ST 2740

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2740

A full review by crypticsue

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

This puzzle was published on  Sunday, 20th April 2014

A puzzle which didn’t take long to solve but with all the usual fine clues we have come to expect from the Sunday Maestro.

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Across

1a           Sneak on board with son to recover after breakdown (4,4)
STOWAWAY – S (son) TOW AWAY (recover after breakdown)

9a           Dictates changes in crucial experiment (4,4)
ACID TEST –   An anagram (changes) of DICTATES

10a         Run in manner that’s suspicious (4)
WARY – R (run in cricket scoring) inserted into WAY (manner)

11a         Whereby text is digitally transmitted? (4,8)
SIGN LANGUAGE – A nice cryptic definition.

13a         What’s attractive and marvellous about surfing facility? (8)
MAGNETIC – NET (internet, [web] surfing facility) inserted into MAGIC (marvellous).

15a         Democratic politician after good moves to left aplenty (6)
GALORE –   The G for Good in AL GORE (Democratic politician) ‘moves to the left’!

16a         Staunch    supporter of flag, for example (4)
STEM – Double definition – to stop the flow of something (staunch) or the supporter of a flower, for example, an iris.

17a         Page is not commonly in colour (5)
PAINT – P (page) and AINT (a common way of saying is not).

18a         Yarn in court before end of trial (4)
WOOL –   WOO (court romantically) and L (the end of triaL).

20a         Awards, for dramatic achievements, zero marks (6)
OSCARS –   O (zero)SCARS (marks).

21a         Gets really tired, swinging axes thus (8)
EXHAUSTS –   An anagram (swinging) of AXES THUS.

23a         Is unfinished treatise wrongly included in academic’s scholarly work? (12)
DISSERTATION –   Insert into DON (academic) IS (from the clue) and almost all of the letters (unfinished) of TREATISe.

26a         Player’s departure from English team before start of Test (4)
EXIT –   E(English) XI (a team of eleven) and T (the start of Test).

27a         Celt killed retreating non-U person (8)
WELSHMAN –   A reversal (retreating) of SLEW (killed) followed by HUMAN (person) with the U removed (non-U).

28a         Grit shown by you once in MCC, but missing double century (8)
THOUSAND – THOU (you once) and SAND (grit) – Missing the double century indicates that removing the two Cs (Roman numeral for 100) will leave  the definition – M being the Roman numeral for 1,000.

Down

2d           Negotiate with a couple of partners in region (8)
TRANSACT –   Two bridge partners, N and S, are inserted into TRACT (region)

3d           Revised many new ads as resources (4,3,5)
WAYS AND MEANS –   An anagram (revised) of MANY NEW ADS AS.

4d           Influence that’s minimised by removing crew (6)
WEIGHT –   Remove the EIGHT (rowing crew) from WEIGHT produces its (minimised) abbreviation

5d           Sailing-ship left passage, heading North (4)
YAWL –   A reversal (heading north) of L (left) and WAY (passage).

6d           When it’s dark or darkish up near opening of tunnel (8)
MIDNIGHT –   A reversal (up in a down clue) of DIM (darkish) followed by NIGH (near)and T (the opening of Tunnel).

7d           Force Greek character to produce his country’s cheese (4)
FETA – F (force) and ETA (Greek letter of the alphabet).

8d           Within Europe the realpolitik’s very delicate (8)
ETHEREAL –   Hidden within EuropE THE REALpolitik.

12d         Illegal activity, except when dreadful villain finally is put inside (12)
UNLAWFULNESS –   Insert into UNLESS (except when) AWFUL (dreadful) and N (the final letter of villaiN).

14d         Killing, for example, in war zone endlessly (5)
CRIME –   Remove the A at the end of the old and current war zone, the CRIMEA.

16d         Who’s terribly depressed in final confrontation? (8)
SHOWDOWN –   An anagram (terribly) of WHOS followed by DOWN (depressed).

17d         Spiced meat right in Italian food I’m turning over (8)
PASTRAMI –   Insert R (right) into Italian PASTA and finish with a reversal (turning over) of IM.

19d         Good-looking expert? (8)
OPTICIAN –   Brilliant cryptic definition.

22d         Tough love, including current arrangement of locks (6)
HAIRDO –   HARD (tough)and O (love) with the symbol for electrical current – I – inserted.

24d         Only    fish that’s never less than foot in length (4)
SOLE –   An adjective meaning only; a flat fish; the underside of a foot

25d         Relation starts off as usual, ends in heartbroken lament (4)
AUNT –   The starts of As and Usual and the ends of heartbrokeN and lamenT.