Thursday, September 21, 2017 — DT 28466

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28466
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, June 29, 2017
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28466]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Kath
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

While not a piece of cake, this is far from being RayT's most difficult puzzle.

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 semi-all-in-one (semi-&lit.) clues. All-in-one (&lit.) clues and cryptic definitions are marked with a dotted underline. Explicit link words and phrases are enclosed in forward slashes (/link/) and implicit links are shown as double forward slashes (//).

Across

1a   Boob /gets/ married -- I use catcall crudely (12)

Boob^[5] is an informal British term for:

• (noun) an embarrassing mistake ⇒ the boob was spotted by a security expert at the show
• (verb) to make an embarrassing mistake ⇒ we found that we had boobed and the booking was for the previous week.

9a   Fancy // chair occupied by male after little time (9)

Fancy^[5] (noun) is a British name for a small iced cake ⇒ chocolate fancies.

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

Wee^[5] is a Scottish adjective meaning little ⇒ (i) when I was just a wee bairn; (ii) the lyrics are a wee bit too sweet and sentimental. [The word may be of Scottish origin but, like the Scots themselves, the word has migrated around the world.]

Sweetmeat^[5] is an archaic term for an item of confectionery or sweet food ⇒ he hurried back to his room like a schoolboy who has stolen a sweetmeat.

10a   Light // captured by Monet or Chagall (5)

Scratching the Surface

Claude Monet[5] (1840–1926) was a French painter. A founder member of the impressionists, his fascination with the play of light on objects led him to produce series of paintings of single subjects painted at different times of the day and under different weather conditions, such as the Water-lilies sequence (1899–1906; 1916 onwards).  Marc Chagall[5] (1887–1985) was a Russian-born French painter and graphic artist. His work was characterized by the use of rich emotive colour and dream imagery, and had a significant influence on surrealism.

11a   The compiler's left /to provide/ meaning (6)

"compiler's" = IM (show explanation )

It is a common cryptic crossword convention for the creator of the puzzle to use terms such as (the or this) compiler, (the or this) setter, (this) author, (this) writer, or this person to refer to himself or herself. To solve such a clue, one must generally substitute a first person pronoun (I or me) for whichever of these terms has been used in the clue.

Today, the setter has made the scenario slightly more complicated by combining "compiler" with the verb "to be" producing "compiler's" (a contraction of "compiler is") which must be replaced by "I'm" (a contraction of "I am").

hide explanation

Port^[5] denotes the side of a ship or aircraft that is on the left when one is facing forward ⇒ (i) the ferry was listing to port; (ii) the port side of the aircraft.

12a   Company soldier died protected by second // soldier (8)

"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

13a   Encore /of/ Queen record with Plant (6)

"Queen" = R (show explanation )

Queen may be abbreviated as Q, Qu. or R.

Q^[5] is an abbreviation for queen that is used especially in describing play in card games and recording moves in chess.

Qu.^[2] is another common abbreviation for Queen.

In the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms^*, Regina^[5] (abbreviation R^[5]) [Latin for queen] denotes the reigning queen, used following a name (e.g. Elizabetha Regina, Queen Elizabeth) or in the titles of lawsuits (e.g. Regina v. Jones, the Crown versus Jones — often shortened to R. v. Jones).

---

^* A Commonwealth realm^[7] is a sovereign state that is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and shares the same person, currently Elizabeth II, as its head of state and reigning constitutional monarch, but retains a crown legally distinct from the other realms. There are currently sixteen Commonwealth realms, the largest being Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom with the remainder being smaller Caribbean and Pacific island nations.

Thus Queen Elizabeth signs her name as 'Elizabeth R' as seen here on Canada's paint-stained constitution.

hide explanation

"record" = EP (show explanation )

EP^[10] (abbreviation for extended-play) is one of the formats in which music is sold, usually comprising four or five tracks.

hide explanation

Scratching the Surface

Queen[5] [reportedly RayT's favourite band] is a British rock group that in its heyday featured camp vocalist Freddie Mercury (1946–1991). Queen are known for their extravagant, almost operatic brand of rock, as exemplified by the hugely successful ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (1975). Robert Plant[7] is an English singer, songwriter, and musician, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band Led Zeppelin.

15a   Thin /and/ starving finally after fish (8)

On first blush, this clue would seem to direct one to place the final letter of starvinG after a synonym for fish. However the wordplay actually parses as G (starvinG finally) + ANGLING (after fish; attempting to catch fish).

18a   Seaside town // beginning to be fashionably left-wing? (8)

Right-on^[5] as a derogatory^* informal term meaning in keeping with fashionable liberal or left-wing opinions and values ⇒ the right-on music press.

---

^* On the other hand, neither the The American Heritage Dictionary nor Collins English Dictionary charactize the expression right-on^[3,10] as being derogatory.

Brighton^[5] is a resort on the south coast of England, in East Sussex; population 127,700 (est. 2009).

19a   Drive round the bend following British // car (6)

Banger^[5] is an informal British term for an old car in poor condition ⇒ they’ve only got an old banger.

21a   Tars at sea circling lake /in/ vessels (8)

Lake Erie^[5] is one of the five Great Lakes of North America, situated on the border between Canada and the US. It is linked to Lake Huron by the Detroit River and to Lake Ontario by the Welland Ship Canal and the Niagara River, which is its only natural outlet.

Scratching the Surface
Tar[5] is an informal, dated nickname for a sailor. The term came into use in the mid 17th century and is perhaps an abbreviation of tarpaulin, also used as a nickname for a sailor at that time.

23a   Former politician // effectively chasing work in retirement (6)

Here I thought that the word "work" was being used to clue ON and so came up with NOWELL as a solution. I did find a couple of English MPs from the distant past with this surname — one from the 14th century (Richard Nowell^[7]) and one from the 16th century (Andrew Nowell^[7]). However, I was certain that they were far to obscure to possibly be correct.

Enoch Powell^[5] (1912–1998) was a British Conservative and Ulster Unionist politician, noted for his condemnation of multiracial immigration into Britain and his opposition to British entry into the Common Market.

26a   Carbon measurement /should offer/ certainty (5)

"carbon" = C (show explanation )

C^[5] is the symbol for the chemical element carbon.

hide explanation

27a   Old judge catching one with trap // to begin (9)

A gin^[2] (also gin trap) is a wire noose laid as a snare or trap for catching game.

28a   Drunken bore's posture /becomes/ unruly (12)

Down

1d   Bank below motorway's // more obscure (7)

Motorway^[2,5] (abbreviation M^[5]) is a British, Australian, and New Zealand term for a dual-carriageway road [divided highway] designed for fast-moving traffic, especially one with three lanes per carriageway [direction of travel] and limited access and exit points [controlled access].

The M1^[7] is a north–south motorway in England connecting London to Leeds.

2d   Fast-rising // odds gathering support (5)

SP^[5] is the abbreviation for starting price^[7], the odds prevailing on a particular horse in the on-course fixed-odds^* betting market at the time a race begins.

---

^* To the best of my limited knowledge in this field, this term would not be encountered in North America as betting on horse racing here is based on parimutuel betting rather than fixed-odds betting.

3d   From oaf, term at Harvard /produces/ results (9)

4d   Munch // cold cut (4)

5d   Coastal area // lacking imagination, we hear (8)

6d   Symbol /of/ support on head of Mohican (5)

On Big Dave's Crossword Blog, in the thread arising from Comment #1, there is a discussion on the use of tote to mean support. I did not find the justification given to be overly compelling.

Scratching the Surface
Mohican[5] is an old-fashioned variant spelling of Mahican or Mohegan. The Mahican[5] (British Mohican) are a North American people formerly inhabiting the Upper Hudson Valley in New York State. The Mohegan[5] (British Mohican) are an Algonquian people formerly inhabiting part of Connecticut.

7d   Running topless /and/ making an impression (8)

8d   Crush // bottom in endeavour to wear skimpy costume (6)

14d   Untouched // can must be gripped by force (8)

16d   Beautify // a girl with some sprucing up (9)

17d   Wood covering empty mango/'s/ top ... (8)

18d   ... bough /with/ top of bough spread (6)

20d   Arbitrator's swallowing deceit /from/ substitutes (7)

22d   Recovery establishment helping addicts' behaviour initially (5)

Like Kath, I struggle with identifying the definition in these type of clues. There is no disputing that the entire clue constitutes the wordplay. At a stretch, one might also say that the entire clue provides the definition. However, the word "initially" really cannot be considered to be part of the definition and the words "helping addict's behaviour" are not essential to the definition. As a result, I have reduced the definition to merely "recovery establishment".

The conclusion is that this is a semi-all-in-one clue in which the entire clue forms the wordplay and the definition is embedded in the clue. However, I have yet to come up with an elegant way to clearly mark such clues.

24d   Muse /seeing/ her reaction, oddly removed (5)

In Greek and Roman mythology, Erato^[5] was the Muse^* of lyric poetry and hymns.

---

^* The Muses^[5] are nine goddesses, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, who preside over the arts and sciences.

25d   Obscure English // coin (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