Tuesday, July 10, 2012 - DT 26849

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26849
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Setter Jay
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26849]
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 comments that "several of the clues have a distinctly US flavour" — in particular 16a, 4d, 6d, 7d, and 13d. Perhaps that explains why I was able to complete the puzzle without help from my electronic assistants.

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.

11a   Why a severe punishment? (4,3)

What for^[10] is an informal (probably British) term for a punishment or reprimand (especially in the phrase give a person what for). Whatfor^[7] (whom Pommers' has chosen to illustrate this clue) was a one-hit-wonder French band created for the second season of the popular French reality-TV show Popstars. The band had one single and one album each reach #1 on the French charts before the group disbanded 6 months after its launch.

13a   Inexperienced soldiers beset by information (5)

The Corps of Royal Engineers (RE)^[5] is the field engineering and construction corps of the British army. Gen^[5] is British slang for information • you’ve got more gen on him than we have.

5d   Second-rate crossword compiler cried about keeping love (8)

It is a common cryptic crossword convention for the creator of the puzzle to use terms such as setter, compiler, author, or writer to refer to himself or herself. To solve the clue, one must substitute a first person pronoun (I or me) for whichever of these terms has been used  in the clue.

Another cryptic crossword convention equates the word "love" to the letter O — although the association is somewhat indirect. In tennis, squash, and some other sports, love^[5] is a score of zero or nil • love fifteen. The resemblance of a zero written as a number (0) to the letter O leads to the cryptic crossword device of love equating to O.

6d   Cotton belt’s first alcoholic drink (4)

The Cotton Belt^[7] is a term applied to a region of the southern United States where cotton was the predominant cash crop from the late 18th century into the 20th century. As Pommers points out in his review, in the US, a bale^[10] is 500 pounds of cotton.

13d   Shifts clobber before staff realises, finally (4-6)

In Britain, the lever used to engage or change gear in a motor vehicle is called a gear lever^[5,10] whereas in North America it would be known as a gearshift^[5,10]. Oxford Dictionaries indicates that gearstick^[5] is merely an alternative term for gear lever. However, Collins English Dictionary is a bit schizophrenic on the point. In one entry, it has gear stick^[10] as the US equivalent to the British term gear lever while, in a second entry, it seems to imply that gear stick^[10] is another term for gear lever.

There is no ambiguity about clobber^[5]. In Britain, it is an informal term for clothing, personal belongings, or equipment • I found all his clobber in the locker.

24d   Channel island area and state (4)

The Isle of Wight (IOW)^[5], an English county since 1974, is an island off the south coast of England, lying at the entrance to Southampton Water and separated from the mainland by the Solent and Spithead.

The Channel Islands^[5] are a group of islands in the English Channel off the NW coast of France, of which the largest are Jersey, Guernsey, and Alderney. Formerly part of the dukedom of Normandy, they have owed allegiance to England since the Norman Conquest in 1066, and are now classed as Crown dependencies.

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