Wednesday, June 4, 2014 — DT 27399

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27399
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27399]
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

Today's puzzle from Jay continues this week's string of fairly gentle offerings — although it does contain a lot of firepower (25a, 13d).

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   Sort of clue, like ‘Vault’? (7)

The use of "cryptic" to mean "like a crypt" seems to be a whimsical flight of fancy by the setter (patterned on such words as "acidic" meaning "like an acid"). As scchua points out in a comment on Big Dave's blog, the proper word meaning "like a crypt" would be cryptal^[10].

5a   Post Office adopting poor Cable’s possible remedy (7)

Vince Cable^[7] is a British Liberal Democrat politician who has been the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills in the British cabinet since 2010.

9a   I love being hugged by boxer dressing (5)

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.

Muhammad Ali^[5] is an American boxer; born Cassius Marcellus Clay. He won the world heavyweight title in 1964, 1974, and 1978, becoming the only boxer to be world champion three times.

10a   A role soldiers originally took to get accommodation (9)

11a   Pig mixture of dry egg and suet (6,4)

Greedy guts^[10] is a [likely British] term for a glutton.

12a   Fight expected with Liberal (4)

The Liberal Party^[5] in Britain emerged in the 1860s from the old Whig Party and until the First World War was one of the two major parties in Britain. In 1988 the party regrouped with elements of the Social Democratic Party to form the Social and Liberal Democrats, now known as the Liberal Democrats; a small Liberal Party still exists. Although Lib.^[5] may be the more common abbreviation for the party, Chambers 21st Century Dictionary indicates that L^[2] may also be used. Of course, we also have federal and provincial Liberal parties in Canada.

14a   Prisoner raves about right-wing school of music (12)

A Tory^[4] is a member or supporter of the Conservative Party in Great Britain or Canada. Historically, a Tory was a member of the English political party that opposed the exclusion of James, Duke of York from the royal succession (1679-80). Tory remained the label for subsequent major conservative interests until they gave birth to the Conservative Party in the 1830s.

18a   Fascinating session covering books (12)

21a   Locals wanting popular starters of nachos and salmon (4)

In the surface reading, starter^[5] is used as a chiefly British term [but most certainly one not entirely foreign to Canada] meaning the first course of a meal.

In Britain, a local^[7] is a pub convenient to a person’s home ⇒ a pint in the local.

22a   One applying pressure, needing dough, it’s said? (7,3)

I interpret this clue to be a cryptic definition which contains both a primary indication ("one applying pressure") and a subsidiary indication ("needing dough, it's said"). The subsidiary indication consists of homophone wordplay — sounds like (it's said) KNEADING DOUGH (needing dough). However, the subsidiary indication does not — as would be the usual case — provide a direct route to the solution. Rather, it is intended to add precision to the primary indication, specifying the circumstances under which "one" (a pronoun standing in for the solution) would be "applying pressure".

However — as numerous comments on Big Dave's blog point out — the clue appears to be premised on a fallacy. Knead^[5] means to work (moistened flour or clay) into dough or paste with the hands. Thus one seemingly cannot — by definition — knead dough with a rolling pin.

On Big Dave's blog, skempie offers an alternative — albeit rather unconvincing — explanation. He postulates that "‘needing’ sounds like ‘kneading’ which in turn could be considered to be ‘rolling’ and pin can mean pin-money which in turn can be considered to be dough".

Although I was unable to find "pin" listed as another name for "pin money" in several dictionaries that I consulted, this usage would be consistent with the common British practice of using adjectives to replace nouns that they would otherwise modify (for example, "Indian" to mean "Indian restaurant" or "estate" to mean "estate car" [the British term for a station wagon]).

However, if we were to accept skempie's explanation of the wordplay, the homophone indicator ("it's said") would not be located adjacent to its fodder ("needing"). On that basis, I would rule out this explanation.

25a   Left’s embraced by new literary big guns (9)

26a   Emotion of man fishing without line (5)

27a   Lies about National Trust endowments (7)

In Britain, the National Trust^[5] (abbreviation NT) is a trust for the preservation of places of historic interest or natural beauty in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, founded in 1895 and supported by endowment and private subscription. The National Trust for Scotland^[7], a separate organization, was founded in 1931.

28a   Range of colours permitted in meat paste (7)

Down

1d   Transfer coppers (6)

2d   Once the sign of farmers of old (6)

Historically, a yeoman^[5] was a man holding and cultivating a small landed estate; in other words, a freeholder^[5] [a chiefly British term for a person with permanent and absolute tenure of land or property with freedom to dispose of it at will].

3d   Dame Thora in address, perhaps, with promise to go round fifty developing nations (5,5)

Dame Thora Hird^[7] (1911 – 2003) was an English actress. It is certainly possible that she may have received mail addressed to "T. Hird".

4d   Noise from family gathering at the outset (5)

5d   After dressing, journalist gets wasted (9)

In Britain, Australia and New Zealand, a plaster^[5] is an adhesive strip of material, usually medicated, for dressing a cut, wound, etc.

6d   Religious book and play (4)

In the Bible, Acts^[5] (or Acts of the Apostles) is a New Testament book immediately following the Gospels and relating the history of the early Church.

7d   Administrator finds copper deposit between river and hill (8)

The symbol for the chemical element copper is Cu^[5] (from Latin cuprum).

The River Exe^[7] rises on Exmoor in Somerset, 8.4 kilometres (5 mi) from the Bristol Channel coast, but flows more or less directly due south, so that most of its length lies in Devon. It reaches the sea at a substantial ria, the Exe Estuary, on the south (English Channel) coast of Devon.

8d   Performs better than banned theatre productions (8)

13d   Shot church official pinching new orb (10)

In the Church of England, a canon^[5] is a member of the clergy who is on the staff of a cathedral, especially one who is a member of the chapter^[5] [the governing body of a religious community or knightly order] ⇒ he was appointed canon of Christ Church, Oxford.

15d   Tops minimum amount of money invested in crafty solvers (4-5)

In Britain's current decimal currency system, the the smallest denomination coin is the penny^[5] (abbreviation p), a bronze coin and monetary unit equal to one hundredth of a pound. Thus the "minimum amount of money" possible is 1p.

A slipover^[4] is a garment, especially a sleeveless pullover, that can be put on easily over the head.

16d   ‘Wannabe’ when playing in part? (8)

"Wannabe"^[7] — the first hit song for the British pop group Spice Girls — appeared on the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996.

17d   Recently delivered gas for lighting a short lecture (8)

The "lecture" referenced in the clue is a TALK — which one must shorten by lopping off its final letter.

19d   Plug small cavity, full of energy (6)

Spigot^[5] is used in the sense of a small peg or plug, especially for insertion into the vent of a cask. Note that when used as an alternative name for a tap or faucet, spigot is a North American (especially US) term.

20d   Access for part of meal (6)

23d   Put aside pottery vessel with lids missing (3,2)

24d   Schedule aircraft for docking (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