Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - DT 26886

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26886
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, June 7, 2012
Setter Ray T (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26886]
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 has nearly pushed the meters off the scale with his enthusiasm for this puzzle. He says this puzzle was "... the best fun I’ve had with my clothes on!". So the enjoyment level may fall a bit short of the experience of a certain young prince recently.

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   Compiler’s getting stick about hobby (7)

As we saw only yesterday, 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 such a clue, one must usually substitute a first person pronoun (I or me) for whichever of these terms has been used  in the clue. Today, the setter complicates matters a tad by requiring us to insert I'm (I am) in place of compiler's (compiler is).

10a   Model bird going after caress (7)

Having obtained the first and third letters of the solution from the checking letters, I was expecting a rather more passionate caress!

While, in Britain, bird^[5] can be an informal term for a young woman or a man’s girlfriend, this meaning seems rather unlikely in the surface reading of this clue.

15a   Time demand, with no time to waste (9)

I was able to figure out the "time" part and also understood the working of the "no time" part. I just could not think of the right meaning for waste until I called in my electronic help. Even then, I likely came up with a different explanation than did Pommers. As a meaning for waste^[5], I believe he may have used to deliberately dispose of (surplus stock) • 20% of stock will need to be wasted. On the other hand, I assumed that it must mean to kill or severely injure (someone) • I saw them waste the guy I worked for. However, Oxford Dictionaries characterises this latter usage as being North American, so it may be an unlikely possibility.

17a   Stew of scouse, late, endlessly stewed (9)

A Scouse^[4] is (1) a person who lives in or comes from Liverpool, England or (2) the dialect spoken by such a person. In the Liverpool dialect, scouse^[4] is a stew made from left-over meat.

19a   Second tea or perhaps a coffee (5)

In the UK, mo^[5] is an informal term for a short period of time (hang on a mo!) [abbreviation of moment]. In Britain, tea may informally be called char^[5] (or cha or chai).

25a   Redhead consumed by bust size (7)

This clue requires one to separate "redhead" into fodder (red) and indicator (head) from which we are to decipher that the setter means the first (head) letter of Red. A similar construct that we often see is "sweetheart" which indicates the middle (heart) of swEet.

26a   Missionary position? It’s bitter outside! (7)

In Britain, bitter^[5] is beer that is strongly flavoured with hops and has a bitter taste : a pint of bitter.

2d   Country, not a large country (7)

In his review, Pommers refers to Australia as "a large antipodean country". The Antipodes^[5] is an informal name for Australia and New Zealand. This expression makes sense in Britain, as Australia and New Zealand are located approximately diametrically opposite Britain on the globe. The expression seems to have been transported to North America with no consideration for it lack of logic here.

4d   Make water stay under small flower (9)

Speedwell^[5] is a small creeping herbaceous plant of the genus Veronica found in north temperate regions, with small blue or pink flowers.

5d   Skip about on exercise run (5)

PE^[5] is the abbreviation for Physical Education.

7d   One continental eastern area notionally including Australia initially (7)

This is an & lit.^[7] (or all-in-one) clue in which the entire clue is both the definition and (when interpreted differently) provides the wordplay.

8d   Devout about to support wrong Church (7)

The Church of England (abbreviation CE)^[10] is the reformed established state Church in England, Catholic in order and basic doctrine, with the Sovereign as its temporal head.

17d   Charlie and chicks for groups (7)

Charlie^[5] is a code word representing the letter C, used in radio communication.

18d   Beat donkey after drink round river (7)

As a verb, sup^[5] is a dated or Northern English term meaning to take (drink or liquid food) by sips or spoonfuls • (i) she supped up her soup delightedly; (ii) he was supping straight from the bottle. As a noun, it means (1) a sip of liquid • he took another sup of wine or (2) in Northern England or Ireland, an alcoholic drink • the latest sup from those blokes at the brewery.

21d   She could be recast by head of studio (7)

I think this is a semi & lit. clue (as opposed to 7d which was a true & lit.). The entire clue constitutes the definition, but I don't think that the word "she" is considered to be part of the wordplay. Since not all of the words in the clue are used in both the definition and the wordplay it is not a true & lit. clue — but it certainly comes awfully close to being one.

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