Tuesday, November 27, 2018 — DT 28780

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28780
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, July 1, 2018
Setter Dada (John Halpern)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28780]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Miffypops
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 was a fun puzzle although a bit of a challenge, especially with cricket and rugby in the same clue — and rather than official terminology from the Laws of Cricket^[7], it was cricket slang.

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   Be informed, as should an orchestral musician? (4,3,5)

I classify this as a cryptic definition with an embedded precise definition as the latter part of the clue provides cryptic elaboration pertaining to the precise definition rather than a second independent route to the solution.

9a   Fuel // for glass (7)

10a   Skilled worker // from Hobart is annoying (7)

Scratching the Surface
Hobart[7] is the capital and chief port of the Australian state of Tasmania; population 209,287 (2008).

11a   Smokier bombs, // irritating (7)

12a   Islamic office // I consider to be behind me, contrarily (7)

Emirate^[10] is used in the sense of the rank or office of an emir^[5], a title of various Muslim (mainly Arab) rulers.

13a   Fine, // daily limits? (5)

14a   Duck managed to eviscerate an // Asian animal (5-4)

Cricket 101
"duck" = O (show explanation ) In cricket, a duck[5] (short for duck's egg) is a batsman’s score of nought [zero] ⇒ he was out for a duck. This is similar to the North American expression goose egg[5] meaning a zero score in a game. In British puzzles, "duck" is used to indicate the letter "O" based on the resemblance of the digit "0" to this letter. hide explanation

The orang-utan^[2,10] is a large mainly solitary anthropoid arboreal ape (the only tree-dwelling great ape) with long shaggy reddish-brown hair, long strong arms, and hooked hands and feet, native to the tropical forests of Borneo and Sumatra.

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Alternative spellings: orangutan^[5], orangutang^[5], orang-utang^[10] or orang-outang^[2,10]

16a   Cross // noted? (9)

This is a double definition in which the second definition is whimsical (cryptic).

Crotchet^[5] is the British name for a quarter note, a note having the time value of a quarter of a semibreve^* or half a minim^**, represented by a large solid dot with a plain stem.

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^* Semibreve^[5] is the British name for a whole note.
^** Minim^[5] is the British name for a half note.

19a   Cram // facts (5)

In the second definition, stuff^[5] is used in the [catchall] sense of matter, material, articles, or activities of a specified or indeterminate kind that are being referred to, indicated, or implied ⇒ (i) She does well at Trivial Pursuit 'cause she knows a lot of stuff; (ii) He's forgotten more stuff than most people could learn in a lifetime.

21a   Fiendish // setters always take assumed names in crosswords, initially (7)

23a   Spoons bent right // back (7)

24a   Work // over, repeat in error (7)

Cricket 102
"over" = O (show explanation ) On cricket scorecards, the abbreviation O[5] denotes over(s), an over[5] being a division of play consisting of a sequence of six balls bowled by a bowler from one end of the pitch, after which another bowler takes over from the other end. hide explanation

25a   Ebbing brown river, // pure (7)

The Ural River^[5] is a river, 1,575 miles (2,534 km) long, that rises at the southern end of the Ural Mountains in western Russia and flows through western Kazakhstan to the Caspian Sea at Atyraū.

26a   Flier // spouse distributed in school (5,7)

Harrow School^[5] (informally Harrow) is a boys' public^* school in northwest London, founded under Queen Elizabeth I in 1571.

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^* although North Americans would consider it to be a private school (show more )

In Britain, an independent school^[10] is a school that is neither financed nor controlled by the government or local authorities; in other words, an independent school^[2] is not paid for with public money and does not belong to the state school system.

In Britain, a public school^[2] is a particular category of independent school, namely a secondary school, especially a boarding school, run independently of the state and financed by a combination of endowments and pupils' fees.

Another category of independent school is the private school^[2,5] which is a school run independently by an individual or group, especially for profit and supported wholly by the payment of fees.

What we in North America would call a public school^[2], is known in the UK as a state school^[5] or a maintained school^*.

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^* In England and Wales, a maintained school^[5] is a school that is funded by a local education authority.

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The house sparrow^[5] is a common brown and grey sparrow that nests in the eaves and roofs of houses. Native to most of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and much of Asia, its intentional or accidental introductions to many regions, including parts of Australasia, Africa, and the Americas, make it the most widely distributed wild bird.^[7]

Down

1d   Innings one short -- // foul play (5-2)

Cricket 103

Knock[5] is an informal cricket term for an innings, especially of an individual batsman ⇒ a splendid knock of 117 against Somerset [the batsman scored 117 runs during a turn at batting (innings in sense 3 below)]. In cricket, innings[5] (plural same or informally inningses) can denote any of: each of two or four divisions of a game during which one side has a turn at batting ⇒ the highlight of the Surrey innings a player’s turn at batting ⇒ he had played his greatest innings the score achieved during a player’s turn at batting ⇒ a solid innings of 78 by Marsh. In the first sense, the term innings (spelled with an 's') would correspond somewhat to an inning (spelled without an 's') in baseball. One significant difference is that an innings in cricket denotes one team's turn at batting. Thus team A is batting in the first and third innings (referred to as team A's innings) and team B in the second and fourth innings (referred to as team B's innings). In baseball, the visiting team bats in the top of each inning and the home team in the bottom of each inning (these might be referred to as team A's half of the inning and team B's half of the inning respectively). The second sense would be roughly equivalent to an at bat in baseball. One difference is that a cricket player can have only one innings (sense 2) per innings (sense 1) although a turn at batting can be quite lengthy (long enough for Marsh to score 78 runs in the usage example for sense 3). In baseball, it is possible for a player to have more than one at bat during a single inning (players continue to bat around the order until the fielding team achieves three outs and if the batting team has more than nine at bats during an inning, one or more players will have multiple at bats in the inning).

Rugby 101
In rugby, knock-on[10] (noun) denotes the the infringement of playing the ball forward with the hand or arm.

2d   Centre in form, a politician /demonstrating/ eloquence (7)

"politician" = TORY (show more )

A Tory^[10] is a member or supporter of the Conservative Party in Great Britain [or, for that matter, in Canada].

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.

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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3d   So // front is lower than that place (9)

4d   Bring joy to // people finally, pushing up the daisies (5)

5d   Hurtful // piece taken from newspaper (7)

A cutting^[10] (also called, especially in the US and Canada, clipping) is an article, photograph, etc, cut from a newspaper or other publication.

6d   After unfortunate arrest, time // to begin afresh (7)

7d   Judg/ment? (5,8)

In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Miffypops writes I am underlining nothing here to which Big Dave interjects maybe the question mark should be underlined!.

This is the ideal situation to use a dotted underline. The question mark indicates that the clue exhibits an unusual nature. I would say that this is a sort of "visual" clue along the lines of using the letters OO to clue "spectacles" (or vice versa). In a way, it is similar to a rebus.

Judgment vs. Judgement

In his intro at Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Miffypops asks Where did the letter E go? to which Big Dave interjects It’s one of those alternative, i.e. US, spellings. Well, perhaps that is too hasty a rush to judgment ... or judgement. Big Dave's statement seems to be backed by Oxford Dictionaries Online which tells us that judgment is an alternative spelling of judgement[5]. According to Oxford, "In British English the normal spelling in general contexts is judgement. However, the spelling judgment is conventional in legal contexts, and in North American English [when Oxford says North American English, it usually means US English]." However, an article on the Grammarist blog sheds a different light on the question of Judgment vs. judgement. In British popular usage, judgment was traditionally the preferred form, but judgement has gained ground over the last couple of centuries and is now nearly as common as judgment. Pay no attention to the myth, widely repeated on the web, that judgement is the original spelling and that judgment is a 19th-century American invention. This is simply untrue ... The Grammarist article links to a graph showing how the frequency of use of the two spelling variants has changed over time. It also links to Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language (11th Edition, 1797) which gives the spelling as judgment with no mention of a variant spelling. As is the case with some other variations* between British and American English, it would seem that early colonists brought the then-current British spelling of judgment to the New World. It is the British spelling that has changed over the intervening centuries while Americans kept the original spelling. * for instance, the use of the names fall and autumn for the season of year

8d   Zero call for an end to change, // finally (4,3,3,3)

15d   Very great depth in one, a // nation of old (9)

Abyssinia is the former name for Ethiopia^[5], a country in north-eastern Africa, on the Red Sea. (show more )

Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa, having a recorded civilization that dates from the 2nd millennium BC. Little known to Europeans until the late 19th century, it was invaded and conquered by Italy in 1935. The emperor Haile Selassie was restored by the British in 1941 and ruled until overthrown in a Marxist coup in 1974. The subsequent period was marked by civil war, fighting against separatist guerrillas in Eritrea and Tigray, and by repeated famines; after the fall of the government in 1991 a multiparty system was adopted.

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17d   Always busy, // he got on badly (2,3,2)

18d   What politician may do /with/ coarse material on son (7)

19d   Arm // photographer? (7)

20d   Staff after cakes removing lid, /so/ open (7)

Bun^[5] is used in the sense of a small cake, typically containing dried fruit, rather than in the sense of a bread roll.

22d   The mating game? (5)

In chess, mate^[5] (short for checkmate^[5]) is a position in which a player’s king is directly attacked by an opponent’s piece or pawn and has no possible move to escape the check. The attacking player thus wins the game.

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