Thursday, April 5, 2018 — DT 28608

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28608
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Setter Mister Ron (Chris Lancaster)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28608]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Mr K (formerly known as 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

Introduction

Today's very entertaining puzzle is from Mister Ron (Chris Lancaster) who drops in to Big Dave's Crossword Blog at Comment#37 to acknowledge authorship. You may note that in his response Mr K offers "congratulations on your new position". At the time, it had recently been announced that Chris Lancaster would become the new Telegraph Puzzles Editor assuming the position upon the retirement of the incumbent editor Phil McNeill at the end of January 2018.

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   Bless // errant ancestor entering church ... (10)

"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.

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6a   ... part of which /is/ despairing somewhat when backsliding (4)

In most cases, ellipses are used merely to extend the surface reading across two otherwise independent clues. However, in this puzzle, they play a much more important role telling us that the pronoun "which" refers to the antecedent "church" in the previous clue.

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An apse^[5] is a large semicircular or polygonal recess in a church, arched or with a domed roof and typically at the church's eastern end.

9a   Criticise guests on vacation -- // they're painful (5)

The indicator "on vacation" is interpreted as 'having been vacated or emptied'.

10a   Deserve to bust // docker (9)

12a   Support for Cable /from/ newspaper, European (9,4)

The Daily Telegraph^[7] is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper, founded in 1855 as The Daily Telegraph and Courier, which is published in London and distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally [... and is the newspaper in which this puzzle initially appeared].

Scratching the Surface
British politician Sir Vince Cable[7] is the Leader of the Liberal Democrats.

14a   Firm regularly gets past // deadlocks (8)

15a   Lacking // muscles, went topless (6)

"Topless" is used here as a "decapitation" indicator to exclude the first letter of [W]ENT. While one might be apt to associate this construct with a down clue, it is used here in an across clue with top^[10] being used in the sense of beginning ⇒ (i) the top of the hour; (ii) at the top of the programme; (iii) let's run through the piece once more time from the top.

Behind the Picture
Sometimes the pictures used to illustrate reviews on Big Dave's Crossword Blog have vanished by the time the puzzle is published here in Canada. However, such is not the case today. The illustration appearing in this clue is just as Mr K intended — as you can see for yourself by hovering your mouse over the image.

17a   60 per cent of routine /is/ odd (6)

19a   Ink and water ruined // jumper, perhaps (8)

Here and There

In Britain, a jumper[5] is a knitted garment typically with long sleeves, worn over the upper body (in North American parlance, a sweater* — in particular, a pullover*). The dress that we in North America call a jumper is known to the Brits as a pinafore[5] — a collarless sleeveless dress worn over a blouse or [British] jumper [i.e., North American sweater]. Thus, if a British lass were to wear a pinafore over her jumper and a North American gal were to wear a jumper over her sweater, they would be dressed identically. * The terms sweater[5] and pullover[5] would also appear to be in common use in the UK. Although the definitions given for sweater in most British dictionaries would seem to imply that the term applies only to a pullover, Collins English Dictionary defines a cardigan[10] to be a knitted jacket or sweater with buttons up the front.

21a   Wheel tiny dodo out -- /it's/ incurable (4-2-3-4)

Scratching the Surface
The dodo[5] is a large extinct flightless bird with a stout body, stumpy wings, a large head, and a heavy hooked bill. It was found on Mauritius until the end of the 17th century.

24a   At intervals, // walked unsteadily (9)

25a   Force // terrible lie about politician (5)

"politician" = MP (show explanation )

In Britain (as in Canada), a politician elected to the House of Commons is known as a Member of Parliament^[10] (abbreviation MP^[5]) or, informally, as a member^[5].

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26a   French cheese, but not posh // part (4)

"posh" = U (show explanation )

In Britain, U^[5] is used informally as an adjective (in respect to language or social behaviour) meaning characteristic of or appropriate to the upper social classes ⇒ U manners.

The term, an abbreviation of  upper class, was coined in 1954 by Alan S. C. Ross, professor of linguistics, and popularized by its use in Nancy Mitford's Noblesse Oblige (1956).

In Crosswordland, the letter U is frequently clued by words denoting "characteristic of the upper class" (such as posh or superior) or "appropriate to the upper class" (such as acceptable). 

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Roule Cheese^[7] is a French cheese, with a soft and creamy texture. The cheese has the appearance of a jelly roll and is usually flavoured with herbs and garlic.

27a   Child has good accent, // one warbles (10)

"good" = G (show explanation )

The abbreviation G^[10] for good likely relates to its use in grading school assignments or tests.

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Down

1d   'Carry On // Constable' goes over expert's head (4)

Scratching the Surface
Carry On Constable[7], released in 1960, is the fourth film (out of a total of 31) from the Carry On series of British films.

2d   Vernon's to perform in part // without a break (3-4)

3d   Musical style // is gentle, say, in broadcast (4,9)

4d   Stood down, /and/ joined again (8)

Stand down^[5] is used in the sense of to withdraw or resign from a position or office ⇒ he stood down as leader of the party.

5d   Article cheers // Greek character (5)

Cheers^[5] is an informal British expression of gratitude or acknowledgement for something ⇒ Billy tossed him the key. ‘Cheers, pal.’.

Ta^[5] is an informal British exclamation signifying thank you ⇒‘Ta,’ said Willie gratefully.

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

7d   Suggest // writing about work (7)

"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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8d   Fundamental // part of detective's catchphrase? (10)

Dispelling the Myth

The phrase "Elementary, my dear Watson"[7] is never uttered by Holmes in the sixty stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle although he often observes that his conclusions are "elementary" and occasionally calls Watson "my dear Watson". The phrase became familiar in part due to its use in a series of fourteen American films based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories released between 1939 and 1946 in which British actors Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce played Holmes and Dr. John Watson, respectively.

11d   Former teetotaller, not professional, /is/ show-off (13)

13d   Kitchen gadget -- // 51 nicker is ultimately expensive gear (10)

Nicker^[5] is an informal British^* term for a pound sterling ⇒ a hundred and twenty nicker.^* }

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^* Judging by remarks on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, it is also a very dated term (see Comment#4). Click here for an explanation of Miffypops' comment in the thread that "I remember the sweet young girl in St Trinians (sic) laying a bet by saying “Fifty nicker on the nose”".

The Belles of St Trinian's^[7] is a British comedy film (released in 1954) set in the fictional St Trinian's school. It and its four sequels (as well as a 2007 reboot titled St Trinian's^[7]) were inspired by St Trinian's^[7], a comic strip by British cartoonist Ronald Searle that appeared from 1946 until 1952 which centred on a boarding school for girls, where the teachers are sadists and the girls are juvenile delinquents.

The school is the antithesis of the type of posh girls' boarding school depicted by Enid Blyton or Angela Brazil; its female pupils are bad and often well armed, and mayhem is rife. The schoolmistresses are also disreputable. Cartoons often showed dead bodies of girls who had been murdered with pitchforks or succumbed to violent team sports, sometimes with vultures circling; girls drank, gambled and smoked. The films implied that the girls were the daughters of dubious characters like gangsters, crooks, shady bookmakers, and the institution is often referred to as a "female borstal [youth detention centre]".

 In the movies, the girls' nefarious schemes are abetted by Flash Harry, a Cockney involved in all sorts of shady dealings. He is a long-term associate of the girl pupils having first been employed by the headmistress as a boot polisher at the age of 12. Harry is one of the few whom the pupils trust: he helps to bottle and sell their gin, distilled in the school chemistry lab, and places bets on race horses for them. Harry also runs the St Trinian's Matrimonial Agency for the teenage Sixth Form [11th and 12th grade] girls, setting them up with wealthy men.

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Quid^[5] (plural quid) is an informal British term for one pound sterling ⇒ we paid him four hundred quid.

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Liquidiser (alternate British spelling^* of liquidizer^[5,10]) is an alternate British name for a blender.

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^* Many — if not most — Brits (aside from those who edit dictionaries) would argue that liquidiser is the only acceptable spelling, seemingly based on a mistaken belief that the "liquidizer" spelling was invented by Americans.

16d   Cook too little grub initially /for/ such as David (8)

David^[5] (died c.962 BC) was king of Judah and Israel c.1000–c.962 BC. According to the biblical account (1 Sam. 17), as a young man, David killed the Philistine giant Goliath.

The phrase "David and Goliath" (or "David versus Goliath") has taken on a more popular meaning, denoting an underdog situation, a contest where a smaller, weaker opponent faces a much bigger, stronger adversary.^[7]

In a world of fake news, who can you trust?

Trust, but verify[7] is a Russian proverb. The phrase became well known in English when used by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on multiple occasions in the context of nuclear disarmament. The proverb would seem to apply to Oxford Dictionaries whose entry for Goliath reads as follows: In the Bible, Goliath[5] is a Philistine giant, according to one tradition slain by David (1 Sam. 17), but according to another slain by Elhanan (2 Sam. 21:19). However, the latter passage actually states that "Elhanan ... slew the brother of Goliath".

18d   Observe // energy's needed to lead the old dance (7)

"energy" = E (show explanation )

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

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

Delving Deeper

The word 'ye' in this sense was originally a graphic variant of 'the' rather than an alternative spelling. 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 the phrase "usually ye" to mean that the word was customarily not capitalized because the character "y" 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 have been written ye Olde Cock Tavern.

20d   Obscure // cuttings found in empty envelope (7)

22d   Keep side-splitting introductions for Stan and Ollie /in/ trunk (5)

Scratching the Surface
Laurel and Hardy[5] were an American comedy duo consisting of Stan Laurel (born Arthur Stanley Jefferson) (1890–1965) and Oliver Hardy (1892–1957). British-born Stan Laurel played the scatterbrained and often tearful innocent, Oliver Hardy his pompous, overbearing, and frequently exasperated friend. They brought their distinctive slapstick comedy to many films from 1927 onwards.

23d   Positive // place, America (4)

Pl.^[5] (also pl.) is the abbreviation for Place (in street addresses) ⇒ 3 Palmerston Pl., Edinburgh.

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