Monday, August 20, 2012 - DT 26884

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26884
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26884]
Big Dave's Review Written By Crypticsue
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

Having completed the puzzle without assistance, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it rated three stars for difficulty from Crypticsue. I did take quite some time to establish a starting point. I think that I had no more than two or three solutions following the first read through.

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   Preliminary entertainment with a jolly at college (4-2)

Jolly^[4] is British slang for a member of the Royal Marines (RM)^[5], a British armed service (part of the Royal Navy) founded in 1664, trained for service at sea, or on land under specific circumstances.

In Britain, up^[5] means at or to a university, especially Oxford or Cambridge : they were up at Cambridge about the same time.

8d   Flattery from gentle older citizen defending son (4,4)

In Britain, OAP^[5] is an abbreviation for old-age pensioner.

11a   One revered actor on radio (4)

This would have been my first clue solved had I gotten the correct answer. I was certain that the solution was IDOL (one revered) which actually sounds like the surname of British actor Eric Idle (of Monty Python fame).

Once that idea was shot down by solutions to the intersecting clues, I did manage to come up with the right answer but I had no idea how to explain the wordplay. It slipped my mind that in Britain the word "Thor" – pronounced with a soft British R – would sound very much like the word "thaw". In any event, I was not familiar with the English actor or any of the programs that he appeared in.

In Scandinavian mythology, Thor^[5] is the god of thunder, the weather, agriculture, and the home, the son of Odin and Freya (Frigga). Thursday is named after him.

John Thaw^[7] (1942 – 2002) was an English actor, who appeared in a range of television, stage and cinema roles, his most popular being police and legal dramas such as Redcap, The Sweeney, Home to Roost, Inspector Morse and Kavanagh QC.

12a   Companion with idiot largely stuck in river getting condition from dampness? (6,4)

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.

A Companion of Honour (abbreviation CH) is a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour^[7], an order of the Commonwealth realms^[7] founded by King George V in June 1917 as a reward for outstanding achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry or religion.

20a   Street by harsh Northern town reportedly offering fruit (10)

Bury (pronounced 'berry') is a town in Greater Manchester, England.

23a   Thick piece around lunchtime for squirrel (8)

It seems that the customary time for lunch in Britain is 1:00 p.m.

25a   Issue in which say a body of engineers needs backing (6)

The engineers today are not the usual Corps of Royal Engineers (RE)^[5] (the field engineering and construction corps of the British army) but the Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME; pronounced phonetically as "Reemee")^[7], a corps of the British Army that has responsibility for the maintenance, servicing and inspection of almost every electrical and mechanical piece of equipment within the British Army from battle tanks and helicopters to dental tools and cooking equipment/utensils.

5d   Estate maybe with line by the sound of it providing support for TV presenters (7)

In Britain, a station wagon^[5] is known as an estate car^[5] (which is often shortened to just estate^[5]), a line or sequence of people or vehicles awaiting their turn to be attended to or to proceed is called a queue^[5], and a television or radio host or anchor is a presenter^[5]. Autocue^[5] is the British name for a teleprompter^[5], a device which projects an enlarged image of a script on to a clear glass screen in front of a person speaking on television or in public, so enabling the speaker to read their speech while appearing to be looking at the viewers or audience.

14d   Impression made by English students’ event with French wine included (9)

In Britain, rag (usually used as a modifier) is a programme of stunts, parades, and other entertainments organized by students to raise money for charity • rag week.

Vin^[8] is the French word for wine.

15d   Area supporting leading Lib Dem in a familiar way? (8)

The Liberal Democrats (Lib Dem) are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which was formed in 1988 by a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party. Following the 2010 general election, in which no party achieved an overall majority, the Liberal Democrats formed a coalition government with the Conservatives, with Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg becoming Deputy Prime Minister and other Liberal Democrats taking up ministerial positions.

The person mentioned in the clue as being a "leading Lib Dem" is not the leader of the party, but rather Vince Cable^[7] who is currently the Business Secretary.

19d   Look up in support of good man and actress (6)

Meryl Streep^[7] is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television, and film.

21d   Peculiar media boss on the way up? Object (5)

Rum^[5] is dated British slang meaning odd or peculiar.

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