ST 3006

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3006

A full review by crypticsue

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

This puzzle was published on 2^nd June 2019

BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****

An exceedingly solver-friendly Sunday Prize Puzzle but full of things to enjoy while it lasted

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.

Across

1a    Food store enticed sales all over the shop (12)
DELICATESSEN – An anagram (all over the shop) of ENTICED SALES

9a    Sweet dancer (7)
PAVLOVA – A meringue-based dessert (sweet) named after Anna Pavlova, the dancer

10a    Whiskey or biscuit in French house? (7)
BOURBON – A nice triple definition clue

11a    A pint then? Absolutely! (3,4)
NOT HALF – A choice of beer quantity gives us a slang expression meaning absolutely

12a    Herb consumed by personage, routinely passed to the left (7)
OREGANO – Lurking (consumed by) in reverse (passed to the left) in persONAGE ROutinely

13a    Belief does, perhaps, start to come back (5)
CREED – DEER (does, perhaps) and C (‘start’ to come) reversed (back)

14a    Scenting nothing evidently, one kept quiet (9)
NOISELESS – NOSE LESS (evidently scenting nothing) into which is inserted (kept) I (one)

16a    Awfully cheap, dime charged (9)
IMPEACHED – An anagram (awfully) of CHEAP DIME

19a    Rusty saw (5)
DATED – A description of something rusty and old or part of a verb meaning saw in the sense of took out on a date

21a    Uncoil convoluted thread initially to produce design on floor material (7)
LINOCUT – An anagram (convoluted) of UNCOIL followed by the initial letter of Thread

23a    Cold, wild nature in mythological creature (7)
CENTAUR – C (cold) and an anagram (wild) of NATURE

24a    After turn of century, end possible contract (2-5)
NO-TRUMP – A reversal (turn of) TON (century) followed by RUMP (end)

25a    Spear papers in river (7)
TRIDENT – ID (papers) in the river TRENT

26a    Fairly insignificant about king appearing too cute (6-6)
PRETTY-PRETTY – PRETTY (fairly) and PETTY (insignificant), the latter going ‘about’ R (Rex, king)

Down

1d    Choice in flower for supporter (7)
DEVOTEE – VOTE (choice) in DEE (flower here meaning a river)

2d    Ultimately, lucrative work bagged by fat cat (7)
LEOPARD – The ultimate letter of lucrativE and OP (work) inserted into (bagged by) LARD (fat)

3d    Refuse unit of column in flier (9)
CHAFFINCH – CHAFF (refuse) INCH (a one-inch length of a column in a newspaper or magazine)

4d    Forbidden word of appreciation: I don’t like that! (5)
TABOO – TA (word of appreciation) BOO (I don’t like that)

5d    Lover — or crush? (7)
SQUEEZE – An informal term for a boy or girl friend (lover) or a verb meaning to crush

6d    Hold me aloft and prepare for crash landing! (7)
EMBRACE – A reversal (aloft) of ME followed by BRACE, the instruction you are given to prepare for a plane’s crash landing

7d    Scary part of book, relaxing (5-8)
SPINE-CHILLING – SPINE (part of book) CHILLING (relaxing)

8d    Unkind pushing face into grotesque container (13)
INCONSIDERATE – SIDE (face) pushed into an anagram (grotesque) of CONTAINER

15d    This shows acid, or tin compounds (9)
INDICATOR – An anagram (compounds) of ACID OR TIN

17d    Last of clues penned by better user of wordplay (7)
PUNSTER – S (the last letter of clues) ‘penned’ by PUNTER (better)

18d    Story a nobleman recited (7)
ACCOUNT – A (from the clue) followed by a homophone (recited) of COUNT (nobleman)

19d    Ted isn’t merry, he looks down in the mouth (7)
DENTIST – An anagram (merry) of TED ISNT

20d    Attempt to grasp old play such as Othello (7)
TRAGEDY – TRY (attempt) to ‘grasp’ AGED (old)

22d    Advice, say, to ignore a drunk (5)
TIPSY – TIP (advice) SaY (ignoring the A)