Friday, December 4, 2009 (DT 26005)

This puzzle was originally published Wednesday, August 12, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

It was not a very difficult puzzle today, and I did not find the clues to be particularly noteworthy. I also found some of the surface readings to be a bit strained.

Today's Glossary

Some possibly unfamiliar abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions used in today's puzzle

L² - abbreviation 2 learner driver (by extension, trainee)

neat² - noun archaic or dialect an ox, bull or cow, etc.

pi² - Brit slang adjective a short form of pious. noun a pious, religious or sanctimonious person or talk.

RD - abbreviation 2 Rural Dean noun in the Church of England: a clergyman with responsibility over a group of parishes

The Scarlet Pimpernel - a classic play and adventure novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, set during the Reign of Terror following the start of the French Revolution. The story is a precursor to the "disguised superhero" tales such as Zorro or Batman.

thane - Originally meaning a Military Companion to the King, a thane was a man holding administrative office

Margaret Thatcher - former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

vert - noun green, as a conventional heraldic colour

Today's Links

Big Dave's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 26005].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

5a Father, leases, with mother as well (7)

On initial reading, this clue seemed to have a rather unorthodox structure, with the wordplay being "PA (father) RENTS (leases)" and the definition being "PARENTS (father with mother as well)" in which one is required to ignore the word "'leases". After some consideration, I came to the conclusion that the correct interpretation is likely that the definition part is formally just "with mother as well" with the solver needing to infer father from the overall clue.

17a Vegetable tea brewed by Rural Dean (5)

Solution:

CHARD (vegetable) /\CHA (tea) brewed by RD (Rural Dean)

I was expecting "brewed" to be an anagram indicator. However, I discovered that it appears to be merely padding to aid the surface reading. Big Dave suggests that CHA is "tea brewed", and I suppose one could take that charitable view. However, since cha itself means tea, the word "brewed" does seem rather superfluous to the definition.

23a Article about a knight who was the King's companion (5)

The solution:

THE (article) containing (about) A N (knight: modern chess notation) /\ THANE (who was the King's companion)

All the dictionaries that I consulted defined thane similarly to Oxford: "noun 1 (in Anglo-Saxon England) a man granted land by the king or a nobleman, ranking between a freeman and a hereditary noble. 2 (in Scotland) a man who held land from a Scottish king and ranked with an earl’s son. " From this definition, one would be hard-pressed to identify thane as being a King's companion. Wikipedia is more helpful, saying "The term thegn (or thane in Shakespearean English), from OE þegn, ðegn "servant, attendant, retainer", is commonly employed by historians to describe either an aristocratic retainer of a king or nobleman in Anglo-Saxon England, or as a class term, the majority of the aristocracy below the ranks of ealdormen and high-reeves. It is also the term for an early medieval Scandinavian class of retainers." A retainer is a servant or attendant (i.e., companion in one sense), generally one who has provided long-standing service.

7d Tell Satan to muck out the cowshed! (4-5)

The solution NEAT-STALL is an anagram (to muck out) of TELL SATAN. Neat (the same spelling whether singular or plural) is an archaic term for cattle, so a neat-stall would be a cattle-stall (or, by extension, a cowshed). Despite the fact that I was not able to find the word in any dictionary that I consulted (although I probably should have looked in one that predated the advent of the Internet), I seriously doubt that it is a neologism.

15d A sanctimonious group of timeless artists keep bees (9)

For the surface reading to be grammatically correct should not the verb be in the third person singular (i.e., a group keeps)?

22d Raise the spirits of the Earl recently (5)

This clue caused me to wonder a bit. I was confident that "recently" could mean lately or of late, but can it also mean late? Well, the answer is yes, as in the phrase, "As late as yesterday she was fine."

Signing off for today - Falcon