Monday, October 13, 2014 — DT 27494

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27494
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Setter Rufus (Roger Squires)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27494]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Deep Threat
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
This puzzle appears on the Monday Diversions page in the Saturday, October 11, 2014 edition of the National Post.

Introduction

It being Thanksgiving Day in Canada, the National Post did not publish an edition today. However, the paper surprised me by including a Monday Diversions page in Saturday's edition. This is a former practice that the Post had gotten away from. I had already prepared a bonus puzzle posting for today, so you now have the opportunity to pig out on puzzles as well as turkey.

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. Explicit link words and phrases are enclosed in forward slashes (/link/) and implicit links are shown as double forward slashes (//).

Across

1a   Describe a ruler inspiring society /being/ diligent (11)

The wordplay is {PAINT (describe; figuratively paint) + A (from the clue) + KING (ruler)} containing (inspiring; breathing in) S (society).

9a   An encore's arranged /showing/ vibrancy (9)

10a   Likely to change // oil perhaps (5)

11a   Habit /in/ business organisation (6)

12a   One barely running for show? (8)

13a   Respect // established by English compiler when retired (6)

It is a common cryptic crossword convention for the creator of the puzzle to use terms such as compiler, setter, (this) author, (this) writer, or this person 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.

15a   What's not seen in main part of house? (3-5)

I failed to recognize that "house" refers to a theatre. I wrote in OFF-SPACE thinking this might be some British expression with which I am unfamiliar.

18a   Titled lady /and/ judge going to Spain by ship (8)

Count^[5] is used in the sense of to regard or be regarded as possessing a specified quality or fulfilling a specified role ⇒ she met some rebuffs from people she had counted as her friends.

The International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code for Spain is E^[5] [from Spanish España].

In Crosswordland, you will find that a ship is almost invariably a steamship, the abbreviation for which is SS^[10].

A countess^[5] is (1) the wife or widow of a count or earl or (2) a woman holding the rank of count or earl in her own right.

19a   Go on irritating // Republican joint (6)

In the US, R^[5] is the abbreviation for Republican (a member of the Republican Party).

21a   Drink taken before crashing? (8)

23a   County briefly facing appeal /for/ lodger's accommodation (6)

The home counties [mentioned by Deep Threat in his review] are the counties of [southeastern (SE)] England that surround London. The counties generally included in the list are Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey and Sussex (although Sussex does not border London).

Other counties more distant from London, such as Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Dorset, Hampshire and Oxfordshire are also sometimes included in the list due to their close proximity to the capital and their connection to the London regional economy. Nevertheless, no exact definition of the term exists and the composition of the home counties remains a matter of debate.

Beds^[10] is the abbreviation for Bedfordshire^[5], a county of south central England; county town, Bedford.

"It"^[7] is a term that has come to mean sex appeal - although, in its earliest manifestation, it seems that the term pertained more to personality than to glamorous looks. Although the term had been used as early as 1904 by Rudyard Kipling, it was popularized  in the 1927 film It starring Clara Bow (who became known as the It Girl).

Bedsit^[5] (also bedsitter or bed-sitting room) is a British term for a one-roomed unit of accommodation typically consisting of combined bedroom and sitting room with cooking facilities.

26a   A part of fork shortened? // It's useful in the kitchen (5)

27a   Relieve // bit of exhaustion after brewing vital ale (9)

28a   Doctor full of energy and control tucking into Indian // dessert (5,6)

In Britain, the degree required to practice medicine is a Bachelor of Medicine^[7] (MB, from Latin Medicinae Baccalaureus), which is equivalent to a North American Doctor of Medicine (MD, from Latin Medicinae Doctor). The degree of Doctor of Medicine also exists in Britain, but it is an advanced degree pursued by those who wish to go into medical research. Physicians in Britain are still addressed as Dr. despite not having a doctoral degree. 

The Cree^[5] are an an American Indian people living in a vast area of central Canada [— stretching from Labrador as far west as eastern British Columbia^[7]]. 

Down

1d   Aim /shown by/ largely immaculate model (7)

2d   Cricket perhaps not caught /in/ part of magazine (5)

In this clue, "cricket" may not refer to the game but the term "caught" comes from the game of cricket.

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

Inset^[10] is another name for insert^[10], a printed sheet, especially one bearing advertising, placed loose between the leaves of a book, periodical, etc.

3d   Poor tennis team lacking in a // mental attitude? (9)

4d   Element kept in check by daunting // relative (4)

5d   Pinpoint // fine tidy ground (8)

As an anagram indicator, ground is the past tense or past participle of the verb grind^[5]. An anagram indicator is a word that denotes movement or transformation. Grind denotes transformation in the sense of wheat being ground into flour.

6d   Slip /made by/ manager right away (5)

Gaffer^[5] is an informal British term for a person in charge of others; in other words, a boss ⇒ street cleaners stopping for a smoke when their gaffer isn’t in the vicinity.

7d   Support // extreme hunting animal used by Cockneys (7)

A cockney^[5] is a native of East London, 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 the H from the beginning of words and the use of rhyming slang^[5].

8d   Dismiss feature of rugby featuring first /in/ travel item? (8)

In rugby, a ruck^[5] is a loose scrum formed around a player with the ball on the ground ⇒ players will be encouraged to go to the ground when tackled to form a ruck.

14d   Violent behaviour /in/ tower across hotel yard (8)

Here "tower" is someone who pulls rather than a tall structure.

Hotel^[5] is a code word representing the letter H, used in radio communication.

16d   Avoid confronting matter /with/ session at rink completed? (5,4)

I would avoid confronting an issue by skating around it; the Brits seem to do so by skating over it.

17d   Bring up sharply // key note about a US city (8)

In music, ti^[2] (or te) is the seventh note of the major scale in sol-fa notation. Judging by entries in American and British dictionaries, the only recognized spelling in the US would seem to be ti^[3,4,11] whereas, in the UK, the principal spelling would appear to be te^[2,3,4,11], with ti as an alternative spelling in some dictionaries. Oxford Dictionaries Online provides less leeway, giving the spelling as te^[5] with ti shown as the North American spelling.

18d   It could be helpful for viewing // meeting (7)

20d   Former partner needs minute to enter plane /in/ terminal (7)

The plane^[5] is a tall spreading tree of the northern hemisphere, with maple-like leaves and bark which peels in uneven patches.

22d   Jacket /from/ part of UK kept by workers' group (5)

Northern Ireland^[5] (abbreviation NI^[5]) is a province of the United Kingdom occupying the northeast part of Ireland; population 1,775,000 (est. 2008); capital, Belfast.

The Trades Union Congress^[7] (TUC) is a national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions in England and Wales, representing the majority of trade unions. 

24d   Brian, perhaps/,/ a sluggish figure (5)

Brian the Snail is a character in the English children's television programme The Magic Roundabout^[7] which was broadcast from 1964 to 1971.

25d   Miserable // university athlete (4)

In Britain, a blue^[5] is a person who has represented Cambridge University (a Cambridge blue) or Oxford University (an Oxford blue) at a particular sport in a match between the two universities ⇒ a flyweight boxing blue. This usage almost certainly arises from the colours associated with these universities — and hence the colour of the uniforms worn by their athletes. Cambridge blue^[5] is a pale blue colour (actually a medium tone of spring green), while Oxford blue^[5] is a dark blue, typically with a purple tinge (actually a very dark tone of azure).

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