Wednesday, April 3, 2013 — DT 27082

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27082
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27082]
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

As is often the case, the clues that I needed help on were — in hindsight — not necessarily the most difficult ones in the puzzle.

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   Flier of little importance gets auxiliary burner (5,5)

6a   Short with no end of water? Nonsense! (4)

9a   Something cook may throw at people to put out (6,4)

... throw^[4] meaning to to dispose of or discard.

10a   Almost consider being slim! (4)

12a   Lesson starting late means test! (4)

13a   Say something simple in bar that's illegal (9)

15a   Person who might pick tight corset the Parisian wears (8)

In French, le^[8] is the masculine singular form of the definite article. The anagram indicator "tight" is likely being used in the sense of drunk — and, by implication, confused or mixed up.

16a   Flier needing good cover with soldiers returning (6)

The Corps of Royal Engineers^[7], usually referred to as the Royal Engineers (RE), and also commonly known as the Sappers, is a corps of the British Army that provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces.

18a   Devil's music causing damage (6)

20a   Objections from experts covering trial (8)

23a   One property accepting National Trust is not willing (9)

In Britain, the National Trust^[5] (abbreviation NT) is a trust for the preservation of places of historic interest or natural beauty in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, founded in 1895 and supported by endowment and private subscription. The National Trust for Scotland was founded in 1931.

24a   Scruff's parrot attached to pole (4)

26a   A ruler, not good but of a similar nature (4)

27a   Destroy her last ten hives! (6,4)

While I was doing the puzzle, I had supposed that the exclamation point might be indicating that nettle rash is an example of hives. However, I was to discover that nettle rash^[3,4,11] is, in fact, another term for hives.

28a   Sources of energy drink get youth nervous (4)

29a   Got up after reporting to Roger (10)

Roger is a response used in radio communication to indicate that a message has been received ⇒ ‘Roger; we’ll be with you in about ten minutes.’.

Down

1d   Just beats  seeds (4)

Pip is British slang meaning to defeat by a small margin or at the last moment  ⇒ you were just pipped for the prize.

2d   Side's recent rule regularly ignored outside area (7)

3d   One of the effects of sunblock (5,7)

4d   Holy man in claim of poverty is a fraud (8)

5d   Swivelled round, missing wife, and followed like a good dog (6)

7d   A French boss covering the centre of Paris is not listened to (7)

In French, un^[8] is the masculine singular form of the indefinite article.

8d   Imagine pressure with no universal costume (5,5)

I got the second word fairly readily but I drew a mental blank on the first. Why this should be so, I can't imagine!

11d   Bare minimum of crucial seconds needed for openers? (8,4)

14d   Take in meal as it is prepared (10)

17d   Bizarre steelworker holds prisoner in the USA (8)

According to Oxford Dictionaries Online, arrestee^[5] is a chiefly North American term for a person who has been or is being legally arrested.

19d   Placing  action on the green (7)

21d   Managed, after concession on orchestra's lead singer (7)

22d   Material may have bearing on a juvenile (6)

25d   Slough is building for storage (4)

I looked through the dictionaries — with no success — to see if there might be some meaning of slough that would impart some meaning to the surface reading of this clue.

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