DT 29443

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29443

A full review by gnomethang

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This puzzle was published on 15^th August 2020

BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

Morming All! I found this a reasonably straightforward solve and the review made me like it a lot mre once I had a chance to appreciate the constructions.

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.

Across

1a Bats desire birds to leave lake (7)
WILLOWS – Start with a WILL or desire and then add OW(l)S or birds from which L for Lake has been left (out).

5a Leader, one from France entering race (7)
TRIBUNE – Place UN (one in the French language/in France) inside a TRIBE or race.

9a Pint-sized worker creates writing system (9)
SHORTHAND – A pimt-sized worker mught cryptically be referred to as a SHORT HAND.

10a Arrangement to have TV in higher place (3-2)
SET-UP – A television SET that is UP in a higher place.

11a Certain result to invest Republican — and Democrat! (7)
ENSURED – The verb ENSUE or result (in) to include/invest R(ebublican) with a D(emocrat) added.

12a Soldiers disembark round Floridian city (7)
ORLANDO – A charade of OR – Other Ranks or general soldiers, LAND for disembark and then O for round.

13a Doctor coped with some rot (9)
DECOMPOSE – An anagram of (you need to doctor the words) SOPED and/with SOME

16a Call taken by English beauty (5)
BELLE – A BELL or (telephone) call informally and E for English.

17a Enthusiast returning lives in capital (5)
TUNIS – Reverse (returning) a NUT/enthusiast and then add IS for ‘lives’.

18a Revolting animals were so stubborn? (9)
PIGHEADED – The cryptic definition refers to Orwell’s Animal Farm in which the Pigs led the revolt. Hence PIG-HEADED.

21a One to smoke in bed — it takes brave person to intervene! (7)
CHEROOT – A HERO (a brave person) inside/intervening inside) a COT/bed.

22a Child tucking into pork pies not the smallest, for example (7)
LITOTES – A TOT or child inside LIES (pork pies in Cockney Rhyming Slang).

25a Path is covered in beer (5)
AISLE – IS from the clue covered in ALE or beer.

26a Warplane circling about cargo ship (9)
FREIGHTER – A FIGHTER or warplane around/circling about RE for about (Reference = RE: abb.)

27a Stadium accommodating second large team (7)
ARSENAL – An ARENA or stadium includes/accommodates S(econd) and the clue is finished with L for Large. Thank goodness BD didn’t have to explain this one!

28a Creche in North Surrey moved (7)
NURSERY – N(orth) with an anagram (moved) of SURREY.

Down

1d Stitch up with nurse in classy area (4,3)
WEST END – Reverse (indicated by UP) SEW/stitch and then add TEND for nurse.

2d Only redeveloped southern city (5)
LYONS – A redeveloped anagram of ONLY followed by S(outhern).

3d Playful animal despicable sort beheaded (5)
OTTER – Remove the head from a (r )OTTER or despicable sort. I’m not sure that an otter is any more playful than other animals….

4d Pain accordingly doubled? (2-3-2)
SO-AND-SO – SO (accordingly) doubled would be SO AND SO.

5d Immature creature bit person from Krakow? (7)
TADPOLE – A TAD (bit/small amount) and then a POLE from Krakow.

6d Able to resist crackers? (9)
INSOLUBLE – A nice cryptic definition that revolves around cracking/solving/being soluble. Jacob’s are largely soluble in water given enough time, hence the Question Mark?

7d Going straight again — and let out with gun! (9)
UNTANGLED – An anagram (out) of AND LET and/with GUN. Worth noting for all that there are only a few ways of splitting the anagram fodder and the most common is with WITH.

8d Discharge policeman found in south-western river (7)
EXPLODE – Place a PLOD or policeman inside the SW river EXE (you won’t catch me out on where this one is!).

14d Agreement to involve government statisticians in count (9)
CONSENSUS – Quite hard to parse this – You need the CENSUS (count) to include/involve the ONS or Office for National Statistics (government statisticians).

15d Lead astray? (9)
MISGOVERN – A CD for the act of leading a nation astray.

17d Feline in tattered coat gives touching display (7)
TOCCATA – Place a CAT inside a tattered anagram of COAT. Thanks to Tilsit for the excellent Youtube rendition last Saturday; I visualised him hunched over the mighty organ, pulling out all the stops in a true Herbert Lom stylee.

18d Mine — one almost complete — becomes inadequate (7)
PITIFUL – A PIT for a mine, I for one then almost all the letters in FUL(l) or complete.

19d Left in strong wind aboard ship (7)
GALLEON – Place a L(eft) inside a GALE or strong wind and then add ON for aboard (a ship).

20d Annihilate French from the besieged city (7)
DESTROY – Start with DES (from in French) and then add TROY – the besieged city from which Helen allegedly launched 1000 ships with her face).

23d Grand invested in bank for dynamic sort (5)
TIGER – Place G for Grand (Bag of Sand) in monetary terms into a TIER or bank.

24d Taken from Sanskrit it lends book name (5)
TITLE – A hidden word to finish – it is ‘taken from’ Sanskri T IT LE nds,