Wednesday, August 26, 2020 — DT 29259

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 29259
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29259]
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

I echo Mr K's sentiments that the top half was very easily solved and the bottom half required considerable sustained effort to crack.

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	Progressive // artist rejected LSD and left (7)

"artist " = RA

A Royal Academician (abbreviation RA^[10]) is a member of the Royal Academy of Arts^[5] (also Royal Academy; abbreviation also RA^[10]), an institution established in London in 1768, whose purpose is to cultivate painting, sculpture, and architecture in Britain.

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5a	Son, unfriendly with Edward, /gets/ told off (7)

"son " = S [genealogy]

In genealogies, s^[5] is the abbreviation for son(s) ⇒ m 1991; one s one d^*.

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^* married in 1991; one son and one daughter.

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9a	Tea follows instant // coffee (5)

Cha (also chai) is a variant spelling of char^[5], a British informal name for tea [in the sense of a drink].

"instant " = MO

Mo (abbreviation for moment) is an informal term^* for a short period of time ⇒ hang on a mo!.

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^* Identified by several British dictionaries as being a British^[5,14], chiefly British^[2,4],  or mainly British^[10] term. However, one British and two US dictionaries do not specify that it is British^[1,11,12]. This meaning of the word "mo" is not found in my third US dictionary, the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language^[3].

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Mocha^[5] is a type of fine-quality coffee.

10a	Shocks // gentleman with awards, we hear (9)

11a	Foreign banker tests // businesses (10)

Banker is a whimsical Crosswordland term for a river — something that has banks. After all, if a tanker is something that has tanks then does it not logically follow that a banker must be something that has banks.

The Indus^[5] is a river of southern Asia, about 2,900 km (1,800 miles) in length, flowing from Tibet through Kashmir and Pakistan to the Arabian Sea. Along its valley an early civilization flourished from circa 2600 to 1760 BC.

12a	Region // in Far East (4)

14a	Handsome // judge -- and clever (12)

18a	Cuckoo smeared this with small // beak? (12)

"small " = S [clothing size]

S^[5] is the abbreviation for small (as a clothing size).

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Beak^[2] is dated British slang for a headmaster [or headmistress?^*], judge or magistrate.

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^* A couple of comments on Big Dave's Crossword Blog dispute the application of the term to a female head teacher.

21a	Aim // low (4)

22a	Train, please, on two-thirds of RAF // jets? (10)

Here and There
From a British perspective, airplane[5] is a North American term for aeroplane.

25a	Was champion // jockey seduced outside church? (9)

"church " = CE [Church of England]

The Church of England^[10] (abbreviation CE^[10]) is the reformed established state Church in England, Catholic in order and basic doctrine, with the Sovereign as its temporal head.

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26a	Excellent? // No -- sad to leave university (5)

27a	Is finally confused // what the horse was? (7)

28a	Particular // value (7)

Down

1d	Last // Queen sent up chief (6)

"Queen " = ER [regnal cipher of Queen Elizabeth]

The regnal ciphers (monograms) of British monarchs are initials formed from the Latin version of their first name followed by either Rex or Regina (Latin for king or queen, respectively). Thus, the regnal cipher of Queen Elizabeth is ER

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2d	Choose // detectives to probe curtailed action (6)

"detectives " = CID [Criminal Investigation Department]

The Criminal Investigation Department (seemingly better known by its abbreviation CID^[2]) is the detective branch of a British police force.

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3d	Where pupils learn // about morals -- so unusual before start of school (10)

4d	Close race overshadows // who came last? (5)

5d	Almost certain to offer // to concede (9)

6d	Around a river, sailor // paddles (4)

Ordinary seaman^[5] (abbreviation OS^[5]) is the lowest rank of sailor in the Royal Navy, below able seaman.

7d	Give account of // some French writer (8)

"some French " = DE

In French, de^[8] can be a preposition meaning 'of'' or 'from' or a determiner meaning 'some'.

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8d	Doctor said see Head of Special // Illnesses (8)

13d	Fertile places -- // rat arrives (10)

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

• (noun) a police informer
• (verb, often grass on or grass up) 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 (show explanation ) for 'copper').

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.

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15d	American writer in South Dakota editor // excluded (9)

The use of the word "writer" to clue PEN is likely to be slightly more cryptic to the Brits than it is to us on this side of the pond. British solvers will see "pen" as being a writing implement rather than the person wielding that implement. (show more )

In addition to defining pen^[3,11] as a writing implement, North American dictionaries also define it as a writer or an author ⇒ a hired pen, British dictionaries do not list this meaning although they do show pen^[2,4] (or the pen^[5,10]) as symbolically representing writing as an occupation (a sense of the word not found in US dictionaries).

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16d	Drug-dealers // caught with millions in armed robberies (8)

"caught " = C [cricket notation]

In cricket, one way for a batsman to be dismissed is to be caught out^[5], that is for a player on the opposing team to catch a ball that has been hit by the batsman before it touches the ground.

On cricket scorecards, the abbreviation c^[5] or c.^[2,10] denotes caught (by).

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Here and There
In Britain, the term chemist[5] can mean a shop where medicinal drugs are dispensed and sold, and in which toiletries and other medical goods can be purchased ⇒ antihistamine tablets are freely available in chemists; or a person authorized to dispense medicinal drugs. In North America, the former would be known as a pharmacy or drug store and the latter as a pharmacist or druggist.

17d	Level-headed // criminal concealing weapon (8)

19d	United Nations starts to abandon boycott, leaving everyone // powerless (6)

20d	Paces around this, wiping his // face (6)

23d	Socialist party upset // stranger (5)

"party " = DO

Do^[5,12] is an informal British^[5] or chiefly British^[12] term^* for a party or other social event ⇒the soccer club Christmas do

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^* although Webster’s New World College Dictionary^[12] supports the contention by Oxford Dictionaries Online^[5] that this usage is British, two other US dictionaries do not characterize do^[3,11] used in this sense as a British term

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24d	Drink left /for/ bird (4)

The teal^[5] is a small freshwater duck, typically with a greenish band on the wing that is most prominent in flight.

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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