Sunday, May 5, 2013 — ST 4532

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Sunday Times ST 4532
Date of Publication in The Sunday Times Sunday, April 7, 2013
Setter Jeff Pearce
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4532]
Times for the Times Review Written By Dave Perry
Dave Perry's Solving Time
★★★
Date of Publication in the Toronto Star Saturday, April 27, 2013
Date of Publication in the Vancouver Sun Saturday, May 4, 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, May 4, 2013 edition of The Ottawa Citizen.

Introduction

Dave Perry indicated that he found this puzzle to be a "straightforward, for the most part, offering". However, his solving time does push it — though just barely — into three star territory according to my arbitrary measuring stick.

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   Novelist’s part of formal dissertation (6)

Brian Aldiss^[5] is an English novelist and critic, best known for his science fiction; notable works: Frankenstein Unbound (1973).

4a   Mark joins Home Counties to run as athlete (8)

The wordplay is PRINT (mark) contained in (joins) SE (Home Counties; South East) + (to) R (run).

The Home Counties^[5] are the counties in the SE of England surrounding London, into which London has extended. They comprise chiefly Essex, Kent, Surrey, and Hertfordshire. On cricket scorecards, the abbreviation R^[5] indicates run(s).

9a   Cross can shine endlessly within (6)

A tiglon (alternate term for tigon^[5]) is the hybrid offspring of a male tiger and a lioness. Compare this with liger^[5], the hybrid offspring of a male lion and a tigress.

10a   Lark has to fly round a dam (8)

I suspect that dam^[5] is being used in the sense of the female parent of an animal, especially a domestic mammal. While I could find no reference source for the abbreviation, Dave Perry does confirm my interpretation in his review.

11a   Shabby British Telecom in complete mess (12)

British Telecom^[7] is a former name of BT Group plc, a British multinational telecommunications services company. While it would seem that the company prefers to style itself as simply BT, the former name appears to have stuck in the mind of the general public. One of the largest such enterprises in the world, BT has operations in over 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of telecoms services to corporate and government customers worldwide and its BT Retail division is one of the largest suppliers of telephony, broadband and subscription television services in the UK.

15a   Around end of dinner, boy is fat (4)

16a   From which spectators watch large bear (10)

18a   Everyone’s after torn pieces of cloth to make fabric (10)

19a   Start to talk then regret being honest (4)

21a   Working theatres rely on Doctors here? (6,6)

Harley Street^[7] is a street in the City of Westminster in London, England which has been noted since the 19th century for its large number of private specialists in medicine and surgery.

24a   Inter the murdered cardinal (8)

... a cardinal number, that is.

25a   It rains inside when I’m busking (6)

26a   Minister finally gets minor honour when outside Cabinet (8)

OBE stands for Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

The Order of the British Empire^[5] is an order of knighthood instituted in 1917 and divided into five classes, each with military and civilian divisions. The classes are: Knight or Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE), Knight or Dame Commander (KBE/DBE), Commander (CBE), Officer (OBE), and Member (MBE). The two highest classes entail the awarding of a knighthood.

27a   Physicist finally climbing mountain (6)

Hans Wilhelm Geiger^[5] (1882 – 1945) was a German nuclear physicist. In 1908 he developed his prototype radiation counter for detecting alpha particles, later improved in collaboration with Walther Müller.

Down

1d   It’s clear one copper left in a right state with tip-off (10)

The phrase "It's clear" is a terse expression of the more verbose statement "The solution to the clue is a synonym for clear".

2d   Rogue getting extremely desperate teenager in trouble (10)

"Extremely desperate" indicating the extreme (first and last) letters of DesperatE,

3d   Tool found in small shed (6)

5d   Feeling pressure before amateur dramatic production (7,4)

The first "feeling" to come to mind was EMOTION, which proved to be incorrect. It also seemed to create a mental block to finding the correct term.

6d   International supporter returned to tie instantly (2,1,5)

In Britain, an international^[5] is a game or contest between teams representing different countries in a sport ⇒ the Murrayfield rugby international.

Also, in Britain, a tie^[5] is a sports match between two or more players or teams in which the winners proceed to the next round of the competition [i.e., an elimination match] ⇒ Swindon Town have won themselves a third round tie against Oldham. The example cited does not mean that Swindon Town and Oldham played to a draw; rather, it means that Swindon Town won their second round match and advanced to the third round in which they will play Oldham.

The word "to" serves as a charade indicator, being used in the sense of 'pressed against' — as in the expressions "put your shoulder to the wheel" or "your nose to the grindstone".

7d   Meal with large duck (4)

In Britain, high tea^[5] (or simply tea) is a meal eaten in the late afternoon or early evening, typically consisting of a cooked dish, bread and butter, and tea. In North America, this meal would typically be known as supper.

8d   With lid off fish basket reveals angler’s aid (4)

12d   Eg give in to the English teacher? (7,4)

13d   Person bearing appropriate sort of container (7,3)

Bag^[5] means to succeed in securing (something) ⇒ (i) we’ve bagged three awards for excellence; (ii) get there early to bag a seat in the front row.

14d   He promotes guide touring heart of River Tyne (10)

The Tyne^[5] is a river in NE England, formed by the confluence of two headstreams, the North Tyne, which rises in the Cheviot Hills, and the South Tyne, which rises in the northern Pennines. It flows generally eastwards, entering the North Sea at Tynemouth.

17d   Check container inside for bottle (8)

20d   Habit 23 changes after a time (6)

There is an error in the clue as it appears in the Vancouver Sun in which the cross reference indicator appears as "10" rather than "23". British writers report that the same error appeared in the online version of the puzzle in the UK but was later corrected. I suspect that the error must have also appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times, although there were no reports of it in Times for the Times. The error was also repeated by the Australian — which, like the Ottawa Citizen, Vancouver Sun and Toronto Star — carries the syndicated puzzle. It is quite remarkable that only the Ottawa Citizen somehow managed to correct the error.

To complete the clue, one must substitute the solution to the cross referenced clue (clue 23) in place of the cross reference indicator appearing in the present clue.

22d   Feeble types return in a state of agitation (4)

In Britain, wet^[5] is an informal term meaning, as an adjective, (1) showing a lack of forcefulness or strength of character; feeble ⇒ they thought the cadets were a bit wet or (2) Conservative with liberal tendencies, especially as regarded by right-wing Conservatives ⇒ they came across as the most liberal or wet members of the government. As a noun, it means (1) a person lacking forcefulness or strength of character ⇒there are sorts who look like gangsters and sorts who look like wets or (2) a Conservative with liberal tendencies ⇒the wets favoured a change in economic policy. The use of the term wet^[7] in British politics apparently began during the term in office of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher^[7].

23d   I see Queen after introduction to the band (4)

By tradition, the 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 cipher of Queen Elizabeth is ER^[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina — and that of King George was GR^[5] — from the Latin Georgius Rex.

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