Wednesday, March 11, 2015 — DT 27603

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27603
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27603]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By 2Kiwis
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

Today, Big Dave welcomes a new blogging duo to his team. The 2Kiwis — as one may surmise from their nom de plume — are a couple from New Zealand. Those of you who follow the chatter at Big Dave's blog will be very familiar with them.

I found this puzzle to be a slight bit easier than yesterday's — enough so that my electronic assistants stayed tucked away in their barracks today.

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   The hitch-hiker's guide? (4,2,5)

The entire clue is a cryptic definition — as indicated by the question mark. The word "guide" provides a very broad definition while the portion of the clue with the dashed underline provides a bit of cryptic elaboration to narrow the range of possible solutions.

9a   Nothing to drink after writer // talks without inhibitions (5,2)

As a verb, sup^[5] is a dated or Northern English term meaning to take (drink or liquid food) by sips or spoonfuls ⇒ (i) she supped up her soup delightedly; (ii) he was supping straight from the bottle. As a noun, sup^[5] means (1) a sip of liquid ⇒ he took another sup of wine or (2) in Northern England or Ireland, an alcoholic drink ⇒ the latest sup from those blokes at the brewery.

10a   Violet /makes/ attempt to pursue popular detective (6)

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).

12a   Eccentric comedian with no energy /is/ wandering (7)

13a   Mature // king to confess (5-2)

George VI^[5] (1895–1952) reigned as King of the United Kingdom 1936–52 [and one should not overlook the Commonwealth realms as Oxford Dictionaries Online appears to have done]. He came to the throne on the abdication of his elder brother Edward VIII. Despite a retiring disposition he became a popular monarch, gaining respect for the staunch example he and his family set during the London Blitz. He was succeeded on his death by his daughter, Elizabeth II.

The regnal ciphers (monograms) of British monarchs are initials formed from the Latin version of their first name followed by either Rex or Regina (Latin for king or queen, respectively). Thus, the regnal cipher of King George is GR^[5] — from the Latin Georgius Rex.

14a   Cards given out in deal /with/ workers (5)

15a   Decide // a broken rib needs time to categorise (9)

17a   Combined // musical performance ends oddly (9)

What did they say?

In their review, the 2Kiwis refer to the "Last Night of the Proms perhaps ..." Promenade concert[5] (prom[5] or Prom for short) is a British term for a concert of classical music at which a part of the audience stands in an area without seating, for which tickets are sold at a reduced price. The most famous series of such concerts is the annual BBC Promenade Concerts (known as the Proms), instituted by Sir Henry Wood in 1895. Prom[5], in the sense of a formal dance, is chiefly a North American expression.

20a   Ancient Greek // land mostly gone from ocean (5)

Attic^[5] is the dialect of Greek used by the ancient Athenians. It was the chief literary form of classical Greek.

22a   Tense, /but/ happy to get drunk (7)

24a   Meanwhile, // after Bury the motorway is backed up (7)

Note that the setter has deceptively capitalized the word "Bury".

The M1^[7] — a route with which you should certainly be familiar — is a north–south motorway [controlled access, multi-lane divided highway] in England connecting London to Leeds.

Meanwhile is used as a noun. Interestingly, Oxford Dictionaries Online fails to list meanwhile^[5] as a noun while at the same time employing it as such by showing the phrase "in the meanwhile" as an alternative to the adverb meanwhile.

Scratching the Surface
Bury[7] is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Irwell, 7.9 miles (12.7 km) north-northwest of the city of Manchester. Unless the M1 follows an extremely circuitous route, it should go nowhere near Bury.

25a   Potential // case of neglect follows behind schedule (6)

26a   City // bank welcoming a new head of governance (7)

Tangier^[5] (also Tangiers) is a seaport on the northern coast of Morocco, on the Strait of Gibraltar commanding the western entrance to the Mediterranean; population 762,583 (2004). Portuguese from the end of the 15th century, Tangier was ruled by the sultan of Morocco 1684–1904, when it came under international control; it passed to the newly independent monarchy of Morocco in 1956.

27a   Initiate and master churned up // current in vessels (11)

Blood^[5] is a chiefly British term meaning to initiate (someone) in a particular activity ⇒ clubs are too slow to blood young players.

Down

2d   Positive attributes /of/ promoted teams (7)

Promote^[5] means to transfer (a sports team) to a higher division of a league ⇒ they were promoted from the Third Division [to the Second Division] last season. Thus, a team that has been promoted is one that is "up".

Delving Deeper

Sports leagues in the UK typically operate on a process of promotion and relegation[7] in which teams are transferred between two divisions based on their performance for the completed season. The best-ranked teams in the lower division are promoted to the division above, and the worst-ranked teams in the higher division are relegated [moved down] to the division below. In some leagues, play-offs or qualifying rounds are also used to determine rankings. This process can continue through several levels, with teams being exchanged between levels 1 and 2, levels 2 and 3, levels 3 and 4, and so on. An alternate system of league organisation which is used in the US, Canada and Australia is a closed model which always has the same teams playing, with occasional admission of expansion teams and relocation of existing teams, and with no movement between the major league and minor leagues. Can you imagine in which league the Oilers would find themselves if we had relegation in professional hockey!

In North America, the term side^[3] is used in a very general fashion that can denote one of two or more opposing individuals, groups, teams, or sets of opinions. While this same general usage would seem to exist as well in the UK, the term side^[5] is also used there in a much more specific sense to mean a sports team ⇒ (i) Previous England rugby sides, and England teams in many other sports, would have crumbled under the weight of such errors.; (ii) They'll face better sides than this Monaco team, but you can only beat what's put in front of you..

3d   Suppose worker /is/ pregnant (9)

4d   A hammer-thrower's affair? (5)

This is another cryptic definition along the style of 1a. Based solely on the definition (affair) and the numeration (5), the solution could be, for instance, AMOUR or perhaps even TRYST. However, adding the phrase "a hammer-thrower's" throws an entirely different light on things.

5d   Pelt unprotected louts /and/ retreat (7)

6d   Colour // magazine with neat layout (7)

7d   Welcome to the antenatal clinic (4,3,4)

Yet another cryptic definition in the style of 1a and 4d.

Antenatal^[5] is a British term meaning prenatal^[5]. While both terms appear to be used in the UK, I believe only the latter one is common in North America.

In the club^[5] (or in the pudding club) is an informal British expression meaning pregnant ⇒ The last I heard of him was that his girlfriend was in the club and they left, leaving us alone again..

8d   Marine trapped in vessel /finds/ cockroaches, for example (6)

The Royal Marines^[5] (abbreviation RM)^[5] is a British armed service (part of the Royal Navy) founded in 1664, trained for service at sea, or on land under specific circumstances.

11d   What might capture // escaped mare panicking? (5,6)

16d   Daughter is set up in improved // accommodation (9)

Bedsitter and bedsit^[2,5] are informal British terms for a single room used as a combined bedroom and sitting-room usually [emphasis mine] with basic cooking facilities, especially as cheap accommodation for a lodger or tenant. The more formal term for this type of accommodation is bedsitting-room^[1,2] (or alternatively bed-sitting room^[5,10] or bedsitting room^[10]). Collins English Dictionary specifies that such a room may "sometimes [contain] cooking and washing facilities"^[10].

Bedsitting room (under one or more of its spelling variants) is certainly a term that is used in Canada, although it does not appear in either of my frequently consulted American dictionaries. However, bedsitter — meaning a furnished sitting room with sleeping accommodations (and some plumbing) — does appear in the 1913 edition of Webster's dictionary.

18d   Before the dance, catch // the game (7)

Netball^[7] is a ball sport played by two teams of seven players.

Delving Deeper

The development of netball, derived from early versions of basketball, began in England in the 1890s. Games are played on a rectangular court with raised goal rings at each end. Each team attempts to score goals by passing a ball down the court and shooting it through its goal ring. Players are assigned specific positions, which define their roles within the team and restrict their movement to certain areas of the court. During general play, a player with the ball can hold onto it for only three seconds before shooting for a goal or passing to another player. The winning team is the one that scores the most goals. Netball games are 60 minutes long. Netball is most popular in Commonwealth nations, specifically in schools, and is predominantly played by women. There are many differences with basketball. For instance, there are no backboards; a shot on goal can only be made from within the shooting circle (no three point shots); only certain players may enter the shooting circle (either as attackers or defenders); only two attackers and two defenders may be in the shooting circle at one time; the ball is moved up and down the court through passing and must be touched by a player in each adjacent third of the court (no end to end passes); players can hold the ball for only three seconds at any time and it must be released before the foot they were standing on when they caught it touches the ground again (no dribbling).

19d   Painter /and/ composer missing a key in front of company (2,5)

The wordplay parses as {ELG[A]R (composer) with the A removed (missing A)} + E ([musical] key) + (in front of) CO (company).

Faux Pas in the UK

As you will see from Big Dave's blog (in particular, the hint provided by the 2Kiwis as well as Comment #5 and responses to it), a crucial element of the wordplay was missing from the clue as published in the UK: 19d   Painter and composer missing key in front of company (2,5) It is only one letter but you might say that its presence is "key". I had suspected that the error which appeared in the UK must have been introduced during the production process at The Daily Telegraph rather than having been in the puzzle as submitted by the setter. However, this has been proven to be incorrect as the setter himself acknowledges his error in Comment #16 at Big Dave's blog. My suspicion was based on my observation that the syndicated puzzle appears to be distributed prior to going to press in the UK and, despite the six month lag before the puzzle appears in Canada, in the past any errors made by the setter have typically not been corrected in the puzzle published by the National Post. Perhaps "the times, they are a changin'".

Sir Edward Elgar^[5] (1857–1934) was an English composer who is known particularly for the Enigma Variations (1899), the oratorio The Dream of Gerontius (1900), and for patriotic pieces such as the five Pomp and Circumstance marches (1901–30).

El Greco^[5] [Spanish for 'the Greek'] (1541–1614) was a Cretan-born Spanish painter; born Domenikos Theotokopoulos. El Greco’s portraits and religious works are characterized by distorted perspective, elongated figures, and strident use of colour.

What did they say?

In their hint, the 2Kiwis explain the first part of the wordplay as "A composer (or perhaps crossword setter) missing the A from the clue" Elgar is the pseudonym used by John Henderson when he sets Toughie crosswords in The Daily Telegraph. The Toughie is a cryptic crossword that appears in The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday through Friday. It gets its name from the fact that it is intended to be a more difficult puzzle than the regular cryptic crossword that appears in The Daily Telegraph on Monday through Saturday — this latter puzzle being the one that the National Post carries in syndication.

20d   An amount of money, reportedly /for/ a dish (7)

Tenner^[5] is an informal British name for a ten-pound note. Pronounced in a non-rhotic accent (such as many of those found in Britain), it would sound like 'tennah'.

Delving Deeper

Non-rhotic accents omit the sound < r > in certain situations, while rhotic accents generally pronounce < r > in all contexts. Among the several dozen British English accents which exist, many are non-rhotic while American English (US and Canadian) is mainly rhotic. This is, however, a generalisation, as there are areas of Britain that are rhotic, and areas of America that are non-rhotic. For more information, see this guide to pronouncing < r > in British English.

21d   With temperature, drop off around one, /being/ very sluggish (6)

23d   Bears // feeding close to trekkers climbing (5)

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