Monday, July 25, 2016 — DT 27842 (Summer Monday Bonus Puzzle)

Prologue

For several years, the practice of the National Post has been not to publish on Monday between Canada Day and Labour Day. To provide readers of the blog with a bit of mental exercise to keep the grey matter well-tuned, I am providing a puzzle that the National Post has skipped (drawn from my reserve of reviews for unpublished puzzles). Today I offer you DT 27842 which appeared in The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, July 1, 2015 and was skipped by the National Post on Wednesday, December 9, 2015.

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27842
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27842]
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
Notes
The National Post skipped this puzzle on Wednesday, December 9, 2015.

Introduction

This is a typical Jay puzzle. It takes a while to establish a foothold, but once the solver has succeeded in doing so, progress can steadily be made.

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   Soap needed by heavy drinker /getting/ this at teatime? (6,4)

6a   Place restrictions on // dog beginning to bark (4)

10a   Show // womaniser with a change of heart (5)

11a   Build an exciting picture of // a girl some fancy (9)

12a   Person making a mockery /of/ a gourmand? (7)

13a   Attack // yobbo hugging tree (4,3)

Yobbo^[5] is an alternative term for yob^[5] (back slang for boy), an informal British term for a rude, noisy, and aggressive youth.

14a   Make a speech on safeguard /for/ controlled state (12)

18a   Risk losing advantage /as/ punk slouches around (4,4,4)

21a   Hidden problems /of/ contracts (7)

23a   Laughable // claim thrown out by company (7)

24a   Greeting by head /giving/ sudden inspiration (9)

25a   Poor merchant stocking // shellfish (5)

An ormer^[5] is an abalone (mollusc), especially one used as food in the Channel Islands (show explanation ).

The Channel Islands^[5] are a group of islands in the English Channel off the northwestern coast of France, of which the largest are Jersey, Guernsey, and Alderney. Formerly part of the dukedom of Normandy, they have owed allegiance to England since the Norman Conquest in 1066, and are now classed as Crown dependencies. 

hide explanation

26a   Disregarding danger /of/ collision, failing to start (4)

27a   Licence /given/ for each delegation (10)

Down

1d   Emphasise // end of holidays, and lock (6)

Scratching the Surface
Unless I have overlooked something, the surface reading of this clue would seem to be pretty meaningless.

2d   Address that's familiar /for/ a school leaver? (3,3)

This is a double definition. The first is a familiar form of address that — as the 2Kiwis state in their review — one might hear in "stuffy London clubs" and the second a former male student of a school.

In Britain, an old boy^[5] (abbreviation OB^[2])  is:

1. a former male student of a school or college ⇒an old boy of Banbury County School; or
2. a former male member of a sports team or company ⇒ the White Hart Lane old boy squared the ball to present an easy chance from 12 yards.

It is also a chiefly British affectionate form of address to a boy or man ⇒ ‘Look here, old boy,’ he said.

3d   Going north, food gets cooked /for/ a useless lump (4-3-7)

Given that lump^[10] is an informal term for an awkward, heavy, or stupid person, the term "useless lump" should be pretty self-explanatory.

4d   Not a patch on wanting one? (9)

Scratching the Surface
Not a patch on[5] is an informal British expression denoting greatly inferior to ⇒ he no longer looked so handsome—he wasn’t a patch on Peter.

5d   Early bird going up across area /in/ African village (5)

Lark^[5] is an informal term for a person who habitually gets up early and feels energetic early in the day. Often contrasted with owl.

Kraal^[5] is a South African term for:

1. a traditional African village of huts, typically enclosed by a fence; or
2. an enclosure for cattle or sheep.

7d   This type of disorder // in our pal is rampant (8)

As was the case for the 2Kiwis, this was also my last one in.

With respect to psychiatric illnesses, unipolar^[5] denotes characterized by either depressive or manic episodes but not both.

8d   Rest /for/ swimmer crossing inside of area? (8)

9d   Windsor, say, held by Greens /for/ this chamber? (5,2,7)

The House of Windsor^[7] is the royal house of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V by royal proclamation on 17 July 1917, when he changed the name of the British Royal Family from the German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (a branch of the House of Wettin) to the English Windsor, due to the anti-German sentiment in the British Empire during World War I. The most prominent member of the House of Windsor is its head, Queen Elizabeth II.

Scratching the Surface

Windsor[7] is a UK Parliamentary constituency which covers the town of Windsor and various portions of the surrounding area, in Berkshire. 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.

15d   Application // to join aloof elite? (4,5)

16d   Speed in small pub /is/ key (5,3)

17d   Shy Rasta's complicated // requisites for smoking (8)

Scratching the Surface

Rasta[5] is an informal short form for Rastafarian[5], a member of the Rastafarian religious movement. Rastafarians believe that Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was the Messiah and that blacks are the chosen people and will eventually return to their African homeland. They have distinctive codes of behaviour and dress, including the wearing of dreadlocks and the smoking of cannabis, and they follow a diet that excludes pork, shellfish, and milk.

19d   Second affected international // dish (6)

I.^[10] is the abbreviation for international.

20d   Affair mainly about gold // coin of yore (6)

Or^[5] is gold or yellow, as a heraldic tincture.

The florin^[5] is a a former British coin and monetary unit worth two shillings.

22d   Rock // hotel in auction (5)

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

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