Tuesday, December 4, 2012 - DT 26975

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26975
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26975]
Big Dave's Review Written By Scchua
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 puzzle is clearly the handiwork of Jay. Clue 27a, in particular, marks it as one of his creations.

I seemed to hit a brick wall with about four clues remaining to be solved. However, I followed the prescription of Crypticsue (a regular contributor to Big Dave's Crossword Blog) who often advises in cases such as this to set a puzzle aside for a time and allow the subconscious mind to cogitate on the troublesome clues. Amazingly, when I picked up the puzzle again after a few hours I was able to write in the solutions to those clues almost immediately.

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.

1a   Criticism levelled as result of trophies recently stolen (3,4)

Possibly chiefly a British usage, a pot^[4] is a cup or trophy, especially of silver, awarded as a prize in a competition.

12a   Platform that is accepted by proportional representation (4)

Proportional representation (abbreviation PR)^[5] is an electoral system in which parties gain seats in proportion to the number of votes cast for them ⇒ PR has been a success in Germany.

14a   Cover pan with half of tomato, for a simple dish (6,6)

Jacket potato^[5] is a British name for a baked potato served with the skin on.

21a   Team returns eating live goat! (4)

An eleven^[5] is a sports team of eleven players ⇒ at cricket I played in the first eleven. It would appear that today's team may date to the days of the Roman Empire.

25a   Tested by a Parisian, without any restraints (9)

Un^[8] is the masculine singular form of the French indefinite article.

27a   Causes irritation, but agrees with name for first of sons (7)

We can expect at least one of these substitution style clues in a Jay puzzle.

1d   Fish's source of iron in situ? (6)

The Latin phrase in situ^[5] has been adopted into English where it can mean either (1) in the original place ⇒ (i) [as adverb]frescoes have been left in situ; (ii) [as adjective] a collection of in situ pumping engines or (2) in the appropriate position ⇒ [as adverb] her guests were all in situ.

3d   Hurried to welcome daughter and boss, being shrewd (4-6)

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

7d   Hot Lips worked outside area infirmary (8)

Loretta Swit as 'Hot Lips'

Major Margaret J. "Hot Lips" Houlihan^[7] is a fictional character first created in the book MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors by Richard Hooker. Actress Sally Kellerman portrayed the character in the Robert Altman film adaptation. Houlihan was later portrayed by Loretta Swit in the long-running television series.

13d   Ceremony, for my people embracing love (10)

The solution contains a variant of a British expression that can take any of several forms. Cor^[5] is an informal British exclamation expressing surprise, excitement, admiration, or alarm ⇒ Cor! That‘s a beautiful black eye you’ve got!

Related exclamations are (1) blimey^[5] (also cor blimey), an exclamation used informally to express surprise, excitement, or alarm and (2) gorblimey^[5], an informal expression of surprise or indignation.

 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.

23d   Try leaving business in Asian river delta (5)

The Indus^[5] is a river of southern Asia, about 2,900 km (1,800 miles) in length, flowing from Tibet through Kashmir and Pakistan to the Arabian Sea [where it ends in a large delta^[7]]. Along its valley an early civilization flourished from circa 2600 to 1760 BC.

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