Tuesday, April 15, 2014 — DT 27362

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27362
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, December 16, 2013
Setter Rufus (Roger Squires)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27362]
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 █ - 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
Notes
The National Post has skipped DT 27361 which was published in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, December 14, 2013.

Introduction

I was feeling very pleased with my efforts today — chuffed as the Brits would say — until I was brought down to earth by Big Dave's one-star difficulty rating. I was further deflated to discover that I had the wrong answer for one clue.

The National Post has skipped a puzzle today, something that it does from time to time. Since the puzzles are published in The Daily Telegraph at a rate of six per week (Monday through Saturday) but appear in the National Post only five days per week, the time delay between their appearance in the UK and when we see them here in Canada is gradually increasing. At one point, we were about three months behind. This has now grown to a gap of about four months. Given that we are now receiving puzzles from mid-December, it would not surprise me to see a number of puzzles skipped in order to avoid the flurry of Christmas-themed puzzles that may be waiting in the wings.

The chatter on Big Dave's blog concerning AVB refers to André Villas-Boas^[7] who, on December 16, 2013, was dismissed from his position as manager of British Premier League football [soccer] club Tottenham Hotspur — or, officially, left the club "by mutual consent".

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.

Definitions are underlined in the clue, with subsidiary indications being marked by means of a dashed underline in semi-all-in-one (semi-& lit.) clues and cryptic definitions.

Across

1a   Drag one’s feet on stair carpet newly fitted (13)

10a   Transport I catch for this meeting of governors (7)

11a   French dramatist’s second story about the Queen (7)

In the UK, mo^[5] [abbreviation for moment] is an informal term for a short period of time ⇒ hang on a mo!.

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 Elizabeth is ER^[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina.

Molière^[5] (1622–1673) was a French dramatist; pseudonym of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin. He wrote more than twenty comic plays about contemporary France, developing stock characters from Italian commedia dell’arte. Notable works: Tartuffe (1664), Le Misanthrope (1666), and Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670).

12a   Keen to bring singer back (4)

13a   Fall off in spill (5)

A spill^[5] is a thin strip of wood or paper used for lighting a fire, candle, pipe, etc.

14a   Labour staged walk-out? (4)

The Labour Party^[5] (abbreviation Lab.^[5]) in Britain is a left-of-centre political party formed to represent the interests of ordinary working people that since the Second World War has been in power 1945–51, 1964–70, 1974-9, and 1997–2010. Arising from the trade union movement at the end of the 19th century, it replaced the Liberals as the country’s second party after the First World War.

It did occur to me that the second definition might somehow relate to the common stage direction "Exit, stage left", though I have no evidence to back this up. While "Exit, stage right" is also a common stage direction, Snagglepuss^[7] rarely — if ever — exercised the latter option.

P.S. After reading the comments on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, I see that I am not alone in drawing this connection.

17a   Unwanted gas pipe? (7)

As Big Dave points out in his review, the entire clue is a cryptic definition which can be decomposed into a double definition.

18a   About to be put back in school ground (7)

19a   Fishy evidence that lady is married (7)

Since the numeration is (7), the primary indication in this cryptic definition must be "fishy evidence" — an allusion to a "red herring", with the subsidiary indication being "that lady is married".

Had the numeration been (3,4), I would have marked the clue as a cryptic definition:

• Fishy evidence that lady is married (3,4)

where the definition is "evidence that lady is married" with the adjective "fishy" being the subsidiary indication.

22a   Artillery associated with assault (7)

24a   Oats cooked in oven (4)

25a   A backward idiot, apart from all else (5)

26a   Four-letter word that’s used in place of another? (4)

I put in OATH with a great deal of misgiving. Although I marked this clue to have a closer look at later, I carelessly neglected to do so. My only rationale for this choice was thinking (with very little confidence) that an OATH might possibly be considered to be a milder substitute for a stronger profanity.

With respect to that latter point, I was sort of on the right track. Dash is an informal British exclamation used to express mild annoyance^[5], a euphemistic word for damn^[10]. A dash^[5] is also a horizontal stroke in writing or printing to mark a pause or break in sense or to represent omitted letters or words.

29a   Flirt and irritate worker (7)

30a   Let care get arranged for female in tragedy (7)

In Greek mythology, Electra^[7] was the daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, and thus princess of Argos. She and her brother Orestes plotted revenge against their mother Clytemnestra and stepfather Aegisthus for the murder of their father, Agamemnon. Electra is the main character in two Greek tragedies, Electra by Sophocles and Electra by Euripides, and has inspired other works.

31a   Saucy proposal that may break deadlock (5,8)

Down

2d   Refuse to make a scathing comment (7)

In Britain, the word rubbish^[4] can be used as a verb meaning to criticize or attack verbally.

3d   Once set it may hold ice-cream (4)

4d   Appeal when vehicle overturns in amateur races (7)

The Tourist Trophy^[5] (abbreviation TT^[5]) is a motorcycle-racing competition held annually on roads in the Isle of Man since 1907.

5d   The storm created by Shakespeare (7)

The Tempest^[7] is a play by English playwright William Shakespeare (1564–1616), believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone.

6d   Africa’s best-known desert flower (4)

The setter uses "flower" in the whimsical cryptic crossword sense meaning something that flows — in other words, a river.

7d   There is a short girl here (7)

8d   Fiddle just enough to satisfy examiner? (6,7)

Scrape^[10] can mean to to produce a harsh or grating sound by rubbing against (an instrument, surface, etc) — such as a less-than-accomplished violin student might do in a music exam.

9d   Narrowly failed, received school caning (6,2,1,4)

I thought of BEATEN BY A NOSE and BEATEN BY A NECK before realizing that the losing margin fell between the two.

In Britain, head^[5] is short for for headmaster^[5] (a man who is the head teacher in a school), headmistress^[5] (ditto for a woman), or head teacher^[5] (the teacher in charge of a school).

15d   Elect Russian leader (3,2)

This Russian leader is the subject the editorial cartoon in today's edition of the National Post.

16d   Trace mislaid box (5)

20d   His depredations will affect stockholder (7)

In Crosswordland, stockholders are more likely to possess livestock than financial instruments.

21d   Celebration drink for Pygmalion’s love (7)

In Greek mythology, Pygmalion^[5] was a king of Cyprus who fashioned an ivory statue of a beautiful woman and loved it so deeply that in answer to his prayer Aphrodite gave it life. The woman (at some point named Galatea) bore him a daughter, Paphos.

22d   Disapproval, we hear, increasing for drinking spree (5-2)

23d   Able to come back after a stretch (7)

27d   This could be said from the platform (4)

28d   It will remind me to go to doctor (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