Thursday, February 27, 2014 — DT 27328

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27328
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27328]
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 parsing the clue █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by solutions from Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - yet to be solved

Introduction

As always, Jay delivers an enjoyable bit of exercise for the grey matter.

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   In awe of deserter returning on board ship with transport (4-6)

In Crosswordland, you will find that a ship is — in most cases — a steamship, the abbreviation for which is SS^[10]. Thus "on board ship" is code for 'contained in SS'.

Lorry^[5] [which appears in scchua's review] is the common British term for a truck.

6a   Priest left with a degree (4)

9a   Phones Mafia and lies badly (7)

Brits refer to a mobile phone^[5] as a mobile^[5] ⇒ we telephoned from our mobile to theirs. North Americans, on the other hand, refer to a cell phone^[5] as a cell^[5] ⇒ call me on my cell.

10a   Be left in the air, floundering with no answer (7)

12a   Heritage organisation found in New Testament, originally? (8,5)

In Britain, the National Trust^[5] (abbreviation NT) is a trust for the preservation of places of historic interest or natural beauty in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, founded in 1895 and supported by endowment and private subscription. The National Trust for Scotland^[7], a separate organization, was founded in 1931.

14a   Put straight by requirement to accept a return of profit (8)

15a   Time in prison -- that is what golfer wants (6)

In British slang, do (one's) bird^[5] means to serve a prison sentence [bird from rhyming slang birdlime 'time'].

I believe scchua's illustration shows Ann Margaret appearing in the film Bye Bye Birdie^[7].

17a   Smooth Nick's naked and dry (6)

19a   Fork out if new bus is red (8)

21a   Minister accommodating family was worried about learner's working rule (10,3)

The cryptic crossword convention of L meaning learner or student arises from the L-plate^[7], a square plate bearing a sans-serif letter L, for learner, which must be affixed to the front and back of a vehicle in various countries (including the UK) if its driver is a learner under instruction.

24a   Ground-breaking tracks reversing across motorway (7)

The M1^[7] is a north–south motorway [controlled access, multi-lane divided highway] in England connecting London to Leeds.

25a   Tools for putting rollers initially into driers (7)

As scchua's choice of illustration would appear to emphasize, it is likely that no person has been more closely associated with the towel than Brigitte Bardot.

26a   Conned by academic with bearing (4)

In Britain, do^[5] is an informal term for swindle ⇒ a thousand pounds for one set of photos — Jacqui had been done.

A don^[10] is a member of the teaching staff at a university or college, especially at Oxford or Cambridge.

27a   Police wrong about unhappy little lad? No -- the other way round! (4,2,4)

The phrase "No — the other way round!" tells us to reverse the logic of the statement preceding it. However, we must be careful how we perform this reversal of logic.

The statement in question is "wrong about unhappy little lad". While one might think that we need to change it to read "unhappy little lad about wrong", that would be incorrect. What we really need is "little lad unhappy about wrong" which parses as {BOY (little lad) + BLUE (unhappy)} containing (about) SIN (wrong).

The illustration in scchua's review is The Blue Boy^[7] (c. 1770), a full-length portrait in oil by English painter Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788).

Down

1d    House mite's home here? (4)

I consider the clue to be a semi-& lit. (or semi-all-in-one, if you prefer) and have underlined the entire clue to indicate this. The entire clue informs us that the solution is a place where a house mite's home may be found. While this very general definition provides a broad range of options (for instance, any conceivable type of dwelling), the wordplay narrows the choice down to a single possibility. The wordplay is "houSE MIte has [i.e., hides] home".

2d   One area under Britain is another country (7)

Alban^[1] is an ancient name for the island of Great Britain, now used poetically for Britain, England, or especially Scotland.

3d   Result of votes on divorce? (5,8)

I'm afraid that I diverge from scchua's explanation on this clue. I don't see how it could possibly be a double definition. A "result of votes" would be a decision but there is absolutely nothing in that phrase to justify it being a definition for split decision. Only when one adds the qualification (subsidiary indication) "on divorce" (a divorce being a split) do we have enough information to point to split decision as the solution. Consequently, I would categorize this clue as a cryptic definition in which the primary indication is "result of votes" and the subsidiary indication is "on divorce".

4d   Fixed -- sorted out after regime lost heart (8)

My initial attempt here was incorrect. I thought the solution might be RESOLVED with the wordplay being RE (regime lost heart) + SOLVED (sorted out). It was only when the solution to 12a would not fit that I discovered my error.

5d   The majority of talk is about home country (5)

7d   Silver bullet stuck on bottom (7)

The symbol for the chemical element silver is Ag^[5] from Latin argentum.

8d   Contrasts execution of Danes impounding church levies (10)

I have observed that executions in Crosswordland almost invariably involve beheading.

11d   It holds basket below inflation when it's rising (3-3,7)

13d   Unwilling  to be sick (10)

16d   Ringing can fool American (8)

In the UK, nit^[5] is an informal term for a foolish person ⇒ you stupid nit!.

18d   Stroke for timeless sailors in sultanate (7)

In rowing, the stroke^[5] (or stroke oar) is the oar or oarsman nearest the stern of a boat, setting the timing for the other rowers.

20d   Sort of treatment for green wood (3,4)

In Britain, deal^[5] means (1) fir or pine wood as a building material or (2) a plank made of fir or pine wood [what we in North America would commonly refer to as lumber]. Apparently, this meaning of deal^[3,11] also exists (or once existed) in North America, but I would think that it is very rarely used now — especially by the general public. In Britain, lumber^[5] has a totally different meaning, being articles of furniture or other household items that are no longer useful and inconveniently take up storage space.

22d   Barrage balloons finally seen on Oval ground (5)

The Oval^[7] is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth — a ground^[5] being an area of land, often with associated buildings, used for a particular sport.

As an anagram indicator, ground is either the past tense or the past participle (used as an adjective) of the verb grind^[5]. An anagram indicator is a word that denotes movement or transformation. Grind denotes transformation in the sense that wheat is ground into flour.

23d   Man, say, caught by his legs (4)

The Isle of Man^[5] (abbreviation IOM^[5]), a British Crown dependency, is an island in the Irish Sea.

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