Thursday, September 10, 2015 — DT 27764

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27764
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27764]
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

Today Jay administers a fairly gentle test — one there should be no need to resit.

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   Reasons spring /generates/ rising tide? (11)

9a   Be more than // exposed -- and feeling less! (9)

In the solution, "number" is used in the whimsical cryptic crossword sense of 'more numb'.

10a   Article about professional // cover for cook (5)

11a   Relative/'s/ gone, lacking oomph -- that's a relief! (6)

12a   Sign made by printers // when strike- breaking (8)

This sign or symbol is found on a computer keyboard — but that does not mean that one cannot make it just as well with a pen or pencil.

13a   Flora // factories? (6)

15a   A drive in rain /for/ lover (8)

18a   Quiet // conduit dictators initially have (4,4)

19a   Gets an understanding of // files on origin of grievance (6)

Remember, in an across clue, "A on B" is used to clue the sequence BA. (show explanation )

In an across clue, convention holds that in order for A to be placed on B, B must already exist (i.e., already have been written). Since the English language is written from left to right, this means that B comes first and A is appended to it. Thus, by this convention, "A on B" signifies the sequence BA.

Personally, I can see no reason why this rationale cannot also be applied in a down clue, with B written starting in the first position and A being appended to it. However, there are many who would argue that this rule applies solely to across clues.

A different convention applies in the case of a down clue.  "A on B" can be interpreted to mean 'A on top of B', leading to the sequence AB. Very clearly this rationale can apply only in a down clue.

However, you may encounter the occasional setter who chooses to ignore this practice. Therefore, you should always be on the lookout for violations of this convention.

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21a   They must lose regulars, hurting // profession (8)

The phrase "they must loose regulars" indicates that the regular (i.e., non-odd) sequence of letters must be discarded from ThEy.

23a   Theatre blessed with presence of // soprano (6)

In music, treble^[2] means;

1. a soprano;
2. someone, especially a boy, who has a soprano singing voice;
3. a part written for this type of voice;
4. an instrument that has a similar range; or
5. in a family of instruments: the member that has the highest range.

26a   Relax -- welcoming one // test that must be repeated (5)

Resit^[5] is a British term which means:

1. as a verb, to take (an examination) again after failing it  ⇒ she is resitting her maths GCSE [General Certificate of Secondary Education]; and
2. as a noun, an examination that is resat ⇒ the system allows the office to timetable all resits in a single block.

27a   Finished blueprint /for/ bank facility (9)

A facility^[5] is a special feature of a service or machine, which offers the opportunity to do or benefit from something ⇒ an overdraft facility.

28a   Relented about admitting girl /for/ cash (5,6)

Down

1d   Mature // rock band touring Washington evacuated (5-2)

As a containment indicator, the word "touring" is used in the sense of travelling or going around — with the emphasis on around.

2d   Handy // place to find hot or cold? (2,3)

3d   Senior clergyman put up to accept university chair /is/ disgusted (9)

A dean^[7], in a religious context, is a cleric holding certain positions of authority within a religious hierarchy. The title is used mainly in the Anglican Communion, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Lutheran Church.

In the Church of England and elsewhere in the Anglican Communion, the dean is the chief resident cleric of a cathedral or other collegiate church and the head of the chapter of canons. If the cathedral or collegiate church has its own parish, the dean is usually also rector of the parish.

4d   Cries, /making/ emergency call about blood group (4)

5d   Currency used on second pitch /for/ rail link (8)

The euro (sign: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of the eurozone, which consists of 19 of the 28 member states of the European Union (show ).

Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain

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The currency is also officially used by the institutions of the European Union and four other European countries (show ), as well as unilaterally by two others (show ), and is consequently used daily by some 337 million Europeans as of 2015.

Kosovo and Montenegro

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Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City

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Outside of Europe, a number of overseas territories of EU members (show )  also use the euro as their currency.

Akrotiri and Dhekelia (UK), Saint Pierre and Miquelon (France), French Southern and Antarctic Lands (France), and Saint-Barthélemy (France)

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Eurostar^[5] (trademark) is the high-speed passenger rail service that links London with various European cities via the Channel Tunnel.

6d   Calm after student /finds/ rent (5)

"student" = L (show explanation )

The cryptic crossword convention of L meaning learner or student arises from the L-plate^[7], a square plate bearing a sans-serif letter L, for learner, which must be affixed to the front and back of a vehicle in various countries (including the UK) if its driver is a learner under instruction.

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7d   Relations up in Rome misplaced // name (7)

8d   Quislings /must be/ soldiers taken in by characteristics (8)

In the British armed forces, the term other ranks^[5] (abbreviation OR^[5]) refers to all those who are not commissioned officers.

A quisling^[5] is a traitor who collaborates with an enemy force occupying their country ⇒ he had the Quisling owner of the factory arrested. The term dates to the Second World War and comes from the name of Major Vidkun Quisling (1887–1945), the Norwegian army officer and diplomat who ruled Norway on behalf of the German occupying forces (1940–45).

14d   Approval /shown for/ fruit found across Australia (8)

"Australia" = AUS (show explanation )

The International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code for Australia is AUS^[5]. 

hide explanation

16d   Sky link /to/ broadcast game (3-6)

I was not able to find the term "sky link" in any dictionary.

However, I did find a couple of British meanings for the solution, of which I thought the former might be the more likely candidate. However, the 2Kiwis have chosen to illustrate the clue with the latter:

• Air bridge^[10] (or air-bridge^[1]) is a British term for a link by air transport between two places, especially two places separated by a stretch of sea.
• 
  
• Air bridge^[5] is a British term for a movable bridge placed against an aircraft door to allow passengers to embark or disembark.

Scratching the Surface

Sky plc[7] [private limited company] is a British-based pan-European satellite broadcasting, on-demand Internet streaming media, broadband and telephone services company headquartered in London, with operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Italy. Sky is Europe's biggest and leading media company and the largest pay-TV broadcaster in Europe, with over 20 million subscribers.

17d   Cob on lad, prior to good // final performance! (4,4)

A cob^[5] is a male swan.

"good" = G (show explanation )

The abbreviation G^[10] for good likely relates to its use in grading school assignments or tests.

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Scratching the Surface
While I cannot be certain, I suspect that in the surface reading cob[10] may be used in the informal British sense of to beat, especially on the buttocks.

18d   Explosive devices // spread out around west of Teheran (7)

Petard^[5] is an historical term meaning:

1. a small bomb made of a metal or wooden box filled with powder, used to blast down a door or to make a hole in a wall; or
2. a kind of firework that explodes with a sharp report.

As the 2Kiwis point out in their review, the term comes from a French word meaning to break wind.

20d   Jumper, // as it were, is agitated without one (7)

In Britain, a jumper^[5] is a knitted garment typically with long sleeves, worn over the upper body (in North American parlance, a sweater — in particular, a pullover). [The terms sweater and pullover would also appear to be in common use in the UK.]

The garment that we call a jumper, the Brits would call a pinafore^[5] (a collarless sleeveless dress worn over a blouse or [British] jumper [i.e., North American sweater]).

Thus, if a British lass were to wear a pinafore over her jumper and a North American gal were to wear a jumper over her sweater, they would be dressed identically.

22d   The Spanish must support spicy // accommodation here (5)

"the Spanish" = EL (show explanation )

In Spanish, the masculine singular form of the definite article is el^[8].

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24d   Mark // hurried, in case of blood (5)

25d   Ring // exercises -- a source of laughter (4)

"exercises" = PE (show explanation )

PE^[5] is the abbreviation for physical education (or Phys Ed, as it was known in my school days). 

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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