Wednesday, July 29, 2015 — DT 27722

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27722
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27722]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By 2Kiwis
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 needed to call in my electronic backups to help mop up the southwest corner. Other than that, the puzzle presented no great difficulty. Even two of those three stubborn clues should have been very "gettable".

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   Supercilious // saleswomen with no heart -- dodgy! (6)

4a   Germany collapse after victory -- /that's/ a bonus (8)

"Germany" = D (show explanation )

The International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code for Germany is D^[5] [from German Deutschland].

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Scratching the Surface
The surface reading almost certainly relates to a sports team that represents Germany. To pick but one example, the Germany national football team[5] (German: Die deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft) is the men's football [soccer] team that has represented Germany in international competition since 1908.

9a   Does a test // when, for example, crude is extracted from soil (6)

10a   Bush /has/ first of aides thrown out by hotel (8)

"hotel" = H (show explanation )

Hotel^[5] is a code word representing the letter H, used in radio communication.

hide explanation

The explanations provided by the 2Kiwis — while they get you to the correct destination — often take a different route to get there than the setter intended. Here the wordplay is:

• {A (first [letter] of Aides) + anagram (out) of THROWN} following (by) H (hotel)

The word "by" implies following since in order for one to write the portion of the solution given by the first part of the wordplay by H, the H would have to already be in place (and thus to have been written first).

12a   Not worried, /with/ charge for nursing waived! (8)

13a   Strike by qualified teacher /means/ chaos (6)

15a   Odd items /from/ abandoned scan beside tip (4,3,6)

As an anagram indicator, abandoned^[10] is used as an adjective meaning unrestrained or uninhibited ⇒ wild, abandoned dancing.

18a   Bird/'s/ bizarre throaty screech cut short (6-7)

A man with a clock knows the time; a man with two clocks is not sure. When it comes to spelling, the same could be said of a man with six dictionaries.

The oystercatcher^[2,3,5,10] (oyster-catcher^[1]; oystercatcher or oyster catcher^[11]) is any of several species of wading bird of the genus Haematopus with black-and-white or all-black plumage and a strong orange-red bill, typically found on the coast and feeding chiefly on mussels, limpets and crabs, etc but, despite its name, not oysters.

20a   City's former title -- // looking back, crowd roar (6)

I expected "City" to be a reference to Manchester City Football Club^[7] — which is undoubtedly the result intended by the setter.

Bombay^[5] is the former name (until 1995) for Mumbai^[5], a city and port on the west coast of India, capital of the state of Maharashtra; population 13,922,100 (est. 2009).

22a   Send letter // immediately for broadcast (5,3)

24a   A card game daughter // cut short (8)

25a   Outburst /from/ one caught in traffic (6)

26a   Key /for/ the contents of the cupboard, perhaps (8)

In North America, these are stored in the closet. (show explanation )

A skeleton in the cupboard^[5] (North American skeleton in the closet) is a discreditable or embarrassing fact that someone wishes to keep secret.

hide explanation

27a   View from the east on a king // is in accord (6)

"king" = GR (show explanation )

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 King George is GR^[5] — from the Latin Georgius Rex.

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Down

1d   Formality /shown by/ top of the bill before church? (6)

2d   Enrols, // since worried about kid son (9)

3d   Lose temper /and/ take a plane then head out across lake (3,3,3,6)

5d   Nation // protected by counter-revolutionaries? (4)

6d   Act honourably // -- Tory obsession is supporting party (2,3,5,5)

7d   Answer with cost of disaster /for/ island (5)

8d   Settle on service /for/ Asia, say (8)

Mass^[5] is the celebration of the Christian Eucharist, especially in the Roman Catholic Church.

11d   Mortification /due to/ article impounded by coppers? (7)

Pence^[5] is a plural form of penny^[5], a British bronze coin and monetary unit equal to one hundredth of a pound in Britain's modern decimal currency system.

Just two days ago, we saw mortification meaning gangrene. Today, it takes a different meaning.

In Christianity, mortification^[3,4,5] is the practice of asceticism by penitential discipline of the body and the appetites by self-denial or self-inflicted privation to overcome desire for sin and to strengthen the will.

14d   Employees on paper // tired, so sacked (7)

As an anagram indicator, sack^[5] is used in the chiefly historical sense of to plunder and destroy (a captured town or building).

16d   Joint // operator in trouble after cold (9)

17d   Better money /for/ those in authority (3,5)

Brass^[5] is an informal British term for money ⇒ they wanted to spend their newly acquired brass.

19d   Tears spilt over fine // sweet (6)

"fine" = F (show explanation )

F^[5] is an abbreviation for fine, as used in describing grades of pencil lead [a usage that Oxford Dictionaries Online surprisingly characterizes as British].

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Sweet^[5] is the British term for either (1) a piece of candy^[5] ⇒ a bag of sweets or (2) a sweet dish forming a course of a meal; in other words, a pudding or dessert.

Afters^[5] is an informal British term for the sweet course following the main course of a meal; or, in British parlance, pudding [see following] ⇒ there was apple pie for afters.

Whereas in North America, the term pudding^[5] denotes specifically a dessert with a soft or creamy consistency, in Britain the term pudding^[5] refers to either (1) [seemingly any] cooked sweet dish served after the main course of a meal or (2) the dessert course of a meal ⇒ what’s for pudding?.

Thus the terms dessert, pudding and afters would appear to be synonymous in Britain. The response to What’s for pudding? seemingly could be Apple pie.

21d   Spread /of/, say, strike rising (5)

Marge^[5] is an informal British term for margarine.

23d   Love suppressed by the girl's // idol (4)

"love" = O (show explanation )

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.

Although folk etymology has connected the word with French l'oeuf 'egg', from the resemblance in shape between an egg and a zero, the term apparently comes from the phrase play for love (i.e. the love of the game, not for money).

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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