ST 2805

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2805

A full review by crypticsue

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

This puzzle was published on Sunday, 19th July 2015

The usual Sunday service – hard to pick just one favourite so I’ll say that, amongst several others I could mention, I thought 10a, 26a were brilliant.

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.  You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five best!

Across

1a           Potter about before armistice arranged (10)
CERAMICIST –   C (circa, about) goes before an anagram (arranged) of ARMISTICE.

6a           Much admired man getting that woman’s love (4)
HERO – HER (that woman’s) O (love)

9a           Hide resentment of a kind, mostly before staff returns (7)
ENVELOP –   Almost all of ENVy(resentment of a kind mostly) goes before a reversal (returns) of POLE (staff).

10a         Gathering fruit from some climbers – how mad can one be? (7)
HOPPING –   Brilliant – a verb meaning gathering hops for beer – or a way of describing extreme anger.

12a         Back to old part of wing for medical check (6,7)
SECOND OPINION –   SECOND (back) O (old) PINION (part of wing).

14a         Writer Thoreau revised with no end of patience (6)
AUTHOR –   Remove the E (no end of patience) from THOREAU and then make an anagram (revised) of the remaining letters.

15a         Arbitrates about professional payments, including royalty (8)
REFEREES –   RE (about) FEES (professional payments) into which is inserted ER (including royalty in the form of the regnal cipher of our current Queen).

17a         Person who has designs on others’ bodies? (8)
TATTOOER –   A cryptic definition.

19a         Cast aside, lives in part of Ireland (6)
DISOWN –   IS (lives) in DOWN (part of Ireland).

22a         He rings the changes as politician in action, and goal’s revised (13)
CAMPANOLOGIST –   I also ring changes on bells and I’m definitely not a he!  MP (Member of Parliament, politician) goes in an anagram (revised) of ACTION and GOALS.

24a         Make prediction for aircraft going over speed of light (7)
PROJECT –   PRO (for) JET (aircraft) with C (speed of light) inserted.

25a         Central part of study about rent was instructive (7)
TUTORED –   The ‘central part’ of sTUDy goes ‘about’ TORE (rent).

26a         Expression of surprise from England, oddly enough (4)
EGAD –   The odd letters of EnGlAnD.

27a         What’s valued about a monarch that’s insecure (10)
PRECARIOUS –   PRECIOUS (valued) with A (from the clue) and R (Rex or Regina, monarch) inserted.

Down

1d           Signs left out of things like this (4)
CUES –   Remove the L (left) from CLUES (things like this).

2d           Go back to clergyman shortly before I get behind on support (7)
REVISIT –   REV (abbreviated clergyman) I SIT (get behind on ‘support’) – more brilliance!

3d           Two non-alcoholic drinks that can be bought in bars (4,9)
MILK CHOCOLATE – MILK and CHOCOLATE are both non-alcoholic drinks.

4d           Create a single international gang boss in the US (6)
CAPONE –   CAP ONE (create a single international sportsman).

5d           Glass vessel preferably placed outside church (8)
SCHOONER –   SOONER (preferably) placed outside the abbreviation for church – CH. This one wins the award for ‘chestnut’ of the month as it has appeared in several crosswords lately.

7d           Limited energy provided during cut in building (7)
EDIFICE –   ‘Limited’ here indicating that you need the abbreviation for energy – E followed by DICE (cut into small cubes) into which is inserted IF (provided).

8d           Making arrangements I perform musically with instrument (10)
ORGANISING –   ORGAN (instrument) I SING (I perform musically).

11d         Powerful politician that’s initially backed MP (5,8)
PRIME MINISTER –   Reverse (backed) MP and you get the initials of probably the most powerful politician.

13d         Working in working group, for example, inserting one page in small piece (10)
PARTICIPLE –   the word working is this in the first half of the clue –   insert I (one) P (page) into a PARTICLE (small piece).

16d         A ring held by me, say, for marine mammal (3,5)
SEA OTTER –   A O (a ring) is inserted into (held by) SETTER (Virgilius here referring to himself as me).

18d         Doctor entering saw, for instance, a gambling activity (7)
TOMBOLA –   MB (Bachelor of Medicine, doctor) inserted into TOOL (saw, for instance, being an example of a tool) and followed with A (from the clue).

20d         Covering a riot that’s disrupted part of North America (7)
ONTARIO –   ON (covering) and an anagram (that’s disrupted)of A RIOT.

21d         Imaginative American writer leading movement out of control (6)
POETIC – POE (Edgar Allan, the US writer) leading or going before a TIC (movement out of control).

23d         Some ride sidesaddle for day after day like this (4)
IDES –   Had this puzzle appeared on the 15^th of July, this would indeed have been ‘a day like this’   Hidden twice in a row (day after day) in rIDE S IDESaddle.

S2