Wednesday, October 16, 2013 — DT 27226

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27226
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27226]
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 yesterday, I once again had time on my hands and no access to electronic aids. And once again I was able to complete the puzzle unaided. There seems to be a message there!

Monday Puzzle AWOL

Before setting off for the long weekend, I had posted a link to Big Dave's Crossword Blog for the puzzle which I expected to be published on Monday (or, more precisely, to appear on the Monday Diversions page which I expected to be published in Friday's edition of the National Post). As it turns out, no  Monday's Diversions page would seem to have been included in Friday's paper — nor in any other edition of the paper for that matter. The solution grid published in yesterday's (Tuesday's) paper is for DT 27224, the puzzle that I expected to appear on Monday. In today's paper, a correction notice appears providing the solution to the puzzle (DT 27223) that appeared in Friday's paper. From these indications, I conclude that a Monday's Diversion page — containing DT 27224 and the solution to DT 27223 — had been prepared (likely for inclusion in Friday's edition of the paper) but which, due to an oversight during production, was omitted from the paper.

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   City doctor called in by domestic (6)

5a   Attack one going to slaughter poor beast, losing head (8)

9a   Takes no comfort from pose on sketch (6,2)

A rough^[5] is a preliminary sketch ⇒ I did a rough to work out the scale of the lettering.

10a   Kiss and cuddle and lounge about on top of sofa (6)

In Britain, mooch^[5] (mooch about or mooch around) means to loiter in a bored or listless manner ⇒ he just mooched about his bedsit whereas, in North America, it means to ask for or obtain (something) without paying for it ⇒ (i) a bunch of your friends will show up, mooching food; or (ii) I’m mooching off you all the time.

11a   One who may chase England runs and declare (8)

Chase^[5] is a verb meaning to engrave (metal, or a design on metal), although it is most often seen in the form of a past participle used as an adjective ⇒ a miniature container with a delicately chased floral design.

On cricket scorecards, the abbreviation R^[5] indicates run(s).

12a   A dandy to boot (2,4)

Swell^[5] is dated slang for a fashionable or stylish person of wealth or high social position ⇒ a crowd of city swells.

13a   Transfer files from unhappy boy full of love (8)

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.

15a   Advantage of backing, say, given to editor (4)

17a   Always in the North -- and South gets votes! (4)

Aye^[5] is an archaic or Scottish dialect term meaning always or still ⇒ I’ve aye fancied seeing Edinburgh.

19a   Gamble on first-class mark in exam for these characters (8)

In the UK, alpha^[5] is a first-class mark given for an examination paper or piece of school or college work ⇒ he had been awarded alpha double plus.

20a   Not often right confronting a bank (6)

21a   Without phone, set off to get some things to write on (8)

In Britain, a notelet^[5] is a small folded sheet of paper on which a note or informal letter may be written.

22a   Flower  girl prepared to fight (6)

The setter uses "flower" in the whimsical cryptic crossword sense of 'somthing that flows' — in other words, a river.

23a   Nothing doing during first part of play -- only missing the second half! (8)

The wordplay is IN (during) + ACT I (first part of play) + ON (only missing the second half; ONly with the final two letters deleted).

24a   Animal found in corner by hotel border (8)

Hotel^[5] is a code word representing the letter H, used in radio communication.

25a   Divorcee prompt to accept solicitor's first defence (6)

Down

2d   End it on a high, ceremoniously chosen (8)

3d   Rising skill of French in support of newspaper industry (3,5)

In French, de^[8] is a preposition meaning 'of'.

4d   Face keeping a promise after second denial (9)

5d   Imagining a bit on the side? (7,8)

6d   Puzzled by birds that don't fly into bed (7)

To fully appreciate the surface reading of this clue, keep in mind that bird^[5] is British slang for a young woman or a man’s girlfriend.

Jay has passed up a marvellous opportunity to employ some ellipses (used by setters to extend the surface reading across clue boundaries). Thus, we could have had:

• Imagining a bit on the side ...
• ... puzzled by birds that don't fly into bed.

7d   New novel penned by Stallone is careless and slipshod (8)

Sylvester "Sly" Stallone^[7] is an American actor best known for his portrayal of the characters boxer Rocky Balboa and soldier John Rambo.

8d   Levels of assistance mostly found in English studies (8)

Con^[5] is an archaic term meaning to study attentively or learn by heart (a piece of writing)  ⇒ the girls conned their pages with a great show of industry.

14d   A charge to include right touch judge (9)

15d   Intrude, seeing heartless Etonian (cold fish) (8)

An Etonian^[5] is a past or present member of Eton College ⇒ an Old Etonian.

Eton College^[7], often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent [private] school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor". It is located in Eton, near Windsor in England, and is one of the original nine English public schools as defined by the Public Schools Act 1868. [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].

16d   He loves his grub, work, and rum in order (8)

17d   Duck out of hole in loft, being fit (8)

In cricket, a duck^[5] is a batsman’s score of nought [zero] ⇒ he was out for a duck. This is similar to the North American expression goose egg^[5] meaning a zero score in a game.. In British puzzles, duck is used to indicate the letter "O" based on the resemblance of the digit "0" to this letter.

18d   European proposals generating high feelings (8)

The abbreviation for European is E^[2].

19d   No more by oneself pinching flags regularly (3,4)

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