Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27355
A full review by gnomethang
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Morning All! Sorry for my tardiness today – no excuses apart from a long après golf session and a faulty alarm clock! This was a reasonably enjoyable puzzle for me.
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
1 Ship’s quarters divine on edges of lake (10)
FORECAST (divine) with the edge letters of L(ak)E
6 Charge Liverpool footballer once (4)
A definition plus cryptic – that will be Ian RUSH.
9 Gangsters backing football people in goal (5)
MAFIA (Place the FA (football people) inside AIM (goal) and reverse the lot (backing).
10 Creepy-crawly ruining the marrow (9)
EARTHWORM – An anagram (being ruined) of THE MARROW.
12 Break back penetrating London region’s crack spies (6,7)
SECRET SERVICE – A tricky one to unravel. Start with SE for the South East (the London area) then reverse REST (break back) inside CREVICE for crack. SE CRE (TSER) VICE.
14 Character in Shakespeare’s volume in African country finding love (8)
MALVOLIO – Place VOL (an abbreviation of Volume) inside MALI (the African country) and then add (finding) O for love at the end.
15 Small fish making unpleasant smell (6)
STENCH – A nice charade of S for Small and then TENCH for fish.
17 Conservative after Californian city means to get in assistant (6)
LACKEY – Place C for Conservative and KEY (means to get in) after LA ( Los Angeles – the Californian city).
19 Lots of trees well planted in craft area (8)
ARBORETA – More than one arboretum i.e. lots of trees. Place BORE inside ART (craft) and A for Area.
21 Top Gear producer’s vehicle bent as tyre burst (7,6)
CARNABY STREET – A nice definition!. Start with CAR (vehicle) and then add an anagram (bent) of AS TYRE BURST.
24 Lead for one lame beast needs adjusting (4,5)
BASE METAL – Lead is an example (for one). Make an anagram (needs adjusting) of LAME BEAST. One of those clues where the pronunciation of lead as a verb in the clue but a noun in the definition is nicely misleading.
25 Second elimination process produces row (5)
SCULL – A charade of S for Second and CULL for a selection or rooting out process.
26 Bridge player has to scoff, holding spades (4)
EAST – Place S for South (one of the four bridge players) inside EAT (scoff).
27 A lot of horses needing medical speciality for biting (10)
ASTRINGENT – A STRING of horses with the abbreviation for Ear, Nose and Throat.
Down
1 Celebrity girlfriend loses pounds (4)
FAME – Remove the L (pounds sterling) from F(l)AME or girlfriend.
2 Turning down official, American left (7)
REFUSAL – A charade of REFeree (football official), US (American) and L for Left.
3 Gamble recklessly on a scene working — something lucky about it (6,4,3)
CHANCE ONES ARM – an anagram (working) of A SCEN with a lucky CHARM around the outside.
4 Slough’s iniquity possessed woman (3-5)
SHE-DEVIL – SHED for Slough (one’s skin) and then EVIL (iniquity).
5 Test place with choice of old money (5)
LORDS – The old money is L S D – librae, solidi and denarii. These are the Latin denominations that are adopted for Pounds, Shillings and Pence. A choice of them may be written as L OR D S
7 Ideal university head, above Scotsman (7)
Another charade, this one of U(niversity), TOP (for head) and IAN (a common Scottish name).
8 Beat principal marine predator (10)
HAMMERHEAD – A charade of HAMMER (beat) and HEAD (principal or main).
11 Hero having lost limb so a hole torn in pants (7,6)
HORATIO NELSON – An anagram (pants, rubbish) of SO A HOLE TORN IN.
13 One politician, the French cabinet minister, such as can’t be appeased (10)
IMPLACABLE – A charade of I for one, an MP (Member of Parliament or politician) then (Vince) CABLE – the Lib Dem cabinet minister.
16 Publicity about conductor, a source of gossip (8)
PRATTLER – Place Simon RATTLE the composer inside of PR – the abbreviation for Public Relations or publicity.
18 Goofs on stage, disconcerting process (7)
CORPSES – An anagram (disconcerting) of PROCESS.
20 Get passionate for luxury accommodation spurning P&O (7)
ENTHUSE – Remove the P and O form PENTHOUSE (luxury accommodation).
22 Mythical creatures still found on island (5)
YETIS – YET (still) found on top of IS (an abbreviation of Island)
23 Pressure group are intriguing (4)
PLOT – A charade of P (pressure) and LOT (group)
I’ll see you all the week after next or before – Christmas schedules are kicking in so who knows!