Monday, December 2, 2013 — DT 27261

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27261
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27261]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Deep Threat
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

While this is a fairly gentle puzzle, some knowledge of British geography would be an asset in solving it.

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   Print cast out including actor ultimately for official copy (10)

6a   Minor error in female garment (4)

10a   Lout misbehaving near North Bedfordshire town (5)

Luton^[5] is an industrial town in Bedfordshire, England, to the north-west of London; population 187,800 (est. 2009).

11a   Supervise on outings individual after prank around hotel (9)

Hotel^[5] is a code word representing the letter H, used in radio communication.

12a   Party person, one with nervous habit during game (8)

Politico^[5] is an informal, chiefly derogatory term for a politician or person with strong political views ⇒ an opponent of trendy left politicos.

13a   Vision carried by padre ambitiously (5)

15a   Selfish figure caught entering site under review (7)

17a   Russian establishment's source of trouble after change of leader (7)

The Moscow Kremlin^[7], often referred to as simply the Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow. It is the best known of kremlins (Russian citadels) and includes five palaces, four cathedrals, and the enclosing Kremlin Wall with Kremlin towers. The complex serves as the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation.

A gremlin^[5] is an imaginary mischievous sprite regarded as responsible for an unexplained mechanical or electronic problem or fault ⇒ a gremlin in my computer omitted a line.

19a   Criticise disruptive Latin boy with no end of hubbub (3,4)

21a   Singer with glasses getting attached to new instrument (7)

This is a visual clue^[7] — a rarely seen type of clue. The setter has used the word "glasses" to clue the letter combination OO, which looks like a pair of spectacles.

22a   Check foreign car close to port (5)

24a   Arrangement to reverse concessions in ring (8)

Disposal^[5] is used in a literary sense meaning the arrangement of something ⇒ she brushed her hair carefully, as if her success lay in the sleek disposal of each gleaming black thread.

27a   Girl entertaining a gross eccentric in birthday surprise? (9)

A kissogram^[5] [a word that I failed to find in American dictionaries] is a novelty greeting or message delivered by a man or woman who accompanies it with a kiss, prearranged as a humorous surprise for the recipient.

28a   Collect female and the rest, going to hospital (5)

29a   Hoot producing urban disorder (4)

30a   Dylan at sea aboard pleasure-boat on the whole (2,3,5)

The solution to this clue was slow to materialize as I tend to associate this type of watercraft more with the transportation of freight than I do with pleasure-boats.

Down

1d   Duty to provide list of casualties (4)

2d   Literary collection still linked to diary among some (9)

3d   Pride perhaps getting onto major road in peninsula (5)

The A1^[7] is the longest numbered road in the UK, at 410 miles (660 km). It connects London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom, with Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland.

4d   Evidence of sale concerning place in theatre, we hear (7)

5d   Sitcom captain's a strutting sort (7)

Captain Stephen Peacock^[7] is a fictional character from the BBC One comedy show, Are You Being Served?. Captain Peacock, the somewhat stuffy floorwalker in a department store, considers himself above the assistants with both his position and his dubious military record.

7d   Dissolute son staying in Cornish fishing village (5)

Looe^[7] is a small coastal town, fishing port and civil parish in the former Caradon district of south-east Cornwall, England, with a population of 5,280 (2001 census).

8d   Outstanding intern MEP trained while touring Spain (3-7)

MEP^[5] is the abbreviation for Member of the European Parliament.

The International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code for Spain is E^[5] (from Spanish España).

9d   That man's without journalistic direction, lacking in attention (8)

The somewhat dubious wordplay seems to be HE (that man) + ('s; contraction for has) EDLESS (without journalistic direction; i.e., without an editor).

14d   Cruel US writer Alice, one covering high points? (4-6)

Fell^[5] is a literary term meaning of terrible evil or ferocity; or deadly ⇒ the fell disease that was threatening her sister.

A fell^[5] is a hill or stretch of high moorland, especially in northern England. Moor^[5] is a chiefly British term for a tract of open uncultivated upland, typically covered with heather. A fell-walker is someone who engages in fell-walking^[5], the activity of walking or rambling on the fells.

Alice Walker^[5] is an American writer and critic. Notable novels: The Color Purple (Pulitzer Prize, 1982) and Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992).

16d   It's key here to activate estate, maybe? (8)

In Britain, a station wagon^[5] is known as an estate car^[5] (which is often shortened to just estate^[5]). I have observed that the Brits have a propensity to shorten expressions such as this (consisting of an adjective and noun) by dropping the noun and using the adjective as a noun (thus, estate car becomes shortened to estate). North Americans, on the other hand, tend to just drop the adjective (with station wagon being shortened to wagon).

18d   Mind pillaging type that's beset last character in park with a fellow (4,5)

20d   Methodical  medical worker (7)

21d   One supplying address for union? (4,3)

23d   Club admitted into clubland is costly (5)

In Britain, clubland^[5] is (1) an area of a town or city with many nightclubs or (2) the world of nightclubs and nightclubbers ⇒ (i) he was already a star in clubland; (ii) the show featured four clubland favourites.

25d   Parts cut off from Cornish river (5)

Of^[2] is a preposition, one usage of which is to show origin ⇒ people of Glasgow.

The River Fal^[7] flows through Cornwall, England, rising on Goss Moor and reaching the English Channel at Falmouth.

26d   Trainer, say, providing prop right away (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