Tuesday, July 16, 2013 — DT 27159

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27159
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27159]
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

In my elation over finishing without resorting to my electronic assistants, I failed to notice that this puzzle is a pangram — one whose solution contains at least one instance of every letter of the alphabet. The setter is not identified on Big Dave's blog. One commenter suggests Petitjean (John Pidgeon) as a possibility while another points the finger at Shamus (Philip Marlowe) as a likely candidate. As I recall, Shamus is known for producing pangrams which might tend to tip the balance in his favour. However, he often leaves a comment at Big Dave's site when it is his puzzle but he has not done so for this 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   Directive popular with union (10)

6a   Assumed name I omitted, unfortunately (4)

10a   Learning about name written backwards in register (5)

11a   What could make one lie square? (9)

The clue must be interpreted as "[The solution is] a word that (what) could produce (could make) [when manipulated by] the solver (one) the word sequence LIE SQUARE". The particular type of manipulation that must be performed is an anagram.

12a   Character sketch: get vet in, comically (8)

13a   Publish paper with no leader (5)

Leader^[3,4,11] is a chiefly British term for the main editorial in a newspaper.

15a   King Edward, well-informed (7)

Lear^[5] was a legendary early king of Britain, the central figure in William Shakespeare’s tragedy King Lear.

17a   Passage from 'North and South' in characteristic setting (7)

As seems to be the customary practice, the quotation marks which were present in The Daily Telegraph have gone missing in the National Post.

North and South^[7] is an 1855 Victorian novel by English writer Elizabeth Gaskell (1810 – 1865). A television adaptation, broadcast by the BBC at the end of 2004, renewed interest in the book.

19a   Pole on motorway makes error (7)

The M1^[7] is a north–south motorway [controlled access, multi-lane divided highway] in England connecting London to Leeds.

21a   I'm 6, taken back to small island (7)

Salamis^[5] is an island in the Saronic Gulf in Greece, to the west of Athens. The strait between the island and the mainland was the scene in 480 BC of a crushing defeat of the Persian fleet under Xerxes I by the Greeks under Themistocles.

22a   Sanctuary for rock group in spring (5)

Oasis^[7] were an English rock band, formed in Manchester in 1991, that came to an acrimonious end near Paris in 2009.

24a   Kitchen strainer for lard, once melted (8)

27a   Effects of cultivating at the farm (9)

As Deep Threat points out, the term aftermath^[5] does have an agricultural origin, meaning new grass growing after mowing or harvest.

28a   Girl I love breaks arm in retreat (5)

In tennis, squash, and some other sports, love^[5] is a score of zero or nil ⇒ love fifteen. The resemblance of a zero written as a numeral (0) to the letter O leads to the cryptic crossword convention of the word "love" being used to clue this letter. 

29a   Time to take off record (4)

30a   Porcelain cap and hat (5,5)

Crown Derby^[5] is a kind of soft-paste porcelain made at Derby (a city in the Midlands of England) and often marked with a crown above the letter ‘D’ ⇒ [as modifier] displays of Crown Derby china.

Down

1d   Mountain goat from central Tibet? Spot marked (4)

2d   Containers and nicer jars smashed (9)

Jerrican is an alternative spelling of jerrycan^[5] or jerry can^[3].

3d   Material vital to many Londoners (5)

I initially suspected that the solution to this clue might involve some Cockney dialect — a theory that 'appened to be incorrect.

4d   Given medical attention and not asked to pay (7)

5d   Work with uranium, fast becoming rich (7)

In the field of music, Op. (also op.)^[5] is an abbreviation meaning opus (work). It is used before a number given to each work of a particular composer, usually indicating the order of publication.

The symbol for the chemical element uranium is U^[5].

7d   Sound of composer's records (5)

Franz Liszt^[7] (1811 – 1886) was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher.

8d   Cover international actor's trial (6,4)

In Britain, an international^[5] is a game or contest between teams representing different countries in a sport ⇒ the Murrayfield rugby international. A Test (short for Test match)^[5] is an international cricket or rugby match, typically one of a series, played between teams representing two different countries ⇒ the Test match between Pakistan and the West Indies

9d   Exhausted? Everyone, on the whole (3,2,3)

14d   Florid fellow guarding lad in apartment (10)

A flat^[10] refers to what would be called an apartment on this side of the Atlantic. I gather that the Brits reserve the word apartment^[5] for a certain specific type of flat — typically one that is well appointed or used for holidays [seemingly either an upscale flat or one used for temporary occupancy].

16d   Ship from North America, with nothing on board, heading for Holy Island (5,3)

Sark^[5] is one of the Channel Islands, a small island lying to the east of Guernsey. The Channel Islands^[5] are a group of islands in the English Channel off the NW coast of France, of which the largest are Jersey, Guernsey, and Alderney; population 200,000 (est. 2007). Formerly part of the dukedom of Normandy, they have owed allegiance to England since the Norman Conquest in 1066, and are now classed as Crown dependencies.

18d   Edited memoirs involving the Spanish steward (9)

In Spanish, the masculine singular form of the definite article is el^[8].

20d   Note hidden in cake is not in code (2,5)

En clair^[5] is an adjective or adverb used (especially with respect to a telegram or official message) to indicate that a communication is in ordinary language, rather than in code or cipher.

21d   Short sailor and dog jump on the ice (7)

23d   Raise  frame (3,2)

25d   Called chap over to meet editor (5)

26d   Unknown, some screwball (4)

In mathematics (algebra, in particular), an unknown^[10] is a variable, or the quantity it represents, the value of which is to be discovered by solving an equation ⇒ 3y = 4x + 5 is an equation in two unknowns. [Unknowns are typically represented symbolically by the letters x, y and z.]

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