Monday, January 29, 2018 — DT 28560 (Published Saturday, January 27, 2018)

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28560
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28560]
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
Notes
This puzzle appears on the Monday Diversions page in the Saturday, January 27, 2018 edition of the National Post.

Introduction

As I was solving this puzzle, in several instances I thought definitions seemed to test the boundaries. However, the post-solve review confirmed that they had all stayed within bounds.

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   Skill fixing fence, if icy (10)

For myself, as for several commenters on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, skill and efficiency do not quite align. However, the editors of Collins English Dictionary list competence as a meaning for efficiency so I guess skill must also be a match.

Efficiency^[10] is the quality or state of being efficient; competence; effectiveness.

6a   Bound // to leave (4)

Behind the Picture

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo[7] (known popularly as Skippy) is an Australian television series telling the adventures of a young boy and his intelligent pet kangaroo, and the various visitors to the fictional Waratah National Park in Duffys Forest, near Sydney, New South Wales. The programme aired in Australia from 1968–1970 and was subsequently shown in the United Kingdom, Canada and the Netherlands.

9a   Vehicles, // vehicles -- about time! (5)

10a   Select Poe works // to shorten (9)

Scratching the Surface
Edgar Allan Poe[5] (1809–1849) was an American short-story writer, poet, and critic. His fiction and poetry are Gothic in style and characterized by their exploration of the macabre and the grotesque. Notable works: ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ (short story, 1840); ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’ (detective story, 1841); ‘The Raven’ (poem, 1845).

12a   Old bishop and minister /in/ study (7)

"bishop" = B (show explanation )

B^[5] is an abbreviation for bishop that is used in recording moves in chess.

A bishop ^[5] is a chess piece, typically with its top shaped like a mitre, that can move any number of spaces in any direction along a diagonal on which it stands. Each player starts the game with two bishops, one moving on white squares and the other on black.

hide explanation

13a   Rushed for instance towards the West/'s/ diversity (5)

15a   Agitated // conductor leading band's climax (7)

Sir Simon Rattle^[7] is an English conductor. He rose to international prominence during the 1980s and 1990s, while Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1980–98). He has been principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic since 2002, and plans to leave his position at the end of his current contract, in 2018. It was announced in March 2015 that Rattle would become Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra from September 2017.

17a   Former lover suggested /getting/ bare (7)

19a   Country // retreat with distinguishing characteristic (7)

21a   Hearing // sounds back, son must be captivated (7)

22a   Model of car and every // train (5)

The Ford Model T^[7] (colloquially known as the Tin Lizzie, Leaping Lena, or flivver) is an automobile produced by Ford Motor Company from 1908 to 1927 during which time 15 million vehicles rolled off the assembly line. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, the car that opened travel to the common middle-class American; some of this was because of Ford's efficient fabrication, including assembly line production instead of individual hand crafting. The Model T was Ford's first automobile mass-produced on moving assembly lines with completely interchangeable parts, marketed to the middle class.

What did he say?
In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Mr Kitty refers to the Model T as the first mas-produced car. The 1901 to 1904 Oldsmobile[7] Curved Dash was the first mass-produced car, made from the first automotive assembly line, an invention that is often miscredited to Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company. (Ford was the first to manufacture cars on a moving assembly line.)

24a   Business // skill returned: very loudly in charge (7)

"very loudly" = FF (show explanation )

Fortissimo^[5] (abbreviation ff^[5]) is a direction used in music to mean either (as an adjective) very loud  or (as an adverb) very loudly.

hide explanation

"in charge" = IC (show explanation )

The abbreviation i/c^[2,5] can be short for either:

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

hide explanation

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Traffic^[10] might be used in either of the following senses:

• (usually followed by with) dealings or business ⇒ have no traffic with that man
• trade, especially of an illicit or improper kind ⇒ drug traffic

27a   Keeping // in power involved keeping quiet (9)

Keeping^[10,12] denotes charge, care, or custody but does it denote ownership? Oxford Dictionaries would seem to show that it does. Keeping^[5] is the action or fact of owning, maintaining, or protecting something ⇒ the keeping of dogs.

28a   Say // nothing in sin (5)

29a   Holy man, the old // thing that's painful to see around (4)

Ye^[5] is a pseudo-archaic term for the ⇒ Ye Olde Cock Tavern.

Delving Deeper

The word 'ye' in this sense is a graphic variant of 'the'. Thorn[5] is an Old English and Icelandic runic letter, þ or Þ, representing the dental fricatives /ð/ and /θ/. It was eventually superseded by the digraph th — and thus þe (the old spelling of 'the') became the modern spelling 'the'. In late Middle English þ (thorn) came to be written identically with y, so that þe (the) could be written ye. This spelling (usually ye*) was kept as a convenient abbreviation in handwriting down to the 19th century, and in printers' types during the 15th and 16th centuries. It was never pronounced as ‘ye’ in the past, but this is the pronunciation used today. * I interpret "usually ye" to mean that the word was customarily not capitalized because the character is not being used to represent the letter "y" in the modern English alphabet but rather as a graphic variant of thorn. Thus, in bygone days, the name of the drinking establishment above would presumably be written ye Olde Cock Tavern.

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In his review, Mr Kitty comments ⇒ Not sure that around is an appropriate preposition here. Well, I suppose the affliction may — in addition to being painful — often interfere with one's vision.

30a   Fired up, // 50 per cent of encounters were angry (10)

Down

1d   Branch of sweet chestnut/'s/ cut (4)

2d   Catch up after pro got // left behind (9)

3d   Charges // people from the Highlands leading southern moves? (5)

The Highlands^[5] are the mountainous part of Scotland, to the north of Glasgow and Stirling, often associated with Gaelic culture ⇒ a Highland regiment.

4d   Went in // hospital department before daughter (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

5d   Company suggest leaving a // place of learning (7)

7d   Recognised // kind of wine regularly taken out (5)

Although, in this case, it is the even letters that are removed, the word "regularly" could equally well be used to clue the odd letters as "regularly" merely denotes a regular sequence. And while it most commonly used to designate every second letter, it is sometimes used to signify every third letter.

8d   Putting on an act // before start of theatrical finale (10)

11d   What person in the Navy could want /rubbish on board ship? (7)

"on board ship" = 'contained in SS' (show explanation )

In Crosswordland, you will find that a ship is almost invariably a steamship, the abbreviation for which is SS^[10]. Thus phrases such as "aboard ship" or "on board ship" (or sometimes merely "aboard" or "on board") are Crosswordland code for 'contained in SS'.

hide explanation

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Although, in keeping with the theme of the clue, the Navy in particular is mentioned, the definition would be equally applicable to any branch of the military.

A stripe^[5,10] is a strip, band, or chevron of fabric worn on a military uniform, etc, especially one that indicates rank^* ⇒ he was wearing his old uniform without its sergeant's stripes. A stripe^[1,10a,12] may also indicate good behaviour or (in the US) length of service.

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^[10a] COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary

14d   Customs // raid -- it's not unusual (10)

16d   Mad king wielding the // whip (7)

King Lear^[7] is a tragedy by English playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616). The title character descends into madness after disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all.

As a containment indicator, wield^[5] is used in the sense of hold and use (a weapon or tool) — with the emphasis on the first part of the definition.

18d   Some tailors initially longing to finish this? (9)

This is a semi-all-in-one clue in which the entire clue constitutes the definition into which the wordplay (marked with a dashed underline) is embedded.

20d   Thick stews in French // cuisine, as they say in Paris (7)

The French preposition en^[8] means 'in'.

Cuisine^[8] is a French word meaning 'kitchen' as well as the more familiar 'cooking'.

21d   Head cleaner // has mop bent over (7)

"over" = O (show explanation )

On cricket scorecards, the abbreviation O^[5] denotes over(s), an over^[5] being a division of play consisting of a sequence of six balls bowled by a bowler from one end of the pitch, after which another bowler takes over from the other end.

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23d   Refusal to tuck into any//  bug (5)

25d   Female continually /creating/ state of excitement (5)

26d   Heroic exploit, whichever way you look at it (4)

The portion of the clue marked with a dashed underline is cryptic elaboration indicating that the solution is a palindrome.

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