Thursday, March 28, 2013 — DT 27078

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27078
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, January 18, 2013
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27078]
Big Dave's Review Written By Gazza
BD Rating
Difficulty - ★★	Enjoyment - ★★★
Falcon's Experience ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ 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

Today we get yet another gentle offering — this time from Giovanni. For once, I was aware that today is the day before a holiday on which there will be no edition of the National Post. Thus I took extra care to ensure that I did not hurriedly plunge into the first puzzle I happened to stumble upon — to avoid the situation that I have found myself in, on past occasions, of solving the wrong puzzle first. Today, there was no need of such caution as the National Post has not followed its usual practice of publishing an extra Diversions page to cover the holiday.

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.

Across

1a   Refinement of sailor when meeting soldiers in high spirits (11)

In the Royal Navy, able seaman (abbreviation AB)^[5], is a rank of sailor above ordinary seaman and below leading seaman. In the British armed forces, other ranks (abbreviation OR)^[5] refers to all those who are not commissioned officers.

10a   Expression of dismay in a county town when mother goes missing (5)

Armagh^[5] is the chief town of the county of Armagh, one of the Six Counties of Northern Ireland.

11a   Son, member of family with double hesitation as slow walker (9)

12a   Like some tennis shots -- how dad gets troubled with net! (3-6)

13a   Wizard publication given American backing (5)

14a   Old king returning to country, a legendary fighter (6)

Rex^[4] (Latin for king, abbreviated as R^[5]) is part of the official title of a king, now used chiefly in documents, legal proceedings, and inscriptions on coins. It may be used following a name (e.g. Georgius Rex, or GR, for King George^[5]) or in the titles of lawsuits, e.g. Rex v. Jones: the Crown versus Jones^[5] (which would often be written simply as R. vs Jones). 

Roland^[5] was the most famous of Charlemagne’s paladins^[7] [sometimes known as the Twelve Peers, they were the foremost warriors of Charlemagne's court], hero of the Chanson de Roland (12th century). Roland was killed at the Battle of Roncesvalles in 778 .

16a   Old character in first half of play, the French girl (8)

In the French language, the feminine singular form of the definite article is la^[8]. Prunella Scales^[7] (appearing in Gazza's review) is an English actress, known for her role as Basil Fawlty's wife Sybil in the British comedy Fawlty Towers.

18a   Being anonymous is indescribable (8)

20a   Burn the midnight oil maybe in period of residence at uni? (4,2)

Uni^[4,5] is a [seemingly British] informal term for university ⇒ he planned to go to uni [when have we seen this before — ah yes, yesterday]. In Britain, up^[5] means at or to a university, especially Oxford or Cambridge ⇒ they were up at Cambridge about the same time. 

23a   Continue in the same line and race ahead (3,2)

It seems that "continue in the same line" is a printing term. I had supposed that it might mean to continue talking on a matter long after the audience had grown tired of the topic. Well, at least it got me to the right answer!

24a   Bishop's place is in a mess with work coming in (9)

Note that the definition is "bishop's" (of a bishop) making the solution an adjective. In the field of music, Op. (also op.)^[5] is an abbreviation meaning opus (work). It is used before a number given to each work of a particular composer, usually indicating the order of publication.

26a   Moralist upset by new serious transgression (6,3)

27a   Like some architecture I love -- pleasant, not English (5)

In tennis, squash, and some other sports, love^[5] is a score of zero or nil ⇒ love fifteen. The resemblance of a zero written as a numeral (0) to the letter O leads to the cryptic crossword convention of the word "love" being used to clue this letter.

28a   Competitions set to run with man well organised (11)

Down

2d   Musical movement has some particular goal (5)

In music, largo^[5] is used as an adverb or adjective to mean (especially as a direction) in a slow tempo and dignified in style. As a noun, it denotes a passage, movement, or composition marked to be performed in this way.

3d   Island's reaction to unwanted wet weather? (7)

Bahrain^[5] is a sheikhdom consisting of a group of islands in the Persian Gulf; population 728,700 (est. 2009); official language, Arabic; capital, Manama. Ruled by the Portuguese in the 16th century and the Persians in the 17th century, the islands became a British protectorate in 1861 and gained independence in 1971. Bahrain’s economy is dependent on the refining and export of oil.

4d   Live with uncontrollable desire (6)

5d   Earth under you? The core is rumbling ferociously (8)

6d   Seat of empire? (7)

The Ottoman Empire is the Turkish empire, established in northern Anatolia by Osman I at the end of the 13th century and expanded by his successors to include all of Asia Minor and much of SE Europe. After setbacks caused by the invasion of the Mongol ruler Tamerlane in 1402, Constantinople was captured in 1453. The empire reached its zenith under Suleiman in the mid 16th century; it had greatly declined by the 19th century and collapsed after the First World War.

7d   Baseball player and satirical editor -- destructive types in combination (9,4)

This is one of those rare instances where the definition does not appear at the beginning or end of the clue — at least, not explicitly. The sense of the clue is 'Destructive types produced by baseball player and satirical editor in combination' (which implicitly puts the definition at the beginning of the clue).

Richard Ingrams^[7] is an English journalist, a co-founder and former editor of the British satirical magazine Private Eye, and now editor of The Oldie, a monthly humorous lifestyle and issues magazine mainly aimed at the older generation.

8d   Rag fully recycled -- when one acts thus? (8)

As Gazza points out, this is a semi-all-in-one clue. The entire clue forms the definition while a portion of the clue ("rag fully recycled") constitutes the wordplay. Our fellow blogger, scchua, likes to call this type of clue a WIWD (wordplay intertwined with definition).

9d   Weep on stand, hugging dad -- fantastic football team! (7,6)

Crystal Palace Football Club^[7] is an English Football league club based in South Norwood, London that currently competes in the second tier of English Football, The Championship. The team was formed in 1905 by workers at The Crystal Palace^[7], a cast-iron and plate-glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851.

15d   Learner, university girl, entertaining trendy celebrity (8)

The cryptic crossword convention of L meaning learner or student arises from the L-plate^[7], a square plate bearing a sans-serif letter L, for learner, which must be affixed to the front and back of a vehicle in various countries (including the UK) if its driver is a learner under instruction.

17d   Nincompoops getting so little right, legal adviser found (8)

An assessor^[3,4,11] is defined in various American and British dictionaries as (1) an assistant to a judge or magistrate, usually selected for special knowledge in a particular area; (2) a person with technical expertise called in to advise a court on specialist matters; and (3) an adviser or assistant to a judge.

19d   Wish to have a board game is far in the past (4,3)

Go^[7] is a board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,500 years ago (from whence it spread, first to Korea and Japan, and then worldwide). The game is noted for being rich in strategy despite its relatively simple rules. According to chess master Edward Lasker: "The rules of Go are so elegant, organic, and rigorously logical that if intelligent life forms exist elsewhere in the universe, they almost certainly play Go." The name Go is derived from the Japanese name of game "igo".

21d   Touching performance in hat (7)

Tile^[10] is old-fashioned British slang for a hat. Gazza tells us the expression arises from the fact that "it’s something that goes over-head" — alluding to roofing tiles.

22d   Unknown pub, one with a showy garden feature (6)

25d   Wine or beer? There's nothing in it (5)

Pinot^[5] is a wine made from Pinot grapes, any of several varieties of wine grape, especially the chief varieties Pinot Noir, a black grape, and Pinot Blanc, a white grape.

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)
^[11] - TheFreeDictionary.com (Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon