Friday, October 18, 2013 — DT 27228

This puzzle, although posted on Sunday, October 20, 2013, has been backdated to maintain sequence.

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27228
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, July 12, 2013
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27228]
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

I solved this puzzle in dribs and drabs over the course of three days, working around other commitments. Thus, there was more than ample time for my subconscious mind to process the clues.

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. The underlined portion of the clue is the definition.

Across

1a   A civil rector sadly becoming too judgmental (12)

In the Church of England, a rector^[5] is the incumbent [the holder of an ecclesiastical benefice] of a parish where all tithes formerly passed to the incumbent. A vicar^[5], on the other hand, is an incumbent of a parish where tithes formerly passed to a chapter or religious house or layman. A benefice^[5] is a permanent Church appointment, typically that of a rector or vicar, for which property and income are provided in respect of pastoral duties. The terms rector and vicar are also used in the Roman Catholic Church, where they have different meanings.

9a   Get rid of French author, tearing page right out (4)

Marcel Proust^[5] (1871–1922) was a French novelist, essayist, and critic. He devoted much of his life to writing his novel À la recherche du temps perdu (published in seven sections between 1913 and 1927). Its central theme is the recovery of the lost past and the releasing of its creative energies through the stimulation of unconscious memory [certainly an ability that cryptic crossword devotees would be well advised to cultivate].

10a   Make absolute assertions as scoundrel -- friend is being taken in (9)

In Britain, mate^[5] is an informal term (1) for a friend or companion ⇒ my best mate Steve or (2) used as a friendly form of address between men or boys ⇒ ‘See you then, mate.’.

12a   Socialist finding heavenly types wrongheaded (6)

Friedrich Engels^[5] (1820–1895) was a German socialist and political philosopher. He collaborated with Karl Marx in the writing of the Communist Manifesto (1848) and translated and edited Marx’s later work. Engels’s own writings include The Condition of the Working Classes in England in 1844 (1845).

13a   A little creature, one day buried, to become a fossil (8)

15a   Stealing from employer? Naughty to grin about that (10)

Trouser^[5] is British slang meaning to receive or take (something, especially money) for oneself; in other words, to pocket ⇒ they claimed that he had trousered a £2 million advance.

16a   Monk's rosary component, we hear (4)

St Bede^[5] (circa 673–735) was an English monk, theologian, and historian; known as the Venerable Bede. Bede wrote The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (completed in 731), a primary source for early English history. Feast day, 27 May.

18a   Army needs something to give uplift, having lost heart (4)

20a   Feast is meagre -- Lent possibly? (10)

Regalement^[10] is a term — rarely used^[5] — meaning the act or an instance of providing with choice or abundant food or drink.

23a   Goes on making money from enterprise (8)

24a   Performer in the belfry -- guest brought in by team? (6)

26a   A bishop captured by member of indigenous tribe? That'll make a story (9)

Right Reverend^[5] (abbreviation RR^[2])is a title given to a bishop, especially in the Anglican Church ⇒ the Right Reverend David Jenkins, Bishop of Durham.

27a   Civility depleted at the core in business community (4)

The City^[5] is (1) short for the City of London or (2) the financial and commercial institutions located in the City of London ⇒ (i) the Budget got a stony reception from the City; (ii) [as modifier] a City analyst. ["The City" is used to mean the London financial establishment in the same manner that "Wall Street" and "Bay Street" are used as substitutes for the financial establishments in New York and Toronto respectively.]

Note that the term City of London^[5] does not refer to the city of London, but merely to that part of London situated within the ancient boundaries and governed by the Lord Mayor and the Corporation^[5] (which, in Britain, is a group of people elected to govern a city, town, or borough ⇒ the City of London Corporation). Greater London^[7] consists of the City of London plus 32 boroughs.

28a   Piece of cloth worker presented to King and Queen first (12)

K^[5] is an abbreviation for king that is used especially in describing play in card games and recording moves in chess ⇒ (i) declarer overruffed with ♦K and led another spade; (ii) 18.Ke2 [which, as I understand it, indicates that on the 18th move of the game, the king moved to the square on the board formed by the intersection of file (column) e and rank (row) 2].

The regnal 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 regnal cipher of Queen Elizabeth is ER^[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina.

Down

2d   It's alive, moving! Get going! (8)

3d   Some of our ideas for a jaunt? (4)

4d   Army unit's American soldier joining this person in charge (10)

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

5d   Kid eating 'uge pile that is on the meal table? (6)

Dropping the H from the beginning of words is a defining characteristic of the cockney^[5] dialect, spoken by natives  of the district of London, England known as the East End.

6d   Copper is at home and wife's finishing cooking (7)

The symbol for the chemical element copper is Cu^[5].

7d   They will get at the truth -- i.e. secret told after torturing (3,9)

8d   Very keen to get muck reduced on top of house (4-2)

Gunge^[5] is an informal British term meaning an unpleasantly sticky or viscous substance.

11d   Suffered financially and was uncomfortable in Oxford maybe (4,3,5)

14d   Drunk diner, one moving quickly around, becoming more affectionate? (10)

17d   This person cried stupidly about love being 'ordinary' (8)

"This person" makes an encore appearance (see 4d).

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.

19d   Short recreational activity organised? See it at Highland Games (7)

A sporran^[5] is a small pouch worn around the waist so as to hang in front of the kilt as part of men’s Scottish Highland dress.

21d   Important? Not leader getting pretty old (6)

22d   Comment when singer Billy J. gets upset? (6)

The singer is not — as was first to come to mind — American pianist, singer-songwriter, and composer Billy Joel^[7].

Billy J. Kramer^[7] (born William Howard Ashton) is a British Invasion [from a North American perspective]/Merseybeat singer. In the 1960s he was managed by Brian Epstein, who also managed the Beatles, and he recorded several original Lennon and McCartney compositions.

25d   Rachel's sister in meadow lying on top of hay (4)

Leah^[7], as described in the Bible, was the first of the two concurrent wives of the Hebrew patriarch Jacob and mother of six of Jacob's twelve sons (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun), along with his only daughter, Dinah. Jacob originally wanted to marry Rachel, Leah's younger sister, but was tricked into marrying Leah. Rachel became Jacob's second — and favorite — wife and mother of two sons, Joseph and Benjamin. Of Jacob's four remaining sons, two (Dan and Naphtali) were born to Bilhah, a handmaid to Rachel and two (Gad and Asher) to Zilpah, a handmaid to Leah.

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