Monday, October 31, 2011 - DT 26625

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26625
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, August 8, 2011
Setter Rufus
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26625]
Big Dave's Review Written By Libellule
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 █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by puzzle solving tools █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's blog
Notes The National Post has skipped DT 26623 and DT 26624 which were published in The Daily Telegraph on Friday, August 5, 2011 and Saturday, August 6, 2011 respectively.

Introduction

This puzzle struck me as too easy for a Giovanni, so it did not surprise me greatly to discover that the National Post had skipped ahead to a Rufus puzzle.

I managed to whittle the clues down to two before resorting to my Tool Chest. One of these (10a), I certainly should have solved easily given the amount of time that I spent on a golf course this summer. However, that meaning for "clubs" just never entered my mind. As for the other (7d), I had identified the solution but could not convince myself that it was, in fact, correct. The checking letter provided by 7d was additional support for this option. Finally, a search for possible words matching the checking letters turned up only two other candidates - neither of which appeared to be viable. So I opted to go with this choice, even though I wasn't entirely satisfied with my understanding of the wordplay. After reading Libellule's hint, I think that I now have it figured out (see Notes on Today's Puzzle section below).

Finally, in case you missed them, over the weekend I posted reviews for the puzzles which were published last Thursday and Friday.

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.

11a   How’s that for charm? (6)

In cricket, an appeal⁵ is a call (by the bowler or fielders) on the umpire to declare a batsman out, traditionally with a shout of ‘How’s that?’.

12a   Take out file and look for one with non-hereditary entitlement (4,4)

In the UK, a life peer⁵ is a peer whose title cannot be inherited - with a peer being a member of the nobility in Britain or Ireland, comprising the ranks of duke, marquess, earl, viscount, and baron. In the British peerage, earldoms and baronies were the earliest to be conferred; dukes were created from 1337, marquesses from the end of the 14th century, and viscounts from 1440. Such peerages are hereditary, although since 1958 there have also been non-hereditary life peerages. All peers were entitled to a seat in the House of Lords until 1999, when their number was restricted to 92 as an interim reform measure

15a   Expedition to the French metropolis goes round river (8)

This clue uses expedition⁵ in a formal (and, for myself at least, relatively uncommon) way, meaning promptness or speed in doing something.

26a   State aid distributed by Home Office (5)

The Home Office (HO)⁵ is the British government department dealing with domestic affairs, including law and order, immigration, and broadcasting, in England and Wales.

28a   The Greeks probably regarded it as a capital investment (5,2,4)

This is one of those clues that I sort of get, but am left wondering whether there is some additional bit of cleverness that I'm missing. However, it would seem that the clue refers simply to the fact that Troy was the capital city of King Priam's realm and the Greeks expended enormous resources in carrying out a ten-year long siege.

Troy⁵ (in Homeric legend) was the city of King Priam, besieged for ten years by the Greeks during the Trojan War. It was regarded as having been a purely legendary city until Heinrich Schliemann identified the mound of Hissarlik on the NE Aegean coast of Turkey as the site of Troy. The city was apparently sacked and destroyed by fire in the mid 13th century bc, a period coinciding with the Mycenaean civilization of Greece.  Also called Ilium.

2d   Plant seen in neat border (5)

Neat⁵ is an archaic word meaning a bovine animal. An oxlip⁵ is a woodland Eurasian primula with yellow flowers that hang down one side of the stem.

4d   Forget to order vermouth (4)

In the UK, the Order of Merit (OM)⁵ is an order founded in 1902, for distinguished achievement, with membership limited to twenty-four people. As well, 'it'⁵ is a dated, informal British term for Italian vermouth, apparently found principally in the name of the cocktail gin and it.

7d   Make converse? (7)

I believe that the misdirection here is that setter expects us to read this clue as 'make (someone) talk'. However, it is actually a cryptic definition (as signalled by the question mark) asking for the converse (opposite) of the word make (create).

References: 
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 Online (Oxford Dictionary of English)
⁶ - Oxford Dictionaries Online (Oxford American Dictionary)
⁷ - Wikipedia

Signing off for today - Falcon