Puzzle at a Glance |
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Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26548 | |
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, May 10, 2011 | |
Setter Unknown | |
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26548] | |
Big Dave's Review Written By Gazza | |
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
Strangely, I performed better on today's three-star puzzle than I did on yesterday's two-star offering. I have observed that difficulty is often in the eye of the beholder, and usually the ease with which one is able to do a puzzle depends largely on whether or not one happens to be tuned to the setter's wavelength. Like Gazza, I was put off by the use of "on top" in 27a.
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.]
[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.
pasty1 (also pastie) - noun British a folded pastry case with a savoury filling, typically of seasoned meat and vegetables.
Appearing in Solutions:
[Battle of] Agincourt - a battle in northern France in 1415 during the Hundred Years War, in which the English under Henry V defeated a large French army. The victory, achieved largely by use of the longbow, allowed Henry to occupy Normandy.
blear - archaic [a] adjective dim, dull, or filmy: a medicine to lay to sore and blear eyes [b] verb make dim; blur: he bleared his eyes with books
*c - abbreviation Cricket (on scorecards) caught by: ME Waugh c Lara b Walsh 19
china - noun 2 British informal a friend. [from rhyming slang china plate ‘mate’]
H2 - abbreviation [1st entry] hard (used in describing grades of pencil lead): a 2H pencil
hombre - Spanish man
mate1 - noun 3 British informal [a] a friend or companion: my best mate Steve [b] used as a friendly form of address between men or boys: ‘See you then, mate.’
ombre - noun a trick-taking card game for three people using a pack of forty cards, popular in Europe in the 17th -18th centuries. [Origin: from Spanish hombre 'man', with reference to one player seeking to win the pool]
Pb - symbol the chemical element lead. [from Latin plumbum]
Samos - a Greek island in the Aegean, situated close to the coast of western Turkey.
samosa - noun [Indian cuisine] a triangular savoury pastry fried in ghee or oil, containing spiced vegetables or meat.
The Sitwells - three siblings (Edith Sitwell, Osbert Sitwell, Sacheverell Sitwell), from Scarborough, North Yorkshire, who formed an identifiable literary and artistic clique around themselves in London in the period roughly 1916 to 1930.
Signing off for today - Falcon
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