DT 27552 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 27552

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27552

A full review by crypticsue

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BD Rating – Difficulty **Enjoyment ***

This puzzle was published on Saturday, 26th July 2014

I was  slow to get started with this one,  but, in the end, thought it a  fairly typical Saturday Prize Puzzle.

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           Settle on a posh carriage (6)
LANDAU –   LAND (settle on) A from the clue and U (posh)

9a           On the map, going up in the world (10)
NORTHBOUND –   A cryptic definition of the direction if you were going from the bottom to the top of a map which misled several of us as we thought the solution was  northwards until we couldn’t solve 7d and 8d!

10a         Assured of success in having got off the booze? (4,3,3)
HOME AND DRY –   HOME (in) and DRY(having got off the booze)

11a         Those doing wrong often do it inside (4)
TIME – A cryptic definition of one of the ways prisoners might refer to their sentence.

12a         Express grief having very small amount of money (4)
WEEP – WEE (very small) and P (penny, amount of money).

14a         Melting tar — closure required in part of London (5,5)
EARLS COURT is an anagram (melting) of TAR CLOSURE.

17a         Cleaner with little energy’s given notice that needs to be worked out (7)
CHARADE –   CHAR (cleaner) and E (abbreviation [little] energy) with an AD (notice) inserted.

18a         Want rotten fielder far away from the wicket! (4,3)
LONG OFF –   LONG (want) and OFF (rotten).

20a         Good circular pan covers beginning to require basic preparation (10)
GROUNDWORK – G (good) ROUND (circular) and WOK (pan) with the beginning letter of Require inserted.

21a         Ordered    without water (4)
NEAT –   A double definition.

22a         Information coming from all directions (4)
NEWS – Information coming from all the compass points North East West and South.

23a         Change of accent is appropriate (10)
CONFISCATE –   An anagram (change of) ACCENT IS gives us a synonym for appropriate when it means to steal or take for one’s own.

25a         Gold phone is carried over to car (10)
AUTOMOBILE – AU (the chemical symbol for gold) TO (from the clue,  carried over or inserted) and MOBILE (phone).

26a         Bold lover not liked initially (6)
DARING –   Remove the L for Liked from DARLING (lover).

Down

2d           Catch the girl singer appearing first? Absolutely (10)
ALTOGETHER –   Start with an ALTO (singer appearing first) and follow with GET (catch) and HER (the girl).

3d           River port unfinished (4)
DOVE –   Remove the R at the end of DOVER (port) and you get the river DOVE.

4d           A Parisian fiancé’s chance (10)
UNINTENDED – UN (how someone in Paris might say A) and INTENDED (fiancé)

5d           Snoop’s full of insulting primness (7)
PRUDERY –   RUDE (insulting) is inserted into PRY (snoop).

6d           For what reason put round fifth-rate nursery rhyme fare? (4)
WHEY –   WHY (for what reason) with E (A, B, C, D, then E = fifth rate) gives us the food eaten by Little Miss Muffet in the nursery rhyme.

7d           One’s musical tongue? (5,5)
MOUTH ORGAN – A cryptic definition of the tongue gives us a musical instrument.

8d           Now opening for a season (6)
ADVENT –   AD (Anno Domini, ‘now’) followed by a VENT (opening).

13d         Instruments of supersonic potential (10)
PERCUSSION – These instruments are an anagram (potential) of SUPERSONIC.

15d         Accumulated capital used on mansion and diamonds (10)
STOCKPILED –   STOCK (capital) PILE (the BRB has this as a tall building but it is an informal way of referring to a stately mansion) and D (the abbreviation for the card suit of diamonds).

16d         Engineers taking part in light diversion (10)
REFRACTION – RE (Royal Engineers) and FRACTION (part).

19d         Local authority advice is announced (7)
COUNCIL is a homophone (is announced) of COUNSEL (advice).

20d         Very pleasant in gale, getting blown about! (6)
GENIAL –   An anagram (getting blown about) of IN GALE.

23d         Bobby’s pocketed ring and pen (4)
COOP – An O (ring) inserted into COP ( an informal term (as is bobby) for a policeman).

24d         Dear French     singer (4)
CHER – The French word for dear or expensive Is also the name of the singer most useful to setters of cryptic crosswords!