Monday, March 16, 2015 — DT 27606

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27606
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Saturday, September 27, 2014
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27606 – Hints] Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27606 – Review]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Gazza (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

I failed to notice the Nina in today's puzzle — but it didn't escape crypticsue. As she explains, the message hidden in the solution grid "complete a century" likely refers to the setter having completed a hundred crosswords for The Daily Telegraph — rather than having reached the age of 100. In the UK, a century^[5] is a score of a hundred in a sporting event, especially a batsman’s score of a hundred runs in cricket ⇒ he scored the only century of the tour. While this usage may not be exclusively British — the Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary defines century^[11] as any group or collection of 100 — it would certainly be a far more commonly used term on the other side of the Atlantic.

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   Group of stars // is able to set down beside church with Queen (6)

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.

Speaking of the Sovereign, Regina^[5] (abbreviation R^[5]) [Latin for queen] denotes the reigning queen, used following a name (e.g. Elizabetha Regina, Queen Elizabeth) or in the titles of lawsuits (e.g. Regina v. Jones, the Crown versus Jones — often shortened to R. v. Jones).

5a   Musical // note held by fine old mum (8)

Lah^[5] (also la) is (1) the sixth note of a major scale in tonic sol-fa (a moveable-doh system of solmization) or (2) the note A in the fixed-doh system of solmization. Judging by the dictionary entries, both spellings would appear to be used in Britain with the former predominating, while only the latter spelling seems to be used in the US.

Delving Deeper
I think I may have finally figured out the difference between fixed-doh and moveable-doh — a major challenge for someone with a tin ear! As I understand it now, in the fixed-doh system of solmization, doh is always the note C while in a moveable-doh system of solmization (such as tonic sol-fa), doh is assigned to the keynote of the key in which the piece is performed.

9a   Depend on touring round motorway // without clear views (4-6)

The use of the word "touring" as an anagram indicator is predicated on it meaning 'moving around'.

The M1^[7] is a north–south motorway [controlled access, multi-lane divided highway] in England connecting London to Leeds.

10a   Tender loving care covering first of abrasions -- with this? (4)

This is a semi-&lit. (semi-all-in-one) clue with wordplay embedded in the definition — or, as scchua (a former fellow blogger on Big Dave's site) would put it, a wordplay intertwined with definition (WIWD) clue.

11a   Decorative ware /from/ major look back by Institute of Contemporary Arts (8)

Lo^[5] is an archaic exclamation used to draw attention to an interesting or amazing event ⇒ and lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them.

In Britain, ICA^[10] is the abbreviation for the Institute of Contemporary Arts.

Delving Deeper
The Institute of Contemporary Arts[7] (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, it contains galleries, a theatre, two cinemas, a bookshop and a bar.

Majolica^[5] is a kind of earthenware made in imitation of Italian maiolica, especially in England during the 19th century.

12a   Live party /is/ nearby (6)

In the cryptic reading, "live" transforms into a verb.

13a   Pastry recipe initially /gets/ support (4)

15a   Beast's tender // arm -- send for treatment by hospital (8)

18a   Noble // pile free to go round (4,4)

A  peer^[5] is a member of the nobility in Britain or Ireland, comprising the ranks of duke, marquess, earl, viscount, and baron. A life peer^[5] is a peer whose title cannot be inherited ⇒ he entered the House of Lords as a life peer.

19a   Attend // Police tour (4)

2 + 3 = 4 ?
It would appear that crypticsue has misspoken herself. Clearly, she intended to write "if split 2, 2 would mean attend – BE AT".

21a   Vain type /with/ energy one's cast in SF film (6)

SF^[3,4,11] is the abbreviation for science fiction.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial^[7] (often referred to simply as E.T.) is a 1982 American science fiction film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg. It tells the story of a lonely boy who befriends an extraterrestrial, dubbed "E.T.", who is stranded on Earth. He and his siblings help the extraterrestrial return home while attempting to keep it hidden from their mother and the government.

"Go" means energy as in the expression get-up-and-go^[5]. When my mother was feeling tired and unenthusiastic, she would often say "my get-up-and-go has got up and left".

23a   US city // to endlessly acclaim (in their style) Scottish singer (8)

Honor is the US spelling of honour^[5].

Lulu Kennedy-Cairns (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.

Delving Deeper

Lulu 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).

25a   Shadow /when/ area's illuminated round about (4)

The wordplay parses as A (area) contained in (has ... round; the 's is interpreted as a contraction for 'has' in the cryptic reading) a reversal (about) of LIT (illuminated).

26a   Old maid perhaps about to sneak a look turning over // Lady Chatterley's Lover, say? (10)

Lady Chatterley's Lover^[7] is a novel by D. H. Lawrence, first published in 1928, relating the story of a love affair between an upper-class woman and her gamekeeper.

Delving Deeper

The story concerns a young married woman, Constance (Lady Chatterley), whose upper-class husband, Clifford Chatterley, described as a handsome, well-built man, has been paralysed from the waist down due to a war injury. In addition to Clifford's physical limitations, his emotional neglect of Constance forces distance between the couple. Her sexual frustration leads her into an affair with the gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors.  The book soon became notorious for its story of the physical (and emotional) relationship between a working-class man and an upper-class woman, its explicit descriptions of sex, and its use of then-unprintable words. The first edition was printed privately in Florence, Italy.  Although a private edition was issued by Mandrake Press in 1929, an unexpurgated edition could not be published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960.

27a   Advocates // exercises following artful pose (8)

28a   Husband aboard shabby // boat (6)

Down

2d   Most powerful // among historical Pharaohs (5)

Alpha^[5] is an informal modifier denoting a person who has a dominant role or position within a particular sphere ⇒ take turns cooking for each other if one of you is too much of an alpha chef.

3d   Sergeant perhaps engaged in programme /in/ open space at Waterloo? (9)

London Waterloo station^[7] is a central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex in the London Borough of Lambeth. With over 94 million passenger entries and exits between April 2011 and March 2012, Waterloo is Britain's busiest railway station by passenger usage. It has more platforms and a greater floor area than any other station in the United Kingdom (though Clapham Junction has the largest number of trains).

Scratching the Surface
The surface reading evokes the Battle of Waterloo[5], fought on 18 June 1815 near the village of Waterloo (in what is now Belgium), in which Napoleon’s army was defeated by the British (under the Duke of Wellington) and Prussians. The allied pursuit caused Napoleon’s army to disintegrate entirely, ending his bid to return to power.

4d   Growin' // fruit (6)

I was initially tempted to mark this as a double definition,but on reflection concluded that growin' is a shorthand way of indicating that we are to remove the final letter from a word meaning "growing" — and thus constitutes wordplay rather than a definition.

5d   Trained most half-hearted // runner in the capital (3,6,6)

It took me a long time to realize that "half-hearted runner" was not being used to clue RUNER — RUNNER with only half its middle two letters (heart).

The Thames^[5] is a river of southern England, flowing 338 km (210 miles) eastwards from the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire to the North Sea — running through London on its way.

A statue of Old Father Thames by

Raffaelle Monti at St John's Lock, Lechlade.

Old Father Thames would seem to be a personification of the River Thames. The song 'Old Father Thames' was recorded by Peter Dawson at Abbey Road Studios in 1933 and by Gracie Fields five years later.^[7]

6d   Beetle // badly injured one on road (8)

Ladybird is the British name for a ladybug^[5].

Scratching the Surface
The Volkswagen Beetle[7], officially the Volkswagen Type 1, or informally the Volkswagen Bug, is a two-door, four passenger, rear-engined economy car manufactured and marketed by German automaker Volkswagen (VW) from 1938 until 2003.

7d   Can't stand // heartless characters, oddly (5)

8d   Role madam played -- in this? (9)

Another WIWD-type clue [see 10a].

14d   I serenade girl -- // it will make things clear (9)

Although I didn't realize it at the time I was solving the puzzle, I have now concluded that isinglass likely refers to the gelatin which is used to clarify beer — rather than the US term for the more or less transparent mineral.

Isinglass^[5] is a kind of gelatin obtained from fish, especially sturgeon, and used in making jellies, glue, etc. and for fining real ale. Real ale^[5] is a British term for cask-conditioned beer that is served traditionally, without additional gas pressure. Fine^[5] as a verb means to clarify (beer or wine) by causing the precipitation of sediment during production.

Isinglass^[5] is a chiefly US term for mica or a similar material in thin transparent sheets.

16d   Unstabler sort of // officer (9)

A subaltern^[5] is an officer in the British army below the rank of captain, especially a second lieutenant.

17d   Traces // Farage endlessly wearing running clothes (8)

Nigel Farage^[5] is a British politician. He is a founding member of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) of which he had been the leader since 2010, a position he also held from September 2006 to November 2009. Since 1999 he has been a Member of the European Parliament for South East England. He co-chairs the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (formerly "Europe of Freedom and Democracy") group [a Eurosceptic political group in the European Parliament]. I would think that having him sitting in the European Parliament is roughly akin to having members of the Bloc Québécois sitting in the Canadian Parliament.

20d   Meandered // South, defenceless (6)

22d   Soldier set up toilet /for/ primitive dwelling (5)

A GI^[5] is a private soldier in the US army ⇒ she went off with a GI during the war. Contrary to popular belief, the term apparently is not an abbreviation for general infantryman, but rather derives from the term government (or general) issue (originally denoting equipment supplied to US forces).

Loo^[5] is an informal British term for a toilet.

24d   Hanger-on /gets/ shelter by church (5)

A hanger-on figuratively or literally, take your pick.

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