Monday, February 4, 2013 — DT 27026

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27026
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Saturday, November 17, 2012
Setter Cephas (Peter Chamberlain)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27026 - Hints] Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27026 - Review]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave (Hints) crypticsue (Review)
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

A mistake in the southeast corner certainly caused grief today in what was otherwise a fairly gentle exercise.

As this puzzle appeared on a Saturday in the UK, it was a prize puzzle. Thus, as is the usual practice, the Saturday posting on Big Dave's Crossword Blog consists of only a few hints with a full review being posted following the deadline for submission of entries. You will generally find most - if not all - comments on the puzzle attached to the Saturday Hints posting.

Requiem for the Penny

With the demise of the Canadian penny today, I can only say "So long, it's been good to know you". There once was a time when a penny was appreciated!

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   Dash! Old train service goes by ten (4)

If you happened to read my review yesterday of The Sunday London Times Crossword in the Ottawa Citizen (Ottawa Citizen Cryptic Crossword Forum — ST 4519), you should have had little difficulty in identifying this "old train service". In case you missed it, here is what I wrote:

British Railways (BR)^[7], which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages between 1994 and 1997. Ownership of the track and infrastructure passed to Railtrack on 1 April 1994; afterwards passenger operations were franchised to individual private-sector operators (originally there were 25 franchises); and the freight services sold outright (six companies were set up, but five of these were sold to the same buyer). The remaining obligations of British Rail were transferred to BRB (Residuary) Ltd.

9a   Rush to get computers, etc, and scarper? (3,3,2)

IT^[5] is the abbreviation for information technology^[10], the technology of the production, storage, and communication of information using computers and microelectronics. Scarper is British slang meaning to run away ⇒ they left the stuff where it was and scarpered.

Although this clue could be parsed word for word, to me it sounds far more natural to consider the wordplay as an entire phrase "rush to get computers, etc" which gives us, in return, the phrase "run for IT".

13a   Six-footer in religious group (6)

"Six-footer" meaning something with six feet (or, at least, six legs) is a well-established cryptic crossword convention.

18a   High flier's suite? (10)

I initially thought that this might be a cryptic definition of accommodation for an astronaut. However, given the incorrect entry that I had at the time for 14d, the only possible match for the checking letters was NOTORNISES, notornis^[5] being another term for takahe^[5], a large, rare flightless rail (Porphyrio mantelli) with bluish-black and olive-green plumage and a large red bill, found in mountain grassland in New Zealand. That certainly presented a challenge in trying to decipher the wordplay.

I had not previously heard of the notornis nor the nutcracker^[5], a crow that feeds on the seeds of conifers, found widely in Eurasia and in western North America.

23a   Expressions of disbelief and surprise, going by island in boat (5,3)

I struggled here until I discovered my error at 14d. I suspected that the second word might be ARK, and (because of the error) the only possibility for the first seemed to be NAAFI which is an acronym for the Navy, Army, and Air Force Institutes, an organization running canteens and shops for British service personnel. While I could find no reference to a NAAFI Ark, this path did lead me to the Ark Royal, the English flagship in the battles that resulted in the defeat of the Spanish Armada. I did eventually manage to sort things out satisfactorily.

25a   Other ranks generally disheartened by revelry (4)

In the British armed forces, other ranks (abbreviation OR)^[5] refers to all those who are not commissioned officers.

3d   More than one course that is African sweetcorn (6)

Mealie^[5] is a South African name for what in North America is called corn. In Britain, corn is (1) the chief cereal crop of a district, especially (in England) wheat or (in Scotland) oats or (2) the grain of a cereal crop. In North America, Australia, and New Zealand, corn is the term used for what the British call maize^[5] or sweetcorn^[5].

5d   I may be seen in 51 green assorted undies (8)

In addition to crypticsue's instructions, you also have to insert the "I" from the clue to make up the requisite complement of letters needed for the fodder.

14d   One after another (9)

At the time, I thought that SOLICITOR was a good solution (and I still do). However, there is a vast difference between being good and being correct! It even matched three of five checking letters (but played havoc with my efforts on the remaining two clues).

15d   Tenth speaker in musical story (8)

The "tenth speaker" on a program might be referred to as "orator 10".

22d   Bear east, fleeing from Brunei in confusion (5)

Bruin^[5] is the Dutch word for brown. It came to mean bear (especially in children’s fables) from its use as a name for the bear in the 13th-century fable Reynard the Fox.

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