Tuesday, August 18, 2020 — DT 29253

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 29253
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, January 7, 2020
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29253]
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

Introduction

In my case, a couple of unknown British expressions were enough to push this puzzle beyond the two star difficulty rating awarded by Mr K. The culprits were the exhortation to make oneself scarce at 1a and the slang term for a police constable at 11d.

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.

Markup Conventions
"//" - marks the boundary between wordplay and definition when no link word or link phrase is present "/[link word or phrase]/" - marks the boundary between wordplay and definition when a link word or link phrase is present	"solid underline" - precise definition "dotted underline" - cryptic definition "dashed underline" - wordplay "double underline" - both wordplay and definition
Click here for further explanation and usage examples of markup conventions used on this blog.

Across

1a	Buzz off, // as may granny? (3,7)

Get knotted^[5] is an informal British term used to express contemptuous rejection of someone.

6a	I don't know // the way up the mountain (4)

9a	Father with new // femme fatale (5)

10a	Country // festival hosting United team, surprisingly (9)

"United " = U

In the names of sports clubs, U^[5] is the abbreviation for United^[5] which, in Britain is a word commonly used in the names of soccer and other sports teams formed by amalgamation ⇒ Man U [Manchester United].

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12a	Acted or played with // style (3,4)

I believe the anagram indicator here may be "played with". I had initially marked it as being only "played" (as does Mr K in his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog), but that would leave the word "with" as a link word, with which I am not entirely comfortable.

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Art deco^[5] was the predominant decorative art style of the 1920s and 1930s, characterized by precise and boldly delineated geometric shapes and strong colours and used most notably in household objects and in architecture.

13a	Honey -- // might this attract bees? (5)

Petal^[2] is a term of endearment^*.

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^* Chambers 21st Century Dictionary is the only source in which I found this meaning. It is not present in my edition (11th) of The Chambers Dictionary (which is supposedly the "bible" for The Daily Telegraph crosswords).

15a	As embracing Goneril finally, her father // very attentive (3,4)

Goneril^[7] is a character in Shakespeare's tragic play King Lear (1605). She is the eldest of King Lear's three daughters.

17a	Male bird // caught by kangaroos, terrified! (7)

19a	Suspend player /for/ a game (7)

21a	No taser involved /in/ crime (7)

22a	Italian city // mainly industrial, like another Naples originally (5)

Milan^[5] is an industrial city in north-western Italy, the capital of Lombardy region. A powerful city, particularly from the 13th to the 15th centuries, Milan is today a leading financial and commercial center^*.

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^* Note the US spelling "center" in this entry taken directly from Lexico (formerly Oxford Dictionaries Online).

24a	Poor editing // aroused emotions, perhaps? (7)

27a	Gabon upset by charge /for/ water in Australia (9)

Billiabong^[5] is an Australian term for a branch of a river forming a backwater or stagnant pool, made by water flowing from the main stream during a flood.

28a	Bring up // some light for the audience? (5)

29a	Score // century inside the ground (4)

The abbreviation for century or centuries is c^[5] (also c.) ⇒ a watch case, 19th c.

As an anagram indicator, ground is used as the past tense or past participle of the verb grind^[5]. An anagram indicator is typically a word that denotes movement or transformation. Grind denotes transformation, for example, in the sense of grain being ground into flour.

Scratching the Surface

The surface reading describes a cricket scenario:  A century[5] is a score of a hundred in a sporting event, especially a batsman’s score of a hundred runs in cricket ⇒ he scored the only century of the tour.  Ground has at least a couple of meanings in cricket: First, ground[5] denotes an area of land, often with associated buildings and structures, used for a particular sport. Thus a ground to the Brits is what might be called a stadium in North America. Second, ground denotes the area of the playing field in which a batsman may legally stand. If a batsman leaves his ground for any reason and the fielding team is able to break the wicket with the ball while he is out of his ground, the batsman is out. I would hazard a guess that it may be the former meaning of ground that is being used in the clue.

30a	Ruling // colony (10)

Down

1d	Cut // in housing a shame (4)

2d	Sailor boy wearing // waterproof cloth (9)

"sailor " = TAR

Tar^[5] is an informal, dated nickname for a sailor. The term came into use in the mid 17th century and is perhaps an abbreviation of tarpaulin, also used as a nickname for a sailor at that time.

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3d	Group // I found in middle of winter (5)

4d	Wild thing // in gaol initially secured by lock (7)

Scratching the Surface
Gaol[10] is a British variant spelling of jail.

5d	Brushed-up hair, yours and my // charm (7)

7d	Expect // a burden for the listener? (5)

8d	Shopping centre in hurry /to provide/ terms and conditions? (5,5)

11d	Retired copper perhaps, heading for exit, // set off (7)

Mr. Plod^[7] (also known as P.C.^* Plod or Officer Plod) is a fictional character in the Noddy children's series by English writer Enid Blyton (1897–1968). He is a forthright police officer who never lets Toyland's crooks escape from the "long arm of the law". In the UK, the terms "Plod" and "PC Plod" have become slang terms – usually jocular or derogatory – for a policeman, or the police in general.

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^* Police Constable

14d	Story to cover in short, // not too complicated? (10)

16d	Remain at odds over a // nation (7)

18d	Revised time twice altered /in/ road trial (4,5)

20d	Offensive // sound around bomb after shelling? (7)

21d	Mean to catch on // very soon? (7)

23d	Colour // I call 'smeared' (5)

25d	A crowd, they say, // dispersed there (5)

26d	Accomplishment // walkers discussed? (4)

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Key to Reference Sources: 

  ^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition

  ^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)

  ^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)

  ^[4]   - TheFreeDictionarycom (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)

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Signing off for today — Falcon