Thursday, May 31, 2012 - DT 26841

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26841
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, April 16, 2012
Setter Rufus
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26841]
Big Dave's Review Written By Libellule
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 █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by puzzle solving tools █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's blog
Notes The National Post has skipped DT 26840 which was published in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, April 14, 2012

Introduction

Rufus dishes up a fairly gentle offering today with only a minimum sprinkling of Briticisms - although one of these did stump me.

Notes on Today's Puzzle

This commentary is intended to serve as a supplement to the review of this puzzle found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog, to which a link is provided in the table above.

29a   Neat running of Oxford university (4)

I knew very well that neat^[5] is an archaic term for (1) a bovine animal or (2) cattle. However, I had no idea that Oxon^[5], in degree titles, means of Oxford University • BA, Oxon.

3d   Picks spot for recreation (4)

Here, recreation is used in the sense of the action of creating anew rather than activity done for enjoyment.

15d   The spirit of my French translation (5)

The French words for "of" and "my" are de^[8] and mon^[8] respectively.

16d   Noblemen, they’re put up for fights (5)

Until it was pointed out by Gazza, I hadn't realised the origin of the word dukes^[5] meaning the fists, especially when raised in a fighting attitude. It comes from rhyming slang Duke of Yorks 'forks' (= fingers).

20d   Quietly put out sailor that’s fired from a submarine (7)

Piano^[3,5] (abbreviation p^[5]), is a musical direction meaning either soft or quiet (as an adjective) or softly or quietly (as an adverb).

27d   Part of the Tuileries holding the sewers (4)

The Tuileries^[5] are formal gardens next to the Louvre in Paris. The gardens are all that remain of the Tuileries Palace, a royal residence begun in 1564 and burnt down in 1871 during the Commune of Paris.

Key to Reference Sources: 

^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)
^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)
^[4]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[5]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Dictionary of English)
^[6]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford American Dictionary)
^[7]   - Wikipedia
^[8]   - Reverso Online Dictionary (Collins French-English Dictionary)
^[9]   - Infoplease (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)
^[10] - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)

Signing off for today - Falcon