Thursday, July 14, 2016 — DT 28069

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28069
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28069]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By ShropshireLad
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 not experience much difficulty with this puzzle aside from the British building material — which I have previously encountered but which did not come readily to mind.

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   Material for building // split windscreen? (11)

Windscreen split (4,6) would be 'wind screen' which is another way of saying BREEZE BLOCK.

This clue works only if one uses spelling from The Chambers Dictionary which differs from that given in Collins English Dictionary and Oxford Dictionaries.

Breezeblock^[2] (or breeze block^[5,10] or breeze-block^[10]) is the British term for cinderblock (or cinder block^[10]).

Breeze^[2] (from French braise 'live coals') is ashes from coal, coke or charcoal, used in building materials such as breezeblock.

Scratching the Surface
Windscreen[10] is the term used in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa for a windshield.

9a   Keep an eye on // extra responsibility of a bishop (7)

A see^[10] is the diocese of a bishop, or the place within it where his cathedral or procathedral is situated.

10a   One amongst celebrities /in/ flight (6)

What did he say?

In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, ShropshireLad tells us that we a term for what celebrities are called. Not ‘slebs’ or ‘blisters (sic)’. Sleb[5] is an informal [possibly British] term for a celebrity ⇒ (i) a reality show in which slebs cook for other slebs in a faux restaurant; (ii) [as modifier] sleb culture. I have no idea to what he is referring in his use of the expression "blisters (sic)" other than it must be somehow related to another British slang term for a celebrity.

12a   Hurried back to evaluate // recount (7)

13a   Mostly flog salmon, perhaps /being/ greedy (7)

14a   Quits /after/ delayed start to rugby game (5)

Rugby sevens^[5] (also sevens^[5]) is a seven-a-side form of Rugby Union. Rugby sevens^[7] is now recognised as an Olympic sport and will make its debut in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Quits^[5] means (of two people) on even terms, especially because a debt or score has been settled ⇒ I think we’re just about quits now, don’t you?. 

In betting, evens^[5] is an alternative British term for even money^[5], odds offering an equal chance of winning or losing, with the amount won being the same as the stake ⇒ the colt was 4-6 favourite after opening at evens.

Although I found no evidence of the term "evens" being used in the sense of "quits" in a non-betting context, it seems entirely possible that it might be used in such a fashion.

15a   Follow team's first // draw away (9)

"team" = SIDE (show explanation )

Side^[5] is a British term for a sports team ⇒ there was a mixture of old and young players in their side. [Note that a player is "in a side" rather than "on a team" as one would say in North America]

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, as we can clearly see from the following usage examples ⇒ (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.

hide explanation

17a   Stormy signs and poor // outlook (9)

20a   Daughter has // drinks in one! (5)

The wordplay is D (daughter) + OWNS (has). It took me seemingly forever to cotton on to the definition. One must read the entire phrase "drinks in one" as "consumes a drink".

22a   Saw // how the drinks may be served at room temperature? (7)

This setter can't stop at just one drink!

24a   Remark // old boys initially are of use (7)

"old boy" = OB (show explanation )

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.

hide explanation

25a   Stop moving // band around room for broadcast (6)

I hadn't planned to include a definition for this term but since ShropshireLad reports that it caused him to get his knickers in a twist, I thought perhaps I should add it.

A frieze^[5] is:

1. a broad horizontal band of sculpted or painted decoration, especially on a wall near the ceiling; or
2. a horizontal paper strip mounted on a wall to give an effect similar to that of a sculpted or painted frieze.

26a   One might crow /when/ nothing appears in the duty list (7)

27a   What a builder might use to maintain equanimity? (6,5)

This is a cryptic definition of a style comprising a straight definition (solid underline) combined with cryptic elaboration (dashed underline).

Equanimity^[5] is calmness and composure, especially in a difficult situation ⇒ she accepted both the good and the bad with equanimity — thus a state in which one's spirits are balanced.

A spirit level^[5] is a device [used by carpenters, bricklayers, etc.] consisting of a sealed glass tube partially filled with alcohol or other liquid, containing an air bubble whose position reveals whether a surface is perfectly level.

Down

2d   Monkeys // developed scars around nails intermittently (7)

3d   Teams with points /must get/ refreshments (9)

Eleven^[5] is the number of players on a cricket^[7] side or an Association football^[7] [soccer] team — and is often used as a metonym for such a team ⇒ at cricket I played in the first eleven.

Elevenses^[5] is an informal British term for a short break for light refreshments, usually with tea or coffee, taken about eleven o’clock in the morning.

4d   Provides comfort // stops after leader goes (5)

5d   Flier/'s/ feet all at sea (7)

6d   Island // company reproduced cars, importing one (7)

Corsica^[5] is a mountainous island off the west coast of Italy, forming an administrative region of France; population 273,000 (est. 2004); chief towns, Bastia (northern department) and Ajaccio (southern department). It was the birthplace of Napoleon I.

7d   Token piece of glass // that's put on bed (11)

Counterpane^[5] is a dated term for a bedspread.

What did he say?

In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, ShropshireLad writes The ‘token’ here is an item that can be used in board games (Uckers, for one) ... Uckers[7] is a two- or four-player board game traditionally played in the Royal Navy and has spread to many of the other arms of the UK Armed Forces as well as to, mainly Commonwealth Forces (including the Royal Canadian Navy). It is believed to originate in the 18th/19th centuries from the Indian game Pachisi* although the first reference to it in print does not appear until 1946. * from which also comes the modern board game known in Britain as ludo[10] and North America as parcheesi[5,10] (US trademark) — the latter being presumably how someone from Boston would pronounce Pachisi.

8d   University qualification needing source of cash for good // rule (6)

11d   Poet /or/ speaker as he develops (11)

William Shakespeare^[5] (1564–1616) was an English playwright who also wrote more than 150 sonnets.  (more )

His plays are written mostly in blank verse and include comedies, such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As You Like It; historical plays, including Richard III and Henry V; the Greek and Roman plays, which include Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra; enigmatic comedies such as All’s Well that Ends Well and Measure for Measure; the great tragedies, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth; and the group of tragicomedies with which he ended his career, such as The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest.

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16d   Academic programme supporting police inspector's // discussion (9)

"police inspector" = DI (show explanation )

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).

hide explanation

18d   Reveal cut /in/ exposed rock (7)

19d   Kind of industry // sounding fresh and comprehensible (7)

20d   Get undressed, /seeing/ bride's worried about love (7)

"love" = O (show explanation )

In tennis, squash, and some other sports, love^[5] is a score of zero or nil ⇒ love fifteen. The resemblance of a zero written as a numeral (0) to the letter O leads to the cryptic crossword convention of the word "love" being used to clue this letter.

Although folk etymology has connected the word with French l'oeuf 'egg', from the resemblance in shape between an egg and a zero, the term apparently comes from the phrase play for love (i.e. the love of the game, not for money).

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21d   Conflict many think and hope originally /generates/ affection (6)

Contrary to the assertion made by ShropshireLad in his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, M is not the single letter abbreviation for ‘many’. Rather it indicates a large Roman numeral — the number being 1000 in this case.

In cryptic crosswords,  "a number" is very often a Roman numeral and, in particular, terms such as "(a) large number", "many" or "a great many" are frequently used  to indicate that a large Roman numeral — generally C (100), D (500), or M (1000) — is required.

Alternatively, I think that one would not be wrong to interpret the phrase "many think and hope initially" to be an indication that one needs the initial letters of Many, Think, and Hope.

23d   Stayed, /as/ doctor's beginning on scar (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