Sunday, February 24, 2013 — ST 4522

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Sunday Times ST 4522
Date of Publication in The Sunday Times Sunday, January 27, 2013
Setter Tim Moorey
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4522]
Times for the Times Review Written By Dave Perry
Date of Publication in the Toronto Star Saturday, February 16, 2013
Date of Publication in the Vancouver Sun Saturday, February 23, 2013
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 █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Times for the Times
Notes This puzzle appears on the Sunday Puzzles pages in the Saturday, February 23, 2013 edition of The Ottawa Citizen.

Introduction

I found this puzzle to be very difficult and had not progressed far before calling in the electronic reinforcements who got used both frequently and intensively. On one point, though, I am in clear agreement with Dave Perry — the clue of the day is definitely 8d. It caused me to laugh out loud when I finally twigged to the answer.

Notes on Today's Puzzle

This commentary should be read in conjunction with the full review at Times for the Times, to which a link is provided in the table above.

Across

1a   Race fans get shelter (3,2,5)

The St Leger^[7] is an original classic greyhound competition held at Wimbledon Stadium in London, England. It was run at Wembley Stadium from 1928 until 1998, moving to its current home in 1999.

7a   Drink  container (4)

Historically, sack^[5] is a dry white wine formerly imported into Britain from Spain and the Canaries.

9a   Currently popular footballer  improvised? (4-2-3-6)

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club^[7], commonly referred to as Spurs, is an English football [soccer] club based in Tottenham, London, that plays in the Premier League (the top level league in English football).

10a   First act in work by Frenchman repelled (6)

An opus (abbreviation op.)^[10] is a an artistic composition, especially a musical work.

12a   After cutting a slice of lamb, one’s let it cook to make this? (8)

A noisette^[5] is a small round piece of meat, especially lamb.

This is a semi & lit. clue in which the entire clue serves as the definition and a portion of the clue constitutes the wordplay.

13a   Heaters activated in May? (7)

While I managed to correctly decipher the wordplay, I was at a loss to explain the definition — and, so, needed a bit of tutoring by Dave Perry.

The question mark indicates that May is an example. Theresa May^[7] is a British Conservative politician who is the current Home Secretary.

15a   Track back after a day in Wilts (6)

The setter falsely capitalises Wilts^[5] to make it appear to be an abbreviation for Wiltshire^[5], a county of southern England.

17a   Character encountered in fiction? One’s forgotten (6)

I think the setter just wore me down. I did consider LETTER for a while (until 14d disproved that theory). Then I played around with BERTIE (Bertie Wooster^[7] being a character in the Jeeves novels of British author P. G. Wodehouse). In the end, I threw in the towel and allowed Dave Perry to fill me in as to the correct solution.

18a   Sign the disheartened Northern inside left (7)

19a   Row on river in French region (8)

The River Cam^[7] is a tributary of the River Great Ouse in the east of England. The Camargue^[5] is a region of the Rhône delta in SE France, characterized by numerous shallow salt lagoons. The region is known for its white horses and as a nature reserve.

21a   Cook wrongly drove spin, getting a duck (6)

The surface reading relates to cricket. Cook is a batsman who poorly hit (wrongly drove) a ball bowled with a spin on it, thus not scoring any runs (getting a duck). In cricket, a duck^[5] is a batsman’s score of nought [zero] ⇒ he was out for a duck. In cryptic crossword puzzles, duck is used to indicate the letter "O" based on the resemblance of the digit "0" to this letter.

22a   Club wisest, I tut, with no men! (6,9)

The Women's Institute (WI)^[5] is an organization of women, especially in rural areas, who meet regularly and participate in crafts, cultural activities, and social work. Now worldwide, it was first set up in Ontario, Canada, in 1897, and in Britain in 1915.

24a   Boss seen in den mostly (4)

25a   Chum, maybe in a mess (4,6)

Pedigree Chum^[7] [well-known to Dave Perry and unknown to me] is a brand of dog food marketed in the UK by Pedigree Petfoods, a subsidiary of the American group Mars, Incorporated specializing in pet food.

A dog's dinner (or breakfast)^[5] is British slang for a poor piece of work or, in other words, a mess ⇒ we made a real dog’s breakfast of it. I would say that the latter expression is common in North America; the former not so much.

Down

2d   One tucks into sauce with it (3)

Another brand name — although this one being very well-known in North America. HP Sauce^[7] is a brown sauce originally produced by HP Foods in the UK, now produced by H.J. Heinz in the Netherlands. It is the best-known brand of brown sauce in the United Kingdom in 2005 with 73.8% of the retail market. HP stands for Houses of Parliament (a picture of the British Houses of Parliament appears on the bottle), so named by its inventor because it was reputedly served at a restaurant located there.

3d   Tough turned on grasping syndicate after a short time (9)

Dave Perry "can't quite see why SENT is 'turned on'". How about this: send^[5] being a slang expression meaning to affect with powerful emotion or put into ecstasy ⇒ it’s the spectacle and music that send us, not the words.

4d   Con in feature film shown up (5)

5d   Bent Copenhagen policeman bypassed the underworld (7)

In Judaism and the New Testament, Gehenna^[5] is another name for hell.

6d   Prompt keeps one in balance (9)

7d   A little banking marks the river (5)

Until the introduction of the euro in 2002, the mark^[5] (abbreviation M^[10]) was the basic monetary unit of Germany, equal to 100 pfennig; a Deutschmark ⇒ Germany spent billions of marks to save the French franc from speculators.

The Somme^[5] is a river of northern France. Rising east of Saint-Quentin, it flows through Amiens to the English Channel north-east of Dieppe. The upper valley of the Somme was the scene of heavy fighting in the First World War.

8d   Unable to go past it when ultimately struggling in school (11)

In Britain, the word co-ed^[5], when used as a noun, means a school or college providing coeducation whereas in North America it means a female student in a coeducational college or university. Imagine the image created in the mind of a North American should a British student happen to mention that he had been successful in getting into a co-ed.

11d   Harry’s in the neighbourhood to do odd jobs (6,5)

Whereas North Americans putter about^[3,4], the Brits potter about^[3,4]. Harry Potter^[7] is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling.

14d   Given drive, aim to protect soldiers before going outside (9)

16d   Finished school for auditors having taken a lot in (9)

Eton College^[7], often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor". It is located in Eton, near Windsor in England, and is one of the original nine English public schools as defined by the Public Schools Act 1868.

18d   Mark’s part is what’s difficult, involving money from China and Norway (7)

Until the introduction of the euro in 2002, the pfennig^[5] was a monetary unit of Germany, equal to one hundredth of a mark. The fen^[5] is a monetary unit of China, equal to one hundredth of a yuan. N^[5] is the International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code for Norway.

A pig of a (something)^[5] is a British expression used to describe something unpleasant or difficult ⇒ it’s a pig of a job.

20d   12 o’clock?  Correct! (5)

21d   Amerind stretching overdraft is exposed (5)

Amerindian (also Amerind)^[5] is another term for American Indian, used chiefly in anthropological and linguistic contexts. Ute^[5] is a member of an American Indian people living chiefly in Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico or the Uto-Aztecan language of the Ute, now with few speakers.

23d   Digit not used when counting to ten (3)

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)

Signing off for this week — Falcon

Sunday, February 17, 2013 — ST 4521

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Sunday Times ST 4521
Date of Publication in The Sunday Times Sunday, January 20, 2013
Setter Dean Mayer (Anax)
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4521]
Times for the Times Review Written By Dave Perry
Date of Publication in the Toronto Star Saturday, February 9, 2013
Date of Publication in the Vancouver Sun Saturday, February 16, 2013
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 █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Times for the Times
Notes This puzzle appears on the Sunday Puzzles pages in the Saturday, February 16, 2013 edition of The Ottawa Citizen.

Introduction

I found this puzzle to be a challenge and a half. I needed copious amounts of help from my electronic assistants. Even they could not compensate for a careless spelling mistake which kept me from finishing.

Notes on Today's Puzzle

This commentary should be read in conjunction with the full review at Times for the Times, to which a link is provided in the table above.

Across

1a   Reckless driving from 19? (8,7)

Motorway madness would appear to be an alternative term in Britain for road rage. The numeral "19" is cross reference to clue 19d which has as its solution MIRAGE, which breaks down into MI (motorway; M1) and RAGE (madness).

The M1^[7] is a north–south motorway (multi-lane controlled access highway) in England connecting London to Leeds.

9a   Battery acid spilt on end of piston (5)

10a   Joke about new tower was intriguing (9)

In Britain, cod^[5] is an informal term for a joke or hoax ⇒ I suppose it could all be a cod. As a verb, it means to play a joke or trick on (someone) ⇒ he was definitely codding them.

11a   Rowdy house with awful mould (7)

12a   Egg- shaped, as circle not filled with a line (7)

13a   A uniform infused with old solvent (6)

14a   Elbow musician considers covers (5)

Ancon^[10] is a former technical name for elbow.

17a   Simple home in which temperature’s dropped (5)

18a   Business area with fine market (6)

A fair^[5] may be a periodic gathering for the sale of goods; in particular, an exhibition to promote particular products ⇒ the European Fine Art Fair. Apparently, the meaning that I am most familiar with is a particularly North American usage; i.e., an annual competitive exhibition of livestock, agricultural products, etc., held by a town, county, or state.

21a   Sting has dance with author (3,4)

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

22a   Right time to suppress story about slip (7)

I did myself no favours on 19d by misspelling the solution to this clue.

23a   The chap cutting fresh carrots in kitchen setting? (9)

Kitchen^[5] is an informal term for the percussion section of an orchestra.

25a   Trash as in rubbish (5)

Trash^[5] is an informal, chiefly North American term meaning to criticize severely ⇒ trade associations trashed the legislation as deficient. Roast^[5] is an informal term meaning to criticize or reprimand severely ⇒ if you waste his time he’ll roast you. The sense of to tease in a good-natured way is apparently a North American usage.

26a   Best remix of this week’s charts (3,4,8)

The cat's whiskers^[5] (or chiefly North American the cat's meow or the cat's pyjamas) is an informal expression meaning an excellent person or thing ⇒ this car is the cat’s whiskers.

Down

1d   Asian companion in NW football team (6)

A Companion of Honour (abbreviation CH) is a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour^[7], an order of the Commonwealth realms^[7] founded by King George V in June 1917 as a reward for outstanding achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry or religion.

Man U is a reference to the Manchester United Football Club^[7] (often referred to as simply United), an English professional football [soccer] club, based at Old Trafford [football stadium] in Old Trafford [district of Manchester], Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League (the top level in the English football league system).

2d   US city numbers stopped rising (6)

3d   Library, one used to shoot Harry Potter films? (9,6)

The Radcliffe Camera^[7] (Camera, meaning "room" in Italian) (colloquially, "Rad Cam"; "Radder" in 1930s slang^[1]) is a building in Oxford, England, designed by James Gibbs in the English Palladian style and built in 1737–1749 to house the Radcliffe Science Library.

Daniel Radcliffe^[7] is an English actor who rose to prominence playing the title character in the Harry Potter film series.

4d   A meeting with, you might say, board (11)

There is a rule in solving cryptic crossword puzzles that you ignore punctuation — except when it can't be ignored.

I interpreted the wordplay to be {A (from the clue) + DATE (meeting)} containing (with) something that sounds like (you might say) COMMA (,). Dave Perry seems to have trouble accepting "with" as a containment indicator. How about "a woman with child" meaning a pregnant woman?

As it turns out, the setter had a slightly different explanation in mind. Anax drops by Times for the Times to set the record straight. The wordplay treats the entire solution as a phrase, with (in the setter's words) "A COMMA DATE being 'A meeting with ,' (you might say)".

5d   Among them and us? (3)

6d   Foreign staff decline — proclaim cost is ridiculous (10,5)

7d   Mourn over chance to describe unknown wife of Orpheus (8)

In Greek mythology, Eurydice^[5] was the wife of Orpheus. After she was killed by a snake Orpheus secured her release from the underworld on the condition that he did not look back at her on their way back to the world of the living. But Orpheus did look back, whereupon Eurydice disappeared.

8d   Preparing to ride, go on to break strap (8)

12d   How you may make the bra with pants? (3,2,6)

15d   Why Kinnock leaves in triumph (8)

Neil Kinnock^[7] is a British Labour Party politician who was the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1983 until 1992, making him the longest-serving Leader of the Opposition in British political history to date, and the longest never to have become Prime Minister.

16d   Top left in boat (8)

A pinnace^[5] (chiefly historical) is a small boat, typically with sails and/or several oars, forming part of the equipment of a warship or other large vessel.

19d   I run through sorcerer’s illusion (6)

Misspelling the solution to 22a proved disastrous here.

20d   Place rubbish in dodgy surroundings (6)

Tat^[5] is an informal British expression meaning tasteless or shoddy clothes, jewellery, or ornaments ⇒ the place was decorated with all manner of gaudy tat.

24d   With 5, I appear to pray for McCourt work (3)

The numeral "5" is a cross reference to clue 5d.

'Tis^[5] is a memoir by Irish-American writer Frank McCourt. Published in 1999, it begins where McCourt ended Angela's Ashes, his Pulitzer Prize winning memoir of his impoverished childhood in Ireland and his return to America.

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)

Signing off for this week — Falcon

Sunday, February 10, 2013 — ST 4520

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Sunday Times ST 4520
Date of Publication in The Sunday Times Sunday, January 13, 2013
Setter Jeff Pearce
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4520]
Times for the Times Review Written By Dave Perry
Date of Publication in the Toronto Star Saturday, February 2, 2013
Date of Publication in the Vancouver Sun Saturday, February 9, 2013
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 █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Times for the Times
Notes This puzzle appears on the Sunday Puzzles pages in the Saturday, February 9, 2013 edition of The Ottawa Citizen.

Introduction

In light of Dave Perry's admission that he "found this one quite hard-going", my performance may not look so shabby after all. With the exception of Allen Ginsberg, the other unknowns enumerated by him were similarly strange to me (although I did recognize maillot from French — which was not very helpful).

Notes on Today's Puzzle

This commentary should be read in conjunction with the full review at Times for the Times, to which a link is provided in the table above.

Across

1a   One with cat and fish is a cheeky upstart (14)

Cat^[5] is short for cat-o'-nine-tails^[5], a rope whip with nine knotted cords, formerly used (especially at sea) to flog offenders.

10a   It’s a fortune to post tights (7)

In North America, a maillot^[3,5] is a woman's one-piece swimsuit usually cut high on the leg. It can also mean a pair of tights, especially as worn by ballet dancers and circus artistes.

11a   Ragged Dick’s writer starts to ink adventure in the country (7)

Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks^[7] is a coming-of-age story by Horatio Alger, Jr. serialized in Student and Schoolmate in 1867, and released as a full length novel in May 1868. It was the first volume in the six volume Ragged Dick Series, and became Alger's all-time bestseller.

12a   Being loaded Bertie and Ian get drunk (9)

13a   Sacks, say, for endless waffle (5)

Jonathan Sacks^[7] is the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. As the spiritual head of the United Synagogue, the largest synagogue body in the UK, he is the Chief Rabbi of the British Orthodox synagogues, but he is not a religious authority for the Federation of Synagogues or the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations or the other movements, Masorti, Reform and Liberal Judaism.

Whereas, in North America, waffle^[5] means to fail to make up one’s mind ⇒ Joseph had been waffling over where to go, in Britain, it means to speak or write at length in a vague or trivial manner ⇒ he waffled on about his problems.

In the UK, rabbit^[5] means to talk at length, especially about trivial matters ⇒ stop rabbiting on, will you, and go to bed!.

14a   Mother keeping son in control (6)

Mater^[5] [the Latin word for mother] is a dated and informal British term for mother ⇒ the mater has kept on the house in London.

15a   Poet has drinks with tons of ice (8)

Allen Ginsberg^[7] (1926 – 1997) was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, economic materialism and sexual repression.

18a   Steal  a work of modern art (8)

Abstract can mean (1) to remove without permission; filch^[3] or (2) euphemistically, to steal^[4].

20a   Take rubbish to a cave (6)

Grot^[5] is British slang for something unpleasant, dirty, or of poor quality ⇒ they watch endless grot on telly [television].

23a   Mob gathered round centre of choky to see child murderer (5)

Choky^[5] is a variant spelling of chokey^[5], dated British slang for prison ⇒ they sent old Polgar to the chokey then?.

Herod the Great^[5] (circa 74 – 4 BC), was a ruler of ancient Palestine (37 – 4 BC). According to the New Testament, Jesus was born during his reign, and he ordered the massacre of the innocents (Matt. 2:16).

25a   Start to regret argument with bouncer in atomic plant (9)

The abbreviation for atomic is at.^[10] Arrowroot^[10] a white-flowered West Indian plant, Maranta arundinacea, whose rhizomes yield an easily digestible starch.

26a   Nonsense muttered by 4? (7)

Here the numeral "4" is a cross-reference indicator signifying that the solution to clue 4d must be inserted in its place to complete the clue.

In North America, rhubarb^[5] denotes a heated dispute ⇒ rhubarbs often broke out among these less than professional players. However, in Britain, it means (1) in general, nonsense ⇒ it was all rhubarb, about me, about her daughter, about art or (2) in particular, the noise made by a group of actors to give the impression of indistinct background conversation, especially by the random repetition of the word ‘rhubarb’.

27a   Made to suffer in wicked college (7)

Wicked^[10] is used in the slang sense of very good [perhaps as a wicked serve in tennis]. Ace^[10], as an adjective, means superb or excellent.

28a   Our MP and a lass (with gear that’s kinky) found in dodgy establishment (7,7)

In systems of parliamentary government, such as Britain and Canada, an elected representative is known as a Member of Parliament (or MP^[5] for short).

Down

2d   Will made her a richer woman (7)

3d   7 or shivering arctic dweller (5,4)

Similar to 26a, the numeral "7" is a cross-reference indicator signifying that the solution to clue 7d must be inserted in its place to complete the clue.

4d   What a bowler doesn’t want to give  parts of a crowd (6)

The first part of the clue refers to cricket, where an extra^[5] is a run scored other than from a hit with the bat, credited to the batting side rather than to a batsman. An extra^[7] may arise from mistakes, poor play or illegal actions by the bowler or a fielder. 

The second part of the clue refers to the theatre.

5d   Fuel found in dirt round well (5,3)

6d   Time spent at Balmoral with Her Majesty — it can be boring (5)

Balmoral Castle^[7], a large estate house in Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, has been one of the residences of the British Royal Family since 1852, when it was purchased by Queen Victoria and her consort, Prince Albert. It remains the private property of the monarch, and is not part of the Crown Estate. According to the official website of the British Monarchy, "Balmoral Castle has remained a favourite residence for The Queen and her family during the summer holiday period in August and September."

By tradition, the ciphers (monograms) of British monarchs use initials formed from the Latin version of their first name followed by either Rex or Regina (Latin for king or queen, respectively). Thus the cipher of Queen Elizabeth is ER^[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina.

7d   Soldier almost lost blood — there’s a moral to this (7)

In the UK, para^[5] is an informal short form for paratrooper.

8d   Stormy waters, calling for knots (7,7)

The roaring forties^[5] are stormy ocean tracts between latitudes 40° and 50° south. If the solution were to be split (7,3,4), it would mean "calling for knots".

9d   Being fishy might our menu include a starter of mackerel salad? (6- 8)

Salad^[3] is used in the literary sense of a varied mixture ⇒ The Declaration of Independence was . . . a salad of illusions (George Santayana).

16d   What a snooker player must learn to do is crazy (9)

In British billiards & snooker jargon, screw^[5] means to play a shot with screw, backspin given to the cue ball by hitting it below centre, intended to make it move backwards after striking the object ball ⇒ Johnson chose to screw back for the pink.

17d   Grope for board game (8)

Scrabble^[5] (trademark) is a game in which players build up words on a board from small lettered squares or tiles.

19d   Strange surrealists possibly rile this composer (7)

As Dave Perry states, this is "Rather a sneaky one!" My first inclination was to call it an inverse wordplay clue, but after careful reflection have discarded that idea. In an inverse wordplay clue, the solution would contain an indicator and fodder for an outcome that is found in the clue. That is not the case here.

One writer at Times for the Times refers to the clue as a "comparative anagram" and states "[such clues] rarely appear in normal cryptics, but they are quite popular in clue-writing competitions", while a second calls it a "compound anagram" and comments "I don't remember ever seeing a compound anagram in a daily puzzle before: they were completely new to me when I started doing Mephisto and Azed (where they're common), which was fairly recently. I had assumed they were considered off-limits."

The definition here is "this composer" and the clue tells us that a possible anagram (strange) of "surrealists" is RILE + the name of a composer.

21d   English author worried American one (7)

Henry David Thoreau^[5] (1817–62) was an American essayist and poet, and a key figure in Transcendentalism. He is best known for his book Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854), an account of a two-year experiment in self-sufficiency.

22d   Make mistakes in Latin (6)

My impression of this clue coincided exactly with that of Dave Perry.

24d   Small drink followed by a Hamlet, say (5)

Hamlet^[5] was a legendary prince of Denmark, hero of a tragedy by Shakespeare.

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)

Signing off for this week — Falcon

Sunday, February 3, 2013 - ST 4519

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Sunday Times ST 4519
Date of Publication in The Sunday Times Sunday, January 6, 2013
Setter Tim Moorey
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4519]
Times for the Times Review Written By Dave Perry
Date of Publication in the Toronto Star Saturday, January 26, 2013
Date of Publication in the Vancouver Sun Saturday, February 2, 2013
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 █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Times for the Times
Notes This puzzle appears on the Sunday Puzzles pages in the Saturday, February 2, 2013 edition of The Ottawa Citizen.

Introduction

In his review at Times for the Times, Dave Perry calls this "the toughest Sunday puzzle of the year so far ...". Well, of course it had to be as it was the first Sunday puzzle of the year in the UK — published on January 6. But as he goes on to say "... I suspect it may remain so for a while". To that sentiment, I wholeheartedly agree.

Notes on Today's Puzzle

This commentary should be read in conjunction with the full review at Times for the Times, to which a link is provided in the table above.

Across

1a   Knock a banking part of London for greed (8)

The City^[5] is (1) short for the City of London or (2) the financial and commercial institutions located in the City of London ⇒ (i) the Budget got a stony reception from the City; (ii) [as modifier] a City analyst. Note that the City of London^[5] is not the city of London, but merely the part of London situated within the ancient boundaries and governed by the Lord Mayor and the Corporation^[5] (which, in Britain, is a group of people elected to govern a city, town, or borough ⇒the City of London Corporation).

5a   Grave message beginning to stimulate tears (4)

8a   Nymph is female chorus part (4)

In Greek mythology, Echo^[5] was a nymph deprived of speech by Hera in order to stop her chatter, and left able only to repeat what others had said.

9a   Following abandoned site, enter from the east for Welsh town (10)

I failed to locate this place, even though I was almost certain that I was looking for a Welsh town. I did manage to figure out the reversal at the end, but the rest eluded me. Moreover, an error at 3d did nothing to ease the situation.

Ffestiniog^[7] is a community in Gwynedd in Wales, containing several villages, in particular the settlements of Llan Ffestiniog and Blaenau Ffestiniog. It has a population of 5,500.

In the footnotes of academic works, one might encounter the abbreviation ff.^[10] meaning following (pages).

11a   No credit for nuts in bread (6)

Crackers^[5] is British slang meaning insane ⇒ if Luke wasn’t here I’d go crackers.

Ackers^[5] is British slang for money ⇒ what you get for your ackers is two CDs. The term, obscure even to the Brits, was originally used by British troops in Egypt in the 1930s as a name for the piastre^[5] (a monetary unit of several Middle Eastern countries, equal to one hundredth of a pound). It is probably an alteration of Arabic fakka 'small change, coins'.

13a   Motion appearing right away to get poetic inspiration (8)

Aganippe^{[Brewer's Phrase & Fable]} was a fountain of Bœotia at the foot of Mount Helicon, dedicated to the Muses, because it had the virtue of imparting poetic inspiration. Mount Helicon^[5] is a mountain in Boeotia, central Greece, to the north of the Gulf of Corinth, rising to 1,750 m (5741 ft). It was believed by the ancient Greeks to be the home of the Muses.

14a   Love children leading in British publicity (8)

16a   Head of allotments wanted ground with shed attached (6)

In Britain, an allotment^[5] is a plot of land rented by an individual for growing vegetables or flowers. In North America, such a piece of land would be called an allotment garden.

17a   Its lead is slowly worn down on A4 (6)

The setter would like to misdirect us on a journey down a British highway, when we should be busy at our desk scribbling on a piece of paper.

The A4^[7] is a major road in England, portions of which are known as the Great West Road and Bath Road. It runs from London to Avonmouth, near Bristol. Historically the road was the main route from London to the west of England, and formed the second main western artery from London, after the A40. Much of the route is now paralleled by the M4 motorway, which carries the bulk of long distance traffic in this corridor, leaving the A4 primarily for local traffic.

A4^[5] is (1) a standard European size of paper, 297 × 210 mm ⇒ [as modifier] an A4 page or (2) A4 paper ⇒ several sheets of A4.

Paper in the A series^[7] format has an aspect ratio of 1 to the square root of 2 (approximately 1 : 0.707), although this is rounded to the nearest millimetre. A0 size paper is defined so that it has an area of 1 square metre, prior to the aforementioned rounding. Successive paper sizes in the series (A1, A2, A3, etc.) are defined by halving the preceding paper size, cutting parallel to its shorter side.

The most frequently used of this series is the size A4 which is 210 mm × 297 mm (8.3 in × 11.7 in). For comparison, the letter paper size commonly used in North America (8.5 in × 11 in (220 mm × 280 mm)) is approximately 6 mm (0.24 in) wider and 18 mm (0.71 in) shorter than A4.

19a   Uncle from the country? (8)

Great Uncle Bulgaria is a character from The Wombles^[7] series of children's novels written by British author Elisabeth Beresford. The characters became nationally famous in the UK in the mid 1970s as a result of a very popular BBC children's television show using stop motion animation.

21a   MP, for example turned on one in a little Italian (8)

In Britain [as in Canada], an MP^[5] is a Member of Parliament. The Italian word for little is poco^[10].

22a   Pontoon is one  indoor game (6)

A pontoon^[5] is a flat-bottomed boat or hollow metal cylinder used with others to support a temporary bridge or floating landing stage ⇒ [as modifier] a pontoon bridge . However, given the British proclivity to use adjectives as nouns, a a bridge or landing stage supported by pontoons is also called as a pontoon in the UK.

The misdirection here arises from the fact that pontoon^[5] is also a name used in Britain for the card game blackjack or vingt-et-un (twenty-one) ⇒ he got me to go into his room for a hand of pontoon.

23a   Bags of nonsense in Scotland about fire (10)

In the Scottish dialect, haver^[5] (also havers) means foolish talk or nonsense.

24a   Handel, for example, or handle (4)

George Frideric Handel^[7] (1685 – 1759) was a German-born British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel is regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time, with works such as Water Music, Music for the Royal Fireworks and Messiah remaining popular.

26a   Cheese crackers put around after last of entree (4)

Edam^[5] is a round Dutch cheese, typically pale yellow with a red wax coating.

27a   Rum person perhaps, one getting abuse (8)

Rùm^[7], a Scottish Gaelic name often anglicised to Rum) is one of the Small Isles of the Inner Hebrides, in the district of Lochaber, Scotland. For much of the 20th century the name became Rhum, a spelling invented by the former owner, Sir George Bullough, because he did not relish the idea of having the title "Laird of Rum".

Down

1d   Ground mace regularly showing up to some extent (3)

In Britain, rec^[5] is an informal short form for recreation ground^[5], a piece of public land used for sports and games [in North American parlance, a park].

2d   Harry Potter’s complaint (7)

Staying on the theme of British children's books, this time we get one that is also well known on this side of the pond. Harry Potter^[7] is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. As an anagram indicator, harry^[10] is used in the sense of to disturb (which is listed as a synonym).

3d   Arresting items in boxes (5)

I had entered CASES here, based on cases being boxes and also that police would arrest someone once they had built a case against them. I would like to think that this error prevented me from solving 9a, but it is likely that not even having the first letter would have led me to that obscure destination.

4d   Only one name in match notice for Greeks (7)

I supposed that the Greeks in question were TROJANS — which also did not help me in my efforts to navigate through Wales at 9a. The word banns did briefly enter my mind but it never occurred to me to precede it with a definite article. It seems that I was just too focused on trying to justify the choice of Trojans.

6d   Gin’s ordered in pub — it’s nearly always on the house (3,4)

7d   Field event closing outside leads to Olympic title presentation (4- 7)

10d   Labour treasurer to be of use (7)

The British Labour Party^[5] is a left-of-centre political party which arose from the trade union movement at the end of the 19th century and replaced the Liberals as the country’s second party after the First World War.

12d   Flog orange and peach for which charges are usually small (11)

Chaperonage^[10] is the act of chaperoning or the state of being chaperoned. "Charges", of course, refers to those under the care of the chaperon.

15d   Sonny perhaps at home in large car (7)

Sonny Rollins^[7] is an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rolls is a shortened form of Rolls-Royce^[5], a luxury car produced by the British Rolls-Royce company.

18d   Fancy me showing up in clubs with goddess (7)

Dave Perry writes "Mi is the musical note, but I can't find me listed anywhere with that definition. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places."

Oxford Dictionaries Online and Chambers 21st Century Dictionary both show me^[2,5] as being the primary spelling, with mi an alternative spelling. Collins English Dictionary, on the other hand, indicates exactly the reverse with mi^[10] being the principal spelling and me the variant. The American Heritage Dictionary lists only one spelling, mi^[3].

19d   Unreliable transport provided by old railway firms holding on (7)

British Railways (BR)^[7], which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages between 1994 and 1997. Ownership of the track and infrastructure passed to Railtrack on 1 April 1994; afterwards passenger operations were franchised to individual private-sector operators (originally there were 25 franchises); and the freight services sold outright (six companies were set up, but five of these were sold to the same buyer). The remaining obligations of British Rail were transferred to BRB (Residuary) Ltd.

20d   Leading marshals joined forces (7)

Marshal^[5], as a verb, means to arrange in order. The reading here is quite awkward as it would seem that leading should be the object of the verb marshal and not the subject (which it appears to be). Perhaps, we need to interpret it as "Leading marshals [itself]".

22d   Where you’ll find Arabs liberated? (5)

Basra^[5] is an oil port of Iraq, on the Shatt al-Arab waterway; population 870,000 (est. 2007). I presume that the clue alludes to Iraq having been liberated from the rule of Saddam Hussein^[5].

25d   Damage caused by pound going up (3)

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)

Signing off for this week — Falcon