Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31019
A full review by crypticsue
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This puzzle was published on 30th August 2025
BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ***
A pangram with ten anagrams – it could only be the work of Cephas
Please let us know what you thought
Across
1a Female with slack plant fibre (4)
FLAX – F (Female) LAX (slack)
3a Hiding debt, a politician and Scottish footballers like frogs? (10)
AMPHIBIOUS – IOU (debt) hiding in A (from the clue) MP (politician) and HIBS (members of the Scottish football team Hibernians
10a One from Oslo wearing no rubbish (9)
NORWEGIAN – An anagram (rubbish) of WEARING NO
11a Ring back about one tree (5)
LILAC – A reversal (back) of CALL (ring) goes ‘about’ I (Roman numeral for one)
12a Support for artistic endeavours? (5)
EASEL – A cryptic definition
13a Ultimately decent or gentle drunk’s glasses (9)
LORGNETTE – An anagram (drunk) of the ultimate letter of decenT OR GENTLE
14a Being disrespectful, turn over a lot of underwear (8)
FLIPPANT – FLIP (turn over) and quite a lot of PANTs (underwear)
16a Child of five round American flowering plant (6)
QUINOA – One of five children born at the same time, O (round) A (American)
19a Ignore reorganised district (6)
REGION – An anagram (reorganised) of IGNORE
20a Laze around with Tory showing fanaticism (8)
ZEALOTRY – An anagram (around) of LAZE and TORY
22a We hear county rowing crew take one’s breath away (9)
SUFFOCATE – Homophones (we hear) of SUFFOLK (county) and EIGHT (rowing crew)
24a American idiot, before end of day, lacking steadiness (5)
JERKY – JERK (American idiot) goes before the Y at the end of daY
26a I repeatedly will go after information for spirits (5)
GENII – The letter I is repeated and put after GEN (information)
27a Unhampered short distance, not fast (9)
FOOTLOOSE – FOOT (short distance) LOOSE (not fast)
28a Newspaper needs year for sending of messages (10)
TELEGRAPHY – TELEGRAPH (newspaper) and Y (year)
29a Old transatlantic edition (4)
USED – US (transatlantic) ED (edition)
Down
1d Unofficial receiver, one at edge of garden (5)
FENCE – A receiver of stolen goods or something round the edge of a garden
2d Striking part of police work (9)
ARRESTING – Striking in the sense of attracting attention or part of the work of the police
4d Graduate away from the sea in part of the Shetland Islands (8)
MAINLAND – MA (graduate) INLAND (away from the sea) The principal island of the Shetland Islands is called Mainland!
5d Wishing to eat article removed from country (6)
HUNGRY – A (indefinite article) removed from HUNGaRY (country)
6d Like certain dictionaries, all big, uni ordered (9)
BILINGUAL – An anagram (ordered) of ALL BIG UNI
7d Not a very big hooter? (5)
OWLET – A small bird that hoots
8d Mysterious Ray maybe becoming office worker (9)
SECRETARY- SECRET (mysterious) and an anagram (maybe) of RAY
9d Went down mountain (4)
FELL – Double definition
14d Prudence terribly sore in battle (9)
FORESIGHT – An anagram (terribly) of SORE inserted into FIGHT (battle)
15d Exasperating for very old leader (9)
PROVOKING – PRO (for) V (very) O (old) KING (leader)
17d No riotous fooling around is disreputable (9)
NOTORIOUS – An anagram (fooling around) of NO RIOTOUS
18d Man caught by live flying creature, huge beast (8)
BEHEMOTH – HE (man) ‘caught’ or inserted between BE (live) and MOTH (flying creature)
21d Strange affair supplying material for baskets etc (6)
RAFFIA – An anagram (strange) of AFFAIR
23d Match having no followers (5)
FINAL – The last match in a competition
24d Small amount left inside jar (4)
JOLT – The abbreviation for Left put inside JOT (small amount)
25d Yankee lied about surrender (5)
YIELD – Y (the letter represented by Yankee in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet) and an anagram (about) of LIED
Sue, I’m not sure if this is published a bit too early. I just entered my crossword entry online about 30 minutes ago and it said the closing date for it was today and didn’t give me the message that it was too late to submit my entry.
The closing date is always 9am on the Friday after the date of publication of the crossword. You obviously just squeaked in before the deadline
Thank you, that’s useful to know.