Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - DT 26910

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26910
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, July 5, 2012
Setter Ray T (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26910]
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

Introduction

For Ray T fans, there is a lot to enjoy in this puzzle which leans a bit toward the less difficult end of the scale.

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   Analytical detective approaches questioning (10)

A detective inspector (DI)^[5] is a senior police officer in the UK. Within the British police, inspector^[7] is the second supervisory rank. It is senior to that of sergeant, but junior to that of chief inspector. Plain-clothes detective inspectors are equal in rank to their uniformed counterparts, the prefix 'detective' identifying them as having been trained in criminal investigation and being part of or attached to their force's Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

11a   Keep subdued melody following return of Queen (8)

Queen Elizabeth's initials are ER^[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina.

12a   Criminal swindle — then never-ending bird (6)

In Britain, do^[5] is an informal term for swindle ⇒ a thousand pounds for one set of photos—Jacqui had been done.

18a   A battle fixing toilet after flood (8)

The Battle of Waterloo^[7] was fought on Sunday, 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. An Imperial French army under the command of Emperor Napoleon was defeated by the armies of the Seventh Coalition, comprising an Anglo-Allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington combined with a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard von Blücher. It was the culminating battle of the Waterloo Campaign and Napoleon's last. The defeat at Waterloo ended his rule as Emperor of the French, marking the end of his Hundred Days return from exile.

Loo^[5] is an informal British term for a toilet.

2d   Active soldier, bitter outside (5)

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

3d   Game delivery round wicket by English (9)

A delivery^[5] is an act of throwing, bowling, or kicking a ball, especially a cricket ball ⇒ he reached 59 runs off only 42 deliveries. However, in the cryptic reading, wicket is not a cricket term. A wicket^[5] (also wicket door or wicket gate) is a small door or gate, especially one beside or in a larger one. In North America, the term wicket is also used for  an opening in a door or wall, often fitted with glass or a grille and used for selling tickets or a similar purpose.

Bagatelle^[10] can be either of two games; (1) a game in which small balls are hit and then allowed to roll down a sloping board on which there are holes, each numbered with the score achieved if a ball goes into it, with pins acting as obstructions^[5] (also known as pinball^[10]) and (2) bar billiards^[10], a table game played in British pubs, etc, in which short cues are used to pocket balls into holes scoring various points and guarded by wooden pegs that incur penalties if they are knocked over.

4d   Chest of a divine being — that’ll get a 10! (6)

In Norse mythology, Thor^[7] is the god of thunder (among other things). As alluded to by Gazza in his comments, this puzzle appeared in the UK on Thursday^[7], the name of which is derived from Old English Þūnresdæg and Middle English Thuresday, which means "Thor's day".

5d   Electorate in end settled for political alliance (7,8)

An entente (also known as an entente cordiale)^[5] is a friendly understanding or informal alliance between states or factions ⇒ the emperor hoped to bring about an entente with Russia. The Entente Cordiale was an understanding between Britain and France reached in 1904, forming the basis of Anglo-French cooperation in the First World War.

7d   Oasis or Nirvana dropping Ecstasy (5)

Oasis^[7] were an English rock band, formed in Manchester in 1991, that came to an acrimonious end near Paris in 2009. Nirvana^[7] was an American rock band, formed in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987, that came to a tragic end in Seattle, Washington in 1994.

8d   Telegraph line? (9)

The Daily Telegraph^[7] (in which this puzzle appeared in Britain) is a daily morning broadsheet conservative-leaning newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. It is the sister paper of The Sunday Telegraph^[7]. The papers are run separately with different editorial staff, but there is some cross-usage of stories, and the two titles share a website.

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