Wednesday, February 26, 2014 — DT 27327

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27327
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27327]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Gazza
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

This puzzle was solved fairly quickly, although I did require a gentle nudge from my electronic assistants on the final two clues.

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

5a   City in Pennsylvania, and port in South Africa (8)

I was approaching this clue almost completely from the wrong end. I tried to insert a city into the abbreviation for Pennsylvania to get a port in South Africa.

Aden^[5] is a port in Yemen at the mouth of the Red Sea; population 588,900 (est. 2004).

Pasadena^[5] is a city in California, in the San Gabriel Mountains on the northeast side of the Los Angeles conurbation; population 143,080 (est. 2008).

Oxford Dictionaries Online goes on to state "[Pasadena] is the site of the Rose Bowl stadium, venue for the American Football Super Bowl". In its 48 year history, the Super Bowl^[7] has been played at the Rose Bowl on only five occasions, the last time in 1993!

8a   Notice husband going back into church in Cheshire, perhaps (6)

The Church of England^[10] (abbreviation CE^[10]) is the reformed established state Church in England, Catholic in order and basic doctrine, with the Sovereign as its temporal head.

Cheshire^[5] is a kind of firm crumbly cheese, originally made in Cheshire, a county of west central England.

10a   Perform with band associated with one show tune (2-2-2)

R.E.M.^[7] was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and drummer Bill Berry. The group disbanded amicably in September 2011, announcing the split on its website.

"Do-Re-Mi"^[7] is a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. Within the story, it is used by Maria to teach the notes of the major musical scale to the Von Trapp children who learn to sing for the first time, even though their father has disallowed frivolity after their mother's death. The song is notable in that each syllable of the musical solfège system appears in its lyrics, sung on the pitch it names.

11a   Arranged to repeat G&S work, maybe (8)

G&S refers to Gilbert and Sullivan^[7], the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900). The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado are among the best known.

12a   Not able to be fixed on the other side of resort (6,6)

This clue invokes rarely encountered meanings for two common words.

In the cryptic reading, resort^[5] is used as a verb in the formal sense of to go often or in large numbers to ⇒ local authorities have a duty to provide adequate sites for gypsies ‘residing in or resorting to’ their areas.

Repair^[5] is used in the formal or humorous sense of to go to (a place), especially in company ⇒ we repaired to the tranquillity of a nearby cafe.

15a   Pseudonym I left out, unfortunately (4)

17a   Crowe, acting badly, could make one cringe (5)

The phrase "could make one" provides a link between the wordplay and the definition. The phrase should be read as "could make [for] one". The idea conveyed by the clue is 'If one were to execute the wordplay (an anagram), one could make a word which is a synonym of "cringe"'.

Russell Crowe^[7] is a New Zealand actor, film producer and musician based in Australia and the United States. He came to international attention for his role as the Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, as well as a number of other nominations and awards.

18a   Sexually attractive man initially cheated out of significant amount (4)

19a   Become emotionally upset, in a state of collapse following onset of fire (4,2,6)

22a   Deserter, say, found by a river in southern Europe (8)

I was focused on a deserter from the military — not one from a religion.

The Po^[7] is a river that arises in the Cottian Alps and flows eastward across northern Italy entering the Adriatic Sea through a delta near Venice.

24a   A prosecutor has to digest information, items for discussion (6)

This clue contains a mixture of British and US terms.

Gen^[5] is British slang for information ⇒ you’ve got more gen on him than we have.

In the US, a district attorney^[5] (abbreviation DA) is a public official who acts as prosecutor for the state in a particular district.

25a   Notice, on inlet, a large number of ships (6)

26a   Groom gaining silver medal's second in equestrian event (8)

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

Dressage^[5] is the art of riding and training a horse in a manner that develops obedience, flexibility, and balance.

Down

1d   Look, with bishop, round garden pavilion (6)

B^[5] is an abbreviation for bishop that is used in recording moves in chess.

2d   Publication -- stop one produced by small state (10)

Stop^[2] is a shortened form of full stop^[5], the British name for the punctuation mark known in North America as a period.

3d   Top expert banking millions (4)

4d   Scare her running investigation (8)

6d   Especially  like the CEO? (5,3)

7d   I sat down, tense, confused, utterly at a loss (2,4,4,3)

9d   Place rest on end of table (4)

13d   Jets, for example, flying near a Pole (South) (10)

Aeroplane^[5] is a chiefly British variant spelling of airplane.

14d   Outsider grounded, prepared (8)

16d   Modelled around a review of fees, this may not be contested politically (4,4)

20d   Very much demonstrated by some underachievers' objectives (4,2)

21d   Box old Bob on equal footing? (4)

Bob^[2] is an informal name for shilling^[2] (abbreviation s^[2]), a former monetary unit and coin of the UK, in use prior to the introduction of decimal currency in 1971, worth one twentieth of a pound or 12 old pence (12d).

23d   Partly open a grate (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