Monday, June 30, 2014 — DT 27417

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27417
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27417]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By scchua
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 thought that today's puzzle was a fairly typical offering from him. He did throw in a couple of words that were new to me — the Australian tree found at 16d and the British booby prize at 7d.

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   Evocative of cars coming in late? (11)

Taking slight issue with scchua's review, the definition is clearly "evocative" and not "evocative of".

Mini^[7] is an automobile brand, currently owned by BMW, but originally introduced as a model under the Austin and Morris marques by the British Motor Corporation (BMC).

9a   Unconventional females worn out by love (7)

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.

10a   Live musical turns including Chopin’s first (6)

Evita^[7] is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. It concentrates on the life of Argentine political leader Eva Perón, the second wife of Argentine president Juan Perón. The story follows Evita's early life, rise to power, charity work, and eventual death.

Frédéric Chopin^[5] (1810–1849) was a Polish-born French composer and pianist. Writing almost exclusively for the piano, he composed numerous mazurkas and polonaises inspired by Polish folk music, as well as nocturnes, preludes, and two piano concertos (1829; 1830).

12a   Trading area of London linked to Germany (7)

Ealing^[7] is a major suburban district of west London, England, and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Ealing.

The International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code for Germany is D^[5] [from German Deutschland].

13a   The girl will shortly account for varnish (7)

In accounting, a/c^[10] is the abbreviation for account.

14a   Scandinavian mostly adopting married standards (5)

15a   The original model of ‘P’ in layout of eye chart (9)

17a   A blunt instrument might be useless (9)

20a   Hairdresser’s lad crossing a line (5)

22a   In theory working with soft food, exhibitor loses heart (2,5)

24a   Part of agenda in a blasted backward country (7)

25a   Man of God involved in blessing city (6)

26a   Repeat charge applied to unprotected sites (7)

27a   Google Conservatives posse? (6,5)

Down

2d   Laments English that is accepted by members (7)

3d   Mingle where the fire may be after endless winter (9)

4d   A case of members supporting one million religious leaders (5)

5d   Case yet to be developed for item pertaining to road safety (4-3)

The cat's eye^[7] (also cat's-eye^[10] or Catseye^[2]/catseye^[5], the later being a British trademark) is a retroreflective safety device used in road marking and was the first of a range of raised pavement markers. It originated in the UK in 1933 and is today used all over the world.

6d   Tolstoy losing heart after book’s unexpected appearance (7)

Count Leo Tolstoy^[5] (1828–1910) was a Russian writer. He is best known for the novels War and Peace (1863-9), an epic tale of the Napoleonic invasion, and Anna Karenina (1873-7).

7d   Prize awarded for a chef’s aid? (6,5)

In Britain, the expression wooden spoon^[5] refers to an imaginary prize said to be awarded to the person who is last in a race or other competition ⇒ they finished with the wooden spoon after losing a penalty shoot-out.

8d   A fine and equitable business (6)

F^[5] is an abbreviation for fine, as used in describing grades of pencil lead [a usage that Oxford surprisingly characterises as British].

11d   Vets say something that might appear on monitor (6,5)

16d   Mostly relaxed, artist captures popular tree (9)

The casuarina^[5] (also called she-oak) is a tree with slender, jointed, drooping twigs which resemble horsetails and bear tiny scale-like leaves, native to Australia and southeast Asia.

18d   Earnestly solicit the knowledge of the little people! (7)

19d   Tout’s two notes on theory regularly ignored (7)

In music, ti^[2] is the seventh note of the major scale in sol-fa notation. This seems to be the customary spelling in the US whereas, in the UK, ti^[3,4,11] is an alternative spelling of te^[3,4,11] which would appear to be the more common spelling.

20d   Undermine rebellious brutes, grabbing victory (7)

V^[2] is the symbol for victory.

21d   Secure area on top of Ukrainian carriage (6)

23d   Lost colour on church spread (5)

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