Thursday, October 8, 2015 — DT 27790

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27790
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, May 1, 2015
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27790]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Deep Threat
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

Although Deep Threat awards this puzzle a four star rating for difficulty, one of those stars is a "penalty" for having missed the wordplay in 9a. I initially overlooked that same bit of wordplay as well, but I continued to have a nagging feeling that something was missing in my parsing of the clue. Fortunately, I went back at the end to have another look and found what I had failed to uncover the first time.

By the way, it was gratifying to see Her Majesty make an appearance — even if she did show up a day late.

I invite you to leave a comment to let us know how you fared with the puzzle.

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. Explicit link words and phrases are enclosed in forward slashes (/link/) and implicit links are shown as double forward slashes (//). Definitions presented in blue text are for terms that appear frequently.

Across

1a   What may hinder current // freedom fighters? (10)

6a   Dad gets right by river /for/ fish (4)

A parr^[5] is a young salmon (or trout) between the stages of fry and smolt, distinguished by dark rounded patches evenly spaced along its sides.

9a   Good shield may be seen to be so // expensively protected! (4-6)

Read the wordplay as "'Good shield' may be seen to be so". If you break down 'GO(od shie)LD', you will find that it consists of 'od shie' at the core covered (plated) with GOLD — and thus could be said to be 'gold-plated'.

10a   Loss /of/ title (4)

12a   Wizard // beginning but not ending (4)

13a   Toy boy // keeps talking (7,2)

15a   Types devoid of originality // organising cosy pact (8)

16a   Idiot leading part of hospital /getting/ agreement (6)

"part of hospital" = ENT (show explanation )

Should you not have noticed, the ear, nose and throat (ENT^[2]) department is the busiest section, by far, in the Crosswordland Hospital.

hide explanation

18a   Country // game with someone really good in charge (6)

"game" = RU (show explanation )

Rugby union^[10] (abbreviation RU^[5]) is a form of rugby football played between teams of 15 players (in contrast to rugby league^[5], which is played in teams of thirteen).

hide explanation

"in charge" = IC (show explanation )

The abbreviation i/c^[5] can be short for either

1. (especially in military contexts) in charge of ⇒ the Quartermaster General is i/c rations; or
2. in command ⇒ 2 i/c = second in command.

hide explanation

20a   Broken // item of furniture -- succeed in holding it together (8)

The setter uses "succeed in" to clue REACH (more on that later). The phrase "holding it together" could be replaced by "joining the pieces". Thus we have BED (item of furniture) split into two pieces with REACH joining the pieces (holding it together).

Does reach mean "succeed in"? According to The Chambers Dictionary, reach^[1] can mean to succeed in coming or going (i.e., arrive at one's destination) and according to Oxford Dictionaries Online, reach^[5] can mean:

1. succeed in achieving ⇒ the conference reached agreement on the draft treaty; or
2. succeed in influencing or having an effect on ⇒ he seeks opportunities to reach viewers without journalistic interference.

However, I was not able to find any evidence that reach can mean simply "succeed in".

23a   Varying in amounts // (large amounts) (9)

24a   Pungent root artist rejected /as/ food (4)

"artist" = RA (show explanation )

A Royal Academician (abbreviation RA^[5]) is a member of the Royal Academy of Arts^[5] (also Royal Academy), an institution established in London in 1768, whose purpose is to cultivate painting, sculpture, and architecture in Britain. 

hide explanation

26a   Waste product /with/ uranium? Region initially sealed off (4)

The symbol for the chemical element uranium is U^[5].

The wordplay "Region initially sealed off" seems a bit redundant. When you seal something off, you take away the opening. Thus "Region sealed off" is sufficient to clue AREA with its opening removed. In fact, one has to wonder just what role the word "initially" is playing in the clue.

Urea^[5] is a colourless crystalline compound which is the main nitrogenous breakdown product of protein metabolism in mammals and is excreted in urine.

27a   Journalists, ultimately you will need pay increase -- // nag! (10)

Rise^[5] is the British term for an increase in salary or wages ⇒ non-supervisory staff were given a 5 per cent rise [North American counterpart: raise^[5]].

Pressurize^[2] (or pressurise) means to to put pressure on someone or something; to force or coerce ⇒ I pressurized him into resigning.

I note with interest that despite the protestations of Brits that the "proper" spelling is with an -ise ending, my British dictionaries (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary, Collins English Dictionary, Oxford Dictionaries Online, and even The Chambers Dictionary) all show the -ize ending to be the principal spelling with the -ise ending as an alternate spelling.

28a   More than one bowler maybe // in that side (4)

Bowler^[5] (also bowler hat) is a chiefly British name for a man’s hard felt hat with a round dome-shaped crown. The North American name for this item of apparel is derby^[5] — said to arise from American demand for a hat of the type worn at the Epsom Derby.

A bowler is but one example of a hat (as indicated by the inclusion of the word "maybe").

Scratching the Surface
The surface reading has a cricket context. A bowler[5] is a member of the fielding side who bowls or is bowling. Side[5] is a British term for a sports team ⇒ there was a mixture of old and young players in their side. Note — as you can see in the definition immediately above as well as in the clue itself — that a player is "in a side" rather than "on a team" as one would say in North America.

29a   Badly tainted fellows being put inside /in/ custody (10)

Down

1d   The last thing needed in our time /is/ wrath (4)

2d   Separate // European city located in the 23? (5,2)

The numeral "23" is a cross reference indicator directing the solver to insert the solution to clue 23a in its place to complete the clue. The directional indicator is usually omitted in situations such as this where only a single clue starts in the square that is being referenced.

Split^[5] is a seaport on the coast of southern Croatia; population 177,500 (est. 2009). Founded as a Roman colony in 78 BC, it contains the ruins of the palace of the emperor Diocletian, built in about ad 300.

3d   Marvellous things to read /from/ elevated characters (12)

4d   Eagerness // in the manner of big town needing to entertain queen (8)

"queen" = R (show explanation )

Regina^[5] (abbreviation R^[5]) [Latin for queen] denotes the reigning queen, used following a name (e.g. Elizabetha Regina, Queen Elizabeth) or in the titles of lawsuits (e.g. Regina v. Jones, the Crown versus Jones — often shortened to R. v. Jones).

Thus Queen Elizabeth signs her name as 'Elizabeth R' as seen here on Canada's paint-stained constitution.

hide explanation

5d   Produce /from/ island including apples primarily (6)

Crete^[5] is a Greek island in the eastern Mediterranean; population 630,000 (est. 2009); capital, Heraklion. It is noted for the remains of the Minoan civilization which flourished there in the 2nd millennium BC. It fell to Rome in 67 BC and was subsequently ruled by Byzantines, Venetians, and Turks. Crete played an important role in the Greek struggle for independence from the Turks in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, becoming administratively part of an independent Greece in 1913.

7d   A sort of paper // in disagreement (2,5)

8d   Revolution bound, they say, /to be/ a growing tendency (6,4)

11d   Like an agricultural procedure // that could make husband snarl (5-3-4)

Slash-and-burn^[5] means relating to or denoting a method of agriculture in which existing vegetation is cut down and burned off before new seeds are sown, typically used as a method for clearing forest land for farming ⇒ in slash-and-burn farming the ashes are used for growing crops.

14d   Cowardly buffoon // to buzz off stifling a cry of pain (10)

Scaramouch^[5] is an archaic term for a boastful but cowardly person [from Italian Scaramuccia, the name of a stock character in Italian farce].

17d   Man sits in this water (5,3)

The Isle of Man^[5] (abbreviation IOM^[5]) is an island in the Irish Sea which is a British Crown dependency having home rule, with its own legislature (the Tynwald) and judicial system.

What did he say?
In his review, Deep Threat tells us that The Man in question has three legs and a cat with no tail. Flag of the Isle of Man For centuries, the island's symbol has been the so-called "three legs of Mann", a triskelion of three legs conjoined at the thigh. The Manx cat[10] is a short-haired tailless variety of cat, believed to originate on the Isle of Man.

19d   Hardly any money with repose /becoming/ most unpleasant (7)

Historically, a sou^[4] is a former French coin of low denomination. Figuratively, it is used to signify a very small amount of money ⇒ I haven't a sou to my name.

21d   Uncongenial // house with alternative to gate in the country (7)

"house" = HO (show explanation )

The abbreviation for house is ho.^[10]

hide explanation

22d   Violent // expression of disapproval about hundred being imprisoned (6)

25d   Passion /in/ race (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