Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28689
A full review by crypticsue
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This puzzle was published on 17th March 2018
BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ***
A Saturday prize puzzle that took me slightly longer to solve than ‘usual’ and which grew on me as I wrote the review.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.
Across
1a Snake and rodent let out by river (7)
RATTLER – RAT (rodent) and an anagram (out) of LET go by R (river)
5a Male in favour of sitting in bed for relaxation (7)
COMFORT – M (male) FOR (in favour of) ‘sitting in’ COT (bed)
9a Clothes primarily large? Admit one could be in a big top (5)
CLOWN – C (clothes ‘primarily’) L (large) OWN (admit)
10a Dancing is a talent or tease (9)
TANTALISE – An anagram (dancing) of IS A TALENT
11a Shame about our pal cavorting to get approval (10)
POPULARITY – PITY (shame) goes about an anagram (cavorting) of OUR PAL
12a Beats a retreat, protecting powerful ruler (4)
TSAR – Protecting indicates the presence of a lurker in beaTS A Retreat
14a Orders stir unions to get agitated outside court (12)
INSTRUCTIONS – An anagram (agitated) of STIR UNIONS goes ‘outside’ CT (court)
18a Poorly American with temperature getting fixed portion of food, for example (12)
ILLUSTRATION – ILL (poorly) US (American) T (temperature) RATION (fixed portion of food)
21a Beryl regularly consumes a small piece of cake (4)
EASY – The regular letters of bErYl ‘consume’ A (from the clue) and S (small)
22a General‘s vast banquet (10)
WIDESPREAD – WIDE (vast) SPREAD (banquet)
25a Spouting off about exercises working (9)
OPERATING – ORATING (spouting off) goes ‘about’ PE (exercises)
26a Competition finally reduced by 50% (5)
EVENT – EVENTually ‘reduced by 50%’
27a Wanted gentleman to conceal achievement? On the contrary (7)
DESIRED – On the contrary indicates that SIR (gentleman) is concealed by DEED (achievement)
28a Slim model’s rear shown in poster (7)
SLENDER – L (the letter at the rear of model) shown in SENDER (poster)
Down
1d About to go over impressive lifting procedure used in the kitchen (6)
RECIPE – RE (about) goes over a reversal (lifting) of EPIC (impressive)
2d Men shown up in conversations, poor things (6)
TROOPS – a reverse lurker this time – shown ‘up’ in conversationS POOR Things
3d Isolation unit needed in outbreak of illness (10)
LONELINESS – ONE (unit) needed in (inserted into) an anagram (outbreak) of ILLNESS
4d It spins up and down (5)
ROTOR – Up and down is just there to indicate that this spinning item is a palindrome
5d Fabricate hamper — university needs to replace one (9)
CONSTRUCT – U for University replaces the I (one) in CONSTRICT (hamper)
6d Miserly average plan (4)
MEAN – Triple definition
7d Leaving out nothing on assignment (8)
OMISSION – O (nothing) MISSION (assignment)
8d Guess the pay increase after middle of October (8)
THEORISE – THE (from the clue) and RISE (pay increase,) the latter going after the O in the middle of OctOber
13d He tampers with circulation to keep oxygen in air (10)
ATMOSPHERE – An anagram (with circulation) of HE TAMPERS with O (Oxygen)
15d Bound to admit blunder, if scared (9)
TERRIFIED – TIED (bound) to ‘admit’ ERR (blunder) and IF (from the clue)
16d Tree — do we set up shelters over bits chopped up? (8)
FIREWOOD – FIR (tree) and a reversal (set up in a Down clue) of DO WE ‘sheltering’ O (over in cricket scoring)
17d Smears — they’re often seen on children’s knees (8)
PLASTERS – Part of a verb, or something my poor grandson needed on both his knee and his forehead last week
19d Deputy to close bank (6)
DEPEND – DEP (deputy) END (close) – bank here meaning to depend or rely on
20d One polishing rag? (6)
EDITOR – A cryptic definition of someone who ‘polishes’ a newspaper (rag)
23d Golf club’s evicting wife? Creeps! (5)
EDGES – Creeps here being a verb, not a possible description of golf club members. Remove (evicting) the W (wife) from wEDGES (golf clubs)
24d Pretty good trade show (4)
FAIR – A double definition clue
S1
Thank you, cleared up two parsing problems I had.
I was just writing to say…Hang on, what’s this in my pocket? Why, it’s my hanky with a big, lumpy knot in it! Ah yes, I remember, it’s there to remind me about 20d. The missing text which was (quite rightly) edited out last Saturday by CS was as follows. I had the checkers thus: ???T?R – so the answer had to be DUSTER! As a full cryptic definition, or even a double definition: One polishing/rag. Did anybody else do that?
And apparently, they did. I find this type of thing fascinating – that several people, strangers, living many miles apart should be simultaneously doing the same crossword and coming up with the same wrong answer for the same reasons! But others might say that small things fascinate small minds. Ah, well – such is life!
For once I remembered to keep my copy of the Saturday puzzle – probably to check on whether Jose remembered why he’d tied a knot in his hanky!
Thank you for the review, CS, I enjoyed the clues all the more for a second reading.
Magnificent stuff as always. Keeps me sane, albeit a relative concept. Merci BD
NICE ONE – really enjoyed solving that one – stage by stage !!!