DT 27941

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27941

A full review by crypticsue

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

This puzzle was published on Saturday, 24th October 2015

It is a good job I quite enjoyed solving this crossword as I was called in as a last minute Saturday Hint Giver which means that I actually had to look at it three times – once to solve it, once to sort out some hints and finally to prepare this review.

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

Across

1a           Chased snipers having blown hole in the wall (4,9)
CASH DISPENSER –   An anagram (having blown) of CHASED SNIPERS

9a           Ban expert writer (9)
PROSCRIBE –   PRO (expert) SCRIBE (writer)

10a         Indian mystic travelled through water to reach island (5)
SWAMI   – SWAM (travelled through water) I (island).

11a         It can put out article about Queen? On the contrary (5)
ETHER –   I did like the definition –   On the contrary tells you that THE (definite article) goes inside ER (the cipher of our current Queen).

12a         Fool told to join up (4)
KNIT –   A homophone (told) of NIT (fool)l

13a         Report on one late old item (4)
OBIT –   O (old) BIT (item) produces a short form of  obituary (report on one ‘late’)

15a         Support son beset by one running out of control (7)
BOLSTER –   S (son) is beset by or inserted into BOLTER (one running out of control).

17a         Old rogue on TV’s energy to write (7)
COMPOSE –   COMPOS (old rogue on TV S) plus E (energy).

18a         High-spirited girl almost reaching US city means to gamble (7)
TOMBOLA –   Almost all of a TOMBOY (high-spirited girl) and LA (US city).

20a         Match perhaps for attacking footballer (7)
STRIKER –   Fairly obvious double definition

21a         Ordinary writer, quite accessible (4)
OPEN – O (ordinary) PEN (writer).

22a         Murphy gets Northern Irish party’s backing (4)
SPUD –   A reversal (backing) of DUPS (Democratic Unionist Party’s).

23a         Plant from south facing border (5)
SEDGE – S (south) EDGE (border).

26a         Grand works using Oriental images (5)
EPICS –   E(Eastern, oriental) PICS (images).

27a         Rare ombu tree initially cultivated here? (9)
ARBORETUM –   An anagram (cultivated) of RARE OMBU T (the last letter being Tree ‘initially’)

28a         Trade no longer carried out in conurbation (7,6)
GREATER LONDON –   An anagram (carried out) of TRADE NO LONGER.

Down

1d           Reliable policeman prospered keeping clear of drink (6-8)
COPPER-BOTTOMED –   COPPER (policeman) and TT (teetotal, clear of drink) inserted into BOOMED (prospered).   Putting a copper-bottom on a ship would also keep the timbers clear of the ‘drink’.

2d           Vice of heartless Lothario (5)
SLOTH – Hidden in heartlessS LOTHario

3d           Award for end-of-year speech (10)
DECORATION –   An end of year speech might be a DEC (December) ORATION.

4d           Some fishing equipment catching trout finally, a hard problem (7)
STINKER –   The final letter of trouT inserted into SINKER (fishing weight).

5d           Like some verse, say, Alice gets excited about (7)
ELEGIAC –   EG (say, for example) inserted into an anagram (gets excited) of ALICE.

6d           Special forces — hard band (4)
SASH –   SAS (special forces) H (hard).

7d           Police barrier catches a bold criminal in possession of precious stone (9)
ROAD BLOCK –   An anagram (criminal) of A BOLD inserted into (in possession of) ROCK (precious stone).

8d           Aliens enter telling me to get knotted (6,5,3)
LITTLE GREEN MEN –   If this hadn’t been such an obvious anagram, I’d have included it in my hints on Saturday, not least because then I could have added a picture!   An anagram (get knotted) of ENTER TELLING ME.

14d         I put on a show with one Italian character entertaining president (10)
IMPRESARIO –   I (one) PRES (president) MARIO (Italian character)

16d         Failing to start sleeping, being clumsy (9)
LUMBERING –   Failing to start means you remove the first letter from SLUMBERING (sleeping)

19d         Road material, a tar spread round both ends of path (7)
ASPHALT –   A (from the clue) SALT (like tar, another word for sailor)put round both ‘ends’ of PatH

20d         Short article shows team meeting lawyers (7)
SIDEBAR –   SIDE (team) BAR (lawyers).

24d         Went out with American lawyer then Irish priest (5)
DATED –   DA (District Attorney, American lawyer) TED (the Irish priest in the comedy series).

25d         A female Wimbledon champion once (4)
ASHE – A (from the clue) SHE (female).

I’m going to hope that Kath is still not reading my reviews (I’ve got away with several transgressions in the last week or so)  and so I can safely  say that my top you-know-what’s were 11a, 22a, 3d and 8d.

S2