DT 29939

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29939

A full review by crypticsue

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This puzzle was published on 19^th March 2022

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

An enjoyable Saturday Prize Puzzle – the fact that it’s a Chalicea production explains the double use of her favourite insertion indicator. My particular favourites were the smile-inducing 5a, plus 6d and 16d

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Across

1a    Backchat and criticism for a cosmetic (8)
LIPSTICK – LIP (backchat) STICK (criticism)

5a    Trousers, with top trimmed, might contain these (4)
ANTS – Trim the ‘top’ of pANTS (trousers) and you’ll find some insects often used with pants in an informal expression meaning impatient or restless.

9a    Cube cooked in empty grill (8)
BARBECUE – An anagram (cooked) of CUBE inserted into BARE (empty)

10a    Utilise printer’s measurement stratagem (6)
EMPLOY – EM (a printer’s measurement equal to the width of a lower-case m) PLOY (stratagem)

11a    Organisation of Easter Sunday not seen, sadly, on this earlier day (8)
SATURDAY – An anagram (organisation of) eAsTeR SUnDAY (not seen telling you to remove those letters from the anagram fodder, sadly telling you that they aren’t in that order)

12a    Offshoot of British stock farm (6)
BRANCH – B (British) RANCH (stock farm)

14a    Determination concerning explanation (10)
RESOLUTION – RE (concerning) SOLUTION (explanation)

18a    Virology crudely interrupted by America using force? (10)
VIGOROUSLY – An anagram (crudely) of VIROLOGY ‘interrupted by’ US (America)

22a    Submerges in river in undulating pasture-land (6)
DROWNS – R (river) in DOWNS (undulating pasture-land) – the word ‘undulating’ reminded me of a sponsored walk we once did in Sussex – the route the organisers described as ‘undulating’; we’d have described as ‘seriously mountainous’!

23a    Tortuous clue she’d programme (8)
SCHEDULE – An anagram (tortuous) of CLUE SHED

24a    In an orderly way, almost, with time for beginning of romance (6)
NEATLY – NEArLY (almost) with T (time) replacing the ‘beginning’ of Romance

25a    Structures carrying transport through channels (8)
VIADUCTS – VIA (through) DUCTS (channels)

26a    Trend restricted, we hear (4)
TIDE – A homophone (we hear) of TIED (restricted)

27a    In no particular place when year changes (8)
ANYWHERE – An anagram (changes) of WHEN YEAR

Down

2d    Quietly enraged buccaneer (6)
PIRATE – P (the musical abbreviation meaning to play quietly) IRATE (enraged)

3d    Man going into Conservative hypothesis (6)
THEORY – HE (man) ‘going into’ TORY (Conservative)

4d    Raucous ego running riot, not deterred by danger (10)
COURAGEOUSLY – An anagram (running riot) of RAUCOUS EGO

6d    Many hesitant words interrupting common sense (8)
NUMEROUS – UM and ER (hesitant words) ‘interrupting’ NOUS (common sense)

7d    Use up about a pound on birds now and then — very impressive (8)
SPLENDID – SPEND (use up) goes about L (Pound Sterling) followed by the even (now and then) letters of bIrDs

8d    A slight obsession about New York, nothing specific (8)
ANYTHING – A THING (a slight obsession) goes ‘about’ NY (New York)

9d    Runs away from skirmish in the wild (4)
BUSH – R (the cricket abbreviation for Runs) taken away from BRUSH (skirmish)

13d    Group offering (10)
COLLECTION – Double definition

15d    Testimony of English study in immorality (8)
EVIDENCE – E (English) followed by DEN (study) inserted into VICE (immorality)

16d    Clueless, I admit, about two major components of air (8)
IGNORANT – I GRANT (I admit) goes ‘about’ [again!) N (Nitrogen) and O (Oxygen), two major components of air

17d    Press caught youngster resistant to change (4-4)
IRON-CLAD – IRON (press) C (Caught) LAD (youngster)

19d    Outside each day, cut field (6)
MEADOW – MOW (cut) goes ‘outside’ EA (each) D (Day)

20d    Sinew of edible shellfish we’re told (6)
MUSCLE – A homophone (we’re told) of MUSSEL (edible shellfish)

21d    Schemes of identification for low islands (4)
KEYS – Double definition