Thursday, December 18, 2014 — DT 27544

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27544
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, July 17, 2014
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27544]
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

This puzzle proved to be a considerably stiffer test than those that preceded it. I needed a fair amount of help from my electronic assistants to complete it — although, in hindsight,  I should not have needed to call on their aid in several instances.

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 (//). Definitions presented in blue text are for terms that appear frequently.

Across

7a   Goal /is/ fair (9)

8a   Hours to some extent // routine (5)

My electronic assistants jeered "You dragged us out to help solve this!!" as I kicked myself for failing to see the solution on my own.

10a   Persist /in/ intimidating female (6)

It would seem that the term dragon carries a different connotation in the UK than in North America. The American dictionaries define dragon as a fiercely vigilant or intractable person^[3] or a fierce, combative person or a very strict, protective woman^[11]. British Dictionaries, on the other hand, have it as a fierce or intractable person, especially a woman^[10], a frighteningly domineering woman^[2], or a fierce and intimidating woman ⇒ his wife is a real dragon^[5].

11a   Inspector's needing pass -- // run out! (8)

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).

Disgorge^[5] (said of a river) means to empty into a sea ⇒ the Nile disgorges into the sea at Rashid.

12a   Contemporary // comic’s success (4,2)

The wordplay is WIT (comic) + ('s; contraction for has) HIT (success).

14a   Tasers dispersed // protest (6)

16a   Area's vote is /for/ coalition (4)

In general terms, an axis^[5] is an agreement or alliance between two or more countries that forms a centre for an eventual larger grouping of nations ⇒ the Anglo-American axis. More specifically, the Axis^[5] was the alliance of Germany and Italy formed before and during the Second World War, later extended to include Japan and other countries ⇒ the Axis Powers.

17a   Shy person // that works with computers (5)

I gave myself another kick here.

I had became fixated on trying to split the clue after the first word rather than after the second word. As usual with this type of clue, one must interpret the second definition as if it were "that [which] works with computers" or "[something] that works with computers".

18a   Bear will occasionally // roar (4)

19a   Brilliance /of/ one accepted by peer group? (6)

In biology, a genus^[5] is a principal taxonomic category that ranks above species and below family, and is denoted by a capitalized Latin name, e.g. Leo. In philosophical and general use, the term means a class of things which have common characteristics and which can be divided into subordinate kinds.

21a   Confidential information /from/ detective turned in aristo (3-3)

I originally omitted an entry for PI, thinking it to be self-evident. However, this abbreviation generated more chatter on Big Dave's site than I have seen in a long time — leading to a long discussion regarding ranks in British police services.

PI^[5] is the abbreviation for private investigator (another name for private detective^[5]), a freelance detective who carries out covert investigations on behalf of private clients. Private eye^[11] is an informal name for a private detective. As Gazza points out — in somewhat more down-to-earth language — in a comment on Big Dave's blog, eye is an allusive phonetic rendering of I, abbreviation of investigator.

Aristo^[2] is a colloquial, often derogatory, short form for aristocrat.

Toff^[5] is an informal, derogatory British term for a rich or upper-class person.

24a   Difficult // end endured without drug (8)

E^[5] is an abbreviation for the drug Ecstasy or a tablet of Ecstasy ⇒ (i) people have died after taking E; (ii) being busted with three Es can lead to stiff penalties.

26a   Excessively // hard to govern with Republican ousted by Democrat (6)

27a   One's given consent /for/ key (5)

28a   Dear // comic (9)

Down

1d   Muscle or fat's ultimate // check (5)

2d   Bars // books? (8)

Penguin biscuits^[7] are milk chocolate-covered biscuit bars filled with chocolate cream produced by the McVitie's division of British multinational food manufacturer United Biscuits. Whether the Penguin is a biscuit or a chocolate bar has been the subject of much debate, but it is widely regarded as a biscuit.

Penguin Books^[5] is a British publisher. Founded in 1935, Penguin Books is now an imprint of the worldwide Penguin Random House, a conglomerate which was formed in 2013 by the merger of book publishers Random House, owned by Bertelsmann, and Penguin Group, owned by Pearson PLC.

3d   Singular fish // smell (6)

In grammar, the abbreviation for singular is s^[5].

The tench^[5] is a European freshwater fish (Tinca tinca) of the carp family, popular with anglers and widely introduced elsewhere.

Pong^[5] [used by archy and mehitabel in their review] is an informal British term that means (1), as a noun, a strong, unpleasant smell ⇒ corked wine has a powerful pong and (2), as a verb, to smell strongly and unpleasantly ⇒ the place just pongs of dirty clothes.

4d   Passionate // prima donna in the ascendant (4)

5d   Some relief a moussaka /is/ notable (6)

Moussaka^[5] (also mousaka) is a Greek dish made of minced lamb, aubergines [eggplant], and tomatoes, with cheese sauce on top.

6d   Seafood // recipe initially welcomed by couple on board (4,5)

Although the abbreviation for recipe is r (or r.)^[1], the setter actually does not rely on this fact in the clue. Rather, he (or she) explicitly indicates that we are to use the initial letter of recipe ("recipe initially").

The king prawn^[5] is a large edible prawn which is of great commercial value.

9d   Leak /found in/ small poncho coming from Spain (6)

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

13d   Tied up reportedly /for/ safekeeping (5)

15d   Former party leader reties knots -- /that's/ skill (9)

17d   Male on course /to be/ talisman (6)

If I wasn't already black and blue, I definitely was after kicking myself yet again.

Ascot Racecourse^[7] is an English racecourse, located in the village of Ascot, Berkshire, used for thoroughbred horse racing. It is one of the leading racecourses in the United Kingdom, hosting 9 of the UK's 32 annual Group 1 races. The course is closely associated with the British Royal Family, being approximately six miles from Windsor Castle.

18d   Bishop's nasty feud led /to/ puzzle (8)

B^[5] is an abbreviation for bishop that is used in recording moves in chess.

As a link word, to^[10] is a preposition used to indicate equality ⇒ 16 ounces to the pound.

20d   I'm nicked -- no way! -- /and/ charged (6)

Nick^[5] is an informal British term meaning to arrest (someone) ⇒ Stuart and Dan got nicked for burglary.

Charge^[5] is used in the sense of to fill or pervade with a quality or emotion ⇒ the air was charged with menace.

22d   Pressure drop /in/ spring (6)

In physics, the symbol p^[5] is used to represent pressure.

23d   B-minus /getting/ praise (5)

In Christain church services, bless^[5] means to call (God) holy or to praise (God).

25d   Standard // maiden over following no runs (4)

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.

On cricket scorecards [not to mention baseball scoreboards], the abbreviation R^[5] denotes run(s).

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