Wednesday, March 19, 2014 — DT 27342

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27342
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, November 22, 2013
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27342]
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

I needed some assistance from my electronic friends in the southwest quadrant today — in part resulting from my use of an American spelling instead of the required British one.

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   Petty Sergeant-Major everybody paid attention to (5-6)

Sergeant major^[7] is a senior non-commissioned rank or appointment in many militaries around the world. In Commonwealth countries, the various degrees of sergeant major are appointments held by warrant officers. In the United States, sergeant major is both a rank and an appointment.

In the British army, a sergeant major^[5] is a warrant officer whose job is to assist the adjutant of a regiment or battalion (regimental sergeant major) or a subunit commander (company sergeant major, battery sergeant major, etc.).

In the US army, a sergeant major^[5] is a high rank of non-commissioned officer, above master sergeant and below warrant officer.

7a   Talk about bozo ultimately in charge being disorganised (7)

The abbreviation i/c^[5] (especially in military contexts) is short for in charge of ⇒ the Quartermaster General is i/c rations.

8a   Place for early Christians moving to China (7)

Antioch^[5] is a city in southern Turkey, near the Syrian border; population 186,200 (est. 2007). Antioch was the ancient capital of Syria under the Seleucid kings, who founded it circa 300 BC.

Antioch^[5] was a chief center of early Christianity, being known as "the cradle of Christianity". The city had a large population of Jewish origin, and so attracted the earliest missionaries. It was evangelized, among others, by Peter himself, and later by Barnabas and Paul during Paul's first missionary journey. Its converts were the first to be called Christians.

10a   Party character in Athens almost ill with beer (8)

Mu^[5] is the twelfth letter of the Greek alphabet (Μ, μ).

Musicale^[5] is a North American term for a musical gathering or concert ⇒ musicales at which Anita and her mother played the piano.

11a   Very hot support Conservative's lost (6)

A Conservative^[5] (abbreviation C)  is a supporter or member of the Conservative Party of Great Britain or a similar party elsewhere. A Conservative Party^[5] is a political party promoting free enterprise and private ownership. In Britain, the Conservative Party emerged from the old Tory Party under Sir Robert Peel in the 1830s and 1840s.

13a   Drinks bringing endless moral failure? (4)

14a   Task in which worker keeps messing about (10)

16a   Put a check on board's decree (10)

It certainly wasn't immediately obvious to me why "board" and "counter" would be synonyms. However, a bit of research returned the following meanings for these words:

• Board^[5,10] is an archaic term for a table, especially one used for eating at, and especially when laden with food ⇒ he looked at the banquet which was spread upon his board.
• In some cafeterias, a counter^[10] is a long table on which food is served to customers.

18a   Sword carried by the peer (4)

21a   Securing bit of metal into label (6)

22a   Game at Millwall's ground starts to erupt so suddenly -- loutish behaviour (8)

Rugby union^[10] (abbreviation RU^[5]) is one of the major variants of rugby football.

Millwall Football Club^[7] is an English professional football [soccer] club based in South Bermondsey, south-east London, that plays in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football. Founded as Millwall Rovers in 1885, the club has retained its name despite having last played in the Millwall area of the Isle of Dogs in 1910. From then until 1993 the club played at the Den, a now-demolished stadium in New Cross, before moving to its current home stadium nearby in South Bermondsey, also called the Den.

In his review, Deep Threat sardonically characterises rugby as "a ruffian’s game played by gentlemen" and soccer (football) as "the gentleman’s game played by ruffians".

24a   Fellow without hesitation to go round street -- as collector (7)

Of course, as soon as I saw "fellow", I thought DON — but, for a change, that is not the case today (fellow^[10] and  don^[10] both being terms for a member of the teaching staff at Oxford or Cambridge).

In Britain, a dustman^[5] is a man employed to remove household refuse from dustbins (the British name for garbage cans^[5]).

25a   Hard work at home, energy limited? Drink needed (4,3)

Although it is found at the end of the clue, the word "needed" fulfills much the same role as a link word. It indicates that the solution to the clue is a word meaning "drink". This can be shown by considering an alternative wording of the clue which moves the definition to the end:

• Hard work at home, consuming energy, produces drink (4,3)

Sloe gin^[5] is a liqueur made by steeping sloes in gin. Sloes^[5] are small bluish-black fruit with a sharp sour taste produced by the blackthorn^[5] (Prunus spinosa), a thorny Eurasian shrub.

26a   Author in deal arranged with editor turned enemy (6,5)

Daniel Defoe^[5] (1660–1731) was an English novelist and journalist. His best-known novel, Robinson Crusoe (1719), is loosely based on the true story of the shipwrecked sailor Alexander Selkirk; it has a claim to being the first English novel. Other notable works: Moll Flanders (novel, 1722) and A Journal of the Plague Year (historical fiction, 1722).

Down

1d   Cat ascending over river remains air-bound! (5,2)

The Tay^[5] is the longest river in Scotland, flowing 192 km (120 miles) eastwards through Loch Tay, entering the North Sea through the Firth of Tay.

2d   Revolutionary army with course of action, making assault (6)

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.

3d   Later luck's out -- one gets dull (10)

Carelessly entering the US spelling here certainly messed up my efforts on 16a.

The phrase "one gets" serves as a link between the wordplay and the definition.

4d   I am, before noon, a man of prayer (4)

An imam^[5] is the person who leads prayers in a mosque.

5d   Emerges from railway journey inert, sad, wretched (8)

6d   Compound -- one farm animal brought inside died unfortunately (7)

In chemistry, a dioxide^[5] is an oxide [a binary compound of oxygen with another element or group] containing two atoms of oxygen in its molecule or empirical formula.

7d   Comic lad playing with pet becoming confused (11)

9d   Capital offence? Others hang, I will get free (4,7)

The question mark may indicate that the word "capital" has special significance. In architecture, a capital^[5] is the distinct, typically broader section at the head of a pillar or column. Setters often use the word "capital" in the sense of head or to signify a high position.

12d   Is series of lectures spanning two days treated formally? (10)

Discourse^[10] (often followed by on or upon) means to speak or write (about) formally and extensively.

15d   Dwarf on isle, one with special role in film (8)

The Isle of Man^[5] (abbreviation IOM^[5])  is an island in the Irish Sea which is a British Crown dependency having home rule, with its own legislature (the Tynwald) and judicial system.

17d   Not like 'cheesy' photographs? (7)

19d   One receiving promise to be quietly guided -- gosh! (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.

I did wonder initially why Deep Threat would use a pawnbroker's sign to illustrate this clue. Eventually, the reason dawned on me. A pledgee^[10] is a person to whom a pledge is given. Since one meaning of pledge^[10] is collateral for the payment of a debt or the performance of an obligation, a pledgee may be a person to whom property is delivered as a pledge.

20d   The French gent is given a reprieve (3,3)

In French,  le^[8] is the masculine singular form of the definite article.

Toff^[5] is a derogatory British term for a  rich or upper-class person.

23d   Advance payment comes with a loveless communication (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.

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