Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29084
A full review by crypticsue
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
This puzzle was published on 22nd June 2019
BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *
Another Prize Puzzle from our ‘wordy’ setter which I solved while a Grandpa/Grandson light sabre fight was going on around me. I checked with two other solvers to make sure that my solving experience wasn’t Star Wars affected, but they agreed with me that it was ‘the crossword’. To allow for the background noise effect, I’ve decided to reduce the difficulty rating by 1* although the time I took would definitely rank as far more than 5* for a backpager and probably 2-3* for a Toughie
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.
Across
1a Vegetables well displayed by village centres (6,6)
SPRING GREENS – SPRING (well) GREENS (village centres)
8a Hate failing to get article in translation (7)
VERSION – Remove the A (failing to get article) from aVERSION (hate)
9a Takes out ads — first is one in French (7)
UNPLUGS – UN (one in French) goes first before PLUGS (ads)
11a Dashed dog eats nothing — result is hostility (7)
RANCOUR – RAN (dashed) CUR (dog) ‘eats’ O (nothing)
12a Gut feeling that’s displaced in teaching (7)
TUITION – ‘Displace’ or remove the IN from inTUITION (gut feeling)
13a Things one’s carrying came across from the East (5)
ITEMS – IS (ones) ‘carrying’ a reversal (from the East in an Across clue) of MET (came across)
14a Plant that could make soft hairy woolly (9)
FORSYTHIA – An anagram (woolly) of SOFT HAIRY
16a Brewer’s plants bed situated by church — kids jump about in it (9)
HOPSCOTCH – HOPS (brewer’s plants) COT (bed) CH (church)
19a Was promoted, perhaps, by southern and northern counties, symbolically (5)
ROSES – ROSE (was promoted) followed by S – the white and red roses being symbols of two of our northern counties
21a Darkly romantic start of book by this writer breaking into corny frolicking (7)
BYRONIC – B (the ‘start’ of Book) followed by I (this writer) breaking into an anagram (frolicking) of CORNY
23a Three types of blood left — is hospital for axe? (7)
ABOLISH – A B O (three types of blood group) L (left) IS (from the clue) H (hospital)
24a Frown, seeing the compiler’s clothed in elegance (7)
GRIMACE – IM (the compiler’s) inserted into (clothed in) GRACE (elegance)
25a Top cleaning product has oomph, no end, when stirred (7)
SHAMPOO – Something that cleans your ‘top’ is an anagram (when stirred) of HAS OOMP – no end tells you to leave off the final H in oomph
26a Did deliberate swindle with blueprint to get diamonds (12)
CONTEMPLATED – CON (swindle) TEMPLATE (blueprint) D (Diamonds in a pack of cards)
Down
1d Second jingle breaks into the old jabber? (7)
SYRINGE – S (second) RING (jingle) the latter inserted into (breaks) YE (old way of saying the)
2d Broken down — that will be expensive (7)
RUINOUS – Double definition
3d Uncommercial person that’s not forward-looking, we hear? (3-6)
NON-PROFIT – A homophone (we hear) of NON-PROPHET (someone not forward looking)
4d Wasted visit, frequently — husband should be ditched for good (5)
GAUNT – Swap the H for husband at the beginning of HAUNT (visit frequently) and replace with G for good
5d Limp, yet jangling as if hollow? (7)
EMPTILY – An anagram (jangling) of LIMP YET
6d Support or scoff about man that bends spoons? (7)
NOURISH – NOSH (scoff being an informal term for good) goes ‘about’ URI (Geller, the man who bends spoons)
7d It’s held by the stopper that pulls out in the morning (9,3)
OVERNIGHT BAG – A cryptic definition of an item of luggage used by someone only staying for one night
10d Chaos soundly broken up in classes for little angels? (6,6)
SUNDAY SCHOOL – An anagram (broken up) of CHAOS SOUNDLY
15d Drill tries to break through concrete (9)
REHEARSAL – HEARS (tries) inserted into (to break through) REAL (concrete)
17d Arcade I entered south of Calais, maybe needing company (7)
PORTICO – I (from the clue) put south of (in a Down clue) PORT (Calais, maybe) and followed by CO (company)
18d Approach rearing civet cat no cage will contain (7)
CONTACT – Found contained in reverse in civeT CAT NO Cage
19d Concocting it, actor produces something read to little devils? (4,3)
RIOT ACT – An anagram (concocting) of IT ACTOR
20d Trimmed small bit (7)
SNIPPED – A double definition that made me wonder whether I had got the right solution as although the solution matches trimmed, I don’t think it means a small piece – that would be a snippet? The BRB has a small piece as a definition for snip as a noun. If I hadn’t been quite so tired and rushed, I might have worked out the wordplay as Gazza says in his comment – S (small) NIPPED (bit)
22d Press gives coverage to European elite (5)
CREAM – CRAM (press) ‘gives coverage to’ E (European)
“Why are you cutting that word thing out of the paper Granny?” “Because I have to take it home with me in case the man who is supposed to tell people all about the crossword goes off on his holidays and I have to stand in for him at the last minute”
B1
The puzzle seemed ok to me. Thanks to the setter and Granny CS.
I think that there’s some wordplay in 20d, i.e. S(mall) + NIPPED (bit).
This seemed enjoyable and not overly tricky to me too, though I do remember Lady LbR saying ‘Have you not finished that yet?’ after she’d read the ‘Agony Uncle’ article.
Thanks to setter and I hope CS can enjoy some peace and sunshine today. Thank you.
Over a week late with this one. Struggled all the way to be honest but a lot going on in my life a mo with graduations etc. Finally had to acknowledge defeat with top left corner. Should have got syringe being a medic!! Hope this weeks is easier – I’ll start when I get home