ST 3004 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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ST 3004

Sunday Telegraph 3004

A full review by gnomethang

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This puzzle was published on 19th May 2019

BD Rating – Difficulty ***Enjoyment ***

Morning All! I think that the difficulty level was about right and many clues improved, as I found, when you look to parse them correctly. There were a few that were elusive even though the answer was known.

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.

Across

7a           Company working to split proportion of profit — that’s hairy and tough! (7)
COCONUT – Tricky to parse this. We need CO for CO(mpany) then ON for ‘working’ inside (splitting) a CUT or proportion of the profit.

8a           Old chip halved inside cheese roll (7)
BRIOCHE – O for Old and half of the word CH(ip) inside BRIE (cheese).

10a        Crazy reason one’s attached to the train (10)
LOCOMOTIVE – A motive or reason is after (attached to) LOCO for crazy.

11a        Mouth, bit to the left (4)
TRAP – Reverse (to the left I an across clue) PART for bit.

12a        Boy admitting defeat where terms are laid out (8)
GLOSSARY – The boy GARY includes/admits a LOSS or defeat.

14a        Drunk near TV in pub (6)
TAVERN – A drunken anagram of NEAR TV. Cheers!

15a        Dogmatic rambling in a director (11)
DOTRINAIRE – An anagram (indicated by rambling, of IN A DIRECTOR.

19a        Eat, tongue-in-cheek by the sound of it? (6)
INGEST – A homophone (by the sound of it) of IN JEST for ‘tongue in cheek’.

20a        Faculty certainly welcomed by rowing team (8)
EYESIGHT – Place YES (Ay, Certainly) inside a rowing EIGHT.

22a        Feature of Sicily has some cachet, naturally (4)
ETNA – A different take on the well worn Fiery Mount – A lurker (is some of) cach ET NA turally.

23a        Old playwright: is he afraid of Santa? (4,6)
NOEL COWARD – Someone afraid of Santa/Christmas might cryptically be described as a NOÉL COWARD

25a        Go low to puncture vessel (7)
VAMOOSE – A MOO or Lowing of a cow inside (to puncture) a VASE/vessel.

26a        Possible reason for dropping it in juice (7)
GRAVITY – My clue of the day (having been reading lots of Sci-Fi) – Place/Drop IT from the clue inside GRAVY or (meat) juice.

Down

1d           No clarity initially in spy lens (7)
MONOCLE – Place NO from the clue and the initial letter of C(larity) inside a MOLE or spy.

2d           Game explorer of the thirteenth century (4)
POLO – Two definitions – one a game played on horsies and the other Marco.

3d           Copper bottom cut from freezing dome (6)
CUPOLA – CU for the chemical symbol of copper and the remove the last letter (bottom cut from ) POLA( R) or freezing.

4d           Having secured contract finally, author in need of a drink (5,3)
GREEN TEA – The author Graham GREENE, having secured the past letter in (contrac)T, only needs A from the clue.

5d           Composer not me, unfortunately: another composer (10)
MONTEVERDI – An anagram (unfortunately) of NOT ME and then the composer VERDI.

6d           Art recreated within you for public performance (7)
THEATRE – An anagram (recreated) of ART inside of THEE for you.

9d           Yellow bloom, as it happens, crimson (4-7)
LILY-LIVERED – A charade of LILY (a bloom or flower), LIVE (as it happens) and RED for crimson.

13d        Builder so set on man getting sacked (10)
STONEMASON – Make an anagram (getting sacked) of SO SET ON MAN. Bloody Contractors!

16d        Rhea, for example, bird on a headland (8)
TITANESS – Being one of the female Titans. Place a TIT on A NESS/headland/cape.

17d        Sainted: devilish as an alternative (7)
INSTEAD – A devilish anagram of SAINTED and a devil to spot on the day.

18d        Entering days of September, start of season dry (7)
THIRSTY – Place the start letter of S(eason) inside THIRTY – the number of days in the month of September.

21d        Lead first of children into English class (6)
ESCORT – Place the first letter of C(hildren) inside E for English and SORT for class/type.

24d        Signal breaker, for example (4)
WAVE – Two definitions – a hand signal and a WAVE that breaks on the shore.

 

2 comments on “ST 3004

  1. I found this about 1.5* difficulty and average enjoyment. Once again there did seem to be a lot of putting something inside something else going on

    Thanks for the blog

  2. 3*/4*……
    COD 26A (possible reason for dropping it in juice)-
    also liked 7A (company working to split proportion of profit — that’s hairy and tough!).

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