Friday, December 12, 2014 — DT 27540

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27540
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Saturday, July 12, 2014
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27540 – Hints] Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27540 – 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 this should have been Cephas' spot in the rotation, the Brits did not deem this to be one of his creations.

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   Suit /you'll need/ when entering church (4)

This suit would actually be contested in a court of law — rather than a church.

The Church of England^[10] (abbreviation CE^[10]) is the reformed established state Church in England, Catholic in order and basic doctrine, with the Sovereign as its temporal head.

3a   Cool//  number, new song about the French female (10)

Today the setter goes a step further than usual — specifying the version of the definite article down to the gender.

In French, the feminine singular form of the definite article is la^[8].

9a   Orderly // to have a snack after end of session (4)

10a   Coping with supporters // a bad result upset? (10)

A coping^[5] is the top, typically curved or sloping, course of a brick or stone wall.

A balustrade^[5] is a railing [or, presumably, coping (see following definition)] supported by balusters, especially one forming an ornamental parapet to a balcony, bridge, or terrace.

A baluster^[5] is a short decorative pillar forming part of a series supporting a rail or coping.

11a   Another court // passage (7)

Ct^[2] is the abbreviation for Court in street addresses — and possibly in other contexts as well.

13a   Questioning /of/ physicist cut short by old American (7)

Polish-born French physicist Marie Curie^[5] (1867–1934) and her husband, French physicist Pierre Curie^[5] (1859–1906), were pioneers of radioactivity. Working together on the mineral pitchblende, they discovered the elements polonium and radium, for which they shared the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics with A.-H. Becquerel. After her husband’s accidental death Marie received another Nobel Prize (for chemistry) in 1911 for her isolation of radium. She died of leukaemia, caused by prolonged exposure to radioactive materials.

14a   Assembly of peers, triumvirate // reforming economic policy? (11)

In the former Soviet Union, perestroika^[5] was the policy or practice of restructuring or reforming the economic and political system. First proposed by Leonid Brezhnev in 1979 and actively promoted by Mikhail Gorbachev, perestroika originally referred to increased automation and labour efficiency, but came to entail greater awareness of economic markets and the ending of central planning.

A troika^[5] (from a Russian word meaning 'set of three') is a group of three people working together, especially in an administrative or managerial capacity.

18a   Pep pill taken by one before endless criticism /makes one/ become violently angry (2,9)

A pill^[10] is a small ball of matted fibres that forms on the surface of a fabric through rubbing.

Stick^[5] is an informal British term meaning severe criticism or treatment  ⇒ I took a lot of stick from the press.

Read "makes one" as meaning "produces the result for the one solving the puzzle".

21a   Turtle avoiding soft // ground (7)

Piano^[3,5] (abbreviation p^[5]), is a musical direction meaning either (as an adjective) soft or quiet or (as an adverb) softly or quietly.

22a   Legislator // spilt no tears (7)

A legislator from the Canadian Upper House ...

23a   Derision cast about politician // behind bars (10)

... is followed by one from the Lower House.

24a   Asian // neckwear, by the sound of it (4)

25a   Member of 15's band, // Ms Fitzgerald, back touring Canada, left for clubs (5-1-4)

The numeral "15" in the clue is a cross reference indicator directing the solver to insert the solution to clue 15d in its place to complete the clue.

Ella Fitzgerald^[5] (1917–1996) was an American jazz singer, known for her distinctive style of scat singing.

Allan-a-Dale^[7] [one among several spellings of the name] is a figure in the Robin Hood legend. According to the stories, he was a wandering minstrel who became a member of Robin's band of outlaws, the "Merry Men."

26a   Nimble // agent catching leader in race (4)

Down

1d   Disdain /shown by/ prisoner over bait (8)

2d   Top of the bill // set off on vessel (4,4)

Star turn is a British term for the person or performance that is the most interesting or exciting^[10] or the person or act that gives the most heralded or impressive performance in a programme^[5] ⇒ (i) he was stopped by the arrival on stage of the star turn; (ii) she was the star turn of the night.

4d   Love role /in/ abstract school (2,3)

Op art^[5] is a form of abstract art that gives the illusion of movement by the precise use of pattern and colour, or in which conflicting patterns emerge and overlap. Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely are its most famous exponents.

5d   Statesman /in/ place of worship, unwell (9)

Sir Winston Churchill^[5] (1874–1965) was a British Conservative statesman, Prime Minister 1940-5 and 1951-5.

6d   Change involving degrees Centigrade /causes/ argument (11)

7d   Female soldier /in/ river (6)

An Amazon^[5] is a member of a legendary race of female warriors believed by the ancient Greeks to exist in Scythia or elsewhere on the edge of the known world.

8d   Insect // set free by misguided set (6)

The tsetse^[5] (also tsetse fly) is an African bloodsucking fly which bites humans and other mammals, transmitting sleeping sickness and nagana. Nagana^[5] is a disease of cattle, antelope, and other livestock in southern Africa, characterized by fever, lethargy, and oedema, and caused by trypanosome parasites transmitted by the tsetse fly.

12d   A small gesture by topless people /in/ clandestine meeting (11)

15d   Much associated with this outlaw (5,4)

Much the Miller's Son^[7] was, in the tales of Robin Hood, one of his Merry Men. He becomes an outlaw when he is caught poaching.

16d   Falsely incriminate // rather small chap taken in drink (6,2)

Chap^[5] is an informal British term for a man or a boy.

Titch^[5] is an informal British term for a small person ⇒ the titch of the class.

As a verb, sup^[5] is a dated or Northern English term meaning to take (drink or liquid food) by sips or spoonfuls ⇒ (i) she supped up her soup delightedly; (ii) he was supping straight from the bottle. As a noun, it means (1) a sip of liquid ⇒ he took another sup of wine or (2) in Northern England or Ireland, an alcoholic drink ⇒ the latest sup from those blokes at the brewery.

Stitch up^[10] is British slang meaning to incriminate (someone) on a false charge by manufacturing evidence.

17d   Inadequate supply /from/ Detroit perhaps following onset of strike? (8)

19d   A dry one around // Greek region (6)

Teetotal^[5] (abbreviation TT^[5]) means choosing or characterized by abstinence from alcohol ⇒ a teetotal lifestyle. The term is an emphatic extension of total, apparently first used by Richard Turner, a worker from Preston [England], in a speech (1833) urging total abstinence from all alcohol, rather than mere abstinence from spirits, as advocated by some early temperance reformers.

Attica^[5] is a triangular promontory of eastern Greece. With the islands in the Saronic Gulf it forms a department of Greece, of which Athens is the capital.

20d   Drive // mostly right, then left (6)

22d   Blow up // second fountain (5)

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