Monday, February 27, 2012 - DT 26731

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26731
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, December 9, 2011
Setter Giovanni
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26731]
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

I found this puzzle from Giovanni to be a bit less difficult than his typical offerings. However, despite having found the correct solution, I only twigged to the Geordie speech in 1a when I read Gazza's review.

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   Young Conservative in Newcastle becomes business magnate (6)

I have to admit that I was at a total loss to explain the meaning of the wordplay in this clue before reading Gazza's hint.

Newcastle upon Tyne^[7] (often shortened to Newcastle) is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne.

The dialect of Newcastle is known as Geordie^[7], and contains a large amount of vocabulary and distinctive word pronunciations not used in other parts of the United Kingdom. The Geordie dialect has much of its origins in the language spoken by the Anglo-Saxon populations who migrated to and conquered much of England after the end of Roman Imperial rule. This language was the forerunner of Modern English; but while the dialects of other English regions have been heavily altered by the influences of other foreign languages—particularly Latin and Norman French—the Geordie dialect retains many elements of the old language.

The Geordie word for "go" is "gan". Thus, in Gazza's hint, I presume that "gan doon" would be Geordie for "go down" (thus making "gan doon toon" mean "go down town"). So, to residents of Newcastle, their community would be a "toon" (town).

The Young Conservatives^[7] was the youth wing of the United Kingdom's Conservative Party until the organisation was replaced in 1998 by Conservative Future.

21a   Cook rubbish (5)

In British informal speech, rubbish^[5] can be used as a verb meaning to criticize severely and reject as worthless • he has pointedly rubbished professional estimates of the development and running costs.

25a   Man on roof delivering abuse and beginning to riot (6)

A slater^[5] is a person who slates roofs for a living (hardly a profession in high demand in this area). In British slang, slate means to criticize severely • his work was slated by the critics.

26a   Resumes subjects for BA after vacation? (8)

The airline that Gazza mentions in his hint (as being irrelevant) would be British Airways (BA)^[5], the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom,.

27a   Showy marble protected from the elements? (6)

I had to resort to assistance here — not because I didn't know the marble, but rather because I had mistakenly thought that this would be a containment type clue.

1d   Bird sitting on church, unknown and very small (6)

A tit^[5] is another name for a titmouse^[5], a small songbird that searches acrobatically for insects among foliage and branches [Family Paridae: three genera, especially Parus, and numerous species, including the chickadees and the tufted titmouse (P. bicolor)].

In British slang, (1) titch (or tich)^[5] means a small person • the titch of the class; and (2) titchy means very small • a titchy theatre.

Key to Reference Sources: 

^[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)
^[10] - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)

Signing off for today - Falcon