Wednesday, January 14, 2015 — DT 27563

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27563
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, August 8, 2014
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27563]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Deep Threat
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

Today's puzzle seems uncharacteristically gentle for a Giovanni creation.

Just a reminder that the "Scratching the Surface" boxes — a new innovation in the blog this week — display comments intended to help readers better appreciate the surface reading of the clue, but which do not contribute to solving the clue (for which one must dig beneath the surface).

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   A sort of adjustable spanner (10)

Scratching the Surface
Spanner[4] is a chiefly British name for a wrench.

6a   Ruler /captured by/ cameras turning back (4)

A tsar^[5] (also czar or tzar) was an emperor of Russia before 1917.

9a   Bird? // Don't let 'er be seen, we say (5)

The wordplay could be an example of cockney speech.

A cockney^[5] is a native of East London — specifically that part of East London known as the East End. Cockney is also the name of the dialect or accent typical of cockneys, which is characterised by dropping the H from the beginning of words and the use of rhyming slang^[5].

However, as a visitor to Big Dave's site points out "it’s not just Cockneys that don’t pronounce initial aitches – Yorkshire folk for example!".

The eider^[5,10] (or eider duck) is any of several sea ducks of the genus Somateria, especially S. mollissima, and related genera, which occur in the northern hemisphere. The male has black and white plumage with a coloured head. The female is brown and is the source of eiderdown.

Scratching the Surface
Bird[5] is an informal British term for a young woman or a man’s girlfriend.

10a   Terrible events // that could make sister sad (9)

12a   Transplant operation? // A different attitude coming about (6,2,5)

A double definition, the first being whimsically cryptic.

14a   Donkey getting on with smaller animal // making similar sounds (8)

15a   'Work hard!' -- a new // rallying cry (6)

17a   Go wrong /in/ journey to the north? (4,2)

19a   Dad's furry animal /is/ OK (8)

The sable^[5] is a marten (Martes zibellina) with a short tail and dark brown fur, native to Japan and Siberia and valued for its fur.

21a   Dismay /shown by/ prisoner put with Eastern sailors in base (13)

The Royal Navy^[5] (abbreviation RN) is the British navy. It was the most powerful navy in the world from the 17th century until the Second World War.

24a   Crossing far side of glen, record mountains // over a protracted period (4-5)

Scratching the Surface
A glen[5] is a narrow valley, especially in Scotland or Ireland.

25a   Anger shown by one lacking love /for/ woman (5)

In tennis, squash, and some other sports, love^[5] is a score of zero or nil ⇒ love fifteen. The resemblance of a zero written as a numeral (0) to the letter O leads to the cryptic crossword convention of the word "love" being used to clue this letter.

26a   Kind of brown // bit of bread about to be chucked (4)

27a   Recent changes over time /to bring/ non-imperial unit (10)

Down

1d   Act /of/ one journalist upset another (4)

There is a bit of implied wordplay at work here — giving us DE {a reversal (upset) of ED (one journalist)} + ED (another [journalist]).

2d   Theologian, one into NT book, // gets folk very enthusiastic (7)

Doctor of Divinity^[7] (abbreviation D.D. or DD, Divinitatis Doctor in Latin) is an advanced academic degree in divinity. Historically, it identified one who had been licensed by a university to teach Christian theology or related religious subjects. In the United Kingdom, Doctor of Divinity has traditionally been the highest doctorate granted by universities, usually conferred upon a religious scholar of standing and distinction. In the United States, the Doctor of Divinity is usually awarded as an honorary degree.

In the Bible, Acts^[5] (or Acts of the Apostles) is a New Testament book immediately following the Gospels and relating the history of the early Church.

3d   Person at sales // unearthing bra with unusual design (7,6)

4d   Poor // home with little woman and little man (8)

Di, a diminutive for Diana, is — without doubt — the most popular girl's name in Crosswordland.

5d   Good American to /manifest/ great enjoyment (5)

The abbreviation G^[10] for good likely relates to its use in grading school assignments or tests.

7d   Affair /makes/ the woman get a particular hairstyle (7)

Shebang^[10] is slang for a situation, matter, or affair (especially in the phrase the whole shebang).

Bang^[2] (usually bangs) is a North American [especially US according to Chambers 21st Century Dictionary, although I am tempted to file a dissenting opinion] term for hair cut in a straight line across the forehead. The British term for this hairstyle is fringe. As a verb, bang means to cut the hair in this way.

8d   Ruddy // optimistic (4-6)

Scratching the Surface

Ruddy[5] is an informal British expression used as a euphemism for ‘bloody’ ⇒ young people today, they’re a ruddy shower. Shower[5] is an informal British expression denoting a group of people perceived as incompetent or worthless ⇒ look at this lot—what a shower! Bloody[5] is an informal, chiefly British term used to express anger, annoyance, or shock, or simply for emphasis  ⇒ (i) you took your bloody time; (ii) bloody Hell!—what was that?; (iii) it’s bloody cold outside. The use of bloody to add emphasis to an expression is of uncertain origin, but is thought to have a connection with the ‘bloods’ (aristocratic rowdies) of the late 17th and early 18th centuries; hence the phrase bloody drunk (= as drunk as a blood) meant ‘very drunk indeed’. After the mid 18th century until quite recently bloody used as a swear word was regarded as unprintable, probably from the mistaken belief that it implied a blasphemous reference to the blood of Christ, or that the word was an alteration of ‘by Our Lady’; hence a widespread caution in using the term even in phrases, such as bloody battle, merely referring to bloodshed.

11d   New Catholics miss // medieval sort of philosophy (13)

Scholasticism^[5] is the system of theology and philosophy taught in medieval European universities, based on Aristotelian logic and the writings of the early Christian Fathers and emphasizing tradition and dogma.

13d   Fussy // detail (10)

16d   Bird /that's/ cherished, with an inclination to be protected (8)

18d   Being wicked, first to last, /in/ part of cricket match (7)

In cricket, innings^[5] (plural same or informally inningses) denotes (1) each of two or four divisions of a game during which one side has a turn at batting ⇒ the highlight of the Surrey innings, (2) a player’s turn at batting ⇒ he had played his greatest innings or (3) the score achieved during a player’s turn at batting ⇒ a solid innings of 78 by Marsh.

In his review, Deep Threat explains that "there are four [innings] in a Test match, while there are only two in a one-day international".

A Test match^[5] is an international cricket or rugby match, typically one of a series, played between teams representing two different countries ⇒ the Test match between Pakistan and the West Indies.

Test cricket^[7] is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The two teams of 11 players play a four-innings match, which often lasts up to five days. It is generally considered the most complete examination of teams' playing ability and endurance. The origin of the name Test stems from the long, gruelling match being a "test" of the relative strength of the two sides.

International^[5] is a British term for a game or contest between teams representing different countries in a sport ⇒ the Murrayfield rugby international.

A One Day International^[7] (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, usually fifty.

In cricket, 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.

20d   Most skeletal // one with bits misplaced (7)

22d   Get up about noon initially /and/ wash (5)

23d   Outdoor party // in safe territory (4)

In Britain, a fete^[5] is a public function, typically held outdoors and organized to raise funds for a charity, including entertainment and the sale of goods and refreshments  ⇒ a church fete.

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