Wednesday, January 2, 2013 - DT 27000

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 27000
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, October 18, 2012
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27000]
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

Introduction

Like Pommers, I was expecting something a bit special to mark the puzzle meter rolling over to 27000. However, it seems that there were no particular festivities to mark the occasion — other than a rather fine puzzle from RayT.

Speaking of Pommers, I am sorry to learn that he is currently in hospital recovering from a bout of pneumonia and associated complications. I am sure we all wish him a speedy and full recovery.

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   Jacked up without one getting demolished (5)

Here, it is crucial to use the British spelling of the solution — rather than the American one.

9a   Queen's back, refined with rap (9)

It would not be a RayT puzzle without a mention of Her Majesty — which I understand is really a salute to the setter's favourite band.

12a   Tickle trout's tail with dexterity (5)

Tickle^[5] can mean to catch (a trout) by lightly rubbing it so that it moves backwards into the hand ⇒ the skill of a poacher tickling a trout. Although my dictionaries don't specifically identify it as a British expression, I didn't find this sense of the word in an American dictionary.

20a   Declare opening securing maiden (5)

Although declare and admit both consist of making a statement, it seems to me that the former is offered quite assertively, while the latter is done rather reluctantly.

In cricket, a maiden, 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.

As we saw a mere two days ago, declare is also a term that is used in cricket, although with that interpretation I don't see that the overall surface reading would make much sense.

To refresh your memory, here is what I wrote on Monday.

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).

I don't necessarily see a cricket connection to opening, although an opener^[5] is a batsman who opens the batting. While opening^[5] is a term used in chess to denote a recognized sequence of moves at the beginning of a game, I don't believe that is what the setter had in mind.

I finally concluded that the surface reading may be stating that following a position being declared vacant, a young woman was secured to fill it.

22a   Leaving helpless redhead in station (9)

The letter R is commonly clued by "redhead" — signifying the head (first letter) of Red.

25a   Sailor at sea, some say, descending by rope (9)

In Britain, to abseil^[5] is to descend a rock face or other near-vertical surface by using a doubled rope coiled round the body and fixed at a higher point. Another term for this (and the one that is commonly used in North America) is rappel^[5].

26a   Batsman ends suppressing naked muscularity (5)

Another cricket reference. A batsman^[5] is a player, especially in cricket, who is batting or whose chief skill is in batting. While the term is likely not unheard in baseball, the word batter is far more commonly used.

27a   Let bra settle perhaps giving temporary support (7,5)

A trestle table may merely consist of some boards laid on a couple of sawhorses, in which case it would be a "temporary support". However, there is a piece of furniture known as a trestle table that likely would not fit that description.

1d   He may argue policeman's set on worker (9)

A detective inspector (DI)^[5] is a senior police officer in the UK. Within the British police, inspector^[7] is the second supervisory rank. It is senior to that of sergeant, but junior to that of chief inspector. Plain-clothes detective inspectors are equal in rank to their uniformed counterparts, the prefix 'detective' identifying them as having been trained in criminal investigation and being part of or attached to their force's Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

2d   Count on the French to get confused (5)

Le^[8] is the masculine singular form of the French definite article. Addle^[5] is used transitively; that is, to addle someone is to get them confused. If the word were to be used intransitively, it would mean (in reference to an egg) to become rotten.

3d   Wood shed contains fearsome interior (5)

Hurst^[5] is an archaic term (that survives in place names) meaning (1) a hillock; (2) a wood or wooded rise ⇒ Cumnor Hurst; or (3) a sandbank.

4d   Former wife on exercise regime including new method (9)

Expedient^[5] would appear to be a word that can connote a variety of disparate meanings. Oxford has it meaning (as an adjective) either (1) (of an action) convenient and practical although possibly improper or immoral ⇒ either side could break the agreement if it were expedient to do so or (2) (of an action) suitable or appropriate ⇒ holding a public enquiry into the scheme was not expedient. As a noun, Oxford has expedient^[5] as a means of attaining an end, especially one that is convenient but possibly improper or immoral ⇒ the current policy is a political expedient whereas Collins defines expedient^[10] as something suitable or appropriate, especially something used during an urgent situation.

6d   Elevated skill including top female accessory (5)

A1^[4][5] or A-one^[3] meaning first class or excellent comes from a classification for ships in The Lloyd's Register of Shipping where it means equipped to the highest standard or first-class.

23d   Initially redacted original great English thesaurus (5)

In this all-in-one clue, the definition is "[the one who] initially redacted original great English thesaurus" where the italicised words are implied rather than being explicitly given.

The person referred to, of course, is Dr. Peter Mark Roget^[7] (1779–1869), a British physician, natural theologian and lexicographer, who compiled Roget's Thesaurus^[7], a widely used English language thesaurus which was created in 1805 and released to the public in 1852. The original edition had 15,000 words, and each new edition has been larger.

The name "Roget" is trademarked in parts of the world, such as the United Kingdom. By itself, it is not protected in the United States of America, where use of the name "Roget" in the title of a thesaurus does not necessarily indicate any relationship to Dr. Roget; it has come to be seen as a generic thesaurus name, like "Webster" for dictionaries.

24d   Tycoon and toff pocketing a billion (5)

Nob^[3,4] is a chiefly British slang term for a person of wealth or social standing or a person of social distinction.

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