Wednesday, October 9, 2013 — DT 27221

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27221
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, July 4, 2013
Setter Petitjean (John Pidgeon)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27221]
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

I was tempted to throw in the towel with a couple of clues remaining unsolved. Instead, however, I grabbed the towel and went to the gym for a workout. Upon my return, the holdouts surrendered.

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   Foreign article with early warning about split (6)

The masculine singular form of the French definite article is le^[8].

The exclamation cave^[5] is dated British school slang meaning "look out!" (from Latin, imperative of cavere 'beware'). The word "early" in the clue may allude to its schoolyard usage (early in life) or its Latin roots (early in time).

5a   Suggest jazz fan checks maverick record company (8)

9a   Impractical fancy heel before one that's conservative (10)

For cryptic purposes, the 's is a contraction for has making the wordplay IDEA (fancy) + LIST (heel) + (before) I ([Roman numeral for] one) + (that has) C (conservative).

10a   Comb for one who's gone thin? (4)

Rake^[3] is synonymous with comb in the sense of to conduct a thorough search ⇒ raked through the files for the misplaced letter.

The phrase (as) thin as a rake^[5] is used to describe a person who is very thin ⇒ in spite of all this food I remained as thin as a rake. Although this usage is personally familiar, I had a hard time finding it in a dictionary.

11a   In the house on the house? (4-4)

12a   A year taken over course of action could suggest inertia (6)

13a   Man, say, in Paisley predominantly (4)

The Isle of Man (abbreviation IOM)^[5] is an island in the Irish Sea which is a British Crown dependency having home rule, with its own legislature (the Tynwald) and judicial system. The island was part of the Norse kingdom of the Hebrides in the Middle Ages, passing into Scottish hands in 1266 for a time, until the English gained control in the early 15th century. Its ancient language, Manx, is still occasionally used for ceremonial purposes.

Paisley^[5] is a town in central Scotland, to the west of Glasgow, administrative centre of Renfrewshire; population 71,700 (est. 2009).

15a   Ace crew welcoming Clapton in US (8)

Eric Clapton^[5] is an English blues and rock guitarist, singer, and composer, known particularly for the song ‘Layla’ (1972) and for his group Cream (1966-1968).

18a   Level with Mafia boss, and yours truly may be sorry (6,2)

19a   Thank you, thank you, and farewell (2-2)

Ta^[5] is an informal British exclamation signifying thank you ⇒‘Ta,’ said Willie gratefully.

In Britain, ta-ta^[5] is an informal way to say goodbye ⇒ well, I’ll say ta-ta, love.

21a   Something said somewhere bringing one in for a top-level meeting (6)

In Northern English dialect, summat^[5] is a non-standard form of [the word] 'something' ⇒there’s summat wrong with him.

23a   Constantly importing ripe bananas, all returned as spare (8)

25a   Upstart interrupting Q&A after a drink (4)

"Upstart" indicates the start [first letter] of Up. This is similar to "redhead" being used to clue the letter R (head [first letter] of Red) and "sweetheart" the letter E (heart [middle letter] of swEet).

The National Post carries the clue as it appeared in the print edition of The Daily Telegraph. For some reason, the clue was changed in the online version of the puzzle in Britain:

• 25a   Element in a Q&A about university (4)

26a   Management requires author's following to change sides initially (10)

This was my last one in.

27a   Fry (or similar) batter amply hot (8)

A polymath^[5] is a person of wide knowledge or learning ⇒ a Renaissance polymath.

C. B. Fry

Big Dave identifies the person in question as Stephen Fry^[7], an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television and radio presenter, film director, activist, and board member of Norwich City Football Club.

Before reading Big Dave's review, I had settled on C.B. Fry^[7] (1872 – 1956), whom Wikipedia describes as an English polymath; an outstanding sportsman, politician, diplomat, academic, teacher, writer, editor and publisher, who is best remembered for his career as a cricketer. He definitely looks like a "batter" to me!

28a   Fiat's ad-men carpeted regularly (6)

Down

2d   Serve Indian dish elevated by lime peel (5)

In Indian cookery, dal^[5] is a dish made with split pulses, in particular lentils. Pulse^[5] means the edible seed of a leguminous plant, for example a chickpea, lentil, or bean ⇒ use pulses such as peas and lentils to eke out [stretch] meat dishes.

3d   Discrimination in hit parade after a fashion (9)

4d   Unusually grim in outskirts of Eastbourne for foreigner (6)

The wordplay is an anagram (unusually) of GRIM contained in (in) EE {the first and last letters (outskirts) of EastbournE}.

Eastbourne^[5] is a town on the south coast of England, in East Sussex; population 108,200 (est. 2009).

This is another case where there are two versions of the clue. While Big Dave makes no mention in his review of the clue in the print edition of The Daily Telegraph being different from that in the online puzzle, I suspect that that may have been the case. When there are different versions of the clue, we usually see the one that appeared in the print edition of The Daily Telegraph.

The online version of the clue is the relatively insipid:

• 4d   Unfamiliar regime for foreigner (6)

5d   Popular article on Mrs Cameron, one's ultimate inspiration all together (2,3,4,6)

I made a bit of a lucky guess here. Samantha Cameron^[7] is an English businesswoman and wife of David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

6d   Peter out wanting run before date getting late (8)

I would expect that the setter had cricket in mind here. However, North American solvers may be forgiven for thinking of baseball, given that the Major League Baseball playoffs are currently in full swing. On cricket scorecards, the abbreviation R^[5] indicates run(s).

7d   Maniac Ricky making comeback will box roughly (5)

8d   Perk up Spooner's fish pie (4,5)

A Spoonerism for HAKE TART.

14d   Three-chord wonders with same old same old? (6,3)

Status Quo^[7], also colloquially known as The Quo or just Quo, are an English rock band whose music is characterized by their distinctive brand of boogie rock.

16d   It's ironic somehow about North wasting nothing essential (9)

17d   Key international alliance semi-liable for Asia Minor (8)

Anatolia^[5] is the western peninsula of Asia, bounded by the Black Sea, the Aegean, and the Mediterranean, that forms the greater part of Turkey.
 

20d   Open fancy drapes (6)

22d   Setter a gutless toady? That's rich (5)

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.

24d   French behold endless electronic material (5)

Voilà^[5] is a French preposition that literally means 'there is' or 'there are'. However, when used as an exclamation it means 'There it is!".

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