Thursday, April 25, 2013 — DT 27100

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27100
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27100]
Big Dave's Review Written By scchua
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, Jay delivers his usual entertaining puzzle.

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

7a   Something to wear two times? (7)

I had interpreted the clue merely as a cryptic definition — which I believe it is. However, it can also be interpreted as a standard cryptic clue with the definition being "something to wear" and the wordplay being DOUBLE T (two times or TT).

8a   Going without a bite after onset of fever (7)

I have no idea why scchua states that "“bite” does double duty here". Perhaps he originally had the definition as being "going without a bite", then neglected to remove his comment after revising his definition.

10a   Drew in less developed area of desolation (10)

11a   Slow very nearly becomes fast (4)

In music, lento^[5] is a direction meaning slow or slowly.

12a   Oppose working during cold weather feature (8)

14a   Acquired rights, finally, on popular bars (6)

15a   Potentially make a profit from Roman gear pinched by substitute (5,2,4)

19a   Leave day before tree's destroyed (6)

20a   Do better than bodyguard for criminal overloaded with executive staff (3-5)

22a   Beer bellies may give you piles (4)

23a   Honest sailor loves naked company administrators (5-5)

25a   Coppers must welcome a new act of atonement (7)

In Britain, pence^[5] is a plural form of penny. Oxford advises that both pence and pennies have existed as plural forms of penny since at least the 16th century. The two forms now tend to be used for different purposes: pence refers to sums of money (five pounds and sixty-nine pence) while pennies refers to the coins themselves (I left two pennies on the table).

26a   Collects people who stump up to cross river (7)

In church use, a collect^[5] is a short prayer, especially one assigned to a particular day or season.

In Britain, to stump something up^[5] is to pay a sum of money ⇒ a buyer would have to stump up at least £8.5 million for the site.

Down

1d   Keep tabs on  screen (7)

Sometimes, it seems that one cannot see a solution even though it is staring one square in the eyes. I certainly felt rather dumb when my wordfinder software presented the one word which fit the checking letters. Where was the word displayed — why, on the screen of my computer, of course!

2d   A posh young lady once returned to get tucked up (4)

Tuck someone up^[5] is another way of saying tuck someone in (put someone to bed).

3d   Eccentric wanting party underneath waterfall (6)

It would seem to be a bit of a stretch to define a weir as a waterfall. A weir^[5] is a a low dam built across a river to raise the level of water upstream or regulate its flow.

4d   Annoying hospital, wanting a second dressing for arm (8)

5d   Get atlas out crossing motorway, seeing pillar pointing up (10)

The M1^[7] is a north–south motorway [controlled access, multilane divided highway] in England connecting London to Leeds.

6d   One refusal covers idiot's vacuity (7)

Nit^[5] is British slang for a foolish person ⇒ you stupid nit!

9d   Amends made for poverty, with right to replace leader (11)

13d   Time of year for pastime requiring punctuation and space? (7,3)

Insert an apostrophe (punctuation) and a space into "pastime" to make pa's time.

16d   Teachers incubate bird (8)

The National Union of Teachers (NUT)^[7] is a trade union for school teachers in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

17d   The lower socioeconomic groups took part in election, getting committed (7)

This clue is based on the NRS social grades^[7], a system of demographic classification used in the United Kingdom. The categories were originally developed by the National Readership Survey to classify readers, but are now used by many other organisations for wider applications and have become a standard for market research. They were developed over 50 years ago and achieved widespread usage in 20th Century Britain. The classifications, which are based on the occupation of the head of the household, are shown in the following table.

Grade	Social class	Chief income earner's occupation
A	upper middle class	Higher managerial, administrative or professional
B	middle class	Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional
C1	lower middle class	Supervisory or clerical and junior managerial, administrative or professional
C2	skilled working class	Skilled manual workers
D	working class	Semi and unskilled manual workers
E	Those at the lowest levels of subsistence	Casual or lowest grade workers, pensioners and others who depend on the welfare state for their income

18d   Done 'urt by method of delivery? (7)

In Britain, overarm^[5] can be used as either an adjective or adverb to indicate that a throw or a stroke with a racket is made with the hand or arm passing above the level of the shoulder ⇒ (i) [as adjective] the bowler was happy to demonstrate his overarm technique; (ii) [as adverb] competitors can throw overarm or underarm. The counterpart to this term in North America is overhand^[5].

21d   Wordsworth lines? Yes (6)

William Wordsworth^[5] (1770 – 1850) was an English poet. Much of his work was inspired by the Lake District. His Lyrical Ballads (1798), which was composed with Coleridge and included ‘Tintern Abbey’, was a landmark in romanticism. Other notable poems: ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ (sonnet, 1815) and The Prelude (1850). He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1843.

24d   Love city and kiss stone! (4)

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.

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