Friday, May 20, 2011 - DT 26487

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26487
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, February 28, 2011
Setter Rufus
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26487]
Big Dave's Review Written By Libellule
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
Notes The National Post has skipped DT 26486 which was published in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, February 26, 2011

Introduction

Today we have a very enjoyable puzzle from Rufus, with some appropriately themed clues from this ex-member of the Royal Navy. Despite its plethora of Briticisms, I made fairly short work of this puzzle. I did seek assistance from my Tool Chest on 9a (a British expression that seemed to be new even to the Brits) and 8d (where I was handicapped by having erroneously convinced myself for some unfathomable reason that the solution might end in -ing).

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.

century - noun 2 a score of a hundred in a sporting event, especially a batsman's score of a hundred runs in cricket.

CND - abbreviation (in the UK) Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

send someone to Coventry - phrase chiefly British refuse to associate with or speak to someone. [mid 18th century: sometimes said to stem from the extreme unpopularity of soldiers stationed in Coventry, who were cut off socially by the citizens, or because Royalist prisoners were sent there during the English Civil War, the city being staunchly Parliamentarian]

*duck⁵ - noun Cricket a batsman's score of nought: he was out for a duck

form - noun 10 British a hare's lair.

international - noun 1 British [a] a game or contest between teams representing different countries in a sport. [b] a player who has taken part in an international game or contest.

Although I realize that the word 'international' appears in the clue as an adjective, I have chosen to use its definition as a noun as I believe it better illustrates the surface reading of the clue.

minority - noun 2 the state or period of being under the age of full legal responsibility.

quaver - noun 2 Music, chiefly British a note having the time value of an eighth of a semibreve or half a crotchet, represented by a large dot with a hooked stem.  Also called eighth note

For someone like myself who has only a passing familiarity with music terminology at the best of times and certainly had no idea of this British musical term, the intended misdirection in the surface reading of the clue was totally lost.

ring² - verb 2 British call by telephone: [with object] I rang her this morning; Harriet rang Dorothy up next day; [no object] she rang to tell him the good news

While this use of 'ring' would surely be understood on this side of the Atlantic, North Americans themselves would almost invariably say 'call'.

tickle - verb 1 [3^rd entry] catch (a trout) by lightly rubbing it so that it moves backwards into the hand.

try - noun 2 Rugby an act of touching the ball down behind the opposing goal line, scoring points and entitling the scoring side to a kick at goal.

TT - abbreviation Tourist Trophy, a motorcycle-racing competition held annually on roads in the Isle of Man since 1907.

Appearing in Solutions:

A. E. Housman - (1859–1936), English poet and classical scholar; full name Alfred Edward Housman. He is now chiefly remembered for the poems collected in A Shropshire Lad (1896), a series of nostalgic verses largely based on ballad forms.

nitrate - noun Chemistry a salt or ester of nitric acid, containing the anion NO₃⁻ or the group-NO₃.

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.

8d   Quite satisfied with what spring holds? (3,8)

This is a double definition with the second being cryptic. The first definition is "quite satisfied" with the solution being WELL CONTENT which is also what one might find in a spring (in the sense of a source of water).

Th term well content is not to be found at Oxford Dictionaries Online (Oxford Dictionary of English), Search Chambers (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary), the Free Online Dictionary (American Heritage Dictionary and Collins English Dictionary), The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition, MSN Encarta (UK or US), or Macmillan Online Dictionary (British or American versions). The term (spelled well-content, with a hyphen) is found in Webster's New World College Dictionary, 4th Ed., The Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus, Infoplease Dictionary (Random House Unabridged Dictionary), and Dictionary.com (Random House Dictionary).

Signing off for today - Falcon