Wednesday, March 4, 2015 — DT 27598

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27598
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, September 18, 2014
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27598]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Falcon
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

I found this puzzle difficult the first time around when I reviewed it for Big Dave's Crossword Blog in September. It proved to be nearly as great a challenge the second time around. However, I at least recognized very quickly that I had seen the clues before — even if I didn't immediately recall the solutions to the clues.

By the way, this puzzle appeared in the UK on the day that the the Scottish Independence Referendum was held.

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   One provides indicator untangling unknown expression (10)

This is a semi-&lit. (or, if you prefer, semi-all-in-one) clue. The wordplay (marked by the dashed underline) is an anagram (untangling) of INDICATOR + Y (unknown expression). The entire clue supplies the definition.

6a   Drawing and painting, say, // topless characters (4)

9a   Changed around opening /then/ streaked (10)

10a   Passionate over // great singer (4)

12a   Record's after live // electronic sound (4)

13a   Sparkling // Blue Nile flowing by Tana originally (9)

Scratching the Surface
The Blue Nile[5] is one of the two principal headwaters of the Nile. Rising from Lake Tana in northwestern Ethiopia, it flows some 1,600 km (1,000 miles) southwards then north-westwards into Sudan, where it meets the White Nile at Khartoum.

15a   Non-member // of Scouts I deride (8)

16a   Channel /showing/ 'Midnight Express' (6)

18a   Shout /and/ stamp catching Queen (6)

20a   Stop /for/ siesta, then shower (8)

23a   Most reclusive // individual is still in vacant lot (9)

24a   Excited // before today's grand opening (4)

26a   Piece of land // endlessly consecrated (4)

27a   Rifle's used heartlessly guarding formidable // mission (10)

28a   Trim ends oddly // knotted (4)

29a   Rich /and/ poor with purses switched (10)

Down

1d   Kent town's right to drop // anti-war politician (4)

The name in the solution is applicable to anyone — not just a politician — who happens to hold similar pacifist views.

Dover^[5] is a ferry port in Kent, in England, on the coast of the English Channel; population 35,200 (est. 2009). It is mainland Britain’s nearest point to the Continent, being only 35 km (22 miles) from Calais, France.

2d   Rogue on trial /is/ most uncivil (7)

3d   Enigmatic, // popular former wife, flexible about clubs (12)

C^[1] is the abbreviation for clubs, a suit in a deck of cards.

4d   Ace number purchased by miss /getting/ spruced up (8)

5d   Sorry /for/ sport fan with English leading (6)

Rugby union^[10] (abbreviation RU^[5]) is a form of rugby football played between teams of 15 players (in contrast to rugby league^[5], which is played in teams of thirteen).

7d   Split embodying design /for/ dress (7)

8d   Bit /of/ stuff in chorus perhaps (10)

Chorus is used as a verb.

11d   I dwell over passion on grass /in/ graphic (12)

Grass is an informal British term meaning (1) as a noun, a police informer^[5] and (2) as a verb, to inform the police of someone’s criminal activities or plans^[5] ⇒ someone had grassed on the thieves. This expression may derive from rhyming slang (grasshopper 'copper').

14d   Expert/'s/ relentless, taking on case for upheaval (10)

17d   Remains /in/ undergarment I guess, irregularly (8)

In Britain, a vest^[5] is an undergarment worn on the upper part of the body, typically having no sleeves. The garment that North Americans (as well as Australians) call a vest^[5] is known in the UK as a waistcoat.

"Irregularly" is used in the sense of 'peculiarly' or 'oddly', and thus indicates a sequence of letters occupying odd-numbered positions.

Delving Deeper
Note that the term "regular" is often employed to indicate that a regular sequence of letters is required. This usually means every second letter, and may denote either the even sequence or the odd sequence. Therefore, "irregular" always means 'odd' but "regular" can mean either 'even' or 'odd'.

19d   Put out // runner vehicle's trapped (7)

Put out^[1] is used in the sense of to disconcert.

21d   Green // Party following American, almost articulate (7)

Scratching the Surface

A Green party[7] is a formally organised political party based on the principles of Green politics, such as social justice, grassroots democracy, nonviolence, and environmentalism. Green parties exist in nearly 90 countries around the world; many are members of Global Greens, an international network of Green parties and political movements that works to implement the Global Green Charter. In the UK, there are separate Green parties for Scotland, Northern Ireland, and England and Wales.

22d   Job /of/ the compiler on line (6)

It is a common cryptic crossword convention for the creator of the puzzle to use terms such as (the) compiler, (the) setter, (this) author, (this) writer, or this person to refer to himself or herself. To solve such a clue, one must generally substitute a first person pronoun (I or me) for whichever of these terms has been used in the clue.

25d   Boil up /seeing/ politicians without conviction? (4)

Wet^[5] is an informal British term for a person lacking forcefulness or strength of character ⇒ there are sorts who look like gangsters and sorts who look like wets. In British political circles, the name wet^[5] is applied to a Conservative with liberal tendencies ⇒ the wets favoured a change in economic policy. It was a term frequently used by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for those to the left of her in the British Conservative Party [which must have been just about everyone].

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