Thursday, February 14, 2013 — DT 27034

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27034
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Setter Petitjean (John Pidgeon) [reputedly]
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27034]
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

I completed the puzzle unaided in two sessions. In the first session, I solved roughly three quarters of the puzzle but had scarcely made an inroad into the northeast quadrant. However, once I learned the meaning of compère, the remainder of the puzzle succumbed quite quickly. I often find, in situations like this where I was left with four interlocking entries, that finding the solution to any one of the clues will allow me to solve them all.

Gazza, who reviews this puzzle on Big Dave's blog, inserts a bit of British cricket jargon into his intro when he invites readers who have never posted a comment to "break your duck". In cricket, a duck^[5] is a batsman’s score of zero. The term, short for duck's egg, is a counterpart to the North American expression goose egg^[5] — which are used for the figure 0 because of their similar outlines. In cricket, to break one's duck^[5] is to score the first run of one’s innings. The expression is also used figuratively in Britain meaning to make one’s first score or achieve a particular feat for the first time.

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   He coaxes reluctant dancer to writhe about with her holding arm (5,7)

Rather than "the single-letter abbreviation for about or concerning", I am sure Gazza should have said "the single-letter abbreviation, often used preceding a date, meaning approximately".

10a   Bohemian bar being talked about (5)

Bohemia^[5] is a region forming the western part of the Czech Republic. Formerly a Slavic kingdom, it became a province of the newly formed Czechoslovakia by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

12a   Forsaken beauty loses cool (8)  ? 

While I did manage to find the correct solution — despite toying with the possibility that it might be HOPELESS — I was not able to decipher the wordplay (thus the question mark) until I read Gazza's review.

18a   Hysterical F-Frenchman's habitual response (8)

Gazza illustrates this clue with a photo of the fictional René Artois^[7] (and "friends"), the main character in the BBC sitcom 'Allo 'Allo!, which ran from 1982 to 1992. Artois (usually referred to as René, but codenamed Nighthawk by the Resistance) is the owner of the Café René in the occupied French town of Nouvion during World War II. In the series, René is often caught in the arms of another woman by his wife, to whom he responds with the line "You stupid woman!" This would be followed by a convoluted explanation, which Edith would always believe.

19a   With 40% cutback analyst is one with target to hit (6)

The 40% which is cut consists of the letters RESE.

26a   Some Abba wannabes backing Prince (5)

Nawab^[5] is a historical Indian term for (1) a native governor during the time of the Mogul empire or (2) a Muslim nobleman or person of high status.

1d   Rocky feints with right slug (7)

The surface reading likely alludes to fictional boxer Rocky Balboa^[7]  the title character of the Rocky series of films from 1976 to 2006.

Whereas, in North America, a snifter^[5] is a balloon glass for brandy, in Britain, it is a small quantity of an alcoholic drink ⇒ care to join me for a snifter?.

3d   Transport EU partner fixed (9)

EU^[5] is the abbreviation for European Union.

6d   Compère, familiarly, seems clever off and on (5)

The solution to this clue was obvious once I discovered that compère^[5] is a British name for a person who introduces the performers or contestants in a variety show. In the phrase "seems clever", you must discard the first letter (off), retain the second letter (on) and then continue to repeat this pattern.

16d   Board game is cheaper version (9)

Parcheesi^[5,10] is a US trademark for a modern board game derived from the ancient game of pachisi^[10], an Indian game somewhat resembling backgammon, played on a cruciform board using six cowries as dice. A cowrie^[10] (or cowry) is (1) any marine gastropod mollusc of the mostly tropical family Cypraeidae, having a glossy brightly marked shell with an elongated opening or (2) the shell of any of these molluscs, especially the shell of Cypraea moneta (money cowry), used as money in parts of Africa and S Asia.

25d   Gosh, Beethoven's Ninth is old-fashioned stuff (4)

The Symphony No. 9 in D minor^[7], Op. 125, is the final complete symphony of German composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827). Completed in 1824, the symphony is one of the best-known works of the Western classical repertoire. Among critics, it is almost universally considered to be among Beethoven's greatest works, and is considered by some to be the greatest piece of music ever written.

The solution contains a variant of a British expression that can take any of several forms. Cor^[5] is an informal British exclamation expressing surprise, excitement, admiration, or alarm ⇒ Cor! That‘s a beautiful black eye you’ve got!

Related exclamations are (1) blimey^[5] (also cor blimey), an exclamation used informally to express surprise, excitement, or alarm and (2) gorblimey^[5], an informal expression of surprise or indignation.

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)

Happy Valentines Day — Falcon