ST 2845

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2845

A full review by crypticsue

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

This puzzle was published on Sunday, 24th April 2016

If only all crosswords were such a joy to solve and review as the Sunday Telegraph Cryptic, this one being no exception.  7d is my favourite, or should that be favorite??

 

If you can remember back eleven days ago, and/or you kept your copy of the solved puzzle,  do let us know what you thought of it.

1a           Disorder guarantees pain for elderly person (14)
SEPTUAGENARIAN –   An anagram (disorderly) of GUARANTEES PAIN.  I know two such persons  who’d be most offended to be thought of as ‘elderly’ so I haven’t told them about this clue.

9a           Produce further evidence for swindle by company (7)
CONFIRM –    CON (swindle) goes by or before FIRM (company)

10a         Hear about old play that doesn’t have happy ending (7)
TRAGEDY –  TRY (hear) goes ‘about’ AGED (old)

11a         Catch   something that’s over quick (4)
NAIL –   Pin down or the part of the body that goes over a sensitive part of the body (quick).

12a         Unrivalled businessman who plays game with board? (10)
MONOPOLIST  –  Someone in sole command of  a business or a winner at the board game of Monopoly perhaps?

14a         Bird is spotted, being in hide (6)
SISKIN –   IS (from the clue) inside (being in) SKIN (hide).   I did check and the female of the species has a sort of spotted chest!

15a         Computerised information turned a little mean (8)
DATABASE –   A reversal (turned) of A TAD (a little) followed by BASE (mean)

17a         Republican in dissenting group that’s vulgar or improper (8)
FRACTION –   R (Republican) inserted into FACTION (dissenting group)

18a         Record-holder emerging from tussle eventually (6)
SLEEVE –   Anyone else remember the days when vinyl records were kept safe inside a sleeve which here emerges from tusSLE EVEntually

21a         Administer without a split, so it would seem (10)
APPARENTLY –   APPLY (administer) goes ‘without’ or outside of RENT (split).

22a         Leaders in amateur game of golf eagerly excited (4)
AGOG –   The ‘leaders’ of Amateur Game Of Golf

24a         Guilty person‘s argument against opposing one court (7)
CONVICT –    CON (argument against) V (versus, opposing) I (one) CT (court)

25a         Most of that section of party is becoming less hostile (7)
THAWING –   THAW (most of that) WING (section of party)

26a         Produced glossy cover for bilingual editor? (6-8)
FRENCH-POLISHED –   FRENCH-POLISH (bilingual) ED (editor)

Down

1d           Supports   inferior goods for short time (7)
SECONDS –   Triple definition.

2d           Writer’s turned in this article to make a point (6-9)
PENCIL-SHARPENER –   A lovely cryptic definition/&Lit

3d           Turn fifty, oddly lacking detachment (4)
UNIT –   Remove the odd letters (lacking) from tUrN  fIfTy

4d           Frisk doctor going into prison (6)
GAMBOL – MB (doctor, Bachelor of Medicine) goes into GAOL (prison)

5d           E.g. German or Italian examination a linguist has included (8)
NATIONAL  –   Lurking in examiNATION  A Linguist

6d           Showing disloyalty, dismissing head? That’s okay (10)
REASONABLE –   Remove the ‘head’ from TREASONABLE (showing disloyalty).

7d           In which our conclusions are often non-U (8,7)
AMERICAN ENGLISH  –  Because Americans leave out the U in words such as behavior, color and labor.  The template for the review  is in American English so has to be changed in order to spell check the draft.   So originally, the three examples of American spelling  were read  as being correct but now the English version doesn’t like them at all and keeps wanting to change them back to English English.

8d           Shrub or tree, split by crack going upwards (6)
MYRTLE –   A reversal (going upwards in  Down clue) of ELM (tree) ‘split by’ TRY (crack) 

13d         Man following order put spies inside tank (10)
CISTERCIAN –    CIA (American spies) put inside a CISTERN (tank)

16d         Toy first pair of children is holding not of the best quality (3-5)
TOP-NOTCH –   TOP (toy) and the first pair of CHildren holding NOT (from the clue)

17d         For instance, losing ring — and in street, too — in part of Europe (6)
FRANCE –   Remove the O from FOR (losing ring) and the IN and ST (street) too and you are left with part of Europe.

19d         Hired as worker   committed to union (7)
ENGAGED –   Double definition

20d         Drunk left in base, mostly (6)
BLOTTO –  L (left) goes in most of BOTTOm (base) 

23d         Site for experiments set up on island, one in Asia (4)
BALI –   A reversal (set up) of LAB (site for experiments) goes on I (island).

S2