Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30059
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
A Cephas Saturday Prize Pangram which didn’t take long at all to solve, provide the Hints and then prepare this review!
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.
Across
1a Struggle to capture good clear picture (8)
VIGNETTE – VIE (struggle) to ‘capture’ G (good) and NETT (clear)
9a Sort of cloudier fuel that’s unrefined (5,3)
CRUDE OIL – An anagram (sort) of CLOUDIER
10a One employing you and me with hesitation (4)
USER – US (you and me) ER (hesitation)
11a Road, although not smooth, decidedly driveable in the end (12)
THOROUGHFARE – THO (although) ROUGH (not smooth) FAR (decidedly) E (the end of driveablE)
13a Where to put memory card
secretly (2,6)
IN CAMERA – Literally where you’d put a memory card or an expression meaning in private
15a From one point of view at home then not at home (2,1,3)
IN A WAY – IN (at home) AWAY (not at home)
16a Something green almost exhausted (4)
JADE – Almost all of JADEd (exhausted)
17a Look round lake’s shiny surface (5)
GLAZE – GAZE (look) ’round’ L (lake)
18a Good sort (4)
KIND – Double definition
20a Maid swaps a name, becoming another woman? (6)
MARINA – Change the position of (swaps) the A and N in MARIAN (maid)
21a Shrub to finish amongst seaweed (8)
LAVENDER – END (finish) ‘amongst’ LAVER (edible seaweed)
23a Do particularly well as pattern-maker (3,2,7)
SET AN EXAMPLE – If you were a pattern-maker, you would set (out) an example
26a Man in casino elaborated (4)
NOEL – Hidden in casiNO ELaborated
27a Not adequately protected in dry river (8)
INSECURE – IN (from the clue) SEC (dry) URE (river)
28a Generous giving in Scotland’s capital, we hear (8)
LARGESSE – A homophone (we hear) of the capital of Scotland is a LARGE S
Down
2d One is unable to get off at night with this (8)
INSOMNIA – A cryptic definition of the inability to get to sleep
3d States chairman tore round (5,7)
NORTH AMERICA – An anagram (round) of CHAIRMAN TORE
4d Ronald’s in the ceremonial seat (6)
THRONE – RON (Ronald) in THE
5d Second hearing (4)
ECHO – A second hearing of a sound
6d Morass of papers about meeting (8)
QUAGMIRE – QUIRE (quantity of paper) ‘about’ AGM (meeting)
7d Month accompanying a star (4)
NOVA – NOV (month) ‘accompanying’ A (from the clue)
8d Such a person does not necessarily look sad (4-4)
BLUE-EYED – This favoured person, or even someone with that colour eyes, doesn’t necessarily have to be said
12d Christmas gift that could create genuine anger (12)
FRANKINCENSE – FRANK (genuine) INCENSE (anger)
14d Be of assistance when a small number suffer (5)
AVAIL – A (from the clue) V (a small Roman number) AIL (suffer)
16d One-piece athletic wear? (4,4)
JUMP SUIT This one-piece garment sounds like one could be quite athletic when wearing it
17d Appreciative having a rug manufactured with felt (8)
GRATEFUL – An anagram (manufactured) of A RUG with FELT
19d Sons supporting hype? That’s unnecessary (8)
NEEDLESS – NEEDLE (hype being a slang term for needle) supported by (in a Down solution) SS (sons)
22d Virginia to decant gas (6)
VAPOUR – VA (the abbreviation of the State of Virginia) POUR (decant)
24d Sea may do this to ship (4)
TOSS – TO (from the clue) SS (steamship_
25d Pronounced fit, a murder victim! (4)
ABEL – A homophone (pronounced) of ABLE (fit)
4*/3*…..stumped on 20A “Maid swaps a name, becoming another woman? (6)” ……
liked 6D “Morass of papers about meeting (8)”
If you look at the comments, you were far from being alone with your ‘maid’ problems!
I had thought that the answer might have been Monica ..something to do name, although it would have been spelt “moniker” ;
also, I thought Marian had to be spelt Marion, which would not have fitted with the checking letters.