Tuesday, March 27, 2012 - DT 26759

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26759
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Setter Jay
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26759]
Big Dave's Review Written By Pommers
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

Pommers says that he found this to be "a fair bit trickier than recent Wednesday puzzles". I thought just the opposite, but as the old saying goes "horses for courses". For a while, I was not even sure that it was a Jay puzzle, as for some reason it did not seem to have his touch. However, fairly late in the game, I solved 9d which is a trademark Jay substitution clue.

Meet the Setter

Here is what Crossword Who's Who has to say about today's setter:

Jeremy Mutch sets crosswords in the Financial Times as (as Orense). He also set Wednesday crosswords in The Daily Telegraph.

He uses the screen name Jay for his posts on Big Dave's Crossword Blog.

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.

6a   Bundle sporting mates abroad, sending the last one West (4)

I got the solution from the definition, knowing that, in Australia and New Zealand, a swag^[5] is a traveller’s or miner’s bundle of personal belongings. I didn't know that WAG^[5] is a (presumably British) term for a wife or girlfriend of a sports player, typically characterized as having a high media profile and a glamorous lifestyle. This term has seemingly been introduced to the language within the last decade, as Oxford gives its origin as early 21st century from the acronym WAGs 'wives and girlfriends'. Like Pommers, I also wondered "what the word ‘abroad’ brings to this clue". I considered that it might relate to "swag" being an Australian and New Zealand term, although that hardly seems likely as it does not appear next to the word "bundle" in the clue. Jezza resolves the confusion when he explains that WAGS refers, in particular, to the wifes and girlfriends of the members of travelling teams.

12a   Devil-may-care potholer entertaining tabloid regularly (8)

A pot-holer^[2] is someone who engages in the sport, pastime or activity of exploring deep caves and pot-holes (spelled with a hyphen according to the Chambers 21st Century Dictionary). A pothole^[5] (spelled without a hyphen according to the Oxford Dictionary of English) is a deep natural underground cave formed by the erosion of rock, especially by the action of water.

13a   Ask for quiet conduct (5)

Piano (abbreviation p)^[5] is a direction used in music to mean either (as an adjective) soft or quiet or (as an adverb) softly or quietly.

15a   Led off following Cornish home fraud (7)

Initially, I had supposed that swin might be the name of a type of abode in the Cornish dialect. It took me quite some time to realize that Cornwall is located in the southwest (SW) of England and that IN means "home" (or, more verbosely, at home).

21a   Germany perversely agreed to devalue (7)

D^[5] is the International Vehicle Registration (IVR) symbol for Germany (from German Deutschland).

27a   Popular musical instrument, note, cannot be touched (9)

Te^[5] is the British spelling for the seventh note of a major scale in the tonic sol-fa system of naming the notes of the musical scale. In North America, the name of this note is generally spelled ti.

28a   Demolish sheep’s head with potato (5)

Mash^[5] is an informal British name for boiled and mashed potatoes, with milk and butter added • sausages and mash.

30a   People putting lignite in rings may be experienced travellers (3-7)

Jet^[5] is a hard black semi-precious variety of lignite, capable of being carved and highly polished • [as modifier] jet beads.

1d   Religious group caught in position (4)

On cricket scorecards, the abbreviation c^[5] indicates caught (by) • ME Waugh c Lara b Walsh 19.

2d   A very quiet place for filming comedies is attracting interest (9)

Pianissimo (abbreviation pp)^[5] is a direction used in music to mean either (as an adjective) very soft or very quiet or (as an adverb) very softly or very quietly. Ealing Studios^[7] is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. It is the oldest continuously working studio facility for film production in the world, with films having been made on the site since 1902.

7d   Greater suffering encompasses the outskirts of Rheims (5)

Pommers says "Unless I’m missing the point here I don’t think this clue works properly as the word suffering seems to be doing double duty as part of the definition and the wordplay." I think greater can mean worse, as one could say either "greater suffering" or "worse suffering". In fact, if the definition were intended to be "greater suffering", then "worse" (as a noun) would hardly be a fit.

8d   Woman marrying for money — or JCB? (4,6)

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. JCB^[5] is a British trademark for a type of mechanical excavator with a shovel at the front and a digging arm at the rear • [as modifier] a JCB digger [the term comes from the initials of J. C. Bamford, the makers].

20d   Beacon designed to cover western plant (7)

Cicuta virosa (Cowbane^[7] or Northern Water Hemlock) is a species of Cicuta. This toxic, poisonous member of the parsley family (Apiaceae) is native to northern and central Europe, northern Asia and northwestern North America.

There has been some dispute whether it was a hemlock of the genus Cicuta or the genus Conium which was used in ancient Greece as state poison. This poison was administered as a method of capital punishment and certainly the Greek philosopher Socrates drank a cup of some kind of hemlock infusion at his execution in 399 BC. Cicuta virosa is however primarily a northern European species, rare or absent from the Mediterranean region, making its use in Greece unlikely.

21d   Cattle workers formed by origin of Dorking Wanderers (7)

Dorking^[7] is a historic market town at the foot of the North Downs approximately 25 miles (40 km) south of London, in Surrey, England. The Dorking Wanderers Football Club^[7], a member of the Sussex County Football League, is a relatively new team, only having been in existence since 1999. On the other hand, the Dorking Football Club^[7] (nicknamed The Chicks) of the Combined Counties Football League has been around since 1880. The Dorking^[7] is a breed of chicken that is believed to have originated in Italy during the period of the Roman Empire and was introduced in Britain at the time of the Roman conquest making it one of the oldest English breeds.

25d   Vacates pub, returning distressed (5)

Pommers comments "there is nothing to suggest that the answer is contained in the first two words of the clue". This was also my first reaction. However, I concluded that the clue must have been intended to be a type of all-in-one clue with "distressed" (in the whimsical cryptic sense of 'given a haircut') serving as the containment indicator. However, this seems to be a bit dubious as one would have to shear off the first four letters as well as the last letter from "vacaTES PUb" and then reverse what is left. I can only remember seeing this device ("distressed") used where a single letter is to be removed from each end of a string. Pommers comes up with a better explanation in Comment #22 at Big Dave's site, where he points out that ‘returning’ means ‘giving back’. When that substitution is made, the clue becomes "Vacates pub, giving back distressed", with "giving" serving as the containment indicator and "back" as the reversal indicator.

26d   Acting for the monarchy creates some resistance (4)

OHMS^[5], a designation that one might find on government correspondence in Britain, stands for On Her (or His) Majesty’s Service. The ohm^[5] is the SI unit of electrical resistance, transmitting a current of one ampere when subjected to a potential difference of one volt. (Symbol: Ω)

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