Monday, March 30, 2020 — DT 29052 (Published Saturday, March 28, 2020)

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 29152
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, September 10, 2019
Setter Chris Lancaster (Telegraph Puzzles Editor)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29152]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Mr K
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, March 28, 2020 edition of the National Post.

Introduction

After an absence of several months, I have decided to return to weekday blogging duties today. I can't guarantee that I will be able to produce a blog every day — they may be somewhat hit and miss. However, we will see how things work out.

I spent much of the hiatus in hospital and the past several weeks convalescing at home (which will continue for some as yet undetermined period of time). As a result, life under the COVID-19 social isolation regime is little changed from what I was already experiencing.

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.

Click here for an explanation of symbols and markup conventions used in explaining the parsing of clues.

Across

1 Threaten // close friend hiding papers (10)

6a	Counterfoil // that’s difficult to remove? Not half (4)

9a	Rush to capture northern // pirate (5)

Captain Flint^[7] is a fictional 18th-century pirate captain created by the Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894). Flint first appears in the classic adventure yarn Treasure Island, which was first serialised in a children's magazine in 1881, and later published as a novel in 1883.

10a	Policeman circling about in court’s // grounds (9)

PC^[5] is a British designation for a police constable ⇒ PC Bartholomew made his report.

12a	Cherish floating voter // that was collected by 9? (8-5)

Scratching the Surface
Floating voter[5] is a British term for a person who has not decided which way to vote in an election, or one who does not consistently vote for the same political party ⇒ the party leader stepped up his efforts to appeal to floating voters.

14a	Changes to plan // visibly embarrassed crowds (8)

15a	Rep condemned great // post-war building (6)

The earliest account of a prefab building^[7] (1160 to 1170) would appear to be a castle transported by Normans in 'kit' form and erected overnight (including digging a moat around it). In the United States, several companies including Sears Catalog Homes began offering mail-order kit homes between 1902 and 1910. This innovation in construction seems to have taken off in the UK after the Second World War, with more than 156,000 prefabricated homes being built between 1945 and 1948.

17a	No d-drink? // Drink! (6)

A noggin^[10] is a small quantity of spirits, usually 1 gill (one quarter of a pint).

19a	Happy // church always not quite crowded (8)

21a	Hurry /in/ rain, perhaps (13)

Precipitation^[5] is an archaic term denoting the fact or quality of acting suddenly and rashly ⇒ Cora was already regretting her precipitation.

24a	A boy harbours criminal since // uprising (9)

25a	Abuse when one pulls out /in/ traffic (5)

26a	Hiker tired somewhat over // long journey (4)

27a	Moving anecdotes about beginning to love // one’s young (10)

In the definition, the 's (which denotes possession in the surface reading) transforms into a contraction for the verb 'is'.

Down

1 Bar opponent reportedly /getting/ data (4)

2d	Contaminated // meat ain’t edible? Just slice away outside bits! (7)

3d	Ham can imitate cast /in/ summer (13)

As an anagram indicator, cast^[5] is used in the sense of to shape (metal or other material) by pouring it into a mould while molten ⇒ when hammered or cast, bronze could be made into tools.

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A summer^[1] is someone or something that does sums^*, a sum^[5] being an arithmetical problem, especially at an elementary level ⇒ (i) we did sums at school, Mummy; (ii) You saw crates of certain sizes, and then you would do your sums and then do your deductions from that.

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^* I had supposed this sense of the word to be a whimsical invention of the setter, but it is found in The Chambers Dictionary as a noun corresponding to the verb sum.

4d	Journalist brought up advances /for/ banks (8)

5d	Thrive, strangely, having lost five // of them (5)

7d	Credit cancelled /for/ carpet (4,3)

Tick^[5] (used in the phrase on tick) is an informal British term meaning credit ⇒ the printer agreed to send the brochures out on tick.

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Origin: The term apparently originates as a short form for ticket in the phrase on the ticket, referring to an IOU or promise to pay.

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Carpet^[5] is British^* slang meaning to reprimand severely ⇒ the Chancellor of the Exchequer carpeted the bank bosses.

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^* Although we do not use this expression in North America, we certainly use the possibly related expression to be called on the carpet^[5].

Here and There
Across the pond, the term "tick off" has quite a different meaning than it does in North America. Whereas, here, to tick someone off[5] means to make someone annoyed or angry ⇒ Jefferson was a little ticked off, but he’ll come around, in Britain it means to reprimand or rebuke someone ⇒ (i) he was ticked off by Angela; (ii) he got a ticking off from the magistrate.

8d	Relax, then film dance /and/ game (10)

"film = ET (show explanation )

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial^[7] (often referred to simply as E.T.) is a 1982 American science fiction film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg. It tells the story of a lonely boy who befriends an extraterrestrial, dubbed "E.T.", who is stranded on Earth. He and his siblings help the extraterrestrial return home while attempting to keep it hidden from their mother and the government.

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11d	Trainees timed changing // tyres (13)

Tyre^[5] is the British spelling of tire (in the sense of an automobile component).

 An intermediate^[1] is a racing-car tyre with a tread between that on a slick and that on a wet tyre.

13d	Change of heart? (10)

16d	Change // disrupted her plans (8)

Shrapnel^[1,5,10] is an informal British term for loose change or small change ⇒ little more than a few pounds [British currency] and a handful of shrapnel.

18d	Delight when officer enters // valley (7)

Unfortunately, the numeration would appear to be incorrect for the name of the valley. Glen Coe^[7] is a glen (valley) in the Lochaber area of the Scottish Highlands, while Glencoe^[7] is the main settlement in the glen. The glen is the site of the Massacre of Glencoe^[5], a massacre in 1692 of members of the Jacobite MacDonald clan by Campbell soldiers, which took place near Glencoe.

20d	Blast // food for supporters? (7)

A double definition with the second being whimsical.

22d	Long story /in/ Independent upset Irish parliament (5)

"Independent" = I (show explanation )

I^[1] is the abbreviation for independent, in all likelihood in the sense of a politician with no party affiliation.

hide explanation

The Dáil^[5] (in full Dáil Éireann) is the lower house of Parliament in the Republic of Ireland, composed of 166 members (called Teachtai Dála). It was first established in 1919, when Irish republicans proclaimed an Irish state.

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The Iliad^[5] is a Greek hexameter epic poem in twenty-four books, traditionally ascribed to Homer, telling how Achilles killed Hector at the climax of the Trojan War.

Scratching the Surface

The Independent [7] (nicknamed the Indy) is a British online newspaper. (show more ) Established in 1986 as an independent national morning newspaper published in London, it was sold to Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev in 2010. It began as a broadsheet, but changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition of The Independent was published in March 2016, leaving only its digital editions. hide

23d	Overcome // famous footballer (4)

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.

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 Advanced 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)
^[14] - CollinsDictionary.com (COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon