Wednesday, February 1, 2017 — DT 28272

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28272
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28272]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Mr Kitty
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

Tying a string around one's finger is only useful if one can remember why the string is there. I don't recall having seen the device used in 17a but I must have as it was recorded in my repository of notes. Unfortunately, I only discovered it there when I was in the process of depositing a new note on this subject only to discover that it duplicated an existing entry.

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   Winning deputy, good /and/ respectable (10)

6a   Struggle with // scene (4)

9a   In love, // you and me after a second run out (7)

"second" = MO (show explanation )

Mo^[5] (abbreviation for moment) is an informal, chiefly British term for a short period of time ⇒ hang on a mo!.

hide explanation

Cricket 101 — Lesson 3

As if you hadn't absorbed enough cricket already this week, we pick up where we left off yesterday. You may recall that I said then in passing that there are several ways that a batsman can be dismissed. One of these is to be run out. In cricket, run out[7] (abbreviation ro[2]) denotes the dismissal of a batsman by hitting a wicket with the ball while the batsman is out of his ground* while running. Should this occur while the batsman is out of his ground for any reason other than running, the batsman would be said to have been stumped rather than run out. * Ground[10] denotes the area of the cricket pitch from the popping crease back past the stumps, in which a batsman may legally stand.

10a   Judge // arrives carrying grip (7)

With reference to the arrival time of a bus, train, or aircraft, the abbreviation arr.^[5,10] (or arr^[2]) denotes arrival or arrives.

12a   Hi-tech duo's ATM fiddling /shows/ a gift for making money (3,5,5)

14a   Pack in // place in Kent (8)

 Sandwich^[7] is a historic town and civil parish on the River Stour in the ceremonial county of Kent, south-east England. It has a population of 4,985.

Sandwich gave its name to the bread snack by way of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich.

Having the hamlet of Ham^[7] situated nearby makes for some interesting road signs (see Mr Kitty's review on Big Dave's Crossword blog).

15a   Create /and/ settle differences (4,2)

17a   Grounds /of/ Parisian art gallery (6)

The wordplay parses as ES (Parisian art) + TATE (gallery).

Here art^[5] is the archaic or dialect second person singular present of the verb 'be' ⇒ I am a Gentleman as thou art.

In French, the second person singular present of the verb être ('to be') is es^[8].

"gallery" = TATE (show explanation )

The Tate Gallery^[5] (commonly known simply as the Tate) is a national museum of art in London, England founded in 1897 by the sugar manufacturer Sir Henry Tate (1819–1899) to house his collection of modern British paintings, as a nucleus for a permanent national collection of modern art. It was renamed Tate Britain in 2000, when the new Tate Modern gallery opened. [I would surmise that by that time the original collection could no longer be considered "modern".]

hide explanation

The word "of" is used as a link word between the definition and wordplay. (show explanation )

When used as a link word, "of" denotes that the definition is formed from the constituent parts found in the wordplay.

This is based on the word of^[5] being used as a preposition indicating the material or substance constituting something ⇒ (i) the house was built of bricks; (ii) walls of stone.

hide explanation

19a   Endless sex entertaining a jolly // foreign policeman (8)

Jolly^[10] is British slang for a member of the Royal Marines^[5] (abbreviation RM^[5]), a British armed service (part of the Royal Navy) founded in 1664, trained for service at sea, or on land under specific circumstances.

A gendarme^[5] is a paramilitary police officer in France and other French-speaking countries ⇒ he was hauled off by a gendarme to the police station.

21a   Pedant // tense? No, it's I, corrected (13)

24a   Time to walk like a duck? // Nonsense (7)

25a   One could upset speaker -- // he upset clerk (7)

26a   Pull // domesticated ox round rear of barn (4)

A yak^[5] is a large domesticated wild ox with shaggy hair, humped shoulders, and large horns, used in Tibet as a pack animal and for its milk, meat, and hide.

27a   Opera company's manager // breaking a promise to tour Rhode Island (10)

Down

1d   Code name -- // 'Omaha' -- Turing covers up (4)

'Utah' Beach^[6] is a name given to the westernmost of the beaches, north of Carentan in Normandy, where US troops landed on D-day in June 1944.

Scratching the Surface

'Omaha' Beach[6] is the name used during the D-Day landing in June 1944 for one part of the Norman coast where US troops landed. It is at the mouth of the Vire River, at the village of Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, northwest of Bayeux. Alan Turing [5] (1912–1954) was an English mathematician. He developed the concept of a theoretical computing machine and carried out important code-breaking work during World War II. He also investigated artificial intelligence.

Chauvinism and Parochialism Exemplified
The definitions for Omaha Beach and Utah Beach come from the North American (more appropriately US) version of Oxford Dictionaries. Should we be surprised that there are no entries for Gold (British), Sword (British) and Juno (Canadian) beaches?

2d   Prune // others growing wild, indefinite number (7)

The letter n^[10] is used (especially in mathematics) as a symbol to represent an indefinite number (of) ⇒ there are n objects in a box.

3d   Desperate to know how to proceed /and/ make amends, put cards in post (2,4,4,3)

4d   Plain // individual (8)

5d   Antelope // present in many a land (5)

The nyala^[5] is a southern African antelope, which has a conspicuous crest on the neck and back and lyre-shaped horns.

7d   Elected head of trustees, impolite // to butt in (7)

8d   Almost get the better of more fashionable // one seen in church (10)

Worst^[5] is used as a verb meaning to get the better of or defeat ⇒ this was not the time for a deep discussion—she was tired and she would be worsted. Ironically, in this sense worst is a synonym of best^[5] which, as a verb, means to outwit or get the better of (someone) ⇒ she refused to allow herself to be bested.

11d   Various small things of interest to a coin collector? (4,3,6)

The cryptic elaboration (marked with a dashed underline) in this cryptic definition alludes to 'bits' and 'pieces' being words that can be used to denote coins.

Bit^[2] is an obsolete British term (used in compounds) for a coin, especially a small coin ⇒ threepenny bit.

In US and Canadian usage, a bit^[10] is the value of an eighth of a dollar (spoken of only in units of two) ⇒ two bits or four bits but never one bit or three bits [presumably because there is no coin worth 12½ cents].

A piece^[5] is a a coin of specified value ⇒ a 10p piece.

Historically, a piece of eight^[5] was a Spanish dollar, equivalent to 8 reals.

13d   Form of treatment /that may be shown in/ photo, as yet to be developed (10)

16d   Pour // alcoholic drink, drowning insect (2,6)

Be mother^* (an expression primarily heard in the UK) means to pour tea or serve food, as it was traditionally the mother who served such things in the household. Most often used in the phrase, "Shall I be mother?" ⇒ (i) Sit yourself down, relax, and let me be mother.; (ii) The tea's ready, shall I be mother?.{Main text^* }

---

^* Farlex Dictionary of Idioms

18d   Blunder among reserves in // ground (7)

"reserves" = TA (show explanation )

In the UK, Territorial Army^[5] (abbreviation TA^[5]) was, at one time, the name of a volunteer force founded in 1908 to provide a reserve of trained and disciplined military personnel for use in an emergency. Since 2013, this organization has been called the Army Reserve.

hide explanation

20d   Unnerve leader of ramble, /pointing to/ snake (7)

22d   Hard to penetrate word /for/ unit of heat (5)

"hard" = H (show explanation )

H^[2,5] is an abbreviation for hard, as used in describing grades of pencil lead ⇒ a 2H pencil.

hide explanation

The therm^[5] is a unit of heat, especially as the former statutory unit of gas supplied in the UK equivalent to 100,000 British thermal units or 1.055 × 10⁸ joules.

23d   Close to // body dropping temperature (2,2)

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