Thursday, March 21, 2013 — DT 27072

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27072
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, January 11, 2013
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27072]
Big Dave's Review Written By Gazza
BD Rating
Difficulty - ★	Enjoyment - ★★
Falcon's Experience ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ 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

Having thought that I had done quite well this morning in managing to complete, unaided, what I fully expected to be either a moderately difficult two star puzzle, if not a rather easy three star puzzle, I was more than a little disillusioned to see that Gazza awarded it a single star for difficulty. I also felt that I derived more enjoyment from it than the two stars that he deemed it to merit.

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

4a   Statement about Bond's boss's bad behaviour (8)

M^[7] is a fictional character in English author Ian Fleming's James Bond book and film series; the character is the Head of Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6 (Military Intelligence, Section 6), the agency which supplies the UK government with foreign intelligence.

8a   Central heating allowed as protection for a house (6)

The Chambers Dictionary lists c.h.^[1] as an abbreviation for central heating.

9a   A twitching disorder follows small drink -- it's striking (8)

10a   Being poor, obtained pence for pocketing (8)

In Britain, pence^[5] is a plural form of penny. Oxford advises that both pence and pennies have existed as plural forms of penny since at least the 16th century. The two forms now tend to be used for different purposes: pence refers to sums of money (five pounds and sixty-nine pence) while pennies refers to the coins themselves (I left two pennies on the table). The use of pence rather than penny as a singular (the chancellor will put one pence on income tax) is not regarded as correct in standard English.

In Britain's current decimal currency system, a penny^[5] is a bronze coin and monetary unit equal to one hundredth of a pound (and is abbreviated p). In the system formerly used, a penny was equal to one twelfth of a shilling or 240th of a pound (and was abbreviated d, for denarius). The abbreviations apply equally to the plural, pence, as to the singular, penny.

11a   Broadcast  making one irritated (3,3)

12a   Come together, finding a form of solace in church (8)

The Church of England (CE)^[10] is the reformed established state Church in England, Catholic in order and basic doctrine, with the Sovereign as its temporal head.

13a   I see old boy, someone on the tennis court? (8)

In Britain, an old boy^[5] (abbreviation OB^[2])  is (1) a former male student of a school or college ⇒an old boy of Banbury County School or (2) a former male member of a sports team or company ⇒the White Hart Lane old boy squared the ball to present an easy chance from 12 yards. It is also a chiefly British affectionate form of address to a boy or man ⇒ ‘Look here, old boy,’ he said.

16a   Concern for a financial premium (8)

19a   Leaders of national party in cheerful female celebration (3,5)

A hen party^[5] is an informal [seemingly British] term for a social gathering of women, especially a hen night^[5], an informal British term for a celebration held for a woman who is about to get married, attended only by women.

21a   Saint suffering setback, getting feeble inside, twitches (6)

I was initially skeptical about the definition. However, after a bit of research, I concluded that it is correct. Twitch^[10] is used in the sense of to pull or draw (something) with a quick jerky movement; in other words, to tug (at) [from list of synonyms]. Tweak^[5] can mean to twist or pull (something) sharply ⇒ he tweaked the boy’s ear.

23a   Control report about good university (8)

24a   Something very small and new leading to change of routine (8)

25a   Fancy being overwhelmed by scorn at Eton! (6)

Eton College^[7], often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent [private] school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor". It is located in Eton, near Windsor in England, and is one of the original nine English public schools as defined by the Public Schools Act 1868. [Note: In Britain, "public schools" are a special class of private school; what North Americans would call public schools seem to be referred to in Britain by terms such as state-run or state-funded schools].

26a   Decapitate dull principal! (8)

In Britain, head^[5] is short for for headmaster^[5] (a man who is the head teacher in a school), headmistress^[5] (ditto for a woman), or head teacher^[5] (the teacher in charge of a school).

Down

1d   Carriage churning up one path (7)

Historically, a phaeton^[10] is a light four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage with or without a top, usually having two seats. In North America, the term phaeton^[5] was also used for a vintage touring car.

2d   Make more than one rise up -- all possibly (9)

3d   Last two of these vats will be set up in the bars (6)

Gazza has pointed out in a comment below that his interpretation of the clue was quite different from mine. This prompted me to take another look through the dictionaries and I now believe that stave^[5] is used in the sense of a strong wooden stick or iron pole used as a weapon — although I would call this a staff [remember Robin Hood and Little John]. Such an implement could also be called a bar^[5], a long rigid piece of wood, metal, or similar material, typically used as an obstruction, fastening, or weapon.

Here is what I originally wrote:

I struggled in my efforts to categorize this clue. The wordplay is clear enough — "last two of these vats will be set up". But what is the definition? I don't think that it is "bars" as Gazza has indicated (staves and bars are not at all the same thing). I toyed with the possibility that it might be an all-in-one clue — the sort that scchua calls WIWD (wordplay intertwined with definition) — but I can't convince myself that the entire clue constitutes a viable definition. That leaves only the option of "in the bars" — which we are presumably intended to interpret as "[something found] in the bars".

Although it would seem to be looking at things in reverse, I suppose that one could think of staves as being found "in the bars". However, I think it would be more correct to say that the bars are on the staves. Here, staves and bars are elements of music notation.

For British musicians, stave seems to be the preferred name for staff. In standard Western musical notation^[7], the staff^[7], or stave, is a set of five horizontal lines and four spaces that each represent a different musical pitch—or, in the case of a percussion staff, different percussion instruments.

In musical notation, a bar^[7] (or measure) is a segment of time defined by a given number of beats, each of which are assigned a particular note value. The word bar is more common in British English, and the word measure is more common in American English, although musicians generally understand both usages. Originally, the word bar derives from the vertical lines drawn through the staff [or stave] to mark off metrical units. In British English, these vertical lines are called bar, too, but often the term bar-line is used in order to make the distinction clear. In American English, the word bar stands for the lines and nothing else.

4d   Ordinary position for cat's-eyes? (6-2-3-4)

The cat's eye^[7] (also cat's-eye^[10] or Catseye^[2]/catseye^[5], the later being a British trademark) is a retroreflective safety device used in road marking and was the first of a range of raised pavement markers. It originated in the UK in 1933 and is today used all over the world. Cat's eye^[2] is also a type of precious stone which resembles the eye of a cat when light is reflected onto it.

5d   Most keen to have a right nuisance quiet at the outset (8)

6d   Centre of planet with hydrogen rising to the top (5)

The symbol for the chemical element hydrogen is H^[5].

7d   Record one French priest as 'lover of good wine'? (7)

In France, a parish priest is called a curé^[4].

14d   Once again putting an end to  selling (9)

15d   What could be wrongly represented as seediest UK region? (8)

The Tees^[5] is a river of NE England which rises in Cumbria and flows 128 km (80 miles) generally south-eastwards to the North Sea at Middlesbrough. Teesside^[5] [which I presume means 'beside the River Tees'] is an industrial region in NE England around the lower Tees valley, including Middlesbrough.

17d   Out of the running these days, the woman with minimal energy (7)

18d   Country embracing trade union law (7)

20d   Useless revolutionary academic full of sentimentality (2,4)

A don^[10] is a member of the teaching staff at a university or college, especially at Oxford or Cambridge.

22d   Outside court a journalist functioned (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