Friday, March 23, 2018 — DT 28599

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28599
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, December 1, 2017
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28599]
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

This was a polarizing puzzle with comments on Big Dave's Crossword Blog seemingly about equally divided between those who loved the puzzle and those who hated it. Despite the two-star difficulty rating assigned by Deep Threat, most observers appear to have found the puzzle decidedly challenging.

Many visitors to Big Dave's site mention the high level of GK (general knowledge) and RE (religious education^*) involved in the puzzle. Giovanni — who, in addition to compiling puzzles for The Daily Telegraph and other publications, also serves as crossword editor for the Church Times (an independent Anglican weekly newspaper in the UK) — drops by and leaves a comment regarding this in a response to Comment #40.

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^* Religious education^[10] (abbreviation RE^[5]) is a subject taught in schools in the UK which educates about the different religions of the world.

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.

Click here for an explanation of conventions and symbols used in explaining the parsing of clues.

The purpose of this article is to explain the conventions and symbols that I use on this blog in explaining the parsing of clues.

Legend: The following symbols are used in reviews: "*" anagram "~" sounds like "<" indicates that the preceding letters are reversed "( )" encloses contained letters "_" replaces letters that have been deleted "†" indicates that the word is present in the clue

The review of a clue takes the following general structure:

#a/d   Clue containing parsing markup (num^*)

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^* num = numeration

Explanations pertaining to the wordplay (or first definition in a double definition)

(Horizontal separator)

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Explanations pertaining to the definition (or second definition in a double definition) and solution.

Explanatory Box

An explanatory box provides additional information about the clue. In most cases this information will not necessarily help in solving the clue but provides information about the clue. In the case of the weekday syndicated Daily Telegraph puzzles, such information is often intended to help the North American solver appreciate how the clue may be perceived by a British solver. These boxes may also provide information on people, places, films, television programmes, works of art and literature, etc. mentioned in the clue. Although the titles of these boxes will usually be drawn from a standard list, I do occasionally throw in a title specifically suggested by the subject at hand. The standard titles include: Scratching the Surface - an explanation of the surface reading of the clue Delving Deeper - in-depth information pertaining to a subject mentioned in an explanation Behind the Picture - for weekday puzzles, information about an illustration found on Big Dave's Crossword Blog What did he/she/they say? - for weekday puzzles, an explanation of a remark made in a review or comment on Big Dave's Crossword Blog What are they talking about? - for weekday puzzles, an explanation of a discussion on Big Dave's Crossword Blog One box that may provide information that could prove helpful in solving the clue is the following: Here and There - for weekday puzzles, discusses words whose British meaning differs from their North American meaning

Note that there are many types of cryptic crossword clue and it is not my intention to exhaustively go through all of them here. I will only deal with clue types to the extent necessary to explain the conventions and symbols used on the blog. Furthermore, be aware that, in the world of cryptic crosswords, there seems to be an exception to every rule.

With one exception that I can think of, cryptic crossword clues provide two routes to the solution. These are commonly referred to as the definition and wordplay. While these terms serve well for most clues, there are some cases where the more formal terms of primary indication and subsidiary indication may be more appropriate.

Most cryptic crossword clues consist of a definition (primary indication) and wordplay (subsidiary indication). The definition may be a "precise definition" (a definition that is either taken straight from a dictionary or at least phrased in a non-misleading fashion) or it may be a "cryptic definition" (a definition misleadingly phrased so as to misdirect the solver either with respect to the meaning of the definition as a whole or to an incorrect sense of a word used in the definition).

The only type of clue that I can think of where there are not two ways of finding the solution are those in which the entire clue is a cryptic definition.

I identify precise definitions by marking them with a solid underline in the clue and cryptic definitions by marking them with a dotted underline.

In clues in which both definition and wordplay are present, the two parts of the clue combine to provide an overall meaningful statement (the surface reading) which usually bears no relationship to the underlying cryptic reading of the clue. In some cases, an extra word or phrase will be inserted into the clue to create a meaningful link between the definition and wordplay. I define clues which contain such a link word or link phrase as having an explicit link and clues which contain no link word or link phrase as having an implicit link.

I mark the existence of an explicit link by enclosing the link word or link phrase between forward slashes (/link/) and mark the existence of an implicit link with double forward slashes (//) positioned between the definition and wordplay.

Examples

A few examples may help to illustrate these points more clearly.

The first example is a clue used by Jay in DT 28573:

• 4d   Fellow left work // a failure (4)

Here the definition is "a failure" which is marked with a solid underline to show that it is a precise definition. The wordplay parses as F (fellow; abbrev.) + L (left; abbrev.) + OP (work; abbrev. used in music) which gives us the solution F|L|OP. The double forward slashes (//) between the definition and wordplay indicate the existence of an "implicit link" between the two parts of the clue (that is, no extra words are inserted into the clue to form the link).

The second example is a clue used by Giovanni in DT 28575:

• 29a   Female going to match // travels with mother in advance (10)

Here the definition "female going to match" is cryptic (the setter is attempting to misdirect our thoughts to a sports event rather than a marriage ceremony) and thus is marked with a a dotted underline. The wordplay is {RIDES (travels) + (with) MA (mother)} contained in (in) BID (advance) giving us the solution B(RIDES|MA)ID. As in the first example, the double forward slashes indicate the presence of an implicit link.

The third example is a clue used by Rufus is DT 28583:

• 18d   Knight caught by misplaced big blow /is/ staggering (8)

Here the definition is "staggering" which is marked with a solid underline to show that it is a precise definition. The wordplay parses as N ([chess symbol for] knight) contained in (caught in) an anagram (misplaced) of BIG BLOW producing the solution WOBBLI(N)G. Finally, forward slashes mark the link word (/is/).

I also use distinctive underlining to mark &lit.^[7] and semi-&lit. clues. Note that the reviewers on Big Dave's Crossword Blog generally prefer to refer to these clue types by the less pretentious names of all-in-one or semi-all-in-one clues respectively.

In an &lit. clue^[7] (or all-in-one clue) the entire clue provides not only the definition (when read one way), but under a different interpretation also serves as the wordplay.

In future, I will mark such clues with a combined solid and dashed underline. Although this is a departure from past practice, it would seem to make more sense than using a dotted underline as I have in the past). Henceforth, the dotted underline will be reserved for cryptic definitions.

In a semi-&lit. clue (or semi-all-in-one clue), either:

• the entire clue acts as the definition while a portion of the clue provides the wordplay; or
• the entire clue acts as the wordplay while a portion of the clue provides the definition.

For these clues, I will mark the definition with a solid underline and the wordplay with a  dashed underline. This means that a portion of the clue may have a solid underline, a portion of the clue may have a dashed underline and a portion of the clue may have a combined solid and dashed underline.

One final clue type is what I characterize as a cryptic definition comprised of a precise definition combined with cryptic elaboration. For example, in DT 28560 (setter unknown) the following clue appears:

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

As the entire clue is a cryptic definition, it is marked with a dotted underline. The 'precise definition' is "heroic exploit" and is indicated by a solid underline.

Given the numeration, the precise definition could give rise to at least two solutions, DEED or FEAT. However, the 'cryptic elaboration' ("whichever way you look at it") indicates that the solution is a palindrome thereby immediately eliminating one of the two obvious choices.

Note that the part of the clue that I have called 'cryptic elaboration' does not provide a second independent route to the solution (as the wordplay would do in most other types of clue). Rather it merely provides a piece of additional information (elaboration) related to the 'precise definition'.

Again, this approach is a departure from past practice, but like the other changes mentioned previously is intended to remove inconsistencies in the way that I have been applying parsing markup to clues. The markup rules that I have been using until now evolved bit-by-bit over a long period of time resulting in some degree of internal inconsistency.

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Across

1a   Form is stocked with 100 // great books (8)

In Britain, a form^[5] is [or, perhaps more correctly,was] a class or year in a school, usually given a specifying number. Thus what we in North America would call a grade would be — or once was — known in Britain as a form, although the numbering system for forms and grades are vastly different. (show more )

The term "form" seems to have become passé as Miffypops in his review of DT 28163 on Big Dave's Crossword Blog refers to "sixth-former" as "What a schoolchild would be during the year before university back in the old days. This would now be known as year 13 or 14." Furthermore, Wikipedia (see table below) characterizes the term "form" as an "alternative/old name".

A form^[7] is a class or grouping of students in a school. The term is used predominantly in the United Kingdom, although some schools, mostly private, in other countries also use the title. Pupils are usually grouped in forms according to age and will remain with the same group for a number of years, or sometimes their entire school career.

Forms are normally identified by a number such as "first form" or "sixth form". A form number may be used for two year groups and differentiated by the terms upper and lower [in general, this would seem to apply primarily for the sixth form]. Usually the sixth form is the senior form of a school [although this apparently does not hold true for New Zealand where they would appear to have a seventh form]. In England, the sixth form is usually divided into two year groups, the lower sixth and upper sixth, owing to the 3-year English college/university system. In Scotland or North America, the 6th form is usually a single year, owing to the 4-year college/university system. If there is more than one form for each year group they will normally be differentiated by letters, e.g., "upper four B", "lower two Y". Schools do not follow a consistent pattern in naming forms [in the foregoing quotation witness Miffypops' reference to "year 14",  a term which does not appear in the table below].

Wikipedia would appear to be at best ambiguous and at worst inconsistent on the relationship between the British and American systems of naming school years. The article from which the table below is excerpted shows that the British first form is equivalent to the American 6th grade. On the other hand, the article cited above states "In North America, the 1st Form (or sometimes 'Form I') is equivalent to 7th Grade." However, this latter statement may in fact be a comparison between the few North American schools to use the form system and the vast majority of North American schools that don't rather than a comparison between British and American schools.

Naming of School Years (British System vs American System)[7]
Age Range	British System		American System
	Name	Alternative/Old Name	Name
11-12	Year 7	First form	6th grade
12-13	Year 8	Second form	7th grade
13-14	Year 9	Third form	8th grade
14-15	Year 10	Fourth form	9th grade
15-16	Year 11	Fifth form	10th grade
16-17	Year 12	Lower sixth form	11th grade
17-18	Year 13	Upper sixth form	12th grade

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5a   Mount // desert animal to cross river (6)

Mount Carmel^[5] is a group of mountains near the Mediterranean coast in north-western Israel, sheltering the port of Haifa. In the Bible it is the scene of the defeat of the priests of Baal by the prophet Elijah (I Kings 18).

9a   From what we hear, actor Smith loves // men fighting (8)

Matt Smith^[5] is an English actor best known for his role as the 11th incarnation of The Doctor in the BBC television series Doctor Who.

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A matador^[5] is a bullfighter whose task is to kill the bull.

10a   English author // to obtain from library? (6)

George Borrow^[7] (1803–1881) was an English writer of novels and of travel books based on his own experiences in Europe. During his travels, he developed a close affinity with the Romani people of Europe, who figure prominently in his work. His best-known books are The Bible in Spain (1843), the autobiographical Lavengro (1851), and The Romany Rye (1857), about his time with the English Romanichal (Gypsies).

12a   Bank // interest rates initially revised after crash (9)

13a   A side /is/ amazing (5)

14a   Drop off /as/ junior public schoolboy tackling Latin (4)

Here and There
Fag[5] is a British term for a junior pupil at a public school who does minor chores for a senior pupil ⇒ a fag at school who has suffered a well-earned beating. From a British perspective, fag[5] is an offensive informal North American term for a male homosexual.

16a   Introduce // intellectual, having poured out a drink (5,2)

What did he say?

In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Deep Threat describes the libation in question as the drink known as ‘mother’s ruin’. Mother's ruin[5] is British slang for gin. The name may derive from the reputed ability of gin, if consumed in large quantity, to induce abortion in pregnant women. An eye-opening account of the effects of gin-drinking on English society in the mid-eighteenth century can be found here.

19a   Examination -- // one of those coming down here is confused! (7)

Despite the solution being obvious from the definition and checking letters, I had absolutely no idea how to unravel the wordplay — so many thanks to Deep Threat.

The solution is an anagram (confused) of one of the Down solutions in the puzzle. As there are only two seven-letter down solutions (4d and 21d), the anagram fodder must be provided by one of those.

Convention Contravention?
On Big Dave's Crossword Blog, the 2Kiwis kick off a discussion at Comment #27 regarding whether this clue constitutes an 'indirect anagram' — a clue construction that is forbidden by crossword convention. The consensus would seem to be that the novel construction used in this clue is not an indirect anagram.

21a   Lady's title // provided by steward on arrival (4)

Dona^[10] (Portuguese) or Doña^[10] (Spanish) is a title of address equivalent to Mrs or Madam that is placed before a name to indicate respect.

24a   Greek letter // that is half-obscured by an earlier one (5)

Eta^[5] is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet (Η, η).

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Theta^[5] is the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet (Θ, θ).

25a   Partisan // as certain as could be (9)

27a   Article by relative // that may have been written at university (6)

For the solution to be a noun, the word "that" must be included in the definition. In clues structured such as this, I find it helpful to mentally transform the definition to read either "that [which] may have been written at university" or "[something] that may have been written at university".

28a   End of the line -- not just for a French supremo (8)

Click here for an explanation of the parsing of and markup applied to this clue.

This clue is a cryptic definition comprising a precise definition ("end of the line") combined with cryptic elaboration ("not just for a French supremo").

Despite being termed a 'precise definition', the phrase "end of the line" is hardly very precise as it could define any number of potential solutions. The cryptic elaboration provides additional information that allows us to narrow down the range of possibilities that exist.

As the entire clue is a cryptic definition, it is marked with a dotted underline. The precise definition (embedded within the cryptic definition) is indicated by a solid underline.

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Waterloo has been the end of the line, not only for the French supremo Napoleon, but metaphorically for many others since — not to mention British rail passengers travelling to London.

The Battle of Waterloo^[5] was a battle fought on 18 June 1815 near the village of Waterloo (in what is now Belgium), in which Napoleon's army was defeated by the British (under the Duke of Wellington) and Prussians. The allied pursuit caused Napoleon's army to disintegrate entirely, ending his bid to return to power.

The term Waterloo^[5] has become a metaphor for a decisive defeat or failure ⇒ the coach rued the absence of his top player as his team met their Waterloo.

Waterloo station^[5], also known as London Waterloo, is a central London terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, located in the Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth.

29a   After game the female had // got her skates on? (6)

"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 the national sport in New Zealand, Wales, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Madagascar.

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Get one's skates on^[5] is an informal British expression meaning to hurry up ⇒ I'll tell him to get his skates on.

30a   Spoilt // child being naughty gets exposed (8)

Down

1d   Capturer of pictures /of/ the first person embraced by woman (6)

Cara^[7] is a female given name of Latin or Irish origin (show more ).

The name has been frequently used mostly in recent times, especially in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

Cara means 'cherished and beloved one' in Latin and the names Carina, Cherie and Cheryl derive from it.  Cara also means friend in the Irish language. Kara, the alternative spelling, is from the Cornish word, meaning love. This is likely cognate to the popular Welsh girls' name Carys.

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Who is he talking about?
In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Deep Threat hints that the woman's name required is that of Ms Delevingne, perhaps. Cara Delevingne[7] is an English model and actress who has won the "Model of the Year" award at the British Fashion Awards in both 2012 and 2014 and appeared in a handful of rather unremarkable films.

2d   Voice -- // it returns in cave eerily (6)

3d   Religious meal /in which/ prophet entertains 500 (5)

Seder^[5] is a Jewish ritual service and ceremonial dinner for the first night or first two nights of Passover.

4d   Grumbling, /being/ bothered about parking (7)

"parking" = P

6d   Notice something being said /in/ worship (9)

7d   Arrives before one to get into game, rescheduled // match (8)

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

8d   Old-style solicitor /with/ some flaw, a gentleman (3,5)

In Scotland, a law agent^[10] is a solicitor holding a certificate from the Law Society of Scotland and thereby entitled to appear for a client in any Sheriff Court. According to The Chambers Dictionary this term is 'old' [presumably meaning that the term is no longer in use].

Delving Deeper

Barristers and solicitors[7] are two classes of lawyer. However, the distinction between them varies in different jurisdictions around the world. The UK has a split legal profession in which barristers and solicitors have separate and distinct roles. The following attempt to differentiate between barristers and solicitors is no doubt somewhat oversimplified. In the UK, solicitors are attorneys which means they can act in the place of their client for legal purposes. However, a solicitor is not a member of the bar and therefore [generally (see below)] cannot speak on behalf of a client in court. A barrister is not an attorney and is usually forbidden, either by law or professional rules or both, from "conducting" litigation. This means that while the barrister speaks on the client's behalf in court, he or she can do so only when instructed by a solicitor or certain other qualified professional clients, such as patent agents. However, the foregoing would appear not to be strictly true. Collins English Dictionary defines a solicitor[10], in Britain, as a lawyer who advises clients on matters of law, draws up legal documents, prepares cases for barristers, etc, and who may represent clients in certain courts [such as, perhaps, Scotland's Sheriff Court] and a barrister[10] (also called barrister-at-law), in England [not Britain], as a lawyer who has been called to the bar and is qualified to plead in the higher courts. In the US and Canada (with the exception of Quebec), there is generally no legal or regulatory distinction between a barrister and a solicitor - with any qualified lawyer being entitled to practice in either field. In the US, most lawyers call themselves attorneys while in Canada, lawyers will adopt different titles depending on the type of legal practice on which they choose to concentrate (barrister, solicitor, or barrister and solicitor).

11d   Swimmer // beginning to worry with tide going out (4)

Captain Matthew Webb^[5] (1848–1883) was the first recorded person to swim the English Channel without the use of artificial aids for sport purpose. On 25 August 1875, Webb swam from Dover to Calais in less than 22 hours.

Delving Deeper
Webb died in 1883 at the age of 35 in a failed attempt to swim through the Whirlpool Rapids on the Niagara River below Niagara Falls, a feat many observers considered (in hindsight, rightfully so) suicidal.[7]

15d   Vital cure could be // moneymaking (9)

17d   One to flatter in the most sincere way? (8)

This is an allusion to the quotation from English cleric and writer Charles Caleb Colton (1780–1832) that imitation is the sincerest of flattery (usually stated as imitation is the sincerest form of flattery).

The ever-so-humble Oscar Wilde extended this to imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.

18d   What's shown by one with endless lolling around? (8)

20d   Go over // items presented systematically (4)

21d   Lecture /using/ new media to entertain 150 (7)

22d   Bandleader /in/ factory meeting HM (6)

"HM" (Her Majesty) = 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.

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Glenn Miller^[5] (1904–1944) was an American jazz trombonist and bandleader; full name Alton Glenn Miller. He led a celebrated swing big band, with whom he recorded his signature tune ‘Moonlight Serenade’. He died when his aircraft disappeared over the English Channel during World War II.

23d   Not informed, // as very many may be (6)

One of these definitions may be cryptic, I just can't decide which one. On the other hand, they may both be a bit cryptic.

Untold^[5] (said of a story or event) means not narrated or recounted ⇒ no event, however boring, is left untold.

Untold^[5] denotes too much or too many to be counted or measured ⇒ thieves caused untold damage.

26d   Any number in region // where sport can be watched (5)

"any number" = N (show explanation )

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.

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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)
^[14] - CollinsDictionary.com (COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon