Friday, December 20, 2013 — DT 27275

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27275
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, September 5, 2013
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27275]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Big Dave
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's puzzle was certainly not too taxing. However, unlike Big Dave, I would not necessarily place it in one star territory 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. The underlined portion of the clue is the definition.

Across

1a   Singular cure for captain (7)

In the study of grammar, one would find s^[5] used as the abbreviation for singular.

5a   Bishop meets girl in country (7)

B^[5] is an abbreviation for bishop that is used in recording moves in chess.

9a   Last in bar, I check bolt (5)

10a   Flare, easy to carry around? (4,5)

I recall having encountered this type of emergency signal in a couple of puzzles somewhere in the distant past. By some miracle, the name just popped into my head as I read the clue. A Very light^[5] is a flare fired into the air from a pistol for signalling or for temporary illumination [named after Edward W. Very (1847–1910), an American naval officer].

11a   Financial security is what a postie wants? (4,6)

12a   A recurrent air? (4)

This is an & lit.^[7] (all-in-one) clue.

14a   It's one's characteristic habit to back the Constitution? (6,6)

18a   Commuter initially running fast to get to other side of station (7,5)

Hare^[5] is a verb meaning to run with great speed ⇒ he hared off between the trees. As shown in this entry from Oxford Dictionaries Online — as well as in the listing in Collins English Dictionary^[10] — the usage is British, although an essentially similar definition is to be found in The American Heritage Dictionary^[3] without any indication of the usage being British.

Charing Cross railway station^[7] is a central London railway terminus in the City of Westminster, England. The station — which is the fifth busiest rail terminal in London — takes its name from its location next to the central London road junction of Charing Cross.

Charing Cross is also the location of Charing Cross tube station^[7], a London Underground [subway] station.

Charing Cross^[7] denotes the junction of the Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square in central London. Since the second half of the 18th century, Charing Cross has been regarded as the exact "centre of London" and is often used as a reference point for measuring distances from London.

21a   Nothing left? Almost gone (4)

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.

22a   Flower in picture, next to paper kite (10)

The clue appearing in the National Post is the one that was published in the printed edition of The Daily Telegraph. Online solvers in the UK got a different version of the clue:

• 22a   Flower in picture to get drawn out (10)

25a   They may help one along the way (9)

26a   Wild dog shot after row (5)

27a   Delay South American writer and daughter (7)

28a   Mean to declare silver (English) (7)

The symbol for the chemical element silver is Ag^[5] from Latin argentum.

Down

1d   Shelter made from loose stones, indefinite number (6)

In mathematics, in particular, n^[5] is used as a symbol for an unspecified or variable number ⇒ at the limit where n equals infinity.

2d   Lay out trendy waistcoat (6)

In the solution, vest^[5] is used in the sense of a waistcoat or sleeveless jacket which, according to Oxford Dictionaries Online, is a US or Australian usage. For Brits, presumably, a vest would be an undershirt. [Is this an indication that foreign meanings are gaining a foothold in British English?]

3d   Are its pies fresh? (10)

Another & lit. clue.

4d   A rambler right and left (5)

5d   Local worker in bank, sympathetic (9)

In Britain, a local^[7] is a pub convenient to a person’s home ⇒ a pint in the local. 

A bar^[5] is a sandbank or shoal at the mouth of a harbour or an estuary.

6d   Girl, violently ill, supported by youth leader (4)

7d   Lively Spanish port run by old American (8)

Vigo^[5] is a port on the Atlantic in Galicia, NW Spain; population 295,703 (2008).

8d   A pangolin perhaps in area -- tent being abandoned (8)

I couldn't remember what a pangolin is, nor did I recognize "abandoned" as being an anagram indicator. Of course, as soon as I looked up 'pangolin' in the dictionary, the solution became obvious.

It is not the first time that I have seen abandon (or some variant of it) used as an anagram indicator. I suspect that this may be a whimsical cryptic crossword device derived from abandon^[5] in the sense of complete lack of inhibition or restraint ⇒ she sings and sways with total abandon or, as The Chambers Dictionary defines it, careless freedom of action.

13d   Rest after musical game for children (4-6)

Cats^[7] (stylized as CATS) is a 1981 musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot. The musical tells the story of a tribe of cats called the Jellicles and the night they make what is known as "the Jellicle choice" and decide which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life. Cats also introduced the song standard "Memory".

Cradle^[5] may mean (1) a framework on which a boat rests during construction or repairs or (2) the part of a telephone on which the receiver rests when not in use.

15d   Arranged grandiose changes (9)

16d   Ordinary copper makes a register of eye experts (8)

In the UK (with the exception of Scotland), O level^[5] (short for ordinary level^[5]) is a qualification in a specific subject formerly taken by school students aged 14-16, at a level below A level. It was replaced in 1988 by the GCSE^[5] [General Certificate of Secondary Education]. A level^[5] (advanced level^[5]) is a qualification in a specific subject typically taken by school students aged 16-18, at a level above GCSE.

The symbol for the chemical element copper is Cu^[5] (from Latin cuprum). 

17d   Miss boxing star in US city (3,5)

In astronomy, Vega^[5] is the fifth-brightest star in the sky, and the brightest in the constellation Lyra, overhead in summer to observers in the northern hemisphere.

19d   Notice article about details in programme (6)

Gen^[5] is British slang for information ⇒ you’ve got more gen on him than we have.

20d   Last cut -- heart, again! (6)

23d   Finished a lasagne? (5)

Lasagne^[3,4] is the preferred British spelling of the Italian dish that we would more likely spell as lasagna. It would appear that, in Britain, lasagna is an alternate spelling of lasagne while, in North America, lasagne is an alternate spelling of lasagna.

24d   Some mousetraps evident in part of church (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