Monday, November 10, 2014 — DT 27516

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27516
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Saturday, June 14, 2014
Setter Cephas (Peter Chamberlain)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27516 – Hints] Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27516 – Review]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Big Dave (Hints) crypticsue (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

Although crypticsue rated this puzzle as having a relatively low level of difficulty of between two and three stars, I resorted to calling for support from my electronic helpers today — in particular, in the southwestern quadrant.

The National Post has announced that it will not publish an edition tomorrow. Nevertheless, I invite you to drop by the blog for a bonus puzzle.

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   Top // hard men having a row (6)

H^[5] is an abbreviation for hard, as used in describing grades of pencil lead ⇒ a 2H pencil.

The number of players on a sports team is commonly used as a metonym for the team. Thus a soccer side might be referred to as an eleven, a lacrosse team as a ten, a baseball team as a nine, and a rowing crew as an eight.

Height^[5] is used in the sense of the topmost point or summit.

4a   Item worn on divers occasions? (8)

9a   Fan not working, // having had grease removed (3-3)

10a   Indifference to pleasure or pain // as sitcom is switched over (8)

Stoicism^[5] is an ancient Greek school of philosophy founded at Athens by Zeno of Citium. The school taught that virtue, the highest good, is based on knowledge; the wise live in harmony with the divine Reason (also identified with Fate and Providence) that governs nature, and are indifferent to the vicissitudes of fortune and to pleasure and pain.

11a   Military band (6)

12a   Sticking /with/ the woman in a depressed area (8)

14a   Awesome // moment set back a French intellectual (10)

In the UK, mo^[5] ([abbreviation for moment) is an informal term for a short period of time ⇒ hang on a mo!.

In French, the masculine singular form of the indefinite article is un^[8].

18a   Skinflint/'s/ collection hidden in odd-looking casket (10)

22a   Bit of food // Greek character and I found in river (8)

Before calling in my electronic assistants, I floundered around trying a variety of Greek letters and rivers without stumbling across the correct one in either case.

Nu^[5] is the thirteenth letter of the Greek alphabet (Ν, ν).

The Trent^[5] is the chief river of central England, which rises in Staffordshire and flows 275 km (170 miles) generally north-eastwards, uniting with the River Ouse 25 km (15 miles) west of Hull to form the Humber estuary.

23a   Land of make-believe // found in mountain range on the way back (6)

Narnia^[7] is a fantasy world created by British author C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) as the primary location for his series of seven fantasy novels for children, The Chronicles of Narnia.

24a   Ration he cooked // in a TV show? (2,3,3)

25a   A way that's right initially and left // of the stars (6)

26a   Playful banter // unsuitable for the elderly (8)

I spent a considerable amount of time trying — without success — to make some variation of KIDDING fit here.

27a   Marksman // put down rook after another bird (6)

R^[5] is an abbreviation for rook used in recording moves in chess.

My interpretation of the wordplay is that it is an instruction to place (put down) R (rook) following (after) SNIPE (another bird).

Down

1d   Good-looking // employee takes part (8)

2d   Blissfully unaware? (8)

English poet Thomas Gray^[7] (1716–1771) is well known for his phrase, "where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." The phrase, from Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, is possibly one of the most misconstrued phrases in English literature. Gray is not promoting ignorance, but is reflecting with nostalgia on a time when he was allowed to be ignorant, his youth.

3d   Kinky tape in back projection -- // that'll raise temperature (4,4)

5d   Taking money from the bank /for/ retirement (10)

6d   Miss /as/ the result of tight bowling? (6)

In cricket, a maiden^[5], also known as a maiden over, (abbreviation M)^[5] is an over in which no runs are scored. An over^[5] is a division of play consisting of a sequence of six balls bowled by a bowler from one end of the pitch, after which another bowler takes over from the other end.

7d   Joined forces /in/ one side of Sheffield (6)

In North America, the term side^[3] is used in a very general fashion that can denote one of two or more opposing individuals, groups, teams, or sets of opinions. While this same general usage would seem to exist as well in the UK, the term side^[5] is also used there in a much more specific sense to mean a sports team ⇒ (i) Previous England rugby sides, and England teams in many other sports, would have crumbled under the weight of such errors.; (ii) They'll face better sides than this Monaco team, but you can only beat what's put in front of you..

Sheffield United F.C is one of three football [soccer] clubs that I identified in Sheffield.

Sheffield United Football Club^[7] is a professional football [soccer] club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system.

Sheffield Wednesday Football Club^[7] is a football [soccer] club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England who play in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system.

Sheffield Football Club^[7] is an English football [soccer] club from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They play in the Northern Premier League Division One South, at level 8 of the English football league system.

8d   Naturally one goes from green to red // -- custom at overpass is to hold it (6)

13d   Working, for a spell? (10)

15d   One kills // two animals in the end (8)

16d   Spot of drizzle perhaps (8)

17d   Seller /of/ gossip? (8)

Apparently, the British pronunciation of "reteller" sounds very much like that of "retailer" — at least, the setter would seem to think so.

It seems that I really blew this explanation!

As megaculpa points out in a comment below, retail^[5] can mean to relate the details of (a story or incident) to others ⇒ his inimitable way of retailing a diverting anecdote. Thus a "gossip" (i.e., someone who gossips) might in fact be a retailer.

19d   Place in grave surroundings (6)

20d   Said // gallery will be in South Dakota (6)

The Tate Gallery^[5] (commonly known simply as the Tate) is a national museum of art in London, England founded in 1897 by the sugar manufacturer Sir Henry Tate (1819–1899) to house his collection of modern British paintings, as a nucleus for a permanent national collection of modern art. It was renamed Tate Britain in 2000, when the new Tate Modern gallery opened. [It would seem that by that time the original collection could no longer be considered "modern".]

21d   Porker, remarkable one // that flies (6)

You may have noticed that I have marked the definition differently than did crypticsue. The word "one" is part of the wordplay, not part of the definition. In the case of definitions starting with the word "that", one must infer the presence of an implicit leading "something" or "someone". Thus, we interpret they definition here to be "[something] that flies". We encounter a similar situation in 3d.

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