DT 30071 (Full Review) – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 30071 (Full Review)

by crypticsue  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30071

A full review by crypticsue

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This puzzle was published on 20th August 2022

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

Another Cephas pangram which I found on the tricker side of one of his crosswords

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought

Across

1a    Biscuit with salt — that’s a great thing (11)
CRACKERJACK – CRACKER (biscuit) JACK (salt, sailor) Anyone else of my generation say to themselves “It’s Friday, It’s 5 to 5, it’s Crackerjack?

9a    Material from the Big Apple plus western half of London (5)
NYLON – NY (New York, Big Apple) and the western half of LONdon

10a    Celebrity broke open some sweets (9)
STARBURST – STAR (celebrity) BURST (broken open) combine to make the sweets many of us probably still think of as Opal Fruits (made to make your mouth water!)

11a    Unruly sot with wealthy one that cannot fly (7)
OSTRICH – An anagram (unruly) of SOT with RICH (wealthy)

12a    Shopkeeper, first person in France to meet the Modfather (8)
JEWELLER – JE (the first person in France) and WELLER (Paul Weller, the lead singer of The Jam, part of the Mod Revival, hence his nickname) Interesting to note (a) how many people had never heard of him and (b) that this clue wasn’t the work of Cephas

14a    Swells seen dancing, carrying booze that’s knocked back (8)
ENGORGES – An anagram (dancing) of SEEN ‘carrying’ a reversal (knocked back) of GROG (booze)

15a    Opening to take money (4)
SLOT – An opening in which to put money in order to get something to operate

17a    Live herons? Bother! (7)
BESIEGE – BE (live) and SIEGE (the collective noun for herons)

19a    Chopped down and fired (4)
AXED – Double definition

20a    Right to stop character in Star Trek film finding tooth (8)
SPROCKET – R (right) to ‘stop’ SPOCK (character in Star Trek) followed by ET (film)

21a    Main part of site in leaf (4,4)
HOME PAGE – HOME (in) PAGE (leaf)

23a    Talk feature, pay cut (7)
CHINWAG – CHIN (feature) WAGe (‘cut’ pay)

25a    Option Tom exercised is disputed subject (4,5)
MOOT POINT – An anagram (exercised) of OPTION TOM

26a    Lacks necessities (5)
NEEDS – Double definition

27a    Fast walk by demonstrators? (6,5)
HUNGER MARCH – a walk by demonstrators who are on a fast

Down

2d    Get knotted once again! (5)
RETIE – RE (again) TIE (get knotted)

3d    Right to remove faults (7)
CORRECT – Double definition

4d    See quail fluttering draw level (8)
EQUALISE – An anagram (fluttering) of SEE QUAIL

5d    Voice emanating from chemical toilet (4)
ALTO – Hidden in chemicAL TOilet

6d    Gap isn’t complete as has been said (8)
KNOTHOLE – A homophone (as has been said) of NOT WHOLE (isn’t complete)

7d    Bat has very brief sort of visit with cunning creature (6,3)
FLYING FOX – FLYING (brief sort of visit) FOX (cunning creature)

8d    Holding the reins of office? (2,3,6)
IN THE SADDLE – In control

12d    Hold on, it is not the winner (4,1,6)
JUST A SECOND – An expression meaning to wait a minute could describe someone not winning a race perhaps

13d    Spiritual enlightenment about origin (7)
REBIRTH – RE (about) BIRTH (origin)

16d    Larger than usual pullover, size displayed inside (9)
OVERSIZED – Found inside pullOVER SIZE Displayed

17d    Waves behind ship keeping footballer clean? (8)
BACKWASH – BACK (footballer) WASH (clean)

18d    Losing heart, the gamers destroyed what’s under the stairs? (3,5)
GAS METER – An anagram of the outside (losing heart) letters of ThE and GAMERS – definitely not under the stairs in our house as our village doesn’t have a gas supply

19d    Strange aroma round public house initially could be pot (7)
AMPHORA – An anagram (strange) of AROMA goes round PH (public house initially)

22d    Appealing without photo, it’s to do with units of heredity (5)
GENIC – photoGENIC (appealing) without the photo

24d    FBI agent, good fellow (1-3)
G-MAN – G (good) MAN (fellow)

13 comments on “DT 30071 (Full Review)”

    1. Welcome to the blog, Peter.

      It may be a typo or it may be a cunning ruse by Crypticsue to ensure that the blog gets some comments!

  2. Ingenious and enjoyable. Surely, 20a should be teeth, not tooth, as a sprocket is a circular set of multiple teeth to engage a chain? Sorry if that’s too literal.

    1. The BRB defines sprocket as ‘a tooth on the rim of a wheel or capstan for engaging the chain’

  3. Hi I had a different answer to 27a. But the answer I have fits with 19d and 22d. I would say more but I don’t want to find myself on the naughty step.

    1. You won’t be on the naughty step now that the closing date has passed

      I think it was a case of my fingers typing on automatic pilot – I’ve corrected it now

  4. As part of the “Mod Revival” shouldn’t Mr Weller be considered the “ModSon” or “ModNephew” rather than “ModFather”? :)

    2. Hi, Cathy. 15a is only cryptic if you read it a different way in the first place — maybe “opening” in the sense of ‘business opportunity’.

      That’s an issue with cryptic definition clues in general: it’s possible for a proportion of solvers to happen to ‘see’ the cryptic definition before the other meaning that was intended to be more obvious. I often find myself thinking a supposed cryptic definition clue was quite weak … then seeing other commenters listing it as one of their favourites! So I just take the attitude that while I didn’t think much of the clue, it was good that the setter included it for the pleasure it brought to others.

      And sorry you’ve been so unlucky with the avatar-o-matic. If you look in the FAQs, there are instructions for changing it to a picture of your choice, which is much better anyway.

  6. 4*/3*….
    liked 19D “Strange aroma round public house initially could be pot (7)”

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