Friday, August 29, 2014 — DT 27463

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 30, 2014 but backdated to maintain sequence.

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27463
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, April 14, 2014
Setter Rufus (Roger Squires)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27463]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Miffypops
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

What can I say — other than another delightful puzzle from Rufus.

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   Seat of unusual charm and appearance (8)

6a   Those vanquished by the Spanish heading east as a precaution (2,4)

The Incas^[5] were a South American Indian people living in the central Andes before the Spanish conquest.

9a   One of four on the fiddle (6)

10a   Vessel on a shark trip (5,3)

Noah's ark^[5] is the ship in which Noah, his family, and the animals were saved from the Flood, according to the biblical account (Genesis 6-8).

11a   Sunny reflection in a dark hour? (8)

12a   Relation puts us in the money (6)

13a   Refuse to work and get off? Blimey! (6,1,5)

Blimey^[5] (also cor blimey) is an informal British exclamation used to express surprise, excitement, or alarm.

Strike a light^[5] is an informal, dated British term used as an expression of surprise, dismay, or alarm ⇒ cor, strike a light, he’s a crazy geezer and no mistake!.

Cor^[5] is an informal British exclamation expressing surprise, excitement, admiration, or alarm ⇒ Cor! That‘s a beautiful black eye you’ve got!

Another variant of this term is gorblimey^[5], an informal British expression of surprise or indignation.

16a   It shows the priorities for strikers (7,5)

A striker^[5] is the player who is to strike the ball in a game. From the solution, one sees that the setter almost certainly had cricket in mind, although the clue would work equally well if applied to baseball.

19a   Cable from ship to shore (6)

21a   Small creature with aggressive rearing (8)

23a   Senior nurse seen around at home -- that's ominous (8)

In Britain, a sister^[5] (often Sister) is a senior female nurse, typically in charge of a ward.

24a   Makes better repairs following direction (6)

25a   Information on the German male or female (6)

Gen^[5] is British slang for information ⇒ you’ve got more gen on him than we have.

In German, der^[8] is one of the several forms that the definite article may assume.

26a   Rose might arrange a date with men (8)

Down

2d   Moderation seen, lacking fashion allowance (6)

3d   Gormless mountain dog! (5)

In the surface reading, gormless^[5] is an informal British term meaning lacking sense or initiative; foolish ⇒ a constantly grinning, rather gormless boy.

The Cairngorm Mountains^[5] (also the Cairngorms) is the name of a mountain range in northern Scotland.

The cairn^[5] (also cairn terrier) is a small terrier of a breed with short legs, a longish body, and a shaggy coat. [perhaps so named from being used to hunt among cairns]

4d   Fishermen do it with club support (5,4)

5d   Went crazy -- managed all right after morning (3,4)

In his review, Miffypops should have said "A two letter term for morning or ante meridiem [rather than anti meridian] ..."

6d   Numberless Visa account for a patriarch (5)

Did anyone else think that for the word "Visa" to be truly numberless, one would need to remove not only the Roman numeral for five but also the Roman numeral for one.

In the Bible, Isaac^[5] is a Hebrew patriarch, son of Abraham and Sarah and father of Jacob and Esau.

7d   French dresser Tom Cruise ordered (9)

A costumier^[5] [a term adopted from French] is a person or company that makes or supplies theatrical or fancy-dress costumes.

Tom Cruise^[5] is is an American film actor and producer. As a child, he lived for several years in Ottawa where he reportedly first became involved in acting — appearing in a grade four school drama production.

8d   Neat and honest (8)

13d   Pleased to have met (9)

14d   Dead Roman, possibly, or mythical Greek (9)

In Greek mythology, Andromeda^[5] was an Ethiopian princess whose mother Cassiopeia boasted that she herself (or, in some stories, her daughter) was more beautiful than the Nereids. In revenge Poseidon sent a sea monster to ravage the country; to placate him Andromeda was fastened to a rock and exposed to the monster, from which she was rescued by Perseus.

15d   Arsenal making a weekly result? (8)

The surface reading is meant to evoke thoughts of an English football club. Arsenal Football Club^[7] is an English professional association football [soccer] club based in Holloway, London that plays in the Premier League (the top level in the English football league system).

17d   Watch and obey (7)

18d   It's looped around a dog (6)

20d   Up and down, round and round it goes (5)

22d   Religious work that is accepted by school liaison group (5)

A pietà^[5] is a picture or sculpture of the Virgin Mary holding the dead body of Christ on her lap or in her arms.

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