Monday, October 17, 2011 - DT 26611

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26611
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, July 22, 2011
Setter Giovanni
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26611]
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

I needed only a bit of assistance from my electronic aids today - on 16a (although I kicked myself vigorously for not getting this one without help), 20a (musical terms often trip me up), and 17d (a new expression for me).

I did need to rely on Gazza to confirm my explanation of the wordplay in 17d. I figured that bone must sound like some type of wine but inexplicably I was not able to find support for this notion (I obviously didn't search diligently enough). I also puzzled over the wordplay at 9a until I realized that "close friend" in this case is an intimate, rather than a mate.

You may notice that I've introduced a minor refinement in the "Falcon's Performance" chart above. In the past, any clues solved after I started to use my puzzle solving tools would have been shown in cyan whether or not I actually used the tools to solve those particular clues. Today I am indicating in cyan only those clues for which I used puzzle solving aids. Any clues subsequently solved without the help of tools are shown in blue. Thus today I began using my tools with six clues remaining to be solved. Of these six, I needed the tools to solve three of them and was able to solve three others without assistance (albeit with the help of checking letters provided by those clues solved with the aid of tools).

Today's Glossary

Selected abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions appearing in today's puzzle.

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.

Good (abbreviation G) [24a] is a mark that a teacher might award on a test or assignment.

Bishop (abbreviation B) [7d] is a chess piece - at least in the cryptic reading of the clue.

A Liberal (abbreviation L) [9d] is a member of a British political party.

In British crossword puzzles, companion [7d] is almost always a stand-in for Companion of Honour (abbreviation CH), a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour which is an order of the Commonwealth realms (not merely the UK, a fact often overlooked by British commentators). It was founded by King George V in June 1917, as a reward for outstanding achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry or religion.

Appearing in Solutions:

Con [15a] is an archaic word meaning to study attentively or learn by heart (a piece of writing).

The Financial Times (abbreviation FT) [18a] is an international business newspaper. A morning daily broadsheet, it is published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. It is readily recognized by the light salmon-coloured paper on which it is printed.

Chid [26a] is an archaic form of the past tense of chide. [Note: Gazza says in his review that chid is the archaic past participle of chide. However, according to Oxford that would appear to be chidden.]

Greensward [29a] is an archaic or literary expression meaning fresh green turf or an area of such turf.

Tidemark [4d] is a chiefly British expression (although certainly not unheard of in Canada) that can mean either a mark showing a level reached by a liquid ("a tidemark on the bathtub") or - more apropos with regard to this puzzle - a dirty mark on the skin, indicating the extent to which someone has washed.

In Britain, a tout [5d] is a person who buys up tickets for an event to resell them at a profit (in North American terms, a scalper).

At 17d, bone-idle [Chambers] or bone idle [Oxford Dictionary of English] is a British expression meaning extremely idle or lazy (idle to the bone). Beaune (or, more formally, Côte de Beaune) is a wine producing area within the Burgundy region of France.

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.

10a   Part of stock of typical farmer (4)

This relatively rarely encountered type of clue is known formally as an "& lit." clue, standing for "and literally so". In this type of clue, the entire clue is both a definition and a cryptic clue. In some publications (but obviously not the Daily Telegraph) this type of clue is always indicated by an exclamation mark at the end of the clue. Writers on Big Dave's blog prefer to refer to this type of clue as an all-in-one clue.

In the present clue, the entire clue serves as the definition and the solution happens to be CALF (an animal that might be included in the stock of a typical farmer). The wordplay tells us that the solution is hidden in (part of) the letters forming (stock of) the phrase typiCAL Farmer.

Before twigging to the fact that this is a hidden word clue, I was working on the theory that stock might be British slang for a leg. When I could find no evidence to support that supposition, I had to abandon it and look for other possibilities.

Signing off for today - Falcon