Friday, July 5, 2013 — DT 27151

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27151
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Saturday, April 13, 2013
Setter Cephas (Peter Chamberlain)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27151 - hints] Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27151 - 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

Having struggled all week to catch up on my blogging, it is a great relief to finally be up-to-date.

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   Crossing duty makes you strike? (4)

3a   Local supporter right to the end (3)

A local^[7] is a pub convenient to a person’s home.

5a   Dark image swine had inserted (6)

8a   Motors reassembled in northern port (6)

Tromsø^[10] is a port in N Norway, on a small island between Kvaløy and the mainland. It is a fishing and sealing centre.

9a   Better than normal, but not on course! (5,3)

10a   Shallow type in corner with old record (4-4)

An extended play^[7] (or "EP" in common speech) is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play (SP) records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length compact discs and music downloads as well. ... In the United Kingdom, the Official Chart Company defines a boundary between EP and album classification at 25 minutes of length or four tracks (not counting alternative versions of featured songs, if present).

11a   Follow up returns -- sure to get fluctuations (6)

12a   Get more outrageous puzzle (8)

13a   Disapprove once or twice or four times about couple of universities (3-3)

Tut^[5] is short for tut-tut^[5], an exclamation used to express disapproval or annoyance ⇒ tut-tut, Robin, you disappoint me. Thus the solution to the clue could be either a single instance of "tut-tut" (disapprove once) or two instances of "tut" (disapprove twice). At least, that is my best interpretation.

15a   Teased for being shabbily dressed (6)

18a   Ripe and ready to be spiced up? (2,6)

The Chambers Dictionary says that season^[1] is an obsolete term for seasoning — thus lending support to crypticsue's assertion that IN SEASON "could mean that something was  marinating in a mixture of spices or herbs".

20a   Spasmodic attack almost complete (6)

21a   Miserly girl's close call (4,4)

23a   Animal, carnivore about to be caught by river in Yorkshire (8)

The River Ure^[7] is a stream in North Yorkshire, England, approximately 74 miles (119 km) long from its source to the point where it changes name to the River Ouse.

24a   It's not taken by one going straight (6)

25a   I left with duet performing outside, lacking concentration (6)

26a   Jumper perhaps in receptacle taken back (3)

In Britain, a jumper^[5] is a knitted garment typically with long sleeves, worn over the upper body (in North American terms, a sweater). What we would call a jumper, the Brits would call a pinafore^[5] (a collarless sleeveless dress worn over a blouse or [British] jumper [i.e., North American sweater]). Thus if a British lass wore a pinafore over her jumper and a North American gal wore a jumper over her sweater, they would be dressed identically.

27a   Bed contains a blanket or fleece (4)

My initial presumption was that blanket may be used in the sense of  a blanket (or coat) of snow and fleece in the sense of a sheep's coat. However, after reading some comments on Big Dave's site, I now discover that fleece^[4] — in addition to being a fabric — may also be a jacket or top made from such a fabric (at least in Britain).

Down

1d   Roman emperor's set of clothes turned up -- toga initially needs taking in (5)

Titus^[5] (AD 39 - AD 81), Roman emperor AD 79 - AD 81, son of Vespasian; full name Titus Vespasianus Augustus; born Titus Flavius Vespasianus. In AD 70 he ended a revolt in Judaea with the conquest of Jerusalem.

2d   Bemoaning faulty alignment (9)

3d   Writers' block? (7)

4d   Gather by harbour with men into reorganising, dividing again (15)

5d   Snap over fixed athletics event (4,3)

6d   I sped to exotic place (7)

7d   Old deteriorating watermelon left out (4-5)

12d   Brazen as one who's had a close shave? (9)

14d   Emotionally shocking art reviewed with hesitation -- a reflex reaction (9)

16d   Wake up to the facts in unfortunate telegram, unfinished (3,4)

17d   Escorted northwards over river to expel parasites (7)

Although there are other rivers in England with the same or similar name, I will venture that the River Ouse^[5] refers 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. While I had always assumed that Ouse would rhyme with mouse — I was to discover on my recent visit to Yorkshire that it actually rhymes with snooze.

19d   Finish the sitting (5,2)

22d   Odds on one selling out fish (5)

While I can't be certain, I suspect that starting price (abbreviation SP)^[10] may be a British term (as I have only been able to find it in British dictionaries). In horse racing, it means the latest odds offered by bookmakers at the start of a race.

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