Friday, January 10, 2014 — DT 27292

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27292
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27292]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog 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 █ - yet to be solved

Introduction

Today scchua returns to the blogging chair at Big Dave's Crossword Blog following an absence of several weeks.

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   Music bars putting time into releases (6)

The setter may have intended "bars" to be interpreted in a very generic sense. Certainly, as music terminology staves and bars are not the same thing — with staves being the horizontal lines and bars the vertical lines on a piece of sheet music..

For British musicians, stave seems to be the preferred name for staff. In standard Western musical notation^[7], the staff^[7], or stave, is a set of five horizontal lines and four spaces that each represent a different musical pitch—or, in the case of a percussion staff, different percussion instruments.

In musical notation, a bar^[7] (or measure) is a segment of time defined by a given number of beats, each of which are assigned a particular note value. The word bar is more common in British English, and the word measure is more common in American English, although musicians generally understand both usages. Originally, the word bar derives from the vertical lines drawn through the staff [or stave] to mark off metrical units. In British English, these vertical lines are called bar, too, but often the term bar-line is used in order to make the distinction clear. In American English, the word bar stands for the lines and nothing else.

5a   Restrain Spooner's intrepid horse (4,4)

9a   Pigheadedness a sign in recent changes (13)

10a   Altercation around till, ignoring the last knife (8)

11a   Shrewd, pinching joker's last crack (6)

12a   Sign for car by empty garage (6)

Mini^[7] is an automobile brand, currently owned by BMW, but originally introduced as a model under the Austin and Morris marques by the British Motor Corporation (BMC).

14a   Screamed, stifling cry of pain, and showing signs of age (8)

16a   Country-dweller's problem time accepted by Queen Victoria (8)

The regnal ciphers (monograms) of British monarchs are initials formed from the Latin version of their first name followed by either Rex or Regina (Latin for king or queen, respectively). Thus, the regnal cipher of Queen Victoria was VR^[5] — from the Latin Victoria Regina.

19a   Part of Europe rumoured to produce thick oil (6)

21a   Working by sight is exactly right (4,2)

23a   Annoyed, but different in the sack! (8)

25a   Modern developments to theatre -- a soft time (5-2-3-3)

26a   Character witnesses for whistle-blowers (8)

In Britain, referee^[5] may mean a person willing to testify in writing about the character or ability of someone, especially an applicant for a job ⇒ the subject of a bad reference can sue the referee for libel. In North America, such a person would be called a reference^[3,4,11] [a term that apparently is also used in Britain].

27a   Miserable wages around Ulster -- useless! (6)

Ulster^[5] is:

• a former province of Ireland, in the north of the island. The nine counties of Ulster are now divided between Northern Ireland (Antrim, Down, Armagh, Londonderry, Tyrone, and Fermanagh) and the Republic of Ireland (Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan)
• (in general use) Northern Ireland.

Down

2d   Plant list newly included in article (7)

3d   Important source of toxin kept in glass container (5)

4d   Shocking line included in beginning (9)

5d   Is Conservative support for hospital dead and buried? (7)

6d   Look over soldier with cold reasoning (5)

A GI^[5] is a private soldier in the US army ⇒ she went off with a GI during the war. Contrary to popular belief, the term apparently is not an abbreviation for general infantryman, but rather of government (or general) issue (originally denoting equipment supplied to US forces).

7d   Indian city's report on a developing role (9)

Bangalore^[5] is a city of 5.3 million (est. 2009) in south central India, capital of the state of Karnataka.

8d   Spare last of coppers in church to provide absolution (7)

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

13d   I will taunt about adult being uncomfortable (3,2,4)

Contrary to scchua's indication, I would say that the definition is simply "uncomfortable" with the word "being" serving as a link between the wordplay and definition.

The A (Adult) certificate is a former film certificate^[7] issued by the British Board of Film Classification. This certificate existed in various forms from 1912 to 1985, when it was replaced by the PG (Parental Guidance) certificate.

15d   Vessel resolving his plight (9)

A lightship^[3,4,11] is a ship equipped as a lighthouse and moored where a fixed structure would prove impracticable.

17d   Motorway backed up -- almost overtook, but no way forward (7)

The M1^[7] is a north–south motorway [controlled access, multi-lane divided highway] in England connecting London to Leeds.

18d   Unexpected refusals from enthusiasts supporting soldiers (7)

The Corps of Royal Engineers^[7], usually just called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the Sappers, is a corps of the British Army that provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces.

20d   Army officer trapped in very steep refuge (7)

22d   Relative's pleasant, full of energy (5)

In physics, E^[5] is the symbol for energy  ⇒ E = mc². It is also the symbol for electric field strength and electromotive force — but setters rarely manage to work those terms into a crossword clue!

24d   Communication thrown back by Parliament (5)

I suspect that throw^[5] may possibly be used here in one of several senses meaning 'to produce', such as to form (ceramic ware) on a potter’s wheel ⇒ further on a potter was throwing pots, to turn (wood or other material) on a lathe, to twist (silk or other fabrics) into thread or yarn, or (of an animal) to give birth to (young, especially of a specified kind) ⇒ sometimes a completely black calf is thrown.

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