Friday, November 17, 2017 — DT 28507

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28507
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28507]
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 ranks at about the level of difficulty one would expect from him and perhaps a bit toward the upper end of the enjoyment scale.

In reading through the comments on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, I came across pommers' remark at Comment #20 "P.S. We noticed with surprise that Monday’s wasn’t a Rufus." Yes, the puzzle published on Wednesday in the National Post constitutes a rare event indeed — a "Monday" puzzle in the UK that was not compiled by Rufus (Roger Squires) as he himself informs us at Comment #13 [DT 28505] on Big Dave's Crossword Blog. Being pressed for time on Wednesday, I did not read the comments section of Big Dave's blog that day and so missed this information when I posted my review on Wednesday.

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   Loving and loyal, /but/ disenfranchised? (7)

I guess this might pass as a double definition — although the second (marked with the dotted underline) is an invented, extremely whimsical one.

5a   Flower /offered by/ son in bovine insolence (7)

The cowslip^[5] is a European primula with clusters of drooping fragrant yellow flowers in spring, growing on dry grassy banks and in pasture. It is also a common name for any of a number of other herbaceous plants.

9a   Excessive returns by Home Counties /creating/ argument (3-2)

"excessive" = OTT (show explanation )

OTT^[5] (short for over the top) is an informal British expression denoting excessive or exaggerated ⇒ presenting him as a goalscoring Superman seems a bit OTT.

hide explanation

The Home Counties^[5] are the counties surrounding London in southeast (SE) England, into which London has extended. They comprise chiefly Essex, Kent, Surrey, and Hertfordshire. (show more )

No exact definition of the term exists and the composition of the Home Counties remains a matter of debate. While Oxford Dictionaries restrictively lists them as being chiefly Essex, Kent, Surrey, and Hertfordshire, Wikipedia tells us that the Home Counties^[7] are generally considered to include Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey and Sussex (although Sussex does not border London).

Other counties more distant from London, such as Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Dorset, Hampshire and Oxfordshire are also sometimes included in the list due to their close proximity to the capital and their connection to the London regional economy.

hide explanation

10a   Old and tired // argument overturned before workers accept serving of tea (4-5)

Worm-eaten^[11] denotes worn or impaired by time or decayed or antiquated.

11a   What the cobbler did after spring, /being/ flush (4-6)

12a   Area for sitting // limited by means of access (4)

14a   Cover pan with a lid, mostly /for/ this dish (6,6)

Jacket potato^[5] is a British term for a baked potato served with the skin on.

18a   Go in quietly, getting up // daring (12)

"quietly" = P (show explanation )

Piano^[3,5] (abbreviation p^[5]), is a musical direction meaning either (as an adjective) soft or quiet or (as an adverb) softly or quietly.

hide explanation

21a   Nation // working around higher degree qualification (4)

Oman^[5,7], officially the Sultanate of Oman, is an Arab country at the southeastern corner of the Arabian peninsula.

22a   Belief man is so put out (10)

25a   Big cat doctor on this is missing // plane (5,4)

"doctor" = MO (show explanation )

A medical officer^[5] (abbreviation MO^[5]) is a doctor in charge of the health services of a civilian or military authority or other organization.

hide explanation

The de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth^[7] is a 1930s biplane built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and many other operators as a primary trainer aircraft. In addition to the type's principal use for ab-initio training, the Second World War saw RAF Tiger Moth operating in other capacities, including maritime surveillance, defensive anti-invasion preparations, and even some aircraft that had been outfitted to function as armed light bombers.

Delving Deeper
The de Havilland DH.71 Tiger Moth[7] was a British single-seat monoplane, designed to research high-speed flight and to test new aircraft engine designs. Only two were built.

26a   Lights perhaps // out -- school's ending on the 2nd of March (5)

Lights^[5] is the lungs of sheep, pigs, or bullocks, used as food, especially for pets.

27a   Supervision that leaves people in the dark? (3,4)

"Leaves" here is used in the sense of abandons, leave^[5] meaning to let (someone) do or deal with something without offering help or assistance ⇒ infected people are often rejected by family and friends, leaving them to face this chronic condition alone.

28a   Beams, // seeing post delivered in the outskirts of Ravenglass (7)

Scratching the Surface
Ravenglass[7] is a small coastal village and natural harbour in Cumbria. Located at the estuary of three rivers: the Esk, Mite and Irt, it is the only coastal town in the Lake District National Park.

Down

1d   Refuse to acknowledge // racket pinching pig (6)

2d   East European lifts and carries Italian // organs (6)

Depending on which definition you choose to use, this clue can take on a rather interesting surface reading. Vitals^[10] can mean either the bodily organs, such as the brain, liver, heart, lungs, etc, that are necessary to maintain life or the organs of reproduction, especially the male genitals.

3d   Visitor bringing comfort to a child who's down in the mouth (5,5)

I interpreted "down in the mouth" to imply having lost a tooth (similar to a sports team being "down a player").

Scratching the Surface
The phrase down in the mouth[5] means unhappy or dejected.

4d   Look for water // trapped in window seals (5)

5d   Spanish parliament may include check /for/ warships (9)

The Cortes Generales^[7] (or Cortes for short) is the legislature of Spain. It is a bicameral parliament, composed of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house) and the Senate (the upper house).

---

A corvette^[5] is a small warship designed for convoy escort duty.

6d   Shed tears, /seeing/ little parking (4)

"little" = WEE (show explanation )

Wee^[5] is a Scottish^* adjective meaning little ⇒ (i) when I was just a wee bairn; (ii) the lyrics are a wee bit too sweet and sentimental.

---

^* The word may be of Scottish origin but, like the Scots themselves, the word has migrated around the world.

hide explanation

"parking" = P

7d   Word for word heard // along the coast (8)

Littoral^[5] is an adjective denoting relating to or situated on the shore of the sea or a lake ⇒ the littoral states of the Indian Ocean.

8d   Write sticker about //military HQ (8)

The Pentagon^[5] is the pentagonal building serving as the headquarters of the US Department of Defense, near Washington DC.

13d   Bar racket /giving/ healthy measure of alcoholic strength? (10)

15d   Repair broken set // that's set by the road (9)

Kerbstone^[5] is the British spelling of curbstone.

16d   Left during action, /and/ despatched overseas (8)

17d   In pen, tabloid girl with no heart /is/ rambling (8)

19d   Two females occupying country mansion? // Nonsense! (6)

A pile^{[2,3,4,5,10,11]} is a lofty or large building or group of buildings ⇒ the noble pile of Windsor Castle. Although not a term with which I was familiar before encountering it in crossword puzzles, it is apparently not a Briticism as this meaning is found in American as well as British dictionaries.

20d   Ways of approaching // old Germanic tribespeople (6)

The Angles^[5] were a Germanic people, originally inhabitants of what is now Schleswig-Holstein, who came to England in the 5th century AD. The Angles founded kingdoms in Mercia, Northumbria, and East Anglia and gave their name to England and the English.

23d   Guide /from/ America is standing on there without protection (5)

24d   A run on first-class when promoted /for/ a song (4)

"run" = R (show explanation )

On cricket scorecards [not to mention baseball scoreboards], the abbreviation R^[5] denotes run(s).

In cricket, a run^[5] is a unit of scoring achieved by hitting the ball so that both batsmen are able to run between the wickets, or awarded in some other circumstances.

hide explanation

"first-class" = AI (show explanation )

A1^[4][5] or A-one^[3] meaning first class or excellent comes from a classification for ships in The Lloyd's Register of Shipping where it means equipped to the highest standard or first-class.

hide explanation

---

An aria^[5] is a long accompanied song for a solo voice, typically one in an opera or oratorio.

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