Wednesday, November 7, 2012 - DT 26952

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26952
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, August 23, 2012
Setter Philip Marlow (Shamus) *
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26952]
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 █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by puzzle solving tools █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's blog
Notes * While Gazza and several others writing at Big Dave's Telegraph Blog express the opinion that the setter may be Shamus, the identity of the setter has not been definitively confirmed.

Introduction

I got through today's puzzle fairly quickly, leaving me time to reflect on double definitions and cryptic definitions — two clue types that often bear similar attributes. You will find my thoughts on this subject in my commentary on clues 5d, 9d and 21d.

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.

1a   Greek character getting into twist in practice (4-2)

Mu^[5] is the twelfth letter of the Greek alphabet (Μ, μ).

10a   Fantastic credit about workers beginning to exhibit integrity (9)

TU^[3,4] is the abbreviation for trade union.

13a   English chairman finally retained by board -- describing a sound principle? (7)

Board^[5] is an archaic term for a table set for a meal ⇒ he looked at the banquet which was spread upon his board.

14a   Playing area near a ground (5)

In the surface reading, ground^[2] is used as a noun in the sense of an area of land used for a specified purpose ⇒ football ground. However, in the cryptic reading, it is the past participle of the verb to grind (and serves as an anagram indicator).

15a   Shed, say, you once found fringed by river (8)

The River Ouse^[5] might refer to any of four English rivers. In Gazza's words, "There’s more than one river in the UK with this name but the most well-known one is in North Yorkshire.".

1. (also Great Ouse) a river of eastern England, which rises in Northamptonshire and flows 257 km (160 miles) eastwards then northwards through East Anglia to the Wash near King’s Lynn.
2. a river of NE England, formed at the confluence of the Ure and Swale in North Yorkshire and flowing 92 km (57 miles) south-eastwards through York to the Humber estuary.
3. a river of SE England, which rises in the Weald of West Sussex and flows 48 km (30 miles) south-eastwards to the English Channel.
4. (also Little Ouse) a river of East Anglia, which forms a tributary of the Great Ouse.

18a   Players in defence getting best extra support (8)

A back^[5] is a player in a team game who plays in a defensive position behind the forwards ⇒ their backs showed some impressive running and passing. This definition applies to games such as association football (soccer) and field hockey, but not to North American football where there are both offensive and defensive backs (who alternately take the field depending on which team has possession of the ball). In hockey (ice hockey for the Brits), the equivalent position is called a defenceman (in both men's and women's hockey).

20a   Trade commonly seen in road recalled in island (5)

Ibiza^[5] is an island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain.

The A1^[7] (which Gazza refers to as the "the Great North Road") is the longest numbered road in the UK, at 410 miles (660 km). It connects London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom, with Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland.

23a   Salvo from an overheated local guest? (7)

A local^[5] is a pub [or bar] convenient to a person’s home. A salvo from someone who lost their cool in a pub might be described as bar rage.

26a   Opportune stance of a potter? (2,3)

The setter uses potter to mean someone who pots balls at a pool table. Gazza comments that "‘on [cue]’ doesn’t seem right " to describe the "stance of a potter". It certainly doesn't fit the picture he has chosen, but how about a player leaning on his cue while his opponent is shooting?

27a   Cut third of traditional curriculum before schooling (not advanced) (9)

In Britain, Advanced level^[10] (popularly known as A level^[10]) is (1) a public examination in a subject taken for the General Certificate of Education (GCE), usually at the age of 17–18 or (2) the course leading to this examination.

29a   View rental property, in part needed for trainer maybe (6)

In Britain, a let^[5] is a property available for rent ⇒ an unfurnished let.

2d   Engineers period of time to behave in an environmentally friendly way (7)

The Corps of Royal Engineers (RE)^[5] is the field engineering and construction corps of the British army.

5d   Suspect selection process? (8,6)

Identity parade^[5] is the British term for a group of people including a suspect for a crime assembled for the purpose of having an eyewitness identify the suspect from among them. This would be known in North America as a police lineup^[7].

I would say that this clue is quite clearly a cryptic definition. The entire clue provides the definition but is deviously worded in such a manner that we are misled as to its 'true' meaning. Here the setter misdirects our attention to a fraudulent election — rather than a procedure that the police might employ in a criminal investigation. As we see here, setters often use a question mark (or, alternatively, an exclamation point) to signal that a clue is a cryptic definition.

We will see a couple of other clues later in the puzzle which have a similar structure — but which are not necessarily of the same type.

7d   Major route followed by writer on American form of transport (7)

The M1^[7] is a north–south motorway (multilane, divided highway) in England connecting London to Leeds.

8d   It's hot among swimming teams in river (6)

The Thames^[5] is a river of southern England, flowing 338 km (210 miles) eastwards from the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire through London to the North Sea.

9d   Sharp as a sketch artist? (5,2,3,4)

The structure of this clue is similar to that of 5d. However, is this clue a double definition (as Gazza describes it) or is it a cryptic definition? I would say that it might reasonably be considered to be either.

The role of the question mark may influence how we categorize a clue. Setters may employ question marks for a variety of purposes. As we saw at 5d, it may serve as a flag that the clue is a cryptic definition. A question mark is also commonly used to indicate the presence of a definition by example.

If we were to deem the present clue to be a double definition, then I would think that we should apply the underlining so as to show the two definitions as separate elements (which I note that Gazza hasn't done), as follows:

• 9d   Sharp as a sketch artist? (5,2,3,4)

In this case, the question mark could be considered to be indicating that "as a sketch artist" points to one (of possibly many) phrases that might be used to describe a sketch artist (i.e., it is a definition by example).

On the other hand, were we to consider the clue to be a cryptic definition, the entire clue would form the definition (and one would expect the entire clue to be underlined), as follows:

• 9d   Sharp as a sketch artist? (5,2,3,4)

In this case, the core of the definition is provided by the word "sharp" and the phrase "as a sketch artist" provides some additional information to the solver. In contrast to what we saw in 5d, the latter phrase is intended, not to misdirect us, but to provide an additional hint to narrow down the scope of the solution.

While I can see merit in either choice, I personally opt for cryptic definition in this case. This is largely based on my believe that, in a double definition, each definition should stand solidly on its own and I don't feel that "as a sketch artist" does so. It really only works when paired with "sharp".

Thus when confronted with the choice between what I see as a fairly clever cryptic definition and what I deem to be a rather poor double definition, I will go with the former.

16d   Oil developed by man entertaining companion in elitist state? (9)

Companion refers to Companion of Honour (abbreviation CH), 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.

21d   First element of signature? (7)

This is yet another clue which one might deem to be either a double definition or a cryptic definition.

In this case, I choose to call it a double definition as I consider it to be, at best, a very poor cryptic definition. On the other hand, it is a rather solid double definition.

As mentioned in the commentary for 9d,  a question mark can be used to indicate a definition by example. In this clue, I believe the question mark is being used for precisely that purpose — to show that an "initial" is something that may be part of a signature, but is not necessarily part of one. For instance, it would depend on whether one chose to sign one's name as J. Smith or John Smith.

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 today — Falcon