DT 29072

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29072

A full review by crypticsue

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This puzzle was published on 8^th June 2019

BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

If I have ‘guessed the setter’ correctly, then this Saturday puzzle was a lot easier to solve than all of  their previous ones – I certainly ended up less grumpy this time, although fairly confused by my last one in, 6a. The mixture of clues did seem to contain a lot of anagrams and insertions,  not to mention the insertion of anagrams into other words!

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.

Across

1a    Backing provided by idiot, one with attitude (10)
ASSISTANCE – ASS (idiot) I (one) STANCE (attitude)

6a    One may deck in a ring or be decked in a ring (4)
FIST – Part of the body which could be used to ‘deck’ someone in a boxing ring – or somewhere to put a  a piece of jewellery (ring) (decked here in the sense of adorning or decorating)

9a    Reportedly stop work and slow down (5)
BRAKE- A homophone (reportedly) of BREAK (stop work)

10a    Dreamer writhing around in rest (9)
REMAINDER – An anagram (writhing) of DREAMER ‘around’ IN (from the clue)

12a    Get rid of old lover with little witticism and say that’s over (7)
EXPUNGE – EX (old lover) PUN (little witticism) and a reversal (that’s over) of EG (say)

13a    A parent attracted to doctor in interesting spectacles? (5)
DRAMA – A (from the clue) MA (mother, parent) ‘attracted to’ or following DR (doctor)

15a    Slippery ice, have to wrap up (7)
ACHIEVE – An anagram (slippery) of ICE HAVE

17a    Upset hot water (7)
TROUBLE – A verb meaning to upset – the second definition being an informal term for a state of trouble

19a    Seems a listener’s keeping very quiet (7)
APPEARS – A (from the clue) and EARS (listeners) ‘keeping’ PP (the musical abbreviation meaning very quiet)

21a    Can’t stand? That’s typical of tailing detectives (7)
DISLIKE – LIKE (that’s typical of) ‘tailing’ or doing after DIS (detective inspectors)

22a    Get hot when biting into humbug (5)
ROAST – AS (when) ‘biting into’ or going inside ROT (humbug)

24a    Did guide distribute dive ads? (7)
ADVISED – An anagram (distribute) of DIVE ADS

27a    First of April, headlessly full of foolish panic (9)
PRINCIPAL – Remove the first letter (heedlessly) of aPRIL and insert (full of) an anagram (foolish) of PANIC

28a    Writer going to church in some European capital (5)
PENCE – PEN (writer) followed by (going to) CE (Church of England)

29a    Tramp‘s dog’s maybe rolling about (4)
STEP – A reversal (rolling about) of PETS (dogs maybe)

30a    Commander with map barking ‘Retreating, no sir!’ gets distinction (10)
COMPARISON – CO (commander) with an anagram (barking) of MAP followed by a reversal (retreating) of NO SIR

Down

1d    Two degrees from south and north, group of four stars? (4)
ABBA – Two degrees – both a BA – one reversed (from the south) and the other read as usual

2d    Speed aboard steamer, cool long-distance vessel (9)
SPACESHIP – PACE (speed) ‘aboard’ SS (steamship) followed by HIP (cool in the sense of trendy)

3d    Drop off bits of fruit to be served up (5)
SLEEP – A reversal (to be served up in a Down clue) of PEELS (bits of fruit)

4d    Set out and managed to puncture changing gear (7)
ARRANGE – RAN (manage) to ‘puncture’ or go inside an anagram (changing) of GEAR

5d    Observe telecom men taunting bears (7)
COMMENT – Lurking inside (bears) teleCOM MEN Taunting

7d    Country region of UK’s taken up rising relief (5)
INDIA – A reversal (taken up in a down clue) of NI (region of UK) followed by another reversal (rising) of AID (relief)

8d    Neater flowing in the delta was imminent (10)
THREATENED – An anagram (flowing) of NEATER inserted between THE (from the clue) and D (Delta in either the Greek or NATO Phonetic Alphabet)

11d    Popular party’s welcoming or not the place for outsiders? (7)
INDOORS – IN (popular) DOS (party’s) ‘welcoming’ OR (from the clue)

14d    Bits of text that often come in at the beginning (10)
PARAGRAPH – The Indented Paragraph (which comes in at the beginning of the first line) is not often seen these days – it is probably only typists of my generation that remember such a thing!

16d    Like a small band, able to stretch out (7)
ELASTIC – Stretchy like a particular type of small band

18d    More than one construction vehicle’s caught idling foully (9)
BUILDINGS – BUS (vehicle) has ‘caught’ an anagram (foully) of IDLING

20d    Get out to absorb a politician that gets in a lather (7)
SHAMPOO – SHOO (get out) to ‘absorb’ A (from the clue) MP (politician)

21d    Elaborate flagpole — VE Day coming up will feature it (7)
DEVELOP – Lurking in reverse (coming up will feature it) in flagPOLE VE Day

23d    With different blood group, woman is surviving (5)
ALIVE – Change blood group O at the beginning of OLIVE (woman) to blood group A

25d    Peachy fried plums regularly used in turnover (5)
SUPER – Another reversed lurker (in turnover) this time using the regular letters of fRiEd PlUmS

26d    Distinguished partners crushing opponent twice (4)
SEEN – S and N (partners in a bridge game) ‘crushing’ or going round E E (one of their opponents twice)