Wednesday, December 17, 2014 — DT 27543

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27543
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27543]
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

Granted this is a fairly gentle offering from Jay, but I wouldn't go so far as to rate it at only a single star for difficulty.

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   Felt // bound to chase source of growth (6)

5a   Detective's area /is/ murder (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).

Patch^[5] is an informal British term for an area for which someone is responsible or in which they operate ⇒ we didn’t want any secret organizations on our patch.

9a   Honourable old Scottish chanteuse /in/ Pacific state capital (8)

Lulu Kennedy-Cairns, OBE (born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie), best known by her stage name Lulu^[7], is a Scottish singer, actress, and television personality who has been successful in the entertainment business from the 1960s. She is internationally identified, especially by North American audiences, with the song "To Sir with Love" from the film of the same name and with the title song to the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun. In European countries, she is also widely known for her Eurovision Song Contest winning entry "Boom Bang-a-Bang" and in the UK for her first hit "Shout", which was performed at the closing ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Honolulu^[5] is the state capital and principal port of Hawaii, situated on the southeastern coast of the island of Oahu; population 374,676 (est. 2008).

10a   Wow! Close, finishing early /for/ a bit of a looker (6)

Cor^[5] is an informal British exclamation expressing surprise, excitement, admiration, or alarm ⇒ Cor! That‘s a beautiful black eye you’ve got!.

11a   Lacking principles, without time /for/ God, for example (8)

As a containment indicator, without^[5] is used in the archaic or literary sense meaning outside ⇒ the barbarians without the gates.

12a   Hydrogen planet // that could be considered home! (6)

The symbol for the chemical element hydrogen is H^[5].

13a   Went too far // -- filmed by paramour, topless! (8)

15a   Cure // the man with a leg missing for example (4)

17a   Fruit /that's/ mainly the product of an oyster (4)

19a   Build up // new case, behind schedule (8)

20a   Broad area /of/ Cornwall rather unprotected? (6)

Cornwall^[5] is a county occupying the extreme southwestern (SW) peninsula of England; county town, Truro.

21a   Assertive // setter with degree needing endless credit (8)

This setter is not a crossword compiler, but rather one of the canine variety.

Tick^[5] (used in the phrase on tick) is an informal British term meaning credit ⇒ the printer agreed to send the brochures out on tick. The term apparently originates as a short form for ticket in the phrase on the ticket, referring to an IOU or promise to pay.

22a   University that in Spain /is/ unparalleled (6)

Uni^[5] is an informal [seemingly British] term for university ⇒ he planned to go to uni.

In Spanish, que^[8] is a relative pronoun or conjunction meaning 'that'.

23a   People losing head after rubbish // revolution (8)

24a   Over-zealous people /or/ footballers with strange antics (8)

The Football Association^[7], also known simply as the FA, is the governing body of football [soccer] in England. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the amateur and professional game in England.

25a   Collared // stole? (6)

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

Nick^[5] is an informal British term meaning to steal ⇒ she nicked fivers from the till.

Down

2d   Person sharing // opportunity with merchant seaman (8)

A mate^[3,4,11] (short for first mate^[3,4,11]) is an officer second in command to the captain of a merchant ship.

3d   Poor colt's terrible // form (8)

Form^[5] is the manner, method, or style of doing something, especially with regard to recognized standards.

4d   Brave // daughter with no female relations? (9)

5d   Form of tennis embracing conventional // hypocrisy (6,9)

6d   Objection // on behalf of trial (7)

7d   Terribly deferential lad missing /in/ island in the Atlantic (8)

Tenerife^[5] is a volcanic island in the Atlantic, the largest of the Canary Islands; population 866,033 (2008); capital, Santa Cruz.

8d   I agree // to try and try again (4,4)

14d   Primate // called, taken in by published article (5-4)

The orangutan^[5] (also orangutang^[5], orang-utan^[2,10], orang-utang^[10] or orang-outang^[2,10]) is a large mainly solitary arboreal ape (Pongo pygmaeus) with long red hair, long arms, and hooked hands and feet, native to Borneo and Sumatra.

15d   Very attractive thing /found in/ recently stolen items (3,5)

I think that one would not be wrong to view this as a double definition.

• 15d   Very attractive thing /found in/ recently stolen items (3,5)

In fact, I did initially see it as a double definition while scchua took the contrary view and labelled the second part as a charade. While either approach would seem to work, I have gradually come around to the opinion that scchua's approach might be slightly better. The expression "hot stuff" is clearly a single entity when applied to the first part of the clue, but less so when applied to the second part of the clue.

16d   An orchestra section finishing early -- no one up /for/ a scrape (8)

17d   Most particular /and/ politically correct about net aid being distributed (8)

18d   Medicine that might counteract a love potion? (8)

This is a particular style of cryptic definition which consists of a very general straight definition (the portion of the clue with the solid underline) combined with a cryptic elaboration (the portion of the clue with the dashed underline) that serves to narrow the scope of the definition.

19d   Drain // part of car responsible for emissions (7)

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