Sunday Telegraph Cryptic 2911
A full review by crypticsue
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
This puzzle was published on Sunday 6th August
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
The sun was shining, Virgilius provided us with another lovely Sunday prize puzzle – the East Kent courgette mountain was slowly being dealt with – a perfect day all round. I ‘really liked’ 11a, 28a and 1d, but the one I’d give the gold medal to has to be 22d
Across
7a Killer since caught in dope offence (8)
ASSASSIN – AS (since) ‘caught in’ ASS (dope in the sense of idiot) SIN (offence)
9a Egalitarian goal, one accepted by political group (6)
PARITY – I (one) accepted by PARTY (political group)
10a Editing letter that contains this slightly shocking sensation (6)
TINGLE – Contained in ediTING LEtter
11a Buckle isn’t what belligerent Indian wore (8)
WARPAINT – WARP (buckle) AINT (isn’t)
12a Undistinguished pair who share an annual celebration (9,5)
IDENTICAL TWINS – A nice cryptic definition of two children looking exactly the same and sharing the same birthday
15a Surrounded by support, including large number of Romans (4)
AMID – AID (support) ‘including’ M (the Roman numeral for 1,000 – a large number)
17a Rod teachers employed in school (5)
STAFF – Double definition clue
19a Understand small piece in plane, say (4)
TWIG – An informal verb meaning to understand or a small part of a plane tree
20a Virtual meeting in France once cell reorganised (10,4) CONFERENCE CALL – An anagram (reorganised) of FRANCE ONCE CELL
23a Follows target in alley in greatly agitated state (8)
TAILSPIN – TAILS (follows) PIN (target in bowling alley)
25a For example, fly within breakaway formation (6)
INSECT – IN SECT (within breakaway formation)
27a Person straying with second less than perfect shot (6)
SINNER – S (second) INNER (a less than perfect shot being a hit on the target next to a bull’s-eye). This one caused a lot of comment on the day but will anyone remember they promised to return here once the blog was published to say what they couldn’t say on the day for fear of being sent to the Naughty Corner??
28a Spanish dance ends off fiesta with new energy (8)
FANDANGO – F AND A (the ends of FiestA) N (new) GO (energy)
Down
1d Wine that in test is tastiest (4)
ASTI – Insert the wine into TEST and you get TASTIEST
2d A song I composed recalled city in Asia (6)
SAIGON – No Son 2 has just returned from this city, having spent the last couple of years there, although he’d refer to it with its ‘new’ name of Ho Chi Minh City. Its old name is an anagram (composed) of A SONG I
3d A quartet playing without one again (4)
ANEW – The players in a game of bridge are known as N S E W – you need to remove one of them and put the ones that are left after A (from the clue)
4d Courage — it’s needed after rents going up (6)
SPIRIT – IT goes after a reversal (going up in a Down clue) of RIPS (rents)
5d Musician in band with a string that’s broken (8)
ORGANIST – O (the letter that forms a ‘band’) and an anagram (broken) of A STRING
6d Section of stadium — work to prepare ground comes to complete halt (10) STANDSTILL – STANDS (section of stadium) TILL (work to prepare ground)
8d Kind of creature that is protected by glasses (7)
SPECIES – IE (that is) ‘protected by’ SPECS (glasses)
13d Oddly comedic art for party in US (10)
DEMOCRATIC – An anagram (oddly) of COMEDIC ART
14d Conscious a conflict leads to peace, ultimately (5)
AWARE – A (from the clue) WAR (conflict) E (peace ‘ultimately’)
16d Offering fishing south of Land’s End (8)
DANGLING – ANGLING (fishing) goes below (south of) D (the end of lanD)
18a Fellow put on suit for part of party (7)
FACTION – F (fellow) put on [top of] ACTION (law suit)
21d Elected politician in nearby country or group of countries (6)
EMPIRE – MP (elected politician) goes in EIRE (nearby country)
22d Actors possibly do this to share the limelight (2-4)
CO-STAR – An anagram (possibly) of ACTORS – a lovely clue where you have to look closely to realise it isn’t just a cryptic definition, it’s an anagram too!
24d Unfashionable female admirer upset (4)
NAFF – An informal slang adjective obtained by reversing (upset in a Down clue) F (female) FAN (admirer)
26d Most of KGB, reportedly, is secretive (4)
CAGY – A homophone (reportedly) of the letters K G said out loud
S1
Good morning, CS. Many thanks for your review, and, yes, I have been waiting for today to comment about 27a!
The question is, does “inner” mean a perfect shot or a nearly perfect shot?
In darts, the centre circle is described as the bull’s-eye or bull, which generally comprises two concentric rings: the inner bull (scoring 50) and the outer bull (scoring 25). The inner bull is in the centre of the board and is much smaller in area than the triple 20 (scoring 60) so I would argue that (aesthetically at least) the “inner” is the perfect shot even though it does not give the highest possible score from one dart.
In target archery, the centre of the target is described as the “gold” (never the bull’s-eye!). The gold is divided into three concentric circles: 9 ring, 10 ring & inner 10 ring. The inner ring is used for tie-break purposes, and hence I submit that “inner” represents a perfect shot.
Thanks for that RD. I will commit it to my inner memory
I think you are over-analysing the clue. Chambers has the much simpler explanation:
noun (archery)
(a hit on) that part of a target next to the bull’s-eye
I must confess, BD, I didn’t look it up in the BRB because I knew that meaning to be wrong. However I have come to regard Chambers like Mrs RD – right even when wrong, so I’ll bow out gracefully and promise never to mention it again.
I imagined a comma after “than”: a second less than sinner is inner… a perfect shot, which fits your definitions nicely.
Mrs T
Yes, CS – I did remember to pop in to read RD’s musings. Umm – think I’m with Chambers & BD over that one, but have to admit that I’m not really a follower of the game. On the few occasions I’ve thrown darts, a perfect shot for me was one that actually landed on the board!