Friday, March 16, 2012 - DT 26751

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26751
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, January 2, 2012
Setter Rufus
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26751]
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 26748 through DT 26750 which were published in The Daily Telegraph from Thursday, December 29, 2011 through Saturday, December 31, 2011

Introduction

In addition to its regular practice of skipping the 'Saturday' puzzle, the National Post has also skipped over the puzzles which appeared in the UK on the Thursday and Friday preceding New Years Day. I reached an impasse with seven clues remaining on my first crack at the puzzle. However, on my second attempt the remaining solutions fell quickly into place. It's amazing what a bit of cogitation can accomplish.

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.

8a   It holds wine for a service in church (6)

This clue contains a couple of British references that should surely not prove difficult. The RAF^[5] is is the Royal Air Force and CE^[5] is the Church of England.

18a   Animals unleashed on society? (6)

Libellule asks "Is this just a cryptic definition or is there more too it?" I took it for a semi-all-in-one clue. The entire clue could serve as a definition for STRAYS, with the wordplay being STRAY (unleashed) + (on) S (society). However, STRAY and STRAYS are a bit too close in meaning for my liking.

6d   A guy in a field (9)

In Britain, a guy^[5] is a figure representing Guy Fawkes, burnt on a bonfire on Guy Fawkes Night, and often displayed by children begging for money for fireworks.

14d   Nuclear power cut causes strike (8)

As far as I am concerned, the two definitions are really the same thing - just resulting from different underlying causes.

16d   Mundane cryptic clues are pointless (7)

I could quibble with Libellule here, by saying that an anagram of of CLUES ARE that is pointless would have not just one E (a point of the compass) removed but also the other E and the S as well. However, it has been argued by some that "pointless" could mean 'missing just one point' rather than 'missing all points'. Although I, too, initially parsed the clue in the same manner as Libellule, I eventually concluded that the wordplay is an anagram (cryptic) of CLUES + AR {AR(e) pointless}.

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