Thursday, April 20, 2017 — DT 28356

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28356
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28356]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Mr Kitty
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 is a pleasant workout from one the mystery "Tuesday" setters.

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   Brawl /resulting in/ no charges (4-3-3)

Were the solution to be numerated (4,3,3), it would produce a phrase equivalent to "no charges".

6a   On retirement, cry with son /and/ employer (4)

10a   Dread losing time /in/ blunder (5)

11a   One fights // boy going to island captured by dangerous American creature (9)

12a   Normal behaviour at // home (7)

13a   Perhaps soldier adopts terribly nice // veteran (7)

A soldier^[5] is a wingless caste of ant or termite with a large specially modified head and jaws, involved chiefly in defence.

Ancient^[5] (noun) is a humorous or archaic term for an old man ⇒ a solitary ancient in a tweed jacket.

14a   Rumble abbot stoned on hard // grass? (12)

Grass^[5] is an informal British term meaning:

• (noun) a police informer; and
• (verb) to inform the police of someone’s criminal activities or plans ⇒ (i) someone had grassed on the thieves; (ii) she threatened to grass me up.

This expression may derive from rhyming slang (grasshopper being rhyming slang for 'copper'). (show explanation )

Rhyming slang^[5] is a type of slang that replaces words with rhyming words or phrases, typically with the rhyming element omitted. For example, butcher’s, short for butcher’s hook, means ‘look’ in Cockney rhyming slang.

hide explanation

Scratching the Surface
Rumble[5] is an informal British expression meaning to discover (an illicit activity or its perpetrator) ⇒ it wouldn’t need a genius to rumble my little game. An abbot[5] is a man who is the head of an abbey of monks.

18a   Suspect online assent /is/ unimportant (3-9)

21a   Changing to spin restricts amateur's start // on a sticky wicket (2,1,4)

Figuratively, a sticky wicket^[5] is a tricky or awkward situation ⇒ I might be on a sticky wicket if I used that line.

Cricket 101

The term wicket[5] has several meanings: each of the sets of three stumps with two bails across the top at either end of the pitch, defended by a batsman; the prepared strip of ground between two sets of stumps ⇒ when they inspected the wicket, they found it being rolled by some prisoners; the dismissal of a batsman; each of ten dismissals regarded as marking a division of a side’s innings ⇒ Darlington won by four wickets. The pitch[5] is the strip of ground between the two sets of stumps ⇒ both batsmen were stranded in the middle of the pitch. Thus, pitch and wicket (in the second sense above) are synonyms. A sticky wicket[5] is a pitch (or wicket) that has been drying after rain and is difficult to bat on. As a verb, spin[5] (with reference to a ball) means to move or cause to move through the air with a revolving motion ⇒ (i) the ball spun in viciously; (ii) they had to spin the ball wide. As a noun, spin[5] denotes the revolving motion imparted to a ball.

23a   Opening // offer disheartened journalist having to leave building (7)

24a   Exaggerate // love with rubbish in poem (9)

"over" = O (show explanation )

On cricket scorecards, the abbreviation O^[5] denotes over(s), an over^[5] being 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.

hide explanation

Tat^[5] is an informal British term for tasteless or shoddy clothes, jewellery, or ornaments ⇒ the place was decorated with all manner of gaudy tat.

25a   Acknowledge // passage with marks to be taken in (5)

"marks" = M (show explanation )

M^[10] is the symbol for mark(s).

Until the introduction of the euro in 2002, the mark^[5] (also called Deutschmark^[5] or Deutsche Mark [from German deutsche Mark 'German mark']) was the basic monetary unit of Germany, equal to 100 pfennig ⇒ Germany spent billions of marks to save the French franc from speculators.

hide explanation

26a   Amount of money earned /in/ a certain period (4)

27a   Outsmart rep // number one (10)

Down

1d   Plump // supernatural creature's raised feeling timid (6)

2d   True-born Englishman turned up carrying // dress (6)

3d   Top job // that one expects to get next day (5-5,4)

Were the solution to be numerated (5,5,4), it would produce a phrase meaning "top job".

Post^[5] is a chiefly British^* term for mail^[5], including in the sense of letters and parcels sent or received.

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^* Ironically, the post in Britain is delivered by the Royal Mail while the mail in Canada is delivered by Canada Post.

4d   Conservative, clever /and/ open to being corrected (9)

5d   Wool supplier // a series of shops promoted (5)

7d   Where chickens may lay eggs // at large? (2,3,3)

A chicken run^[5] is an enclosed area in which chickens may move freely in the open ⇒ you must have a chicken run to protect the garden from the hens.

8d   Irritable // cats cry, running wild around hospital (8)

Scratchy^[5] is used in the sense of bad-tempered or irritable ⇒ she was a little abrupt and scratchy.

9d   Go round // stirring up a civic argument (14)

15d   Outgoing // leader leaves message: 'Resistance is supported by public' (9)

"resistance" = R (show explanation )

In physics, R^[5] is a symbol used to represent electrical resistance in mathematical formulae.

hide explanation

16d   Element // against capitalism, not English (8)

Antimony^[5] (symbol Sb) is the chemical element of atomic number 51, a brittle silvery-white semimetal.

17d   Being filmed // ruined a romance (2,6)

19d   Ring about manuscript being twisted and miserable (6)

Ring^[3] (often used with up) is a chiefly British term meaning to call (someone) on the telephone ⇒ (i) She rang me at noon; (ii) Let's ring her up and invite her.

20d   Gambler // improved (6)

22d   Run rising European // business (5)

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)
^[12] - CollinsDictionary.com (Webster’s New World College Dictionary)
^[13] - MacmillanDictionary.com (Macmillan Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon