Tuesday, October 22, 2013 — DT 27230

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27230
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, July 15, 2013
Setter Rufus (Roger Squires)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27230]
Big Dave's Review Written By Libellule
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

Today, I needed help from my electronic aides to track down the alumni of an ancient British school.

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

1a   Saw how red wine should be served (7)

5a   Revenues from company involved in various mines (7)

9a   I held out for foreign capital (5)

10a   Tom's vital statistics? (4,5)

Actually, Libellule, I believe that "the number of times a cat can cheat death" would be one less than the number found in the solution.

11a   Athlete's big pullover (4,6)

In Britain, a jumper^[5] is a knitted garment typically with long sleeves, worn over the upper body (in North American terms, a sweater — or pullover). What we 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.

12a   Side's superiority (4)

14a   First-day cover? (8,4)

To a philatelist (stamp collector), a first-day cover^[5] is an envelope bearing a stamp or set of stamps postmarked on their day of issue.

18a   What had P Rubens at his disposal? (12)

No, not well-endowed women!

Sir Peter Paul Rubens^[5] (1577–1640) was a Flemish painter. The foremost exponent of northern Baroque, he is best known for his portraits and mythological paintings featuring voluptuous female nudes, as in Venus and Adonis (circa 1635).

21a   Staff Officer has small house in London area (4)

A staff officer^[5] (abbreviation SO^[1]) is a military officer serving on the staff of a military headquarters or government department.

Soho^[7] is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable transformation. It now is predominantly a fashionable district of upmarket restaurants and media offices, with only a small remnant of sex industry venues.

22a   Is she higher than a footman? (10)

A footman^[5] is a liveried servant whose duties include admitting visitors and waiting at table. A handmaiden^[10] (or handmaid) is an archaic name for a female servant or attendant.

The clue would seem to be allusion to the fact that the human hand is located higher on the body than the human foot — rather than to the units of lineal measurement of the same names.

A hand^[5] is a unit of measurement of a horse’s height, equal to 4 inches (10.16 cm). [denoting the breadth of a hand, formerly used as a more general lineal measure and taken to equal three inches]

25a   Member is not in time to see the bill through (9)

26a   Bury in Milan? (5)

In this clue, the setter may — or may not — be taking advantage of the fact that Bury is an English football team.

Bury^[7] [pronounced berry — although not by the locals according to Gazza in a review on Big Dave's blog] is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It is the home of the Bury Football Club^[7], an association football [soccer] team that plays in League Two, the fourth tier in the English football league system.

Football Club Internazionale Milano S.p.A., commonly referred to as Internazionale or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan^[7] outside of Italy, is a professional Italian football [soccer] club based in Milan, Lombardy, Italy.

27a   Fresh suet not exported (4,3)

28a   Ploughs back the profits? (7)

Down

1d   Somehow undo the French knot (6)

In French, the masculine singular form of the definite article is le^[8].

2d   Thanks advanced for gift (6)

Ta^[5] is an informal British exclamation signifying thank you ⇒‘Ta,’ said Willie gratefully.

3d   Exorbitant hairdressers? (4,6)

4d   Dug up some strong fabric (5)

5d   Hints disruption of unions is about to cease (9)

6d   A little lower -- than the knee (4)

This is a semi & lit. (semi-all-in-one) clue. The entire clue provides the primary indication (definition) while the first part of the clue serves as the secondary indication.

The setter uses lower in a whimsical cryptic crossword sense meaning something that lows (or moos).

7d   Gave up one's occupation (5,3)

8d   States parking that's acceptable to schools will raise doubts (8)

Here "will raise" serves as a link between the wordplay and definition — with raise being used in the sense of 'cause to occur'.

13d   Silly mistake -- why, old boy? (10)

In Britain, an old boy^[5] (abbreviation OB^[2])  is (1) a former male student of a school or college ⇒an old boy of Banbury County School or (2) a former male member of a sports team or company ⇒the White Hart Lane old boy squared the ball to present an easy chance from 12 yards. It is also a chiefly British affectionate form of address to a boy or man ⇒ ‘Look here, old boy,’ he said.

A Wykehamist^[10] is a pupil or former pupil of Winchester College.

Winchester College^[7] is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England. It is the oldest of the original nine English public schools defined by the Public Schools Act 1868 and is one of four remaining full boarding independent schools, meaning all pupils are boarders, in the United Kingdom (the others are Eton College, Harrow School and Radley College). [Note: In Britain, "public schools" are a special class of private school; what North Americans would call public schools seem to be referred to in Britain by terms such as state-run or state-funded schools]

15d   She might well make man target (9)

Historically, Termagant was an imaginary deity of violent and turbulent character, often appearing in morality plays. Today, the term termagant^[5] denotes a harsh-tempered or overbearing woman.

16d   An appointment with the French missionaries (8)

In French, the plural form of the definite article is les^[10].

17d   Superior neighbour in the US (8)

19d   Newspaperman to put in dire reworking (6)

20d   Noisy drinks? (6)

23d   Dismal king in love (5)

Rex^[5] (Latin for king, abbreviation R^[5]) denotes the reigning king, used following a name (e.g. Georgius Rex, King George) or in the titles of lawsuits (e.g. Rex v. Jones, the Crown versus Jones — often shortened to R. v. Jones).

24d   Look after sizeable capital (4)

Lo^[5] is an archaic exclamation used to draw attention to an interesting or amazing event ⇒ and lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them.

The sizes of clothing that North Americans would describe as plus-size^[7] (or often big and tall in the case of men's clothing) would be called outsize (OS^[5]) in Britain.

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