Monday, February 11, 2013 — DT 27031

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27031
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, November 23, 2012
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27031]
Big Dave's Review Written By Gazza
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

Introduction

This difficulty level of this puzzle was enough to cause me to put in a call to the electronic forces to help finish it off.

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.

11a   The back of Number Ten in the 1950s? A tempting location (6,2,4)

... but only for a brief period during the middle of that decade!

Downing Street^[7], located in Whitehall in the central part of London, England, has for over two hundred years housed the official residences of two of the most senior British Cabinet ministers: the First Lord of the Treasury, an office now synonymous with that of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the Second Lord of the Treasury, an office held by the Chancellor of the Exchequer [a position equivalent to the Minister of Finance (Canada) or the Secretary of the Treasury (US)]. The Prime Minister's official residence is 10 Downing Street; the Chancellor's official residence is next door at Number 11. The Government's Chief Whip has an official residence at Number 12, though the current Chief Whip's residence is at Number 9. The houses on the west side of the street were demolished in the nineteenth century to make way for government offices, now occupied by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Anthony Eden^[7] (1897 – 1977) was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957.

In Britain, a garden^[5] is thought of as a piece of ground adjoining a house, typically cultivated to provide a lawn and flowerbeds. Thus a British garden is equivalent to a North American yard, and encompasses the lawn as well as the flower beds.

13a   When touring around notice various plants (8)

Am I stretching the truth to claim that I solved this one unaided? My first attempt was ACANOTES from AS (when) containing (touring; going around) {CA (around; about) + NOTE (notice)}. I admit that I was somewhat worried about "notice" being used to clue NOTE, and my reservations were confirmed when my solution did not show up in the dictionary. I then got myself pointed generally in the right direction, but had to look up a number of candidate solutions containing various vowel sequences before finding the correct one.

Aconite^[5] is either (1) a poisonous plant of the buttercup family, bearing hooded pink or purple flowers and found in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere or (2) (also called winter aconite) a small herbaceous Eurasian plant, cultivated for its yellow flowers in early spring.

17a   Very good hole in the ground for bird (5)

I tried to make this bird a piper, thinking that a sandpiper might just be a specific member of a larger family. However, the bird we need to be watching for is the pipit^[5], a mainly ground-dwelling songbird of open country, typically having brown streaky plumage.

18a   Explorer gets obese, not good (4)

Gazza suggests that the clue refers to Sir James Clark Ross^[5] (1800 – 1862), a British explorer who discovered the north magnetic pole in 1831, and headed an expedition to the Antarctic from 1839 to 1843, in the course of which he discovered Ross Island, Ross Dependency, and the Ross Sea.

However, the subject of the clue might just as well be his uncle, Sir John Ross^[5] (1777 – 1856), a British explorer who led an expedition to Baffin Bay in 1818 and another in search of the North-West Passage between 1829 and 1833.

20a   Resist work one way and another -- set to finish early (6)

In the field of music, Op. (also op.)^[5] is an abbreviation meaning opus (work). It is used before a number given to each work of a particular composer, usually indicating the order of publication.

26a   A sailor catching fish's tail? He was after something much bigger! (4)

On my first attempt, I supposed that the definition might be "something much bigger"which I took to be a THAR — this being TAR (a sailor) containing (catching) H (a fisH's tail). A thar^[10] is a rare goatlike antelope (Capricornis thar) of mountainous regions of S Asia (also called Himalayan serow). By the way, this animal should not be confused with a tahr^[10], any of several goatlike bovid mammals of the genus Hemitragus, such as H. jemlahicus (Himalayan tahr), of mountainous regions of S and SW Asia, having a shaggy coat and curved horns.

However, when I got to 12d, I discovered that — as any good sailor — I should have spent my time on the ocean rather than in the mountains. In the Royal Navy, able seaman (abbreviation AB)^[5] is a rank of sailor above ordinary seaman and below leading seaman.

28a   What's upset me twice -- lard, bringing a sort of sickness (3,2,3)

Keeping with the nautical theme, mal de mer^[5] means seasickness. It is a French term that has been adopted into English. Is this an attempt to improve the image of the condition by giving it a French name?

3d   George extracted this  red resin from tree (7,5)

St George^[5] is the patron saint of England. He is reputed in legend to have slain a dragon, and may have been martyred near Lydda in Palestine some time before the reign of Constantine. His cult did not become popular until the 6th century, and he probably became patron saint of England in the 14th century. Feast day, 23 April.

Dragon's blood^[5] is a red gum or powder [which other dictionaries refer to as a "resin" or "resinous substance"^[3,4]] that is derived from the fruit of certain palm trees and from the stem of the dragon tree and related plants.

4d   A rodent embracing companion endlessly -- where they both escaped flood? (6)

Until I read Gazza's hint, I wondered whether a Royal Academician (a member of the Royal Academy^[5]) might possibly qualify to be called a companion^[5] (a member of the lowest grade of certain orders of knighthood). Although that seemed rather unlikely, I neglected to pursue the matter.

6d   See a goat run around, one on an adventure (8)

In Greek mythology, the Argonauts^[5] were a group of heroes who accompanied Jason on board the ship Argo in the quest for the Golden Fleece.

7d   Not like youngster in prison about to be released (4)

Did Gazza misspeak himself when he wrote "... with the single-letter abbreviation for about or concerning dropped". We do need to drop a single letter abbreviation for "about" (c; circa) but the only abbreviation for "about or concerning" that comes to my mind has two letters (re).

14d   First rate meal that's quiet but not very quiet (5)

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

Pianissimo (abbreviation pp)^[5] is a direction used in music to mean either (as an adjective) very soft or very quiet or (as an adverb) very softly or very quietly.

16d   Fish stuck in lake's bottom gets pierced (8)

A roach^[5] is an edible Eurasian freshwater fish (Rutilus rutilus) of the carp family, popular with anglers.

17d   MP I noted being corrupt somewhere in Italy (8)

This MP^[5] might be a Member of Parliament or perhaps a Military Policeman.

Piedmont^[5] is a region of NW Italy, in the foothills of the Alps of which the capital is Turin. Dominated by Savoy from 1400, it became a part of the kingdom of Sardinia in 1720. It was the centre of the movement for a united Italy in the 19th century.

19d   Watch flood engulfing City before end of August (8)

This clue requires a bit of familiarity with London, England. The City^[5] is (1) short for the City of London or (2) the financial and commercial institutions located in the City of London • (i) the Budget got a stony reception from the City; (ii) [as modifier] a City analyst. Note that the City of London^[5] is not the city of London, but merely the part of London situated within the ancient boundaries and governed by the Lord Mayor and the Corporation^[5] (which, in Britain, is a group of people elected to govern a city, town, or borough • the City of London Corporation).

In the clue, the setter uses "City" as a surrogate for for the EC postcode which serves this area (postcode being the British counterpart of the Canadian postal code or American zip code). The EC (Eastern Central) postcode area^[7] (also known as the London EC postcode area) is a group of postcode districts in central London, England. It includes almost all of the City of London as well as parts of several other London Boroughs.

24d   Steal from little boy? (4)

Nick^[5] is British slang meaning to steal ⇒ she nicked fivers from the till.

In his hint, Gazza alludes to Nick Clegg^[7], British Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister in the coalition government of which British Conservative Leader David Cameron is the Prime Minister.

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