Friday, May 9, 2014 — DT 27381

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27381
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27381]
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

The style of this puzzle is typical of Jay, although I would say that it is a bit less difficult than some of his offerings.

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.

Primary indications (definitions) are marked with a solid underline in the clue; subsidiary indications (be they wordplay or other) are marked with a dashed underline in all-in-one (& lit.) clues, semi-all-in-one (semi-& lit.) clues and cryptic definitions.

Across

1a   County towns ultimately chasing personnel (6)

Staffordshire^[5] (abbreviation Staffs.^[5]) is county of central England; county town, Stafford.

4a   Vulnerable zone wiped out after removing leader (4,4)

10a   End without a king — one died, with authority usurped (9)

Rex^[5] (abbreviation R^[5]) [Latin for king] denotes the reigning king, used following a name (e.g. Georgius Rex, King George) or in the titles of lawsuits (e.g. Rex v. Jones, the Crown versus Jones — often shortened to R. v. Jones).

11a   Perennial insolence by trade union (5)

TU^[3,4,11] is the abbreviation for Trade Union.

12a   Set store by mother becoming expert (7)

13a   Desire to follow Scottish Premier League’s extravagant cash spending (7)

The Scottish Premier League^[7] (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football [soccer] clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Football League (SFL). It was abolished in 2013, when the SPL and SFL merged to form the new Scottish Professional Football League, with its top division being known as the Scottish Premiership.

14a   They shouldn’t be picked for front parts of aircraft (5)

15a   Leave M protected by Bond, not fully committed (4-4)

In the surface reading, the word "Bond" is misleadingly capitalized to direct our attention to James Bond^[5] (known also by his code name 007), a fictional British secret agent in the spy novels of English author Ian Fleming (1908–1964). M^[7] is a fictional character in Ian Fleming's James Bond books; the character is the Head of Secret Intelligence Service—also known as MI6.

18a   Parasite struggling war poet married (8)

20a   Trouble since accommodating King George (5)

Since^[5] is used as an adverb in the sense of ago ⇒ the settlement had vanished long since.

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 is GR^[5] — from the Latin Georgius Rex.

Aggro^[5] is British slang for (1) aggressive, violent behaviour ⇒ they do not usually become involved in aggro or (2) problems and difficulties ⇒ he didn’t have to deal with aggro from the desk clerk.

23a   Indonesian island welcoming English from Bangladesh (7)

Bali^[5] is a mountainous island of Indonesia, to the east of Java; chief city, Denpasar; population 3,470,700 (est. 2009).

Bengali^[5] is an adjective meaning relating to Bengal, its people, or their language. Bengal^[5] is a region in South Asia, containing the Ganges and Brahmaputra River deltas. In 1947 the province was divided into West Bengal, which has remained a state of India, and East Bengal, now Bangladesh.

25a   Developing source of arum in new perfume (7)

Arum^[5] is a European plant which has arrow-shaped leaves and a broad leafy spathe enclosing a club-shaped spadix. Pollination is by small flies which are temporarily trapped by the plant.

26a   Ring shop selling food on the way back, drunk (5)

27a   The kid ran off without being told (2,3,4)

28a   Banter is sick when getting on! (8)

In^[5] may be used as expressing a period of time during which an event happens or a situation remains the case ⇒ (i) they met in 1885; (ii) at one o’clock in the morning; (iii) I hadn’t seen him in years.

Thus we must replace the entire phrase "when getting on" by "in age".

29a   The end of chess coach’s riddle (6)

A riddle^[5] is a large coarse sieve, especially one used for separating ashes from cinders or sand from gravel. As a verb, riddle means to pass (a substance) through a large coarse sieve ⇒ for final potting, the soil mixture is not riddled.

Down

1d   Advise dim entrepreneur holding deposit (8)

2d   Ingenuous, with no feelings for a cockney (7)

I had little trouble with this clue — that is, once I had read the clue carefully and realized that the definition was not "ingenious".

A cockney^[5] is a native of East London [specifically the East End], traditionally one born within hearing of Bow Bells (the bells of St Mary-le-Bow^[7] church). Cockney is also the name of the dialect or accent typical of cockneys, which is characterised by dropping the H from the beginning of words and the use of rhyming slang^[5].

3d   Sample teas varying in strength (9)

5d   Promiscuous daughter is put in frame (14)

6d   Proclaim one-time fortune turning up (5)

7d   Edge up on serious traveller (7)

8d   Niece loses heart — that’s a relief for her brother (6)

9d   Obstinate bunch come both unprotected and hopeful (14)

16d   Passing tennis shot, following return of skill (9)

17d   Hide from onset of this during terrible soaking (8)

19d   Girl with hat is a leech, for example (7)

An annelid^[5] is a segmented worm of the phylum Annelida, such as an earthworm or leech.

21d   Reagan planned to seize diamonds from an island in the Caribbean (7)

Ronald Reagan^[5] (1911–2004) was an American Republican statesman, 40th President of the US 1981-9. He was a Hollywood actor before entering politics. His presidency saw the launch of the Strategic Defense Initiative and cuts in taxes and social services budgets, as well as the Irangate scandal and the signing of an intermediate nuclear forces non-proliferation treaty, both in 1987.

Diamonds^[2]) (abbreviation D^[2]) is a suit of cards.

Grenada^[5] is a country in the Caribbean, consisting of the island of Grenada (the southernmost of the Windward Islands) and the southern Grenadine Islands; population 90,700 (est. 2009); languages, English (official), English Creole; capital, St George’s.

Seizure of power by a left-wing military group in 1983 prompted an invasion of Grenada by the US and some Caribbean countries; they withdrew in 1985.

22d   Soak up the sailor’s world! (6)

In the Royal Navy, able seaman^[5] (abbreviation AB^[5]), is a rank of sailor above ordinary seaman and below leading seaman.

24d   Extra charge for university lecturer after a day (3-2)

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

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