Thursday, December 20, 2012 - DT 26989

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26989
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, October 6, 2012
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26989]
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

I wouldn't necessarily go so far as to award this puzzle four stars for difficulty — but I did call upon my electronic assistants for a bit of help today. Then again, unlike Gazza, I avoided the rheostat trap at 19a.

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.

8a   Explosive young reporter confronting a queen (6)

In Greek mythology, Hecuba^[10] was the wife of King Priam of Troy, and mother of Hector and Paris.

9a   Clegg gaining reputation -- or Cleggy as that might be? (8)

Nicholas William Peter "Nick" Clegg^[7] has been the British Liberal Democrat Leader since 2007 and is currently the Deputy Prime Minister and Lord President of the Council (with special responsibility for political and constitutional reform) in the coalition government of which British Conservative Leader David Cameron is the Prime Minister. Not only does he routinely go by the nickname, Nick, but British headline writers seem to like referring to him as Cleggy.

Coincidence or not, Norman "Cleggy" Clegg^[7] is a principal character on the BBC sitcom Last of the Summer Wine (see 12a).

11a   Season in which Bury will need width at the start (6)

Bury^[7] (pronounced 'berry') is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The surface reading of this clue does not make much sense to me; perhaps it is more meaningful to the British ear. It does occur to me that this may somehow be a reference to soccer as Bury does have a team which plays in the third division of the English football league system.

12a   View offered by girl interrupting parents (8)

Nora Batty^[7] (appearing in Gazza's hint) is a character from the BBC sitcom Last of the Summer Wine^[7] which ran from 1973 to 2010.

16a   Agreeable Conservative hurrying to embrace maiden (8)

Hare^[5] is a British expression meaning to run with great speed ⇒ he hared off between the trees.

In cricket, a maiden^[5], also known as a maiden over, (abbreviation M)^[5] is an over in which no runs are scored. An over^[5] is a division of play consisting of a sequence of six balls bowled by a bowler from one end of the pitch, after which another bowler takes over from the other end.

21a   A convenience for people doing business (6)

The Gents^[5] is a [chiefly, but (I would hazard to say) not exclusively] British way to refer to a men’s public toilet.

23a   Old PM's forebear not half making a packet? Certainly not! (8)

William Pitt^[5], 1st Earl of Chatham (1708 – 1778), known as Pitt the Elder, was a British Whig statesman. As Secretary of State (effectively Prime Minister), he headed coalition governments 1756–61 and 1766-68. He brought the Seven Years War [known as the French and Indian War in the United States] to an end in 1763 and also masterminded the conquest of French possessions overseas, particularly in Canada and India. His son, William (1759 – 1806), known as Pitt the Younger, was Prime Minister 1783–1801 and 1804-06. The youngest-ever Prime Minister, he introduced reforms to reduce the national debt.

I must say that I am at a loss as to why Oxford Dictionaries Online would claim that Pitt the Elder "brought the Seven Years War to an end in 1763" as he no longer led the government at that time and vigorously opposed the provisions of the Treaty of Paris which ended the war. Here is how Wikipedia describes his position:

To the preliminaries of the peace concluded in February 1763 he offered an indignant resistance, considering the terms quite inadequate to the successes that had been gained by the country. When the treaty was discussed in parliament in December of the preceding year, though suffering from a severe attack of gout, he was carried down to the House, and in a speech of three hours' duration, interrupted more than once by paroxysms of pain, he strongly protested against its various conditions. ... Pitt believed that the task had been left half-finished and called for a final year of war which would crush French power for good.^[7]

Packet^[5] is an informal, and chiefly British, term meaning a large sum of money ⇒ a hectic social life could cost a packet .

24a   Nonsense about actress Diana being smug (8)

Diana Rigg^[7] is an English actress who is best known for her portrayals of Emma Peel in the 1960s British spy-fi television series The Avengers and Countess Teresa di Vicenzo in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

25a   Stimulate love in an act of deception (6)

In tennis, squash, and some other sports, love^[5] is a score of zero or nil ⇒ love fifteen. The resemblance of a zero written as a numeral (0) to the letter O leads to the cryptic crossword convention of the word "love" being used to clue this letter.

26a   Artist's  kettle? (8)

American-born British painter James McNeill Whistler^[7] is most famous for his painting Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, commonly known as Whistler's Mother.

2d   Something bright and beautiful in tabloid -- female sitting on cow! (9)

The Sun^[7] is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom by the News Group Newspapers division of News International, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

Lower is a whimsical way to describe a cow in Crosswordland — i.e., something that lows.

5d   Habits of those who are buttoned up? (8)

Habit^[5] is an archaic term meaning clothes ⇒ in the vile habit of a village slave. The term still survives in the equestrian world (a riding habit) and the church where it is used to describe a long, loose garment worn by a member of a religious order ⇒ nuns in long brown habits, black veils, and sandals.

7d   Holidaymakers needing celebratory drink -- husband goes out (7)

Champers^[5] is British slang for champagne.

Holidaymaker^[5] is a British term for a person on holiday away from home. The Brits use holiday where the Yanks would say vacation — and Canadians are apt to employ either. Oxford Dictionaries Online characterises vacation^[5] as a North American term meaning (as a noun) a holiday ⇒ (i) he took a vacation in the south of France; (ii) people come here on vacation and (as a verb) to take a holiday ⇒ I was vacationing in Europe with my family. In all of the foregoing examples, Brits would apparently have used the word 'holiday' rather than 'vacation'.

15d   Refuse to go into a filthy place? (8)

This clue is a cryptic definition. The misdirection arises from the natural tendency to read "refuse" as a verb. Instead, it is a noun meaning rubbish — as Gazza puts it , the kind "that you might feed to the inhabitants of your sty".

17d   House with good paintings? Here's original artist (7)

William Hogarth^[7] (1697 – 1764) was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist.

22d   Drink and dope upset you and me (5)

Gen^[5] is British slang for information ⇒ you’ve got more gen on him than we have.

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