Thursday, November 28, 2013 — DT 27259

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27259
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Saturday, August 17, 2013
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27259 - Hints] Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27259 - Review]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Big Dave (Hints) gnomethang (Review)
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 As this was a Saturday "Prize Puzzle" in Britain, there are two entries related to it on Big Dave's Crossword Blog — the first, posted on the date of publication, contains hints for selected clues while the second is a full review issued following the entry deadline for the contest. The vast majority of reader comments will generally be found attached to the "hints" posting with a minimal number — if any — accompanying the full review.

Introduction

My progress seemed to have come to a standstill with a couple of clues remaining unsolved. However, one final push got me to the finish line.

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   Miss flying west in Romania, crashing (8)

9a   One giving financial support to London arts centre gets decoration (8)

Angelica^[5] is (1) a tall aromatic plant of the parsley family, with large leaves and yellowish-green flowers, which is used in cooking and herbal medicine or (2) the candied stalk of this plant, used in confectionery and cake decoration.

The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA)^[7] is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It contains galleries, a theatre, two cinemas, a bookshop and a bar.

10a   Top performer sings with backing (4)

In his review, gnomethang uses the expression "sings like a canary". I note that the same expression appears in the usage example at Oxford Dictionaries Online which defines sing^[5] as an informal term meaning to act as an informer to the police ⇒ as soon as he got put under pressure, he sang like a canary.

11a   Boiler getting detached makes a mess (6,2,4)

Offish^[3,4,11] is an adjective meaning inclined to be distant and reserved; in other words, aloof or unapproachable.

13a   Royal person included in newspapers (8)

15a   Better ventilated zone by the sound of it (6)

In Britain (as in Boston), speakers typically append an R sound to words ending in a vowel. Thus area is pronounced as AIR-EE-AR. You may compare the American and British pronunciations of area at TheFreeDictionary website by clicking on the respective flag icons.

As an aside, I have uncovered why I have been experiencing problems with this feature (as mentioned in a previous post). My Adobe Flash Player installation had become corrupted.

16a   Group of countries in Arab locality (4)

17a   The Queen entering American university gets high mark (5)

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.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology^[5] (abbreviation MIT) is a US institute of higher education, famous for scientific and technical research, founded in 1861 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

18a   Record and intercept communication (electronic) (4)

20a   Make a priest confused in road (6)

21a   Wizard journalist made erratic progress (8)

Harry Potter^[7] is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The series, named after the titular character, chronicles the adventures of a wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Potter^[5] (the chiefly British counterpart to the North American term putter) means to move with little energy or direction ⇒ to potter about town.

23a   Hides what sports fan does before match (4,2,6)

Go to ground^[5] can mean (with respect to a fox or other animal) to enter its earth or burrow ⇒ rabbits evicted from one set of burrows will go to ground elsewhere or (with respect to a person) to hide or become inaccessible, especially for a long time ⇒ he went to ground following the presidential coup.

A ground^[5] is an area of land, often with associated buildings, used for a particular sport ⇒ (i) a football ground; (ii) Liverpool’s new ground is nearing completion.

26a   Russian -- one near front (4)

27a   A warrior going round is flipping rough (8)

28a   Take up a case set down by one departure point (8)

Down

2d   Complete transformation of triangle (8)

Having encountered this word yesterday as a noun, today we see it as an adjective.

3d   Apply oneself at school acquiring good C or D (7-5)

In this clue, "C or D" is a reference to the NRS social grades^[7], a system of demographic classification used in the United Kingdom. The categories were originally developed by the National Readership Survey to classify readers, but are now used by many other organisations for wider applications and have become a standard for market research. They were developed over 50 years ago and achieved widespread usage in 20th Century Britain. The classifications, which are based on the occupation of the head of the household, are shown in the following table.

Grade	Social class	Chief income earner's occupation
A	upper middle class	Higher managerial, administrative or professional
B	middle class	Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional
C1	lower middle class	Supervisory or clerical and junior managerial, administrative or professional
C2	skilled working class	Skilled manual workers
D	working class	Semi and unskilled manual workers
E	Those at the lowest levels of subsistence	Casual or lowest grade workers, pensioners and others who depend on the welfare state for their income

The abbreviation G^[10] for good may relate to its use in rating school assignments or tests.

4d   Courage of London police let out (6)

The Metropolitan Police Service^[7] (widely known informally as the Met^[5]) is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement in Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police. As we saw yesterday, the Met is also referred to by the metonym Scotland Yard after the location of its original headquarters in a road called Great Scotland Yard in Whitehall.

5d   New trouble to fix (4)

6d   I allow small number inside without knowledge (8)

7d   One peccadillo's overturned condition of divorce (4)

A legal term, nisi^[5] is a post positive adjective denoting that (a decree, order, or rule) takes effect or is valid only after certain conditions are met ⇒ an order nisi. In English law, a decree nisi^[5] is an order by a court of law stating the date on which a marriage will end unless a good reason not to grant a divorce is produced.

8d   In variety show, rare song often performed (8)

A warhorse^[3] is a musical or dramatic work that has been performed so often that it has become widely familiar.

12d   I sign draft re revised parliamentary procedure (5,7)

First reading^[5] is the first presentation of a bill to a legislative assembly, to permit its introduction.

14d   Upstart harbours display of petulance (5)

Strop^[5] is British slang for a bad mood or a temper^[5] (in the sense of an angry state of mind) ⇒ Nathalie gets in a strop and makes to leave.

16d   Horse-drawn coach makes bishop rather unwell by morning (8)

B^[5] is an abbreviation for bishop that is used in recording moves in chess.

A brougham^[5] is a horse-drawn carriage with a roof, four wheels, and an open driver’s seat in front.

17d   Chap handin' out instrument (8)

19d   Delightful lake in rustic surrounding (8)

While it is true, as gnomethang comments in his review, that "PEASANT is an adjective synonymous with rustic", rustic^[5] can also be used as a noun meaning an unsophisticated country person ⇒ they paused to watch the rustics dance and carouse.

22d   Make false turn at bunker (6)

Bunk^[5] is British slang meaning to abscond or play truant from school or work ⇒ he bunked off school all week. As I did not find the noun bunker (in the sense of someone who bunks) in any dictionary, this word form could be the invention of the setter — although, if so, it would not not be much of a stretch.

24d   Aristocrat and paragon, beheaded (4)

According to The Chambers Dictionary, pearl^[1] can mean a paragon or prized example.

25d   Lecherously eye up for a dance (4)

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