Monday, July 30, 2012 - DT 26866

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26866
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26866]
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
Notes This puzzle appears on the Monday Diversions page in the Saturday, July 28, 2012 edition of the National Post.

Introduction

This puzzle from an unknown setter appears to have received Gazza's seal of approval.

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.

7a   Rather inferior wine I bottled, rouge with no body (8)

Médoc^[5] is a red wine (or rouge^[2] ) produced in Médoc, the area along the left bank of the Gironde estuary in SW France.

10a   Spirits supplied by good landlords (6)

In Britain, a man who keeps a pub is known as a landlord^[5]. Mine host^[5]. is a humorous reference to the landlord or landlady of a pub • mine host raised his glass of whisky.

11a   Singular person who amuses perfectionist (8)

Although there is nothing very difficult about this clue, it seems that it just did not tickle my thought processes sufficiently to produce a solution. Singular, as a grammatical term, is abbreviated s^[5].

12a   Book a week in it, local resort (1,4,4,5)

A Town Like Alice^[7] (U.S. title: The Legacy) is a novel by the British-Australian author Nevil Shute. The novel was adapted to film in 1956 as A Town Like Alice. It starred Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch, directed by Jack Lee. This film was known as Rape of Malaya in U.S. cinemas, and by various other titles in non-English-speaking countries.

15a   Woodhouse or Wodehouse finally married academic (4)

Emma Woodhouse^[7] is the 20-year old protagonist of Jane Austen's novel Emma. Wodehouse^[7] is an English surname, the best-known holder of which is likely English humour writer P.G. Wodehouse^[7].

19a   Some basket chairs, etc, hard to carve (4)

If you fail to see the solution hidden (some) in baskET CHairs, you get a second chance in ETC, Hard.

27a   See rubbish leading to cave (6)

Grot is British slang for something unpleasant, dirty, or of poor quality • they watch endless grot on telly [television]. Reggie Perrin (mentioned in Gazza's review) is the title character in the 1970s BBC sitcom The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (reprised as Reggie Perrin^[7] in 2009-2010). The series is based on a novel of the same name (after being retitled to match the name of the television series) by English comedy writer David Nobbs. The story concerns a middle-aged middle manager, Reggie Perrin, who is driven to bizarre behaviour by the pointlessness of his job as a sales executive at Sunshine Desserts. After being fired from this job, Reggie "opens a shop called Grot, where he sells useless products like square hoops, round dice and Tom's wine (made from sprouts, nettles and the like) hoping it will be an interesting failure. However, the products are snapped up as novelties, and Grot becomes a huge success."

There was a minor controversy at Big Dave's site regarding the word "See" in the clue. As I see it, if you see a synonym for rubbish in front of (leading) TO as being another name for a cave, then you will have found the solution. Should you not see this, then you will be left with some blank squares in the grid.

3d   River Trent’s banks? (4)

The Tees^[5] is a river of NE England which rises in Cumbria and flows 128 km (80 miles) generally south-eastwards to the North Sea at Middlesbrough. The Trent^[5] is the chief river of central England, which rises in Staffordshire and flows 275 km (170 miles) generally north-eastwards, uniting with the River Ouse 25 km (15 miles) west of Hull to form the Humber estuary.

4d  Pottery in Russian vehicle (6)

I interpretted pottery^[5] to be used here in the sense of a factory or workshop where pottery is made • a visit to a Staffordshire pottery. Troika^[7] was an art pottery operating in Cornwall from 1963 to 1983. Troika, as Gazza interprets it, can also refer to the pottery that was produced by this studio — which are now apparently considered to be antique ceramics and sought after by collectors.

5d   Rebound causing defender to shoot (8)

A back^[5] is a player in a team game who plays in a defensive position behind the forwards • their backs showed some impressive running and passing. This definition applies to games such as association football (soccer) and field hockey, but not to North American football where there are both offensive and defensive backs (who alternately take the field depending on which team has possession of the ball). In hockey (ice hockey for the Brits), the equivalent position is called a defenceman (in both men's and women's hockey).

6d   Conservative writer? Correct (4-6)

In Britain, as in Canada, blue is the colour associated with the Conservative party — although it would, no doubt, have been more accurate to phrase this the other way around.

13d   Stolen jewellery? Nonsense (10)

I managed to come up with the correct solution — without knowing why. Tomfoolery (often shortened to tom; rhyming slang)^[1] means jewellery, especially stolen jewellery [obviously a British usage].

14d   Latest in dock 19 is a two-master (5)

The number "19" is a cross-reference indicator. To complete the clue, insert the solution to 19a (the only entry starting on the square numbered 19) in place of the cross-reference indicator.

18d   Old man, leader of Hallé and American orchestra (7)

The Hallé^[7] is a symphony orchestra based in Manchester, England.

26d   Chapter about origin of wedding band (4)

While, in general, either c.^[2] or ch^[2] are accepted as abbreviations for chapter, only one is valid today.

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