DT 28354

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28348

A full review by crypticsue

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This puzzle was published on Saturday 18th February

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

The recent improvement in Saturday Prize Puzzles was in evidence again last Saturday.  Long may it continue.  

Across

1a           Body of water in East Anglia, I hesitate to say, could be clearer (7)
BROADER – BROAD (body of water in East Anglia) ER (I hesitate to say) 

5a           Powerful bishop and pawn on row (7)
PONTIFF – P (pawn) ON (from the clue) TIFF (row)

9a           Credit card with notes lost — my mistake (1,5,9)
I STAND CORRECTED An anagram (lost) of CREDIT CARD and NOTES

10a         Simple goal — mine at home (3-2)
TAP-IN – TAP (mine) IN (at home)

11a         Sample tea, perhaps, a little at a time (9)
PIECEMEAL – PIECE (sample) MEAL (tea, perhaps)

12a         Provided during the French Revolution? How long a thing lasts! (4,5)
LIFE CYCLE – IF (provided) in LE CYCLE (the French revolution?)

14a         Strain within small company to get capital (5)
CAIRO – AIR (strain, piece of music) goes in CO (small, abbreviated, company)

15a         Composer thrown out of Yale? Harvard (5)
LEHAR – Ignoring the ? you’ll find a composer lurking in YaLE HARvard

16a         Cricket team’s beginning to enjoy second drinks break (9)
ELEVENSES – ELEVENS (cricket team’s) and the beginning of Enjoy and the abbreviation for Second

18a         Dramatist confronts nits dismissing first character for lack of grit (9)
COWARDICE – COWARD (Noel the dramatist) confronts or goes in front of lICE (nits dismissing the ‘first character’)

21a         Snappy, one parking, after pressure is applied, in New York (5)
NIPPY – I (one) P (parking) P (pressure) in NY (New York).  Snappy and nippy are both words connected to hurrying or quickness

22a         Leave carrying early paper celebrating the past (3,3,5,4)
FOR OLD TIMES SAKE – FORSAKE (leave) ‘carrying’ OLD (early) TIMES (paper)

23a         Twentieth-century force ready, prepared to engage Royal Marines (3,4)
RED ARMY – An anagram (prepared) of READY ‘engages’ RM (Royal Marines)

24a         Politician interrupting rises nervously, smiles coyly (7)
SIMPERS – MP (politician) interrupting an anagram (nervously) of RISES

Down

1d           Almost get angry touring round English city (7)
BRISTOL – BRISTLe (‘almost’ get angry) touring the round letter O 

2d           Elated, as Hillary once was? (2,3,2,3,5)
ON TOP OF THE WORD – feeling elated or describing where Sir Edmund Hillary was when he conquered Mount Everest

3d           In which rail fare may be taken? (6,3)
DINING CAR- A cryptic definition of somewhere to eat food on a train

4d           Go over, touching ceiling (5)
RECAP – RE (touching, on the subject of) CAP (ceiling)

5d           Soldier on exercises runs hard (9)
PERSEVERE – PE (exercise) R (runs) SEVERE (hard).  It seems such a long time since Mary last ‘perservated’

6d           Relative, kind to conserve energy (5)
NIECE – NICE (kind) ‘conserves’ E (energy)

7d           Before anything else, leading article must be suppressed (2,3,5,5)
IN THE FIRST PLACE – IN FIRST PLACE (leading) suppresses THE (article)

8d           Sloshed, I initially fell over in opera (7)
FIDELIO – A reversal (over) of OILED (sloshed, drunk) I (from the clue) and the initial letter of Fell

13d         School subject in his term out in the outskirts of Coventry (9)
CHEMISTRY – An anagram (out) of HIS TERM inserted in the ‘outskirts’ of Coventry

14d         Mo changes exotic Chinese dress (6-3)
CHEONG-SAM An anagram (exotic) of MO CHANGES

15d         Fortune endlessly provided, put on the Queen and deuce (7)
LUCIFER – LUCk (fortune ‘endlessly’) IF (provided) ER (the regnal cipher of our current Queen).   The solution is another word for the devil and ‘deuce’ is used (in exclamatory phrases) to mean this too.

17d         Timidity of head following fling (7)
SHYNESS – SHY (fling) NESS (head)

19d         Sovereign measure (5)
RULER – I’m sure no-one needs this particular old friend of a double definition explaining!

20d         Awards for TV programmes, some of them mystifying (5)
EMMYS – Lurking in some of thEM MYStifying

B1