Thursday, October 15, 2014 — DT 27497

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27497
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, May 23, 2014
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27497]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Gazza
BD Rating
Difficulty - ★★★	Enjoyment - ★★★
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 █ - solved but without fully parsing the clue █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by solutions from Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - yet to be solved

Introduction

I was pleased (or, perhaps, relieved) to see that Gazza awarded this puzzle three stars for difficulty. I came to a total impasse in the lower right hand corner with 29a, 25d and 26d. After setting the puzzle aside and revisiting it numerous times, the pennies finally began to drop.

I invite you to leave a comment to let us know how you fared with the puzzle.

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.

Primary indications (definitions) are marked with a solid underline in the clue; subsidiary indications (be they wordplay or other) are marked with a dashed underline in all-in-one (&lit.) clues, semi-all-in-one (semi-&lit.) clues and cryptic definitions. Explicit link words and phrases are enclosed in forward slashes (/link/) and implicit links are shown as double forward slashes (//).

Across

1a   Outlaw // supporting writer (9)

9a   Drowning in drink is a very small // animal (6)

10a   Terribly late, one certain /to be/ taking one's time (2,7)

11a   Knight hiding hesitation when approaching a // mountain range (6)

Especially in Spanish-speaking countries or the western US, sierra^[5] is a term for a long jagged mountain chain.

12a   The female copper -- thin /or/ big and strong? (9)

The symbol for the chemical element copper is Cu^[5] (from Latin cuprum).

13a   Heathens /making/ vessels with silver lining (6)

The symbol for the chemical element silver is Ag^[5] from Latin argentum.

17a   Cut // not all of the wood (3)

19a   Near // wild ocelots (5,2)

20a   Henry, king presumably resting // old weapon (7)

Hal has been a nickname for Henry at least as far back as the days of William Shakespeare.

Henry V^[7] is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1599. It tells the story of King Henry V of England, focusing on events immediately before and after the Battle of Agincourt (1415) during the Hundred Years' War. The play is the final part of a tetralogy, preceded by Richard II, Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2. The original audiences would thus have already been familiar with the title character, who was depicted in the Henry IV plays as a wild, undisciplined lad known as "Prince Harry" and by Falstaff as "Hal".

Rex^[5] (abbreviation R^[5]) [Latin for king] denotes the reigning king, used following a name (e.g. Georgius Rex, King George) or in the titles of lawsuits (e.g. Rex v. Jones, the Crown versus Jones — often shortened to R. v. Jones).

The phrase "presumably resting" is used as a substitute for 'in bed'. Thus "king presumably resting" becomes 'king in bed' which parses as 'R (king) contained in (in) BED'. [The phrase "presumably resting" allows for the possibility that the king might be engaged in some more active pursuit while abed.]

A halberd^[5] (also known as a halbert) is a combined spear and battleaxe.

21a   Precise // removal of article from cart (3)

Dry^[5] (said of information, writing, etc.) denotes dully factual ⇒ the dry facts of the matter.

23a   Youngster /is/ very quiet when external control is brought back (6)

Pianissimo (abbreviation pp)^[5] is a direction used in music to mean either (as an adjective) very soft or very quiet or (as an adverb) very softly or very quietly.

My British dictionaries define nipper^[2,5,10] as an informal or colloquial term for a (small) child, while my American dictionaries say that nipper^[3,11] means a small boy. The American Heritage Dictionary indicates that the term is chiefly British and Chambers 21st Century Dictionary characterises it as dated ("old colloquial use").

27a   Lacking discipline, // silly nude catches puff-puff (9)

In Britain, puff-puff^[10] is a children's name for a steam locomotive or railway train.

28a   Customary practice // of Spiritualists (6)

29a   Rodent /in/ yellow vessel hidden in wood (9)

Live and learn — it had never occurred to me that a porcupine is a rodent. As a result, it took me an incredibly long time to crack this clue.

Or^[5] is gold or yellow, as a heraldic tincture. In heraldry, a tincture^[5] is any of the conventional colours (including the metals and stains, and often the furs) used in coats of arms.

30a   Church book, we hear, /is/ one for preservation (6)

Psalter^[10] is another name for Psalms, especially in the version in the Book of Common Prayer^[10], the official book of church services of the Church of England, until 1980, when the Alternative Service Book was sanctioned.

31a   Never giving up // in ascents proving tricky (9)

Down

2d   It's dreadful // ascending hill -- number will stay at bottom (6)

In the clue, the word "it's" plays a role very similar to that of a link word despite not being positioned between the definition and wordplay. Read "it's ..." more verbosely as 'the solution to the clue is a synonym for ...'.

3d   Supper's beginning with fish // smell (6)

The tench^[5] is a European freshwater fish (Tinca tinca) of the carp family, popular with anglers and widely introduced elsewhere.

4d   Issue /that/ troubles Ulster (6)

As a link word, that^[5] may have been used as a conjunction expressing a result ⇒ she was so tired that she couldn’t think.

Properly Ulster^[10] is an area that was a province and former kingdom of northern Ireland which passed to the English Crown in 1461. Following centuries of conflict, Ulster was partitioned in 1921, with six counties [Antrim, Down, Armagh, Londonderry, Tyrone, and Fermanagh] forming Northern Ireland (a region within the United Kingdom) and three counties [Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan] joining the Republic of Ireland. Despite this, Ulster is a widely-used (albeit inaccurate) name for Northern Ireland.

5d   Torrent /of/ anger in the pub? (7)

In this clue, the word "of" is a link (indicating constituent parts) between the definition and wordplay. The preposition of^[5] may be used to indicate the material or substance constituting something ⇒ (i) the house was built of bricks; or (ii) walls of stone.

"Anger in the pub" could also be referred to as 'pub anger' or 'bar rage'.

6d   Anger against topsy-turvy board /is/ genuine (9)

Board^[5,10] is an archaic term for a table, especially one used for eating at, and especially when laden with food ⇒ he looked at the banquet which was spread upon his board.

7d   Open cut // bled too much? (9)

In his review, Gazza makes reference to the Chancellor of the Exchequer^[5], the chief finance minister of the United Kingdom, who prepares the nation’s annual budgets.

8d   Bus blocking us out where it's parked? // Verbal abuse results (9)

In this clue, the word "results" fulfills a function similar to that of a link word. In fact, one can easily see this by rewriting the clue as:

• 8d   Bus blocking us out where it's parked /resulting in/ verbal abuse (9)

14d   Writer of dramatic script /needing/ exceptional actress in (9)

The surface reading of this clue, given the apparent omission of the object of the preposition "in", sounds ungrammatical to my ear. However, I do not rule out the possibility that there may be dialects where such a construction is used. I had a friend at university who hailed from the Lunenburg area of Nova Scotia and he would often say something such as "I'm heading downtown. Do you want to come with?"

15d   Little fellow trapped in house expresses scorn /for/ medical facilities (9)

16d   Specially financed // party set up and getting on (9)

17d   Have to spend pounds /for/ builder's item (3)

The pound^[5] (also pound sterling) is the basic monetary unit of the UK, equal to 100 pence. While the symbol for pound is £, it is often written as L^[10].

18d   Question of puzzlement /from/ character becoming audible (3)

22d   Managed to talk at length /in/ Asian city (7)

Rangoon^[5] is the former capital of Burma (Myanmar), a port in the Irrawaddy delta; population 4,088,000 (est. 2007). For centuries a Buddhist religious centre, it is the site of the Shwe Dagon Pagoda, built over 2,500 years ago. The modern city was established by the British in the mid 19th century and was the capital from 1886 until it was replaced by Naypyidaw in 2005.

24d   Wise person/'s/ spoken with energy about origin of capitalism (6)

25d   Dropout having year off with huge // animals in the wild (6)

The sizes of clothing that North Americans would describe as plus-size^[7] (or often big and tall in the case of men's clothing) would be called outsize (OS^[5]) in Britain.

26d   Writer with name on // flag (6)

Pennon^[5] is a less common term for pennant.

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)
^[11] - TheFreeDictionary.com (Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon