Tuesday, June 12, 2012 - DT 26823

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26823
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, March 26, 2012
Setter Rufus
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26823]
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 26822 which was published in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, March 24, 2012

Introduction

A new British term eluded me today. It did turn up on a list of words matching the checking letters – but I was too lazy to look up the meaning of every word on the list.

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.

9a   No curates should take her out (9)

This would seem to be a semi-all-in-one clue, where the entire clue constitutes a cryptic definition. There is clearly an anagram of NO CURATES contained in the clue, but it is difficult to say what the anagram indicator may be.

10a   Sign of resistance in Spanish port (5)

In physics, R^[5] is the symbol used for electrical resistance. Vigo^[5] is a city on the Atlantic Ocean in Galicia, north-west Spain.

11a   Passes out at college (6)

In Britain, an exeat^[5] is a permission from a college, boarding school, or other institution for temporary absence.

12a   They won’t stand for their instruments being played (8)

I managed to recover from an initial entry of HARPISTS.

5d   Fell Race entrant who didn’t win? (6-2)

A fell^[5] is a hill or stretch of high moorland, especially in northern England.

6d   Poor house for student near Brighton (5)

Hove^[7] is a town on the south coast of England, immediately to the west of its larger neighbour Brighton. The cryptic crossword convention of L meaning learner or student arises from the L-plate^[7], a square plate bearing a sans-serif letter L, for learner, which must be affixed to the front and back of a vehicle in various countries (including the UK) if its driver is a learner under instruction.

22d   One can’t imagine being without them (5)

My first thought here was a bad idea! I put in MINDS without really thinking it through. I should have realized that "one" can't have two minds (although one can certainly be of two minds). I finally twigged to my error after struggling with 21a for some time.

25d   Weekend I’ve arranged in Russian city (4)

For the cryptic reading, one needs to interpret "weekend" as if it were two words, with the final (end) letter of "week" being K.

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