Friday, June 6, 2014 — DT 27401

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27401
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, January 31, 2014
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27401]
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 found today's offering from Giovanni to be the stiffest challenge among the puzzles that have appeared so far this week.

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.

Primary indications (definitions) are marked with a solid underline in the clue; subsidiary indications (be they wordplay or other) are marked with a dashed underline in all-in-one (& lit.) clues, semi-all-in-one (semi-& lit.) clues and cryptic definitions.

Across

1a   Female is behind fashionable leading product (8)

5a   Legendary association of sportsmen exploited extortionately (6)

The Football Association^[7], also known simply as the FA, is the governing body of football [soccer] in England. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the amateur and professional game in England.

8a   Fruit tree gets one fussing audibly (6)

In British usage, fuss^[5] can mean to disturb or bother (someone) ⇒ when she cries in her sleep, try not to fuss her.

The medlar^[5] (Mespilus germanica) is a small bushy tree of the rose family that bears a small brown apple-like fruit which is only edible after it has begun to decay.

9a   Address for a man in a superior Westminster house (8)

Westminster^[5] (full name City of Westminster) is an inner London borough which contains the Houses of Parliament and many government offices. It is commonly used as a metonym for the British Parliament ⇒ Westminster must become more effective in holding the government to account.

In the UK, His/Your etc. Lordship^[5] is a respectful form of reference or address to a judge, a bishop, or a man with a title ⇒ if Your Lordship pleases.

Membership of the Upper House of the British Parliament, the House of Lords^[7], is made up of Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal. There are currently 26 Lords Spiritual who sit in the Lords by virtue of their ecclesiastical role in the established Church of England. The Lords Temporal make up the rest of the membership; of these, the majority are life peers with the remainder being hereditary peers. The former are appointed by the Monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister, or on the advice of the House of Lords Appointments Commission. Membership was once a birthright of hereditary peers, other than those in the peerage of Ireland. However, following a series of reforms, only 92 members (as of 2014) still sit in the Lords by virtue of a hereditary peerage. The formal title of the House of Lords is The Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. 

10a   Unreported evil is horrible — what’s covered up is very bad (8)

11a   Daughter torn apart, being highly motivated? (6)

12a   PM finds Irish deal not hard surprisingly (8)

H^[5] is the abbreviation for hard, as used in describing grades of pencil lead ⇒ a 2H pencil.

Benjamin Disraeli^[5], 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (1804–1881) was a British Conservative statesman; Prime Minister 1868 and 1874–80. He was largely responsible for the introduction of the second Reform Act (1867). He also ensured that Britain bought a controlling interest in the Suez Canal (1875) and made Queen Victoria Empress of India.

13a   Go perhaps to the empty cell (6)

Go^[7] is a board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,500 years ago (from whence it spread, first to Korea and Japan, and then worldwide). The game is noted for being rich in strategy despite its relatively simple rules. According to chess master Edward Lasker: "The rules of Go are so elegant, organic, and rigorously logical that if intelligent life forms exist elsewhere in the universe, they almost certainly play Go." The name Go is derived from the Japanese name of game "igo".

15a   Pet starts to sleep, soundly ensconced in bed (6)

Pet^[5] is used as a verb meaning to treat (someone) with affection or favouritism; in other words, to pamper ⇒ I was cosseted and petted and never shouted at.

18a   As a business person try to outmanoeuvre strike (8)

In tennis, undercut^[5] means to strike (a ball) with backspin so that it bounces high on landing.

20a   Yesteryear’s lover, flighty type who is non-resident? (6)

An extern^[1] is a non-resident, such as a day-scholar, an out-patient, or a non-resident physician or surgeon.

21a   Weather line on map — one thus gets temperature on island (8)

Herm^[5] is one of the Channel Islands and part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, located in the English Channel, north-west of France and south of England.

23a   Two cats so out of sorts, not running smoothly (8)

24a   Despicably virile having injected drug (6)

E^[5] is an abbreviation for the drug Ecstasy or a tablet of Ecstasy ⇒ (i) people have died after taking E; (ii) being busted with three Es can lead to stiff penalties.

25a   Hospital for brief time in Glos. town able to provide shelter (6)

Glos.^[5] is the abbreviation for Gloucestershire^[5], a county of southwestern England; county town, Gloucester.

Stroud^[5] is a market town and civil parish in the county of Gloucestershire, England.

26a   One has a subject offering judgement (8)

Down

1d   Noted obsession engaging the writer (5)

It is a common cryptic crossword convention for the creator of the puzzle to use terms such as compiler, setter, author, writer, or this person to refer to himself or herself. To solve such a clue, one must generally substitute a first person pronoun (I or me) for whichever of these terms has been used in the clue.

2d   A lad’s misbehaving with girl in dances (9)

Historically, a galliard^[5] was a lively dance in triple time for two people, including complicated turns and steps.

3d   Brave woman given drug when having minimal energy (7)

4d   I couldn’t rush up — I must be composed, beautiful (15)

Pulchritudinous^[5] is a literary term meaning beautiful.

5d   Get rid of nasty person’s hot supporting piece? (7)

Firedog is another name for an andiron.

From the American Heritage Dictionary^[3]:

A number of words that formerly were limited to one region of the U.S. are now used throughout the country. Andiron was once Northern, contrasting with Southern dog iron and fire dog. The Southern terms remain limited to that region, but andiron is now everywhere. Other formerly Northern words that have become national include faucet, contrasting with Southern spigot; frying pan, contrasting with Midland and Upper Southern skillet; and freestone peach, contrasting with clearseed and open peach in parts of the South. Southern words that are now used nationwide include feisty and gutters.

6d   Port? Litres English possess right for drinking (2,5)

Le Havre^[5] is a port in northern France, on the English Channel at the mouth of the Seine; population 185,311 (2006).

7d   Writer protected by editor when in depression, as a hanger-on (9)

If we consider the definition to be "as a hanger-on", the solution is an adjective. However, were we to deem the definition to be merely "a hanger-on" (with "as" being a link word), then the solution would be a noun (dependent^[5], a variant spelling of dependant^[5]).

Until recently the only correct spelling of the noun in British English was dependant, as in a single man with no dependants. However, the variant dependent is now standard, and indeed it is now as common as dependant in the Oxford English Corpus. In US English dependent is the standard form for the noun. The adjective is spelled -ent, not -ant, as in we are dependent on his goodwill.

12d   Ladies used to get excited about indoor game (9)

... sometimes an indoor game!

A duchess^[5] is (1) the wife or widow of a duke or (2) a woman holding a rank equivalent to duke in her own right.

In the UK, Lady^[5] is a title used by peeresses, female relatives of peers, the wives and widows of knights, etc.

14d   Alice’s companion gets to walk, then run (5,4)

The March Hare^[7] is a character most famous for appearing in the tea party scene in the 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll.

In British usage, hare^[5] means to run with great speed ⇒ he hared off between the trees.

16d   Group needing trade show to be settled (3,4)

In Britain, the phrase be set fair^[5] (said of the weather) means to be fine and likely to stay fine for a time. The expression may also be used in a figurative sense in other contexts ⇒ conditions were set fair for stable political and economic development.

17d   Vessel in army vehicle stuck on a road (7)

19d   One who may help guest Norma, drunk after party (7)

22d   Possibly a yen to be held in honour (5)

The yen^[5] (abbreviation Y^[5])  is the basic monetary unit of Japan.

MBE^[5] stands for Member of the Order of the British Empire.

The Order of the British Empire^[5] is an order of knighthood instituted in 1917 and divided into five classes, each with military and civilian divisions. The classes are: Knight or Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE), Knight or Dame Commander (KBE/DBE), Commander (CBE), Officer (OBE), and Member (MBE). The two highest classes entail the awarding of a knighthood.

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