Tuesday, October 1, 2013 — DT 27215

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27215
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, June 27, 2013
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27215]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave
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

Once again, I managed to get down to a couple of unsolved clues at which point I hit a brick wall. After staring at the holdouts for what seemed like an eternity, I resorted to some electronic assistance — only to discover that the solutions were relatively easy (or, at least, should have been). Yet another instance of scaling mountains and stumbling over molehills.

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   Ample bust isn't, alas, endlessly disarrayed (11)

9a   Falls once more backwards gripping a bar's end (7)

10a   Refrain from believer keeping Sabbath (6)

12a   Bent losing top, producing thrill (7)

13a   New fans back before Queen sensation (7)

Ray T almost invariably includes a clue mentioning "Queen". While it is nearly always clued as an indicator for the letters ER, apparently it is a tip of the hat to his favourite musical group — the British rock band of that name.

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 — and that of King George was GR^[5] — from the Latin Georgius Rex.

14a   Initially intelligent? No alas, not exactly (5)

This is an & lit. (or all-in-one) clue. The entire clue serves as both the definition (when read one way) and the wordplay (when read another way).

15a   Traditional about girl, one with ring practically (9)

Practically^[5] is used in the sense of virtually or almost.

17a   Opinion of pair as lap dancing (9)

20a   Small automobile with loud muffler (5)

Forte^[5] (abbreviation f^[5]) is a musical direction meaning (as an adjective) loud or (as an adverb) loudly.

22a   Way to cover collapse for dish (7)

Lasagne^[3,4] is the preferred British spelling of the Italian dish that we would more likely spell as lasagna. It would appear that, in Britain, lasagna is an alternate spelling of lasagne while, in North America, lasagne is an alternate spelling of lasagna.

24a   Form of jailbird facing spell (7)

25a   Stock and French cut of meat (6)

Et^[8] is a French conjunction meaning and.

26a   Stiffest challenge everybody's taken (7)

27a   Goods vehicle shortly heads in for a change (11)

Merc is likely used here as a short form for Mercedes-Benz^[7], the German luxury auto, rather than the now-defunct Mercury^[7] marque sold by the Ford Motor Company, primarily in North America — and not in the UK.

Down

2d   Not suspecting a Spanish conflict against English (7)

In Spanish, una is the feminine singular form of the indefinite article.

3d   Gladiator's struggle with whip raised unravels ends (9)

Spartacus^[5] (died circa 71 BC) was a Thracian slave and gladiator. He led a revolt against Rome in 73 BC, but was eventually defeated by Crassus in 71 BC and killed in battle.

4d   Range found in Patagonian desert (5)

Geography in Crosswordland does not always match that in the real world. In actuality, it would likely be more correct to say that this range is found adjacent to the Patagonian desert rather than in it. Patagonia^[5] is a region of South America, in southern Argentina and Chile. Consisting largely of a dry barren plateau, it extends from the Colorado River in central Argentina to the Strait of Magellan and from the Andes to the Atlantic coast.

5d   'Time' magazine's absorbent sheets (7)

6d   Poison found in medicine's rapidly returned (7)

7d   Rubens' ideal strangely not appealing (11)

Sir Peter Paul Rubens^[5] (1577 – 1640) was a Flemish painter. The foremost exponent of northern Baroque, he is best known for his portraits and mythological paintings featuring voluptuous female nudes, as in Venus and Adonis (circa 1635).

8d   Front shown by sporting body's American agents (6)

The Football Association^[7], also known simply as the FA, is the governing body of football [soccer] in England. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the amateur and professional game in England.

11d   Increase gas stifling old lag (11)

In British slang, a lag^[5] is a person who has been frequently convicted and sent to prison ⇒ both old lags were sentenced to ten years' imprisonment.

16d   Local date drunk set aside (9)

18d   Stick about the compiler's crosswords perhaps (7)

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 generally substitute a first person pronoun (I or me) for whichever of these terms has been used in the clue. Today, RayT has made the scenario slightly more complicated by using "compiler" with the verb "to be". Thus "compiler's" (compiler is) must be replaced by "I'm" (I am).

19d   Heavenly gal with nice bust (7)

20d   Runs from fire on board ship (7)

The reference here is obviously to cricket and not to baseball. In sports, a single^[5] is a play that scores one point, in particular (1) in cricket, a hit for one run and (2) in baseball, a hit which allows the batter to proceed safely to first base.

As we can see from the foregoing definition, the editors at Oxford Dictionaries Online are clearly not very knowledgeable when it comes to baseball. A single would not score any points (runs) if no one was on base at the time it was hit. On the other hand, it could well score two runs if there were runners at second and third — and (in rare situations) even three runs if the bases were loaded.

21d   Adult, muscular, gave satisfaction (6)

Things that disappear in the real world often live on in Crosswordland. The A (Adult) certificate is a former film certificate^[7] issued by the British Board of Film Classification. This certificate existed in various forms from 1912 to 1985, when it was replaced by the PG (Parental Guidance) certificate.

23d   Run in next race (5)

In cricket, an extra^[5] is a run scored other than from a hit with the bat, credited to the batting side rather than to a batsman.

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