Wednesday, March 18, 2015 — DT 27608

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27608
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27608]
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 was certainly far from being difficult. However, I did activate my electronic assistants as I wrongly supposed that 4d must be some British soap opera of which I had never heard.

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

5a   Line with an enclosure, // a decorative cord (7)

If you need some help to solve the clue, Gazza provides a pictorial hint at Big Dave's blog — but try not to focus on the backdrop.

7a   Antique found in manor-house // -- large bag /required/ (7)

The word "required" is equivalent to a link word. One might have phrased the clue as:

• Large bag /required by/ antique found in manor-house (7)

Hall^[5] is a British term for a large country house, especially one with a landed estate ⇒ Darlington Hall.

Holdall^[10] is a British term for a large strong bag with handles (known in Canada and the US as a carryall^[10]).

9a   Name American // river (5)

The Tagus^[5] is a river in southwestern Europe, the longest river of the Iberian peninsula, which rises in the mountains of eastern Spain and flows over 1,000 km (625 miles) generally westwards into Portugal, where it turns south-westwards, emptying into the Atlantic near Lisbon.

10a   Discover // arsenic in the bag (9)

The symbol for the chemical element arsenic is As^[5].

11a   Sink full of large // fish (8)

13a   Some resign -- I tend /to get/ fired (6)

What an impeccable clue! The solution is well  hidden by a lovely surface reading.

16a   Being at fault, // by law, mother punished (11)

20a   In front of theatre, perform, // making up one piece (6)

21a   Buggy /in/ street ahead of luxurious car (8)

The "Tuesday" setter strikes again with the Americanisms!

Stroller^[5] is a North American term for what the Brits would call a pushchair^[5], a folding chair on wheels, in which a baby or young child can be pushed along.

Cue howls of British outrage! [which never materialize]

Roller^[5] is an informal British name for a car made by Rolls-Royce.

24a   Noble to slate // bridge contract (5,4)

Slate^[5] is an informal British term meaning to criticize severely ⇒ his work was slated by the critics.

 In the game of bridge, a grand slam^[5] is the bidding and winning of all thirteen tricks.

26a   Old German // stamp (5)

Frank^[5] denotes a member of a Germanic people that conquered Gaul in the 6th century and controlled much of western Europe for several centuries afterwards.

Frank^[5] means to stamp an official mark on (a letter or parcel) to indicate that postage has been paid or does not need to be paid.

28a   Aides // reunite abroad (7)

29a   Trainer struggling /to find/ ground (7)

Down

1d   Small horse/'s/ disadvantage (4)

2d   Standard issue /for/ a rector (6)

A parson^[5,10] is a parish priest in the Church of England, formerly applied only to those who held ecclesiastical benefices — that is, a rector or a vicar.

3d   Nothing left /in/ well? (3,5)

4d   Drop a // soap opera (4)

The first thing to come to mind was AIDA. However, the solution is not an actual opera — nor a soap opera for that matter. Both the definition and the solution are used in a figurative manner.

5d   Fire -- /or/ reprieve? (3,3)

6d   Calibre /of/ team? Dire, sadly (8)

7d   A white German wine, /or/ pop? (4)

Pop^[5] is an informal British term meaning to pawn (something) ⇒ I wouldn’t ever sell it—I popped it.

Hock^[5] is a British term for a dry white wine from the German Rhineland.

8d   Cavalryman // about, in country road on right (6)

12d   Coming from moor, bitterns // fly in a circle (5)

Scratching the Surface
Moor[5] is a chiefly British term for a tract of open uncultivated upland, typically covered with heather.

14d   Lily excited about daughter /making up/ a poem (5)

15d   Swindle to attract // scorn (8)

17d   Crash /requires/ papers to be shown in midst of stress (8)

18d   Touch // fringe, restyled (6)

19d   Penniless knight, // shattered (6)

N^[5] is the abbreviation for knight used in recording moves in chess [representing the pronunciation of kn-, since the initial letter k- represents 'king'].

What did he say?
In his review, Gazza describes broke as an informal adjective meaning penniless or skint. Skint[5] is an informal British term denoting (of a person) having little or no money available ⇒ I’m a bit skint just now.

22d   University place, // neat for dons, originally (6)

Neat^[5] is an archaic term for a bovine animal or, as a mass noun, cattle.

Oxford^[5] is a city in central England, on the River Thames, the county town of Oxfordshire; population 146,100 (est. 2009). Oxford University is located there.

Scratching the Surface
A don[10] is a member of the teaching staff at a university or college, especially at Oxford or Cambridge.

23d   Conservative // down in the dumps? (4)

Blue^[5] is an informal British term denoting politically conservative ⇒ the successful blue candidate.

All is Revealed

In his review, Gazza characterizes this as quite an appropriate clue after the happenings of the weekend. According to an article in The Sunday Times here is what transpired: DAVID CAMERON suffered a double hammer blow last night as he lost a second MP to Ukip [UK Independence Party] and a minister to a sex scandal on the eve of the Conservative party conference. In a move that pitched the prime minister’s European policy into turmoil, Mark Reckless defected to Nigel Farage’s party and immediately called a by-election, accusing Cameron of “letting the country down”. Just hours later Brooks Newmark, the minister for civil society, stood down after it was revealed that he had sent sexually explicit pictures to a woman on social media. Senior government sources said the MP for Braintree, who is married with four sons and one daughter, had sent a series of “inappropriate messages” on the messaging service WhatsApp to an undercover reporter posing as a woman. They exchanged explicit messages. At least one contained a photograph of his genitals.

25d   Up, endlessly, /producing/ wine (4)

Asti^[7] (formerly known as Asti Spumante) is a sparkling white Italian wine that is produced throughout southeastern Piedmont but is particularly focused around the towns of Asti and Alba. Since 1993 the wine has been classified as a Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) and as of 2004 was Italy's largest producing appellation.

27d   A girl having bottom pinched, // unfortunately (4)

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