Friday, October 19, 2018 — DT 28753

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28753
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, May 31, 2018
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28753]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Falcon
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 puzzle may well have put up as much of a struggle the second time around as it did on my first encounter with it back at the end of May. In any event, it was certainly no tap-in.

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 The Story 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   Swam /with/ fish in a sea (6)

The Red Sea^[5] is a long, narrow nearly landlocked sea separating Africa from the Arabian peninsula. It is linked to the Indian Ocean in the south by the Gulf of Aden and to the Mediterranean in the north by the Suez Canal.

4a   Was keen to change small // imperfection (8)

9a   Rogue in court /is/ confident (6)

10a   Biased // worker follows quietly (8)

"quietly" = P (show explanation )

Piano^[3,5] (abbreviation p^[5]), is a musical direction meaning either (as an adjective) soft or quiet or (as an adverb) softly or quietly.

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11a   Mouth /of/ a fast river (8)

Methinks This May Not Compute ...

... as the computer from Star Trek might say. When I first solved (and reviewed) this puzzle in May, I was skeptical that fast and pert are truly synonyms — and I am even less convinced now. Under pert[1], The Chambers Dictionary shows one meaning as being brisk and under brisk[1], it shows pert as being an obsolete meaning. While brisk can mean fast or rapid, I seriously doubt that it does in this sense. I believe that brisk and pert are synonyms in the sense of rude or abrupt — and I can find no evidence that fast can have that meaning. Collins English Thesaurus also lists brisk as a synonym of pert, but the entry is far from compelling. The sense in which they are synonyms has  pert meaning attractive in a neat way ⇒ a black silk coat with a pert Peter Pan collar with the corresponding usage example for brisk being ⇒ The horse broke into a brisk trot. For the life of me, I can see no conceivable relation between those words in these contexts. Perhaps fast[1], is being used in the sense of rash, dissolute or sexually promiscuous — but that would seem to be a fair leap beyond pert. Or. maybe there is some sense of these words that I have entirely overlooked.

13a   Hard cases // suffering on board ship (6)

"on board ship" = 'contained in SS' (show explanation )

In Crosswordland, you will find that a ship is almost invariably a steamship, the abbreviation for which is SS^[5]. Thus phrases such as "aboard ship" or "on board ship" (or sometimes merely "aboard" or "on board") are Crosswordland code for 'contained in SS'.

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15a   Indecent // playing alone in tub embracing blokes (13)

"blokes" = MEN (show explanation )

Bloke^[5] is an informal British^* term for a man ⇒ he’s a nice bloke.

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^* Very British, but certainly also very familiar to anyone on this side of the pond who has ever watched a British film or television programme

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18a   Thoughtless // prisoner lies about pinching book (13)

22a   Long garment // about one's middle covering rear (6)

Caftan is an alternate spelling of kaftan^[5], a woman's long loose dress.

24a   Disturbed /by/ new blue clothing United (8)

"united | United" = U (show explanation )

In the names of sports clubs, U^[5] is the abbreviation for United^[5] — in Britain, a word commonly used in the names of soccer and other sports teams formed by amalgamation ⇒ Man U [Manchester United].

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26a   Strangely true, lady /is/ cheating (8)

27a   Drive's opening more frozen /and/ more dangerous (6)

28a   Driver // conversely first on second tee (8)

"second" = MO (show explanation )

Mo^[5,10] (abbreviation for moment) is an informal, British^[5] (or mainly British^[10]) term for a short period of time ⇒ hang on a mo!.

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29a   Capital/'s/ power remnant European Union rejected (6)

"power" = P (show explanation )

In physics, P^[10] is a symbol used to represent power [among other things] in mathematical formulae.

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Prague^[5] is the capital of the Czech Republic, in the north-east on the River Vltava; population 1,196,454 (2007).

Down

1d   Rogue // artist's style is detailed (6)

"artist" = RA (show explanation )

A Royal Academician (abbreviation RA^[10]) is a member of the Royal Academy of Arts^[5] (also Royal Academy; abbreviation also RA^[10]), an institution established in London in 1768, whose purpose is to cultivate painting, sculpture, and architecture in Britain. 

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Style^[5] (verb) is used in the sense of to designate with a particular name, description, or title ⇒ the official is styled principal and vice chancellor of the university.

2d   Former support to include Queen/'s/ Treasury (9)

"Queen" = QU (show explanation )

Queen may be abbreviated as Q, Qu. or R.

Q^[5] is an abbreviation for queen that is used especially in describing play in card games and recording moves in chess.

Qu.^[2] is another common abbreviation for Queen.

In the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms^*, Regina^[5] (abbreviation R^[5]) [Latin for queen] denotes the reigning queen, used following a name (e.g. Elizabetha Regina, Queen Elizabeth) or in the titles of lawsuits (e.g. Regina 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.

Thus Queen Elizabeth signs her name as 'Elizabeth R' as seen here on Canada's paint-stained constitution.

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3d   Sweetheart's suspicious catching betrayer/'s/ mistake (7)

"sweetheart" = E (show explanation )

A common cryptic crossword construct is to use the word "sweetheart" to clue the letter 'E', the middle letter (heart) of swEet.

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Rum^[5] is a dated informal British term meaning odd or peculiar ⇒ it’s a rum business, certainly.

5d   Produce /from/ European cow, perhaps (4)

Edam^[5] is a round Dutch cheese, typically pale yellow with a red wax coating.

6d   Going after equipment, start to cook chicken here? (7)

Convention Contravention?

This is one of those clues that is very difficult to categorize and underline. The wordplay is seemingly unambiguous and I have marked it with a dashed underline. It is the definition that would appear to present a problem. Some reviewers would simply underline what is left over after removing the wordplay; i.e., the single word "here" (which is what I did in my review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog — albeit with an accompanying explanation). However, I feel that the solver should have some chance of deciphering the solution from the definition and I do not see how that is possible from the single word "here". The clearest definition would appear to be "cook chicken here", a rather terse expression of the idea "a place where chicken is cooked". However, that would violate the convention that words generally cannot do double duty. The exception to words doing double duty is where the definition comprises the entire clue in which the wordplay is embedded or the wordplay comprises the entire clue in which the definition is embedded. Thus it would seem that we must either take the entire clue to be a cryptic definition (although I do not see how the words "going after equipment, start to" contribute to the definition in any meaningful fashion) or, alternatively, include the word "here" in the wordplay (although I do not see how it contributes to the wordplay in any significant way). Or maybe we just except the fact that the words "cook chicken" are doing double duty?

7d   Artist's apparatus // left holding up edge (5)

8d   Forbidding // nun to keep fashionable (8)

12d   Arbitrary // component of error and omission (6)

14d   Material /from/ The Yorkshire Post? (6)

In dialects spoken in Northern England (including Yorkshire), the word the is commonly shortened to t'. An old Yorkshire saying goes "The only good thing to come out of Lancashire is t’road back to Yorkshire"^*. 

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^* Rivalry between these two northern counties dates back at least to the Wars of the Roses^[5], the 15th-century English civil wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster, represented by white and red roses respectively, during the reigns of Henry VI, Edward IV, and Richard III.

Scratching the Surface

The Yorkshire Post[7] is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds in northern England. It covers the whole of Yorkshire as well as parts of north Derbyshire and Lincolnshire but goes beyond just local news and its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". Its focus on international and national news gives it a wider focus than that usually associated with a provincial newspaper; editions are available throughout the United Kingdom.

16d   Live around winter's end, a creature/'s/ living (9)

17d   Deny // detective's restrained person detaining one (8)

"detective" = DI (show explanation )

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

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Clam^[10] is an informal term for a reticent person.

19d   Disappoint // somebody mad supporting son (7)

"Mad as a hatter"^[7] is a colloquial English phrase used in conversation to suggest (lightheartedly) that a person is suffering from insanity.

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Origin: A popular — although not only — explanation of the phrase suggests that it was connected to mercury poisoning experienced by hat-makers as a result of the long-term use of mercury products in the hat-making trade.

20d   Stockade maybe /is/ more exposed blocking raid, oddly (7)

21d   Get together // a band for the audience (6)

23d   Initially, first response usually isn't 'tomato' (5)

This clue differs from 6d in that the definition is completely embedded within the wordplay, rather than being only partially contained in the wordplay.

25d   Love god /is/ tender on rising (4)

In Greek mythology, Eros^[5] is the god of love, son of Aphrodite — the Roman equivalent being Cupid. The name Eros is synonymous with sexual love or desire ⇒ Eros drives us to transcend ourselves through desire.

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