Monday, October 1, 2012 - DT 26920

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26920
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26920]
Big Dave's Review Written By Gazza
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

Introduction

I managed to complete this puzzle without electronic assistance, but not without a few question marks beside clues for which the wordplay was a mystery —  at least in part. It is no wonder that I had trouble deciphering 27a — there is an error in the clue as it appeared in the National Post.

Errata in Today's Puzzle

27a   Working on Dr Phil — one’s supposedly intelligent (7)

... maybe working on Dr Phil, but seemingly not when working for the National Post. Somewhere in the system, some misguided soul seems to have seen fit to "correct" this clue, which should read:

• 27a  Working on DPhil — one’s supposedly intelligent (7)

The wordplay is an anagram (working) of ON DPHIL. DPhil^[3,4] is an abbreviation for Doctor of Philosophy, perhaps more commonly known as a PhD.

Dr. Phil is a syndicated American talk show hosted by Phil McGraw in which he offers advice in the form of "life strategies" from his experience as a clinical psychologist.

An almost identical clue appeared in a puzzle three years ago (DT 25885: published August 3, 2009 in the National Post and March 25, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph). At that time, ironically, the very same error occurred in the version published in the National Post!

• Version in the National Post: 28ac One supposedly intelligent working on Dr. Phil (7)
• Version in The Daily Telegraph: 28ac One supposedly intelligent working on DPhil (7)

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.

9a   A politician and artist going round house for a jar (7)

RA^[5] is the abbreviation for Royal Academician, a member of the Royal Academy of the Arts^[5], an institution established in London in 1768, whose purpose is to cultivate painting, sculpture, and architecture in Britain.

19a   Volunteers set out to get sample (5)

In the UK, the Territorial Army (TA)^[5] is a volunteer force locally organized to provide a reserve of trained and disciplined manpower for use in an emergency.

22a   Concentrate on the house in front of me and you (5)

This is one of the clues where I only understood the wordplay after reading Gazza's hint. To solve the clue, one must recognize that foc^[2] is the abbreviation for free of charge (on the house).

25a   Sat around horse in this fashion? (7)

As Gazza points out, horse^[2] is an intransitive verb meaning to travel on horseback — though you will be mighty hard pressed to find this meaning documented anywhere but in Chambers.

1d   Rubbish shot, finally, by England penalty taker (7)

This was another one with a question mark with regard to the wordplay. Chris Waddle^[7] is a former footballer [soccer player] from England who earned 62 caps^[5] [awarded as a sign of membership of a particular sports team, especially a national team] for the England national football team between 1985 and 1991. As a member of England's squad for the 1990 FIFA World Cup, in the semi-final against West Germany, he hit the post in extra time when the teams were drawing 1–1. However, his final contribution to the game was missing a penalty [penalty shot] in the shoot-out, hitting the ball over the bar and sending the Germans through to the final.

3d   It’s used for trapping snitch infiltrating ring? On the contrary (5)

Snitch^[2] is slang (seemingly British) for the nose.

7d   Roll along as turn right comes up, getting led astray (7)

Yet another question mark concerning the wordplay. The definition is "roll along". The wordplay (in this down clue) is a charade with the first part given by TURN (from the clue) with R (right) moved up one position (comes up) to produce TRUN and the second part being an anagram (astray) of LED.

14d   Bolt’s fast — thanks to him? (9)

This puzzle appeared in the UK during the run-up to the London Olympics, thus the apparent reference to Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt^[7] would have been very timely.

21d   Raise cheer about beginnings of Enigmatic Variations (7)

Variations on an Original Theme for orchestra ("Enigma"), Op. 36, commonly referred to as the Enigma Variations^[7], is a set of a theme and its fourteen variations written for orchestra by Edward Elgar in 1898–1899. Enigmatic Variations is the name of a series of advanced cryptic crossword puzzles published in the British newspaper, The Sunday Telegraph.

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