Wednesday, September 25, 2013 — DT 27211

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27211
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Saturday, June 22, 2013
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27211 - Hints] Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27211 - Review]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave (Hints) Big Dave (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

Today's puzzle leans to the gentle end of the spectrum. However, there are several Briticisms that might handicap one who had not previously encountered them.

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. The underlined portion of the clue is the definition.

Across

3a   Small convenient drink (6)

6a   Ostentation shown by British page (4)

Pom^[5] is Australian and New Zealand slang, often derogatory, for a British person. [Coincidentally, this term appeared in yesterday's puzzle.]

8a   Crew perhaps get tips from Oxford, Cambridge teams entering Thames (5)

Sports groups are often informally referred to by the number of players forming a team. Thus eleven for a cricket or soccer side, nine for a baseball team, and eight^[5] for a rowing crew.

9a   Star Scottish footballer gets red card (3,2,6)

In soccer and some other games, red card^[5] refers to a red card shown by the referee to a player who is being sent off the field ⇒ Guerra was shown the red card for a foul on Meijer. A yellow card^[5], on the other hand, is shown by the referee to a player being cautioned ⇒ Eddis was shown the yellow card for a late tackle on Candlish.

Heart of Midlothian Football Club^[7] (commonly known as Hearts or The Jam Tarts) are a Scottish professional football [soccer] club based in Edinburgh.

10a   Olympic winner to catch impressionist (5)

I managed to decipher the wordplay despite never having heard of this British Olympic athlete. The only name that came to mind was tennis player Maureen "little Mo" Connolly (1934 – 1969) — who was neither British nor an Olympian.

Mohamed "Mo" Farah^[7] is a Somali-born British international track and field athlete in the long distance and middle-distance. He is the current 10,000 metres Olympic and World champion and 5000 metres Olympic, World and European champion.

Claude Monet^[5] (1840–1926) was a  French painter. A founder member of the impressionists, his fascination with the play of light on objects led him to produce series of paintings of single subjects painted at different times of the day and under different weather conditions, such as the Water-lilies sequence (1899–1906; 1916 onwards).

11a   Former wife's custom is being sent abroad (11)

16a   Type inclined to have attraction to adventurous girl mostly (6)

It^[5] (usually written in quotation marks, 'it') is an informal term [and — perhaps — euphemism] for sexual intercourse or sex appeal  ⇒ the only thing I knew nothing about was ‘it’.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland^[7] (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832 – 1898) under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice^[7] who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world (the Wonderland of the title) populated by peculiar and anthropomorphic creatures.

17a   Taking steamship round Channel Islands explorer returned in cutter (8)

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.

Sir John Ross^[5] (1777 – 1856) was a British explorer. He led an expedition to Baffin Bay in 1818 and another in search of the North-West Passage between 1829 and 1833. On the second expedition, he journeyed in a steamship, the Victory, which he intended to use as an ice-breaker. However, it became stuck in the ice and had to be abandoned. He and his crew were rescued by a sailing ship, the Isabella.

Sir James Clark Ross^[7] (1800 – 1862) was a British naval officer and explorer remembered today for his exploration of the Arctic with his uncle Sir John Ross and Sir William Parry and, in particular, his own expedition to Antarctica.

19a   Saint's given foreign church prominence (8)

I struggled a bit here until I remembered that saint can be abbreviated S^[5] (chiefly in Catholic use ⇒ S Ignatius Loyola)  as well as St^[5].

The Church of England (CE)^[10] is the reformed established state Church in England, Catholic in order and basic doctrine, with the Sovereign as its temporal head.

20a   Revoke excluding husband from part of church (6)

22a   How Oliver was portrayed in battle, unlikely to hold beach (5,3,3)

English general and statesman Oliver Cromwell (1599 – 1658) is reputed to have instructed portrait painter Sir Peter Lely (1618 – 1680) to capture his likeness "warts and all".

25a   One getting flame  to marry (5)

27a   Dressing, being given attire in new fashion (11)

28a   Innocent one in body of church (5)

29a   Boy dashed round yard (4)

30a   One stinging nettle finally confused with thorn (6)

Down

1d   Judgment after temper's raised (4)

2d   Defensive batsman, one playing for time with one wicket in hand (11)

In cricket, to stonewall^[5] is to bat extremely defensively. 

On cricket scorecards, W^[5] is used as an abbreviation for wicket(s). The word wicket^[10] can take any of several meanings in cricket. It may be (1) either of two constructions, placed 22 yards apart, consisting of three pointed stumps stuck parallel in the ground with two wooden bails resting on top, at which the batsman stands; (2) the strip of ground between these [constructions] (i.e., the pitch); (3) a batsman's turn at batting or the period during which two batsmen bat ⇒ a third-wicket partnership; or (4) the act or instance of a batsman being got out ⇒ the bowler took six wickets. I presume that the abbreviation on the scorecard is related to one of the latter two meanings.

3d   Grandeur of railways in USA (11)

4d   Spies a convenience (6)

The Gents^[5] is a [chiefly, but (I would hazard to say) not exclusively] British way to refer to a men’s public toilet.

5d   Lower classes intended resistance (8)

This clue relates to the NRS social grades^[7], a system of demographic classification used in the United Kingdom. The categories were originally developed by the National Readership Survey to classify readers, but are now used by many other organisations for wider applications and have become a standard for market research. They were developed over 50 years ago and achieved widespread usage in 20th Century Britain. The classifications, which are based on the occupation of the head of the household, are shown in the following table.

Grade	Social class	Chief income earner's occupation
A	upper middle class	Higher managerial, administrative or professional
B	middle class	Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional
C1	lower middle class	Supervisory or clerical and junior managerial, administrative or professional
C2	skilled working class	Skilled manual workers
D	working class	Semi and unskilled manual workers
E	Those at the lowest levels of subsistence	Casual or lowest grade workers, pensioners and others who depend on the welfare state for their income

6d   Factory to design vintage model of car (5)

The Ford Model T^[7] (colloquially known as the Tin Lizzie, T‑Model Ford, 'Model T Ford', or T) is an automobile that was produced by Henry Ford's Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908 to May 27, 1927.

7d   Test to following golden rule (5)

In the UK, MOT^[5] (also MOT test) refers a compulsory annual test for safety and exhaust emissions of motor vehicles of more than a specified age. It is an abbreviation of Ministry of Transport, which introduced the original test.

12d   In the present month, all fellows will take time setting up in office (11)

Instant^[5] is a dated expression used in formal correspondence to indicate 'of the present month'. It is a postpositive adjective (i.e., it follows the noun it modifies) and almost always appears as an abbreviation (inst). Thus, one might write "In reference to your letter of the 7th inst ...".

Big Dave takes exception to the lack of indication that the setter has employed the American spelling of installment — the British spelling being instalment^[5].

13d   Press has short article taking popular line during Cold War (4,7)

14d   Get snug in finest leather (6)

15d   It's puzzling to put together dances with a wife (6)

18d   Redraft in coarse outline (8)

21d   Box with 'far, far better' character (6)

Sydney Carton^[7] is a central character in the novel A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by English writer Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870). Before going to the guillotine in place of his look-alike Charles Darnay, his final words are: ''It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

23d   Friendship as disaster spared California (5)

24d   Coach  some coaches (5)

26d   Take note of that man Miliband (4)

Ed Miliband^[7] is a British Labour Party politician who is currently the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition.

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