Monday, January 12, 2015 — DT 27561

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27561
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27561]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By scchua
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

There is a fairly light sprinkling of Briticisms in today's puzzle from Jay, so that should put those of us on this side of the pond on a more equal footing with our counterparts in the UK.

Cryptic Crossword clues can be read on two levels. The first is the apparent meaning or surface reading (the Brits like to refer to this as simply the surface). The second is the cryptic reading which the solver must decipher before being able to find the solution to the clue. In other words, one must dig "below the surface" in order to solve the clue.

In today's blog, I have introduced an innovation where comments that relate solely to the surface reading of the clue are shown in a box labelled "Scratching the Surface". These comments are intended to help readers better appreciate the clue. However, they do not drill down below the surface to help in the solution of the clue.

Oftentimes, the misdirection in clues that would cause a Brit to pursue a wrong path goes right over the heads of North American solvers because we are not familiar with the British terms. Of course, this sometimes may actually make the clue easier to solve as we don't fall into traps set by the creator of the puzzle. However, it may spoil some of the challenge of the puzzle and cause us to shake our heads and ask "What's so cryptic about that?".

I invite you to leave a comment to let us know how you fared with the puzzle.

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. Explicit link words and phrases are enclosed in forward slashes (/link/) and implicit links are shown as double forward slashes (//). Definitions presented in blue text are for terms that appear frequently.

Across

1a   Pull off // charge for each cat, for example? (10)

Split the solution (3,3,4) and read it as a phrase.

6a   Oddly, team lack // cosmetic preparation (4)

10a   Horse/'s/ belly without a // drink (5)

This is a rather unusual clue — a double definition with wordplay.

Before reading scchua's review, I had wrongly presumed that "horse's belly" must be a British expression for a beer gut, even though I was unable to track it down.

The Suffolk Punch^[7], also historically known as the Suffolk Horse or Suffolk Sorrel, is an English breed of draught horse. The breed takes the first part of its name from the county of Suffolk in East Anglia, and the name "Punch" from its solid appearance and strength. It is a heavy draught horse which is always chestnut in colour, traditionally spelled "chesnut" by the breed registries.

11a   Colour /of/ pests digesting crude oil? (9)

12a   Origin of lumps in exotic Persian // sweets (8)

Praline^[5] denotes (1) a smooth, sweet substance made by boiling nuts in sugar and grinding the mixture, used especially as a filling for chocolates ⇒ white chocolate and praline cheesecake or (2) a chocolate filled with praline ⇒ pralines laced with alcohol.

13a   Delicate material coating new // weapon (5)

15a   Protest /that's/ good to latch on to (7)

The abbreviation G^[10] for good likely relates to its use in grading school assignments or tests.

Rumble^[5] is an informal British expression meaning to discover (an illicit activity or its perpetrator) ⇒ it wouldn’t need a genius to rumble my little game.

17a   Part // intended to be broadcast by son, for example (7)

19a   Provided // outstanding goal coming first (7)

21a   Lot more played /for/ musical effect (7)

In music, tremolo^[5] denotes a wavering effect in a musical tone, produced either by rapid reiteration of a note, by rapid repeated slight variation in the pitch of a note, or by sounding two notes of slightly different pitches to produce prominent overtones.

22a   Married German chap/'s/ slogan (5)

The German men whom you encounter in Crosswordland are likely to be named either Hans or Otto.

24a   Golf, like telly, /may be/ a feature of a car (5,3)

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

Telly^[5] is an informal British term for television ⇒ (i) there’d been a cowboy film on telly; (ii) a black-and-white telly.

27a   Nanny // runs out in front of media, panicking (9)

28a   A commercial vehicle carrying one // of birds (5)

29a   Pack /for/ exhibition, having time for hotel (4)

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

30a   Financial reviews /of/ internationals by Mensa in a mess (5,5)

International^[5] is a British term for a game or contest between teams representing different countries in a sport ⇒ the Murrayfield rugby international.

A Test^[5] (short for Test match)^[5] is an international cricket or rugby match, typically one of a series, played between teams representing two different countries ⇒ the Test match between Pakistan and the West Indies.

Scratching the Surface
Mensa[5] is an international organization founded in England in 1945 whose members must achieve very high scores in IQ tests to be admitted.

Down

1d   Note including minimum amount of money /for/ seeds (4)

In Britain's current decimal currency system the smallest denomination is the penny^[5] (plural pennies [for separate coins] or pence [for a sum of money]), a bronze coin and monetary unit equal to one hundredth of a pound. The abbreviation for penny or pence is p^[5].

2d   Vehicle /required/ to hurry a game of golf (9)

Runaround^[10] is another name for runabout^[10], a small car, especially one for use in a town.

3d   Girl /for whom/ some toe the line? (5)

4d   Income/'s/ there without the place for meeting (7)

5d   Believes in protecting hospital /for/ sudden intrusions (7)

7d   Strange // story included in article (5)

8d   Rule normally followed /in/ large formal assembly (10)

9d   Put up with topless fashion // exchange (8)

14d   Deals /requiring/ reconfiguration of master gene (10)

16d   Floor /for/ violin aficionado? (4,4)

18d   The science of bread-making? (9)

20d   Dishonour // of French class (7)

In French, de^[8] is a preposition meaning 'of''.

To North Americans the obvious route to a solution is to equate grade with class^[5] in the sense of a group of students or pupils who are taught together. However, this sense of the word grade^[5] is apparently chiefly a North American usage. Rather than grade, the Brits would use the term form. In Britain, a form^[5] is a class or year in a school, usually given a specifying number. Thus the fifth form would be the British linguistic counterpart (although, perhaps, not the scholastic equivalent) to the fifth grade in North America and Form One would be akin to saying Grade One.Thus, in his review, scchua must rely on other senses of these words to establish an equivalence.

21d   What a player may have done to the boards? (7)

No, this is not a hockey related clue.

Tread the boards^[5] (or walk the boards) is an informal expression meaning to appear on stage as an actor ⇒ the 1,500-seat theatre where generations of actors trod the boards.

Obviously, this expression should not be confused with "walk the plank".

23d   Doctor's orders to protect // the body (5)

25d   Former lieutenant welcoming ace/'s/ praise (5)

26d   The burden /of/ working with American (4)

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