Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - DT 26733

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26733
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, December 12, 2011
Setter Rufus
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26733]
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 26732 which was published in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, December 10, 2011

Introduction

I did get off to a quick start today, but the final half dozen or so clues demanded a fair amount of intense concentration. In the end, I completed the puzzle without electronic assistance — but with a question mark or two concerning some of the wordplay.

Notes on Today's Puzzle
http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/fag-end

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.

9a   Duck, mate! Here comes a stone! (4)

In cricket, a duck^[5] is a batsman’s score of nought • he was out for a duck. In cryptic crossword puzzles, duck more often than not indicates O as the letter "O" looks like the number "0".

11a   They give gold to be held by university staff (6)

Or^[5] is gold or yellow, as a heraldic tincture. In heraldry, a tincture^[5] is any of the conventional colours (including the metals and stains, and often the furs) used in coats of arms.

12a   Drawing stumps? (3-4)

The clue is a cryptic definition of the kind of stump (the small projecting remnant of something that has been cut or broken off or worn away) from which one might take a drag. Fag end^[5] is an informal, chiefly British term for a cigarette butt. It can also mean an inferior and useless remnant of something : (i) the fag ends of rope; (ii) (figurative) a culture reaching the fag end of its existence.

Note: The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition^[1], the Chambers 21st Dictionary^[2], the Collins English Dictionary^[10] and the Oxford Dictionary of English^[5] all spell this term without a hyphen. I only found it spelled fag-end in Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913).

I presume that Libellule's reference to "the frayed ends of lengths of cloth or ropes" as an alternative meaning for the solution is merely intended as a hint to solvers, and does not otherwise relate specifically to the wording in the clue.

17a   Transmit broadcast of quarter-final (4)

The definition here may, in fact, be a double definition with "transmit" and "broadcast" both meaning "send", although "broadcast" might also be a noun with the definition being "transmit broadcast".

28a   Celebrity — like Georgie? (4)

Georgie Fame^[7] (born Clive Powell) is a British rhythm and blues and jazz singer and keyboard player. The one-time rock and roll tour musician had a string of hits in the 1960s.

5d   Tip-top (4)

In this double definition, one must split "tip-top" into two words ("tip" and "top") to get the two definitions. However, it doesn't work all that well (for me, at least) as "tip" and "top" essentially mean the same thing.

12d   Hand-to-hand combat? (10)

Libellule's hint "Another word for pugilism that consists of two words for striking blows with the hands" piqued my interest. A bit of research revealed that, in Britain, fist^[4] means to to hit with the fist, whereas, in North America, it means to clench into a fist or to grasp with the fist^[3].

13d   Dining out with meal and drink (3,3,4)

Although a number of cocktails incorporate gin and lime juice (perhaps most notably the gimlet^[7]), I could find no reference to a drink called specifically "gin and lime".

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