Friday, August 15, 2014 — DT 27451

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27451
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, March 31, 2014
Setter Rufus (Roger Squires)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27451]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Libellule
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, Libellule returns — following a long absence — to the blogging seat at Big Dave's Crossword Blog. He was a regular weekly blogger up until mid-November 2013. However, it would seem that this appearance is a one-time performance and not the start of a regular gig.

Also at Big Dave's site, crypticsue comments "The easiest Rufus ever but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t entertaining." That statement was certainly a bit disheartening — given that I needed to call in the electronic reinforcements today.

I invite you to leave a comment to let us know how you fared with the puzzle.

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   Agree to exchange letters (10)

6a   It stimulates one to start piano and stick with it (4)

10a   Submariners may be upset if these charges are dropped (5)

11a   Lights now required for those who get busy after dark (5,4)

12a   Ordered to get round secure barrier (8)

My initial supposition was that the solution must be BLOCKAGE which, of course, left me in the dark as far as the wordplay was concerned. Eventually, the light dawned.

13a   Limit area for stock (5)

Libellule appears to have overlooked the obvious (at least for someone from North America) explanation for the second definition — that range^[5] denotes an expanse of open land where cattle are grazed.

15a   Business in time makes money (7)

17a   Not huge, shaped to become robust (7)

19a   State regalia thrown out (7)

21a   Prison -- one's taken in weapon, getting bird (7)

A North American is most likely to solve this clue by recognizing that PEN as a shortened version of penitentiary, but note that this is not the route taken by Libellule. The word penitentiary is apparently not used in the UK in the sense of a prison; this usage is characterised as being North American by Chambers 21st Century Dictionary^[2], Collins English Dictionary^[10] and  Oxford Dictionaries Online^[5].

22a   Hack returns, writing for papers (5)

24a   Grannies making money (8)

27a   Considering retribution (9)

Consider is used in the sense of deem to be (the event was reckoned a failure).

28a   Period of calm for one after exercising (5)

29a   Unwatered stock (4)

Neat^[5] is an archaic term for a bovine animal or, as a mass noun, cattle. [Might there be a drought on the range?]

30a   Composer in far off New Zealand heard record (5,5)

Franz Liszt^[5] (1811–1886) was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He was a key figure in the romantic movement; many of his piano compositions combine lyricism with great technical complexity, while his twelve symphonic poems (1848–58) created a new musical form.

The International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code for New Zealand is NZ^[7].

Down

1d   Laws that can only be broken by an expert (4)

Although one might deem this entire clue to be a cryptic definition, I believe that it can also be viewed as a double definition. The latter is perhaps easier to see if one replaces the word "that" with the phrase "something which".

2d   Change needed for pound sterling -- don't set aside for driving back (9)

I interpreted "set aside" to be a deletion indicator instructing us to remove the letters D, O, N and T from POUND STERLING to arrive at the anagram fodder. Although the wording of Libellule's hint is a bit ambiguous, he appears to have deemed the deletion indicator to be merely "aside" and seen the phrase "DON'T set" as denoting the "various letters of DON'T" or, in other words, the set of letters forming the word DON'T.

3d   Moral rule put in French and Latin here (5)

In French, et^[8]is a conjunction meaning 'and''.

In Latin, hic is an adverb meaning 'here'.

4d   Lent preliminary item that falls flat? (7)

Does a pancake fall flat? Obviously the person who coined the term 'pancake landing' thought so.

A pancake landing^[5] is an emergency landing in which an aircraft levels out close to the ground and drops vertically with its undercarriage still retracted.

In the Christian Church, Lent^[5] is the period preceding Easter, which is devoted to fasting, abstinence, and penitence in commemoration of Christ’s fasting in the wilderness. In the Western Church [with the exception of the Roman Catholic Church^[7]] it runs from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday, and so includes forty weekdays [excluding the six Sundays that fall during this period].

Shrove Tuesday^[5] is the day before Ash Wednesday. Though named for its former religious significance, it is chiefly marked by feasting and celebration, which traditionally preceded the observance of the Lenten fast. It is also known as Pancake Day^[5], as it is a day on which pancakes are traditionally eaten.

Pancakes are associated with the day preceding Lent^[7] because they were a way to use up rich foods such as eggs, milk, and sugar, before the fasting season of the 40 days of Lent. The liturgical fasting emphasized eating plainer food and refraining from food that would give pleasure: in many cultures, this means no meat, dairy products, or eggs.

5d   You wouldn't care to be guilty of it (7)

7d   Quarrel over an ash tree (5)

Rowan is another name for the European mountain ash^[10] (Sorus aucuparia).

8d   Making out, being intelligent (10)

9d   Top of the bill act? Rats! (4,4)

A turn^[3] is a brief theatrical act or stage appearance.

Star turn is a British term for the person or performance that is the most interesting or exciting^[10] or the person or act that gives the most heralded or impressive performance in a programme^[5] ⇒ (i) he was stopped by the arrival on stage of the star turn; (ii) she was the star turn of the night.

This clue involves what I call inverse wordplay — specifically an inverse reversal. The solution to the clue (STAR TURN) consists of a reversal indicator (TURN) and its fodder (STAR), with the result of the reversal operation (RATS) being found in the clue itself. The exclamation mark at the end of the clue could be seen as an indication that there is something a bit out of the ordinary about the clue.

In a "normal" reversal clue, the reversal indicator and its fodder would be in the clue itself, with the result of the reversal operation being found in the solution.

14d   A figure once hard to work out (10)

16d   Place of grazing (8)

After 13a and 29a, one could be forgiven for suspecting that the solution might be an 8-letter synonym for range. I was quite confident that this was not the case and was thinking along the lines of "grazing" possibly referring to a bullet that just nicks the skin. However, despite being generally on the right track, I needed a nudge from my electronic assistants to nail down the correct solution.

18d   It suffers periodic downturns in time (9)

20d   A row about the Spanish studio (7)

In Spanish, the masculine singular form of the definite article is el^[8].

21d   As a fine example, Father ran full of energy (7)

23d   Bill's getting new car, that's capital (5)

Accra^[5] is the capital of Ghana, a port on the Gulf of Guinea; population 1,970,400 (est. 2005).

25d   Drive for mile travelling round pithead (5)

26d   Go to get added flavour (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