Tuesday, January 17, 2012 - DT 26697

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26697
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, October 31, 2011
Setter Rufus
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26697]
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 26696 which was published in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, October 29, 2011

Introduction

This puzzle gave me a few more problems than usual - certainly more than I would have expected based on Libellule's assessment of it.

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   Substitute for Peter McLean (11)

With regard to Peter McLean, Libellule asks "Who's he?" Although, in all likelihood, it is purely a made-up name, it could be either of two Aussies, one a member of the McLean rugby clan^[7] and the other an Australian rules footballer^[7].

18a   It plays without music (8)

Errors at 14d and 18d hampered me on this clue. The latter error was discovered early on, but the former was only found after I had called my electronic assistants into action.

19a   He gives notice, having to work when others are playing (6)

I stumbled all around the right area but couldn't quite get on the right path here, thinking of occupations such as referee, umpire, conductor, etc.

26a   Enter into an American business contract with ancient city (5)

Incorporation^[7] is the process of forming a new corporation (a corporation being a legal entity that is effectively recognised as a person under the law). The practices concerning the naming of corporations vary around the world. In the United States, most (but not all) corporations are identified by the term "incorporated" (often shortened to Inc.) added after the business name, such as "Texas Instruments, Incorporated", or by putting the word "corporation" (often shortened to Corp.) in the name of the company, as in "Netscape Communications Corporation". In the United Kingdom, with the exception of an unlimited company or corporation which requires no designation as part of its legal company name, the titles Ltd. (limited company) or plc (public limited company) are used for corporations. Incorporated Canadian companies can generally use either Limited (Ltd.), Incorporated (Inc.) or Corporation (Corp.) in their name, however this may vary province to province. A veritable alphabet soup of abbreviations is used in other jurisdictions around the world.

Thus the setter uses the phrase "American business contract" to mean a shortened form (contraction) of the name of an American business, which would be 'Inc.'.

1d   Disturbance in court, perhaps (7)

Although the anagram was blatantly obvious and there seemed to be only one way to arrange the letters, the solution is hardly a word with which I am familiar. It may well be a word that is used more commonly in Britain than it is on this side of the Atlantic. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines ruction^[5] as an informal term for a disturbance or quarrel (she acted as if there’d been no earlier ruction) and in the plural (ructions) as a British expression meaning angry reactions, protests, or complaints (if Mrs Salt catches her there’ll be ructions).

4d   Tender put up for capital statue (4)

The statue of Eros^[7] atop the Shaftesbury Monument Memorial Fountain in Piccadilly Circus is a well-known landmark in London, England. While the statue is generally believed to depict Eros, it was actually intended by the sculptor to be an image of his twin brother, Anteros.

6d   U.S. sweetheart gets whistles (5)

The setter uses the phrase "U.S. sweetheart" to indicate to his target British audience that the solution is an expression used in the U.S. but not in Britain.

8d   Abandoned ship (8)

I'm sure that the setter created this clue with the hope that we would see "abandoned" as a verb so that the clue would appear to refer to the evacuation of a sinking ship (how timely). However, I saw "abandoned" immediately as an adjective and thus the clue did not appear cryptic at all (until I thought about it a bit).

14   Girl showing caution (8)

The only girl's name that immediately came to mind was PATIENCE which seemed to be stretching the definition ("caution") to - or beyond - the limit. I discovered the error after finding myself totally stymied on 18a.

16d   Dishonest dealer (4-5)

This is another cryptic definition - in the same vein as 8d - in which the misdirection relies on us thinking of "dealer" as referring to a businessman rather than a card player.

18d   She’s quite happy to show her bloomers! (7)

My first entry here was GARDNER (which is not even spelled correctly - or perhaps I was thinking of Ava!). However, I managed a quick recovery from that stupid error (what the Brits would call a 'bloomer'^[5]). In Britain, a bloomer^[5] may also be a large loaf [of bread] with diagonal slashes on a rounded top. Of course, here bloomers^[5] refers - depending on how you read the clue - to either women's old-fashioned underwear^[5] or to flowering plants^[5].

20d   Many in good time plainly seen (7)

Obviously, I did not see this 'clearly' at all. Having recognized that there seemed to be only two words that could possibly fit (CLEARLY and CHEERLY), I was totally focused on the second L being the large Roman numeral indicated in the clue ("many"). This left me being able to make no sense of the wordplay. As I was to learn from Libellule, I should have set my sights higher - CL (150) rather than L (50).

25   Part of the church in a pseudo-Gothic style (4)

While I believe that it is rare to find the solution at the beginning or end of the fodder in a hidden word clue, I am unaware of there being any rule to forbid it. Being somewhat more pedantic than Libellule, I would say that the solution to the clue is actually found in the phrase "a pseudo-Gothic style".

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