Tuesday, July 3, 2018 — DT 28671

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28671
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Saturday, February 24, 2018
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28671 – Hints] Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28671 – 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.

Introduction

Although overall a relatively easy puzzle, the British government department did take some effort to track down.

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   Strip // having turned brown bathing in river (6)

The Dee^[5,7] could refer to any of several rivers in Scotland, England, Ireland, and Australia among which the most prominent are:

• a river in northeastern Scotland, which rises in the Grampian Mountains and flows eastwards past Balmoral Castle to the North Sea at Aberdeen
• a river that rises in North Wales and flows past Chester and on into the Irish Sea

I am not entirely convinced that the reversal indicator is "having turned" rather than merely "turned" (which would make "having" a link word).

• Strip /having/ turned brown bathing in river (6)

However, both Big Dave and crypticsue have shown the reversal indicator as "having turned". I must admit that I am about equally uncomfortable with "having" being a link word as I am with it being part of the reversal indicator.

4a   Shining // silver items thrown out (8)

The symbol for the chemical element silver is Ag^[5] from Latin argentum.

9a   Crazy person /from/ Northern Ireland area absorbed in computer (6)

"Northern Ireland" = NI (show explanation )

Northern Ireland^[5] (abbreviation NI^[5]) is a province of the United Kingdom occupying the northeast part of Ireland.

According to Oxford Dictionaries, Northern Ireland^[5] is the only major division of the United Kingdom to hold the status of province, with England^[5], Scotland^[5] and Wales^[5] being countries.

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The Macintosh^[7] (branded as Mac since 1998) is a series of personal computers (PCs) designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc.

10a   Greek character cheers collecting ultimately excellent // marks (8)

Sigma^[5] is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet (Σ, σ).

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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In Christian tradition, stigmata^[5] are marks corresponding to those left on Christ's body by the Crucifixion, said to have been impressed by divine favour on the bodies of St Francis of Assisi and others.

11a   Rebel gent in revolution // protected country (5,4)

Green belt^[5] is a British term^* for an area of open land around a city, on which building is restricted.

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^* At least, the term is British in the eyes of the editors of Oxford Dictionaries despite the fact that I live virtually adjacent to the Ottawa Greenbelt and there being numerous other examples of green belts^[7] (or greenbelts) around the world.

13a   Gangster with weapon /creates/ panic (5)

Al Capone^[5] (1899–1947), nicknamed  Scarface (show more ), was an American gangster of Italian descent. He dominated organized crime in Chicago in the 1920s and was indirectly responsible for many murders, including the St Valentine’s Day Massacre.

Capone^[7] was born in Brooklyn (New York) and began his life of crime in New York City before moving to Chicago. Capone inadvertently insulted a woman while working the door at a Brooklyn night club and was slashed by her brother Frank Gallucio. The wounds led to the nickname that Capone loathed: "Scarface". Capone's boss, racketeer Frankie Yale, insisted that Capone apologize to Gallucio, and later Capone hired him as a bodyguard. When photographed, Capone hid the scarred left side of his face, saying that the injuries were war wounds. Capone was called "Snorky", a term for a sharp dresser, by his closest friends.

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14a   Refined frigid brunettes I'd abandoned // -- one wouldn't make much of a catch! (13)

17a   Producer of decorative writing // a spiral glitch ruined (13)

21a   Scoffs at // examinations (5)

In England and Wales, mock^[5,10] (often plural) is an informal term for the school examinations taken as practice before public examinations ⇒ obtaining Grade A in mocks.

23a   Front of book, // e.g. Master and Servant (5,4)

A page^[5] is:

• a boy or young man, usually in uniform, employed in a hotel or club to run errands, open doors, etc.;
• a young boy attending a bride at a wedding;
• (historical) a boy in training for knighthood, ranking next below a squire in the personal service of a knight; or
• (historical) a man or boy employed as the personal attendant of a person of rank.

24a   Temperature right in old Spanish kingdom /to produce/ aromatic herb (8)

Aragon^[5] is an autonomous region of north-eastern Spain, bounded on the north by the Pyrenees and on the east by Catalonia and Valencia; capital, Saragossa. Formerly an independent kingdom, it was united with Catalonia in 1137 and with Castile in 1479.

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Tarragon^[5] is a perennial plant of the daisy family, with narrow aromatic leaves that are used as a culinary herb.

25a   Bird of prey -- // something normally seen over hill (6)

"hill" = TOR (show explanation )

A tor^[7] is a large, free-standing rock outcrop that rises abruptly from the surrounding smooth and gentle slopes of a rounded hill summit or ridge crest. In the South West of England, the term is commonly also used for the hills themselves – particularly the high points of Dartmoor in Devon and Bodmin Moor in Cornwall.

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In her review, crypticsue has used the word "over" twice in her explanation — once as a reversal indicator and once as a charade indicator. This is problematic on two counts. First, the word can only be used once. Second, the word "over" can only be used as a charade indicator in a down clue. Clearly, her explanation should read:

• A reversal (over) of PAR (something normally seen) followed by TOR (hill).

26a   Looks for food and shelter initially // having no fixed abode (8)

Rootle^[5] is an informal British term meaning root^[5], in the sense of an animal turning up the ground with its snout in search of food or a person rummaging through an untidy mass or area ⇒ (i) the terriers scuttled off to rootle through the brushwood; (ii) I rootled around for ten minutes.

27a   Strapping // king in private room (6)

"king" = R (show explanation )

In the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms^*, Rex^[5] (abbreviation R^[5]) [Latin for king] denotes the reigning king, used following a name (e.g. Georgius Rex, King George — often shortened to GR) or in the titles of lawsuits (e.g. Rex v. Jones, the Crown versus Jones — often shortened to R. v. Jones).

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^* A Commonwealth realm^[7] is a sovereign state that is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and shares the same person, currently Elizabeth II, as its head of state and reigning constitutional monarch, but retains a crown legally distinct from the other realms. There are currently sixteen Commonwealth realms, the largest being Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom with the remainder being smaller Caribbean and Pacific island nations.

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Down

1d   Spoil // mother with advance of years (6)

2d   Somehow ban novel about resistance // using signals to communicate (9)

"resistance" = R (show explanation )

In physics, R^[5] is a symbol used to represent electrical resistance in mathematical formulae.

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3d   Curse about engineer briefly coming up /in/ police hunt (7)

5d   Learn precisely // what to do for post in Greendale (3,2,3,3)

Post^[5] is a chiefly British^* term for mail^[5], including in the sense of letters and parcels sent or received.

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^* In an ironic twist, the post in Britain is delivered by the Royal Mail while, in Canada, the mail is delivered by Canada Post.

Postman Pat^[7] is a British stop-motion animated children's television series aimed at pre-school children, and concerns the adventures of Pat Clifton, a postman in the fictional village of Greendale.

Have something off pat^[5] (or have something down pat) means to have something memorized perfectly ⇒ she has her answer off pat.

6d   Some chasing rainbows // to fix colour (7)

Ingrain^[2] means to fix (a dye) firmly in.

7d   Note a Gunners // headband (5)

"note" = TI (show more ).

A perusal of entries in American and British dictionaries produces the following results.

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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The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery^[7] (abbreviation RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it actually comprises a number of regiments.

Scratching the Surface
The Gunners is a nickname for Arsenal Football Club[7], a professional football [soccer] club based in Islington, London, England, that plays in the Premier League, the top flight of English football.

8d   Provide more weapons for East German // last of all (8)

The German word for 'east' is Ost^[8].

12d   Curses // director perhaps with shares (11)

15d   Person in Crowd Scene One in movie, concealing head -- // fan? (9)

Here and There
Extractor[10] is short for extractor fan[10], a fan used in kitchens, bathrooms, workshops, etc, to remove stale air or fumes. Such a device would commonly be known in North America as an exhaust fan.

16d   Classic sports car -- // Micra's crashed catching it (8)

The Reliant Scimitar^[7] name was used for a series of sports car models produced by British car manufacturer Reliant between 1964 and 1986.

Scratching the Surface
The Nissan Micra[7] is a supermini produced by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Nissan since 1982.

18d   This month everyone /gets/ put in place (7)

Instant^[5] (abbreviation inst.^[5]) is a dated expression once used in business letters. It is a postpositive adjective meaning of the current month ⇒ (i) your letter of the 6th instant; (ii) we are pleased to acknowledge receipt of your letter of 14 inst.

19d   Nice tax breaks // as a ballpark figure (7)

Oxford Dictionaries defines ballpark^[5] as a North American term for a baseball ground. However, the informal figurative use of this term is not characterized as being North American:

• an area or range within which an amount or estimate is likely to be correct ⇒ we can make a pretty good guess that this figure's in the ballpark
• (of a price or cost) approximate ⇒ the ballpark figure is $400–500

20d   Pay // agriculture department unknown amount (6)

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs^[7] (Defra) is the government department responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in the United Kingdom.

"unknown amount" = Y (show explanation )

In mathematics (algebra, in particular), an unknown^[10] is a variable, or the quantity it represents, the value of which is to be discovered by solving an equation ⇒ 3y = 4x + 5 is an equation in two unknowns. [Unknowns are customarily represented symbolically by the letters x, y and z.]

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22d   Piece of bric-a-brac /made of/ copper and gold turned up around India (5)

"copper" = CU (show explanation )

The symbol for the chemical element copper is Cu^[5] (from late Latin cuprum).

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"gold" = OR (show explanation )

Or^[5] is gold or yellow, as a heraldic tincture.

In heraldry, a tincture^[5] is any of the conventional colours (including the metals and stains, and often the furs) used in coats of arms.

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India^[5] is a code word representing the letter I, used in radio communication.

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