Friday, April 28, 2017 — DT 28362

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28328
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28362]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Mr Kitty
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

Today's pleasant diversion is provided by one of the mystery "Tuesday" setters.

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   Concerned with landlord /giving/ party in America (10)

Publican^[5] is a British term for a person who owns or manages a pub.

The Republican Party^[5] is one of the two main US political parties^*, favouring a right-wing stance, limited central government, and tough, interventionist foreign policy. It was formed in 1854 in support of the anti-slavery movement preceding the Civil War.

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^* the other being the Democratic Party

6a   Picture // of dream life in retirement (4)

9a   Intermediary /in/ affair (7)

10a   Local girl /offering/ endless foolish help (7)

Local^[5] is an informal British term for a pub convenient to a person’s home ⇒ a pint in the local.

Barmy^[5] (adjective) is an informal British term meaning:

• mad; crazy ⇒ I thought I was going barmy at first
• extremely foolish ⇒ this is a barmy decision

12a   Arrangement // subject to rank (13)

14a   Male attending racecourse, // one bringing good fortune (6)

Ascot Racecourse^[7] is a British racecourse, located in Ascot, Berkshire, England, which is used for thoroughbred horse racing.

15a   Exchanges views about island/’s/ trees (8)

17a   Attacking tactic /in/ round, getting on, close to hole (5,3)

Here and There
Round[5] is a chiefly British term meaning a journey along a fixed route delivering goods as part of one’s job or a job involving such journeys ⇒ I did a newspaper round. From a British perspective,  route[5] is a North American term meaning a round travelled in delivering, selling, or collecting goods.

Route one^[5] is an informal soccer^* term denoting the use of long kicks upfield as an attacking tactic ⇒ (i) they would be favouring route one as opposed to the fancy stuff; (ii) [Manchester] City are not a Route One team.

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^* although this is certainly one instance where I suspect it might be far more appropriate to say "British football" rather than soccer

The term comes from a phrase used in the 1960s British television quiz show Quizball, in which questions (graded in difficulty) led to scoring a goal, Route One being the direct path.

19a   A gun I pulled out facing a // reptile (6)

22a   Novel /and/ daring symphony? (5,3,5)

The New World Symphony^[7] is the popular name of Symphony No. 9 in E minor, "From the New World", Op. 95, B. 178, created by Czech composer Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) in 1893 while he was the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America from 1892 to 1895. It is by far his most popular symphony, and one of the most popular of all symphonies. Neil Armstrong took a recording of the New World Symphony to the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission, the first Moon landing, in 1969.

Brave New World^[7] is a novel written in 1931 by English author Aldous Huxley (1894–1963), and published in 1932. Set in London in the year AD 2540 (632 A.F.—"After Ford"—in the book), the novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation, and classical conditioning that are combined to profoundly change society.

24a   Terse editor // filled in (7)

25a   Phone about vase // during the day (7)

26a   Woman // in poem, 'Maud' (4)

Scratching the Surface
Maud[7] is a poem written by British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) contained in the collection Maud and other poems[7], published in 1855.

27a   Soldiers, // rangers, die on manoeuvres (10)

In the British Army, a grenadier^[10] is a member of the senior regiment of infantry in the Household Brigade^*.

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^* A household brigade^[5] is a brigade comprising troops having (at least nominal) responsibility for guarding the monarch or head of state.

Down

1d   Function /of/ register to be announced (4)

Behind the Picture

Rachel Riley[7] is an English television presenter [host] and mathematician who currently co-presents the British daytime puzzle show Countdown, among others. A mathematics graduate, her television debut came when she joined Countdown at age 22; with a passion for popularising maths* and the sciences. * the British shorten "mathematics" to merely 'maths' as compared to North Americans who further shorten it to 'math'

2d   Trifling sum /or/ what could make up a packet? (7)

I consider this to be a double definition — even if Mr Kitty would appear to differ.

3d   Overcome with worry concerning the others? (6,7)

I agonized over how to mark this clue. In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Mr Kitty says "Taken literally, the answer could refer to everybody else". Yes, BESIDES ONESELF does refer or allude to the "the others" (everybody else) but I have not been able to convince myself that it is a direct synonym for "the others". Thus, I have marked the later part of the clue as cryptic elaboration in a cryptic definition style of clue rather than as a second definition.

4d   Take no notice of // bombed region (6)

5d   I'm in boat at sea /achieving/ goal (8)

7d   Conceive of // silver being discovered in one excavation (7)

I saw the definition as being "conceive of" rather than merely "conceive" (as Mr Kitty indicates in his review):

• Conceive /of/ silver being discovered in one excavation (7)

However, I would say that either approach is valid.

Conceive^[5] means to form a mental representation of or imagine ⇒ (i) without society an individual cannot be conceived as having rights; (ii) we could not conceive of such things happening to us.

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

8d   Crazy story going round about king in large island (10)

"king" = R (show explanation )

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).

hide explanation

Madagascar^[5] is an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the east coast of Africa. Madagascar is the fourth-largest island in the world, and many of its plants and animals are not found elsewhere.

11d   Show up /and/ spin band's disc (3,5,5)

Show up^[10] in the sense of to to put to shame or embarrass ⇒ he showed me up in front of my friends.

Run (or make) rings round (or around) someone^[5] is an informal expression meaning to outclass or outwit someone very easily ⇒ I had to be very firm with her, or she'd have run rings around me.

13d   Unlikely // I'm in favour of very small person, about fifty (10)

16d   Cause // General to board small boat heading off (8)

A tender^[5] is a dinghy or other boat used to ferry people and supplies to and from a ship.

18d   Greek character in a game, rising // element (7)

Mu^[5] is the twelfth letter of the Greek alphabet (Μ, μ).

"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).

 Rugby union^[7] is is the national sport in New Zealand, Wales, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Madagascar.

hide explanation

20d   Play moderately slowly // with stake money (7)

In music, andante^[5] is an adverb and adjective meaning (especially as a direction) in a moderately slow tempo.

21d   Country // we study after onset of storms (6)

23d   A short final, // unfortunately (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)
^[12] - CollinsDictionary.com (Webster’s New World College Dictionary)
^[13] - MacmillanDictionary.com (Macmillan Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon