Tuesday, January 8, 2012 - DT 27005

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27005
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27005]
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

Given that I was able to complete this puzzle without needing to use any electronic help while still finding it challenging, I would concur with scchua's assessment placing it in the upper reaches of the two star difficulty range.

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   Rump, ham or game? (10)

A gammon^[3,4] is (1) a cured or smoked ham or (2) the hindquarter of a side of bacon, cooked either whole or cut into large rashers^[3,4] (thin slices of bacon or ham). I do note that while this definition is the third of four in The American Heritage Dictionary, it is the first of four in Collins English Dictionary. This may well indicate that this term is more commonly used in Britain than in North America.

9a   The shape of Bologna after most of it is developed (6)

Bologna^[5] is a city in northern Italy, capital of Emilia-Romagna region. Its university, which dates from the 11th century, is the oldest in Europe.

I presume that the clue is an allusion to bologna^[10] (or baloney) — even though British dictionaries characterize this as a US and Canadian term. Oxford Dictionaries Online says that bologna^[5] is a North American term but then inexplicably defines polony^[5] (a British term for this sausage) as another term for bologna (seemingly indicating that the latter would be the more well known name in the UK).

11a   Swindle  crowd (6)

Crowd^[3] is used as a verb meaning to force by or as if by pressing or shoving ⇒ Police crowded the spectators back to the viewing stand.

12a   Smile, with time for new determination (4)

We can usually count on Jay to present us with at least one of these substitution type clues.

23a   Nothing very loud to establish counterbalance (6)

Fortissimo (abbreviation ff)^[5] is a direction used in music to mean either (as an adjective) very loud  or (as an adverb) very loudly.

27a   Hide, if virtually broke (4)

In British slang, skint^[5] is an adjective that would be used to describe a person having little or no money available ⇒ I’m a bit skint just now.

1d   Exhausted ticket seller after sting (5-3)

In the UK, a tout^[5] is a person who buys up tickets for an event to resell them at a profit — a scalper^[5] in North American parlance.

2d   Insurance agent's final secret (6)

Cover^[5] (in reference to insurance) means to protect against a liability, loss, or accident involving financial consequences • your contents are now covered against accidental loss or damage in transit. While the same verb form is used in both Britain and North America, we use a different form of the noun on this side of the pond. In the UK, the word cover^[5] is used to denote protection by insurance against a liability, loss, or accident ⇒ your policy provides cover against damage by subsidence. This is equivalent to the North American term coverage^[5] meaning the amount of protection given by an insurance policy ⇒ your policy provides coverage against damage by subsidence.

6d   Drink on board with partner's representative (8)

SS^[5] is the abbreviation for steamship. In cryptic crossword puzzles, one often sees the phrase "on board" used to indicate that some bit of fodder is contained within the letters SS — with the rationale being that this fodder is being carried by a steamship (SS). I suppose that one of these days we may be surprised to discover that the setter has opted to ship the fodder by rail!

Billie Holiday might have used a different term for "Partner".

7d   Go to Scotland and put up new fuel nerve centre (8)

"Go to Scotland" or, more precisely, go to a speaker of the Scottish dialect to whom gang^[5] would mean go or proceed ⇒ gang to your bed, lass.

16d   Lack of love on religious outpost? (8)

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.

17d   Good Independent newspaper report for retail outlet (8)

The Financial Times (FT)^[7] is a British international business newspaper [which is conspicuously printed on pink newsprint]. Shop^[5] is British slang meaning to inform on (someone) ⇒ she shopped her husband to bosses for taking tools home.

19d   Coins once used for drugs lie all over the place (8)

Until the introduction of the euro in 2002, the guilder^[5] was the basic monetary unit of the Netherlands, equal to 100 cents.

22d   Country or kingdom raised women on island (6)

Ait^[3,4] is a chiefly British term for a small island, especially one located in river. Even within the UK (according to Collins English Dictionary), this term is considered to be dialect.

As for "kingdom", our British friends would surely have been mightily embarrassed had they failed to identify the correct one.

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