Thursday, April 4, 2013 — DT 27083

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27083
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, January 24, 2013
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27083]
Big Dave's Review Written By Libellule
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

This is one of those extremely rare occasions where I seem to have found the puzzle to be easier than indicated by the British reviewer. In fact, this may well be the first time that this has ever occurred! I certainly must have been tuned to the right wavelength today.

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

7a   Writer of rhymes, say, is Tennyson (8)

9a   Stretched, say, getting conditioned (6)

10a   Sink for doctor before surgery (4)

Op^[2] is a colloquial term for either (1) a surgical operation or (2) a military operation.

11a   Anthem is played catching American fervour ... (10)

12a   ... you can count on it! (6)

Cryptic definition.

14a   The plane crashed into jumbo (8)

15a   Small rebuke pinching parking spot (6)

For cryptic purposes, rebuke works equally well as a noun (as Libellule uses in his hint) or as a verb.

17a   Spreads front of silk pants (6)

Trews^[11] are trousers, especially short, close-fitting tartan trousers worn by certain Scottish regiments.

20a   Climb a castle, destroyed after end of siege (8)

22a   Cunning manipulating fault to steal run (6)

23a   Supporter's complaint about new player (10)

In this instance, not the supporter one might expect from RayT.

24a   Perhaps describing Chile  pine? (4)

25a   Stop embracing redhead and pucker (6)

It is a cryptic crossword convention to interpret "redhead" as the first letter (head) of Red. We will see another similar construct a couple of clues further on.

26a   Risk death, getting wind up (8)

Is there a whiff of flatulence here?

The wordplay is END (death) + (getting) ANGER (wind up). In Britain, the phrase wind someone up^[5] means either (1) to tease or irritate someone ⇒ she’s only winding me up or (2) to make (someone) tense or angry ⇒ he was clearly wound up and frantic about his daughter.

Down

1d   Puts down behind gripping bed with sweetheart (8)

Here we find another cryptic crossword staple, in which "sweetheart" is interpreted as the middle letter (heart) of swEet.

Ass^[3,4,11] is the North American term for the part of the body that is known in Britain as the arse^[3,4,11] — or in France as le derrière^[8].

This word would definitely appear to be considered less vulgar in the UK than it is on this side of the Atlantic. With respect to the use of the word arse, Collins English Dictionary says:

Dating back at least a thousand years, and taboo till around the middle of the 20th century, this venerable "Anglo-Saxon" word now seems unlikely to cause offence in all but the most formal contexts. Its acceptability has possibly been helped by such useful verb formations as ``to arse about'' and ``I can't be arsed''.

The dropping of r before s seems to be a common fixture in North American English. In addition to the formation of ass from arse, we find cuss^[3,4,11] having been formed from curse in the same manner as well as passel^[3,4,11] from parcel.

Ass is not the only North American term in the clue. Crib^[5], as a name for a child's bed, also fits in this category. In Britain, such a bed would be called a cot^[5]. However, I noted that this usage did not elicit a comment from Libellule, so perhaps the American term is gaining currency in the UK.

2d   Breath of wind over top of prairie (4)

Another whiff of flatulence, perhaps.

3d   Various ducks circling river (6)

4d   Chest out, esteemed to include most brawny (8)

5d   Penalty kick, taking one's hard on team (10)

The discussion on Big Dave's blog regarding this clue runs as follows:

GMalaga: Another most pleasant xword. I thought the “hard on” in 5D a bit risqué )
Mary: that’s RayT for you
Steve_the_beard: Blimey, what minds you people have, that never occurred to me!

6d   Selected stockings cutting extremities from circulation (6)

8d   Noble bird was on top (6)

The British name for a chickadee is tit^[5] (or titmouse).

13d   Uncovering all to clear security (10)

16d   Main constituent? (8)

The main^[5] is an archaic or literary term referring to the open ocean.

18d   Lavish show opening with Queen, plus Queen! (8)

Almost without exception, puzzles set by RayT include a clue mentioning his favourite band in the guise of a reference to Her Majesty.

By tradition, the ciphers (monograms) of British monarchs are initials formed from the Latin version of their first name followed by either Rex or Regina (Latin for king or queen, respectively). Thus the cipher of Queen Elizabeth is ER^[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina.

19d   Get hot picture above article (6)

21d   Drink and blunder in embarrassed (6)

22d   Wear down a supporter of French (6)

Now this is the sort of supporter we have come to expect from RayT.

In French, de^[8] is a preposition meaning 'of'.

24d   Covering nothing up ... nothing! (4)

Lino^[4] is short for linoleum. From the absence of entries in the two American dictionaries at TheFreeDictionary.com (The American Heritage Dictionary and Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary), I would gather that this is a chiefly British usage.

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)
^[11] - TheFreeDictionary.com (Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon