Thursday, August 11, 2011 - DT 26555

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26555
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Setter Jay
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26555]
Big Dave's Review Written By Pommers
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 █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's blog

Introduction

This is a very typical Jay puzzle, one which a visitor to Big Dave's site praises with the comment "With such consistency it’s easy to become blasé but each clue oozed care and attention".

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.

queen - noun 5 an adult female cat that has not been spayed.

Appearing in Solutions:

Au - symbol the chemical element gold.

batty¹ - adjective informal , chiefly [but not entirely] British mad; insane: you'll drive me batty!

brasserie - noun a restaurant in France or in a French style.

brassie (also brassy) - noun Golf, informal a number two wood.

do¹ - verb 5 [4^th entry] British informal swindle: a thousand pounds for one set of photos — Jacqui had been done

not stand (or have) an earthly - phrase British informal have no chance at all: she wouldn't stand an earthly if she tried to outrun him  [In Britain, it appears that the word chance has become implicit in this phrase (with the adjective earthly seemingly being considered to be a noun and a synonym for the implied noun chance); I have heard a variant of this expression many times in North America, one in which the word chance is explicitly stated - i.e., 'not stand (or have) an earthly chance'. I assume that the idea being conveyed by the phrase is that the outcome is certain - short of divine intervention.]

fiddle - noun 2 informal, chiefly British an act of defrauding, cheating, or falsifying: a major mortgage fiddle  verb 2 informal, chiefly British falsify (figures, data, or records), typically in order to gain money: everyone is fiddling their expenses

le - French the

*read - verb 5 chiefly British study (an academic subject) at a university: I'm reading English at Cambridge; [no object] he went to Manchester to read for a BA in Economics.

shandy - noun British beer mixed with a non-alcoholic drink (typically lemonade).

TT - abbreviation [3^rd entry] Tourist Trophy, a motorcycle-racing competition held annually on roads in the Isle of Man since 1907.

Signing off for today - Falcon