Wednesday, December 11, 2013 — DT 27268

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27268
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27268]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog 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

Jay serves up a very enjoyable offering today which is not too difficult — although I still managed to get one the wrong solution to one clue.

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   Room for alterations to rear in fast car (6)

GT^[2] (abbreviation for Italian Gran Turismo, which translates as "grand touring" in English) is a name given to certain fast but comfortable sports cars.

5a   Potentially save time in attempt, resulting in farce (8)

9a   Widely-dispersed fliers turned back following breather (3-5)

The Royal Air Force^[5] (RAF) is the British air force, formed in 1918 by amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps (founded 1912) and the Royal Naval Air Service (founded 1914).

You might encounter the abbreviation f.^[10] meaning following (page) in the footnotes of an academic work.

10a   Pants for instructions (6)

Alas, my solution was ORDERS which fit the second definition as well as the checking letters. When a fruitless search failed to explain the first definition, I put it down to being some British usage with which I was unfamiliar instead of discarding my answer as I should have done.

In Britain, the term pants^[5] refers to either underpants^[5] [an undergarment, especially for men or boys] or knickers^[5] [a woman's or girls undergarment]. The outer garment that North Americans would call pants is known in the UK as trousers.

11a   So there is a group of singers (4,4)

Fortunately, I was able to decipher the clue from the first definition and the checking letters despite having never heard of the singing group.

Take That are a British pop group from Manchester, England.

12a   Win over Germany is a romp, oddly (6)

The International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code for Germany is D^[5] [from German Deutschland].

13a   Complete house enveloped in depression (8)

15a   Without love seems vacant (4)

17a   Means of settling energy regulations (4)

19a   Blessed with time for female domestic (8)

Blessed^[5] is used [as an intensifier] in in mild expressions of annoyance or exasperation ⇒ he’ll want to go and see his blessed allotment [garden].

20a   Declines scent returned by daughter (6)

21a   New side lost by a shot, and suffered terribly (8)

22a   Represent the performance of one who sells tickets on account (3,3)

In the UK, a tout^[5] is a person who buys up tickets for an event to resell them at a profit — a scalper^[5] in North American parlance.

23a   Dish of fish making awful reek spread across border (8)

Kedgeree^[5] is a European dish consisting chiefly of fish, rice, and hard-boiled eggs.

24a   Nameless presenter chasing team for access here (4,4)

The misdirection intended by the setter in the surface reading will be lost on solvers who are not aware that, in Britain, a presenter^[5] is a person who introduces and appears in a television or radio programme (someone who, in North America, might variously be known as a host, news reader, or news anchor).

In Britain, a side^[5] is a sports team ⇒ there was a mixture of old and young players in their side. While side can also mean team in North America, I believe that the term is used both less frequently and in a more generic fashion than in the UK.

25a   Stand firm, switching the last two exams (6)

Resit^[5] is a British term which, as a verb, means to take (an examination) again after failing it  ⇒ she is resitting her maths GCSE [General Certificate of Secondary Education] and, as a noun, denotes an examination that is resat ⇒ the system allows the office to timetable all resits in a single block.

Down

2d   A trolley loaded with beer? Quite the reverse for this menu! (1,2,5)

3d   Sends back fellow student in secret manoeuvring (8)

F^[2] is the abbreviation for Fellow (of a society, etc). For instance, it is found in professional designations such as FRAIC (Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada).

4d   Little drink for a score in America? (9)

5d   Performer who must toe the line? (9,6)

6d   Put a coat on and disappear across river (7)

7d   Stupidly chose Iran, forgetting hotel's setting (8)

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

8d   Old house, last of eight in the old park (8)

Yosemite National Park^[5] is a national park in the Sierra Nevada in central California. It includes Yosemite Valley, with its sheer granite cliffs and Yosemite Falls, the highest waterfall in the US.

14d   Sort of tea that goes with bangers? (9)

Gunpowder^[5] is a fine green China tea of granular appearance.

In Britain, banger is an informal term that can mean (among other things) either (1) a sausage ⇒ bangers and mash [sausages and mashed potatoes]  or (2) a loud explosive firework ⇒ these fireworks are no longer bangers but more like explosives.

Big Dave marks this clue as a double definition, but I don't see how "goes with bangers" constitutes a definition. Thus, I have opted to call it a cryptic definition.

15d   Left, with married buffoon, for the continent, say (8)

16d   Talked at length, accepting the end of summer produced new growth (8)

17d   Worked miracles for people demanding rights (8)

18d   Politically reject if lacking in curious self-deceit (8)

In British politics, deselect^[5] means for a local branch of a political party to reject an existing MP as a candidate in a forthcoming election ⇒ the ultimate disloyalty would be to deselect a long-standing MP.

19d   Seize contents of limp batter (7)

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