DT 27917

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27917

A full review by crypticsue

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BD Rating – Difficulty *– Enjoyment **

This puzzle was published on 26th September 2015

This Saturday Prize Puzzle took me twice as long as the previous week’s to solve, hence the increase in difficulty rating. Several clues to make you smile and/or think which upped the enjoyment level for me too.

 

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Across

1a           Pain from exercise in saddle perhaps (6)
STITCH –   A pain in the side when exercising or an example of an needlework stitch

5a           Detectives must probe old coin in the West (8)
OCCIDENT –   O (old) and CENT (coin) probed by or with  CID (detectives) inserted.

9a           Place of worship gets a celebrant excited (10)
TABERNACLE – An anagram (excited) of A CELEBRANT.

10a         Secures  trousers (4)
BAGS – Double informality here – a slang way of saying lays claim to (secures) or an informal term for a pair of trousers.

11a         Someone lacking faith in one violinist (8)
PAGANINI – PAGAN (someone lacking faith) IN (from the clue) I (one).

12a         Goblin has ill feeling about king (6)
SPRITE –   R (king) inside SPITE (ill feeling).

13a         American education put into employment (4)
USED – US (American) ED (education)

15a         Drink humorously described in a manuscript penned by a dramatic diarist (5,3)
ADAMS ALE –   Used to describe water – the first man on Earth’s drink – A (from the clue) and MS (manuscript) inserted into DALE (anyone who was a child in the 1950s and 1960s will remember their mothers listening to Mrs Dale’s Diary on the Light Programme – and yes, BD, I did worry about Jim out loud as I solved the clue!).

18a         Animal is tangled in yacht’s propeller (8)
MAINSAIL –   An anagram (tangled) of ANIMAL IS

19a         Pop group once providing their own backing (4)
ABBA –   As the clue says, the group’s name is a palindrome.

21a         One harshly rules what one can’t do to a leopard? (6)
DESPOT –   Split 2,4 and you’ll find what you can’t do to a leopard.

23a         Distinction of modern artist from ‘ere (8)
EMINENCE –   EMIN (Tracey, the modern artist) and ENCE (hence, from here, with the H removed as indicated by ‘ere in the clue).

25a         Blue  feathers (4)
DOWN – Miserable (blue) or soft feathers.

26a         The last thing in the Bible that could make cosy appeal (10)
APOCLYPSE –   An anagram (could make) of COSY APPEAL.

27a         Box — one acceptable for horse (8)
STALLION –   STALL (box) I (one) ON (acceptable).

28a         Engine stops going by elevated railway (6)
DIESEL –   DIES (stops going) EL (US railway).

Down

2d           Portia rarely displays luxurious headgear (5)
TIARA –   Hidden in porTIA RArely.

3d           Trollope novel in Churchill’s retreat? (3,6)
THE WARDEN –   No trouble with the novel, I studied it at school, just a moment to realise that if I split the second word I’d have THE  WAR DEN (to which Churchill would have retreated to on many occasions).

4d           Big actor falling short — that is what you need for a sad movie (6)
HANKIE –   Remove the last letter from the surname of the actor who starred in Big [Tom] HANKs and follow with IE (that is).   A clue that made me smile

5d           What can make email bounce between two cricket sides very rarely (4,2,1,4,4)
ONCE IN A BLUE MOON   –   Insert between ON and ON (two cricket sides) an anagram (what can make) of EMAIL BOUNCE.

6d           Revolutionary Nazi guard — knight perhaps (8)
CHESSMAN –   CHE (Crosswordland’s pet revolutionary) SS MAN (Nazi guard).

7d           Exclude society girl meeting a queen (5)
DEBAR –   DEB (society girl) A (from the clue) R (Regina, queen)

8d           Cook big lunch with last of brisket joint for latecomers (9)
NIGHTCLUB –   An anagram (cook) of BIG LUNCH and T (the ‘last’ of brisket)

14d         Pot caused rogue to be this? (6,3)
SPACED OUT –   An anagram (rogue) of POT CAUSED.

16d         Corporation to relieve Levantine city (5,4)
SPARE TYRE –   SPARE (relieve) TYRE (Levantine city).

17d         Meat that’s cooked soft with butter in sparkling wine (8)
PASTRAMI –   P (musical instruction to play softly) ASTI (sparkling wine) with RAM (butter) inserted.

20d         Tease a Liberal Democrat with coarse humour (6)
RIBALD –   RIB (tease) A (from the clue) LD (Liberal Democrat).

22d         Group of experts criticise the Spanish (5)
PANEL – PAN (criticise) EL (the Spanish definite article).

24d         Station in India left from historic building (5)
CASTE –   Remove L (left) from a CASTLE (historic building).

 

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