Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3330
A full review by crypticsue
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This puzzle was published on 17th August 2025
BD Rating –Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Very straightforward, which was helpful as in addition to drafting this review, I had a very busy Sunday morning ahead dealing with a glut of produce from the garden
Please let us know what you thought
Across
6a Get acquainted – take your pick to do it? (5,3,3)
BREAK THE ICE – Make friends or use an ice pick
9a Argent, fake stone (6)
GARNET – An anagram (fake) of ARGENT
10a Finally, hungry papa tucked into freshly prepared tagine from North Africa, say (8)
EGYPTIAN – The final letter of hungrY and P (Papa in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet) inserted into an anagram (freshly prepared) of TAGINE
11a Fly down with courage (10)
BLUEBOTTLE – BLUE (down, miserable) BOTTLE (courage)
14a Run wicked marathon, for example (4)
RACE – R (run) ACE (wicked)
15a Lowness with role unsettled great director (5,6)
ORSON WELLES – An anagram (unsettled) of LOWNESS with ROLE
21a Case of holy man without a holy song (4)
HYMN – The outside letters (case) of HolY and MaN without the A
22a Crack, both physically and mentally? (2,2,6)
GO TO PIECES – Exactly what the clue says
25a Blooming plant in closing, unopened (8)
INFERNAL – FERN (plant) in fINAL (unopened indicating the need to remove the first letter)
27a Bulb a girl screwed up at the speed of light! (6)
GARLIC – An anagram (screwed up) of A GIRL followed by C (speed of light)
28a On strike, position excellent (11)
OUTSTANDING – OUT (on strike) STANDING (position)
Down
1d Second in colourful spectrum – is it? (6)
ORANGE – O (second letter in cOlourful) RANGE (spectrum)
2d Painful design, I should add it’s junk! (6)
TATTOO – TAT (junk) TOO (I should add)
3d Swelling funds evident, money available ultimately (4)
STYE – The ultimate letters of fundS evidenT moneY availablE
4d In the pink? I suppose so (4,4)
VERY WELL – Double definition
5d Spreading of secret with impunity (4-4)
SCOT-FREE – An anagram (spreading) of OF SECRET
7d Chart large hollowed out tree (5)
MAPLE – MAP (chart) and the outside (hollowed out) letters of LargE
8d Hear all the fish in the net (5)
CATCH – Double definition
12d Public transport, three-quarters occupied (3)
BUS – Three quarters of BUSy (occupied)
13d That is what to do with broken down car? (2,3)
TO WIT – TOW IT (what to do with broken down car)
16d Narrow thing, finished – narrow loser? (6-2)
RUNNER-UP – RUNNER (narrow slip of cloth perhaps) UP (finished)
17d Living thing soaring around over peak of mountain (8)
ORGANISM – An anagram (around) of SOARING goes over (in a Down solution) the ‘peak’ of Mountain
18d Garland gathered by Madeleine (3)
LEI – Hidden in (gathered by) madeLEIne
19d Fabrication stretched out? (5)
LYING – Double definition
20d Beelzebub survived being sent up (5)
DEVIL – A reversal (sent up) of LIVED (survived)
23d Temple in middle of Denpasar housing a deity (6)
PAGODA – The middle letters of denPAsar ‘housing’ A GOD (a deity)
24d Blunder with job (6)
ERRAND – ERR (blunder) AND (with)
26d Chair, something heavy (4)
LEAD – A final double definition
2*/3* …
liked 13D “That is what to do with a broken down car ? (2,3)”