Monday, September 1, 2014 — DT 27457 (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. This will be the final Bonus Puzzle of the summer as the National Post returns to its normal publication schedule following Labour Day.

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.

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27457
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, April 7, 2014
Setter Rufus (Roger Squires)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27457]
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
Notes
The National Post skipped this puzzle which — under its regular publication schedule — would have appeared on Monday, August 25, 2014.

Introduction

I needed a slight boost from my electronic assistants to clear the final couples of hurdles in today's puzzle. At 19d I knew the solution would be a British term for a bumper car — but had no idea what that term might be.

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   Battlefield area where pilot operates (7)

5a   His mate turned in disbelief (7)

9a   Bohemian girl seen around a Florida resort (5)

Mimi is the tragic heroine of the opera La bohème^[7] by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924).

10a   His cattle wandering off track, perhaps (9)

11a   In bar seats, possibly, but they're not drinking (10)

12a   It's a lot older than you (4)

14a   Undecided fate of plane taking paratroopers into battle? (4,2,3,3)

18a   They make the most noise, but they aren't charged (5,7)

Empty vessels make the most noise^[5] is a proverb implying that those with the least wisdom or knowledge are always the most talkative.

21a   Russian leader is one at front (4)

Ivan^[5] is the name of six rulers of Russia, the most famous being Ivan IV (1530–84), grand duke of Muscovy 1533–47 and first tsar of Russia 1547–84; known as Ivan the Terrible. He captured Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia, but the Tartar siege of Moscow and the Polish victory in the Livonian War (1558–82) left Russia weak and divided. In 1581 he killed his eldest son Ivan in a fit of rage, the succession passing to his mentally disturbed second son Fyodor.

22a   Steady lads -- hold your horses! (10)

I interpret the entire clue to be the definition with a portion of the clue (marked with a dashed underline) also supplying the wordplay, thereby making this a semi-&lit. clue.

25a   Sailor directed watch to go back for those missing (9)

In the Royal Navy, able seaman^[5] (abbreviation AB^[5]), is a rank of sailor above ordinary seaman and below leading seaman.

26a   Right to enter complaint in dispute (5)

In cryptic crosswords, a "complaint" is often of the medical variety.

27a   Last to finish with the majority (7)

28a   Plans for me to get into chess, that's absurd (7)

Down

1d   One brass instrument that clashes with another (6)

2d   Score confused with a gross (6)

In the surface reading, score denotes to a quantity of twenty while gross refers to a quantity of twelve dozen.

3d   Detective magazine (7,3)

Private Eye^[7] is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine. Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deems guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency, corruption, pomposity or self-importance and it has established itself as a thorn in the side of the British establishment.

4d   He wrote books in two parts (5)

Mark Twain^[5] (1835–1910) was an American novelist and humorist; pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. His best-known novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), give a vivid evocation of Mississippi frontier life.

 Twain^[5] is an archaic term for two ⇒ he split the spar in twain [in two (parts)].

5d   Fans present in stand run riot (9)

6d   Those warned should take it (4)

7d   Pat his arm in coming together (8)

In Crosswordland, you will soon discover that an Irishman is most often named Pat.

8d   Rubbers needed for wrong figures? (8)

In the surface reading, we are intended to interpret rubber^[5] as the British equivalent of what we know as an eraser, a piece of rubber used for erasing pencil or ink marks ⇒ a pencil with a rubber at the end.

13d   Club gets convict into hellish upset (10)

A shillelagh^[5] is a thick stick of blackthorn or oak used in Ireland, typically as a weapon.

15d   Dealing with management (9)

Does "dealing with" really equate to "treatment"? I would say that "manner of dealing with" equates to "treatment of" ⇒ his treatment of women come in for criticism.

16d   Tender arrangement for Ted and Alice (8)

17d   University commended and elevated (8)

19d   One may provide a crash course for the fair driver (6)

Dodgem^[5] (also dodgem car) is a British term for a bumper car^[5], a small electrically powered car with rubber bumpers all round, driven in an enclosure at a funfair [a fair consisting of rides, sideshows, and other amusements] with the aim of bumping into other such cars  ⇒ he wanted to go on the dodgems.

20d   Directs woman's standing in American society (6)

23d   Foundation exists to support graduates (5)

24d   A preposition seen in print only (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