Thursday, June 27, 2013 — DT 27145

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27145
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Saturday, April 6, 2013
Setter Cephas (Peter Chamberlain)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27145 - hints] Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27145 - review]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave (hints) crypticsue (review)
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
Notes As this was a Saturday "Prize Puzzle" in Britain, there are two entries related to it on Big Dave's Crossword Blog — the first, posted on the date of publication, contains hints for selected clues while the second is a full review issued following the entry deadline for the contest. The vast majority of reader comments will generally be found attached to the "hints" posting with a minimal number — if any — accompanying the full review.

Introduction

After nearly a month involving virtually nonstop travel, my life may be returning to something approaching normality. I needed a fair bit of assistance from my electronic helpers today — no doubt an indication that my puzzle solving skills have become rusty through lack of practice.

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   Concealed weapon revealed in argument between two seconds (5-5)

A swordstick^[5] is a hollow walking stick containing a blade that can be used as a sword. In addition to the cited entry from Oxford Dictionaries Online, this term is also spelled as a single word in Collins English Dictionary^[10] and Chambers 21st Century Dictionary^[2]. However, it is hyphenated in The Chambers Dictionary^[1].

Tick^[3,4] is a chiefly British term meaning a moment.

6a   Novelist's foreign friends (4)

Sir Kingsley Amis^[5] (1922 – 1995) was an English novelist who achieved popular success with his first novel Lucky Jim (1954). His later novels include The Old Devils (Booker Prize, 1986) and The Folks that Live on the Hill (1990). His son, Martin Amis^[5], is also a novelist whose notable works include The Rachel Papers (1973), Money (1984), and Time’s Arrow (1991).

Ami^[8] (plural amis) is the masculine form of the French word meaning 'friend'.

9a   Egg's general character is about right for starter (10)

Should you look in The Chambers Dictionary [and, seemingly, only there], you will find that egg^[1] is a slang term for a bomb or mine.

10a   Advertising material mostly making indistinct impression (4)

12a   Loss of power taking heart from scandal (6)

13a   Foreign Office swore to be single-minded (8)

15a   He lent banger, crashing somewhere in East London (7,5)

A banger^[3,4] is a noisy, decrepit old car.

Bethnal Green^[7] is a district in East London, England, and part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Located 3.3 miles (5.3 km) northeast of Charing Cross [considered to be the centre of London], it was historically an agrarian hamlet in the ancient parish of Stepney, Middlesex.

18a   Traveller's joy seeing father's to tolerate daughter (3,4,5)

Traveller's joy^[5] (also called old man's beard^[5]) is a tall scrambling clematis (Clematis vitalba) with small fragrant flowers and tufts of grey hairs around the seeds. Native to Eurasia and North Africa, it grows chiefly on calcareous soils.

21a   Personnel retained by one directing exciting film perhaps (8)

I was unable to find a dictionary reference corroborating crypticsue's assertion that tiller means "someone steering a boat" — as opposed to a mechanism for steering a boat. Thus, I would hazard to say that (in the cryptic reading) we are expected to interpret "one directing" as referring to 'a thing that directs' rather than 'a person who directs' (as is the case in the surface reading).

22a   Good court official is well (6)

An usher^[3,4] is one who serves as official doorkeeper, as in a courtroom or legislative chamber.

24a   Liberal award for division (4)

OBE^[5] is the abbreviation for Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

The Order of the British Empire^[5] is an order of knighthood instituted in 1917 and divided into five classes: Knight or Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE), Knight or Dame Commander (KBE/DBE), Commander (CBE), Officer (OBE), and Member (MBE). The two highest classes entail the awarding of a knighthood.

25a   Have a large holding of Grammar School property (10)

26a   Information about lake valley (4)

Gen^[5] is British slang for information ⇒ you’ve got more gen on him than we have.

27a   A doctor in the Oval returned casual footwear (10)

The Oval^[7], referred to as the Kia Oval due to a commercial sponsorship deal, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club, and also traditionally hosts the final Test match^[5] [an international cricket or rugby match, typically one of a series, played between teams representing two different countries] of each English summer season in late August or early September.

Down

1d   Bold character in a manuscript held by boy (6)

Samson^[5] was an Israelite leader (probably 11th century BC) famous for his strength (Judges 13-16). He fell in love with Delilah and confided to her that his strength lay in his uncut hair. She betrayed him to the Philistines who cut off his hair and blinded him, but his hair grew again, and he pulled down the pillars of a house, destroying himself and a large gathering of Philistines.

2d   Fancy spout round back of urn (6)

3d   Offensive elegies a bard composed (12)

4d   Pie Italian restaurant served up (4)

Trat^[1] is a short form [which I could find only listed in The Chambers Dictionary] for trattoria^[2], a restaurant, especially an informal one that serves Italian food.

5d   Assembled coven do act, wickedly (10)

Convocate^[10] is an archaic term meaning to summon or call together. While in modern usage the more common verbal form would be convoke^[10], the nounal form (convocation^[10]) continues to be commonly found.

7d   Treacle in large quantities -- see about tucking in (8)

Lo^[5] is an archaic exclamation used to draw attention to an interesting or amazing event ⇒ and lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them.

8d   Small nuclear weapon demanding attention (8)

The Trident^[5] is a US-designed submarine-launched long-range ballistic missile. British Vanguard class submarines are armed with Trident missiles purchased from the US but equipped with British-built warheads.

11d   Confusion of Cameron's advice on petty criminals in speech? (6-6)

In British English, hugger-mugger^[5] may be used as an adjective meaning confused or disorderly ⇒ a spirit of careless frivolity where all was hugger-mugger or as an noun denoting disorder or confusion ⇒ the vast hugger-mugger of alleys. Brits would pronounce this term somewhat like 'huggah-muggah' which sounds very similar to the way they would say 'hug a mugger'. Presumably, the clue is intimating that British Prime Minister David Cameron^[5] is soft on crime.

The clue alludes to the apparently widely held belief in the UK that Cameron (prior to becoming Prime Minister) said in a speech that Brits should "hug-a-hoodie" (embrace teenagers wearing hoodies). As this clip from the BBC points out, the Conservative politician Cameron never uttered those words. Rather the phrase comes from a Labour Party press release.

14d   There's virtue having a gun in game (10)

A Sten gun^[5] is a type of lightweight British sub-machine gun. The name is derived from the initials of the inventors' surnames, Shepherd and Turpin, suggested by Bren^[5] (or Bren gun), a lightweight quick-firing machine gun used by the Allied forces in the Second World War whose name is a blend of Brno (a town in the Czech Republic where it was originally made) and Enfield in England (site of the Royal Small Arms Factory where it was later made).

16d   Old Labour leader's diary for March (8)

Michael Foot^[7] (1913 – 2010) was a British Labour Party politician and man of letters. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1945 to 1955 and from 1960 until 1992. He was deputy leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980, and later became the Leader of the Opposition from 1980 to 1983. Surprisingly, he doesn't rate a mention in Oxford Dictionaries Online.

The capitalization of "March" is a bit of cryptic misdirection by the setter.

17d   With skill embraces woman deserving love (8)

19d   Couturier provides such an elegant sample (6)

Coco Chanel^[5] (1883 – 1971) was a French couturière; born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel. Her simple but sophisticated garments were a radical departure from the stiff corseted styles of the day. She also diversified into perfumes, costume jewellery, and textiles.

20d   Swimmer swears violently (6)

23d   Garment, a Roman one (4)

The definition is technically "Roman one". Since the antecedent of the pronoun "one" is "garment", the definition is effectively "Roman garment".

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