Tuesday, January 27, 2015 — DT 27572

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27572
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27572]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Gazza
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 shouldn't keep you from getting to those items below it on your "to do" list.

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

1a   Carpeting put round a fine flat originally /showing/ workmen's resource? (11)

Carpet^[5] is British slang meaning to reprimand severely ⇒ the Chancellor of the Exchequer carpeted the bank bosses.

F^[5] is an abbreviation for fine, as used in describing grades of pencil lead [a usage that Oxford Dictionaries Online surprisingly characterizes as British].

Scratching the Surface
Flat[5] is a chiefly British term for what would be called an apartment[5] in North America.

9a   One barmaid, Beth's thrown out // hippy (5,2,3,4)

11a   Top entertainer hosts // sporting competition (4)

Canadian athletes have been competing at one of these currently underway in Australia. Unfortunately, Eugenie's run came to an end today against Maria Sharapova but Milos is still in the fray.

12a   Endless temptation I had /that's/ sensational (5)

13a   Excitement /in/ place housing those with conviction? (4)

Stir^[5] is an informal term for prison [on both sides of the Atlantic] ⇒ I’ve spent twenty-eight years in stir.

16a   Copper plate initially placed by executives /in/ storage area (8)

The symbol for the chemical element copper is Cu^[5] (from late Latin cuprum).

17a   Fellow left with rush in East End /producing/ commotion (6)

F^[2] is the abbreviation for Fellow (of a society, etc). For instance, it is found in professional designations such as FRAIC (Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada).

The East End^[5] is the part of London [England] east of the City [see box] as far as the River Lea, including the Docklands. Natives of the East End, known as cockneys^[5], speak a dialect characterised by dropping the H from the beginning of words and the use of rhyming slang^[5]. 

Thus, in the East End, the word "hurry" (rush) would be pronounced "'urry".

Just to clarify ...

... the City[5] is short for the City of London[5] (not to be confused with the city of London). The City of London[7] is a city and ceremonial county within London. It constituted most of London from its settlement by the Romans in the 1st century AD to the Middle Ages, but the conurbation has since grown far beyond the City's borders. The City is now only a tiny part of the metropolis of London, though it remains a notable part of central London. It is one of two districts of London to hold city status, the other being the adjacent City of Westminster. It is widely referred to simply as the City (often written as just "City" and differentiated from the phrase "the city of London" by capitalising "City").

19a   Reproduce prints /of/ sporting decider? (3-3)

The solution is also encountered in an electoral context — perhaps even more often than in a sporting context.

20a   Look briefly at a chop that's cooked — /and/ soup (8)

Gazpacho^[5] is a cold Spanish soup made from tomatoes, peppers, and other salad vegetables.

22a   What medicine is supposed to do, we hear, /is found in/ list (4)

23a   Blue // week in terrible year (5)

24a   Detect // feature on snooker table (4)

In billiards and snooker, the term spot^[5] denotes any one one of several small black dots on a table that mark where a ball is to be placed.

27a   Pub expert -- /and/ provider of services? (5,9)

I am confident that the first part of this clue could equally well be considered to be a cryptic definition (as Gazza prefers to see it) or a charade (as I happened to see it). After all, a cryptic definition is often merely a charade in which a twist can be applied to the meaning.

Local^[5] is an informal British term for a pub convenient to a person’s home ⇒ a pint in the local.

Local authority^[5] is a British term for an administrative body in local government ⇒ (i) you will need planning permission from your local authority; (ii) local authority housing.

28a   Calm // Scandinavian featured in a French story (11)

A Lapp^[5] is a member of an indigenous people of the extreme north of Scandinavia, traditionally associated with the herding of reindeer.

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

Down

2d   Harmony /shown in/ letters (14)

3d   Chore, having to defend line /that's/ standard (4)

Fag^[5] is an informal British term for a tiring or unwelcome task ⇒ it’s too much of a fag to drive all the way there and back again.

4d   A column noted in passing? (8)

5d   A particular // military unit (6)

6d   Requirement // originally named by daughter (4)

7d   Alternative cup devised /to get/ money for new businesses (7,7)

8d   Would-be clever figure // roams by tots awkwardly (6-5)

In Britain, smarty-boots is an alternative term for smarty-pants^[5].

10d   Musical venue // formerly by right in Switzerland overlooking a pair of lakes (7,4)

The International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code for Switzerland is CH^[5] [from French Confédération Helvétique 'Swiss Confederation'].

14d   My enjoyment is limited /in/ foreign island (5)

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

Corfu^[5] is a Greek island, one of the largest of the Ionian Islands, off the west coast of mainland Greece; population 127,900 (est. 2009).

15d   Inclination // to invest small amount of money in fruit (5)

In Britain's current decimal currency system, the smallest denomination is a penny^[5] (plural pennies [for separate coins] or pence [for a sum of money]), a bronze coin and monetary unit equal to one hundredth of a pound. The abbreviation for penny or pence is p^[5].

Sloe^[5] is another name for the blackthorn as well as being the name of the small bluish-black fruit of this plant, with a sharp sour taste. The blackthorn^[5] (also called sloe) is a thorny Eurasian shrub (Prunus spinosa) which bears white flowers before the leaves appear, followed by astringent blue-black fruits (sloes).

18d   Owned second joint in which there's onset of real // privation (8)

21d   Handy // guide giving instructions (6)

25d   Pounds invested in hollow // blueprint (4)

For cryptic purposes, pound could be used either as a monetary unit or a unit of weight. However, the context in the clue definitely suggests the former.
 
The Chambers Dictionary defines the upper case L^[1] as the abbreviation for pound sterling (usually written £) and the lower case l^[1] as the abbreviation for pound weight (usually written lb) — both deriving from the Latin word Libra.

26d   A study curtailed /in/ district (4)

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.

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