Tuesday, July 3, 2012 -DT 26843

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26843
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Setter Jay
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26843]
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

I was feeling rather smug with my performance – until I saw that Pommers had awarded today's puzzle only a single star for difficulty. Not only is this quite an easy puzzle, but it is relatively devoid of Briticisms.

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.

4a   Reserves unlikely retail outlet (9)

Bookstall^[5] is a chiefly British name for a stand where books and sometimes newspapers are sold, especially out of doors or at a railway station.

9a   Scoop in which soldiers replace former lover wanting to be alone (9)

The Corps of Royal Engineers (RE)^[5] is the field engineering and construction corps of the British army.

10a   Regularly taunt poor person providing instruction (5)

The word "regularly" can indicated either the series of even-numbered letters or (as in this clue) the series of odd-numbered letters. The solver is left to determine which series is intended. Regular series of letters can also be indicated by the words "oddly" and "evenly" – which, of course, leave absolutely no doubt as to which series is intended.

11a   Runs circuits in case of extreme deterioration in health (7)

On cricket scorecards [or in a baseball box score], R^[5] is used as an abbreviation for run(s).

12a   Constricted by muscular affliction? (7)

Although Pommers identifies this as a double definition, I don't see it as such (but I could well be wrong) since I would think that a "muscular affliction" would be a cramp not cramped. I would call it a cryptic definition (which, in fact, seems to be signalled by the question mark) which plays on the two meanings of cramp. For the clue to be a double definition, I would suggest that it would need to be phrased along the lines of "Constricted suffering muscular afflication".

23a   Area of church making gambler change sides, finally (7)

Chancer^[5] is British slang for a person who exploits any opportunity to further their own ends • Prague was full of young chancers, bored with the City.

1d   Pictures of, say, Liverpool river as it develops (9)

Liverpool^[5] is a city and seaport in NW England, situated at the east side of the mouth of the River Mersey. Liverpool developed as a port in the 17th century with the import of cotton from America and the export of textiles produced in Lancashire and Yorkshire, and in the 18th century became an important centre of shipbuilding and engineering.

3d   Announce utter chaos surrounding elected member (7)

An "elected member" in Britain [or Canada, for that matter] would be an MP^[5] or, in full, a Member of Parliament.

5d   Finished article in bed: ‘What Not to Wear!’ (8)

The word crib^[5], meaning a child’s bed, is chiefly a North American usage – the usual British name being cot^[5]. Thus Pommers reference to "a child’s bed" in his review.

7d   A new suggestion on poems in Australia for example (9)

In general, antipodes^[3] are any two places or regions that are on diametrically opposite sides of the earth. In the UK, Australia and New Zealand are known as the Antipodes^[5] since these countries are located diametrically opposite Britain on the globe.

8d   Attracted by endless plum wine, for example (5)

If you think that a word (such as "plum") has a beginning and an end, then you probably had trouble with this clue. If, on the other hand, you think that a word has a front end and a back end, then you likely saw the wordplay fairly readily.

19d   A small capacity left to cover America’s charge (7)

A cubic centimetre (cc)^[5] is a unit of volume in the metric system.

23d   Pack diamonds into vehicles (5)

Appropriately enough, the abbreviation D applies to diamonds as a suit in a deck of cards.

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