Wednesday, May 18, 2018 (DT 26484)

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26484
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, February 24, 2011
Setter Ray T
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26484]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave
Big Dave's Rating
Difficulty - ★★★	Enjoyment - ★★★★
Falcon's Performance ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - incorrect prior to use of puzzle solving tools █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's blog

Introduction

I found today's puzzle to be a bit more of a challenge than those we have seen recently, causing me to dip into my Tool Chest for assistance in dealing with a handful of clues. Moreover, I needed Big Dave to explain the wordplay in 2d.

Today's Glossary

Selected abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions appearing in today's puzzle.

[An asterisk beside an entry merely indicates that it has been taken it from a Cumulative Glossary of entries which have previously appeared, in either this blog or its companion blog, the Ottawa Citizen Cryptic Crossword Forum.]

Appearing in Clues:

Meanings listed in this section may reflect how the word is used in the surface reading of the clue. Of course, that meaning may be contributing to the misdirection that the setter is attempting to create.

pit¹ - noun 1 [5^th entry] (the pit) literary hell.

Appearing in Solutions:

hedge sparrow - noun another term for dunnock, a small European songbird of the accentor family, with a dark grey head and a reddish -brown back. Prunella modularis, family Prunellidae

hellebore - noun a poisonous winter-flowering Eurasian plant of the buttercup family, typically having coarse divided leaves and large white, green, or purplish flowers. Genus Helleborus, family Ranunculaceae: several species, including the Christmas rose

Jewel in the Crown - 1966 novel by Paul Scott that starts his Raj Quartet, a four-volume novel sequence about the concluding years of the British Raj in India. The phrase "jewel in the crown" alludes to the British perception that "India was the most important of the overseas possessions of the British Empire" and is attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, the British prime minister from 1874 to 1881 who called India "the brightest jewel in the crown" [ref. Answers.com].

Loire - a river of west central France. France's longest river, it rises in the Massif Central and flows 1,015 km (630 miles) north and west to the Atlantic at St-Nazaire.

maths - plural noun [treated as singular] British mathematics. [North American math]

mathematics - plural noun [usually treated as singular] the abstract science of number, quantity, and space, either as abstract concepts (pure mathematics), or as applied to other disciplines such as physics and engineering (applied mathematics).

PA - abbreviation [3^rd entry] British personal assistant, noun a secretary or administrative assistant working exclusively for one particular person. [Note: although Oxford Dictionaries Online identifies this expression as British, I am certainly familiar with the term in Canada.]

rouge - noun 3 (in full vin rouge) French red wine.

Signing off for today - Falcon