Tuesday, July 8, 2014 — DT 27423

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27423
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27423]
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
Notes
The National Post has skipped DT 27422 which was published in The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, February 25, 2014.

Introduction

Today's puzzle was not overly difficult, although I did need to resort to a little electronic help with the British electioneering term.

By the way, the "Monday Diversions" page never did make an appearance — despite the National Post skipping the puzzle that would have appeared there.

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   Manage to get home after a series of races with third in league (6)

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

For many years, the Isle of Man TT^[7] was the most prestigious motorcycle race in the world. The race is run in a time-trial format on public roads closed for racing. Since, in a time trial, each competitor races individually against the clock, the event could be described as a "series of races".

4a   A marine professor’s position is conducted from the comfort of home (8)

The Royal Marines (RM)^[5] is a British armed service (part of the Royal Navy) founded in 1664, trained for service at sea, or on land under specific circumstances.

The picture that scchua uses to illustrate his review is apparently a group of Royal Marines posing for a calendar. They are out of uniform — except for their caps, of course. If you would like a better look, have a peek here.

9a   Harp played in performing Oliver, say (6)

Oliver Twist^[7], subtitled The Parish Boy's Progress, is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens (1812–1870), published in 1838. The story is about an orphan, Oliver Twist, who is born into a life of poverty and misfortune in a workhouse.

10a   What a politician may do at elections for bread and butter? (8)

This is not a double definition since "doorstep" does not mean bread and butter — it means simply bread. Thus I would say that the entire clue provides the definition where — as scchua points out in his review — "this is something politicians do to secure their means of support".

Bread and butter^[5] is an expression denoting a person’s livelihood or main source of income ⇒ their bread and butter is reporting local events.

Doorstep^[10] is an informal British term^[5] that may mean either (1) to canvass (a district) or interview (a member of the public) by or in the course of door-to-door visiting or (2) (of a journalist) to wait outside the house of (someone) to obtain an interview, photograph, etc when he or she emerges.

The word "bread" also provides a subsidiary indication of the solution.

Doorstep^[5] is an informal British term for a thick slice of bread ⇒ doorstep sandwiches.

12a   Cry about one line — and left in charge of Russian script (8)

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

13a   Think about soldiers returning on Atlantic Ocean (6)

The pond^[5] is a humorous name for the Atlantic Ocean ⇒ he’s relatively unknown on this side of the pond.

In his review, scchua points out that the word "on" in an across clue usually indicates that the first part of the wordplay follows the second part. That is, the charade A on B indicates BA. The rationale for this is that for us to add A onto B, B must already have been written. Since English is written from left to right, this results in BA.

15a   Strong men from West and East facing Hitler’s gift for destruction (13)

18a   Garden centre with fish offering children’s facility (7,6)

20a   Loudly criticise the Tour de France? (3,3)

This turns out to be a very timely clue, as the Tour de France is now moving into France, having started — would you believe — in England. The Tour de France^[5] is an annual long-distance race for professional cyclists first held in 1903 and taking place primarily on the roads of France over a period of about three weeks. It consists of multiple stages which are separately timed, several of these stages encompassing mountainous terrain in the Alps and the Pyrenees.

Split the solution (2,4) and you get an expression that some might use to describe a tour of France.

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

22a   Reaction of revolutionary press on right of refugee (8)

Based on the reasoning discussed at 13a, I initially tried to find a word starting with the letter "E". However, in this clue the word "on" is not a charade indicator. Rather, it constitutes part of the anagram fodder.

24a   Sat by drink and thought (8)

Here the word "by" acts in the same way as the word "on" in 13a.

25a   First-class lad with love for martial art (6)

A1^[4][5] or A-one^[3] meaning first class or excellent comes from a classification for ships in The Lloyd's Register of Shipping where it means equipped to the highest standard or first-class.

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.

Aikido^[5] is a Japanese form of self-defence and martial art that uses locks, holds, throws, and the opponent’s own movements. Aikido^[5] is but one of several schools of martial arts that are offshoots of jujitsu. The goal of its developer, Morihei Ueshiba, was to create an art that practitioners could use to defend themselves while also protecting their attacker from injury.

26a   Iron Maiden, drunk, missing on Circle Line! (8)

Iron Maiden^[7] are an English heavy metal band formed in 1975 and still active today.

The Circle line^[7] is a London Underground [subway] service. At one time, the line formed a closed loop around the centre of London on the north side of the River Thames. However with the opening of an extension to Hammersmith in December 2009, the line ceased to be a circle and instead assumed a spiral shape.

27a   Minister to finish after a heartless taunt (6)

In his review, scchua indicates that the definition is "minister to" but I would limit it to simply "minister" making the wordplay END (to finish) following (after) {A (from the clue) + TT (heartless T(aun)T)}.

Down

1d   Immediately agreed about cold (2,4)

2d   Do better than artist of the highest quality (3-6)

3d   Struggling oik held in oil covering everybody, probably (2,3,10)

Oik^[5] is an informal British term for an uncouth or obnoxious person.

5d   Space saver at last, with low back (4)

6d   Copy and measure picture’s emissions (6,9)

Carbon^[3] is another name for carbon copy.

7d   Behaved abysmally chasing them every day at first (5)

8d   Rearrange delivery? (8)

11d   Energy invested in dubious English type of lens (7)

14d   Hit hard as notice given by editor (7)

Clock^[5] is an informal British term meaning to notice or watch ⇒ I noticed him clocking her in the mirror.

Clock^[5] is an informal, chiefly British expression meaning to hit (someone), especially on the head ⇒ someone clocked him for no good reason. Collins English Dictionary characterises this usage as "British & Australian & New Zealand slang"^[10]. However, unlike the former meaning, I am quite familiar with this one.

16d   Rose, say, in front of worker in queue (9)

Eglantine^[5] is another name for sweet briar^[5], a Eurasian wild rose (Rosa rubiginosa) with fragrant leaves and flowers.

The comment by scchua in his review would seem to indicate that he had not realized that he was now working on the down clues.

17d   America’s relations in the morning (5,3)

Uncle Sam^[5] is a personification of the federal government or citizens of the US.

19d   Free space south of Dundee’s borders (6)

Dundee^[5] is a city in eastern Scotland, on the north side of the Firth of Tay; population 141,600 (est. 2009).

21d   Time an exercise run, and tail off (5)

PE^[5] is the abbreviation for physical education (or Phys Ed, as it would likely be known to most school kids).

 On cricket scorecards [not to mention baseball scoreboards], the abbreviation R^[5] denotes run(s).

23d   Cheese, packed by wife talking (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