Monday, August 4, 2014 — DT 27437 (Bonus Puzzle)

Prologue

For those who are suffering from CCWS (Cryptic Crossword Withdrawal Syndrome), I present your Monday fix — namely, the puzzle that the National Post skipped one week ago.

During July and August, the National Post does not publish an edition on Monday. In years past, a Monday Diversions page has sometimes been printed in either a preceding or subsequent edition of the paper. However, that practice appears to have been discontinued. In order to afford readers the opportunity to tackle the puzzles that the National Post has skipped, throughout the summer I will be posting (with a one week delay) the puzzles that would normally have appeared on Monday.

Enjoy solving the puzzle. The review follows.

Review

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27437
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, March 14, 2014
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27437]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Deep Threat
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 skipped this puzzle which — under its regular publication schedule — would have appeared on Monday, July 28, 2014.

Introduction

Giovanni always provides us with an enjoyable exercise. He often throws in one or two words that are new to me but there is nothing terribly obscure today — although there certainly exist more commonly used variants in the case of a couple of the solutions.

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   Journalists urge policemen to admit error finally (5,5)

6a   Tot crosses line in poor area (4)

9a   Animal trapped by gamekeeper at eleven (5)

The ratel^[5] (also called honey badger) is a badger-like mammal (Mellivora capensis) with a white or grey back and black underparts, native to Africa and Asia. In Africa it is attracted by the honeyguide bird to bee nests, which it breaks open to gain access to the grubs and honey.

10a   No longer badly off, having accepted position, one explains (9)

In the wordplay, "position" makes an appearance as a verb as in "Position yourself here."

12a   A potholer cub’s in trouble — could be he’s this? (13)

I consider this to be a semi-all-in-one clue. The entire clue surely must serve as the definition, as one could never solve the clue based on the second part alone (the portion with the solid underline). The first part of the clue (with the dashed underline) doubles as the wordplay.

A pothole^[5] is a deep natural underground cave formed by the erosion of rock, especially by the action of water. Naturally, a potholer is someone who explores such formations.

A cub^[10] is a young or inexperienced person.

Thus "a potholer cub" would be an inexperienced cave explorer.

By the way, there are two words for someone who suffers from claustrophobia — and today we need the less common of the two, the one that does not also double as an adjective.

14a   Dad going to port in South Africa or city in America? (8)

Although SA^[5] is a common abbreviation for South Africa, it is not the International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code for the country — that being ZA^[5] [from Dutch Zuid Afrika].

Aden^[5] is a port in Yemen at the mouth of the Red Sea; population 588,900 (est. 2004). Aden was formerly under British rule, first as part of British India (from 1839), then from 1935 as a Crown Colony. It was capital of the former South Yemen from 1967 until 1990.

Pasadena^[5] is a city in California, in the San Gabriel Mountains on the northeast side of the Los Angeles conurbation; population 143,080 (est. 2008).

Oxford Dictionaries Online goes on to state "[Pasadena] is the site of the Rose Bowl stadium, venue for the American Football Super Bowl". In fact, in its entire 48 year history, the Super Bowl^[7] has been played at the Rose Bowl on only five occasions, the last time in 1993! The Rose Bowl stadium is most famous as the site of the Rose Bowl, an annual American college football bowl game, played on January 1 (New Year's Day) except when New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, in which case the game is played on Monday,

15a   Wicked and loveless soul keeping home with female (6)

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.

17a   A maiden showed signs of injury and proceeded slowly (6)

In cricket, a maiden^[5], also known as a maiden over, (abbreviation M)^[5] is an over in which no runs are scored. An over^[5] is a division of play consisting of a sequence of six balls bowled by a bowler from one end of the pitch, after which another bowler takes over from the other end.

19a   Verbal attack from little woman leading a group of families (8)

Here "little woman" is not a reference to one of the sisters from the Louisa May Alcott novel (as is often the case) but merely the diminutive of a common woman's name — in fact, it just might be the most commonly encountered woman's name in Crosswordland.

21a   In need, I creep about, cross inside, lacking the wherewithal to cope? (13)

24a   Wacky sister, about ten, involved in hobbies (9)

25a   Traffic from English river on return journey (5)

The River Dart^[5] is a river in Devon, England which rises high on Dartmoor, and releases to the sea at Dartmouth. Its valley and surrounding area is a place of great natural beauty.

26a   Heartless communications offering negative messages (4)

27a   Bomb in church, subsequently exploding in yard (10)

The Church of England^[10] (abbreviation CE^[10]) is the reformed established state Church in England, Catholic in order and basic doctrine, with the Sovereign as its temporal head.

Down

1d   Meat and drink mostly served to king (4)

Port^[5] is a strong, sweet dark red (occasionally brown or white) fortified wine, originally from Portugal, typically drunk as a dessert wine.

K^[5] is an abbreviation for king that is used especially in describing play in card games and recording moves in chess.

2d   Tempts one part of the hospital with sweet foods (7)

In my experience, the busiest section, by far, of the Crosswordland Hospital is the ear, nose and throat (ENT^[2]) department.

Sweet^[5] is the British term for (1) a piece of candy^[5] ⇒ a bag of sweets or (2) a sweet dish forming a course of a meal; in other words, a pudding or dessert. "Sweet food" likely refers to the latter.

In the UK, ice^[5] may refer to a  portion of water ice^[5], a dessert consisting of frozen fruit juice or flavoured water and sugar. As well, it could refer to an ice cream or ice lolly^[5], a piece of flavoured ice or ice cream on a stick (the former is known in North America as a popsicle^[5] and the latter might often be referred to simply as ice cream on a stick). 

3d   What may contribute to the fry-up? Streaky (4-3-6)

Fry-up^[5] is an informal British term for a dish of various types of fried food.

4d   One’s a bit put out, having to be deferential (8)

5d   Mirror? It may be hung on the wall (5)

The Daily Mirror^[7] (informally The Mirror) is a British national daily tabloid newspaper which was founded in 1903.

7d   Pardons and discharges (4,3)

8d   Landing in another world, look around wicked city (10)

Marseilles^[5] (French name Marseille) is a city and port on the Mediterranean coast of southern France, the capital of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur; population 860,363 (2007).

Once one undoes the inversion that the setter has introduced, the clue parses as {SEE (look) containing (around) ILL (wicked)} contained in (landing in) MARS (another world).

11d   Despot — his act, I suspect, is complex and efficient (13)

13d   Appearance of one in a quiet role, one getting on (10)

Piano^[3,5] (abbreviation p^[5]), is a musical direction meaning either (as an adjective) soft or quiet or (as an adverb) softly or quietly.

16d   Person in charge of pub has insects — any number, look! (8)

A licensee^[4] is a person who holds a licence, especially one to sell alcoholic drink.

The letter n^[10] is used (especially in mathematics) as a symbol to represent an indefinite number (of) ⇒ there are n objects in a box.

18d   Sigh, about to go into dip (7)

If — like myself — you are puzzled by the hint in Deep Threat's review, you may be surprised to discover that, in the UK, bathe^[5] can be a noun (but only in the singular) as well as a verb. As the former, it means an act or spell of swimming or spending time in the water ⇒ a bathe in the cold North Sea.

20d   Asian country encompassing a new state (7)

22d   Succeeded in nothing in Paris at a higher level (5)

The abbreviation s^[5] stands for succeeded, in the sense of to have become the new rightful holder of an office, title, or property ⇒ he succeeded to his father’s kingdom. It might be seen, for instance, it charts of royal lineages.

Rien^[5] is a French pronoun meaning 'nothing'.

23d   Disobey successive notes before ending with company (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