Friday, September 16, 2011 - DT 26586

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26586
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, June 23, 2011
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26586]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave
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

Introduction

I found this puzzle to be fairly easy - but I don't think I would go so far as to give it only a single star for difficulty. It might have been a walk in the park had I been more familiar with the British landscape architect and had I known the English comedy duo. I recall having encountered the former in at least one previous puzzle. As for the comedians, they are totally new to me. For a brief while, I thought we might be looking for Hope and Crosby.

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.

bottle - noun 2 British informal the courage or confidence needed to do something difficult or dangerous: I lost my bottle completely and ran

Bude - a small seaside resort town in North Cornwall, England, at the mouth of the River Neet [also known locally as the River Strat].

Ilchester - a village and civil parish, situated on the River Yeo or Ivel, five miles north of Yeovil, in the English county of Somerset.

Appearing in Solutions:

*B³ - symbol 1 chess bishop.

Capability [Brown] - (1716 –1783), name by which English landscape architect Lancelot Brown was commonly known. Remembered as "England's greatest gardener", he designed over 170 parks, many of which still endure.

Hale & Pace - English comedy duo who have starred in several TV sketch series.

OT (abbreviation Old Testament) - cryptic crossword convention books [a similar meaning is also ascribed to NT (abbreviation New Testament)]

rarebit (also Welsh rarebit) - noun a dish of melted and seasoned cheese on toast, sometimes with other ingredients.

soirée - French evening

test¹ - noun 2 (Test) short for Test match the first Test against New Zealand

Test match - noun an international cricket or rugby match, typically one of a series, played between teams representing two different countries: the Test match between Pakistan and the West Indies

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

This commentary should be read in conjunction with the review at Big Dave's Crossword Blog, to which a link is provided in the table above.

10a   At heart accepting change of direction is cockeyed (7)

... and maybe the clue is as well. If one starts with AT HEART and changes E(ast) to W(est) (accepting change of direction), one ends up with ATHWART. However, I don't really see this clue working as cockeyed is an adjective, while athwart can be either a preposition or an adverb. Nevertheless, I may be being overly picky, as Big Dave expresses no concerns regarding the clue.

1d   Regularly scraggly? Frank? Far from it (4)

In his hint, I would presume that Big Dave meant to say "the even letters from the second word of the clue" rather than "the even letters of two words from the clue".

Signing off for today - Falcon