Friday, November 10, 2017 — DT 28502

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28502
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, August 10, 2017
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28502]
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

Judging by her review, Kath seems to have found this puzzle to be tad less difficult than I did. I found myself stretching the mental cells to complete it and needed a smidgen of electronic assistance to get across the finish line.

In recent reviews, you may have noticed the inclusion of sound samples giving the pronunciation of certain words, especially in the case of homophone clues. While I have tested this feature and found it to work in Firefox and Chrome, I do not know if it is supported in other browsers.

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   Dress up lie foolishly covering a //  resentment (11)

10a   Men scoffed after // harangue (5)

"other ranks | men | soldiers" = OR (show explanation )

In the British armed forces, the term other ranks^[5] (abbreviation OR^[5]) refers to all those who are not commissioned officers.

hide explanation

11a   Sailor // saw a bit on travelling (9)

A boatswain^[5] (pronounced and frequently spelled bosun or bo'sun) is a ship's officer in charge of equipment and the crew.

12a   Almost dismiss anger with graduate vacantly /producing/ blasphemy (9)

13a   Like this compiler would start to entertain // digression (5)

"this compiler would" = ID (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, RayT has made the scenario slightly more complicated by combining "compiler" with the verb "would" producing "this compiler would" which must be replaced by "I'd" (a contraction of "I would").

hide explanation

14a   Shake // head finally facing stranger (6)

16a   Stones admitting sex // worries (8)

It^[2,5] (usually written in quotation marks, "it") is an informal term for sexual intercourse or sex appeal ⇒ (i) the only thing I knew nothing about was ‘it’; (ii) they were caught doing ‘it’ in the back seat of his car.

18a   Return of Queen -- sense overlapping sample // record collection (8)

"Queen" = ER (show explanation )

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 Queen Elizabeth is ER^[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina.

hide explanation

20a   Girl excelling in serving, having artistic beginnings (6)

Not only did I need some electronic assistance to solve this clue, but I failed to see that it is an initialism type clue. I was mistakenly looking for a particular girl's name and also supposed the clue to be nothing more than a cryptic definition. In fact, the surface reading does provide a pretty good definition of a geisha.

I have marked this as an all-in-one clue as the initialism indicator "beginning" must be part of the definition in order for it to be meaningful (compare 2d).

Geisha^[7] are traditional Japanese female entertainers who act as hostesses. Their skills include performing various arts such as classical music, dance, games, and conversation, traditionally to entertain male customers, but also female customers today.

Did you know ...

The geisha's purpose was "to entertain their customer, be it by dancing, reciting verse, playing musical instruments, or engaging in light conversation. Geisha engagements may include flirting with men and playful innuendos; however, clients know that nothing more can be expected." The first geishas were men, entertaining customers waiting to see the most popular and gifted courtesans (oiran) (high class prostitutes). During the period of the Allied occupation of Japan, local women called "Geisha girls" worked as prostitutes. They almost exclusively serviced American GIs stationed in the country, who actually referred to them as "Geesha girls" (a mispronunciation, the correct pronunciation being 'gaysha' ). These women dressed in kimono and imitated the look of geisha. Many Americans unfamiliar with the Japanese culture could not tell the difference between legitimate geisha and these costumed performers. Eventually, the English term "geisha girl" became a general word for any female Japanese prostitute or worker in the mizu shōbai (the nighttime entertainment business in Japan) and included bar hostesses and streetwalkers. Geisha girls are speculated by researchers to be largely responsible for the continuing misconception in the West that all geisha are engaged in prostitution.

23a   Your old // skinny sweetheart (5)

"sweetheart" = E (show explanation )

A common cryptic crossword construct is to use the word "sweetheart" to clue E, the middle letter (heart) of swEet.

hide explanation

24a   Covered // empty loft before going into outhouse (9)

Here and There
In Britain, an outhouse[5] is a building such as a shed or barn that is built on to or in the grounds of a house rather than — as in North America — an outside toilet.

26a   Failing /that/ mother wisely comprehends (9)

As a hidden word indicator, comprehend^[5] is used in a formal sense meaning to include, comprise, or encompass ⇒ a divine order comprehending all men.

27a   Black // night's beginning after storm (5)

28a   Clear // front of Tyne Tunnel -- car's broken down (11)

Scratching the Surface
The Tyne Tunnel[7] is the name given to a pair* of vehicular toll tunnels under the River Tyne in North East England. The tunnels are 7 miles (11 km) downstream and to the east of Newcastle upon Tyne and form part of the A19 road. * each tunnel serving a single direction of travel

Down

2d   Individual Sarah and Abraham conceived originally (5)

I may have missed the first initialism today, but I caught this one.

Like Kath says in her review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, "I’m never quite sure what to underline as the definition in this type of clue". I have chosen to mark this one as a semi-all-in-one clue as the initialism indicator "originally" appears not to be essential to the definition — in fact, its inclusion would detract from the definition in my opinion (compare 20a).

In the Bible, Isaac^[5] is a Hebrew patriarch, son of Abraham and Sarah and father of Jacob and Esau.

3d   Force to accept Church upset // faithful (7)

"church" = CE (show explanation )

The Church of England^[10] (abbreviation CE^[10]) is the reformed established state Church in England, Catholic in order and basic doctrine, with the Sovereign as its temporal head.

hide explanation

4d   Symbol /we see/ partly resemble medallion? (6)

5d   Search // small grotto and say name echoing (8)

6d   Hinge on craft /providing/ new opening (7)

7d   Criminal group share // respect (13)

"group" (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, in Britain, a player is said to be "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

8d   With help climbing inside measures // beams (8)

Who is Beam

The appearance of the word "beam" in a RayT crossword often draws a comment from the reviewer or visitors on Big Dave's Crossword Blog. Beam is the pseudonym used by crossword compiler Ray Terrell (whom we know as RayT) for his Toughie* puzzles. You may have noticed the theme here, a beam being a ray of light. * In addition to the Cryptic Crossword (the crossword which is carried in syndication by the National Post), The Daily Telegraph also publishes the Toughie Crossword. The former appears in The Daily Telegraph from Monday to Saturday — customarily on the back page of the paper (and thus is commonly referred to on Big Dave's blog as the 'back-pager'). The latter is published from Tuesday to Friday and is found somewhere in the middle of the paper. A separate series of Cryptic Crossword puzzles appears in The Sunday Telegraph.

9d   Getting // dinner and gut's rumbling (13)

15d   In which boxers do combat? (8)

17d   Terrible puns -- air's /becoming/ sort of blue (8)

Prussian blue^[5] is a deep blue pigment used in painting and dyeing, made from or in imitation of ferric ferrocyanide.

19d   One fleeces // lambs trimmed right round a river (7)

21d   Hospital department twisting about in charge // of intestines (7)

"hospital department" = ENT (show explanation )

Should you not have noticed, the ear, nose and throat (ENT^[2]) department is the most visited section, by far, in the Crosswordland Hospital.

hide explanation

"in charge" = IC (show explanation )

The abbreviation i/c^[5] can be short for either:

• (especially in military contexts) in charge of ⇒ the Quartermaster General is i/c rations
• in command ⇒ 2 i/c = second in command.

hide explanation

22d   Party taking in a // show (6)

25d   Rent // forced to be capped (5)

As a decapitation indicator, cap^[5] is used in the sense of to place a limit or restriction on (prices, expenditure, or borrowing) ⇒ council budgets will be capped.

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