Wednesday, February 20, 2013 — DT 27038

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27038
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Saturday, December 1, 2012
Setter Cephas (Peter Chamberlain)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27038 - Hints] Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27038 - Review]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave (Hints) gnomethang (Review)
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 won't argue with gnomethang on his enjoyment rating as I did find this puzzle a pleasure to do. A good thing too, as I spent an inordinate amount of time on it over several sessions. Thus I might suggest that would not be out of place to award it another star in the difficulty column as well.

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.

9a   Type of selling still has first-class backing (7)

In Britain, inertia selling^[5] is a term used to denote the sending of unsolicited goods to potential customers in the hope of making a sale.

10a   Expand measure by stirring lager (7)

In printing, an en^[5] is a unit of measurement equal to half an em and approximately the average width of typeset characters, used especially for estimating the total amount of space a text will require. As one should not be surprised to discover, this word is the letter N represented as a word, since it is approximately this width.

11a   Trouble taking drug? One's likely to complain (7)

One man's fusspot^[3,4], is another man's fussbudget^[3,4] — the former term being British and the latter US.

14a   African moving nearer to snare it (8)

Eritrea^[5] is an independent state in NE Africa, on the Red Sea; population 5,647,200 (est. 2009); language, Tigre and Cushitic languages; capital, Asmara. Eritrea was an Italian colony from 1890 to 1952, when it became part of Ethiopia. After a long guerrilla war it became internally self-governing in 1991 and fully independent in 1993.

17a   See slip being adjusted in coat (7)

I envy gnomethang for having had checking letters to guide him. I attempted the clue before having any checking letters and came up with PLIESSE (which I later discovered to be the name of a German river). Needless to say, this proved to be a bit of a roadbump with respect to a couple of the crossing entries.

A pelisse^[5] is either (1) a woman’s ankle-length cloak with armholes or sleeves or (2) a fur-lined cloak, especially as part of a hussar’s uniform..

20a   Window decoration keeps out unknown missile (6)

In architecture, tracery^[5] is ornamental stone openwork, typically in the upper part of a Gothic window ⇒ the rose designs were divided by tracery.

27a   Member's turn to compose form of delivery (3,4)

In cricket, leg spin^[5] is a type of spin bowling which causes the ball to deviate from the leg side towards the off side after pitching ⇒ he coped comfortably with the leg spin of Mushtaq Ahmed.  

The leg side^[5] (also called simply the leg) is the half of the field (as divided lengthways through the pitch) away from which the batsman's feet are pointed when standing to receive the ball. The leg side is also known as the on side (or simply the on^[5]). Naturally, the other side of the field is known as the off side^[5]  (also called simply the off).

28a   Cash register silver deposited by Earl for cultivation (7)

The symbol for the chemical element silver is Ag^[5].

29a   Scented drink could be got up stream perhaps (9)

No matter how you choose to spell the solution, you can find a dictionary to support you. It is rosewater in The Chambers Dictionary, rose-water^[2,4] in the Chambers 21st Century Dictionary,and Collins English Dictionary, and rose water^[3,5] in The American Heritage Dictionary and at Oxford Dictionaries Online.

13d   Determined to have detectives involved in act (7)

The Criminal Investigation Department (seemingly better known by its abbreviation CID^[2]) is the detective branch of the British police force.

24d   You need to get over replacing a tray (6)

In cricket, 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.

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