Monday, September 15, 2014 — DT 27474

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27474
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Saturday, April 26, 2014
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27474 – Hints] Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27474 – 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

I managed to complete this puzzle without resorting to electronic aids. However, in the case of some of the British place names, this was attributable more to being able to decipher the solutions from the wordplay and checking letters than it was to my knowledge of British geography.

I have to wonder if gnomethang might have been running late for a tee time when he wrote his review as there are a goodly number of errors to be found in it — especially toward the end.

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   Blood pressure's about to kill off muscle (6)

BP^[5] is a recognized abbreviation for blood pressure.

Ice^[5] is North American mobster slang meaning to kill ⇒ another man had been iced by the police. I must say that I found this usage example given by Oxford Dictionaries Online to be a bit bizarre. I would tend to think of the crooks doing the icing — not the police!

4a   I speak ill of West Indian perhaps (8)

10a   Caught odd bit of musician's set (5,4)

Here "set" refers to the musician's gear — not his repertoire.

Rum^[5] is a dated informal British term meaning odd or peculiar ⇒ it’s a rum business, certainly.

11a   Reminder about university having good feeling (5)

12a   Tie up ship just right around bar (7)

13a   Part of garden where rowdy biker's unknown (7)

Rocker^[5] is a British term for a young person, especially in the 1960s, belonging to a subculture characterized by leather clothing, riding motorcycles, and a liking for rock music.

14a   Weird English lake (5)

Surely, no one failed to get this one.

Lake Erie^[5] is one of the five Great Lakes of North America, situated on the border between Canada and the US. It is linked to Lake Huron by the Detroit River and to Lake Ontario by the Welland Ship Canal and the Niagara River, which is its only natural outlet.

15a   Respite for person swimming round about (8)

18a   In correspondence with friend about artist joining the French Left (8)

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.

In French, the masculine singular form of the definite article is le^[8]. 

20a   Welsh town has tidy hospital (5)

Neath^[5] is an industrial town in South Wales on the River Neath; population 46,800 (est. 2009).

23a   One held without women in Plymouth landmark (7)

Plymouth Hoe^[7] (referred to locally as the Hoe) is  a large south facing open public space in the English coastal city of Plymouth. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon word Hoe, a sloping ridge shaped like an inverted foot and heel. Plymouth Hoe is perhaps best known for the probably apocryphal story that Sir Francis Drake played his famous game of [lawn] bowls^[7] here in 1588 while waiting for the tide to change before sailing out with the English fleet to engage with the Spanish Armada.

25a   Play vid strangely without enthusiasm (7)

Vid^[5] is an informal short form for video ⇒ I’ve got it on vid now.

26a   Gritty Murray is behind second (5)

Andy Murray^[5] is a Scottish tennis player. In 2012 he won the Olympic gold medal for singles and, by winning the US Open, became the first British man to win a grand slam singles tournament since 1936. In 2013 he won the men’s singles title at Wimbledon.

27a   One saint catching fish, going by place associated with Angel (9)

A ling^[5] is any of a number of long-bodied edible marine fishes including various species of large East Atlantic fish related to the cod, in particular Molva molva, which is of commercial importance.

I believe that "going by" is used in the sense of '[travelling] on' ⇒ they spent the summer bicycling across Canada, mostly going by back roads.

Angel^[7] is an area on the northern fringe of Central London, located 2 miles (3.2 km) north-northeast of Charing Cross [regarded as marking the centre of London]. It is named from the former Angel Inn which stood on the corner of Islington High Street and Pentonville Road. Since 1965 the whole area has formed part of the London Borough of Islington in Greater London.

28a   Sprains something to do with hip in simple transport (8)

Rick^[2] is a verb meaning to sprain or wrench (one's neck, back, etc) or a noun denoting a sprain or wrench. Oxford Dictionaries Online characterises the verb — but not the noun — as British^[5]. However, the word rick^[3,11] does not appear with this meaning (either as a verb or a noun) in either of my regularly consulted US dictionaries (The American Heritage Dictionary and the Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary).

I infer from a usage example found at Oxford Dictionaries Online that hips and haws are often found growing in close proximity. A haw^[5] is the red fruit of the hawthorn, while a hip^[5] is the fruit of a rose, especially a wild kind ⇒ the hips and haws in the hedges.

According to gnomethang, the hawthorn is a rose tree making hips and haws the same thing.

According to the dictionary, the hawthorn^[5] is a thorny shrub or tree of the rose family, with white, pink, or red blossom and small dark red fruits (haws). Native to north temperate regions, it is commonly used for hedging in Britain.

29a   Card game -- pontoon perhaps (6)

The misdirection here is provided by the fact that pontoon^[5] is also a British name for the card game blackjack or vingt-et-un ⇒ he got me to go into his room for a hand of pontoon.

In his review, gnomethang makes reference to "sappers". 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.

Down

1d   Get seen missing Penny, madly in love (8)

In Britain's current decimal currency system, a penny^[5] is a bronze coin and monetary unit equal to one hundredth of a pound (and is abbreviated p).

2d   Show appreciation for each part of bell (7)

3d   Events experienced in catastrophe no men anticipated (9)

5d   Group left in certain parties frequently inundated area (8,6)

The Somerset Levels^[7], or the Somerset Levels and Moors as they are less commonly but more correctly known, is a sparsely populated coastal plain and wetland area of central Somerset, in South West England, running south from the Mendip Hills to the Blackdown Hills. The Levels are at risk from both tidal and land-based flood waters.

6d   Meat jelly with a reduced flavour (5)

In gnomethang's review, the explanation should begin "A from the clue ...".

7d   See code is broken by European (7)

A see^[10] is the diocese of a bishop, or the place within it where his cathedral or procathedral is situated.

8d   Flaw in photo -- apply colour again to cover origin of error (3-3)

9d   Ample librarian becoming star of Romeo and Juliet perhaps (5,9)

I think gnomethang may have intended to write "Becoming is the anagram indicator for AMPLE LIBRARIAN".

16d   Can batsman put together a helping hand for Cook? (3-6)

In cricket, an opener^[5] is a batsman who opens the batting. The setter mischievously capitalizes the word "cook" to misdirect the solver into thinking of  English cricketer Alistair Cook^[7], a left-handed opening batsman who is the captain of the England test and one-day international teams and plays county cricket for Essex.

Tin opener^[5] would  appear to be the more commonly used British name for a can opener^[5].

17d   Native American evokes retiring Princess (8)

The Cheyenne^[5] are an American Indian people formerly living between the Missouri and Arkansas Rivers but now on reservations in Montana and Oklahoma.

Princess Anne^[5], the Princess Royal, is the daughter of Elizabeth II. [I note that her father does not rate a mention.]

19d   It's deadly performing in races (7)

In his review, gnomethang has underlined the anagram fodder rather than the definition.

21d   Checked over Heath's foreign car (7)

In his review, gnomethang has underlined too much of the clue. The word "over" is a charade indicator and not part of the definition.

In the cryptic analysis, the 's interpreted as a contraction for "is" making the wordplay read "over Heath is foreign car".

Sir Edward Heath^[5] (1916–2005) [commonly known as Ted Heath] was a British Conservative statesman, Prime Minister 1970-4. He negotiated Britain’s entry into the European Economic Community and faced problems caused by a marked increase in oil prices. Attempts to restrain wage rises led to widespread strikes and he lost a general election after a second national coal strike.

Audi AG^[7] is a German automobile manufacturer that has been a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group since 1966. The company name is based on the Latin translation of the surname of the founder, August Horch. "Horch", meaning "listen" in German, becomes "audi" in Latin. The four rings of the Audi logo each represent one of four car companies that banded together to create Audi's predecessor company, Auto Union.

22d   One drink after another -- Red Rum perhaps (6)

In his review, gnomethang identifies the second part of the clue as a cryptic definition. However, based on the following entry from Oxford Dictionaries Online, I would say that it is a pretty straight definition by example.

A chaser^[5] is a horse for steeplechasing.

Red Rum^[7] was a champion Thoroughbred racehorse who achieved an unmatched historic treble when he won the Grand National in 1973, 1974 and 1977, and also came second in the two intervening years. The world-famous steeplechase is a notoriously difficult race that has been referred to as being "the ultimate test of a horse’s courage". The horse was renowned for his jumping ability, having not fallen in 100 races.

Heavy^[5] [used by gnomethang in his review] is a chiefly Scottish term for a strong beer, especially bitter ⇒ a pint of heavy. Bitter^[5] is a British name for beer that is strongly flavoured with hops and has a bitter taste ⇒ (i) a pint of bitter; (ii) the company brews a range of bitters.

24d   Fool swallowed by chasm (5)

In his review, gnomethang manages to have the swallower become the swallowee. It is the ASS that swallows BY — not the other way around (as he has it).

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