Friday, May 19, 2017 — DT 28377

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28377
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, March 17, 2017
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28377]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Deep Threat
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

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Well, it was St. Patrick's Day when this puzzle appeared in the UK. And it gives me a great excuse to enjoy my last can of Guinness.

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   Motivated folk // falter with stress getting out of hand (4-8)

9a   Picture // someone nearing the end of his days in the staff room? (3,6)

An old master^[5] is:

• a great artist of former times, especially of the 13th-17th century in Europe ⇒ the Dutch old masters 
• a painting by a great artist of former times ⇒ a large collection of old masters

Literally Speaking
The second part of the clue (marked with a dotted underline) is a literal interpretation of the solution. The "staff room" would be found in a school. Master[5] is a British term for a male schoolteacher.

10a   Dad/'s/ half-hearted spiel (5)

Pater^[5] (Latin for father) is a dated, informal British term for father ⇒ the pater gives her fifty pounds a year as a dress allowance.

11a   Better // person steering a course on the river? (6)

Punter^[5] is an informal British term for a person who gambles, places a bet, or makes a risky investment.

A punt^[5] is a long, narrow flat-bottomed boat, square at both ends and propelled with a long pole, used on inland waters chiefly for recreation.

12a   Act of cleaner /gets/ son crying (8)

13a   With drinks coming round, graduate // dances (6)

15a   Like some purchases, // no longer having to work? (4-4)

Literally Speaking
The second part of the clue (marked with a dotted underline) is a literal interpretation of the solution.

18a   Member of family // telling a story? (8)

19a   Sweet // start to the week reportedly (6)

Sweet^[5] is a British term for a sweet dish forming a course of a meal; in other words, a pudding or dessert.

Sweet^[5] is also a British term for a small shaped piece of confectionery made with sugar ⇒ a bag of sweets. In North American parlance, sweets would be candy^[5] and a sweet would be a piece of candy^*.

---

^* In Britain, candy^[5] means sugar crystallized by repeated boiling and slow evaporation ⇒ making candy at home is not difficult—the key is cooking the syrup to the right temperature.

21a   One bird also protecting a // very different kind of bird (8)

Although in his review at Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Deep Threat neglects to include them, the words "very different" must necessarily be part of the definition.

23a   Character // to declare a truce (4-2)

The hyphen in the numeration prevents this clue from being a double definition.

26a   When suffering setback, boy /gets/ healthy food (5)

27a   Once again attend to // study and get into gear (9)

In Britain, to read^[5] means to study (an academic subject) at a university ⇒ (i) I’m reading English at Cambridge; (ii) he went to Manchester to read for a BA in Economics.

28a   Peer admitted being naughty /is/ deliberate (12)

Down

1d   One may want to know what's in store (7)

2d   Left port // with cargo on board? (5)

Aden^[5] is a port in Yemen at the mouth of the Red Sea; population 588,900 (est. 2004). Aden was formerly under British rule, first as part of British India (from 1839), then from 1935 as a Crown Colony. It was capital of the former South Yemen from 1967 until 1990.

3d   Don't chuck everything -- // this may be useful for repair (5,4)

Literally Speaking
The first part of the clue (marked with a dotted underline) is a literal interpretation of the solution.

4d   Book /of/ information unopened (4)

In the Bible, Acts^[6] (or Acts of the Apostles) is a New Testament book immediately following the Gospels and relating the history of the early Church.

What did he say?

In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Deep Threat informs us that the " information"  referred to in the clue is the sort that Mr Gradgrind thought was all that should be taught in school. Mr Thomas Gradgrind[7] is the notorious school board Superintendent in English writer Charles Dickens's novel Hard Times who is dedicated to the pursuit of profitable enterprise. His name is now used generically to refer to someone who is hard and only concerned with cold facts and numbers.

5d   Dismissed // end to end, we hear (5,3)

I thought of the solution in the context of a court of law, where the term might be used to describe the dismissal of a case, especially one with little merit.

However, while I was sitting in court, Deep Threat was visiting the cricket ground.

Cricket 101
In cricket, dismiss[5] means to end the innings of (a batsman or a side [team]) ⇒ Australia were dismissed for 118. Throw out[10] (said of a fielder) means to to put (the batsman) out by throwing the ball to hit the wicket.

What are they talking about?

In the thread arising from Comment #16 on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Horatiohodge comments that I would think you would have to delve into some pretty ancient score books to find someone recorded as thrown out, to which Rabbit Dave replies Not necessarily ancient. You might describe all the batsmen who were dismissed by Muttiah Muralitharan in that way (followed by a winking smiley face). I suspect that " thrown out" is a term that has fallen into disuse. It is not listed in the Wikipedia article on Cricket[7] as being one of the means of dismissal. It has likely been supplanted by the term " run out" defined to occur when a member of the fielding side has broken or "put down" the wicket with the ball while the nearest batsman was out of his ground; this occurs either by an accurate throw to the wicket, or more commonly by a throw to the wicketkeeper or other fielder standing near the wicket [who, in turn, breaks the wicket], while the batsmen are attempting a run, although a batsman can be given a "run out" even when he is not attempting a run; he merely needs to be out of his ground.. The response is a play on another cricket term. Throw[5] (or chuck[5])  means to bowl (the ball) with an unlawful* bent arm action. Thus the victims of Mr. Muralitharan were dismissed as a result of balls that were thrown rather than bowled — although the infractions obviously went undetected by the umpire. * Note that cricket is governed by "laws" rather than "rules". According to Wikipedia, "During the bowling action the elbow may be held at any angle and may bend further, but may not straighten out. If the elbow straightens illegally then the square-leg umpire may call no-ball: this is known as "throwing" or "chucking", and can be difficult to detect. The current laws allow a bowler to straighten his arm 15 degrees or less."

6d   Following game, lord briefly /makes/ money (5)

My efforts here were severely hampered by attempting to use a Russian currency. Worse yet, I was using a North American spelling (which fit) rather than the British spelling (which would not have fit).

Fortunately, however, the rupee finally dropped.

"game" = RU (show explanation )

Rugby union^[10] (abbreviation RU^[5]) is a form of rugby football played between teams of 15 players (in contrast to rugby league^[5], which is played in teams of thirteen).

 Rugby union^[7] is is the national sport in New Zealand, Wales, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Madagascar.

hide explanation

A lord^[10] is a male member of the nobility, especially in Britain.

A  peer^[5] is a member of the nobility in Britain or Ireland, comprising the ranks of duke, marquess, 

The rupee^[5] (abbreviation R^[10]) is the basic monetary unit of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Mauritius, and the Seychelles, equal to 100 paise in India, Pakistan, and Nepal, and 100 cents in Sri Lanka, Mauritius, and the Seychelles.earl, viscount, and baron.

What did he say?

In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Deep Threat refers to  the game played in the Six Nations. and a member of the House of Lords. The Six Nations Championship[7] is an annual international rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The current champions are England, having won the 2017 tournament. In the UK, the House of Lords[5] is the higher chamber of Parliament, composed of peers and bishops.

7d   A bar on flight (5,3)

A stair rod^[5] is a rod for securing a carpet in the angle between two steps. Although I was not familiar with the term and didn't find it in my US dictionaries, these items are available at Home Depot (a rod and two clips will run you a bit over $15 with tax).

8d   Pair getting fever /in/ foreign capital (6)

Prague^[5] is the capital of the Czech Republic, in the north-east on the River Vltava; population 1,196,454 (2007).

14d   Spy hugs English copper, having left // bit of stuff (8)

"copper" = CU (show explanation )

The symbol for the chemical element copper is Cu^[5] (from late Latin cuprum).

hide explanation

16d   Day out is fantastic, I admitted? // Absolutely right! (3,4,2)

17d   Picture // house and record memory (8)

"house" = HO (show explanation )

Although not found in most of the dictionaries that I consulted, ho.^[10] is the abbreviation for house.

hide explanation

In computer science, RAM^[10] is an acronym for random access memory, semiconductor memory in which all storage locations can be rapidly accessed in the same amount of time. It forms the main memory of a computer, used by applications to perform tasks while the device is operating.

18d   Once more model // engineers must go to shed (6)

"engineers" = RE (show explanation )

The Corps of Royal Engineers^[7], usually just called the Royal Engineers (abbreviation RE), and commonly known as the Sappers^[7], is a corps of the British Army that provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces.

hide explanation

20d   Former lover modelled // in birthday suit? (7)

22d   Snake // more angry concealing head (5)

The adder^[5] (also called viper) is a small venomous Eurasian snake (Vipera berus) which has a dark zigzag pattern on its back and bears live young. It is the only poisonous snake in Britain.

Out of Hibernation?
These snakes must be emerging from their winter sleep — this is not the first time that we have seen one recently. The adder[7] is cold-adapted and hibernates in the winter. In Great Britain, males and females hibernate for about 150 and 180 days respectively. In northern Sweden hibernation lasts 8–9 months.

24d   Choose // to put up with the Left rather than the Right (5)

25d   Female /and/ male needing help (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)
^[12] - CollinsDictionary.com (Webster’s New World College Dictionary)
^[13] - MacmillanDictionary.com (Macmillan Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon