Thursday, October 29, 2014 — DT 27502

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27502
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, May 29, 2014
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27502]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By scchua
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

For the most part, today's puzzle from RayT provided a relatively gentle workout. However, I found the northeast quadrant to be rather more of a challenge. I did finish without assistance, but this latter quadrant seemed to take as much time — or more — than the rest of the puzzle combined.

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   Case of feed swallowed in birds/'/ craws (7)

I was a bit surprised by this clue when the wordplay finally dawned. I don't recall ever having seen a similar clue — but that may simply be attributable to poor memory. It is fairly evident that the indicator is "case of", denoting the initial and final letter of the fodder. However, I presumed the fodder to be "FeeD" and thus spent an inordinate amount of time trying to construct a solution containing the letters FD. However, the fodder is actually "EaT" (a synonym for "feed", as a verb).

This construct would seem to be indirect wordplay (i.e., the indicator operates on fodder that is not directly present in the clue). I know that indirect anagrams are not permitted, so I was a bit surprised that indirect deletions would be allowed. In reading the comments on Big Dave's site, I discover that I am not the only one to raise this point. However, the discussion there would appear to indicate that such a construct is fair game. When you think about it, it is not appreciably different than "Ale without a head" being used to clue [B]EER in 3d.

5a   A sailor reportedly /becoming/ offensive (7)

9a   Leading // tramp into wild (9)

10a   Scoundrel, say, turning // bum (5)

11a   Police officers shot /in/ protest (7)

Given the events of yesterday, it is an unfortunate coincidence that this clue should appear today.

A detective inspector (DI)^[5] is a senior police officer in the UK. Within the British police, inspector^[7] is the second supervisory rank. It is senior to that of sergeant, but junior to that of chief inspector. Plain-clothes detective inspectors are equal in rank to their uniformed counterparts, the prefix 'detective' identifying them as having been trained in criminal investigation and being part of or attached to their force's Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

12a   Counters /for/ laboratory equipment (7)

13a   Left-winger touring English bay Queen // came round (9)

As a containment indicator, "touring" is used in the sense of 'going around'.

Regina^[5] (abbreviation R^[5]) [Latin for queen] denotes the reigning queen, used following a name (e.g. Elizabetha Regina, Queen Elizabeth) or in the titles of lawsuits (e.g. Regina v. Jones, the Crown versus Jones — often shortened to R. v. Jones).

16a   Aggravation of member blowing top /for/ coalition (5)

17a   Charges /from/ Duke in battles (5)

A duke^[5] (abbreviation D.^[10]) is a male holding the highest hereditary title in the British and certain other peerages.

18a   Prudence /seeing/ dodgy gift horse (9)

21a   Craftsman /is/ slacker after midnight (7)

In this clue, we encounter a not uncommon cryptic crossword construct, in which the word "midnight" is used to clue G, the middle letter (mid) of niGht.

22a   Sheep's tail before last // dish (7)

25a   It's farewell to Hollande! (5)

This clue is a style of cryptic definition in which a very general statement is coupled with an element that adds specificity. Here, the general statement is "it's farewell" or, in other words, the solution to the clue is a word that means 'farewell'. The phrase "to Hollande" adds specificity by indicating that we need a word from the French language.

François Hollande^[5] has been the President of France since 2012.

26a   A corset is removed /in/ bar (9)

As an anagram indicator, remove^[5] [or remove to] is used in the dated sense of to change one’s home or place of residence by moving to (another place) ⇒ he removed to Wales and began afresh.

27a   Agrees to go round pub /for/ birds (7)

Note that let is a synonym of agree to so the wordplay is LETS (agrees to) containing (go round) INN (pub).

A linnet^[5] is any of three species of mainly brown and grey finch with a reddish breast and forehead.

In the surface reading, bird^[5] would seem to be an informal British term for a young woman or a man’s girlfriend.

28a   Fool possibly // stranded initially in wasteland (7)

Fool^[5] is a chiefly British name for a cold dessert made of pureed fruit mixed or served with cream or custard ⇒ raspberry fool with cream.

Down

1d   Former capital of the Netherlands (7)

Until the introduction of the euro in 2002, the guilder^[5] was the basic monetary unit of the Netherlands, equal to 100 [euro] cents.

2d   Runs // edge of axe in cuts (5)

Here one needs to focus on the trailing edge rather than the leading edge.

3d   Ale without a head? That is // unnatural (5)

4d   More biting following small // first course (7)

Starter^[5] is a chiefly British term [but most certainly one not entirely foreign to Canada] meaning the first course of a meal.

5d   Adult, bored, taking time /to get/ dressed (7)

The A (Adult) certificate is a former film certificate^[7] issued by the British Board of Film Classification. This certificate existed in various forms from 1912 to 1985, when it was replaced by the PG (Parental Guidance) certificate.

6d   These cut with ease separating ends of roses (9)

This is a semi-&lit. (or semi-all-in-one) clue. The entire clue constitutes the the definition, while the portion marked with a dashed underline also serves as the wordplay. In his review, scchua refers to this type of clue as "a WIND (wordplay intertwined with definition) clue".

Secateurs^[5] (also a pair of secateurs) is a British name for a pair of pruning clippers for use with one hand.

7d   Bounder lingered, grabbing // maid perhaps (9)

Bounder^[5] is a dated informal British term for a dishonourable man ⇒ he is nothing but a fortune-seeking bounder.

8d   Subversion /of/ terrorist leader's cause (7)

14d   US maybe supporting auto // plant (9)

15d   Unfortunately I've sublet // part of house (9)

17d   Bird/'s/ cry around a great void (7)

A wagtail^[5] is any of several species of slender Eurasian and African songbird with a long tail that is frequently wagged up and down, typically living by water.

18d   Golfer roused, holding // iron (7)

19d   Alleged // grass will get placed inside (7)

20d   Harry/'s/ wrong to hold hands (7)

23d   Get together // when mum's embraced (5)

24d   Custard centre topping well-grown // rhubarb (5)

Rhubarb^[5] is an informal British term meaning either (1) the noise made by a group of actors to give the impression of indistinct background conversation, especially by the random repetition of the word ‘rhubarb’ or (2) nonsense ⇒ it was all rhubarb, about me, about her daughter, about art.

Tripe^[5] is (1) the first or second stomach of a cow or other ruminant used as food or (2) an informal term meaning nonsense or rubbish ⇒ you do talk tripe sometimes.

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