Monday, April 23, 2018 — DT 28620 (Published Saturday, April 21, 2018)

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28620
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28620]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By 2Kiwis
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, April {date}, 2018 edition of the National Post.

Introduction

The consensus among those commenting on the puzzle at Big Dave's Crossword Blog would seem to be that this puzzle is of above average difficulty. One of the few to express a contrary view was crypticsue.
 
By the way, crypticsue mentions that she is "going back to the kitchen now to rescue the bubble and squeak". I immediately thought Cockney rhyming slang — and it is, just not in the way that I imagined.

Bubble and squeak^[*] is a British dish, typically eaten for breakfast, now made from vegetables that have been left over from a previous meal, often the Sunday roast. Originally the dish consisted of beef and cabbage fried together and was so called from its "bubbling up and squeaking whilst over the fire". The beef disappeared from the recipe during World War II likely due to wartime rationing of meat.

Bubble (from bubble and squeak) is Cockney rhyming slang for Greek. So it is Cockney rhyming slang — just working in the reverse direction from what I had imagined.

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^[*] The Phrase Finder

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   What Spanish viewed in strange dream as // deception (10)

In Spanish, qué^[8] is a pronoun meaning 'what'.

What are they talking about?

There are several references on Big Dave's Crossword Blog to people being familiar with this Spanish word from its use on Fawlty Towers. Fawlty Towers[7] is a British television sitcom broadcast on BBC in 1975 and 1979. Only 12 episodes were made (two series of six episodes each). The programme will certainly be familiar to many on this side of the pond as it has been broadcast in North America. The show was ranked first on a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000. The series is set in Fawlty Towers, a fictional hotel in the seaside town of Torquay on the "English Riviera". The plots centre on tense, rude and put-upon owner Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), his bossy wife Sybil (Prunella Scales), comparatively normal chambermaid Polly (Connie Booth) who often is the peacemaker and voice of reason, and hapless and English-challenged Spanish waiter Manuel (Andrew Sachs), showing their attempts to run the hotel amidst farcical situations and an array of demanding and eccentric guests and tradespeople. Manuel, the waiter, is a well-meaning but disorganised and confused Spaniard from Barcelona with a poor grasp of the English language and customs. He is verbally and physically abused by his boss. When told what to do, he often responds, "¿Qué?" ("What?").

6a   Supporters // left, say, before the end of this (4)

10a   Cast // lose on purpose (5)

11a   Low temperature needed by popular filling casserole /is/ a contentious issue (4,5)

Moot^[5] can mean either:

• subject to debate, dispute, or uncertainty ⇒ (i) whether the temperature rise was mainly due to the greenhouse effect was a moot point; (ii) it is a moot point whether such a controversial scheme would have succeeded
• having little or no practical relevance, typically because the subject is too uncertain to allow a decision ⇒ the whole matter is becoming increasingly moot

In the solution, it is the first sense of moot that is being used. I have to admit that I was only familiar with the word meaning irrelevant rather than contentious.

12a   Go too far, /having/ finished marathon? (7)

13a   Provide assistance /for/ person taken in for broadcast (7)

14a   International match depicted in medal - not unusual /in/ ancient books (3,9)

Test^[5] (short for Test match)^[5] denotes an international cricket or rugby match, typically one of a series, played between teams representing two different countries ⇒ the Test match between Pakistan and the West Indies.

18a   Menaces // independent easily frightened, protected by people (12)

"independent" = I (show explanation )

I^[1] is the abbreviation for independent, in all likelihood in the context of a politician with no party affiliation.

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21a   What might afford leverage /with/ lawyers following Conservative argument? (7)

"Conservative" = C (show explanation )

The abbreviation for Conservative may be either C.^[10] or Con.^[10].

The Conservative Party^[5] is a a major British political party that emerged from the old Tory Party^* under Sir Robert Peel in the 1830s and 1840s. Since the Second World War, it has been in power 1951–64, 1970-74, and 1979–97. It governed in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats from 2010 until the general election of May 2015, in which it was returned with a majority.

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^* Historically, a Tory^[10] was a member of the English political party that opposed the exclusion of James, Duke of York from the royal succession (1679–80). Tory remained the label for subsequent major conservative interests until they gave birth to the Conservative Party in the 1830s.

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23a   Most of danger comes before fish // dish (7)

Rissole^[5] is a British term for a compressed mixture of meat and spices, coated in breadcrumbs and fried.

24a   Small garden tool with spikes? // Boots may have them (9)

Scratching the Surface

Boots[7] is a British pharmacy chain. Boots expanded into Canada by purchasing the Tamblyn Drugs chain circa 1978. Most Canadian Boots stores were converted to Pharma Plus in 1989, although a handful of locations remained as late as 1993, if not later. In 1997, Pharma Plus was purchased by the Edmonton-based Katz Group (owners of the Edmonton Oilers NHL franchise) and merged into its Rexall pharmacy chain and, over time, stores were gradually rebranded to the Rexall name. In 2016, Rexall was acquired by San Francisco-based McKesson Corporation.

25a   Window // secured by turning angle iron (5)

An oriel^[5] is:

• a large upper-storey bay with a window, supported by brackets or on corbels^*
• a window in an oriel

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^* A corbel^[5] is a projection jutting out from a wall to support a structure above it.

26a   Clears // area for cricket practice (4)

In cricket, a net^[2,10] (often nets) denotes a practice pitch^* enclosed in nets, indoors or outdoors.

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^* see box that follows

A Brief Primer on Cricket

A pitch[7] is the prepared strip of ground (flat and with extremely short grass) located at the centre of a cricket field between the two sets of stumps (a structure consisting of three vertical posts across which are laid two horizontal pieces of wood known as bails). Confusingly, both the pitch and each set of stumps is also known as a wicket. During play, a batsman is positioned at each end of the wicket* in front of a wicket**. A bowler positioned at one end of the wicket* delivers a ball to the batsman positioned at the other end of the wicket*. To avoid being dismissed, the batsman must prevent the ball from striking the wicket** behind him. I trust that is clear. * pitch ** stumps

27a   Essential details /of/ supporters with loads (5,5)

Get down to brass tacks^[5] is an informal expression meaning to start to consider the basic facts or practical details ⇒ we've had a meeting as to the general terms, and now we're going to get down to brass tacks.

Down

1d   Second note concerning // proposal (6)

"second" = MO (show explanation )

Mo^[3,5] (abbreviation for moment) is an informal, British^[5] (or chiefly British^[3]) term for a short period of time ⇒ hang on a mo!.

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The note in question, ti^[5] (also te),  is the seventh note of the major scale in tonic sol-fa. While North America appears to have standardized on the spelling ti, British dictionaries also list te as a variant spelling — although they differ among themselves as to which variant is the principal spelling and which is the alternative spelling (show more ).

A perusal of entries in American and British dictionaries produces some interesting findings.
The only recognized spelling in the US would seem to be ti^[3,11] while British dictionaries are split into two camps. On one side, Chambers 21st Century Dictionary and Collins English Dictionary give the principal spelling as te^[2,4,10] with ti^[2,4,10] being an alternative spelling. On the other side, The Chambers Dictionary and Oxford Dictionaries take the contrary position, giving the spelling as ti^[1,5] with te^[1,5] shown as an alternative spelling.

Note that the sister publications, The Chambers Dictionary and Chambers 21st Century Dictionary, are diametrically opposed on the issue and Oxford Dictionaries has done a complete about face as I have notes in my files from a previous review showing that "Oxford Dictionaries decrees that te is the British spelling with ti being the North American spelling.".

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2d   Course // around globe is fixed (6)

3d   Taking off /and/ leaving the Joneses behind? (8,6)

I believe this to be a double definition in which both parts are cryptic. The first is a literal interpretation of the expression and the second is an allusion to the expression keep up with the Joneses^[5] meaning to try to emulate or not be outdone by one's neighbours.

4d   Contemplated // strong drink at home before arranged date (9)

5d   Medic overlooking things people have in hospital // sinks (5)

Op^[5] is an informal term for a surgical operation ⇒ a minor op.

7d   Sanctimonious volumes written in support of European // models (8)

Pi^[5] is an informal British short form for pious.

8d   Settled university fee /that's/ steep (8)

9d   For example, football // magazine's left on board (9.5)

The Spectator^[7] is a conservative-leaning weekly British magazine, first published in 1828, owned by David and Frederick Barclay — the same people who own The Daily Telegraph^[7] newspaper.

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Of course, the intended sport is soccer but Canadian or American football would work just as well.

15d   Takes the mickey out of // modelled flowers (9)

Take the mickey out of^[5] (someone) is an informal British expression meaning to tease or ridicule (someone).

16d   See leader/'s/ once said to have changed (8)

A see^[10] is the diocese^* of a bishop, or the place within it where his cathedral^** or procathedral^*** is situated.

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^* A diocese^[5] is a district under the pastoral care of a bishop in the Christian Church — or, more precisely, episcopal churches.
^** A cathedral^[5] is the principal church of a diocese, with which the bishop is officially associated.
^*** A pro-cathedral^[5] (or procathedral^[10])  is a church used as a substitute for a cathedral.

A diocesan^[5] is the bishop of a diocese.

17d   Ran for election elsewhere, /and/ excelled (5,3)

19d   House signs (6)

Scratching the Surface
The surface reading may be an allusion to public house sign[5] (or pub sign), an often pictorial sign attached to or placed in front of a public house* as a means of distinguishing it from others or directing attention to it. * Public house[5] is the formal British name for a pub.

20d   Young ladies /in/ ecstasy, wearing rings? (6)

"Ecstasy | drug" = E (show explanation )

E^[5] is an abbreviation for the drug Ecstasy^* or a tablet of Ecstasy ⇒ (i) people have died after taking E; (ii) being busted with three Es can lead to stiff penalties.

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^* Ecstasy^[5] is an illegal amphetamine-based synthetic drug with euphoric effects, originally produced as an appetite suppressant. Also called MDMA (Methylenedioxymethamphetamine).

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Bell^[5] is an informal British term meaning to telephone (someone) ⇒ no problem, I’ll bell her tomorrow.

22d   Expert in pricey car? Possibly (5)

This is a semi-all-in one clue (more formally known as a semi-&lit. clue) in which the wordplay is embedded in the definition (which constitutes the entire clue). I should likely have shown the definition as being cryptic with a dotted underline but it is beyond my level of expertise to mark a section of text with both a dashed and dotted underline.

The monogram RR appears on the grill of a Rolls Royce automobile.

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