Thursday, January 9, 2014 — DT 27291

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27291
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27291]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Deep Threat
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, we get another relatively easy challenge. It shouldn't take you too long to complete it, and you even get to dust off a couple of golf clubs in the process.

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

7a   Unfair arrangements made by inexperienced hands (3,5)

9a   Blue celestial body close to Mercury (6)

10a   Advantage gained by club once wicket's taken (4)

In cricket, to take a wicket^[5] (said of a bowler or a fielding side) is to dismiss a batsman. On cricket scorecards, one would find W^[5] used as an abbreviation for wicket(s).

11a   Source of article dividing French region (10)

Provence^[5] is a former province of SE France, on the Mediterranean coast east of the Rhône. Settled by the Greeks in the 6th century bc, the area around Marseilles became, in the 1st century bc, part of the Roman colony of Gaul. It was united with France in 1481 and is now part of the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.

12a   Chase funds university collected (6)

14a   Fluency, blessing in disguise (8)

15a   Unenthusiastic, US poet on fourth of July (6)

Robert Frost^[5] (1874–1963) was an American poet, noted for his ironic tone and simple language. Much of his poetry reflects his affinity with New England, including the collections North of Boston (1914) and New Hampshire (1923). He won the Pulitzer Prize on three occasions (1924; 1931; 1937).

17a   Capital of a country in Asia, then Siam (6)

Athens^[5] is the capital of Greece; population 745,500 (est. 2009). A flourishing city state of ancient Greece, Athens was an important cultural centre in the 5th century BC. It came under Roman rule in 146 BC and fell to the Goths in AD 267. After its capture by the Turks in 1456 Athens declined to the status of a village, until chosen as the capital of a newly independent Greece in 1834.

20a   Knowing daily produces something that'll kill insect pests (8)

This daily^[5] is not a charwoman^[5] — a dead end that I spent some time pursuing.

In Britain, fly^[5] can mean knowing and clever  ⇒ she’s fly enough not to get tricked out of it.

22a   Key  batsman facing the first ball of the innings (6)

In cricket, an opener^[5] is a batsman who opens the batting. Note that in cricket (unlike baseball), innings is spelled with a final s in both the singular and the plural. A cricket match consists of two innings, the first innings and the second innings.

23a   Nicaraguan guerrilla group smuggled goods (10)

A Contra^[5] is a member of a guerrilla force in Nicaragua which opposed the left-wing Sandinista government 1979–90, and was supported by the US for much of that time.

24a   Wild party sees opera character losing head (4)

Porgy and Bess^[7] is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward. All three works deal with African-American life in the fictitious Catfish Row (based on the area of Cabbage Row) in Charleston, South Carolina, in the early 1920s.

25a   Live it up, taking in a show (6)

26a   What Everest is, especially? (5,3)

Down

1d   Restrain pointer, very loud, circling copper (8)

Fortissimo (abbreviation ff)^[5] is a direction used in music to mean either (as an adjective) very loud  or (as an adverb) very loudly.

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

2d   I must get led astray, disliking work (4)

3d   Small enough specimen (6)

4d   Saint  Arnold, for example (8)

St Benedict^[5] (circa 480-circa 550) was an Italian hermit. He established a monastery at Monte Cassino and his Regula Monachorum (known as the Rule of St Benedict) formed the basis of Western monasticism. Feast day, 11 July (formerly 21 March).

Benedict Arnold^[6] (1741–1801) was an American general and traitor. During the American Revolution, he was instrumental, with Ethan Allan, in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga but later planned to betray West Point to the British. He fled behind British lines and lived the rest of his life in Britain. His name became synonymous with ‘traitor.’. [The provenance of this definition would seem to be readily apparent — the US version of Oxford Dictionaries Online.]

5d   Energetic, a lively relative (5-5)

6d   Strikes, with journalists (6)

Not just any journalist, but one "who produces mediocre ... work".^[4]

8d   Cast off in southern Irish lake (6)

Lough^[5] is the Irish word for lake. It is apparently pronounced the same as loch^[5], the word for lake in Scottish.

13d   Try joining golf club, one throwing a ball (4-6)

16d   Choose filling fare for bigwigs seated here? (3,5)

The top table^[5] is the table at which the chief guests are placed at a formal dinner. In North America, this would be called the head table.

18d   Scandinavian boy and girl, first to identify evil manipulator (8)

A Svengali^[5] is a person who exercises a controlling or mesmeric influence on another, especially for a sinister purpose. The term comes from the name of a musician in George du Maurier's novel Trilby (1894), who controls Trilby's stage singing hypnotically.

19d   Navy member, a lawyer (6)

In the US, a district attorney^[5] (abbreviation DA) is a public official who acts as prosecutor for the state in a particular district.

21d   Left noose uncoiled, so relax! (6)

22d   Curious boy, very likely to succeed (4-2)

24d   Exposed old writer (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