Wednesday, May 22, 2013 — DT 27119

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27119
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, March 7, 2013
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27119]
Big Dave's Review Written By Falcon
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

Despite having reviewed this puzzle when it originally appeared in The Daily Telegraph, the solutions to many of the clues still required a fair bit of thought. It was an entertaining puzzle the first time I solved it — and still very enjoyable the second time around.

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   Section with opinion containing usual Telegraph leader (11)

The Daily Telegraph^[7] is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper, founded in 1855 as The Daily Telegraph and Courier, which is published in London and distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. In Britain, a leading article in a newspaper is known as a leader^[7].

10a   Character from a tale about cat's head (5)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland^[7] (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice^[7] who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world (the Wonderland of the title) populated by peculiar and anthropomorphic creatures — including the Cheshire Cat^[7].

11a   Mistress can't rouse fancy (9)

12a   Mark, abstract art genius (9)

Mark Rothko^[7] (1903 – 1970) was an American painter of Latvian Jewish descent. He is generally identified as an Abstract Expressionist, although he himself rejected this label and even resisted classification as an "abstract painter." With Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, he is one of the most famous postwar American artists.

13a   Live, that is, around midnight in buff (5)

14a   Concern facing start of long year with resolution (6)

16a   Exotic leaves in ointment (8)

Vaseline^[7] is a brand of petroleum jelly based products owned by Anglo-Dutch company Unilever. Products include plain petroleum jelly and a selection of skin creams, soaps, lotions, cleansers, deodorants and personal lubricants.

18a   Massive company deficit facing almost everybody (8)

20a   Gave lesson for 'tense' aloud (6)

23a   Composition from compiler following article (5)

It is a common cryptic crossword convention for the creator of the puzzle to use terms such as compiler, setter, author, or writer to refer to himself or herself. To solve such a clue, one must usually substitute a first person pronoun (I or me) for whichever of these terms has been used  in the clue.

24a   Fundamentalist error is made embracing political violence (9)

26a   Manifest annoyance with United finally getting beat (9)

Manchester United Football Club^[7] (often referred to as simply United) is an English professional football [soccer] club, based at Old Trafford [football stadium] in Old Trafford [district of Manchester], Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League (the top level in the English football league system).

This puzzle appeared in The Daily Telegraph on March 7, 2013. Two days earlier,  on March 5, Real Madrid came from behind to defeat Manchester United 2-1 and eliminate United from the UEFA Champions League^[7] tournament.

27a   Strumpet flipped over accepting one's quirk (5)

28a   Teens caught in a social security spot (11)

Down

2d   Behind, to win, goal's let in (5)

3d   Win pawn and bishop perhaps with trouble (7)

4d   'Get Back', disc half finished over on rooftop? (6)

As usual, the quotation marks perished during the Atlantic crossing.

"Get Back^[7]" is a song by the Beatles, originally released as a single on 11 April 1969 and credited to "the Beatles with Billy Preston." A different mix of the song later became the closing track of Let It Be (1970), which was the Beatles' last album released just after the group split. The single version was later issued on CD on the second disc of the Past Masters compilation.

In cricket, an over^[5] (abbreviation O^[5]) is a division of play consisting of a sequence of six balls bowled by a bowler from one end of the pitch, after which another bowler takes over from the other end.

5d   Computer device paused abnormally after flash (8)

In the UK, mo^[5] is an informal term for a short period of time (hang on a mo!) [abbreviation of moment].

6d   Somebody's impotent perhaps (7)

7d   Deceit by an official, it's out of order (13)

8d   A leap circling mid-air is ambitious (8)

9d   Disparage mates in duet badly covering Queen (13)

The ciphers (monograms) of British monarchs are initials formed from the Latin version of their first name followed by either Rex or Regina (Latin for king or queen, respectively). Thus the cipher of Queen Elizabeth is ER^[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina — and that of King George was GR^[5] — from the Latin Georgius Rex.

15d   Thankful about original woman wearing top (8)

17d   Rustic prior has spoken (8)

A prior^[5] is the male head of a house or group of houses of certain religious orders, in particular (1) the man next in rank below an abbot or (2) the head of a house of friars.

19d   Extracted first of silver that's turned to liquid (7)

21d   A job with laudable ends for missionary (7)

22d   They're against empty puzzles with naughty content (6)

Although I overlooked it the first time round, I now realize that this is a semi all-in-one clue of the WIWD (wordplay intertwined with definition) variety, to use the terminology of my blogging colleague scchua. The entire clue provides the definition with the latter portion also constituting the wordplay.

25d   Israelite Sarah and Abraham created initially (5)

This is a true all-in-one clue where the entire clue serves as both definition and wordplay.

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