Friday, March 8, 2013 — DT 27059

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27059
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, December 27, 2012
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27059]
Big Dave's Review Written By Prolixic
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

The usual very entertaining offering from RayT — and a break from the Christmas-themed puzzles.

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.

Across

1a   Headlong  plunge? (11)

I follow Prolixic's reasoning with respect to this being a double definition, but I fail to understand his claim that it is also an all-in-one clue.

As adjectives, headlong^[5] means in a rush or with reckless haste ⇒ a headlong dash through the house and precipitate^[5] means done, made, or acting suddenly or without careful consideration ⇒ I must apologize for my staff—their actions were precipitate. As a verb, to precipitate someone or something into means to send someone or something suddenly into a particular state or condition ⇒ they were precipitated into a conflict for which they were quite unprepared.

10a   Most of the drink produces dull drone (5)

11a   Respectable ladies endlessly preserving jams (9)

12a   Hands in a welcome deal (9)

13a   Modelled your extremities for dirty old man (5)

A satyr^[5] is a man who has strong sexual desires ⇒ Charles was an unmarried satyr. In Greek mythology, a satyr is one of a class of lustful, drunken woodland gods. In Greek art they were represented as a man with a horse’s ears and tail, but in Roman representations as a man with a goat’s ears, tail, legs, and horns.

14a   Following good publicity, buy appliance (6)

16a   Pot contains recipe before call of dinner (8)

18a   Bum shown squashed (8)

20a   Trashy establishment admitting most shamefaced (6)

As well as meaning showing a sense of shame, shamefaced^[3,4] also means bashful or modest. It is interesting to note that in The American Heritage Dictionary the order of the definitions is reversed from that found in Collins English Dictionary.

23a   Living animal reaching virtual adulthood initially (5)

24a   Name a shrew rejected, start to tame shrew (9)

26a   Drug found in property? (9)

27a   Welcome to show lower regions with nothing on (5)

28a   Act pains me to pieces covering Queen (11)

An anagram (pieces) of PAINS ME TO containing (covering) ER (Queen; Elizabetha Regina). The anagram indicator ("pieces") refers to the letters forming the words in the fodder. While the clue doesn't explicitly specify that the order of the letters must be changed, why else would one go to the effort of breaking the words up into their "pieces".

Down

2d   More exceptional bottom upended without resistance (5)

3d   Rival's advance to embrace darling (7)

4d   Right's dead in dust (6)

5d   Titles' opening with scoundrels Del and Rodney (8)

Del and Rodney are not pigs — as was my guess. Only Fools and Horses^[7] is a British sitcom originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003. Set in south London, the series chronicles the highs and lows in the lives of ambitious market trader Derek "Del Boy" Trotter and his younger brother Rodney, in particular their attempts to get rich.

Rotter^[3] is a chiefly British slang term for a scoundrel.

6d   Senator sacked for disloyalty (7)

7d   Left in fights, hurts a broken hand (8,5)

8d   Repentant criminal with form getting time inside (8)

In the surface reading, form^[4] is British slang meaning a criminal record. In the cryptic reading, on the other hand, it is used in the sense of a prescribed set or order of words, terms, etc., as in a religious ceremony or legal document.

9d   Garage patrons' toilet in need of facelift (6,7)

In Britain, they have petrol stations rather than gas stations.

15d   Funding raised over family abuse (8)

17d   One's served in jug perhaps (8)

I started with PRISONER. I then changed this to DETAINEE to accommodate 18a, 26a and 28a. Finally, I had to change it again to make way for 24a.

19d   Vision of cat after face includes his head (7)

21d   Pagan ardour on top of bird (7)

22d   Gives someone the low-down  underpants (6)

25d   Dispense with amateur tax returns (5)

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