Friday, May 18, 2018 — DT 28639

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28639
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, January 18, 2018
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28639]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By pommers
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 seems to have been a very polarizing puzzle, eliciting opinions on Big Dave's Crossword Blog that span the spectrum both in terms of difficulty and enjoyment.

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   Military force, // say, encapsulated by brave character (6)

In the ancient Roman army, a legion^[5] was a division of 3,000–6,000 men, including a complement of cavalry.

4a   Child's first out of bed to enter // part of kitchen (8)

9a   Location announced /for/ swimmer (6)

The plaice^[5] is a North Atlantic flatfish which is a commercially important food fish.

10a   Where unprofessional film actor might go /for/ a peripheral part? (8)

11a   Support for snaps /shown by/ retired party after excursion (6)

Scratching the Surface

On first look, the surface reading did not make sense to me — and I see that pommers may have felt similarly, as evidenced by his comment  I’m not convinced about this clue — although his comment may refer to the definition rather than the surface reading. After failing to find any reasonable alternative, I have concluded that the word "snaps" is used in the surface reading in exactly the same manner as it is used in the cryptic reading, namely as a short form for 'snapshot'. Thus the surface reading alludes to a retiree receiving support for photographs shown upon returning from an excursion. I see that Silvanus has come to much the same conclusion at Comment #30 on Big Dave's Crossword Blog.

12a   Perhaps service policy /reveals/ limit in growth (4,4)

The service tree^[5] is a Eurasian tree of the rose family, closely related to the rowan.

14a   Guess // Conservative starts to justify economy's course? True for a change (10)

"Conservative" = CON (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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18a   A request given backing with noise /in/ a set of peers? (3,7)

22a   Part of winter valued /for/ a break (8)

23a   Urn one's broken /in/ cell (6)

24a   Leading project? // Female falls behind with it (8)

25a   Work online /revealing/ meteorological phenomenon (2,4)

El Niño^[5] is an irregularly occurring and complex series of climatic changes affecting the equatorial Pacific region and beyond every few years, characterized by the appearance of unusually warm, nutrient-poor water off northern Peru and Ecuador, typically in late December. The effects of El Niño include reversal of wind patterns across the Pacific, drought in Australasia, and unseasonal heavy rain in South America.

26a   Anglican event // nonetheless no good (8)

In the Christian Church, evensong^[5] is a service of evening prayers, psalms, and canticles, conducted according to a set form, especially that of the Anglican Church ⇒ choral evensong.

27a   A companion divides prepared // bag of medicine? (6)

"companion" = CH (show explanation )

A Companion of Honour (abbreviation CH) is a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour^[7], an order of the Commonwealth realms^[7] founded by King George V in June 1917 as a reward for outstanding achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry or religion.

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Sachet^[5] is a British term for a small sealed bag or packet containing a small quantity of something ⇒ a sachet of sugar.

The question mark indicates that medicine is but an example of the contents of a sachet.

Down

1d   Some slap // son after effrontery, wanting credit (8)

"son" = S (show explanation )

In genealogies, s^[5] is the abbreviation for son(s) ⇒ m 1991; one s one d^*.

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^* married in 1991; one son and one daughter.

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Tick^[5] (used in the phrase on tick) is an informal British term meaning credit ⇒ the printer agreed to send the brochures out on tick.

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Origin: The term apparently originates as a short form for ticket in the phrase on the ticket, referring to an IOU or promise to pay.

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Slap^[5] is an informal term for make-up, especially when applied thickly or carelessly ⇒ I put a bit of slap on my face and we were ready to go. According to The Chambers Dictionary, slap^[1] is theatrical slang for stage make-up, hence make-up generally.

2d   Drop in allowance? /It could show/ degree in fall (8)

 This drop might be described as once and for all.

3d   In the past, twice /giving/ casual look (4-4)

5d   Bar group's excited about food's introduction -- /it's/ readily available (2,3,5)

6d   Demand to jump into punt /for/ hamper (6)

Punt^{[2,3,4,5,10,11]} is a chiefly British term which means:

• (verb) to gamble or bet, especially against the bank (as in roulette and some card games such as faro) or on horses or other sporting events
• (noun) such a gamble or bet

7d   Rising sign of approval is following a // handsome figure (6)

In modern usage, an Adonis^[5] is an extremely handsome young man ⇒ not all of us have the body of an Adonis. 

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^* In Greek mythology, Adonis^[5] was a beautiful youth loved by both Aphrodite and Persephone. He was killed by a boar, but Zeus decreed that he should spend the winter of each year in the underworld with Persephone and the summer months with Aphrodite.

8d   Show hesitation /as/ one working in trench -- cold must be ignored (6)

13d   Decline /in/ male race (10)

15d   Flower // left in a climate unusually with no end of heat (8)

The camellia^[5] is an evergreen East Asian shrub related to the tea plant, grown for its showy flowers and shiny leaves.

16d   Endlessly go round motorway before quiet // minor engagement (8)

The M1^[7] is a north–south motorway [controlled access, multi-lane divided highway] in England connecting London to Leeds.

17d   Part of ground revealed // something exceptional (8)

In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, pommers shows the solution as being an adjective clued by "exceptional". However, that leave the word "something" with no role to play in the clue. Therefore, I conclude that the solution must be a noun clued by "something exceptional".

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Ground^[5] denotes an area of land, often with associated buildings and structures, used for a particular sport ⇒ (i) a football ground; (ii) Liverpool’s new ground is nearing completion (show more ).

Although this usage of the word ground is not exclusively British, it does seem to be a usage that has fallen into disfavour in North America. In North America, it would be much more likely for such a venue to be called a field or a stadium.

Collins COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary says that a ground^[14] is an area of land which is specially designed and made for playing sport or for some other activity. In American English grounds is also used. ⇒ (i) the city's football ground; (ii) a parade ground.

I know of only two instances of this usage for sports facilities in North America (although there are undoubtedly others).

The Wanderers Grounds^[7] is a sports field in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The Polo Grounds^[7] was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 until 1963. As the name suggests, the original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876 and demolished in 1889, was built for the sport of polo. It was converted to a baseball stadium in 1880. In baseball, the stadium served at various times as the home of the New York Giants (now San Francisco Giants), the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets. In football, it was home to the New York Giants (NFL) and New York Jets (AFL).

Shea Stadium opened in 1964 and replaced the Polo Grounds as the home of the Mets and Jets. The Polo Grounds was demolished that year and a public housing complex built on the site.

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19d   Collection including very loud // rubbish (6)

"very loud" = FF (show explanation )

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

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Rubbish^[3,4,11] is used in the sense of foolish words or speech; in other words, nonsense.^*

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^* Oxford Dictionaries considers the word rubbish^[5] (in all senses) to be British — despite it not being characterized as such by American dictionaries. I think, like starlings, the word has long ago become naturalized in North America.

20d   Re-evaluate as everyone at heart /becomes/ relaxed (2,4)

"At heart" indicates that you need the letters at the heart of [RE-EVALU]ATE AS E[VERYONE], discarding seven letters both before and after those required.

21d   Camper ditching load on English river, /causing/ grave difficulty (6)

Isis^[10] is the local name for the River Thames at Oxford, England.

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