Friday, April 8, 2011 (DT 26447)

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26447
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Setter Jay
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26447]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave
Big Dave's Rating
Difficulty - ★★	Enjoyment - ★★★
Falcon's Performance ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - incorrect prior to use of puzzle solving tools █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog

Introduction

We have a rather gentle, though quite enjoyable, offering from Jay today. I did need a gentle nudge to get started on 2d, although once I had determined the first word with some help from my electronic friends, the second immediately sprang to mind.

Today's Glossary

Selected abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions appearing in today's puzzle.

[An asterisk beside an entry merely indicates that it has been taken it from a Cumulative Glossary of entries which have previously appeared, in either this blog or its companion blog, the Ottawa Citizen Cryptic Crossword Forum.]

Appearing in Clues:

Meanings listed in this section may reflect how the word is used in the surface reading of the clue. Of course, that meaning may be contributing to the misdirection that the setter is attempting to create.

breaker - noun 2 [2^nd entry] chiefly British a person who breaks up disused machinery

Time Lords - a fictional extraterrestrial race and civilization of humanoids in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, of which the series' main character, the Doctor, is a member

Appearing in Solutions:

Bolshie - noun dated a Bolshevik or socialist

cod² - British informal verb play a joke or trick on (someone): he was definitely codding them

codswallop - British informal nonsense

dab hand - noun British informal a person who is an expert at a particular activity: Liam is a dab hand at golf

GT - abbreviation gran turismo, noun a high-performance car

*L² - abbreviation [5^th entry] British (on a motor vehicle) learner driver

Lords temporal - plural noun the members of the House of Lords other than the bishops

In the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the Lords Temporal are secular members of the House of Lords. The term is used to differentiate lords—who are either life peers or hereditary peers, although the hereditary rights to the House of Lords was abolished in 1999—from the Lords Spiritual, who sit in the House as bishops in the Church of England.

NRS Social Grade - a system of demographic classification used in the United Kingdom. The system classifies people into one of six socio-economic groups designated A, B, C1, C2, D and E (with D and E being the lower groups).

*RA - abbreviation [3^rd entry] (in the UK) Royal Academician, a member of the Royal Academy of the Arts (commonly known as simply the Royal Academy), an institution established to cultivate painting, sculpture, and architecture in Britain.

Signing off for today - Falcon