Tuesday, October 9, 2012 - DT 26927

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26927
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26927]
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

Today's offering from Jay made its appearance in The Daily Telegraph during the Olympic Torch Relay in the UK, so 20a was most apropos at the time. It alludes to the usual pre-games hand-wringing over fears that venues would not be ready and that events would not go well. As we now know, it turned out to be a spectacular show.

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.

13a   Issue oddly following cat worship (7)

The phrase "issue oddly" indicates that we are to use the odd-numbered letters of the word "issue" (i.e., the first, third and fifth letters).

14a   Dear sort of cotton with seamless finish (5)

Duck^[5] is  a strong linen or cotton fabric, used chiefly for work clothes and sails ⇒ cotton duck. Duck or ducks^[5] is used in Britain, especially among cockneys, as an informal or affectionate form of address meaning dear or darling ⇒ (i) it’s time you changed, my duck; (ii) where’ve yer been, ducks!.

24a   Worker taken on by mainly ecofriendly recipient of deed of transfer (7)

In Crosswordland, work is frequently performed by an ant —  although occasionally a bee does help out. Other members of work crews that are sometimes seen are men and hands.

27a   Dispose of a pretty cold prehistoric creature (11)

Here, I would guess that dispose^[5] is used in the sense of to arrange in a particular position ⇒ the chief disposed his attendants in a circle. If so, the word "of" would seem to be superfluous.

5d   Beast regularly pulls in bar (7)

The phrase "regularly pulls" indicates a regular sequence of letters taken from the word "pulls". This usually means either the sequence of odd-numbered letters or (as in today's clue) the sequence of even-numbered letters. However, I have (on at least one occasion) seen this clue structure used to mean every third letter. Unlike 13a where the indicator "oddly" clearly specifies which sequence of letters to use, the indicator "regularly" is not at all specific as to which particular sequence of letters to use.

7d   Deadly serious Australian workman? (5-6)

In Australia and New Zealand, digger is an informal term (often used as a friendly form of address) for a man, especially a private soldier ⇒ how are you, Digger?. The expression dates to the early 20th century and derives from digger 'miner', reinforced by association with the digging of trenches on the battlefields.

8d   Nuclear spies returned holding Jerry’s adversary (6)

Tom and Jerry^[7] is a series of theatrical animated cartoon films created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, centering on a never-ending rivalry between a cat (Tom) and a mouse (Jerry) whose chases and battles often involved comic violence (despite this they sometimes become allies to defeat a 'greater enemy' such as Spike the dog).

11d   Sister wrongly arrested by copper’s determination (11)

In Britain, pence^[5] is a plural form of penny. Oxford advises that both pence and pennies have existed as plural forms of penny since at least the 16th century. The two forms now tend to be used for different purposes: pence refers to sums of money (five pounds and sixty-nine pence) while pennies refers to the coins themselves (I left two pennies on the table).

21d   Time invested in water supply service (6)

Matins^[5] is a Christian service of morning prayer, especially in the Anglican Church.

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