Wednesday, January 8, 2014 — DT 27290

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27290
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, September 23, 2013
Setter Rufus (Roger Squires)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27290]
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 █ - yet to be solved

Introduction

Once again Rufus delivers an entertaining puzzle — one that, in terms of difficulty, I would rate somewhere in the lower end of two star territory.

A Note on Today's Setter

You may enjoy reading an article concerning the setter of today's puzzle which appeared on The Daily Telegraph website on September 20, 2013 (three days before today's puzzle was published in the UK). The article, entitled "Guinness Book of World Records for Telegraph crossword setter", reports that crossword setter Roger Squires has been reinstated in the 2014 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s most prolific crossword setter after setting nearly 75,000 puzzles and more than 2.25 million clues. He first entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 1978, but was dropped in 2008 after editors allegedly felt their young readership would be interested in more modern pastimes.

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   Cheating at cards, using duplicity? (6-7)

10a   New ones may be expensive if stout, perhaps (7)

11a   Letter or note to devout holy man found by the French (7)

This charade consists of four segments with two of the charade indicators being explicit and one implicit. The wordplay parses as E ([musical] note) + (to) PI (devout) + ST (holy man; saint) + (by) LE (the French).

The explicit charade indicators are "by" and "to" where the word "to" is used in the sense of "pressing against" — as in expressions such as "put your shoulder to the wheel" or "have your nose to the grindstone".

Pi^[5] is an informal British short form for pious.  

In French,  le^[8] is the masculine singular form of the definite article.

12a   Stand  torture (4)

13a   Turkish leader elected for a second time (5)

In the Ottoman Empire, aga^[10] (also spelled agha) was (1) a title of respect, often used with the title of a senior position or (2) a military commander.

14a   Far-reaching  hunger (4)

The first definition is an adjective; the second a verb.

17a   Edibles put out for French music master (7)

Léo Delibes^[5] (1836–1891) was a French composer and organist. His best-known works are the ballets Coppélia (1870) and Sylvia (1876).

18a   Attempts to sell a dummy -- touchdowns possible (5,2)

To arrive at the correct solution, one must interpret the word "attempts" as a verb rather than a noun.

In Britain, as a noun, a try-on^[5] (plural try-ons^[5]) is an action or statement made to test out a person's gullibility, tolerance, etc.

As a verb phrase, try it on^[5] is an informal British expression meaning (1) to attempt to deceive or seduce someone ⇒ he was trying it on with my wife or (2) deliberately test someone’s patience to see how much one can get away with. 

I interpret the definition to mean "attempts to sell a false story to a gullible person" for which the dictionary entries would seem to indicate that the British expression would be 'tries it on'. However, perhaps 'tries on' is an undocumented equivalent.

In rugby, a touchdown^[5] is an act of touching the ground with the ball behind the opponents' goal line, scoring a try ⇒ he scored two touchdowns.

In rugby, a try^[5] is an act of touching the ball down behind the opposing goal line, scoring points and entitling the scoring side to a kick at goal.

"On" in the sense of possible is usually seen used in the negative, with the expression it's not on^[5] meaning that it’s impractical or unacceptable.

19a   Where those about town come from? (7)

22a   Tom's shout showing disapproval (7)

Libellule's hint won't help much if you don't know that moggie^[5] (also spelled moggy) is British slang for a cat, typically one that is does not have a pedigree or is otherwise unremarkable ⇒ I have three other cats (two moggies and one Bengal/Tonkinese cross).

24a   Outhouse  made redundant (4)

In the solution, shed would be the past participle (used as an adjective) of the verb to shed^[5] used in the sense of to discard (something undesirable, superfluous, or outdated) ⇒ many firms use relocation as an opportunity to shed jobs.

25a   Class for actors, say (5)

26a   Rabbit's tail trimmed to a point (4)

As in 11a, "to" is used as a charade indicator — only in this case we must cozy up to the other side of the object.

29a   Egghead spoke in French with one on the issue (7)

The construction "egghead" to clue E (the 'head' letter of Egg) is similar to the use of  "redhead" for R or "sweetheart" for E (the heart of swEet).

Dit^[5] is the masculine form of the past participle of the French verb dire (to speak).

30a   Substitute one fabric with another (7)

Rep^[5] (also spelled repp) is a fabric with a ribbed surface, used in curtains and upholstery.

31a   Mass meeting, for example (6,7)

Down

2d   Topical changes of view (7)

3d   The end of spinnaker in large sailing ship (4)

4d   Junior officers, they climb the mast (7)

An ensign^[5] is (1) the lowest rank of commissioned officer in the US and some other navies, above chief warrant officer and below lieutenant or (2) in former times, the lowest rank of commissioned infantry officer in the British army.

5d   It's glee, strangely, shown by a mournful poet (7)

6d   Piece of meat lion chewed up (4)

7d   Will it cause bankruptcy in the fishing industry? (3,4)

8d   Risk total defeat at Wimbledon, perhaps (5,8)

Wimbledon^[5] is an annual international tennis championship on grass for individual players and pairs, held at the headquarters of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in the London suburb of Wimbledon. Now one of the world’s major tennis championships, it has been played since 1877.

9d   Communication from a solicitor? (7,6)

A begging letter^[5] is a letter asking for a gift or a charitable donation ⇒ he was being dunned for the rent and reduced to writing begging letters.

15d   Cancel space flight, there's an unpleasant smell in craft (5)

16d   Sailors take a turn round these parts -- about time (5)

Bitts^[5] are a pair of posts on the deck of a ship for fastening mooring lines or cables.

20d   Some terrible mishap results in a scar (7)

21d   Stout aunt's off to church (7)

Once again, the word "to" is used as a charade indicator (see 11a and 26a).

22d   Exclusive group with resting place up country (7)

Eire^[5] is the Gaelic name for Ireland, the official name of the Republic of Ireland from 1937 to 1949.

23d   Bill includes broken chair that's antique (7)

27d   Outstanding seaside feature (4)

As one may ascertain from Libellule's comment, it is not uncommon for British piers to be lost to fire — as the following articles verify:

• British piers that have gone down in flames
• Hastings pier destroyed by fire

28d   Shady character sets up important people (4)

Spiv^[5] is British slang for a man, typically a flashy dresser, who makes a living by disreputable dealings.

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