Tuesday, September 17, 2013 — DT 27205

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27205
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Saturday, June 15, 2013
Setter Cephas (Peter Chamberlain)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27205 - Hints] Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27205 - Review]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave (Hints) gnomethang (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
Note 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

I am in total agreement with gnomethang's assessment of this puzzle. I thoroughly enjoyed solving it and, having been able to complete it without the need of assistance from my electronic reinforcements, I would concur with the ★★ rating for difficulty.

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   Black stuff covering bishop's pen (6)

Right Reverend^[5] (abbreviation RR^[2]) is a title given to a bishop, especially in the Anglican Church ⇒ the Right Reverend David Jenkins, Bishop of Durham.

4a   Breakfast food cooler? (8)

According to The Chambers Dictionary, porridge^[1] is British slang meaning a jail or a jail sentence, especially in the phrase do porridge meaning to serve a jail sentence. This is the only source that I have found in which the word is shown as meaning 'jail'. The online editions of Chambers 21st Century Dictionary^[2], Collins English Dictionary^[4,10], and the Oxford Dictionary of English^[5]  show the word as meaning 'a jail sentence', 'a term in prison', or 'time spent in prison' respectively.

The term would be well-known in the UK, as Porridge^[7] is the name of a British situation comedy broadcast on the BBC from 1974 to 1977 as well as a 1979 feature film based on the series. "Doing porridge" is British slang for serving a prison sentence, porridge once being the traditional breakfast in UK prisons. The television series was voted number seven in a 2004 BBC poll of the 100 greatest British sitcoms.

8a   Scientist on holiday entering wine store (6)

Here, a "wine store" is somewhere you store wine rather than somewhere you buy wine. For the latter, the Brits would likely say 'wine shop'. In Britain, a bin^[4] is a storage place for bottled wine.

Boffin^[5] is British slang for (1) a person engaged in scientific or technical research ⇒ the boffins at the Telecommunications Research Establishment or (2) a person with knowledge or a skill considered to be complex or arcane ⇒ a computer boffin.

9a   Having recently become member of a union (5-3)

10a   Men of letters, burning with irate rambling (8)

11a   Could be worse, ringing about legal document (6)

"Could be" indicates that we must perform some sort of unspecified operation on WORSE to produce ESROW. As gnomethang indicates, the necessary operation might be an anagram. However, might it not equally well be a reversal?

12a   Hard-hearted, without Biblical character? (8)

Ruth^[5] is a book of the Bible telling the story of Ruth, a Moabite woman, who married her deceased husband’s kinsman Boaz and bore a son who became grandfather to King David.

13a   Sauce with food -- it's red and goes on chops (6)

Sauce^[5] is a chiefly British term meaning impertinence or cheek ⇒ ‘None of your sauce,’ said Aunt Edie. North Americans would be more likely to say sass^[5] ⇒ the kind of boy that wouldn’t give you any sass.

Lippie^[5] (an alternative spelling of lippy) is [seemingly British] slang for lipstick.

15a   Reportedly uninterested, husband's left her in bed! (6)

18a   Muscles stretch -- that's in theory (8)

As a prepositional phrase, "in theory" would mean the same as "in (the) abstract". Moreover, when used as a postpositive adjective, I would think that "in theory" could be considered to be equivalent to 'abstract' (a prepositive adjective).

20a   Where young lady returning with nothing on may take a dip? (6)

21a   Put forward in support of sterling (8)

The pound^[5] (also pound sterling) is the basic monetary unit of the UK, equal to 100 pence. Sterling^[5] is a general term for British money ⇒ prices in sterling are shown.

23a   Virginia not involved in crooked villainous trick (8)

24a   Spoke for a tedious group of characters inside (6)

25a   Storyteller's stirring rant and roar (8)

26a   Mischief-maker trapping insect, all round it's pathetic (6)

Down

1d   Accountant and graduate left small party (5)

The abbreviation CA^[5] for chartered accountant  is used in Scotland (as alluded to by Big Dave in his hints) as well as Canada. In England and Wales, the designatory letters are ACA or FCA while in Ireland (including Northern Ireland) the acronym CAI is used.^[7]

2d   Rush outside recently having restored energy (9)

3d   Row over time needed for descent (7)

4d   Remedy for a writer missing the point (6-9)

5d   Harsh treatment of unseasoned wood (3,4)

In Britain, deal^[5] means (1) fir or pine wood as a building material or (2) a plank made of fir or pine wood [what we in North America would more commonly refer to as lumber]. Apparently, this meaning of deal^[3,11] also exists (or once existed) in North America, but I would think that it is very rarely used now — especially by the general public. In Britain, lumber^[5] has a totally different meaning, being articles of furniture or other household items that are no longer useful and inconveniently take up storage space.

6d   In retrospect, we would decline a little liquid (7)

7d   Won't emend revised bequest (9)

12d   Fizzy beer left by beast -- revolting (9)

14d   Celebrity being mature! (9)

16d   Soldier's uniform (7)

17d   Act without restraint in high-scoring cricket match? (3,4)

A Google search of the phrase "run riot" shows it to be a particular favourite among British sports page editors. It seems to be applied equally to overwhelming performances by both batsmen and bowlers, as evidenced by the following articles: Duncan Snell runs riot with 187 as York Cricket Club rattle up Yorkshire League record total [batsman Duncan Snell scored 187 runs in his innings] and Graeme Swann and England's bowlers ran riot at Lord's as Australia produced a batting performance of staggering incompetence.

19d   Parade and exhibition substandard (4,3)

22d   Miss  a trick (5)

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