ST 3071

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3071

A full review by crypticsue

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This puzzle was published on 30^th August 2020

BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***

The majority of this crossword was very straightforward with some lovely surface readings to enjoy along the way. My last two in took longer to ‘see’ than the rest put together

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Across

7a    Guns and other weapons, eleven in London (7)
ARSENAL – The name of a football team (eleven) in London

8a    Drink making legions tipsy (4,3)
SLOE GIN – An anagram (tipsy) of LEGIONS

10a    Rotten pear smothered in fresh cheese (10)
CAERPHILLY – An anagram (rotten) of PEAR smothered in CHILLY (fresh)

11a    Expensive treasure (4)
DEAR – A double definition clue, the second one being a term of endearment (treasure)

12a    Joy read novel about protagonist initially in danger (8)
JEOPARDY – An anagram (novel) of JOY READ ‘about’ the initial letter of Protagonist

14a    Zero get better: how might medicine be taken? (6)
ORALLY – O (zero) RALLY (get better)

15a    Modern requirement of a tailor? (7-4)
CUTTING-EDGE – A tailor would require his scissors to have a good cutting edge

19a    Young trash (6)
LITTER – Double definition

20a    Guilty lot in prison, courage not entirely returning (8)
CULPRITS – A reversal (returning) of STIR (prison) PLUCk (courage not entirely)

22a    A barrier for first man (4)
ADAM – A (from the clue) DAM (barrier)

23a    Article men flogged in commercial (10)
MERCANTILE – An anagram (flogged) of ARTICLE MEN

25a    Quiz after party game (7)
CONTEST – TEST (quiz) goes after CON (Conservative Party)

26a    Old British soldier redeployed to cadre (7)
REDCOAT – An anagram (redeployed) of TO CADRE

Down

1d    Make wider street to cut through Scottish mountain (7)
BROADEN – ROAD (street) to ‘cut through’ BEN (Scottish mountain)

2d    Stand in robe, a royal (4)
BEAR – Hidden in roBE A Royal

3d    Get article in paper written up (6)
GATHER – THE (definite article) inserted into a reversal (written up in a Down clue) of RAG (paper)

4d    Ali once requiring extra weapon (8)
CLAYMORE – The boxer Muhammad Ali was once known as Cassius CLAY, add MORE (extra) on the end to get the weapon

5d    Nut, noodle and sausage (10)
HEADBANGER – HEAD (noodle) BANGER (sausage)

6d    Wonder if king has fed camel I trained? (7)
MIRACLE – R (Rex, king) ‘fed’ into an anagram (trained) of CAMEL I

9d    Joker, say, up against wit (7,4)
PLAYING CARD – PLAYING (up against) CARD (wit)

13d    Large fruit — or two? (4,6)
PLUM TOMATO – Two fruit going together to make one large one

16d    A truism I debunked, sweet! (8)
TIRAMISU – An anagram (debunked) of A TRUISIM I

17d    House is victorious or accepts defeat, at first (7)
WINDSOR – WINS (is victorious) OR (from the clue) ‘accepts’ the first letter of Defeat

18d    European snail a titlark’s gobbled up (7)
ITALIAN – Hidden in reverse (gobbled up) in sNAIL A TItlark

21d    Heavy, heavy bags ending in storage (6)
LEADEN –E (ending in storagE) inserted into LADEN (heavy)

24d    Second parasite (4)
TICK – Double definition