Friday, February 21, 2014 — DT 27324

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27324
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, November 1, 2013
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27324]
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 █ - solved but without fully parsing the clue █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by solutions from Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - yet to be solved

Introduction

As is often the case with Giovanni's puzzles, I got off to a very slow start and I doubted whether I would get far in solving this puzzle. However, the solutions slowly revealed themselves and I eventually was able to complete the puzzle without outside help. That, I believe, is the sign of a well-set puzzle — or, at least, a puzzle well-matched to my level of skill.

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   Sea-sport star wearing red emerged from water again (10)

6a   Centre of operations  devoid of morality (4)

9a   Woman was poorly on return journey (5)

In Britain, poorly^[5] is not only used as an adverb, but also as an adjective meaning unwell ⇒ she looked poorly.

Delia Smith^[7] [whom Deep Threat chooses to illustrate this clue in his review] is an English cook and television presenter [host], known for teaching basic cookery [cooking] skills in a no-nonsense style. She is the UK's best-selling cookery author, with more than 21 million copies sold.

10a   Block of words soldier attached to chart (9)

Para^[4,11] (short for paratrooper) is a soldier in an airborne unit.

12a   How we count with energy concentrated (7)

13a   Bird appearing before a new moon (5)

A tit^{[Britannica Concise Encyclopedia]} is any of several songbirds closely related to the chickadee, including the great tit (Parus major), found in Europe, North Africa, and Asia and the tufted titmouse (Parus bicolor), native to North America. These birds are called either "chickadees" or "titmice" in North America, and just "tits" in the rest of the English-speaking world.^[7]

Titan^[5] is the largest satellite of Saturn (diameter 5,150 km), the fifteenth closest to the planet, discovered by C. Huygens in 1655.

15a   Goods vehicle makes journey (7)

17a   Record Socialist dwindling to nothing? (7)

19a   Talk together having hugged one sort of tree (7)

21a   Fighter in army surrounded by loony men (7)

In the UK, the Territorial Army (TA)^[5] is a volunteer force locally organized to provide a reserve of trained and disciplined manpower for use in an emergency. 

In the British armed forces, the term other ranks^[5] (abbreviation OR^[5]) refers to all those who are not commissioned officers.

22a   Author publishes sermons, but only five of them (5)

Hermann Hesse^[5] (1877–1962) was a German-born Swiss novelist and poet. His work reflects his interest in spiritual values as expressed in Eastern religion and his involvement in Jungian analysis. Notable works: Siddhartha (1922), Der Steppenwolf (1927), and The Glass Bead Game (1943). Nobel Prize for Literature (1946).

24a   Platform nonsense about end of NHS -- bizarre! (7)

In the UK, the National Health Service^[5] (abbreviation NHS) is a system of national medical care paid for mainly by taxation and started by the Labour government in 1948.

Rum^[5] is dated British slang meaning odd or peculiar ⇒ it’s a rum business, certainly.

27a   Cleric, all right and competent, that can be countermanded (9)

28a   Fruit to disappear -- taken by staff (5)

Collins English Dictionary lists 76 shades of meaning for the verb take^[5]. While one might make a case for several of them as the basis for the indicator in this clue, I will go with number 42, to conduct or lead ⇒ this road takes you to the station. Thus, the wordplay would be GO (to disappear) led by (taken by) MAN (staff).

29a   Modern money a setback for old French street (4)

In French, rue^[5] means street.

The euro^[5] is the single European currency, which replaced the national currencies of France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Luxembourg, Austria, Finland, the Republic of Ireland, Belgium, and the Netherlands in 2002. Seventeen member states of the European Union now use the euro.

30a   Boss I love leads university, crafty in a bookish way (10)

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.

Down

1d  & 14d   Choose dark rice for cooking -- do this with fine lady in prospect! (4,1,4,5)

The clue is an allusion to the English nursery rhyme "Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross"^[7]. A "cock horse" can mean a high-spirited horse or an additional horse to assist in pulling a cart or carriage up a hill. From the mid-sixteenth century it also meant a pretend hobby horse or an adult's knee [presumably when used to give a child a "horsey-ride"].

Banbury^[7] is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire, England.

2d   That is little fellow, betrayed earlier, to keep going (7,2)

3d   Perform again and swing back the other way (5)

4d   A string's holding together soft plants (7)

Piano^[3,5] (abbreviation p^[5]), is a musical direction meaning either (as an adjective) soft or quiet or (as an adverb) softly or quietly.

An alpine^[5] is  a plant native to mountain districts, often suitable for growing in rock gardens ⇒ a collection of alpines and dwarf bulbs.

5d   Most weird estate flooded by lake (7)

7d   Stop a large vessel crossing sea initially (5)

8d   Heroic men at sea netting 500 starfish maybe (10)

An echinoderm^[5] is a marine invertebrate of the phylum Echinodermata, such as a starfish, sea urchin, or sea cucumber.

11d   Approach snooker table and fall apart (2,2,3)

In billiards and snooker, pot^[5] means to strike (a ball) into a pocket ⇒ he failed to pot a red at close range.

Thus the reason you might approach a snooker table is to pot a ball; or, in other words, you "go to pot".

14d   See 1d

16d   Descending mountain when there are fewer fellow-travellers (3-4)

Fellow-traveller^[5] can mean a person who is not a member of a particular group or political party (especially the Communist Party), but who sympathizes with the group’s aims and policies. However, the surface reading of the clue does not readily lend itself to this interpretation.

18d   First principles allowing inferior little types to pocket money (9)

20d   Artist getting about nibbled a toastie (7)

I think we may be having leftovers tonight — I recall being served this yesterday. Rarebit^[5] (also known as Welsh rarebit or Welsh rabbit) is a dish of melted and seasoned cheese on toast, sometimes with other ingredients. The name rarebit is an alteration of rabbit in Welsh rabbit; the reason for the use of the term rabbit is unknown.

Toastie^[5] is an informal British term for a toasted sandwich or snack.

A Royal Academician (abbreviation RA^[5]) is a member of the Royal Academy of Arts^[5], an institution established in London in 1768, whose purpose is to cultivate painting, sculpture, and architecture in Britain.

21d   Odd dream is interpreted incorrectly (7)

23d   Separate prophet, very confined (5)

25d   See old lover thwarted (5)

A see^[5] is the place in which a cathedral church stands, identified as the seat of authority of a bishop or archbishop.

The Pope^[7] is the Bishop of Rome and the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church. His ecclesiastical jurisdiction is often called the "Holy See".

"Star-crossed"^[7] or "star-crossed lovers" is a phrase describing a pair of lovers whose relationship is often thwarted by outside forces. The term encompasses other meanings, but originally means the pairing is being "thwarted by a malign star" or that the stars are working against the relationship. Astrological in origin, the phrase stems from the belief that the positions of the stars ruled over people's fates, and is best known from the play Romeo and Juliet by the Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare. Such pairings are often but not always said to be doomed from the start. 

The phrase was coined in the prologue of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet:

"From forth the fatal loins of these two foes,
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life"

26d   Company man coming out as 'not the proper article'? (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