ST 2776 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
View closed comments 

ST 2776

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2776

A full review by crypticsue

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

BD Rating – Difficulty **Enjoyment ****

This puzzle was published on Sunday, 28th December 2014

 

Another fine start to Sunday morning solving, thank you Virgilius.

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           Seek opinion from son on work of art (7)
CANVASS  – Follow a CANVAS (work of art) with S (son).

5a           Recording some fellers’ work (7)
LOGGING –  Making a record of something could also describe the work of tree fellers.

9a           Fruit turned up by politician with family (7)
PUMPKIN  –   A reversal (turned) of UP, MP (Member of Parliament, politician) and KIN (family).

10a         Clash produced by lines I encrypted? (7)
COLLIDE –  LL (two abbreviations for lines) I (from the clue) ‘encrypted’ or put in CODE.

11a         Consequently inscribed in tablet here, for ever (9)
THEREFORE is hidden inscribed in tableT HERE FOR Ever.

12a         Live show’s beginning, actor’s going outside (5)
EXIST  – The ‘beginning’ of Show inserted into EXIT (an instruction to the actor to ‘go outside’ or leave the stage).

13a         Member of defeated team — not keeper, proverbially (5)
LOSER  – The second part of the clue referring to the proverb ‘finders keepers, losers weepers’.

15a         Dotty aunt leading protest meeting, of course (9)
NATURALLY  – An anagram (dotty) of AUNT leads a RALLY (protest meeting).

17a         Cape always covered with plastic, or the other way around (4,5)
VICE VERSA  –  C (cape) and EVER (always) inserted into VISA (‘plastic money’ being an informal term for debit and credit cards such as VISA).

19a         Party is breaking old record, moving to the left (5)
DISCO –   IS (from the clue)inserted into (breaking) O (old) and CD (record), the latter two parts of the wordplay being reversed (moving to the left).

22a         More unusual notes separately stored by educational foundation? (5)
RARER –  Insert two musical notes A and E separately into three Rs (the educational foundation being reading, ‘riting and ‘rithemetic).

23a         Create female apparel that’s rough and ready (9)
MAKE SHIFT –   Split 4, 5 you would MAKE [a] SHIFT (female clothing).

25a         Went on voyage, i.e. with salts at sea (3,4)
SET SAIL –  An anagram (at sea) of IE and SALTS.

26a         Unscrupulous financial operator seizing power, one who takes over (7)
USURPER –    P (power) is seized by a USURER (unscrupulous financial operator).

27a         Batsman who’s out? (7)
STRIKER –  The batsman facing the bowling could describe someone out on strike.

28a         Upper garment worn by male or female in turret? (4,3)
TANK TOP  – A type of garment which might describe the turret on a military tank.

Down

1d           Start of sentence for most serious kind of crime (7)
CAPITAL –    The type of letter that starts a sentence or the most serious crime punishable by the death penalty.

2d           Book group that includes 1984 (7)
NUMBERS  –  A book of the Old Testament.   1 9 8 and 4 could all be included in groups of numbers.

3d           Keep being annoying, topless in low joint (5)
ANKLE –   Remove the first letter (topless) from RANKLE (keep being annoying).

4d           Depressing experience after star’s last drink of the day? (9)
SUNDOWNER  –   DOWNER (depressing experience) goes after SUN (star).

5d           Ill-gotten gains as enticement drawing Conservative in (5)
LUCRE – C for Conservative inserted into LURE (enticement).

6d           Information about senior staff in plant (9)
GOLDENROD  –  Insert OLD (senior) into GEN (information) and finish with ROD (staff).

7d           First thing Milton and Swift have in common (7)
INITIAL –  John Milton and Jonathan Swift both have the same initial letter for their Christian names.

8d           At length, interrupting Earl and PM in a major way (7)
GREATLY –   Earl GREY, a former Prime Minister)with AT and L (length) inserted.

14d         Step out here after row, being offensive about one part of speech (9)
RIVERBANK  –   I (one) and VERB  (part of speech) inserted into RANK (being offensive)

16d         Runs in shoddy stuff clubs, perhaps, provided as sportswear (5,4)
TRACK SUITS –  R (runs) inserted into TACK (poorly made shoddy stuff) followed by SUITS (clubs perhaps in a pack of cards)

17d         Half a dozen tricks — they should be kept out of program (7)
VIRUSES –  VI (six in Roman numerals) and RUSES (tricks) should be kept out of computer programs.

18d         Arranger of exhibition and artist appearing in court when disorderly (7)
CURATOR –   RA (artist) inserted into an anagram (when disorderly) of COURT.

20d         Clip poodle, for example? Not much (7)
SNIPPET –   Split 4, 3 this might describe how you might clip your family poodle

21d         E.g. part of vein exposed, cut, or damaged in operation (7)
OUTCROP –   A mineral vein at ground surface –   an anagram (damaged) of CUT OR inserted into OP (operation).

23d         Sportsperson who runs part of league (5)
MILER    -A runner of a mile race, a league here being an old measure of length.

24d         Contemptuously reject what’s new after incitement (5)
SPURN –  SPUR (incitement) followed by N (new).

[s]

3 comments on “ST 2776

  1. Sunday’s clues always appear so smooth and effortless (though I’m sure that a lot of effort has gone into making them appear so). Thanks to Virgilius for another very enjoyable puzzle and to crypticsue for the review.

  2. Just been checking my answers on my tablet and find that LUCRE has been marked as wrong. I am glad that your answer agrees with mine…who is wrong?!!!

Comments are closed.