Tuesday, March 22, 2016 — DT 27944

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27944
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27944]
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's puzzle from Jay tips the difficulty scales in one direction and the enjoyment scales in the opposite direction.

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   Bedroom suite? (7,5)

9a   Panels /need/ cake to be included in tests (9)

10a   Supper's beginning with drink -- // maybe squash? (5)

11a   Summit/'s/ importance requiring husband to stand in for wife (6)

12a   Second attempt on record /for/ needlepoint (8)

A tapestry^[5] is a piece of thick textile fabric with pictures or designs formed by weaving coloured weft threads or by embroidering on canvas, used as a wall hanging or soft furnishing.

13a   Sets // right before parting shot from Nadal (6)

Rafael Nadal^[5] is a Spanish tennis player. He won the 2008 Olympic gold medal for singles, and in 2012 he won his eleventh grand slam singles title.

Adios^[5] is the Spanish word for goodbye.

15a   To eject /from/ plane is not catastrophic (8)

18a   Section accommodating a mainly enthusiastic // flier (8)

19a   Nervous, /but/ working with slight advantage (2,4)

21a   Bucket full of poor Tony/'s/ hair? (8)

23a   Burn mark /made by/ my central heating on front of sofa (6)

My^[5] is used in various phrases—or even on its own—as an expression of surprise ⇒ (i)my goodness!; (ii) oh my!.

Cor^[5] is an informal British exclamation expressing surprise, excitement, admiration, or alarm ⇒ Cor! That‘s a beautiful black eye you’ve got!.

The abbreviation for central heating is c.h.^[1] This is perhaps a term that one might be more likely to see in real estate ads in the UK where central heating is not as ubiquitous as it is here. In Canada, I think this feature would be considered to be a given.

What did they say?
In their review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, the 2Kiwis refer to 'cor' as a word meaning ‘my’ or ‘blimey’. Blimey[5] (also cor blimey) is an informal British exclamation used to express surprise, excitement, or alarm. Another variant of this term is gorblimey[5], an informal expression of surprise or indignation.

26a   Sign of a cold /and/ he's into the spirit! (5)

27a   Overly harsh // doctor has a trick with one case of abrasion (9)

28a   Unusually astute for the // newspapers? (6,6)

An estate^[5] (also estate of the realm) is a class or order regarded as forming part of the body politic, in particular (in Britain), one of the three groups constituting Parliament, now the Lords spiritual (the heads of the Church), the Lords temporal (the peerage), and the Commons. They are also known as the three estates.

The fourth estate^[5] is another term for the press or the profession of journalism ⇒ she is reticent when it comes to members of the fourth estate. The term was originally used humorously in various contexts. Its first usage with reference to the press has been attributed to British man of letters and Whig politician Edmund Burke (1729–1797) but this remains unconfirmed.

A Step Beyond

The Fifth Estate[7] (stylized as the fifth estate) is an award-winning Canadian television newsmagazine, which airs on the English language CBC Television network. The name is a play on the fact that the media are sometimes referred to as the Fourth Estate, and was chosen to highlight the program's determination to go beyond everyday news into original journalism. The program has been on the air since September 1975, and its primary focus is on investigative journalism.

Down

1d   Trapper // to supply food outside church (7)

2d   Excuse // a student with one book -- one! (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.

hide explanation

3d   Encounter with Gorky discovered // the technique of an artist (9)

The setter uses "discovered" to indicate that the outer letters of "GORKy" are to be stripped away. This cryptic device is based on the whimsical logic that if disrobe means to remove one's robe (or other clothing), then it only stands to reason that discover must mean to remove one's cover(ing).

4d   Horse // raced around middle of croft (4)

Scratching the Surface
A croft[5] is: a small rented farm, especially one in Scotland, comprising a plot of arable land attached to a house and with a right of pasturage held in common with other such farms; or an enclosed field used for tillage or pasture, typically attached to a house and worked by the occupier.

5d   Steals the limelight /from/ leading coaches (8)

As an adverb and adjective, upstage^[5] denotes at or towards the back of a theatre stage ⇒ (i) Hamlet turns to face upstage; (ii) an upstage exit.

Upstage^[5] is a theatrical term meaning (of an actor) to move towards the back of a stage to make (another actor) face away from the audience ⇒ when he tried to upstage her she sauntered down to the front of the stage.

Presumably from this theatrical term comes the common usage of upstage^[5] meaning to divert attention from (someone) towards oneself ⇒ they were totally upstaged by their co-star in the film.

6d   Go to court supporting one's // children (5)

7d   Bruised /and/ baffled, needing time for female (8)

8d   Don't go /if/ wrong about Scottish banker! (4,2)

Banker is a whimsical Crosswordland term for a river — something that has banks.

The Tay^[5] is the longest river in Scotland, flowing 192 km (120 miles) eastwards through Loch Tay, entering the North Sea through the Firth of Tay.

14d   Called during act -- /that's/ insane (8)

16d   Persistent, /and/ flying out in case (9)

17d   Puzzle /of/ drone flying across turbulent river (8)

18d   Such painting /means/ work during leave (3,3)

"work" = OP (show explanation )

In music, an opus^[5] (plural opuses or opera) is a separate composition or set of compositions.

The abbreviation Op.^[5] (also op.), denoting opus, is used before a number given to each work of a particular composer, usually indicating the order of publication. The plural form of Op. is Opp..

Opus^[5] can also be used in a more general sense to mean an artistic work, especially one on a large scale ⇒ he was writing an opus on Mexico.

hide explanation

Pop art^[5] is art based on modern popular culture and the mass media, especially as a critical or ironic comment on traditional fine art values.

The term is applied specifically to the works, largely from the mid 1950s and 1960s, of a group of artists including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, and Peter Blake, who used images from comic books, advertisements, consumer products, television, and cinema.

20d   Unsettled Helen can, with no end of potential, // improve (7)

22d   Pace // office worker before starting others (5)

24d   Pakora? It always has // something to go with curry (5)

Raita^[5] is an Indian side dish of yogurt containing chopped cucumber or other vegetables, and spices. Raita^[7] is is often referred to as a condiment, but unlike traditional western condiments like, salt, pepper, mustard and horseradish that make dishes more spicy, raita has a cooling effect to contrast with spicy curries and kebabs that are the main fare of some Asian cuisines.

Scratching the Surface
In Indian cooking, pakora[5] is a piece of vegetable or meat, coated in seasoned batter and deep-fried.

25d   Clean // base for painting (4)

In art, a wash^[2] is a thin application of water colour.

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