Wednesday, July 24, 2013 — DT 27166

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27166
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27166]
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 not uncommon with puzzles from Jay, I made little progress on the first read through of the across clues. However, I began to make some significant progress once I got into the down clues.

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   Person in choir seeing offender losing name for good (6)

4a   Beast's protection -- mostly by assent in Germany (6)

The German word for yes is ja^[8].

8a   Expert on female wit gets one in hand (4,4)

Oxford Dictionaries Online characterises the term face card^[5] as being chiefly North American. It would seem that the more common British name is court card^[5].

10a   What's more, small child stifles exclamation of disapproval (2,4)

11a   Tax frivolity, dismissing it (4)

12a   Stay in with girl worried about cause of hoarseness (10)

13a   Studies fish by season (6,6)

16a   Rum do, as her topic is a medical speciality (12)

Orthopaedics^[5] is the British spelling of orthopedics. This was my last one in, as it took me a long time to twig to the British spelling. I also spent a great deal of time and effort trying to construct a word beginning with OSTEO- or OPTI-.

Although it would be more usual in North America to see the word spelled specialty, the preferred British spelling would seem to be speciality^[10].

20a   Script given to broadcaster generating letters on air (10)

Sky^[7] is the brand name for a digital satellite television and radio service provided in the UK and Republic of Ireland by British Sky Broadcasting Group plc.

Since skywriting^[10] can be either (1) the forming of words in the sky by the release of smoke or vapour from an aircraft or (2) the words so formed, the definition in this clue can be either of two possibilities. If you prefer to think of skywriting as "the forming of words ...", then the definition in the clue is "generating letters on air". On the other hand, should you see skywriting as being the words themselves, then the definition is simply "letters on air".

21a   Dislikes losing energy in top gear (4)

22a   Charm a beast of burden till dropping sick (6)

23a   Put up with a disheartened reverend being an accepted model (8)

24a   Agreeable people finding sun in peninsular state? (3-3)

25a   Manage to get away, using key copy (6)

Down

1d   Keep watch on small gate receipts away from home (5,3)

2d   Rising river in US city wanting attention (5)

The Dee^[5] is a river in NE Scotland, which rises in the Grampian Mountains and flows eastwards past Balmoral Castle to the North Sea at Aberdeen. Another river of the same name rises in North Wales and flows past Chester and on into the Irish Sea.

3d   Modern entrepreneur is always protecting rear (1-6)

An e-tailer^[5] (trademark in the US) is a retailer selling goods via electronic transactions on the Internet.

5d   A strange notion of Salieri, for example (7)

Antonio Salieri^[5] (1750 – 1825) was an Italian composer. His output includes over forty operas and four oratorios. Salieri lived in Vienna and taught Beethoven, Schubert, and Liszt. He was hostile to Mozart, whom he considered his rival, but a rumour that he poisoned him is now thought to be without foundation.

6d   Brunel did badly without restraints (9)

Isambard Kingdom Brunel^[7] (1806–1859) was an English mechanical and civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges and tunnels. His designs revolutionised public transport and modern engineering.

7d   Novice is almost fleeced, with one taken in (6)

9d   Fails to protect single clergyman from Guides (11)

The capitalization of the word "Guides" (to suggest Girl Guides) is a bit of misdirection by the setter.

In the Church of England, a rector^[5] is the incumbent (the holder of an ecclesiastical benefice) of a parish where all tithes formerly passed to the incumbent. A vicar^[5] on the other hand, is an incumbent of a parish where tithes formerly passed to a chapter or religious house or layman. A benefice^[5] is a permanent Church appointment, typically that of a rector or vicar, for which property and income are provided in respect of pastoral duties. The terms rector and vicar are also used in the Roman Catholic Church, but with a different meaning in each case.

14d   Dances for doctor working with escorts (9)

A medical officer^[5] (abbreviation MO^[5]) is a doctor in charge of the health services of a civilian or military authority or other organization.

15d   Working croft in diocese at no cost at all (4-4)

A see^[10] is the diocese of a bishop, or the place within it where his cathedral or procathedral is situated.

17d   First line in the representation of Scotland (7)

The thistle^[7] is the floral emblem of Scotland.

The wordplay is {IST (first; 1st, with the arabic numeral 1 replaced by the Roman numeral I) + L (line)} contained in THE (from the clue).

18d   A fellow with good name in Germany for people in Asia (7)

Add Hans to the list of names associated with particular nationalities in Crosswordland. He joins Ian from Scotland, Pat from Ireland, and René from France.

19d   To cream off pay with no answer is revealing (6)

21d   Foolhardy head turns up to trap monster (5)

In Greek mythology, the Hydra^[5] is a many-headed snake whose heads grew again as they were cut off, eventually killed by Hercules.

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