ST 2947 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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ST 2947

by crypticsue  

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2947

A full review by crypticsue

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This puzzle was published on 15th April 2018

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

Another great Sunday crossword. I gave ** to 23a and 1* to 15a. I could only award 4* for enjoyment as yet again, probably only noticed by someone typing the review, there’s a whole lot of ‘inserting’ going on.

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.

Across

1a    Master criminal better kept in solitary (2,6)
AL CAPONE – CAP (better) ‘kept in’ ALONE (solitary)

9a    A peculiar point about party raising issue for others (8)
ADOPTION – A (from the clue) and an anagram (peculiar) of POINT go ‘about’ DO (party)

10a    Somalian’s heart is elsewhere in Africa (4)
MALI – Lurking in the heart of SoMALIan

11a    Fail to see people outside art gallery ahead of time? It’s not true (12)
MISSTATEMENT – MISS (fail to see) MEN (people) ‘outside’ TATE (art gallery) all put in front of (ahead) T (time)

13a    Disorder at event including Democrat prolonged dispute (8)
VENDETTA – AN anagram (disorder) of AT EVENT ‘including’ D (Democrat)

15a    Capital got constricted in South America? (6)
BOGOTA – GOT (from the clue) ‘constricted’ by a BOA (South American snake)

16a    Cheese ready for case? Not quite (4)
BRIE – Almost all of a BRIEf – instructions given to a barrister in a legal case

17a    Thing baked before church for bishop, perhaps (5)
PIECE – PIE (thing baked) goes before CE (Church of England), the bishop being an example of a chess PIECE

18a    Sin people want to commit (4)
ENVY – One of the Seven Deadly Sins, this one relating to wanting something someone else has

20a    Small sailing ship, say, east of Cape (6)
CUTTER – UTTER (say) goes after, east of in an Across clue) C (cape)

21a    Follower‘s record that is holding another back (8)
DISCIPLE – DISC (record) IE (that is) ‘holding’ a reversal (back) of LP (another record)

23a    What we see in Copenhagen — Danes’ ulterior motive (6,6)
HIDDEN AGENDA – Because you can see that AGENDA is HIDDEN in CopenhAGEN DAnes

26a    Circle added to section of plane, for instance, as emblem (4)
LOGO – O (circle) added to LOG (section of a plane tree)

27a    Knew race must be rearranged? Ascot, it could be (8)
NECKWEAR – An anagram (must be rearranged) of KNEW RACE

28a    Seaside facility at end of quay embraced by business leaders (8)
BOATYARD – AT (from the clue) and the Y at the end of quay ’embraced by’ BOARD (business leaders)

Down

2d    A player confused about end of overture, such as 1812a    (4,4)
LEAP YEAR – An anagram (confused) of A PLAYER ‘about’ the E at the end of overture

3d    Spoke disparagingly — steered clear of including corrupt admin (12)
ANIMADVERTED – AVERTED (steered clear of) ‘including’ an anagram (corrupt) of ADMIN

4d    Not in clique, for start (6)
OUTSET – OUT (not in) SET (clique)

5d    What one faces, coming from West Indians’ part of world (4)
EAST – If you were coming from the west, you’d be facing east, which is also the part of the world where you’ll find India

6d    Page or display of data easily moved (8)
PORTABLE – P(page) OR (from the clue) TABLE (display of data)

7d    Missing target I had in partnership (4)
WIDE – ID (I’d, I had) in WE (I and others, a partnership)

8d    Doctor stayed with multinational organisation, initially, not firm (8)
UNSTEADY – UN (United Nations ‘initially’) and an anagram (doctor) of STAYED

12d    How attraction may happen in delightful way, securing catch (12)
MAGNETICALLY – MAGICALLY (in delightful way) ‘securing’ NET (catch)

14d    One person directing what students will learn in the future (5)
AHEAD – A (one) HEAD (person directing what students will learn)

16d    Part of defence worker used for action in court (8)
BACKHAND – BACK (part of the defence in a football game, perhaps) HAND (worker)

17d    Heap of burning stuff spotted after turning over range (8)
PYRENEES – PYRE (heap of burning stuff) and a reversal (after turning over) of SEEN (spotted)

19d    Local in country pub, say, has unfinished nasty drink (8)
VILLAGER – VILe (‘unfinished’ vile or nasty) LAGER (drink)

22d    Foreign woman‘s negative response second time around (6)
SENORA – NO (negative response) inserted into (around) S (second) ERA (time)

24d    Tie up and cut off weed (4)
DOCK – A nice triple definition

25d    Suit, for example, in card game, turned over (4)
GARB – A reversal (turned over in a Down clue) of the card game BRAG

S1

10 comments on “ST 2947”

  1. Thanks for the review CS – I needed it to parse several of my answers most notably 3d. Also thanks to the Sunday Maestro.

  3. I though this was a tad trickier than usual and very good too.
    Many thanks to both setter and blogger.

    PS Note to CS – I have one left to complete Marc Bremen’s ‘epic’ crossword which I see you have completed (well done!).
    47d Number added to recipient of email that’s stolen (7)
    My checking letters are T*O*C*D – is that correct? I can’t find any word that fits, but I’m certain I have parsed the checkers correctly. Any help before I go even more potty than I already am would be much appreciated.

    2. Hi LBR,

      Gazza is correct, my answer too. I started this yesterday and have solved all but two of the clues so far. One of my two outstanding ones is 4d (said in the Telegraph article to be probably the toughest clue), so well done on nailing that one.

      I think most of the difficulty for solvers is in the unconventional wordplay (“with” used as a containment indicator for instance), but I’ve encountered much more formidable puzzles than this one, Elgar springs to mind!

    4. You go out for a walk and come back and find someone’s answered a question and received the answer.

      The Epic was an interesting solve – in places ‘tough for all the wrong reasons’ but I did enjoy myself – although I have known Elgar, Elkamere (in his various guises) and other setters in other places produce crosswords which I’d have considered far tougher a challenge than the special. I’m waiting for my copy of the book which apparently has a crossword theme. I’ll report back on that in due course if anyone is interested.

      1. Kitty posted that she was reluctant to tackle it because she had feedback that some clues were iffy.

        I didn’t like 45d because of the GK required, 2d is missing something and I have doubts about 21a and 35a, that’s all. Other than that I thought it was a nice challenge and enjoyed it.

        Hope the walk was a lovely refreshing Spring stroll and thanks for the reply.

        1. “Iffy” is probably an understatement in several cases!

          Along with 4d, 21a is the other one I’ve got left, so I wasn’t encouraged to hear that you had doubts over it.

          Of the ones you queried I can parse 2d, but I wasn’t over-enamoured with the anagram indicator, and for 35a I think it makes sense only if one interprets “take one” to mean deleting a word from the previous clue in its singular form, which is far from obvious. I did find it strangely addictive during the solve, but I’m unconvinced that the puzzle deserves all the publicity it has attracted.

  4. Thanks for the review, CS. Very much enjoyed this one and must say that the number of insertions didn’t bother me at all.

    23a got the most ticks from me with 24d slotting into second place.

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