Friday, February 15, 2013 — DT 27035

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27035
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27035]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave
BD 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

Prologue

On Friday, I flipped through the paper, saw the puzzle on the back of the Arts section (where it is commonly found) and set to work solving. I never noticed the banner headline across the top proclaiming "MONDAY'S DIVERSIONS". Consequently, in blissful ignorance, I solved and blogged the puzzle — posting it as Friday's blog.

Only late Friday evening did I realize my mistake when I stumbled upon a second puzzle in the paper. Having now completed Saturday's blog, I can get back to Friday's blog. Thankfully, there is the silver lining that Monday's blog has already been taken care of.

Introduction

With four interlinked clues remaining in the northwest quadrant, I turned to my electronic helpers. Once they had pointed me in the right direction on 12a, I was able to vanquish the others on my own.

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   Damn the two of them, getting European allowance (11)

Botheration^[5] is a dated exclamation used to express mild irritation or annoyance.

10a   One of four children aboard liner forming teams (6)

You'll rarely go wrong in assuming that any ship in Crosswordland is a steamship (abbreviation SS^[5]).

12a   Quickly run out by a league member (7)

For the life of me, I could not remember this musical term. The only word to come to mind was adagio — which is precisely the opposite.

In music, the direction allegro^[5] indicates that a passage is to be performed at a brisk speed. In cricket, run out^[5,10] (abbreviation ro^[5]) means the dismissal of a batsman by breaking the wicket (dislodging the bails) with the ball while the batsman is out of his ground [his "safe" area]. I suspect that the abbreviation l^[1] for league^[10] applies when the word is used in the sense of an obsolete unit of distance of varying length (commonly equal to 3 miles).

14a   Measures of energy in sleep (5)

Doss^[5] is British slang meaning to sleep in rough accommodation or on an improvised bed ⇒ he dossed down on a friend’s floor.

17a   Instrument for strategic planner around house (9)

An alpenhorn^[5] is a very long valveless wooden wind instrument played like a horn and used for signalling in the Alps.

20a   The outskirts of Chester in view from loose rocks on hill (5)

Chester^[5] is a city in NW England, the county town of Cheshire; population 80,600 (est. 2009).

22a   Broken-down old mare's elevated position (7)

Earldom^[5] is the rank or title of an earl^[5], a British nobleman ranking above a viscount and below a marquess.

24a   First-class average set back after a medical condition (7)

Whereas the British spelling of the medical condition is anaemia^[3,4], the US spelling is anemia^[3,4]. In Canada, one might find it spelled either way.

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.

6d   Eccentric's love doubled outside dance (7)

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.

7d   Rule leaves volatile fund managers in trouble? (3,3,5)

Fun and games^[2], used ironically, denotes trouble ⇒ There'll be fun and games when Phil sees this mess!.

8d   Trees concealing small book (6)

This clue gave me far more trouble than it should have. However, once I had solved 12a, the solution to this clue became blatantly clear — quickly followed by 14a and, finally, 7d.

16d   Painting adult touring fashionable island (9)

"Touring", in the sense of 'going around', frequently appears as a containment indicator.

21d   Unmarried woman supporting soldiers gets careless (6)

The Corps of Royal Engineers^[7], usually just called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the Sappers, is a corps of the British Army that provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces. In Ottawa, we have a prime example of the work of this corps. It was Lt. Colonel John By of the Royal Engineers who supervised the construction of the Rideau Canal in the early 1800s.

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