Wednesday, December 26, 2012 - DT 26994

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26994
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, October 11, 2012
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26994]
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
Notes This puzzle appears on the Dec. 26 Diversions page in the Monday, December 24, 2012 edition of the National Post.

Introduction

It was 1d which was my nemesis today. It is hardly the most difficult clue in the puzzle, but I seemed to have a mental block with respect to it. I gave myself a good, swift kick when WordFinder presented me with a list of potential answers.

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   Care when news is broadcast? Negative reaction with it returning (9)

It seems that the BBC and the CBC both broadcast the late evening news at the same hour.

11a   First clue about son, a son of Abraham (5)

You need to use a less concise abbreviation for the first clue than the one that I employ.

14a   Calm Frenchman taken with the Home Counties? (6)

The Home Counties^[5] are the counties in the SE of England surrounding London, into which London has extended. They comprise chiefly Essex, Kent, Surrey, and Hertfordshire.

16a   Basic commodity like corn getting soft inside (6)

Piano^[3,5] (abbreviation p^[5]), is a musical direction meaning either soft or quiet (as an adjective) or softly or quietly (as an adverb).

23a   Look and dress shown by round character (5)

I came up with an answer here based on the wordplay and checking letters, but it took some detective work to (1) confirm its existence and (2) to establish its British pedigree. The situation did not look promising when I failed to find decko listed at Oxford Dictionaries Online. However, things took a turn for the better when Search Chambers revealed that dekko or decko^[2] (usually have or take a dekko) is slang for a look. Collins English Dictionary has decko^[10] as slang which can be used both (1) as a noun meaning a peek or a glance or (2) as a verb denoting to peek or glance (at something). However, Collins also has a separate (unlinked) entry for dekko^[10] which characterises it as British slang meaning a look; glance; view (especially in the phrase take a dekko (at)). Revisiting Oxford, I found that dekko^[5] is an informal British expression meaning a quick look or glance ⇒ come and have a dekko at this.

26a   Precautions a team, not English, organised? Much fuss about nothing (1,5,2,1,6)

A storm in a teacup^[7] is a British idiomatic expression meaning a small event that has been exaggerated out of proportion. It is equivalent to the North American expression a tempest in a teapot.

1d   Crusty dish associated with good bars? (7)

As mentioned in the introduction, this clue proved to my stumbling block today.

2d   Practice session before dance and sport (7)

In cricket, a net^[10] is either (1) a pitch surrounded by netting, used for practice or (2) a practice session in a net. On a cricket field, a pitch^[10] is the rectangular area between the stumps, 22 yards long and 10 feet wide (a bowler at one end delivers a ball to a batsman at the other end).

Netball^[7] is a ball sport played by two teams of seven players. Its development, derived from early versions of basketball, began in England in the 1890s. Games are played on a rectangular court with raised goal rings at each end. Each team attempts to score goals by passing a ball down the court and shooting it through its goal ring. Players are assigned specific positions, which define their roles within the team and restrict their movement to certain areas of the court. During general play, a player with the ball can hold onto it for only three seconds before shooting for a goal or passing to another player. The winning team is the one that scores the most goals. Netball games are 60 minutes long. Netball is most popular in Commonwealth nations, specifically in schools, and is predominantly played by women.

There are many differences with basketball. For instance, there are no backboards; a shot on goal can only be made from within the shooting circle (no three point shots); only certain players may enter the shooting circle (either as attackers or defenders); only two attackers and two defenders may be in the shooting circle at one time; the ball is moved up and down the court through passing and must be touched by a player in each adjacent third of the court (no end to end passes); players can hold the ball for only three seconds at any time and it must be released before the foot they were standing on when they caught it touches the ground again (no dribbling).

3d   Players attending companion, sick fellow, with, perhaps, extra indication of cold? (4-5,6)

I initially hesitated to write in the solution as I was reluctant to believe that the Brits could possibly use the same meteorological term as we do in Canada. I also could not resolve the "players" bit of the wordplay. I suppose after the previous clue, I was conditioned to think in terms of sporting competitors rather than orchestral players. When I finally had all of the checking letters, I had to accept that the solution was the obvious choice, even if I could not justify the first bit of the charade.

4d   Instrument that could be eternal? (8)

The eternal triangle^[2] is a relationship involving love and jealousy between two men and a woman, or two women and a man.

6d   Notice leader moving behind part of hospital in historic agreement (7,8)

The most frequently visited area of the Crosswordland Hospital is undoubtedly the ear, nose and throat (ENT^[2]) department.

The Entente Cordiale^[5] is the understanding between Britain and France reached in 1904, forming the basis of Anglo-French cooperation in the First World War.

7d   Fancy a drink among fruit left out (7)

Mother's ruin^[5] (a term alluded to by Pommers) is British slang for gin. The name may derive from the reputed ability of gin, if consumed in large quantity, to induce abortion in pregnant women. An eye-opening account of the effects of gin-drinking on English society in the mid-eighteenth century can be found here.

8d   Sad expression in two notes by a male in East Sussex town (5,2)

Rye^[7] is a small town in East Sussex, England, which today stands approximately two miles from the open sea and is at the confluence of three rivers: the Rother, the Tillingham and the Brede. In medieval times, however, as an important member of the Cinque Ports confederation, it was at the head of an embayment of the English Channel and almost entirely surrounded by the sea.

17d   Road covering, a wintry safety measure for traffic round Portsmouth's outskirts (7)

Portsmouth^[7] is a port and naval base on the south coast of England, in Hampshire; population 201,800 (est. 2009). The naval dockyard was established there in 1496.

19d   Austere figure in a southern church with nervous habit (7)

The Church of England (CE)^[10] is the reformed established state Church in England, Catholic in order and basic doctrine, with the Sovereign as its temporal head.

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