Monday, January 20, 2014 — DT 27298

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27298
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27298]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By scchua
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 █ - solved but without fully understanding the wordplay or definition █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's blog █ - yet to be solved

Introduction

Once I got started, I breezed through much of this puzzle quite rapidly but my progress ground to a halt with a half dozen clues remaining. In some cases, my problem was words used in ways that I knew but that did not occur to me at the time. In other cases, it was words used with meanings that I had never encountered.

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   Clever lad's prerogatives protected by British common ground (6,5)

Bright spark^[5] is an informal, often ironic, British expression denoting a clever or witty person ⇒ Also this week, some bright sparks in the auto industry suggested it would be useful to network our cars..

9a   Rules excluding leader on school education programmes (9)

10a   Cook needs to dress down (5)

11a   Nuts about unprotected park trees (6)

In Britain, cob^[10] is another name for a hazelnut or hazel tree.

12a   The magnificence of King George confronting half of Europe (8)

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 King George was GR^[5] — from the Latin Georgius Rex.

I do think that the use of "confronting" to clue "and" is a bit of a stretch.

13a   Element of personal antipathy against son (6)

15a   Social  cause? (8)

18a   Make one's husband flourish (8)

Unfortunately for me, both "make" and "flourish" are used in senses that did not occur to me.

19a   Son going to Underworld in dark glasses (6)

In Greek mythology, Hades^[5] is the underworld; the land of the spirits of the dead.

21a   Actor shoots sailor (4,4)

23a   Leaves oddly sick sheep (6)

26a   I've spent my time working with former head of classics (2-3)

27a   Performer offering bare all-in wrestling? (9)

28a   American shot African lion (11)

Down

1d   Boring pieces covering dry cuts (7)

2d   Church in Eire turning up divine liquid (5)

In Greek mythology, ichor^[5] is the fluid which flows like blood in the veins of the gods.

3d   Reactionary's obscure leap forward (9)

4d   Fish  that's under a foot? (4)

5d   Appropriate  summary (8)

6d   Asian missing Eastern holy book (5)

7d   Old-timer's surgeon near to collapse (7)

The British use vet^[5] as a short form for veterinary surgeon. However, it appears that they do not also use it as a short form for veteran as we do in North America.

I gather from the dictionary entry that the British do use vet. [with a period] as an abbreviation for veteran. I believe the distinction here is that one uses abbreviations in writing and short forms in speaking.

8d   It's an unusual person that wants chicken underdone (4,4)

14d   Stalemate as Moor accepts crooked deal (8)

In the surface reading, Moor^[5] (being capitalized) refers to a member of a NW African Muslim people of mixed Berber and Arab descent. In the 8th century they conquered the Iberian peninsula, but were finally driven out of their last stronghold in Granada at the end of the 15th century.

The clue might even be an allusion to Othello^[7], the title character of the William Shakespeare play The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice.

16d   Punishment for a hacker, it being criminal (1,5,3)

Give someone (or get) a thick ear^[5] is a British expression meaning to punish someone (or be punished) with a blow on the ear or head ⇒ if I thought you were serious, I would give you a thick ear!.

17d   City in Afghanistan bulldozed (8)

Istanbul^[5] is a port in Turkey on the Bosporus, lying partly in Europe, partly in Asia; population 10,757,300 (est. 2007). Formerly the Roman city of Constantinople (330–1453), it was built on the site of the ancient Greek city of Byzantium. It was captured by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 and was the capital of Turkey from that time until 1923.

18d   End of the line for these  old codgers (7)

This is a double definition where I knew neither of the definitions.

Buffers^[5] is a British term for a pair of shock-absorbing pistons projecting from a cross-beam at the end of a railway track or on the front and rear of a railway vehicle.

A buffer^[5] is an elderly man who is considered to be foolishly old-fashioned, unworldly, or incompetent ⇒ a distinguished old buffer.

20d   Mark covering American bear (7)

22d   Performing inside thus produces sort of boom (5)

24d   Upset Abigail disregarding Georgia's excuse (5)

25d   Character on staff almost split (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