Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - DT 26746

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26746
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26746]
Big Dave's Review Written By Prolixic
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

The plethora of relatively obscure British references in this puzzle would surely add a star or two to the difficulty level for solvers on this side of the Atlantic. Despite that, I was able to work out many of the solutions without understanding, in some cases, the wordplay or, in other cases, the surface meaning. It is a bit eerie when I pull British terms like Autocue out of thin air, having never encountered them before!

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   Attempt to get one’s own way with nasty trinket first (5,9)

A charm offensive^[10] is a concentrated attempt to gain favour or respectability by conspicuously cooperative or obliging behaviour. I discerned the first word quite readily, but the second word was a long time coming to me.

9a   Teleprompter showing report of traffic jam (7)

Although this British term is new to me, I managed to guess it from the wordplay. Autocue^[5] is a British trademark for a device which projects an enlarged image of a script on to a clear glass screen in front of a person speaking on television or in public, so enabling the speaker to read their speech while appearing to be looking at the viewers or audience. The wordplay in this homophone clue is sounds like (report of) AUTO QUEUE (traffic jam; "a line of cars" to quote Prolixic).

10a   Soft toy rabbit (7)

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. In Britain, rabbit^[5] is an informal term meaning to talk at length, especially about trivial matters • stop rabbiting on, will you, and go to bed!. It is also used as a noun meaning a conversation • we had quite a heated rabbit about it. The origin of this expression is rabbit and pork, rhyming slang for 'talk' [where 'pork' would seemingly be pronounced so as to rhyme with 'talk' in the Cockney area of East London].

11a   Metallic thread not unknown in angler’s fly (4)

Yet another (presumably) British trademark that I was able to guess. Lurex^[5] is a trademark for a type of yarn or fabric which incorporates a glittering metallic thread • [as modifier] a green lurex dress.

12a   11 fields unexpectedly in bloom (5-2-3)

A numeric figure in a clue usually (but not always, as we shall see later in the puzzle) denotes a cross reference. Here we must substitute the solution to clue 11 (since there is only one clue numbered 11 in today's puzzle, it is not necessary to specify the direction of the clue) for the cross reference indicator. Thus the clue becomes "Lure fields unexpectedly in bloom". I can't say that I find the surface reading to be great - either before or after performing the substitution.

15a   Tobacco tin with flower on the side (8)

Canaster^[10] is coarsely broken dried tobacco leaves.

17a   Nothing missing from note I bash out for the missus (8)

Memsahib^[5] is a term used in India for a married white or upper-class woman (often used as a respectful form of address by non-whites).

21a   French novelist second to go on about limits of ripening cheese (10)

Émile Zola^[7] (1840 – 1902) was a French writer who was a major figure in the political liberalization of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J'Accuse.

24a   Difficult journey with Blatter taking in Switzerland against Luxembourg (7)

Joseph S. Blatter^[7], commonly known as Sepp ("Giuseppe") Blatter, is a Swiss football [soccer] administrator, who is the current President of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association). Despite winning four terms as President, Blatter has often been dogged by controversy and allegations of corruption. The International Vehicle Registration Code (IVR) for Switzerland is CH^[5] [from French Confédération Helvétique 'Swiss Confederation'] and that for Luxembourg is L^[5].

25a   Nice green I go in dizzy attack (7)

Nice^[7], located on the south east coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea, is the second-largest French city on the Mediterranean coast after Marseille and the fifth most populous city in France. Vert^[9] is the French word for green.

1d   A Poet Laureate appearing in outstanding feature on ‘Sir Bruce Forsyth — Comedy Great’ (7)

Charlie Chaplin^[7] (1889 – 1977) was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. Sir Bruce Forsyth is an English TV personality known for his exceptionally large chin.

2d   Champion hit with mysterious torpor capturing hearts for appearing human (15)

This clue contains a rather unusual anagram. The end result is an anagram of {CHAMPION + TORPOR} which is then wrapped around (capturing) H (hearts). However, the route to this result is not so straight forward. We actually seem to start with an anagram (mysterious) of TORPOR which hits CHAMPION (like a bowling ball hitting the pins) causing the letters of the already rearranged TORPOR to become intermixed with those of the now scrambled CHAMPION.

7d   Significant numbers consumed by Page 3? (5,10)

As we saw, the numeric figure in 12a is a cross reference indicator. However, that is not the case in this clue. The Sun^[7], a daily national tabloid newpaper owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, has the largest circulation of any daily newspaper in the United Kingdom. A sister publication to the disgraced and now defunct News of the World^[7], it is widely known for its Page 3 featuring pictures of topless girls in risqué poses (accompanied by a listing of their 'vital statistics').

8d   Y-reg Seat half rebuilt in spring (6)

It took nearly as long to decipher the surface reading of this clue as it did to solve the puzzle. Seat (although the company seems to prefer this to be spelled as SEAT^[7]) is a Spanish automobile manufacturer that is a wholly owned subsidiary of the German Volkswagen Group. It seems that Y-reg is short for 'Y registration' and indicates a vehicle first registered during the period March 1 to August 31, 2001. In the UK, vehicle registration plates^[7] (which generally stay on a vehicle for its lifetime) include, as part of the vehicle registration number, an age identification code. Thus by merely looking at the plate, one can tell (within a six-month window) when the vehicle was first registered and thus the age of the vehicle.

13d   Education Secretary claims new team working to make progress (3,1,4,2)

Michael Gove^[7] is a British politician, who currently serves as the Secretary of State for Education.

19d   Strait formed by two rivers on the edge of Oxfordshire engaged in swan-upping (7)

Swan-upping^[5] is the annual practice of catching the swans on the River Thames and marking them to indicate ownership by the Crown or a corporation. Oxfordshire^[5] is a county of south central England.

23d   Brother down south seen now and again in Burberry (4)

Burberry Group plc^[7] is a British luxury fashion house, manufacturing clothing, fragrance, and fashion accessories. It is known for its distinctive tartan pattern as well as its iconic trench coat, which was invented by founder Thomas Burberry. HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH The Prince of Wales have granted the company Royal Warrants.

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