Tuesday, January 10, 2012 - DT 26689

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26689
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, October 21, 2011
Setter Giovanni
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26689]
Big Dave's Review Written By Gazza
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

Giovanni serves up a rather gentle offering today, allowing my electronic assistants to take the day off.

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   Football team depressed about very best wingers being missing (6)

Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club^[7] (commonly referred to as Wolves) is an English professional association football club that represents the city of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands region. They are members of the Premier League, the highest level of English football.

12a   Expand time for event to accommodate the Italian (6)

In Italian, il^[8] means "the".

15a   Scientist’s going around western communities established quite recently (3,5)

Sir Isaac Newton^[7] (1642 – 1727) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived." In Britain, a new town^[4] is a town that has been planned as a complete unit and built with government sponsorship, especially to accommodate overspill population.

19a   Christian Scientist in a whirl (4)

Mary Baker Eddy^[7] (1821 – 1910) was the founder of Christian Science (1879), a Protestant American system of religious thought and practice adopted by the Church of Christ, Scientist, and others. Apparently Mary Baker Cake Mixes (mentioned by Gazza) were not unique to the UK, as indicated by this Texas newspaper advertisement from 1960.

27a   Dismissal of some French companion when Irishman’s brought in (8)

Des^[8] is the French word for "some". As usual, companion indicates Companion of Honour (abbreviation CH), a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour^[7], an order of the Commonwealth realms^[7] founded by King George V in June 1917 as a reward for outstanding achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry or religion. Despatch^[4] is a less common spelling of dispatch.

2d   Like event at rink that’s postponed (2,3)

Gazza's mention of Torvill and Dean^[7] is a reference to Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, British ice dancers and former British-, European-, Olympic- and World champions. At the 1984 Winter Olympics the pair became the highest scoring figure skaters of all time (for a single programme) receiving twelve perfect 6.0s and six 5.9's which included artistic impression scores of 6.0 from every judge.

3d   Forcefulness of macho types in very English part of the Establishment (9)

The Church of England (CE)^[5] is the English branch of the Western Christian Church, which combines Catholic and Protestant traditions, rejects the Pope’s authority, and has the monarch as its titular head. The English Church was part of the Catholic Church until the Reformation of the 16th century; after Henry VIII failed to obtain a divorce from Catherine of Aragon he repudiated papal supremacy, bringing the Church under the control of the Crown.

4d   Beetle brings endless alarm to sailor (6)

In the Royal Navy, able seaman (abbreviation AB)^[5]. is a rank of sailor above ordinary seaman and below leading seaman.

6d   Dismissed from uni with less of an odour, we hear? (4,4)

Uni^[5] is an informal term for university • he planned to go to uni [in my experience, not an expression that one would expect to hear in North America].

7d   Part of body has nasty smell, not totally healthy (5)

Pong^[5] (used by Gazza in his hint) is British slang for a strong, unpleasant smell.

14d   Unoriginal girl said to be after money (5-4)

In Britain, ready^[4] can be used informally as a noun meaning ready money (cash). I have observed that the Brits often turn adjectives into nouns by dropping the noun from a phrase consisting of a noun modified by an adjective. Thus, in this case, ready money becomes merely ready. Another example is Indian restaurant becoming simply Indian.

16d   Defeat in game at the end of bowler’s short spell? (9)

In cricket, an over^[5] is a division of play consisting of a sequence of six balls bowled by a bowler from one end of the pitch, after which another bowler takes over from the other end. Gazza's observation that overmatch is a "mainly American" expression is supported by both Chambers^[2] and Collins^[4] (which characterize the term as chiefly US) as well as Oxford^[5] (which says that it is chiefly North American).

20d   Approval shown by number clutching King James Bible (6)

Chiefly a British term, the Authorized Version (abbreviation AV)^[5] is an English translation of the Bible (also called King James Bible) made in 1611 at the order of James I and still widely used, though never formally ‘authorized’. 

22d   A theologian in an elevated position to be convincing (3,2)

Doctor of Divinity^[7] (D.D. or DD, Divinitatis Doctor in Latin) is an advanced academic degree in divinity. Historically, it identified one who had been licensed by a university to teach Christian theology or related religious subjects. In the United Kingdom, Doctor of Divinity has traditionally been the highest doctorate granted by universities, usually conferred upon a religious scholar of standing and distinction. In the United States the Doctor of Divinity is usually awarded as an honorary degree.

24d   Brushes not initially provided for apartments (5)

The word apartment^[5] has a somewhat different meaning in the UK than it does in North America. What we think of as an apartment, the Brits would call a flat. In Britain, only a certain specific type of flat would be called an apartment - typically one that is well appointed or used for holidays (thus, seemingly, an upscale flat). In the plural, the term apartments refers to a set of private rooms in a very large house.

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