Thursday, May 23, 2013 — DT 27120

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27120
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, March 8, 2013
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27120]
Big Dave's Review Written By Deep Threat
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 was not overly taxing, but it took some effort to identify the Chelsea footballer. I initially suspected that the clue might refer to a nickname for the Chelsea football club^[7], but could do nothing with either The Blues or The Pensioners. Eventually, I twigged to the fact that we needed a particular football player. Luckily, John Terry is one of the few British soccer players whose name I know — a man renowned for his exploits on and off the field.

By the way, you may wonder about the origin of the team's nickname, The Pensioners. A Chelsea pensioner^[7] is resident at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, a retirement home and nursing home for former members of the British Army located in Chelsea, London. An interesting name for a sports team!

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   Fellow covering miles, one sailing maybe in competition (12)

Championship^[4] is used, not in the sense of the title or status of being a champion, but rather in the sense of any of various contests held to determine a champion.

The wordplay, one element of which may be unclear from Deep Threat's review, is {CHAP (fellow) containing (covering) M (miles)} + I (one) + ON SHIP (sailing maybe).

9a   Chelsea footballer eats Indian bread going around ground (9)

John Terry^[7] is an English professional footballer [soccer player]. Terry plays in a centre back position and is the captain of Chelsea in the Premier League [the top level league in English football]. He was also captain of the England national football team, holding the post from August 2006 to February 2010, and again from March 2011 to February 2012.

In Indian cuisine, roti^[5] is bread, especially a flat round bread cooked on a griddle.

10a   In hotel I teach select group (5)

11a   The old man's name one learner's forgotten -- a mathematician (6)

Blaise Pascal^[5] (1623 – 1662), French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher. He founded the theory of probabilities and developed a forerunner of integral calculus, but is best known for deriving the principle that the pressure of a fluid at rest is transmitted equally in all directions.

The cryptic crossword convention of L meaning learner or student arises from the L-plate^[7], a square plate bearing a sans-serif letter L, for learner, which must be affixed to the front and back of a vehicle in various countries (including the UK) if its driver is a learner under instruction.

12a   Clog of old boy on street caught in groove (8)

In the surface reading, clog^[5] is used in the sense of a shoe with a thick wooden sole.

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.

On cricket scorecards, the abbreviation c^[5] indicates caught (by).

13a   Eccentric having party by river dam (6)

15a   Welsh river fellow whose life was filmed (8)

The River Cam^[7] is a tributary of the River Great Ouse in the east of England (there are also a couple of other rivers by the same name in England).

 Monty Python's Life of Brian^[7], also known as Life of Brian, is a 1979 British comedy film starring and written by the comedy group Monty Python (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin), and directed by Jones. It tells the story of Brian Cohen (played by Chapman), a young Jewish man who is born on the same day as, and next door to Jesus Christ, and is subsequently mistaken for the Messiah.

 Cambrian^[5] means Welsh (i.e., 'of Wales').

18a   Tot eaten by fish? It's a nightmare! (3,5)

The bream^[5] is a greenish-bronze deep-bodied freshwater fish (Abramis brama) native to Europe.

19a   Mother gets exercise in building that can be walked around (6)

21a   One making a decision about someone like you! (8)

23a   I had got into fight knocking out wife at the wedding (6)

26a   Do away with  disagreement (5)

27a   Special deals one found around end of summer for shrubs (9)

28a   Repairer of bike  who has something to say? (12)

I would suggest that this is a double definition, with the first one being cryptic.

Down

1d   Person exploited, initially childlike, was apt to look silly (4-3)

2d   Extent of farmland possibly yielding a green plant mostly (5)

3d   Couple in Buckingham Palace briefly flirt! (9)

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 — and that of King George was GR^[5] — from the Latin Georgius Rex.

4d   Sound of Cockney tramp's instrument (4)

A cockney^[5] is a native of East London [specifically the East End], traditionally one born within hearing of Bow Bells (the bells of St Mary-le-Bow^[7] church). Cockney is also the name of the dialect or accent typical of cockneys, which is characterised by dropping the H from the beginning of words and the use of rhyming slang^[5].

5d   Food that could be extracted from a bone, say (4,4)

6d   Sluggish pitman heading off before time (5)

7d   Separate newspaper, the thing to fade around the edges (8)

The Sun^[7] is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom by the News Group Newspapers division of News International, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

8d   Exist as a team one short? You may get this (6)

... eleven being the number of players on a cricket^[7] side or an Association football^[7] [soccer] team.

14d   South of river attempt to establish factories etc (8)

The Indus^[5] is a river of southern Asia, about 2,900 km (1,800 miles) in length, flowing from Tibet through Kashmir and Pakistan to the Arabian Sea. Along its valley an early civilization flourished from circa 2600 to 1760 BC.

16d   Nebuliser fashioned for the older female? (4-5)

17d   Spooner's humble kitchen-worker features in reference volume (8)

A spoonerism^[7] is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see metathesis^[7]). It is named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner^[7] (1844 – 1930), Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency.

18d   Most scantily furnished pub on estate (6)

20d   Curse coming from African country boy (7)

Malison^[3,4,11] is an archaic or poetic word for a curse.

22d   Possible clue for pal to relish (3,2)

24d   Robe covered by padre's surplice (5)

25d   Almost the smallest grassy areas (4)

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