Monday, October 23, 2017 — DT 28488 (Published Saturday, October 21, 2017)

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28488
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, July 25, 2017
Setter Mister Ron (Chris Lancaster)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28488]
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
Notes
This puzzle appears on the Monday Diversions page in the Saturday, October {date}, 2017 edition of the National Post.

Introduction

Not too difficult but a couple of Briticisms to up the ante on this side of the pond. The town in Kent was new to me but I managed to decipher it correctly from the wordplay and I have run across the British slang for money in a previous puzzle.

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 semi-all-in-one (semi-&lit.) clues. All-in-one (&lit.) clues and cryptic definitions are marked with a dotted underline. Explicit link words and phrases are enclosed in forward slashes (/link/) and implicit links are shown as double forward slashes (//).

Across

1a and 6a   'Play // late,' he's written in error (3,7,4)

The Winter's Tale^[7] is a play by William Shakespeare originally published in the First Folio of 1623.

6a   See 1 Across

10a   Enough // drink imbibed by politician? Quite the opposite! (5)

"politician" = MP (show explanation )

In Britain (as in Canada), a politician elected to the House of Commons is known as a Member of Parliament^[10] (abbreviation MP^[5]) or, informally, as a member^[5].

hide explanation

11a   Reported cut head /in/ Kent town (9)

Ness^[5] (a term usually found in place names) means a headland or promontory ⇒ Orford Ness.

Sheerness^[7] is a town beside the mouth of the River Medway on the north-west corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England.

12a   Dull /and/ terribly annoyed (7)

13a   Soft // game with unknown (7)

"unknown" = Y (show explanation )

In mathematics (algebra, in particular), an unknown^[10] is a variable, or the quantity it represents, the value of which is to be discovered by solving an equation ⇒ 3y = 4x + 5 is an equation in two unknowns. [Unknowns are customarily represented symbolically by the letters x, y and z.]

hide explanation

14a   101 left in outstanding debts, /being/ arrogant (12)

18a   A woolly state ... /or/ an embarrassed one? (12)

21a   Space for a gold // sovereign? (7)

In printing, an em^[5] can be either of the following:

• a unit for measuring the width of printed matter, equal to the height of the type size being used; or
• a unit of measurement equal to twelve points.

"gold" = OR (show explanation )

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

In heraldry, a tincture^[5] is any of the conventional colours (including the metals and stains, and often the furs) used in coats of arms.

hide explanation

23a   A region troubled /in/ time long ago (4,3)

24a   Finally felt upset about obituary /for/ old fossil (9)

A trilobite^[5] is a fossil marine arthropod that occurred abundantly during the Palaeozoic era, with a carapace over the forepart, and a segmented hind part divided longitudinally into three lobes.

25a   Possibly perfect form of language (5)

26a   Give a // narrative (4)

27a   Pay British bank /for/ pedestrian crossing (10)

Down

1d   Scarlett's place is housing this person's // crowns (6)

Scarlett O'Hara^[7] is a fictional character and the main protagonist in Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind. Tara^[7] is the name of the fictional plantation on which she was born and raised.

"this person" = I (show explanation )

It is a common cryptic crossword convention for the creator of the puzzle to use terms such as (the or this) compiler, (the or this) setter, (this) author, (this) writer, or this person to refer to himself or herself. To solve such a clue, one must generally substitute a first person pronoun (I or me) for whichever of these terms has been used in the clue.

hide explanation

The wordplay is a bit tricky here. I had parsed it as TARA (Scarlett's place) containing (is housing) I (this person) + S ('s). However, I expect that Mr Kitty's explanation on Big Dave's Crossword Blog is more apt to be the correct one. He has TARAS (Scarlett's place is; contraction of "Tara is") containing (housing) I (this person).

2d   Use // 75 per cent of polymers wrongly (6)

3d   Sorry // round with bogey pair unravelled (1,3,4,6)

4d   12 /and/ offensive (9)

The numeral "12" is a cross reference indicator directing the solver to insert the solution to clue 12a in its place to complete the clue. The directional indicator is customarily omitted in situations such as this where only a single clue starts in the light^* that is being referenced.

---

^* light-coloured cell in the grid

5d   Wind section's leader // dances (5)

7d   Dislike // a particular edition (8)

8d   Writer // tries to encapsulate current time (8)

"current" = I (show explanation )

In physics, I^[5] is a symbol used to represent electric current in mathematical formulae.

hide explanation

9d   Meandering hotel tour bores // Mr Fixit? (14)

Mr Fixit^[5] (also Mr Fix-It or Mr Fix-it) is US slang for a man who fixes something; especially a man who arranges matters or sets up deals (often illicitly).

Question to Oxford: Since this is US slang, shouldn't "Mr" be spelled with a period?

Delving Into the Past
Mr. Fixit (1989) is a British children's silent comedy television series that aired on ITV. Question to Wikipedia: Since this is a British show, why is "Mr." spelled with a full stop?

Delving Deeper Into the Past
Mr. Fixit[7] is a Canadian instructional television series which aired on CBC Television from 1955 to 1965. In the series, Peter Whittall demonstrated home repairs and construction. Whittall, nicknamed Mr. Fixit, was joined by host Rex Loring. Due to its 15-minute time slot, Mr. Fixit concentrated on basic repair and construction techniques.

15d   Sure // about working if turning up with depression? (9)

16d   Fool embracing famous footballer -- love /is/ dangerous stuff (8)

George Best^[5] (1946–2005) was a Northern Irish footballer [soccer player]. A winger for Manchester United, he was named European Footballer of the Year in 1968.

"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).

hide explanation

17d   Office worker can start to get // seductive (8)

19d   Brown // little bear eats girl (6)

20d   Always in London area? // Harsh! (6)

London^[5] is the capital of the United Kingdom, situated in southeastern England on the River Thames.

22d   One might charge // money (5)

Rhino^[5] is British slang for money.

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