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.
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
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!).