Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2716
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment *****
Brilliant clues, wonderful surface readings, hidden words, sneaky stuff staring us in the face …. well, what else do we expect on a Sunday?!
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
Across
1a Complaint following proposal — still you don’t get it! (6,8)
MOTION SICKNESS – Lovely cryptic definition – MOTION (proposal) is followed by SICKNESS (complaint).
9a Mild European imprisoned by famous Communist despot, ultimately (7)
LENIENT – ‘Imprison’ E (European) in LENIN (famous Communist) and finish with the ‘ultimate’ letter of despot.
10a Worker gets specific day in charge (7)
MANDATE – MAN (worker) and DATE (a specific day).
11a Orderly waiters heard signal to act (3)
CUE – A homophone of a QUEUE of people waiting in an orderly fashion.
12a Farewell, in a manner of speaking, after very short drink (11)
VALEDICTION – V (very short) ALE (drink) and DICTION (manner of speaking).
14a Run after a tyre burst in main road (6)
ARTERY – R (run) is placed after A (from the clue) and then followed by an anagram (burst) of TYRE.
15a Spike securing small flier for writer (8)
LAWRENCE – Insert the small ‘flier’ a WREN into LACE, a verb meaning to make a drink stronger by adding spirits or other alcohol (spike).
17a Disturbed over sins, of which the Bible has many (8)
VERSIONS – An anagram (disturbed) of OVERSINS.
19a It contains accounts from sides straddling border (6)
LEDGER – Insert an EDGE (border) between L and R (the abbreviations for left and right sides).
22a No point including girl’s name, in spite of that (11)
NONETHELESS – NO (from the clue) and NESS (point of land) with ETHEL (girl’s name) inserted.
23a Part of field in cricket match set back (3)
LEG – Brilliantly simple – a reversal (back) of GEL (set).
24a Angry call about the players, initially, in this event (4,3)
SHOT PUT Insert the initial letters of The and Players into a SHOUT (angry call).
26a List operations going the wrong way, easily seen in theatre (7)
SPOTLIT – A reversal (going the wrong way) of TILT (list or lean) and OPS (operations).
27a Form in which a person’s convictions are manifest (8,6)
CRIMINAL RECORD – I can’t do better than borrow BD’s hint. “Two definitions, the second one expanding cryptically on the first”.
Down
1d Such a vile man, I’m involved in this? (4,10)
MALE CHAUVINISM – An anagram (involved) of SUCH A VILE MAN IM.
2d Divergent line of thought, singularly touching (7)
TANGENT – An incidental off-topic thought or a line which touches a curve in only one place.
3d Partial judgment, with court supporting old writer and composer (4,7)
OPEN VERDICT – O (old) PEN (writer) VERDI (composer) CT (court).
4d Colonise area taken from Pacific port (6)
SETTLE – Remove the A (area) from the port of SEATTLE.
5d Crazed demoniac who wants to slay people? (8)
COMEDIAN – ‘Slay’ here is an informal term meaning to amuse very much. I do like the idea of a COMEDIAN being a crazed demoniac – although here crazed is what tell us to rearrange DEMONIAC.
6d Sister, in turn, ignoring the odds (3)
NUN – Do as the clue says and ignore the odd letters of iN tUrN.
7d Finishes off in state — is one in Victoria, perhaps? (7)
STATION – This time we remove the ‘finishes’ of STATe Is and ONe.
8d In error, get date wrong? Questioned again (14)
REINTERROGATED – Wrong is such a simple anagram indicator – rearrange IN ERROR GET DATE.
13d Set piece’s musical quality in foundational part (11)
CORNERSTONE – One definition of set piece is a carefully planned and executed piece of team work such as a CORNER or free kick in a game of football. Add an S (piece’s) and follow with TONE (musical quality).
16d Like winner of cup, left after dinner, holding book (8)
UNBEATEN – Insert B (book) into UNEATEN (left after dinner).
18d Ill-feeling concealed by veteran courageously (7)
RANCOUR – I was starting to worry that we weren’t going to get a hidden word this week but it is cunningly concealed by veteRAN COURageously.
20d Great scientist, person frequently imprisoned — upset one Pope (7)
GALILEO – A reversal (upset) of LAG (a person frequently imprisoned) I (one) and LEO (the name of several Popes).
21d Scoundrel‘s wife, supporter of school board (6)
WEASEL – W (wife) and EASEL (supporter of a board used at school to support a blackboard or piece of artwork).
25d Foreign breed over in Melbourne, say (3)
POM – The abbreviated way of referring to a Pomeranian (a foreign breed of dog) is also a term used by Australians – not just those in Melbourne – to refer to an immigrant from the British Isles.
Thanks once again to Virgilius – my Sundays wouldn’t be the same without you.
As usual I can’t really remember the crossword since it’s eleven days since I did it – and I can’t find it either.
Having read CS’s review bits of it are coming back to me. The main thing that I remember is getting terribly tangled up with 22a. I had the ‘no’ from the clue then, and this is where I went wrong, I thought the next ‘n’ was the point and then there was ‘Ethel’ which left me with a few spare letters floating around at the end. Oh dear!
I know I enjoyed this one very much – I always do!
My favourite was 1d with 5 and 25d being close runners-up. Or is it runner-ups – never sure!
With thanks to Virgilius and CS.
I thought this one was excellent. Thanks to Virgilius, and to crypticsue for the write-up.