Wednesday, May 29, 2013 — DT 27124

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27124
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27124]
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

Having completed this puzzle after a bit of a battle but without help from my electronic aids, I was feeling rather smug — until I saw a single star for difficulty at the top of scchua's review. As I was to discover upon further reading, he actually rated it as being 1.5 stars. That made me feel marginally less inadequate.

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   Loads of horse stuff found in empty stables (6)

5a   Book vulnerable defender (8)

Softback^[10] is a British term for a book that would be known as a soft cover or paperback in North America.

9a   Sailor's knots? (8,5)

10a   Cowboy loves to chase uncooperative horse (8)

Buckeroo^[3] is a variant spelling of buckaroo.

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.

11a   Bone's diameter to be halved (6)

12a   Iron Lady's hat (6)

Fe^[5] is the symbol for the chemical element iron. The nickname "Iron Lady" was given to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher^[7] on the basis of her strict conservative policies, hard line against trade unions and tough rhetoric in opposition to the Soviet Union.

An almost identical clue appeared in DT  26692 [The Daily Telegraph: 2011-10-25; National Post: 2012-01-12]:

• 6d   Iron Lady’s felt hat? (6)

14a   Frantic, but awfully refined, clasping the last letter (8)

16a   Bewildered prisoner joined (8)

19a   Attack silence after working game (6)

Rugby union (RU)^[5] is a form of rugby played in teams of fifteen — in contrast to rugby league^[5], which is played in teams of thirteen.

21a   Decorative work endlessly baffled company (6)

23a   Packing fun gifts for dispatch (8)

25a   What might link two lines of kids on speed! (9,4)

In Britain, a line of schoolchildren walking in pairs is known as a crocodile^[5] and a sprung metal clip with long, serrated jaws, used attached to an electric cable for making a temporary connection to a battery or other component is called a crocodile clip^[5]. In North America, the latter is referred to as an alligator clip^[5].

26a   Areas barred for young drama writers? (8)

27a   Scoff in effort to get peace agreement (6)

Down

2d   Crown worn by brother? (7)

3d   Caught attractive man getting a large portion (5)

4d   Mistakes covering radio broadcast -- I deleted entries for services perhaps (4,5)

Slip road^[5] is a British term for a road entering or leaving a dual carriageway^[5] [a road with a dividing strip between the traffic in opposite directions and usually two or more lanes in each direction] or motorway^[5] [a dual-carriageway road designed for fast traffic, with relatively few places for joining or leaving]. In North America, a slip road connecting to another road would be called an on-ramp^[6] (entrance ramp) or off-ramp^[5] (exit ramp). I suppose that the configuration illustrated by scchua in his review, in which there is no change in grade involved, might simply be called a service exit.

5d   She has no heart -- a rising tide means fish (3,4)

Sea wolf^[5] is another name for wolf fish^[5], a large long-bodied marine fish (of which there are several genera and species, including the edible Anarhichas lupus) with a long-based dorsal fin and sharp doglike teeth, which lives in deep waters of the northern hemisphere.

6d   Father grabs large bird bone (5)

7d   What might shift a sleeping elephant? (9)

8d   Habit formed by such drama? (7)

13d   Soil regularly found on plant affecting the nose (9)

15d   Pay united workers in new motel (9)

17d   Work on note and state of sight (7)

In 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.

18d   Sack attractive girl finishing early and feel absence (7)

20d   Star's patch of tropical beach? (7)

22d   Gas found in Australia once carbon is extracted? (5)

Oz^[4] is a slang term for Australia. According to Collins English Dictionary, this is an Australian expression — but, I would think, the term is well-known around the world.

24d   Not genuine, and not quite safely transported (5)

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