Monday, March 26, 2018 — DT 28600 (Published Saturday, March 24, 2018)

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28600
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Saturday, December 2, 2017
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28600 – Hints] Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28600 – Review]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Big Dave (Hints) crypticsue (Review)
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
As this was a Saturday "Prize Puzzle" in Britain, there are two entries related to it on Big Dave's Crossword Blog — the first, posted on the date of publication, contains hints for selected clues while the second is a full review issued following the entry deadline for the contest. The vast majority of reader comments will generally be found attached to the "hints" posting with a minimal number — if any — accompanying the full review. This puzzle appears on the Monday Diversions page in the Saturday, March {date}, 2018 edition of the National Post.

Introduction

I found this puzzle to be decidedly difficult. In her review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, crypticsue has rated it as three stars for difficulty and stated that the puzzle "took me longer than usual for a Saturday solve". Her three-star challenges are more like four-star efforts for me.

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   Books for famous steam trains based here? // Fools ride so excitedly (4,2,5)

Sodor^[7] is a fictional island located in the Irish Sea, just off the English mainland near Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria. It is the setting for The Railway Series books by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry and his son Christopher Awdry, and also for the popular British children's television series Thomas & Friends featuring Thomas the Tank Engine which is based on the books.

10a   Learner within corps // kept in the dark (5)

"learner" = L (show explanation )

The cryptic crossword convention of L meaning learner or student arises from the L-plate^[7], a square plate bearing a sans-serif letter L, for learner, which must be affixed to the front and back of a vehicle in various jurisdictions (including the UK) if its driver is a learner under instruction.

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11a   Putting the accent on it, plies her trade (9)

A plié^[5] is a ballet movement in which a dancer bends the knees and straightens them again, usually with the feet turned right out and heels firmly on the ground.

12a   As partners, going off // work in principle (9)

"work" = OP (show explanation )

In music, an opus^[5] (plural opuses or opera) is a separate composition or set of compositions.

The abbreviation Op.^[5] (also op.), denoting opus, is used before a number given to each work of a particular composer, usually indicating the order of publication. The plural form of Op. is Opp..

Opus^[5] can also be used in a more general sense to mean an artistic work, especially one on a large scale ⇒ he was writing an opus on Mexico.

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13a   Worker I caught /in/ prank (5)

"worker" = ANT (show explanation )

The word "worker" and the phrase "social worker" are commonly used in cryptic crossword puzzles to clue ANT or BEE.

A worker^[5] is a neuter or undeveloped female bee, wasp, ant, or other social insect, large numbers of which do the basic work of the colony.

In crossword puzzles, "worker" will most frequently be used to clue ANT and occasionally BEE but I have yet to see it used to clue WASP. Of course, "worker" is sometimes also used to clue HAND or MAN.

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"caught" = C (show explanation )

In cricket, one way for a batsman to be dismissed is to be caught out^[5], that is for a player on the opposing team to catch a ball that has been hit by the batsman before it touches the ground.

On cricket scorecards, the abbreviation c.^[2,10] or c^[5] denotes caught (by).

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14a   Cleaner polished off /and/ quit (6)

16a   Entertainer // cultivated ad income (8)

18a   Cleaner old Lib-Dem /is/ fascinating (8)

Char^[5] is an informal British term for charwoman^[5] (or charlady^[5]), a dated British name for a woman employed as a cleaner in a house or office.

The Liberal Democrats^[5] are a British political party (formerly the Social and Liberal Democrats) formed from the Liberal Party and members of the Social Democratic Party. The party and its members are informally know by the shortened form Lib Dem^[5,10] (or Lib-Dem^[2]) ⇒ (i) the Lib Dems have promised a wholesale review of policy; (ii) I'm voting Lib Dem.

Sir Walter Menzies Campbell^[7], often known as Ming Campbell, is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1987 to 2015 and was the Leader of the Liberal Democrats from March 2006 until October 2007.

Delving Deeper
One might well wonder where the nickname Ming come from? The Scottish name Menzies is correctly pronounced MING-iss, and a shortened form is "Ming" (because the letter typed 'z' is actually the letter yogh (Ȝ ȝ), which is still used in the 27-letter Scottish alphabet; but typewriters throughout the UK only use 26).[7]

20a   Father collars Republican - // he does go on (6)

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.

"Republican" = R (show explanation )

A Republican^[5] (abbreviation R^[5])  is a member or supporter of the Republican Party^[5], one of the two main US political parties^*, favouring a right-wing stance, limited central government, and tough, interventionist foreign policy. It was formed in 1854 in support of the anti-slavery movement preceding the Civil War.

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^* the other being the Democratic Party

In the UK, republican^[5] can refer to an advocate of a united Ireland but the abbreviation does not seem to apply to that usage.

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23a   Accoutrement somewhat // fantastic (5)

24a   Lain out absorbing promise /in/ president's first speech? (9)

26a   A nice urn's smashed — // this might help to replace it (9)

27a   /It's/ exciting — // perfect maybe (5)

28a   A neat player fouled // somewhere close to goal (7,4)

In soccer [football to the Brits], the penalty area^[5] is the rectangular area marked out in front of each goal, within which a foul by a defender involves the award of a penalty kick and outside which the goalkeeper is not allowed to handle the ball.

Down

2d   Concentrated attack // thus brings in victory the French held up (5)

V^[10] is the symbol for victory. The victory-freedom sign^[7] is famously associated with British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill in World War II.

"the French" = LA (show explanation )

In French, the feminine singular form of the definite article is la^[8].

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3d   Beg /for/ space outing? (7)

In printing, the en^[5] is a unit of measurement equal to half an em and approximately the average width of typeset characters, used especially for estimating the total amount of space a text will require.

4d   Groovy kind of light /is/ legendary (6)

5d   Offering // old boy nothing in the way of classical language (8)

"old boy" = OB (show explanation )

In Britain, an old boy^[5] (abbreviation OB^[2])  is:

• a former male student of a school or college ⇒an old boy of Banbury County School; or
• a former male member of a sports team or company ⇒ the White Hart Lane old boy squared the ball to present an easy chance from 12 yards.

It is also a chiefly British affectionate form of address to a boy or man ⇒ ‘Look here, old boy,’ he said.

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6d   Cause astonishment /in/ old forces' sweetheart with energy (7)

Dame Vera Lynn^[5,7] is an English singer, widely known as "the Forces' Sweetheart". She is known chiefly for her rendering of such songs as ‘We’ll Meet Again‘ and ’White Cliffs of Dover', which she sang to the troops in the Second World War. She is still living having turned 101 just this past week.

"energy" = E (show explanation )

In physics, E^[5] is a symbol used to represent energy in mathematical formulae.

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7d   Monarch // exercising quainter voice (5.8)

Victoria^[5] (1819–1901) was queen of Great Britain and Ireland 1837–1901 and empress of India 1876–1901. She succeeded to the throne on the death of her uncle, William IV, and married her cousin Prince Albert in 1840. She took an active interest in the policies of her ministers, but largely retired from public life after Prince Albert’s death in 1861. Her reign was the longest^* in British history.

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^* Well, it was the longest until surpassed by that of Elizabeth II some two and a half years ago.

8d   Detective tightly controlling // precinct (8)

"detective" = DI (show explanation )

A detective inspector (DI^[5]) is a senior police officer in the UK. Within the British police, inspector^[7] is the second supervisory rank. It is senior to that of sergeant, but junior to that of chief inspector. Plain-clothes detective inspectors are equal in rank to their uniformed counterparts, the prefix 'detective' identifying them as having been trained in criminal investigation and being part of or attached to their force's Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

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9d   1's railway boss // stays perhaps (3.10)

The numeral "1" is a cross reference indicator directing the solver to insert the solution to clue 1a in its place to complete the clue. The directional indicator is customarily omitted in situations such as this where only a single clue starts in the light^* that is being referenced.

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^* light-coloured cell in the grid

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Historically, stays^[5] are a corset made of two pieces laced together and stiffened by strips of whalebone.

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The Fat Controller^[7] (real name Sir Topham Hatt) is the head of the railway in The Railway Series of books written by the Rev. W. V. Awdry as well as in the television series Thomas and Friends, adapted from the books. In the first two books in the series (The Three Railway Engines and Thomas the Tank Engine) he is known as the Fat Director. In the third book (James the Red Engine) he becomes The Fat Controller, as the railway has been nationalised.

15d   Pure eating is // correct (8)

17d   A fashionable American soldier's turned up, succeeding in /getting/ badges (8)

"American soldier" = GI (show explanation )

A GI^[5] is a private soldier in the US army ⇒ she went off with a GI during the war.

Contrary to popular belief, the term apparently is not an abbreviation for general infantryman, but rather derives from the term government (or general) issue (originally denoting equipment supplied to US forces).

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Succeeding is used in the sense of following in line of succession.

19d   Tennis player -- /you could see/ me once with head of racket broken (7)

As crypticsue remarks in her review, the entire clue could well be considered to be the definition.

John McEnroe^[5] is a retired, German-born, American tennis player, often considered among the greatest in the history of the sport. He was known for his shot-making artistry and volleying skills, as well as his confrontational on-court behavior that frequently landed him in trouble with umpires and tennis authorities.

Delving Deeper

Controversy was never far from McEnroe, however; in his fourth-round match against Mikael Pernfors at the 1990 Australian Open, McEnroe was ejected from the tournament for swearing at the umpire, supervisor, and referee. He was warned by the umpire for intimidating a lineswoman, and then docked a point for smashing a racket. McEnroe was apparently unaware that a new Code of Conduct, which had been introduced just before the tournament, meant that a third code violation would not lead to the deduction of a game but instead would result in immediate disqualification; therefore, when McEnroe unleashed a volley of abuse at umpire Gerry Armstrong, he was defaulted. He was fined $6,500 for the incidents.

21d   Great at being at sea? Then this is for you (7)

In her review, crypticsue (having underlined merely the word 'this") remarks that this is a "clue where more could have been underlined".

I would say that this is a semi-all-in-one clue in which the entire clue is the definition and a portion of the clue provides the wordplay.

22d   Obvious // protection for inventor (6)

25d   Register // cooker (5)

In music, register^[2] (noun) denotes the range of tones produced by the human voice or a musical instrument.

Brits use the term cooker^[10] in the sense that North Americans use the word range, namely a stove used for cooking food. In Britain, the term range^[5] has a much more restricted meaning, being a large cooking stove with burners or hotplates and one or more ovens, all of which are kept continually hot. This latter characteristic ("kept continually hot") seems to be the determining factor in deciding whether or not an appliance is considered to be a range. Thus stoves heated by solid fuel (wood or coal) and oil would almost certainly be ranges while stoves heated by gas or electricity would generally not be ranges (provided that the burners and ovens could be turned off when not in use).

What is she talking about?

In her review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, crypticsue suggests that the "cooker"in the clue might be either an Aga or Rayburn. The AGA cooker[7] (trademark) is a high-end gas stove popular in medium to large British country houses — not to mention British crosswords. As a heat storage stove, it works on the principle that a heavy frame made from cast iron components can absorb heat from a relatively low-intensity but continuously-burning source, and the accumulated heat can then be used when needed for cooking. Thus it is considered to be a gas burning range in Britain. The Rayburn range[7] is a type of stove similar in nature to the AGA and is manufactured in Telford in the United Kingdom, at the same factory as the AGA.

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