Friday, January 6, 2012 - DT 26687

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26687
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Setter Jay
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26687]
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 █ - 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

Introduction

Pommers, in his comments on this puzzle, says that he "thought it a bit trickier than [Jay's] recent offerings". For me, that didn't seem to be the case - but that may have been due to a relatively small number of Briticisms (especially, unknown Briticisms) in 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.

1a   Bags left in bags (6)

In Britain, bags^[5] is a dated name for loose-fitting trousers • a pair of flannel bags. The "dated" nature of the term appears to be reinforced by Brian's comment at Big Dave's site "I’m far too young to know what these are .".

11a   Head of crime family needs essential drug-runner (6)

I wasn't familiar with the name of this particular animal being used as a slang term for a drug-runner - nor, does it seem, were any of my three favourite online British dictionaries. However, The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition has the following entry:

donkey /dong' ki/ n (pl don'keys) an ass; a stupid person; a person used by drug dealers to carry drugs being smuggled through customs  (sl). [Still regarded as slang in 1823; perh a double dimin of dun, from its colour; or from Duncan]

I really have little or no idea what the parenthetical portion of the definition means.

12a   Bitter setback in South Africa’s levels of society (6)

In cryptic crosswords, you will often see South Africa abbreviated ZA^[5] (its International Vehicle Registration symbol) which comes from the Dutch spelling of its name, Zuid Afrika. However, Jay finds English to be more appropriate today.

14a   Carrier carrying item of underwear — it’s a farce! (8)

In Britain, an undershirt is is known as a vest^[4] (and what North Americans think of as a vest would be called a waistcoat).

17d   Dish that’s unusual and something of a bore (7)

Rarebit^[5] (also called Welsh rabbit) is a dish of melted and seasoned cheese on toast, sometimes with other ingredients.

Regarding the afterthought appended to Pommers' hint "I’ll not mention the ‘virgins in Cardiff’ bit!", there seems to be a British riddle that goes "Q: What is a Welsh rarebit? A: A Cardiff virgin." I would guess that this is a play on British slang in which a bit^[5] is a girl or young woman. Thus the riddle implies that it would be rare to find a virgin in Cardiff!

24d   A second letter is read out in church (5)

While I had interpreted the wordplay in the same way that Gazza (and others) did, I much prefer Pommers' explanation. He should have stuck to his guns rather than deferring to the others. The former interpretation would give A-BEE, whereas the latter (Pommers' interpretation) would produce AB-BEE, which sounds like a better match for ABBEY to my ear.

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 (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)

Signing off for today - Falcon