Tuesday, March 5, 2013 — DT 27050

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27050
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Saturday, December 15, 2012
Setter Cephas (Peter Chamberlain)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27050 - Hints] Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27050 - Review]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave - Hints Crypticsue - 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

As I find is often the case with Cephas' puzzles, I got off to a quick start but struggled to complete it.

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

3a   Everyday fare served up in exotic plates by parliament (6,4)

A diet^[5] is a legislative assembly in certain countries. My difficulty lay largely in my erroneous supposition that the second word could be DISH.

8a   Tony goes mad about company magnate (6)

9a   Included hug before first of dates (8)

10a   Philip and Edward have to stop talking (4,4)

I seems that Pip is a nickname for Philip.

11a   Partly rewrites the record book (6)

Esther^[5] is a book of the Bible containing an account of events in the life of Esther, a woman chosen on account of her beauty by the Persian king Ahasuerus (generally supposed to be Xerxes I) to be his queen. She used her influence with him to save the Israelites in captivity from persecution.

12a   Footballer from batting team got out (6,4)

In cricket, the batting side [team] is said to be in^[5] ⇒ which side is in?. In football [soccer], the inside-left and inside-right (collectively the inside forwards)^[10] are (or formerly were) players having mainly midfield and attacking roles.

14a   Appointing group of church workers during Advent (13)

20a   Proposing sex not allowed round home (10)

22a   It's a tricky problem if this vegetable is hot (6)

23a   Seat in church not finished (8)

A cathedra^[10] (the Latin word for chair) is a bishop's throne. I went astray trying to find a synonym for "seat" that I could insert into the abbreviation for the Church of England.

24a   American misbehaves behind closed doors (2,6)

25a   Dismiss article -- this issue's volcanic (6)

In geology and astronomy, ejecta^[5] is material that is forced or thrown out, especially as a result of volcanic eruption, meteoritic impact, or stellar explosion.

26a   After preparing tea, TV's dead -- heartbroken! (10)

Down

1d   Stirring icy gin, he should get clean (8)

2d   Cleo's new ideology reveals grammatical flaw (8)

A solecism^[5] is a grammatical mistake in speech or writing.

3d   Bridge partners mentioned river siesta (6)

The River Ouse^[5] may refer to a river of NE England, formed at the confluence of the Ure and Swale in North Yorkshire and flowing 92 km (57 miles) south-eastwards through York to the Humber estuary. There are also several other rivers in England having that name (or slight variations of it). I had always assumed that Ouse would rhyme with mouse — but apparently it rhymes with snooze.

4d   Last word in steam engines (4)

5d   Left one with Bert struggling to find the words (8)

6d   Hundreds on planet in want (6)

... five hundred to be precise.

7d   Time when cricketers might appear? (6)

There are eleven players on a cricket team.

13d   Course of salts (5)

Epsom Downs^[7] is a Grade 1 racecourse near Epsom, Surrey, England. The "downs" referred to in the name are part of the North Downs, a ridge of chalk hills in south east England. The course is best known for hosting the Epsom Derby, the United Kingdom's premier thoroughbred horse race for three-year-old colts and fillies, over a mile and a half (2400m). It also hosts the Epsom Oaks for three-year-old fillies and the Coronation Cup for all ages over the same distance.

Epsom salts^[5] are crystals of hydrated magnesium sulphate used as a purgative or for other medicinal use.

15d   Popular without little bit of money? That's naive (8)

The Brits no doubt regard this "little bit of money" as foreign. Collins English Dictionary lists more than 80 countries where the cent^[10] is used as a monetary unit (including Canada and the United States) — but, in Britain, the corresponding monetary unit is the penny^[10] [see comment at 18d].

16d   At that place drinks initially will be on the rocks (2,3,3)

Note in Crypticsue's comment that the Brits say stony broke^[5] whereas a North American would use the expression stone broke^[5].

17d   Produce infusion of green tea (8)

18d   Penny put on weight in spring (6)

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).

19d   Prohibit an Australian fruit (6)

Among the many words for which The Chambers Dictionary lists A^[1] as being the abbreviation, one finds Australia and Australian. Since A^[5] also happens to be the International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code for Austria, the setter could equally well have referred to "Austrian fruit".

21d   Caught -- but scored? (6)

By attributing a different meaning to "scored" many of the Brits (including Crypticsue) came up with NICKED as a solution. Of course, one would only fall into that trap if one knew that nick^[5] is British slang meaning to arrest (someone) ⇒ Stuart and Dan got nicked for burglary.

23d   Shy  actors (4)

Shy^[5] means to fling or throw (something) at a target ⇒ he tore the spectacles off and shied them at her.

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