Monday, August 1, 2011 - DT 26545

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26545
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, May 6, 2011
Setter Giovanni
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26545]
Big Dave's Review Written By Gazza
Big Dave's Rating
Difficulty - ★★★★	Enjoyment - ★★★★
Falcon's Performance ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - incorrect prior to use of puzzle solving tools █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's blog
Notes This puzzle appears on the Monday Diversions page of the Saturday, July 30, 2011 edition of the National Post

Introduction

After struggling more than usual with this puzzle, it was a relief to see that Gazza awarded it four stars for difficulty. I had to dig into my Tool Chest for assistance with only slightly more than half the puzzle solved.

Today's Glossary

Selected abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions appearing in today's puzzle.

[An asterisk beside an entry merely indicates that it has been taken it from a Cumulative Glossary of entries which have previously appeared, in either this blog or its companion blog, the Ottawa Citizen Cryptic Crossword Forum.]

Appearing in Clues:

Meanings listed in this section may reflect how the word is used in the surface reading of the clue. Of course, that meaning may be contributing to the misdirection that the setter is attempting to create.

pence - British plural form of penny

Usage: Both pence and pennies have existed as plural forms of penny since at least the 16th century. The two forms now tend to be used for different purposes: pence refers to sums of money (five pounds and sixty-nine pence; ) while pennies refers to the coins themselves (I left two pennies on the table; ). The use of pence rather than penny as a singular (the chancellor will put one pence on income tax) is not regarded as correct in standard English.

Appearing in Solutions:

CIS - abbreviation Commonwealth of Independent States, a confederation of independent states, formerly constituent republics of the Soviet Union, established in 1991. The member states are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

FM - abbreviation [1^st entry] Field Marshal.

*l. (lowercase L) - archaic pound(s)

manticore - noun a mythical animal typically depicted as having the body of a lion, the head of a man, and the sting of a scorpion.

*nit¹ - noun informal 2 British a foolish person: you stupid nit!

p - abbreviation British penny or pence.

pipe - verb 3 [a] (of a bird) sing in a high or shrill voice. [b] [with direct speech] say something in a high, shrill voice: ‘No, miss,’ piped Lucy

spit³ - noun a layer of earth whose depth is equal to the length of the blade of a spade: break up the top spit with a fork

Worksop - the largest town in the Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, England on the River Ryton at the northern edge of Sherwood Forest. It is about 19 miles (31 km) east-south-east of the City of Sheffield and its population is estimated (mid-2004) to be 39,800.

Signing off for today - Falcon