Thursday, November 21, 2013 — DT 27254

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27254
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, August 12, 2013
Setter Rufus (Roger Squires)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27254]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Libellule
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
Notes The National Post has skipped DT 27252 and DT 27253 which were published in The Daily Telegraph on Friday, August 9, 2013 and Saturday, August 10, 2013 respectively.

Introduction

The National Post has skipped a couple of puzzles, so today we get a Rufus creation rather than the expected offering from Giovanni.

I definitely found this puzzle to be considerably more difficult than the two stars awarded to it by Libellule. It did contain some new Briticisms — as well as some old ones that did not come readily to mind. I also might have been disadvantaged as — not realizing that it was a Rufus puzzle — I failed to tune to the right wavelength. To make matters worse, I continue to be distracted by computer issues.

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   Looking round for a letter (8)

I don't think that it would be unreasonable to classify the first part of this clue as a definition ...

6a   Vessel  showing nationality? (6)

... whereas categorizing the second part of this clue as a definition may perhaps be a bit more of a stretch. A ship is showing nationality when it has a "flag on".

9a   Passed shuffled cards (6)

10a   A course for non-drivers (8)

I initially thought that the solution might be PAVEMENT — pavement^[5] being the British name for a sidewalk^[5].

11a   State  carriage for a queen (8)

Victoria^[5] is a state of SE Australia; population 5,313,823 (2008); capital, Melbourne. Originally a district of New South Wales, it became a separate colony in 1851 and was federated with the other states of Australia in 1901.

A victoria^[5] is a light four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage with a collapsible hood, seats for two passengers, and an elevated driver’s seat in front ⇒ Atlanta 's finest could promenade in phaetons , victorias and tallyhos pulled by gleaming horses.

Victoria^[5] (1819–1901) was  queen of Great Britain and Ireland 1837–1901 and empress of India 1876–1901. She succeeded to the throne on the death of her uncle, William IV, and married her cousin Prince Albert in 1840. She took an active interest in the policies of her ministers, but largely retired from public life after Prince Albert’s death in 1861. Her reign was the longest in British history.

12a   Sally is kind, that is the end of it (6)

13a   Deep study (12)

16a   What the crafty bounder kept? (3,4,5)

Bounder^[5] is old-fashioned British slang for a morally reprehensible person or, in other words, a cad.

19a   Twice Bill and I get stuck together touching a gum tree (6)

Usually, the term gum tree refers to the eucalyptus. However, it would seem that the setter has a different tree in mind today.

A gum tree^[5] is a tree that exudes gum, especially a eucalyptus.

An acacia^[5] is a tree or shrub of warm climates which bears spikes or clusters of yellow or white flowers and is typically thorny. Various species of acacia yield gum.

21a   One will appreciate people with good taste (8)

... because he would like to make a meal of them.

23a   Spotted things to play with (8)

24a   What's needed -- no huge changes (6)

25a   Note sent back for the cheese-maker (6)

Tenner^[5] is British slang for a ten-pound [bank] note.

26a   Try to get in the act, though very unpopular (8)

Down

2d   Diminish value of child-bearing? (6)

The clue appeared in the National Post as:

2d   Diminish value of child?bearing ? (6)

This is not the first time that I have noticed a hyphen mutating into a question mark in the National Post.

3d   Young trainee acted badly (5)

4d   Lear's wry smile that's bright and penetrating (5,4)

Perhaps the clue is alluding to Edward Lear^[5] (1812–88), the English humorist and illustrator. He wrote A Book of Nonsense (1845) and Laughable Lyrics (1877). He also published illustrations of birds and of his travels around the Mediterranean. It certainly would seem to be a more apt choice than King Lear^[5].

Read the definition as being "[something] that's bright and penetrating".

5d   Stop in a few bars (7)

6d   Sweets for kids (5)

Sweet^[5] is the British term for a sweet dish forming a course of a meal; in other words, a pudding or dessert. Fool^[5] is a chiefly British name for a cold dessert made of pureed fruit mixed or served with cream or custard ⇒ raspberry fool with cream.

7d   Short and in character? (9)

I considered marking this clue as a double definition. However, in the end I opted for a cryptic definition where the sense of the clue is "a short form of 'and' that can be expressed in a (single) character".

8d   Rejected just for being unqualified (8)

13d   Notice job is to be relocated -- protest (9)

14d   Container for spread (5,4)

In the UK, the solution is written as two words (green belt^[4]) whereas in North America, it is a single word (greenbelt^[3,11]).

15d   Account will be provided once date is amended (8)

17d   A cricket club, not new to exploitation, in the dock (7)

CC^[5] is the  abbreviation for cricket club.

18d   Collide with end of bridge? A bad one might (6)

This is a semi & lit. (semi-all-in-one) clue where the entire clue is the definition. Untangling the contorted sentence structure employed by the setter, the definition states "A bad one might collide with end of bridge".

The wordplay is "collide with end of bridge" which parses as BARGE (collide with) + E (end [final letter] of bridgE).

In what would seem to be a British usage, barge^[5] means (chiefly in a sporting context) to run into and collide with (someone), typically intentionally ⇒ (i) you can use this method to barge an opponent; (ii) just barge the other skater off the ball.

Bargee^[5] is a chiefly British name for a person in charge of or working on a barge.

20d   Sailor dismissed roughly (5)

In the Royal Navy, able seaman (abbreviation AB)^[5], is a rank of sailor above ordinary seaman and below leading seaman.

22d   Is about to study religious pictures (5)

Con^[5] is an archaic term meaning to study attentively or learn by heart (a piece of writing)  ? the girls conned their pages with a great show of industry.

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