ST 2750

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2750

A full review by gnomethang

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

This puzzle was published on Sunday, 29th June 2014

A fine puzzle today with some excellent consistent surface readings.

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           Like chatting in company with citizen about poetry, mostly (14)
CONVERSATIONAL – CO for the abb. of Company then almost all of VERS(e)/poetry mostly inside NATIONAL for citizen – CO N(VERS)ATIONAL

9a           Sun is awful — part of dilemma is still having woollen coat on (7)
UNSHORN – An anagram (awful) of SUN then one HORN of a dilemma.

10a         Monk holding naughty dance in South America (7)
LAMBADA – The Monk is the LAMA and he is holding or containing BAD for naughty. The fact that the dance is seen as potentially ‘naughty’ is irrelevant here.

11a         No-win situation for Asian, so to speak (3)
TIE – It sounds like (so to speak) THAI for Asian.

12a         Endlessly endangers health? That could make he-man so sick (5-6)
CHAIN-SMOKES – An anagram (that could make) of the letters of HE-MAN SO SICK.

14a         To disconcert Right, Labour PM stopped short (6)
RATTLE – A charade of R for Right then all but the last letter (stopping short) of clement ATTLE(e).

15a         Like a good jumper, strongly built (4-4)
WELL-KNIT – Two definitions really. In the first you must realise that the jumper is woolly and the second is a definition for strongly built (as in e.g. bones).

17a         Flower sheltered by city in wind (8)
EASTERLY – The City of ELY containing (sheltering) the ASTER flower.

19a         How person jumping off Pont Neuf might be pronounced? (6)
INSANE – The old jokes are the best!. A homophone of IN SEINE, the river that one would fall into after jumping off the Pont Neuf in Paris.

22a         Craftsman’s slim — thrives in unusual way (11)
SILVERSMITH – An anagram (indicated by in an unusual way) of SLIM THRIVES.

23a         Something needed for boring jobs, from everything we hear (3)
AWL – An homophone (we hear) of ALL or everything.

24a         Some err badly, resulting in this? (7)
REMORSE – A simple but effective clue. An anagram (badly) of SOME ERR.

26a         Cause of ill-feeling, friend pinching certain amount of work (7)
ALLERGY – An ALLY or friend containing (pinching) an ERG – the CGS (centimetre-gram-second) unit of work.

27a         Lots come here on top of the sledge? Just the opposite (5,3,6)
UNDER THE HAMMER – The lots at an auction. To sledge is to hammer an individual with speech so the opposite of being on top of the sledge might be UNDER THE HAMMER.

Down

1d           Reckon mere rearranging’s a positive preventive step (14)
CONTERMEASURE – COUNT for reckon, then an anagram (rearranging) of MERE followed bu A SURE for ‘a positive’.

2d           Last part of mountain climb just beginning (7)
NASCENT – The final letter (last part) in mountaiN then ASCENT for climb. An excellent surface reading.

3d           Having raised mark, pass English without support in school (4,7)
ETON COLLEGE – Reverse (raise in a down clue) NOTE for mark then add COL for a mountain pass and E for English around (without here means outside of) LEG for support.

4d           One can go on foot in Tunis and Algiers (6)
SANDAL – The footwear is hidden in (in) the last three words.

5d           A fast time in boat race Oxford finally accomplished (8)
TALENTED – A LENT (A time for fasting in the Christian calendar) inside the final letters of (boa)T (race)E) (oxfor)D.

6d           Circle ruler, initially, as measure of resistance (3)
OHM – Simply O for a circle and the abbreviation oh His/Her Majesty.

7d           Person from state that’s not so warm, in general, as Kansas (7)
ALASKAN – A denizen of one of the colder US States is hidden IN the last three words.

8d           Change tape secretly as it can be heard on this (8,6)
CASSETTE PLAYER – An anagram (change is the instruction) of TAPE SECRETLY, the cassette being known as a ‘tape’ in the vernacular.

13d         Call home in a dreadfully depressed state (11)
MELANCHOLIA – An anagram (dreadfully) of CALL HOME IN A. Again the surface reading makes this a tricky but satisfying clue to solve.

16d         Display rope that gives extra protection when camping (8)
FLYSHEET – FLY for display or show (e.g. fly the flag) and then SHEET for rope one that is attached to the bottom corner of a sail.

18d         Single male working for wise person (7)
SOLOMON – An charade of SOLO (single) and MAN for male. Q.v. the ‘Wisdom of Solomon’.

20d         For racing tipster, starting price, for example, is a sign about horse (7)
ANAGRAM – Two for the price of one!.First note that ‘racing tipster and starting price’ are very apposite anagrams of each other. Secondly place a NAG (horse) inside A RAM (A sign of the zodiac). Top clue!.

21d         Face very learned person taking one in (6)
VISAGE – V for Very and a SAGE (learned person) containing (taking in) I for One.

25d         Crop doubled in bumper year? Yes (3)
RYE – The grass crop is hidden twice (doubled in) bumpeR YEaR YEs.

Thanks to Mr Greer for a great puzzle. I’ll see you all Next week for another Sunday review.