4d Exhibitor scorned group (6)
SHOWER – A definition plus cryptic definition – that being e.g. Terry Thomas’s “Absolute Ruddy SHOWER!” – a scorned bunch of reprobates.
5d The Bard’s work makes unsound artistic play (5,10)
TITUS ANDRONICUS – Being one of the Bard Shakespeare’s plays. An anagram (indicated by play of the words) UNSOUND ARTISTIC. Well disguised.
6d Nobleman brands serf’s head (8)
MARQUESS – The MARQUES (brands of e.g. a classic car) Plus the head letter in S(erf).
7d Some really rich poetry (5)
LYRIC – A semi all-in-one. A part of (some)of) realLY RICh is a type of poetry.
8d Breaking tie, server gets back (9)
RETRIEVES – An anagram (breaking) of TIE SERVER.
14d Minor batsman kind to harbour trouble (4-5)
TAIL-ENDER – AIL (trouble) inside TENDER (kind). 8 wickets down on the 5th day. Sorry ladies!
16d Given honour, TV presenter made speech (9)
DECORATED – DEC – Declan Donelly from the ubiquitous Saturday night TV shows – followed by ORATED (made a speech).
17d Person who’s not sure coasting out of control (8)
AGNOSTIC – An anagram, indicated by ‘out f control, of COASTING.
20d Group of pupils with energy holding run (6)
STREAM – STEAM (energy, oomph) with R for Run (the cricketing abbreviation) included.
22d Had government regretted including Liberal? (5)
RULED – RUED (regretted) with L for Liberal included within.
24d Unfortunate lapse, a bit of a bloomer (5)
SEPAL – A part of the flower (bloomer for crosswords) to a botanist. Also an anagram (unfortunate) of LAPSE.
I’ll see you all in a couple of weeks!