Monday, December 31, 2012 - DT 26998

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26998
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26998]
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
Notes This puzzle appears on the Monday Diversions page in the Monday, December 31, 2012 edition of the National Post.

Introduction

I hope that you noticed two puzzles are included in today's edition of the National Post. I sat down to write today's review only to discover that I had solved tomorrow's puzzle. Luckily today's puzzle was much the easier of the two and I was able to knock it off in rather quick fashion.

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.

5a   What cricketers might do, say? (7)

In general, the objective of each team in cricket^[7] is to score more runs than the opposing team. However, in Test cricket (a match between national teams), it is not only necessary to score the most runs but also to dismiss the opposition twice in order to win the match, which would otherwise be drawn. Therefore, the captain of a batting team which has built up a large lead may declare the innings closed prematurely in order to allow the opposition to bat (and thus gain an opportunity to dismiss them). As a captain, the key to victory is picking the right time to declare. Should he declare too early, the other team may score more runs than his team has amassed and thereby win. On the other hand, if he were to declare too late, the match may end before his team can dismiss the other team (resulting in a draw, even though his team may have a substantial lead in runs).

12a   Private meal with no starter (5)

Starter^[5] is a chiefly British term (but certainly one not unheard in Canada) meaning the first course of a meal.

17a   One who gives orders, upset nerd (9)

There is a rule for solving cryptic crosswords that says that punctuation in a clue is to be ignored. Of course, there is an exception to every rule. Here the wordplay is COMMA (,) + NDER {an anagram (upset) of NERD}.

19a   Bottle never drunk (5)

The entire clue could be regarded as a cryptic definition. In fact, I spotted that before the anagram became apparent. In Britain, bottle^[5] is a slang term for the courage or confidence needed to do something difficult or dangerous ⇒ I lost my bottle completely and ran.

26a   Scoffing servicemen get old in dispatch (7)

A mess^[3] may be either (1) a group of people, usually soldiers or sailors, who regularly eat meals together; (2) food or a meal served to such a group; or (3) a mess hall.

27a   What brides might put on  grooms (7)

It may appear that the underlining in Gazza's hint encompasses the entire clue. However, this is an artifact of WordPress (the blogging software used by Big Dave) in which two adjacent blocks of underlined text appear to run together.

28a   Regret impertinent talk about heads of department needing education (7)

As Gazza mentions, sass^[5] is a North American term for impudence or cheek. The Brits would say sauce^[5]. As an aside, in British cookery, sauce is used only in the sense of a liquid or semi-liquid substance served with food to add moistness and flavour ⇒ (i) tomato sauce; (ii) the stock cubes can be added to soups and sauces. The alternative meaning of stewed fruit, especially apples, eaten as dessert or used as a garnish is apparently a purely North American usage.

1d   Loaded rifles the law destroy in the end (7)

Rifle^[5] is used in the sense of to search through something in a hurried way in order to find or steal something ⇒ (i) she rifled through the cassette tapes; (ii) [with object] she rifled the house for money. The word rifle carries the connotation that the search is done in such a manner as to leave the items rifled in a disorganized state.

4d   Put on knitted jumper for media (9)

Knit^[5] can mean to unite or cause to unite ⇒ (i) [no object] disparate regions had begun to knit together under the king; (ii) [with object] the experience knitted the men together. From this, one can certainly easily see how this could indicate that one is to concatenate the words "jumper for media". However, it is more difficult to see that this necessarily indicates that there is a hidden word present. The secret is to interpret the clue as "a word meaning ‘put on’ joined together the phrase ‘jumper for media’" (as eXternal points out in a comment at Big Dave's site).

16d   Noel Edmonds finally involved in its March broadcast (9)

Gazza opines "oh no! and it’s only mid-October." The timing of the clue is far more appropriate today than when it originally appeared in the UK.

Noel Edmonds^[7] (born 22 December 1948) is [a 64 year old] English broadcaster and executive, who made his name as a DJ on BBC Radio 1 in the UK. He has presented [hosted] light entertainment television programmes, including Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, Top of the Pops, The Late, Late Breakfast Show and Telly Addicts. He currently presents [hosts] the Channel 4 game show Deal or No Deal and the Sunday edition of Sky1's Are You Smarter Than A Ten Year Old? and previously the topical Sky1 show, Noel's HQ.

18d   This compiler has a certain restraint (7)

It is a common cryptic crossword convention for the creator of the puzzle to use terms such as compiler, setter, 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 (today, it being expanded to "this compiler") has been used  in the clue.

Measure^[3] is used in the sense of appropriate restraint or moderation ⇒ "The union of . . . fervor with measure, passion with correctness, this surely is the ideal" (William James).

21d   Everlasting conclusions about the French (7)

Les^[8] is the plural form of the French definite article.

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)

Happy New Year — Falcon