Wednesday, February 5, 2014 — DT 27310

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27310
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27310]
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 being able to fully parse the clue █ - 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, a couple of hours at the gym between sessions with the puzzle worked wonders. I can't say whether it's the workout itself or the sauna and shower afterwards that does more to improve my brain function.

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   Charlie gets out of bed for emergencies (6)

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

5a   Quiet lake in Ireland -- before journalist turned up! (8)

Piano^[3,5] (abbreviation p^[5]), is a musical direction meaning either (as an adjective) soft or quiet or (as an adverb) softly or quietly.

Lough^[5] is the Irish word for lake. It is apparently pronounced the same as loch^[5], the word for lake in Scottish.

9a   One's prediction unfortunately not true in case of lumberjack (7-6)

I must admit that I failed to grasp the point that, as a definition, one must read "one's prediction" as "one has prediction". My thanks to scchua for identifying that wrinkle in the clue; I had mistakenly supposed that the entire clue was intended to be a cryptic definition.

10a   Nation seeing a married chap taken in by agents (8)

CIA^[5] is the abbreviation for Central Intelligence Agency^[5], a federal agency in the US responsible for coordinating government intelligence activities.

11a   Cardinal's song? (6)

12a   Sailor's back on street before A levels (6)

In the UK (with the exception of Scotland), A level^[5] (advanced level) is a qualification in a specific subject typically taken by school students aged 16-18, at a level above GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education).

In the UK (with the exception of Scotland),  GCSE^[5] (General Certificate of Secondary Education) is a qualification in a specific subject typically taken by school students aged 14-16, at a level below A level. Prior to 1988, it was known as O level^[5] (ordinary level).

14a   Speed up progress of divorcee with exercise and new diet (8)

PE^[5] is the abbreviation for physical education (or Phys Ed, as it would likely be called by most school kids).

16a   Lock on Barbarian's woman after game (8)

The Huns^[5] were a warlike Asiatic nomadic people who invaded and ravaged Europe in the 4th-5th centuries.

In his review scchua illustrates the clue with an image of Diana^[10] who, in Roman mythology, was the virginal goddess of the hunt and the moon — and who is often identified as a huntress.

19a   Slither around with no time for enjoyment (6)

21a   Sportsperson making fish run? (6)

I immediately entered ANGLER here. It was not until I came to 13d that I first suspected — and then confirmed — that this was incorrect.

On cricket scorecards, the abbreviation R^[5] denotes run(s). Of course, it also has the same meaning in baseball.

23a   Gets bill, with robbers losing head (8)

25a   Something both good and bad that could lead to glibness! (5,8)

The wordplay in this clue is a inverse anagram (or, as some prefer, reverse anagram). In a regular anagram, the anagram indicator and fodder are found in the clue and the anagram result is found in the solution. In an inverse anagram, this situation is reversed — the anagram indicator and fodder are found in the solution, while the anagram result is found in the clue. Of course the clue must also contain some indication (usually exceedingly vague) of the existence of the inverse anagram.

In the present clue, "glibness" is the anagram result and the indication that this is an inverse anagram is given by "that could lead to". Actually, there is nothing in the indication to specify an inverse anagram in particular; it could just as well denote some other construct (as I said above, the indication is usually "exceedingly vague").

The solution is MIXED BLESSING which can be interpreted as an anagram (mixed) of BLESSING with the anagram result being GLIBNESS (which is found in the clue).

26a   Be proud, though dismissed by platform (5,3)

Think of platform^[5] being used in the sense of the declared policy of a political party or group.

In cricket or baseball, out^[5] signifies no longer batting or at bat; having had one’s innings [cricket] or at bat [baseball] ended by the fielding side.

In Britain, proud^[5] can mean slightly projecting from a surface  ⇒ balls standing proud of the fabric.

27a   Go round, consumed by rubbish (6)

Down

2d   Ray may do this about French parliamentary bill (7)

I initially picked the wrong option here, but did not need much time to reflect on my choice before realizing that a prism would be a better instrument than a mirror.

3d   Bush finds credit in reserve (5)

The surface reading likely refers to either of two former US Presidents, George Bush^[5] or George W. Bush^[5].

In sports, a reserve^[2] is an extra player or participant who can take another's place if needed; in other words, a substitute. While the dictionaries don't flag this as a British term, I also don't find it in the American dictionaries specifically applied to sport thereby leading me to conclude that the term may be used more commonly in the British sports vocabulary than it is on this side of the Atlantic.

4d   Vibration caused by Roller in good condition? (5,4)

The setter deceptively capitalises Roller^[7] to suggest a Rolls-Royce automobile.

5d   House sitters look mature (7)

...with House sitters being those who sit in the House of Lords. Here the setter deceptively places the word "House" at the beginning of the clue to disguise the fact that it is capitalised.

The peerage^[7] refers to peers as a class  ⇒ he was elevated to the peerage two years ago.

A peer^[5] is a member of the nobility in Britain or Ireland, comprising the ranks of duke, marquess, earl, viscount, and baron ⇒ hereditary peers could still dominate the proceedings of the House of Lords.

Membership of the Upper House of the British Parliament, the House of Lords^[7], is made up of Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal. There are currently 26 Lords Spiritual who sit in the Lords by virtue of their ecclesiastical role in the established Church of England. The Lords Temporal make up the rest of the membership; of these, the majority are life peers with the remainder being hereditary peers. The former are appointed by the Monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister, or on the advice of the House of Lords Appointments Commission. Membership was once a birthright of hereditary peers, other than those in the peerage of Ireland. However, following a series of reforms, only 92 members (as of 2014) still sit in the Lords by virtue of a hereditary peerage. The formal title of the House of Lords is The Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled.

6d   Poem about theatre in Greece (5)

In ancient Greece, an Odeon^{[Webster's Dictionary]} was a kind of theater, smaller than the dramatic theater and roofed over, in which poets and musicians submitted their works to the approval of the public, and contended for prizes; hence, in modern usage, the name of a hall for musical or dramatic performances.

7d   Fashion model glad to get top award (4,5)

8d   Being serious, set out to support merit (7)

The definition ("serious") is positioned in the middle of the clue because — for cryptic effect — the setter has chosen to employ a non-standard sentence structure. The word "being" is actually a link between the wordplay and definition — as becomes clear when we "straighten out" the clue:

• Set out to support merit being serious (7)

After seeing the clue written in this fashion, it is not difficult to understand why the setter preferred the more convoluted sentence structure.

13d   Panicked at Nixon welcoming Italian remedy (9)

The surface reading likely refers to former US President  Richard Nixon^[5] (1913–194).

15d   Person who buys almost perfect hunter (9)

In the surface reading, hunter^[10] may refer to a horse, a dog, or a watch.

17d   A foreign male in maintained environment gets untidy (7)

In French, un^[8] is the masculine singular form of the indefinite article.

18d   Colour of small runabout perhaps on lease (7)

I think scchua might have found an image of Scarlet Johansson in which her features were more proudly [per comment at 26a] displayed.

20d   Deception left crew under six, nine having gone (7)

An eight^[5] is an eight-oared rowing boat or its crew.

22d   Travelled west of Oregon for cowboy show (5)

I think scchua has got the wordplay wrong here. I don't believe that O is intended to be the abbreviation for Oregon. Rather the wordplay is RODE (travelled) + O (west [first letter] of Oregon).

24d   Force out and achieve victory, to a limited extent (5)

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