Friday, May 2, 2014 — DT 27376

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27376
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, January 2, 2014
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27376]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Big Dave
BD Rating
Difficulty - ★	Enjoyment - ★★★
Falcon's Experience ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - incorrect prior to use of puzzle solving tools █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by puzzle solving tools █ - solved but without fully parsing the clue █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by solutions from Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - yet to be solved

Introduction

I did most of the puzzle before heading off to the gym, but a few clues had me scratching my head. As is often the case, these fell nicely into place upon my return.

Notes on Today's Puzzle

This commentary is intended to serve as a supplement to the review of this puzzle found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog, to which a link is provided in the table above.

Primary indications (definitions) are marked with a solid underline in the clue; subsidiary indications (be they wordplay or other) are marked with a dashed underline in all-in-one (& lit.) clues, semi-all-in-one (semi-& lit.) clues and cryptic definitions.

Across

6a   Reviewed, I had a drab year, awful time (3,4,3)

As an anagram indicator, reviewed connotes looked at again and, presumably, from a different perspective.

8a   Old boy with extremely obscure source of notes (4)

In Britain, an old boy^[5] (abbreviation OB^[2])  is (1) a former male student of a school or college ⇒an old boy of Banbury County School or (2) a former male member of a sports team or company ⇒the White Hart Lane old boy squared the ball to present an easy chance from 12 yards. It is also a chiefly British affectionate form of address to a boy or man ⇒ ‘Look here, old boy,’ he said.

9a   One giving delivery in a stall? (9)

In a church, a stall^[10] is one of a row of seats, usually divided from the others by armrests or a small screen, for the use of the choir or clergy.

11a   Some mighty keen Yorkshireman (4)

Yorkshire^[5] is a county of northern England.

Tyke^[5] (also Yorkshire tyke) is an informal British term for a person from Yorkshire ⇒ Geordies and tykes have never got on particularly well.

A Geordie^[5] is an informal British term for a person from Tyneside^[5], an industrial conurbation on the banks of the River Tyne, in northeastern England, stretching from Newcastle upon Tyne to the coast.

12a   Item for all to see in party (3)

The phrase be an item^[5] denotes that a couple is involved in an established romantic or sexual relationship.

The setter uses the phrase "for all to see" to clue the letter U. Under the British system of film classification^[7] a U (for 'universal') rating indicates that a film is suitable "for all the family" — or, at any rate, for children over 4 years of age.

A duo^[2] is any two people considered a pair.

13a   Hitchcock film having a terrible reputation? (9)

Notorious^[7] is a 1946 American spy thriller film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains as three people whose lives become intimately entangled during an espionage operation.

Did the film really have a terrible reputation? — hardly (as you will discover here).

16a   A tip from fantasist in castle, perhaps (4)

This was my last one in — and perhaps my favourite clue today.

17a   Partake in half-hearted duelling possibly (7)

18a   Deny policeman broadcast to catch a vandal principally (7)

A detective inspector (DI)^[5] is a senior police officer in the UK. Within the British police, inspector^[7] is the second supervisory rank. It is senior to that of sergeant, but junior to that of chief inspector. Plain-clothes detective inspectors are equal in rank to their uniformed counterparts, the prefix 'detective' identifying them as having been trained in criminal investigation and being part of or attached to their force's Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

20a   Flipping sting in small fly (4)

Flipping^[5] is an informal British term used for emphasis or to express mild annoyance ⇒ (i) are you out of your flipping mind?; (ii) it’s flipping cold today.

21a   Reportedly, disturb stupid Arab leader’s territory (9)

Apparently some people must pronounce sheik in such a way that it sounds like shake rather than sheek. However, neither the US nor UK speakers at the foregoing links do so.

23a   Ready for attack (3)

24a   Source of fare information? (4)

25a   Being prepared, Frenchman takes in varied aid by ship (9)

In Crosswordland, the most frequently encountered name for a Frenchman is almost certainly René.

In his review, Big Dave makes reference to the fictional René Artois^[7], the main character in the BBC sitcom 'Allo 'Allo!, which ran from 1982 to 1992.

In Crosswordland, you will find that a ship is — almost invariably — a steamship, the abbreviation for which is SS^[10].

29a   Top NY Times employee, say, not got directly (4)

The New York Times (NYT)^[7] is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851.

30a   Small state lot cope, I fancy, being crowd controllers (4,6)

Rhode Island^[5] is a state in the north-eastern US, on the Atlantic coast; population 1,050,788 (est. 2008); capital, Providence. Settled from England in the 17th century, it was one of the original thirteen states of the Union (1776) and is the smallest and most densely populated.

The US Postal Service abbreviation for the state of Rhode Island^[7] is RI. 

Down

1d   Powder left in keeping of upstanding Persian maybe (4)

2d   Regular characters seen in posh limo in a state (4)

The phrase "regular characters" indicates that a regular sequence of letters is required. This usually means every second letter, and (as is customarily the case) the setter does not specify whether we need the odd sequence or the even sequence — which we must figure out by trial and error. I do seem to recall having seen — on at least one occasion — the required sequence be every third letter.

3d   Take main route over part of UK in small car (4)

The M1^[7] is a north–south motorway [controlled access, multi-lane divided highway] in England connecting London to Leeds.

Northern Ireland^[5] (abbreviation NI^[5]) is a province of the United Kingdom occupying the northeast part of Ireland; population 1,775,000 (est. 2008); capital, Belfast.

Mini^[7] is an automobile brand, currently owned by BMW, but originally introduced as a model under the Austin and Morris marques by the British Motor Corporation (BMC).

Although the terms Great Britain and United Kingdom are commonly used synonymously — the UK Olympic Team is even officially branded as Team GB^[7] rather than Team UK — strictly speaking, the terms do have different meanings (a fact to which Big Dave alludes in his review).

Great Britain^[5] is England, Wales, and Scotland considered as a unit. The name is also often used loosely to refer to the United Kingdom.

Great Britain is the name for the island that comprises England, Scotland, and Wales, although the term is also used loosely to refer to the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom is a political unit that includes these countries and Northern Ireland. The British Isles is a geographical term that refers to the United Kingdom, Ireland, and surrounding smaller islands such as the Hebrides and the Channel Islands.

The United Kingdom^[5] (abbreviation UK) is a country of western Europe consisting of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland; population 61,113,200 (est. 2009); capital, London. Full name United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

England (which had incorporated Wales in the 16th century) and Scotland have had the same monarch since 1603, when James VI of Scotland succeeded to the English crown as James I; the kingdoms were formally united by the Act of Union in 1707. An Act of Parliament joined Great Britain and Ireland in 1801, but the Irish Free State (later the Republic of Ireland) broke away in 1921. The UK became a member of the EC (now the EU) in 1973.

4d   European way of speaking not caught in copy of work (7)

On cricket scorecards, the abbreviation c^[5] denotes caught (by).

5d   Latin crook more unsettled in a changing environment? (6,4)

7d   Garden attracting criticism? That’s standard (9)

Stick^[5] is an informal British term meaning severe criticism or treatment ⇒ I took a lot of stick from the press.

In this clue, the setter has used garden as a synonym for yard. As I have been led to understand, the British idea of garden is actually akin to the North American concept of yard — a fact that was used by the setter of a Sunday Times puzzle from 2010:

• ST 4376 (2010-04-11): 13a   Small trendy gardens in America where British queens spent formative years (9)

where the setter used the phrase "gardens in America" to clue the word "yard".

In Britain, a garden^[10] is an area of land, usually planted with grass, trees, flowerbeds, etc, adjoining a house — what would be known in Canada and the US as a yard.

It is interesting to note that, in 2010, the definition of garden found at Oxford Dictionaries Online closely corresponded to the one above from Collins English Dictionary. At that time, garden was defined by Oxford as "a piece of ground adjoining a house, typically cultivated to provide a lawn and flowerbeds" [note that this definition explicitly indicates that the lawn is included in the garden]. Today, four years later, I see that the definition for garden^[5] has been changed to read "(chiefly British) a piece of ground adjoining a house, used for growing flowers, fruit, or vegetables" [no mention of the lawn]. The new definition certainly sounds more like the North American usage than it does like the British usage. In fact, the definition for garden in the American English version of Oxford Dictionaries Online is "a piece of ground, often near a house, used for growing flowers, fruit, or vegetables".

This did lead me to wonder whether the North American usage of the word is supplanting the former British usage. But that would not seem to be the case — one British reader commented on Big Dave's blog that this usage constituted "a horrible Americanism".


In Britain, a yard^[10] is a piece of enclosed ground, usually either paved or laid with concrete and often adjoining or surrounded by a building or buildings.

By the way, the solution to the clue is S (small) + HIP (trendy) + YARDS (gardens in America) and the "British queens" are ocean liners.

8d   How one might feed dog lacking in control (3,2,4)

10d   Space limited for young skipper (3)

I supposed that skipper must be another name for a kangaroo. But that does not appear to be the case — at least, I found no evidence of it.

It would seem that the clue is merely an allusion to Skippy the Bush Kangaroo^[7], an Australian television series, produced from 1966–1968, telling the adventures of a young boy and his intelligent pet kangaroo, and the various visitors to the fictional Waratah National Park in Duffys Forest, near Sydney, New South Wales.

13d   Down-to-earth hearing perhaps after November in middle of day (2-8)

November^[5] is a code word representing the letter N, used in radio communication.

14d   Reserved money is bound, we hear, to attract amusing daughter (5,4)

15d   Medic showing point, right, piercing bottom (9)

In Britain, a medic^[3,4,11] is a doctor, medical orderly, or medical student — but not specifically a member of a military medical corps [as the term is customarily used in North America].

In Britain and New Zealand, a registrar^[10] is a hospital doctor senior to a houseman^[5] [hospital intern] but junior to a consultant^[5] [hospital doctor of senior rank within a specific field], specializing in either medicine (medical registrar) or surgery (surgical registrar).

19d   Timeless band turning up soon in ME country (7)

Lebanon^[5] is a country in the Middle East, with a coastline on the Mediterranean Sea; population 4,017,100 (est. 2009); capital, Beirut; official language, Arabic.

22d   Layer in earth entrenched (3)

26d   Game is pretty devoid of content (1-3)

I-spy^[10] is a game in which one player specifies the initial letter of the name of an object that he can see, which the other players then try to guess.

As I recall, one was not restricted to naming the first letter of the object but could specify any attribute of the object. Thus, one might say "I spy with my little eye something that is yellow".

27d   Fish found in bottoms of boats with head removed (4)

28d   Dismiss traditional wine (4)

"Traditional" in that the drink apparently no longer exists.

Historically, sack^[5] was a dry white wine formerly imported into Britain from Spain and the Canary Islands.

Key to Reference Sources: 

^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)
^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)
^[4]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[5]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Dictionary of English)
^[6]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford American Dictionary)
^[7]   - Wikipedia
^[8]   - Reverso Online Dictionary (Collins French-English Dictionary)
^[9]   - Infoplease (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)
^[10] - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[11] - TheFreeDictionary.com (Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon