Friday, December 7, 2018 — DT 28788

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28788
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, July 11, 2018
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28788]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By 2Kiwis
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

After a couple of days of easy mental workouts to allow us to recover from the gruelling test we faced on Tuesday, Jay has deemed we are now ready for more challenging stuff.

Meanwhile, on the day that this puzzle appeared in the UK, the attention of the Brits was focused on two soccer teams — one a group of youngsters who had just been rescued from a cave in Thailand and the other being England who was about to face Croatia in a semi-final match at the FIFA World Cup in Moscow. Croatia would score in extra time to defeat England 2-1 and advance to face France in the final.

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   Cause of death // Trotsky perhaps allowed during journey? (7,8)

Leon Trotsky^[5] (1879–1940) was a Russian revolutionary; born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein. He helped to organize the October Revolution with Lenin, and built up the Red Army. He was expelled from the Communist Party by Stalin in 1927 and exiled in 1929. He settled in Mexico in 1937, where he was later murdered by a Stalinist assassin.

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Russian roulette^[5] is the practice of loading a bullet into one chamber of a revolver, spinning the cylinder, and then pulling the trigger while pointing the gun at one's own head.

9a   Flower // shops to open in suitable environment (7)

10a   Joined // revolution, persuaded (7)

11a   Unwise /to be/ out? (9)

... out as in out cold.

I would say that the second definition is rather cryptic. The setter seems to have thought so too as he flagged it with a question mark.

12a   Origin of cheap green // crop (4)

Crop^[5] is used in the sense of a pouch in a bird's gullet where food is stored or prepared for digestion ⇒ the parent waxbill partially digests food in its crop.

Craw^[5] is a dated term for the crop of a bird or insect.

13a   Mischievous // angle anticipated by European left (6)

Anticipate^[5], as a positional indicator, is used in a sense meaning to come or take place before (an event or process expected or scheduled for a later time) ⇒ this is to anticipate the argument.

15a   Do okay with daughter // kept in (8)

Do^[5] is an informal British term meaning to swindle ⇒ a thousand pounds for one set of photos — Jacqui had been done.

"daughter" = D (show explanation )

In genealogies, d^[5] is the abbreviation for daughter ⇒ Henry m. Georgina 1957, 1s 2d^*.

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^* Henry married Georgina in 1957. Their marriage produced 1 son and 2 daughters.

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18a   Secret // sponsor will have opportunity (8)

The expression open doors^[5] (or open the door) means to create opportunities for success ⇒ (i) even a small effort to speak a local language can open doors; (ii) internships can open doors for college students; (iii) her research has opened the door to a deeper understanding of the subject.

19a   Person who preaches // voting system set out by Italy (6)

Proportional representation^[5] (abbreviation PR) is an electoral system in which parties gain seats in proportion to the number of votes cast for them ⇒ PR has been a success in Germany.

"Italy" = I (show explanation )

The International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code for Italy is I^[5] [from Italian Italia].

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22a   Set // to attack quickly, having changed sides (4)

23a   Promoted // in honour -- is he decorated? (9)

26a   After work, Satie developed // drugs (7)

"work" = OP (show explanation )

In music, an opus^[5] (Latin 'work', 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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Scratching the Surface
Erik Satie[5] (1866–1925) was a French avant-garde composer. He formed an irreverent avant-garde artistic set associated with Les Six, Dadaism, and surrealism. Notable works: Gymnopédies (1888).

27a   Chilled about nature oddly /showing/ dominance (7)

28a   Investor // representing pal in a bad way (8,7)

In Britain, sleeping partner^[5] is another term for silent partner.

Down

1d   Reply /given by/ 19 worried about love (7)

The numeral "19" is a cross reference indicator to clue 19a (show more ).

To complete the clue, a solver must replace the cross reference indicator with the solution to the clue starting in the light^* identified by the cross reference indicator.

The cross reference indicator may include a directional indicator but this is customarily done only in situations where there are both Across and Down clues originating in the light that is being referenced.

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^* light-coloured cell in the grid

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"love" = O (show explanation )

In tennis, squash, and some other sports, love^[5] is a score of zero or nil ⇒ love fifteen. The resemblance of a zero written as a numeral (0) to the letter O leads to the cryptic crossword convention of the word "love" being used to clue this letter.

Although folk etymology has connected the word with French l'oeuf 'egg', from the resemblance in shape between an egg and a zero, the term apparently comes from the phrase play for love (i.e. the love of the game, not for money).

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2d   Pass out /seeing/ court enthralled by case of sedition (5)

Swoon^[5] is a literary term meaning to faint, especially from extreme emotion ⇒ Frankie's mother swooned and had to be helped to the headmaster's office.

3d   Independent politician needing relaxation for broadcast /is/ overwhelmed (9)

"independent | Independent" = I (show explanation )

I^[1] is the abbreviation for independent, in all likelihood in the context of a politician with no party affiliation.

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"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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4d   NHS employees // harbour grudges, ultimately (6)

The National Health Service^[5] (also National Health, abbreviation NHS) is a system of national medical care in the UK paid for mainly by taxation and started by the Labour government in 1948.

The NHS not only funds health care but, in some cases, also delivers^* health care through NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts.

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^* "A number of types of organisation are commissioned to provide NHS services, including NHS trusts and private sector companies. Many NHS trusts have become NHS foundation trusts, giving them an independent legal status and greater financial freedoms."^[7]

5d   Bring on, /for/ instance (8)

6d   Boy must accept university // honour (4)

7d   Dream about love and the French // play (9)

The love first encountered in 1d reappears.

"the French" = LE (show explanation )

In French, the masculine singular form of the definite article is le^[8].

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Play^[5] is used in the sense of the space in or through which a mechanism can or does move ⇒ the steering rack was loose, and there was a little play.

8d   Women do weddings, taking some /for/ granted (7)

14d   Copy /of/ dossier about line missing from dodgy claims (9)

"line" = L (show explanation )

In textual references, the abbreviation for line [of written matter] is l.^[5] ⇒ l. 648.

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16d   Stranger // sort of job on the side (9)

Foreigner^[5] is an informal British term for a piece of work done for private gain without an employer's permission or without declaration to the relevant authorities.

What did they say?

In their review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, the 2Kiwis write This sort of job, often called moonlighting, was a new usage to us.. I don't think that foreigner is the same thing as moonlighting. Moonlighting is holding a second job — albeit it may be unbeknownst to one's employer and possibly involve a conflict of interest. I understand foreigner to involve the misuse of an employer's resources — possibly even doing so on an employer's time — for personal gain.

17d   Funny business /from/ the departing prodigal? (6-2)

The clue alludes to the story of the prodigal son^[12], a Biblical account of a wastrel son who was welcomed back warmly on his homecoming in repentance (Luke 15:11-32).

18d   Current producer // chaps born to replace leader (7)

"chaps" = FELLOWS (show explanation )

Chap^[3,4,11], an informal British^[5] or chiefly British^[3] term for a man or boy, is a shortened form of chapman^[3,4,11], an archaic term for a trader, especially an itinerant pedlar^[a,b].

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^[a] Pedlar is the modern British spelling of peddler^[14] which, in most senses, is considered by the Brits to be a US or old-fashioned British spelling. The exception is in the sense of a dealer in illegal drugs which the Brits spell as drug peddler.
^[b] The current meaning of chap^[2] dates from the 18th century. In the 16th century, chap meant 'a customer'. The dictionaries do not explain how a shortened form of 'chapman' (pedlar) came to mean 'customer'.

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20d   Craftsman employing theologian/'s/ child (7)

A tiler^[5] is a person who lays tiles ⇒ a roof tiler^*. The term could also denote someone who lays tiles other than roof tiles as well.

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^* Tiles are a common roofing material in the UK, a tile^[5] being a thin rectangular slab of baked clay or other material, used in overlapping rows for covering roofs ⇒ trees shook violently and tiles were dislodged from rooftops.

"theologian" = DD (show explanation )

Doctor of Divinity^[7] (abbreviation D.D. or DD, Divinitatis Doctor in Latin) is an advanced academic degree in divinity.

Historically, the degree of Doctor of Divinity identified one who had been licensed by a university to teach Christian theology or related religious subjects. In the United Kingdom, Doctor of Divinity has traditionally been the highest doctorate granted by universities, usually conferred upon a religious scholar of standing and distinction. In the United States, the Doctor of Divinity is usually awarded as an honorary degree.

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Tiddler^[5] is an informal British term for a young or unusually small person or thing ⇒ she was only a little tiddler, ten years old.

21d   Part of car // clamp oddly below focal point (6)

24d   Bird -- // egg-producer -- protecting brood regularly (5)

25d   Second, better // check (4)

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