Monday, April 23, 2012 - DT 26782

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26782
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26782]
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

Today's puzzle does not present too much of a challenge. I did think that the surface readings were very smooth, although fairly easy to see through for the most part.

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   Shy drunkard comes back with son (4)

This meaning of "shy" was new to me when we saw it recently on Friday, April 6 in DT 26769. As I said then, the meaning does appear in dictionaries from both Britain and North America. The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as to fling or throw (something) with a swift motion^[3], Collins English Dictionary to throw (something) with a sideways motion^[4], and the Oxford Dictionary of English to fling or throw (something) at a target • he tore the spectacles off and shied them at her^[5].

10a   Leave Detective Inspector with article in private (9)

A detective inspector (DI)^[5] is a senior police officer in the UK.

Within the British police, inspector^[7] is the second supervisory rank. It is senior to that of sergeant, but junior to that of chief inspector. Plain-clothes detective inspectors are equal in rank to their uniformed counterparts, the prefix 'detective' identifying them as having been trained in criminal investigation and being part of or attached to their force's Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

In general, a sapper^[5] is a soldier responsible for tasks such as building and repairing roads and bridges, laying and clearing mines, etc.. In Britain specifically, the term is used for a private soldier in the Corps of Royal Engineers (RE)^[5], the field engineering and construction corps of the British army. 

12a   Caesar perhaps appears regularly in troubled Rome (7)

This anagram of Rome could equally well have been clued as a reversal of Rome.

15a   Left with last bit of dignity after madman loses head completely (7)

Nutter^[5] is British slang for a mad or eccentric person.

21a   Add in evidence about daughter (7)

In case you're puzzled by Gazza's parenthetical mention of "the sort a SOCO looks for", SOCO^[5] is an acronym used in British meaning scene-of-crime officer.

27a   Tiger ate nuts after initially cutting snout (9)

If you were like me, you were able to solve this clue even without prior knowledge that snout^[5] is British slang for a cigarette.

2d   Chippy — go in after fish (9)

As Gazza tells us, chippy^[5] (also chippie) may be used in Britain as an informal term meaning either (1) a fish-and-chip shop • there used to be a good chippy down the back of Albert Street or (2) a carpenter. Interestingly, I was familiar with these meanings from previous crosswords. However, I was not aware that chippy is North American slang for a promiscuous young woman, especially a prostitute. Now doesn't that open up some intriguing possibilities for trans-Atlantic confusion should a Brit mention having engaged a chippy to perform some services!

3d   Prime Minister rises following second snooze (5)

Sir Robert Peel^[5] (1788–1850) was a British Conservative statesman who was Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1834-1835 and again from 1841-1846. As Home Secretary (1828–1830) he established the Metropolitan Police (hence the nicknames bobby and peeler for police officers in Britain).

20d   We rest a high jumper (7)

In Britain, a jumper^[5] is a knitted garment typically with long sleeves, worn over the upper body (in North American terms, a sweater). What we would call a jumper, the Brits would call a pinafore^[5] (a collarless sleeveless dress worn over a blouse or [British] jumper [i.e., North American sweater]). Thus if a British lass wore a pinafore over her jumper and a North American girl wore a jumper over her sweater, they would be dressed identically.

I wonder if the garment shown in Gazza's illustration really qualifies as a jumper. It does seem to have long sleeves, but methinks it may fall a bit short in covering the upper body!

21d  One caught diving bird coming up for something to eat? (7)

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

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