Tuesday, March 26, 2013 — DT 27076

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27076
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27076]
Big Dave's Review Written By scchua
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

Today's puzzle, unmistakably crafted by Jay, did not give me too much trouble — once I had sorted out a bit of an issue in the northwest quadrant.

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   Odd drink sent back causes uproar (6)

Rum^[5] is dated British slang meaning odd or peculiar. As a verb, sup^[5] is a dated or Northern English term meaning to take (drink or liquid food) by sips or spoonfuls ⇒ (i) she supped up her soup delightedly; (ii) he was supping straight from the bottle. As a noun, it means (1) a sip of liquid ⇒ he took another sup of wine or (2) in Northern England or Ireland, an alcoholic drink ⇒ the latest sup from those blokes at the brewery.

5a   Undergo suspension during church alteration (6)

Unlike in the following clue, here we need a very specific religious denomination. 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.

10a   Expression of denial surrounding a church's food from abroad (5)

11a   Car from queue running over tailless rodent on island (9)

12a   Gets used to airs after a time (7)

13a   Mostly natter about otherwise capital area (7)

Chelsea^[7] is an affluent area of central London, England. It is an upmarket neighbourhood equivalent to that of New York's Upper East Side, Los Angeles' Beverly Hills or the 16th arrondissement of Paris.

14a   A fog covering river, and the effect of freezing means a ceasefire (9)

17a   Cute  working partnership without kids (5)

In Britain, dinky^[5] is an informal term that means (with respect to an object or place) attractively small and neat ⇒ a dinky little restaurant. In North America, on the other hand, the term denotes disappointingly small or insignificant ⇒ I can’t believe the dinky salaries they pay here.

Dinky^[5] is also a slang term for a partner in a well-off working couple with no children. It is formed from the acronym DINK (double income, no kids), on the pattern of yuppy.

18a   Makes money from sweets (5)

In Britain, a sweet^[5] can be a small shaped piece of confectionery made with sugar ⇒ a bag of sweets [known as candy^[5] in North America]. Another British meaning for a sweet is a dessert.

19a   Composure required, but drags on if suffering (9)

21a   Forbid access -- bit of hair not in place! (4,3)

23a   Disgusted with horse's accommodation on ship (4,3)

25a   Vessel from small island carrying post (9)

26a   Trio working around new opening (5)

27a   Put off cricketer's transport with runners (6)

Sledge^[5] is a chiefly British term for a vehicle on runners for conveying loads or passengers over snow or ice, often pulled by draught animals ⇒ a dog sledge; (ii) [as modifier] a sledge journey. In North America, such a vehicle would be called a sled^[5].

Should you be puzzled by the former entry defining sledge as a toboggan, you should be aware that in Britain a toboggan^[5] is a long, light, narrow vehicle, typically on runners, used for sliding downhill over snow or ice. You will find that the Brits apply the term toboggan to almost any type of sled used for sliding downhill. I suppose that the phrase "typically on runners" leaves enough wiggle room to allow a 'true toboggan' (which has no runners) to fit within the definition.

In the not so gentlemanly game of cricket, sledge^[5] means (for a fielder) to make offensive remarks to (an opposing batsman) in order to break their concentration ⇒ (i) they will be remembered for their sledging as much as for their skill; (ii) he had resorted to sledging Stewart. In North America, one would use the term trash talk^[5], meaning to make boastful or insulting remarks in order to demoralize or humiliate a sporting opponent ⇒ (i) Westering’s players do not swear or tussle or trash-talk; (ii) [with object] people were going to trash-talk us until we started to win; (iii) [as adjective trash-talking] trash-talking foreign junk-bond dealers; (iv) [as noun] he heard more trash talk from the Giants before the game than during the game.

The illustration in scchua's review is of Sister Sledge^[7], an American musical group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, formed in 1971 and consisting of four sisters: Kim, Debbie, Joni and Kathy Sledge. The group is likely best known for their hit song "We Are Family".

28a   Batsman gets duck -- fellow takes name (6)

In cricket, a duck^[5] is a batsman’s score of nought [zero] ⇒ he was out for a duck. In cryptic crossword puzzles, duck is used to indicate the letter "O" based on the resemblance of the digit "0" to this letter.

Also in cricket, an opener^[5] is a batsman who opens the batting. Since there are always two batsmen
on the field, the opener is (in scchua's words) "one of the two starting batsmen".

Fellow^[5] is used in the sense of a person in the same position, involved in the same activity, or otherwise associated with another ⇒ he was learning with a rapidity unique among his fellows.

Down

2d   Rough share given to international organisation (5)

3d   Go on press trips to get forecasts (9)

4d   People with briefs -- kind found on board ship (5)

In Crosswordland, a ship rarely fails to be a steamship (abbreviation SS^[5]).

In British legal circles, a brief^[5] is a summary of the facts and legal points in a case given to a barrister to argue in court. In Britain, silk^[5] is an informal term for a Queen’s (or King’s) Counsel [so named because of the right accorded to wear a gown made of silk]. A Queen's Counsel^[5] (or, during the reign of a king, a King's Counsel^[5]) is a senior barrister appointed on the recommendation of the Lord Chancellor [the highest officer of the Crown, responsible for the efficient functioning and independence of the courts].

Barristers and solicitors are two classes of lawyer. However, the distinction between them varies in different jurisdictions around the world. The following attempt to differentiate the two classes is likely highly oversimplified.

The UK has a split legal profession in which barristers and solicitors have separate and distinct roles. Solicitors are attorneys which means they can act in the place of their client for legal purposes. However, a solicitor is not a member of the bar and is therefore cannot speak on behalf of a client in court. A barrister is not an attorney and is usually forbidden, either by law or professional rules or both, from "conducting" litigation. This means that while the barrister speaks on the client's behalf in court, he or she can do so only when instructed by a solicitor or certain other qualified professional clients, such as patent agents.

In the US and Canada (with the exception of Quebec), there is generally no legal or regulatory distinction between a barrister and a solicitor - with any qualified lawyer being entitled to practice in either field. In the US, most lawyers call themselves attorneys while in Canada, lawyers will adopt different titles depending on the type of legal practice on which they choose to concentrate (barrister, solicitor, or barrister and solicitor). [read more]

Thus, in the UK, it would seem that the brief would be prepared by one lawyer (a solicitor) to be used by another lawyer (a barrister) to argue the case in court.

5d   Arrive cold and thin, and admit error (4,5)

6d   A delightful sort of accent (5)

7d   Player's sliding scale? (9)

Depending on the instrument being used, certain aspects of the musical term glissando^[10] would seem to be almost diametrically opposite in meaning. On the harp or piano, it is a rapidly executed series of notes, each note of which is discretely audible. On the violin, viola, etc. it is another name for a portamento^[10], a smooth slide from one note to another in which intervening notes are not separately discernible.

8d   Capital invested in bank? A racket! (6)

Ankara^[5] is the capital of Turkey since 1923; population 3,763,600 (est. 2007). Prominent in Roman times as Ancyra, it later declined in importance until chosen by Kemal Atatürk in 1923 as his seat of government. Its former name (until 1930) was Angora.

9d   What's left by supporter? A country with no heart (6)

15d   'City knocked out in Cup' -- Mail (9)

The clue is crafted to look like a headline from the sports pages of a British newspaper. The Daily Mail^[5] is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper which is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Manchester City F. C.^[7] (often referred to as simply City), an English Premier League football [soccer] club based in Manchester, England. In all likelihood, Cup refers to The Football Association Challenge Cup^[7], commonly known as the FA Cup, a knockout cup competition in English football that is the oldest association football competition in the world.

16d   Poor Titania's on Ecstasy and unable to get enough (9)

Titania^[5] is the name of the queen of the fairies in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. E^[5] is an abbreviation for the drug Ecstasy or a tablet of Ecstasy ⇒ (i) people have died after taking E; (ii) being busted with three Es can lead to stiff penalties.

17d   Copper getting fellow in to replace loss of temperature -- it's not working properly (9)

F^[2] is the abbreviation for Fellow (of a society, etc).

18d   Hostility from African country clubs witnessed by European (6)

Mali^[5] (much in the news lately) is a landlocked country in West Africa, south of Algeria; population 13,443,200 (est. 2009); capital, Bamako. Its former name (until 1958) was French Sudan.Conquered by the French in the late 19th century, Mali became part of French West Africa. It became a partner with Senegal in the Federation of Mali in 1959 and achieved full independence a year later, on the withdrawal of Senegal.

20d   Right-wing turns up to support doctor with housing problem (3,3)

22d   Looked and searched the internet with the first couple going missing (5)

23d   Suppose son has love for authority! (3-2)

In tennis, squash, and some other sports, love^[5] is a score of zero or nil ⇒ love fifteen. The resemblance of a zero written as a numeral (0) to the letter O leads to the cryptic crossword convention of the word "love" being used to clue this letter.

24d   Lost heat after start of brief swim (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