Thursday, August 14, 2014 — DT 27450

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27450
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Saturday, March 29, 2014
Setter Cephas (Peter Chamberlain)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27450 – Hints] Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27450 – Review]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Big Dave (Hints) gnomethang (Review)
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
As this was a Saturday "Prize Puzzle" in Britain, there are two entries related to it on Big Dave's Crossword Blog — the first, posted on the date of publication, contains hints for selected clues while the second is a full review issued following the entry deadline for the contest. The vast majority of reader comments will generally be found attached to the "hints" posting with a minimal number — if any — accompanying the full review.

Introduction

It was 18a that gave me the most trouble today. Several times I set the puzzle aside for a period hoping that my subconscious would find the solution while I concentrated on other things. Eventually I did decipher the correct solution, but it looked so improbable that I nearly discarded it. It also took me a very long time to see the wordplay at 23d and I never did figure out the wordplay at 1a (for which I was forced to obtain from gnomethang's review).

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   Crucial moment at Wimbledon affecting two times champion (5,5)

I was at a loss to explain the wordplay, having totally failed to detect the existence of the anagram.

In tennis and other sports, match point^[5] is a point which if won by one of the players or sides will also win them the match ⇒ he saved all three match points.

6a   Flashy character upsetting top people (4)

Spiv^[5] is an informal British term for a man, typically a flashy dresser, who makes a living by disreputable dealings.

9a   Old cars popular with learner visiting more than one state (3,7)

The cryptic crossword convention of L meaning learner or student arises from the L-plate^[7], a square plate bearing a sans-serif letter L, for learner, which must be affixed to the front and back of a vehicle in various countries (including the UK) if its driver is a learner under instruction.

Tin lizzie^[4,5] is an informal and dated North American term for an old or decrepit car. It was originally a nickname for the Model T Ford.

10a   Powder used in macrobiotic latte coming from the East (4)

The reversal indicator is "coming from the East" (that is, reading from right to left).

12a   Hunter's habit perhaps put an end to soft wimps (6)

Weed^[5] is an informal British term for a contemptibly feeble person ⇒ he thought party games were for weeds and wets.

Tweeds^[5] are clothes made from tweed, a thick roughish woollen cloth, usually with coloured flecks, used for making suits, jackets, skirts, etc and often identified with the town, area, etc where it is produced ⇒ Harris tweed. The word tweed was originally a trade name which was a misreading of Scots tweel meaning 'twill' and which became reinforced by the name of the River Tweed in the Borders [the area of Scotland bordering on England] along which many of the factories that first produced the cloth were situated. Such clothes seem to be especially associated with hunters and academics.

13a   Follower of false gods, I procrastinate (8)

15a   Gratifying resolution of nightmare war (5-7)

18a   Major initiative -- single picture left in movie (5,7)

This was the last clue to be solved — and by a massive margin. I eventually worked out the correct solution from the wordplay, but it was so implausible that I nearly discarded it without looking it up. Fortunately, I did look it up and found to my amazement that it was correct.

Cine^[5] is an adjective used in Britain meaning cinematographic (of which it is seemingly a shortened form) ⇒ a cine camera [or, in other words, a movie camera].

Sir John Major^[5] is a British Conservative statesman, Prime Minister 1990-7.

The Cones Hotline^[7] was a telephone hotline introduced by the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom John Major in June 1992 to allow members of the public to enquire about roadworks on the country's roads and report areas where traffic cones had been deployed on a road for no apparent reason. The hotline was widely seen as being a waste of government resources, costing several thousand pounds per year to run. It was quietly disbanded in September 1995, having fielded a total of fewer than twenty thousand calls. The service did inspire the term cone syndrome, to describe a piece of legislation made by a government that seems to serve no real purpose.

21a   Florence ruled by fish (8)

22a   Shawl, new, makes one hot (6)

In the cryptic analysis, one must read the clue as STOLE (shawl) + N (new) produces (makes [for] one) [a word meaning] hot.

24a   O! What comes from pen? Animal noise (4)

25a   Houseplant rousing a sad spirit (10)

An aspidistra^[5] is a bulbous plant of the lily family with broad tapering leaves, native to eastern Asia and widely grown as a houseplant.

26a   Made a portrait of Barrymore? (4)

Drew Barrymore^[7] is an American actress, screenwriter, film director, producer, model and author who is a descendant of the Barrymore family of well-known American stage and cinema actors, and is the granddaughter of film legend John Barrymore.

Michael Barrymore^[7] [mentioned by gnomethang in his review] is the stage name of Michael Ciaran Parker, an English comedian and television presenter of game shows and light entertainment programmes on British television in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Barrymore was voted the UK's favourite television star several times, becoming one of the highest-paid stars on television.

27a   Help Charlie with initially important position (10)

Charlie^[5] is an informal British term for a fool ⇒ what a bunch of charlies.

Down

1d   Grumble endlessly about a change (6)

2d   Vulnerable bid (6)

3d   Hard manner and sauce -- shock treatment's needed (12)

H^[5] is an abbreviation for hard, as used in describing grades of pencil lead ⇒ a 2H pencil.

4d   Don't start to drink slimy stuff (4)

5d   Wastrel we enrolled to be employed (4-2-4)

As an anagram indicator, "employed" is likely to be interpreted as busy, active, or moving around.

7d   Insect tucked into simple fruit (8)

8d   A newspaper probes depravity in minister's place (8)

In his review, gnomethang mentions that "[a] red top newspaper is sometimes [derogatorily] called A RAG". In Britain, a tabloid newspaper is known as a red top^[5] (from the red background on which the titles of certain British newspapers are printed).

A vicarage^[5] is the residence of a vicar. In the the Church of England, a vicar^[5] is a member of the clergy who is an incumbent of a parish where tithes formerly passed to a chapter or religious house or layman, whereas a rector^[5] is a member of the clergy who is an incumbent of a parish where all tithes formerly passed to the incumbent.

11d   Musician performing stint with recital (12)

Clarinettist^[5] is the preferred British spelling of clarinetist.

14d   Women taking orders from printworks around S American city (10)

Rio de Janeiro^[5] (commonly known as Rio) is a city in eastern Brazil, on the Atlantic coast; population 6,093,472 (2007). The chief port of Brazil, it was the country’s capital from 1763 until 1960, when it was replaced by Brasilia.

Orders^[5] denotes the rank of a member of the clergy or an ordained minister of the Church ⇒ he took priest’s orders.

Holy orders^[5] is the sacrament or rite of ordination as a member of the clergy, especially in the grades of bishop, priest, or deacon.

The phrase in holy orders^[5] means having the status of an ordained member of the clergy ⇒ his friend in holy orders.

The phrase take holy orders^[5] means to become an ordained member of the clergy ⇒ his first ambition was to take holy orders.

A prioress^[5] is (1) a woman who is head of a house of certain orders of nuns or (2) the woman who is next in rank below an abbess.

16d   A very loud reprimand's given outside place for punishment (8)

Fortissimo^[5] (abbreviation ff^[5]) is a direction used in music to mean either (as an adjective) very loud  or (as an adverb) very loudly.

To solve this clue, one must insert a bit of mental punctuation in the wordplay. Thus we treat it as a series of instructions. In step one, we form a charade from A (from the clue) and FF (very loud). In step two, SCOLD (reprimand) is placed around (given outside) the result from step one.

17d   Report girl gaining little weight (8)

19d   'Mercury' maybe getting slightly twisted in printing roller (6)

Those who remember using typewriters should be familiar with a platen^[5]. It is the cylindrical roller against which the paper is held. As I recall, to underline text, one had to release the platen and move it back to the point where the start of the text to be underlined was situated at the point where the typing would occur (without advancing the paper to the next line) and then typing over the original line of text with underscore characters.

20d   Lag behind in recast team (6)

One must interpret the wordplay as following (behind) IN [is positioned] an anagram (recast) of TEAM.

23d   Antipodean it's essential we picked up (4)

Here "picked up" implies "picked up [by the ear]" and is a homophone indicator. The wordplay parses as sounds like (picked up) {KEY (essential) + WE}. [Note: the "ME" in gnomethang's hint is clearly a typo].

The Antipodes^[5] is a term used by inhabitants of the northern hemisphere to refer to Australia and New Zealand. An Antipodean would therefore be an inhabitant of Australia or New Zealand.

An antipode^[5] is the direct opposite of something ⇒ voting and violence are antipodes. The term originally denoted the inhabitants of opposite sides of the earth.

Kiwi^[5] is an informal term for a New Zealander. It presumably comes from kiwi^[5], a name applied to any of three species of flightless New Zealand birds with hair-like feathers, having a long downcurved bill with sensitive nostrils at the tip.

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