Thursday, May 26, 2011 (DT 26490)

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26490
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, March 3, 2011
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26490]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave
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

Introduction

Today's puzzle presents a fair challenge with a goodly dose of, among other things, English football and British geography. Amazingly, I was able to work out the "multi-clue" combination - despite never having heard the expression. I did call my electronic assistants into play on 14d, although they were of little help. In the end, I was able to work out the solution for this clue from the wordplay - but then needed to look it up in a dictionary to verify that such a word actually exists (yes, it does in Britain). I take some consolation in seeing that many of the Brits had difficulty with these clues.

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.

The Hay Wain by John Constable

John Constable - (1776 – 1837) English Romantic painter whose most famous paintings include Dedham Vale of 1802 and The Hay Wain of 1821.

East End - the part of London [England] east of the City as far as the River Lea, including the Docklands.

Jersey - the largest of the Channel Islands; population 91,900 (est. 2009); capital, St Helier.

New Romney - a small town in Kent, England, on the edge of Romney Marsh, an area of flat, rich agricultural land reclaimed from the sea after the harbor began to be silted in. New Romney was once a sea port, with the harbour adjacent to the church, but is now more than a mile from the sea.

Wayne Rooney - English footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Manchester United and the England national team.

slowcoach - noun British informal a person who acts or moves slowly: ‘Come on , slowcoach,’ urged George

Snowdon - the highest mountain in Wales, at an altitude of 1,085 metres (3,560 ft) above sea level, and the highest point in the British Isles outside Scotland.

Chris Waddle - former footballer from England who played for a number of clubs in the 1980s and 90s, including Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur and Sheffield Wednesday in England, and Olympique de Marseille in France. He also played 62 times for the England national football team between 1985 and 1991. He currently works as a co-commentator for ESPN's Premier League football coverage, and for BBC 5 Live.

Appearing in Solutions:

bun - noun 1. round bread roll: a small round bread roll, sometimes sweetened and with added fruit or spice. 2. [likely chiefly British] small cake: a small round sweet cake. [Note: My conclusion that the latter usage is chiefly British is based on a comparison of entries in several dictionaries, some British and some American.]

bunce - noun British informal money or profit gained by someone: they can turn their hand to many jobs as long as there's a bit of bunce in it

Cyclops - noun 1. Greek Mythology a member of a race of savage one-eyed giants. In the Odyssey, Odysseus escaped death by blinding the Cyclops Polyphemus.

de - preposition French from

hoot¹ - [Collins English Dictionary] verb 4. British to blow a horn.

M and S - abbreviation Marks and Spencer plc (also known as M&S), a British retailer with over 700 stores in the United Kingdom and over 300 stores spread across more than 40 countries.

Wednesday's child - according to the traditional English nursery rhyme Monday's Child, "Wednesday's child is full of woe".

*R² - abbreviation [13th entry] Cricket [not to mention baseball] (on scorecards) run(s).

scraggy - adjective [a] (of a person or animal) thin and bony. [b] (also chiefly North American scraggly) ragged, thin, or untidy in form or appearance: an old man with a scraggy beard

show (someone) a clean pair of heels - phrase informal run away (from someone) extremely fast.

Appearing on Big Dave's Blog:

mocks - noun 1 British informal mock examinations: obtaining Grade A in mocks

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.

1d   Slowcoach Waddle played on right (7)

The surface reading of this clue seems to be themed on English football. "Slowcoach" is British slang for 'a person who acts or moves slowly'. Chris Waddle is a former English football player who is currently a television sports commentator. Waddle played wing, but I was not able to determine whether he actually played on the right or on the left. The wordplay is an anagram (played) of WADDLE + R (right) producing DAWDLER (slowcoach). Given that Waddle played 62 times for the England national football team over the course of his career, it would seem apparent that he was anything but a dawdler.

2d   5 in place of white line (6-2-3-4)

The "5" is a cross-reference to clue 5a. Strictly speaking, since there are two clues with the number 5 (5a and 5d) the setter really should have specified which one is intended to be the target of the cross-reference. Making the substitution indicated by the cross-reference, the clue becomes:

• Humdrum in place of white-line (6-2-3-4)

This is a double definition where the two definitions are "humdrum" and "place of white line", with the solution being MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD.

Signing off for today - Falcon