Thursday, November 6, 2014 — DT 27514

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27514
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, June 12, 2014
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27514]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By archy and mehitabel
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

I made good progress on this puzzle until I "hit the wall" with five or six clues remaining to be solved. However, a bit of intense mental effort paid off and the remaining holdouts eventually succumbed.

Today's review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog is written by archy and mehitabel — otherwise known as pommers and Kath. Should you be unfamiliar with the background of archy the cockroach and mehitabel the alley cat, see my blog from August 11, 2014.

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   State /of/ coalminer working around bottom of mine (10)

State^[5] is used in a sense in which it means involving the ceremony associated with a head of state ⇒ the Queen paid a state visit to Malaysia.

6a   Find fault /in/ vehicle parking (4)

9a   Killed // repeatedly in the past, it's said (5)

10a   Preserve /from/ damage caused absorbing nearly everything (9)

12a   Performer // from start is teasing (7)

Note that in 10a, "from" acts as a link word between the definition and wordplay but in this clue it serves as part of the wordplay being a hidden word indicator.

13a   Go through European // valley (5)

Combe^[5] is a British term for a short valley or hollow on a hillside or coastline, especially in southern England.

15a   Women from Essen or Asuncion? Probably Asuncion (7)

In this semi-&lit. clue, the entire clue functions as the definition which, effectively, could be stated as "women who are more likely to come from Asuncion than Essen". The wordplay (indicated by the dashed underline) is found in the middle of the clue.

Essen^[5] is an industrial city in the Ruhr valley, in northwestern Germany; population 583,200 (est. 2006).

Asunción^[5] is the capital and chief port of Paraguay; population 519,100 (est. 2007).

Señora^[5] is a title or form of address used of or to a Spanish-speaking woman, corresponding to Mrs or madam ⇒ Señora Dolores.

16a   Sups second after embracing maiden /in/ 'Twilight' (7)

Of course, my first thought was that "sups" is being used in the often appearing British sense of 'drinks'. However, today the setter has employed it in different sense — one that should be more familiar to North American solvers.

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.

The surface reading likely refers to The Twilight Saga^[7], a series of five romance fantasy films based on the four Twilight^[7] series novels by American author Stephenie Meyer.

18a   Fashionable girl /in/ a state (7)

Today the most popular girl in Crosswordland uses her full name.

20a   Cut skin cell evenly with this? (7)

The entire clue serves as the definition while the portion with the dashed underline constitutes the wordplay.

21a   Topless model, // substantial ... (5)

On Big Dave's blog, archy illustrates this clue with what is surely a testament to the marvels of modern surgery! (I think that I am likely on safe ground in attributing the picture to him rather than to mehitabel)

23a   ... portion of stripper out in erotic // performance (7)

25a   Checking about end of aileron // in the air (9)

26a   Stand at the front of the class (5)

On Big Dave's blog, Physicist explains "in a Victorian classroom, there was an easel (holding a blackboard) at the front of the class for the teacher to use.".

27a   Described by median or mean? (4)

I would say that this is a full &lit. clue. The entire clue serves as the definition as the solution can mean (be described by) either "median" or "mean". The wordplay is likely intended to convey — although I have some reservations as to whether it actually works — that the solution is hidden in (described by) mediaN OR Mean.

Although the use of the word "describe" as a containment indicator is a common cryptic crossword convention, this is the first time that I recall seeing it used as a hidden word indicator. This device relies on describe^[3] being used in the sense of to trace the form or outline of ⇒ describe a circle with a compass.

As a containment indicator, one would expect to see 'MEDIA_EAN' containing (describing) NORM with the rationale for the wordplay being that the container (MEDIA_EAN) forms an outline around the contained entity (NORM) in a similar manner to the circumference of a circle forming an outline around the circular area contained within it. However, in this clue, the setter has "MEDIAN OR MEAN' describing 'NORM' — and I am not sure that works.

28a   Player teed off // time and again (10)

Down

1d   Hot work following cold // slice of meat (4)

In music, Op.^[5] (also op.) is an abbreviation meaning opus (work). It is used before a number given to each work of a particular composer, usually indicating the order of publication.

2d   Stopped // umpire getting pelted (9)

3d   At sea, entered marina /leaving/ sea (13)

To explain the link word, consider that after executing the wordplay, one ends up with (is left with) the solution to the clue.

4d   Retribution /in/ relation with English people backed (7)

The word nemesis (often Nemesis) can mean retributive justice ⇒ Nemesis is notoriously slow.

In Greek mythology, Nemesis^[5] is a goddess usually portrayed as the agent of divine punishment for wrongdoing or presumption (hubris).

5d   First-class study occupied by husband /and/ idiot (7)

A1^[4][5] or A-one^[3] meaning first class or excellent comes from a classification for ships in The Lloyd's Register of Shipping where it means equipped to the highest standard or first-class.

In Britain, to read^[5] means to study (an academic subject) at a university ⇒ (i) I’m reading English at Cambridge; (ii) he went to Manchester to read for a BA in Economics.

7d   Shock /of/ member supporting a Labour leader (5)

The Labour Party^[5] in Britain is a left-of-centre political party formed to represent the interests of ordinary working people that since the Second World War has been in power 1945–51, 1964–70, 1974-9, and 1997–2010. Arising from the trade union movement at the end of the 19th century, it replaced the Liberals as the country’s second party after the First World War.

8d   Used to hold // her in sleep when upset (10)

11d   Dancing cancan with tempo I'm // backing (13)

14d   Breathing in // desire (10)

17d   Former wife petitioned, /it's/ reported (9)

19d   Group of jumbos // fine without head (7)

I might add that the word for "fine" might also be used to describe a narrow crack in one of the vehicles referred to in the clue.

20d   Secretly bring in // non-wizard joining Hogwarts finally (7)

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry^[7], shortened Hogwarts, is a fictional British school of magic for students aged eleven to eighteen, and is the primary setting for the first six books in British novelist J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.

In the Harry Potter book series, a Muggle^[7] is a person who lacks any sort of magical ability and was not born into the magical world. Muggles also do not have any magical blood.

22d   Mail perhaps /with/ rubbish on Queen (5)

Rubbish^[3,4,11] is used in the sense of foolish words or speech; in other words, nonsense. Although Oxford Dictionaries Online considers the word rubbish^[5] to be chiefly British, I would think it is a familiar term in North America.

The regnal ciphers (monograms) of British monarchs are initials formed from the Latin version of their first name followed by either Rex or Regina (Latin for king or queen, respectively). Thus, the regnal cipher of Queen Elizabeth is ER^[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina.

The Daily Mail [commonly referred to as the Mail] is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper. First published in 1896, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun.

24d   'Friend' // everybody, an unknown number (4)

In mathematics (algebra, in particular), an unknown^[10] is a variable, or the quantity it represents, the value of which is to be discovered by solving an equation ⇒ 3y = 4x + 5 is an equation in two unknowns. [Unknowns are typically represented symbolically by the letters x, y and z.]

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