Tuesday, May 12, 2015 — DT 27658

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27658
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, November 27, 2014
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27658]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Kath
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

We get to enjoy a very delightful puzzle from RayT today. A couple of the clues are far easier to solve than they are to analyze.

If you have read yesterday's blog, you will be expecting the discussion at Comment #5 on Big Dave's blog concerning the death of Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes.

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   Run off with single girlfriend? /It's/ lawful (10)

Leg it^[5] is an informal British term meaning to (1) travel by foot or walk ⇒ I am part of a team legging it around London or (2) run away ⇒ he legged it after someone shouted at him.

6a   Slip looking both ways (4)

Boob^[5] is an informal British term for an embarrassing mistake ⇒ the boob was spotted by a security expert at the show.

9a   Ray/'s/ male adult, thank you very much! (5)

Ta^[5] is an informal British exclamation signifying thank you ⇒‘Ta,’ said Willie gratefully.

Scratching the Surface
Might this clue be a play on the setter's name? I would think so.

10a   A rotter's case in domestic // tale (9)

Scratching the Surface
Rotter[5] is a informal, dated, chiefly British term for a cruel, mean, or unkind person ⇒Rosemary had decided that all men were rotters.

12a   Girl is someone, at heart, // flexible (7)

13a   Quick // beer, right? (5)

15a   Cheeky impressions? (7)

17a   One reproduces a design /made by/ awkward clients (7)

19a   Lethargy /of/ Liberal facing sound of wrath (7)

The Liberal Party^[5] in Britain emerged in the 1860s from the old Whig Party and until the First World War was one of the two major parties in Britain. In 1988 the party regrouped with elements of the Social Democratic Party to form the Social and Liberal Democrats, now known as the Liberal Democrats. However, a small Liberal Party still exists. Although Lib.^[5] may be the more common abbreviation for the party, Chambers 21st Century Dictionary indicates that L^[2] may also be used.

21a   Glows seen around opening of religious // tombs (7)

22a   Thus cover /is given for/ stable (5)

24a   In this we're together -- /and/ on stage! (7)

The markup does not do this clue justice as we are expected to infer that part of the clue is to be repeated:

• In this we're together -- /and/ [in this we're] on stage! (7)

That is, we may be "in concert" either when we agree (are together) or when we appear on stage.

27a   Understanding // former wife, saucy one's sweetheart (9)

The setter employs a not uncommon cryptic crossword construct, in which the word "sweetheart" is used to clue E, the middle letter (heart) of swEet.

28a   More than close // squeeze? (5)

29a   Tense annoyance /creates/ fatigue (4)

As the definition, "fatigue"  is used as a verb.

30a   Why person ice-skating circles // very fast? (10)

Down

1d   Appliance /needing/ large unit of current? (4)

Amp^[10] is short for ampere^[10], the basic SI [Système International (d'Unités)] unit of electric current.

2d   Name oddly associated with elegant refined // chap (9)

A rigorous parsing of the wordplay is an anagram (refined) of {NM (name oddly; the odd letters of NaMe) + (associated with) ELEGANT}.

3d   Catches // second character up (5)

4d   No term's complicated /for/ teachers (7)

5d   Mariner acquires // objectives (7)

7d   Declare // over deal (5)

In cricket, an over^[5] (abbreviation O^[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.

In Britain, deal^[5] means (1) fir or pine wood as a building material or (2) a plank made of fir or pine wood [what we in North America would commonly refer to as lumber]. Apparently, this meaning of deal^[3,11] also exists (or once existed) in North America, but I would think that it is very rarely used now — especially by the general public.

Delving Deeper
In Britain, lumber[5] has a totally different meaning than it does in North America, being articles of furniture or other household items that are no longer useful and inconveniently take up storage space.

8d   She lets bra loose /getting/ excited (10)

Photo opportunity missed!

11d   Ace partner, pure at heart, /in/ buff (7)

Ditto!

14d   Juvenile // teen's a clod, misbehaving (10)

16d   The French with less than // clean clothes (7)

In French, the feminine singular form of the definite article is la^[8].

18d   Force // swindle on mark without resistance (9)

In physics, the symbol R^[5] is used to represent electrical resistance.

20d   It's correct if you look inside (7)

It proved to be a difficult task to mark up clue 24a, but this clue would seem to raise the bar even higher. I think one would have to consider this to be some sort of all-in-one clue. In her review, Kath shows the definition as being merely the word "correct". However, this cannot be the case as the word "correct" is part of the fodder for the wordplay in which the solution is hidden in (look inside) corRECT IF You.

21d   Devout // following catching Queen (7)

The regnal ciphers (monograms) of British monarchs are initials formed from the Latin version of their first name followed by either Rex or Regina (Latin for king or queen, respectively). Thus, the regnal cipher of Queen Elizabeth is ER^[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina.

Devout^[5] is used in the sense of totally committed to a cause or belief ⇒ the most devout environmentalist.

23d   Revolt rising /for/ social outcast (5)

It took me a while to realize that "revolt" can mean to REPEL as well as to REBEL.

25d   Quits /from/ business, never to return (5)

Quits^[3] is used as an adjective meaning on even terms with by payment or requital ⇒ I am finally quits with the loan.

26d   Spot missing outside // of the ear (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