Thursday, September 11, 2014 — DT 27472

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27472
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, April 24, 2014
Setter Petitjean (John Pidgeon) [unconfirmed]
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27472]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Falcon
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

Introduction

Although I reviewed this puzzle for Big Dave's blog when it first appeared in The Daily Telegraph in April, it still proved to be a bit of a challenge. The solutions to some of the clues came to me quite readily, while others took almost as much effort as they did the first time around. Today, 19d was my last one in and it took seemingly forever for me to realise that neither "cook" nor "treat" have anything to do with food or sweets.

The identity of the setter was never confirmed, but I was not alone in suspecting that the puzzle might be the handiwork of Petitjean.

I also notice that none of the definitions are underlined in my review on Big Dave's blog. I do recall running into some problems when posting the blog that evening. It would seem that — in addition to the other issues I encountered — I failed to realise that the underlining had vanished during the posting process.

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   Healthy meal? What about how eel turned out? (10)

6a   Prison officer's side being taken by gang (4)

Screw^[3,4,11] is slang for a prison guard. Warder^[5] [used in my review at Big Dave's site] is a chiefly British term for a guard in a prison.

10a   Trendy media centre that is appealing to non-mainstream tastes (5)

Indie^[5] is an adjective (used in reference to a pop group, record label, or film company) that denotes (1) not belonging or affiliated to a major record or film company or (2) characteristic of the deliberately unpolished or uncommercialized style of small independent pop groups. I was surprised to see that this term has been around since the 1920s.

11a   New thesis about anaemic look (9)

12a   Weaker sex's representation is not that woman in 'EastEnders' (7)

An East Ender^[5,10] (or Eastender^[2]) is a native or inhabitant of the East End of London, an area whose residents are also referred to as cockneys. 

A cockney^[5] is a native of East London [specifically the East End], traditionally one born within hearing of Bow Bells (the bells of St Mary-le-Bow^[7] church). Cockney is also the name of the dialect or accent typical of cockneys, which is characterised by dropping H from the beginning of words and the use of rhyming slang^[5].

EastEnders^[7] is a British television soap opera which has been running in the United Kingdom since 1985. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End of London.

13a   Opposite from rhyming (7)

14a   Equipment that's linked with Halfords? (7,5)

Halfords Group plc^[7] is a retailer of car parts, car enhancement, camping, touring and bicycles operating in the UK and Ireland. At one time, the business of the company apparently was solely bicycle sales and service — a base from which they have since expanded. The company is also a sponsor of bicycle racing teams.

18a   Golf News runs out -- the injustice! (12)

21a   Attack with energy to replace home's hedging (7)

At the time I wrote the review in April, Putin was exercising evasion and Ukraine was fearful of an invasion. The evasion continues — and the invasion has since come to pass.

23a   Confirm Paddington's antiquated (4,3)

Paddington Bear^[7], a polite immigrant bear from Deepest, Darkest Peru, with his old hat, battered suitcase, duffle coat and love of marmalade sandwiches, has become a classic character from English children's literature. In the first story, Paddington is found at Paddington railway station in London by the Brown family, sitting on his suitcase (bearing the label "WANTED ON VOYAGE") with a note attached to his coat which reads, "Please look after this bear. Thank you." Author Michael Bond has said that his memories of newsreels showing trainloads of child evacuees leaving London during the war, with labels around their necks and their possessions in small suitcases, prompted him to do the same for Paddington.

24a   Detective has reported organ transplant for one who did wrong in the main (9)

The main^[5] is an archaic or literary term for the open ocean.

25a   Sink cool half of bitter (5)

26a   Retired gambler overlooking the odds against diamonds (4)

27a   Swimming frogs hiding endlessly -- from this? (7,3)

The entire clue provides the definition by specifying that the solution is something from which frogs (or other potential bait) might hide. A portion of the clue (with the dashed underline) also serves as the wordplay.

Down

1d   Whitewash extremely dubious and offensive (6)

Whiffy^[5] is an informal British term denoting having an unpleasant smell ⇒ whiffy socks.

2d   Invest in gold with commercial backing first (6)

Insert a mental pause when reading the wordplay "in; gold with commercial backing first". That is, the final element of the charade is IN (in). Before that (first), one places OR (gold) + (with) a reversal (backing) of AD (commercial).

Or^[5] is gold or yellow, as a heraldic tincture [colour].

3d   Let critic argue for arrangement that needs amplifying (8,6)

4d   By what means Rugby Union initially may divulge inquiry (3,3,3)

Rugby union^[10] (abbreviation RU^[5]) is a form of rugby football played between teams of 15 players (in contrast to rugby league^[5] which is played in teams of thirteen).

5d   Excuse lack of depth in off-the-cuff remark by the writer (5)

It is a common cryptic crossword convention for the creator of the puzzle to use terms such as compiler, setter, (this) author, (this) writer, this person or — as is the case today, the writer — to refer to himself or herself. To solve such a clue, one must generally substitute a first person pronoun (I or me) for whichever of these terms has been used in the clue.

7d   What baker might have twisted and raised, so they say (8)

In April, for some reason, I thought this was an all-in-one clue. However, I now realise that it is at most a semi-all-in-one clue. One could possibly say that the entire clue is the definition, although that is not necessary. The underlined portion of the clue by itself provides an adequate definition and certainly does not enter into the wordplay.

8d   The likes of The Searchers birds follow everywhere but North (8)

The Searchers^[7] is a 1956 American Western film directed by John Ford, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May, and set during the Texas–Indian Wars. The film stars John Wayne as a middle-aged Civil War veteran who spends years looking for his abducted niece (Natalie Wood), accompanied by his adoptive nephew (Jeffrey Hunter).

9d   Sensitive actor could be filling up at this point (7,7)

Unlike 7d, this clearly is a semi-all-in-one clue. The entire clue specifies that the solution is a place at which a sensitive actor (or any other motorist) might be filling up. The wordplay is provided by the portion of the clue with a dashed underline.

15d   Transatlantic high-flier's line in diamonds -- quantity of ice that's hot (9)

Charles Lindbergh^[7] (1902–1974) was an American aviator, who as a 25-year-old U.S. Air Mail pilot, made the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic on May 20–21, 1927 in his plane, the Spirit of St. Louis.

16d   Pest flying round tiny head of Alpine flower (5,3)

Wee^[5] is a chiefly Scottish adjective meaning little ⇒ (i) when I was just a wee bairn; (ii) the lyrics are a wee bit too sweet and sentimental. The word may be of Scottish origin but, like the Scots themselves, it has migrated around the world.

17d   Concentrate with reduced calories is key (8)

The first time that I solved this clue, I tried to make the solution end in -LITE. The second time around, believe it or not, I fell into the same trap.

19d   Cook's treat (6)

20d   Observer did this with big-name journalist? (6)

The surface reading is likely an allusion to the British newspaper, The Observer^[7], the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. A sister paper to the daily The Guardian^[7], it takes a similar liberal or social democratic line on most issues.

22d   Vain characters squeeze middle of their spots (5)

A naevus^[5] (plural naevi) is a birthmark or a mole on the skin, especially a birthmark in the form of a raised red patch.

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