Friday, September 5, 2014 — DT 27468

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27468
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Saturday, April 19, 2014
Setter Cephas (Peter Chamberlain)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27468 – Hints] Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27468 – 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

For me, this puzzle proved to be an enjoyable exercise — and, as for my electronic assistants, they enjoyed another day of rest.

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   Desperate GP caught guzzling wine (7)

On cricket scorecards, the abbreviation c^[5] denotes caught (by).

Asti^[7] (formerly known as Asti Spumante) is a sparkling white Italian wine that is produced throughout southeastern Piedmont but is particularly focused around the towns of Asti and Alba. Since 1993 the wine has been classified as a Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) and as of 2004 was Italy's largest producing appellation.

9a   I knew art in a way that could pull the wool over you (8)

10a   A seaman reported sudden violent attack (7)

11a   Position from where Reds go for goals? (4,4)

In his review, gnomethang mentions a couple of English football [soccer] clubs that are known as the Reds.

Liverpool Football Club^[7] (nicknamed The Reds) is an English professional football club based in Liverpool that plays in the Premier League (the top level in the English football league system).

Manchester United Football Club^[7] (often referred to simply as United) is an English professional football club, based at Old Trafford [football stadium] in Old Trafford [district of Manchester], Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League (the top level in the English football league system). While the team is officially nicknamed The Red Devils, it is also referred to informally as the Reds (see "Reds unveil new away kit", a posting on the team website in which the Reds ironically introduce a blue and black away uniform).

12a   Instrument finally played in fancy grooves (6)

The definition, being an adjective, would have to be "in fancy grooves" (where "in" is interpreted in the sense of 'done in' as a child's bedroom in pink).

Fluted^[5] is an adjective meaning having flutes or grooves; in other words, ridged ⇒ fluted pillars. Flute^[5] is an architectural term for an ornamental vertical groove in a column.

13a   Handful pointed out it's justified (10)

In ancient Rome, a full hand would comprise V fingers (including the thumb).

15a   Male engineers present (4)

The Corps of Royal Engineers^[7], usually just called the Royal Engineers (abbreviation RE), and commonly known as the Sappers^[7], is a corps of the British Army that provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces.

16a   Frolicked in games that must have died out (9)

Disport^[5,10] is an archaic or humorous term meaning (when used transitively) to indulge (oneself) in pleasure or (when used intransitively) to frolic or gambol.

21a   Rotten Row (4)

In Britain, a place where taxis wait to be hired is known as a rank^[4] [mentioned by gnomethang in his review].

22a   At ball about two hours before midnight -- in this? (10)

"A nice tricky clue!" is how gnomethang describes this clue. Not only is it tricky to solve, it is tricky to classify.

For the definition. Big Dave has chosen to mark simply the relative pronoun "this" (which does stand in for the solution). However, I always feel — rightly or wrongly — that a definition must (by definition) provide more information than does the single word "this".

Therefore I have interpreted the clue to be a semi-all-in-one (semi-&lit.) clue with the entire clue being the definition and the portion with the dashed underlining also providing the wordplay. The entire clue tells us that if one had been at the ball at ten o'clock (or, for that matter, at any other time during the course of the event), they would be said to have been "in this" where the demonstrative pronoun "this" stands in for the solution.

24a   Snapper and artist arrived first (6)

A Royal Academician (abbreviation RA^[5]) is a member of the Royal Academy of Arts^[5], an institution established in London in 1768, whose purpose is to cultivate painting, sculpture, and architecture in Britain.

25a   One's to be given run round in case (8)

27a   Newspaper article's distinctive characteristic (7)

28a   They last out in secret (8)

29a   Head makes gentle retreat (7)

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

Down

2d   Very determined, so worked out again (8)

3d   Shocked the beginning came first! (8)

4d   One will notice twisting dives becoming imprudent (3-7)

Big Dave and gnomethang appear to have slightly different takes on how "one will" becomes ILL.

Big Dave approaches it as I ([Roman numeral for] one) + LL (abbreviated form of 'will' that follows an apostrophe).

On the other hand, gnomethang has it simply as "I’ll (a contraction of ‘one will’)". To get I'LL from "one will", you would seemingly have to first contract the expression "one will" to obtain "one'll" and then substitute the Roman numeral for one (I'll). The contraction "one'll" looks and sounds strange, but I presume that it must exist.

5d   Artwork needed to be put round joint (4)

6d   Attics converted to stable! (6)

7d   Contemplate not having time to be a go-between (7)

8d   Essay about old play (7)

Essay^[5] is used in the formal sense of an attempt or effort ⇒ a misjudged essay in job preservation.

11d   Laird left a knight with state of depression (9)

N^[5] is the abbreviation for knight used in recording moves in chess [representing the pronunciation of kn-, since the initial letter k- represents 'king'].

In Scotland, laird^[5] denotes a person who owns a large estate.

14d   Cleaner hit out, but not suspected (2,3,5)

17d   Marked in a playful way? (8)

This is another instance where there are multiple opinions as to the clue type — or, at least, nuances of interpretation.

Big Dave considers it to be a double definition — albeit with the second definition presumably being cryptic. On the other hand, both gnomethang and myself saw the entire clue as a cryptic definition. Under this latter approach, the primary indication (the portion of the clue with the solid underline) tells us that we need a synonym for "marked" (used as an adjective; police report a marked increase in crime). The portion of the clue with the dashed underline provides a subsidiary indication to allow us to narrow down the range of possibilities (i.e., the solution is a word having an association with the theatre).

18d   Woolly ran if colour's outside the visible spectrum (8)

In Britain, woolly^[5] is an informal term for a garment made of wool, especially a pullover. In Australia and New Zealand, a woolly is a sheep.

19d   Sneering mars tours round half of castle (7)

The use of the word "tour" as an anagram indicator would be based on it meaning 'to travel around'.

20d   Checked development of performing student (7)

23d   Snuggle up in lovers' place with the Parisian (6)

In Paris (or anywhere else in France), the masculine singular form of the definite article is le^[8].

26d   Sound return from City house (4)

The City^[5] [or here, simply City] is short for the City of London^[5] (not to be confused with the city of London).

The City of London^[7] is a city and ceremonial county within London. It constituted most of London from its settlement by the Romans in the 1st century AD to the Middle Ages, but the conurbation has since grown far beyond the City's borders. The City is now only a tiny part of the metropolis of London, though it remains a notable part of central London. It is one of two districts of London to hold city status, the other being the adjacent City of Westminster.

It is widely referred to simply as the City (often written as just "City" and differentiated from the phrase "the city of London" by capitalising "City") and is also colloquially known as the Square Mile, as it is 1.12 sq mi (2.90 km²), in area. Both of these terms are also often used as metonyms for the United Kingdom's trading and financial services industries, which continue a notable history of being largely based in the City.
In the clue, the setter uses "City" as a surrogate for for the EC postcode which serves the City of London [postcode being the British counterpart of the Canadian postal code or American zip code]. The EC (Eastern Central) postcode area^[7] (also known as the London EC postcode area) is a group of postcode districts in central London, England. It includes almost all of the City of London as well as parts of several other London boroughs.

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