Friday, February 16, 2018 — DT 28574

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28574
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, November 2, 2017
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28574]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Kath
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 needed a bit of help from my electronic assistants on three clues to finish this puzzle. Of the three, two might have been "gettable" given more time but I don't think I would have gotten 19d in a month of Sundays.

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 semi-all-in-one (semi-&lit.) clues. All-in-one (&lit.) clues and cryptic definitions are marked with a dotted underline. Explicit link words and phrases are enclosed in forward slashes (/link/) and implicit links are shown as double forward slashes (//).

Across

1a   Goes over // river expanse capsizing (6)

4a   Heckles // a bishop in seconds (8)

"bishop" = RR (show explanation )

Right Reverend^[5] (abbreviation RR^[2]) is a title given to a bishop, especially in the Anglican Church ⇒ the Right Reverend David Jenkins, Bishop of Durham.

hide explanation

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Barrack is a British^* term meaning to Jeer loudly at (someone performing or speaking in public) in order to express disapproval or to distract them ⇒ (i) opponents barracked him when he addressed the opening parliamentary session; (ii) the disgraceful barracking that came from the mob.

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^* On the other hand, in Australia and New Zealand barrack for means to give support and encouragement to ⇒ I take it you'll be barracking for Labour tonight?.

9a   Guard // dispatched by railway (6)

10a   City // over in Europe's less urbanised (8)

11a   Confound, // so a hint's in order (8)

13a   Tenant // not so level periodically (6)

15a   Simple // routine upset about including new start (13)

18a   Tireless // debating if ale is drunk (13)

22a   Authority /of/ old people holding line (6)

"line" = L (show explanation )

In textual references, the abbreviation for line is l.^[5] ⇒ l. 648.

hide explanation

In modern day usage^*, an oracle^[5] is a person or thing regarded as an infallible authority on something ⇒ he reigned supreme as the Colonial Office's oracle on Africa.

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^* In classical antiquity, an oracle^[5] was a priest or priestess acting as a medium through whom advice or prophecy was sought from the gods.

24a   Name jerk admitting single currency /is/ unstable (8)

The euro^[5] is the single European currency, which replaced the national currencies of France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Luxembourg, Austria, Finland, the Republic of Ireland, Belgium, and the Netherlands in 2002. Nineteen member states of the European Union now use the euro.

26a   One dines on one's own! (8)

27a   Bore /in/ scrap round end of bar (6)

28a   Blow // from wind is astern (8)

29a   Begin reading only without serious effort initially (6)

This type of clue is variously referred to as an initialism or an acrostic. The entire clue provides the wordplay which consists of indicator (the portion of the clue marked with a dashed underline) plus fodder (the portion of the clue marked with a solid underline). The fodder also provides the definition.

Down

1d   Artist's style almost /becoming/ rogue (6)

"artist" = RA (show explanation )

A Royal Academician (abbreviation RA^[10]) is a member of the Royal Academy of Arts^[5] (also Royal Academy; abbreviation also RA^[10]), an institution established in London in 1768, whose purpose is to cultivate painting, sculpture, and architecture in Britain. 

hide explanation

Style^[5] is used in the sense of to designate with a particular name, description, or title ⇒ the official is styled principal and vice chancellor of the university.

2d   Understood // criminal's genuine, touching judge's heart (9)

3d   Vegetable // crop is below standard (7)

5d   Queen about to lift // port by the Med (4)

"Queen" = ER (show explanation )

The regnal 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 regnal cipher of Queen Elizabeth is ER^[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina.

hide explanation

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The Med^[5] is an informal, British name for the Mediterranean Sea.

Acre^[5] is an industrial seaport of Israel.

6d   Most optimistic /with/ one's love rising during sleep (7)

"love" = O (show explanation )

In tennis, squash, and some other sports, love^[5] is a score of zero or nil ⇒ love fifteen. The resemblance of a zero written as a numeral (0) to the letter O leads to the cryptic crossword convention of the word "love" being used to clue this letter.

Although folk etymology has connected the word with French l'oeuf 'egg', from the resemblance in shape between an egg and a zero, the term apparently comes from the phrase play for love (i.e. the love of the game, not for money).

hide explanation

7d   Battle on board // revolutionary ship (5)

"revolutionary" = CHE (show explanation )

Che Guevara^[7] (1928–1967) was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia within popular culture.

hide explanation

On the seas of Crosswordland, you will rarely encounter a ship that is not a steamship (abbreviation SS^[5]).

8d   Uncertainty /of/ Sun's leader writers in employ (8)

Here and There
The setter has almost certainly used "writer" in the sense of an implement used for writing. While North American dictionaries define pen[3,11] as a writer or an author ⇒ a hired pen, British dictionaries do not list this meaning although they do show pen[2,4] (or the pen[5,10]) as symbolically denoting writing as an occupation.

Scratching the Surface
The Sun[7] is a daily tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and Ireland by a division of News UK, a wholly owned subsidiary of Australian-born American publisher and media entrepreneur Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Leader[10] (also called leading article) is a mainly British term for the leading editorial in a newspaper.

12d   Sniffs out // small change in France (6)

A cent^[5] is a monetary unit in various countries^*, equal to one hundredth of a dollar, euro, or other decimal currency unit. However, in Britain — despite having adopted a decimal currency system — one hundredth of a pound is known as a penny rather than a cent.

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^* Collins English Dictionary exhaustively defines cent^[10] as a monetary unit of American Samoa, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Brunei, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Dominica, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guyana, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Liberia, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Micronesia, Monaco, Montenegro, Namibia, Nauru, the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Réunion, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, the Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Surinam, Swaziland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, the United States, the Vatican City, the Virgin Islands, and Zimbabwe. It is worth one hundredth of their respective standard units.

14d   The French fever /for/ Union (6)

"the French" = LE (show explanation )

In French, the masculine singular form of the definite article is le^[8].

hide explanation

Ague^[5] is an archaic term for:

• malaria or another illness involving fever and shivering
• a fever or shivering fit

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A league^[5] is a collection of people, countries, or groups that combine for mutual protection or cooperation ⇒ the League of Nations.^*

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^* League^[5] is an archaic term for an agreement or alliance. The League of Nations^[5] was an association of countries established in 1919 by the Treaty of Versailles to promote international cooperation and achieve international peace and security. It was powerless to stop Italian, German, and Japanese expansionism leading to the Second World War, and was replaced by the United Nations in 1945.

16d   Upset /seeing/ husband in public squabble (9)

17d   Fell embracing fabulous creature /getting/ separated (8)

In fantasy literature and games, an orc^[10] is a member of an imaginary race of evil goblins, especially in the fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien.

What did she say?

In her review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Kath describes an orc as a mythological fierce sea-monster I initially thought this to be a rather obscure reference that Kath has managed to dig up, only to discover that it comes directly from The Chambers Dictionary — which, by the way, is the only dictionary in which I found this meaning listed. The only other reference that I could find to such a creature is l'Orco[7] (the orc), a gigantic sea monster that is one of the fantastic creatures in Orlando furioso[7] (The Frenzy of Orlando or, more literally, Raging Roland), an epic poem by Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto (1474–1533). The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532.

19d   Bolts securing practically ancient // buildings (7)

Bolt^[5] is used in the sense of to move or run away suddenly in an attempt to escape ⇒ they bolted down the stairs.

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Folly, in this sense, is not a term with which I am familiar. After my electronic helpers suggested it as a candidate, my folly was in ignoring it for a considerable period of time, having dismissed it as improbable.

A folly^[5] is a costly ornamental building with no practical purpose, especially a tower or mock-Gothic ruin built in a large garden or park.

Behind the Picture
In her review, Kath shows a picture of a Gothic Revival folly in Shotover Park, Oxfordshire, England. Given that Kath is a resident of Oxford, this would be pretty much in her own back yard.

20d   Simpler to accept this compiler's turning // crazier (7)

""this compiler's" = IM (show explanation )

It is a common cryptic crossword convention for the creator of the puzzle to use terms such as (the or this) compiler, (the or this) setter, (this) author, (this) writer, or this person to refer to himself or herself. To solve such a clue, one must generally substitute a first person pronoun (I or me) for whichever of these terms has been used in the clue.

Today, the setter has made the scenario slightly more complicated by combining "this compiler" with the verb "to be" producing "this compiler's" (a contraction of "this compiler is") which must be replaced by "I'm" (a contraction of "I am").

hide explanation

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Barmy^[5] (adjective) is an informal British term meaning:

• mad; crazy ⇒ I thought I was going barmy at first
• extremely foolish ⇒ this is a barmy decision

21d   Southern church concealing fringe // programme (6)

"church" = CE (show explanation )

The Church of England^[10] (abbreviation CE^[10]) is the reformed established state Church in England, Catholic in order and basic doctrine, with the Sovereign as its temporal head.

hide explanation

23d   Provokes having first cut // relations (5)

25d   Nude // apart from last item of costume (4)

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)
^[12] - CollinsDictionary.com (Webster’s New World College Dictionary)
^[13] - MacmillanDictionary.com (Macmillan Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon